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Bill Blankenship Press Conference Transcript
11/25/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 25, 2014
Tulsa, Oklahoma -
OPENING STATEMENT:
"We get ready to wrap up our season with senior night. It's a big deal to us, the players and coaching staff. We have great quality in our senior class. 12 seniors, of those 6 came on scholarship 5 years ago, a pretty special group, the two 4th year seniors - Brentom Todd and Dwight Dobbins, then a special group of guys that transferred in. Carl Salazar and Davis Walton, then Matt Luetjen, Derricks; brother, then 3 walk-ons that started five years ago as well - Chris Hummingbird, Austin McDaniel and Jake Sizelove - all the three of those have great stories, but all three of those guys earned a scholarship. They weren't given a scholarship, but they earned a scholarship."
"Obviously, it was a tough loss at Houston. I was very proud to stay toe-to-toe and slugging it out with them. I thought in the fourth quarter that there might be an opportunity to tie, go ahead, may be go for two, whatever it took to win the game. We weren't able to make the key plays at the end. That certainly has been the theme of the season, but I really appreciated what we did on special teams to give us an opportunity and offensively for the most part played pretty well too. we played pretty well offensively too."
ON EAST CAROLINA:
"East Carolina is a fabulous offensive football team. I think Shane Carden is still ranked second in the country in passing. At the start of the year I get asked some survey questions, and they asked who I thought the best quarterback in the country was the first week of the season, and I said Shane Carden. I've seen him play for a number of years. He's very, very savvy. People are going to see him play on Sundays. A very good football player."
"Justin Hardy is a great story. He just set the NCAA receptions record. I remember talking to Ruffin (McNeill) before the start of the game last year, because probably the two most fascinating players on the field last year were Trey Watts and Justin Hardy, and both of those young men came to their universities as walk-ons. I think that validates sometimes whether we can't, or can recruit, but if you get guys in the right opportunities that show up and if they have a tremendous work ethic those things happen."
"I have great admiration for what Ruffin has done at his alma mater. They're playing very well right now. They'll be coming in here Thanksgiving day, and hopefully we'll be ready to defend our turf and play with a lot of pride."
WITH THREE INTERCEPTIONS THE LAST TWO WEEKS, DO YOU FEEL GOING FORWARD THAT DANE IS STILL THE QB OF THE NEAR FUTURE HERE:
"Absolutely, I love the way he has progressed. I think perspective is interesting. Anytime you have three interceptions that is a big glaring stat, but that does not tell the story at the Houston game at all. I thought he played a fabulous game to give us an opportunity to win. We didn't make the plays at the end, and he had a couple of throws he'd love to have back. I think it would surprise people to find out by yards he's now one of the top 20 passers in the country and has moved into 6th place on the school's best single-season passing list. We've had a pretty good tradition here of throwing the football, and for us to have those kind of numbers for a guy still being measured as to whether he can play or not, I think says a lot. Keevan Lucas moved into fifth or sixth in the country for receptions and yards, so there are some really good things going on with those young players. I think Dane has taken huge strides this season. When you play against a top-20 defense like Houston, I think he played pretty well. He would love to have the last throw back. Bishop had worked a little corner-post look and if he had thrown the ball high and over the top, we may have had a touchdown. That's what broke his heart the most. Nobody evaluates himself any tougher than Dane does, and he was beat-up pretty good after the game, but I like that about him because he is not happy to sit there at whatever percentage he was at, he knew he had a chance to help us win the game and missed some opportunities."
THE WAY YOU PLAYED AT HOUSTON DOES THAST ENCOURAGE YOU THAT THE TEAM HASN'T PACKED IT IN. FOR YOU AND TEAM, ARE YOU ENCOURAGED BY THE WAY YOU PLAYED THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS AND THAT NOBODY HAS SAID SEASON IS OVER:
"Honestly, I am, not because we're playing close, that's not what we're trying to do. As a coach you fear that a losing season could spiral into players who can give in, coaches that give in, and not fighting together. I've continued to be very pleased with the young men we have, because we're still battling. We're not playing very good on defense right now. We know that. We're giving up a lot big plays, but there's still a lot of fight in those players. I see that regularly. We're improving in a lot of areas of our team, and I think that shows up if you look at it. But we also totally know as a staff and a collection of players that we can't get caught up in what everybody else's perception is. We have to care about each other, and by doing so, we've continued to stay in the fight. I think that says a lot about the young men on this team, about the kind of young men they are, because they haven't checked out."
WHAT MAKES EAST CAROLINA QB SHANE CARDEN BETTER THAN OTHER QUARTERBACKS:
"He's very, very accurate. He's probably not perceived as a duel threat guy, but he can certainly move well enough to get the ball to open receivers. They do what we call a `scramble drill' as well as anyone in the country. If he has to move, the receivers have a way of coming back. He's so good at that. He and Hardy have played together for so long, along with the other receivers. They have a real sense for how to get open even though the coverage has it matched up really well. He's very accurate."
TALK ABOUT THE GROUP OF SENIORS IN EXPERIENCING SOME HIGHS AND SOME LOWS:
"You have to put it in perspective, the 5th-year seniors for instance, if someone had guaranteed them three bowls and a conference championship out of their five years, they'd probably think that was a pretty good term. Certainly, they don't want to end on losing seasons, none of us appreciate that at all. I do think that they have a lot of pride to carry out of here, having been a part of championships and bowl runs, and just to fight through a really tough year. Most of those seniors have been beat up pretty bad this year, physically. This is a pretty special group."
WHAT'S THE MAIN EMOTION FOR YOU ON SENIOR DAY:
"I'm probably like the players, were it's hard to believe it's over. One of the things that every freshman hears from the upperclassmen is that these four to five years will go faster than you could ever dream, because right now it feels like a grind, and then you'll wake up and all of a sudden your playing on senior day. I can't believe we're at the end of the season and it's our last go with these guys."
"I am equally proud of these guys and hurt to see them go. I was fortunate to be here through the duration as an assistant coach when the 5th year guys came in, the two 4th year guys were part of the transition that stayed with us when I was hired in January. There were six scholarship players that are 5th year guys, and the others are the three walk-ons and the transfers. The three walk-ons are probably the ones closest to my heart because what of what they did to pay the price to be here. What we call BLUE, they live it, these guys area Tulsa through and through and they've earned everything they've gotten along the way - again that's Hummingbird, Sizelove and A-Mac (Austin McDaniel). That's pretty special to me."
THE WAY EAST CAROLINA PLAYS OFFENSE, WHAT DOES YOUR DEFENSE NEED TO DO TO HAVE A CHANCE:
"Fight. You just have to fight. We'll do everything we can to hopefully hold them at bay and make them snap the ball. They play very, very fast. There's not a whole lot you can point to and say that's a great way to defend them, because very few teams have done it. They go about 100 snaps a game. They're going lightning fast. It makes it really hard to change personnel groups and match up with them. In terms of that part of it, there's There's not a lot you can do other than be sound defensively. What we've tried to fix is the big plays, and we're still giving up too many of them. We cannot let Shane sit back there and throw post routes for touchdowns. We have to make them snap the ball, and hopefully we can strip the ball, knock them down and create some bad situation. Temple was able to do that, Cincinnati was able too, but both came in bad and cold weather, so I was really trying to work with our weather guys, but it doesn't look they're going to cooperate with us -- that would be alright too.
DO YOU WORRY ABOUT PUTTING TOO MUCH PRESSURE ON YOUR OFFENSE IN A GAME LIKE THIS WHERE YOU CAN GET DOWN EARLY BY A FEW SCORES:
"You can. But, the other side of it is do you try to slow down and milk the clock. I think the best chance we have is to keep our offense playing with confidence, and playing with the kind of rhythm they've had. With the exception of the UCF game, this offense has been pretty good the last 5-6 games and I don't want to mess it up by trying to slow them down to try to protect the defense. We have to trust our defense. Coach Guy has been at this a really long time. I know he's very, very frustrated, but he knows how to defend, and if we can get our guys to buy-in and just play each play, and I think there's a better chance of doing that at home on senior day than any other time, and if we can defend maybe we can make it tough on them."
THANKSGIVING WITH THE PLAYERS:
"When practice is over Wednesday, we'll have a little window of time from Wednesday afternoon to late Thursday afternoon when we bring them back. We think most of the guys have an opportunity to go with teammates in the area to and spend some Thanksgiving with them. We have about a 24-hour window. We're at the hotel Thursday night. As we always eat well on the night before the game, we'll even add a little turkey, dressing and pumpkin pie."
WITH A THANKSGIVING SPREAD IN FRONT OF YOU, WHAT DO YOU GO FOR FIRST:
"Dessert."
WHICH DESSERT:
"All of them, except for coconut. I don't like coconut. I like the sampler plate. I like turkey and dressing, but I'm not in to all the veggies. Then get to the couch and load up on all the sugar."
WHAT ARE YOU MOST THANKFUL FOR:
"One of the things I was reminded of earlier this season. I was reading a booklet, and the comment was made and I thought it was powerful. Let me embellish for a second - Worry tends to be about something that hasn't happened, so worry really focuses on the future. Anger tends to be about something that has already happened. Something that happened in the past that makes me angry, something that might happen in the future so I worry about it. This little booklet said that the anecdote for both is Thanksgiving, is gratitude. So, it really made me come to the point that, golly, how blessed am I in my career to be here today, one of the 128 Division I head coaches. I get to be at my alma mater. I've been able to be a part of some really great things in my coaching career, so how can I get ticked off about a bad year, how am I going to be bitter about it, angry about it. So it really is true, that the more I am thankful for where I am now, what I get to do and who I get to do it with kind of takes away all that worry and anger."
