Tulsa Postgame Quotes vs. SMU
11/8/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
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TULSA HEAD COACH Bill Blankenship
Q. After the Tulane game, you said it's like crack. Do you feel that same feeling after this?
COACH BLANKENSHIP: Yeah, I've been in withdrawal for a while. It really is. That locker room is special, I'm telling you. There is just nothing like it.
Q. Talk a little bit about that locker room, if you would. Sense of relief?
COACH BLANKENSHIP: Both, both. There are a lot of players in there that know they're growing, but I think there are 10 or 11 seniors in that room where there was some relief, because it's important to them on their watch that this not end the way that this thing has been going. And that's not wavered any of them but especially those seniors. We had really good leadership. In crunch times there were opportunities for you to go, oh, no, here we go again. I heard some great things on the sideline, and I saw some resiliency that we haven't seen.
Q. After the way the game started, Dane kind of just went off in there, ten completions in a row. What did you see from him?
COACH BLANKENSHIP: Well, we were struggling against the wind, and I thought he was a little off from his first couple of throws missed. I thought he just flat missed a couple of throws early. Then he got into a rhythm, and No. 9 is pretty good when he's in rhythm. I thought he continued to show a lot of poise. He's getting us we're giving him a lot of freedom to get in and out. Threw a couple of those touchdown throws were checks that he put Keyarris on specifically, because we like the match up, and Keyarris was playing well for us.
Q. Coach, talk about the South Florida game where you ended up blowing that lead, but this one you tend to hold on. What is it about the end of games for this team that you say it's an ugly win and you'll take it, but it seems to be at the end of the game sometimes?
COACH BLANKENSHIP: Yeah, you have to learn how to finish. You have to learn how to close teams out. Winning, in my book, is not something that comes naturally to you. You have to learn how to do the things that it takes at the end of a game. You have to get first downs. You've got to get turnovers. You've got to close people out when you have opportunity. There wasn't a lack of anybody trying, but we're still a team in process of trying to learn how to close out and finish.
Q. Was there a moment that you're kind of most proud of with regard to the start wasn't great, but you guys took control of the game?
COACH BLANKENSHIP: Yeah, offensively at the first series. Maybe two series, but I thought we kind of sputtered around the very first series. Like I said, Dane missed a couple, but we were very much clicking. Dane checked a couple of throws. Hit Bishop on the screen. Bishop picked up a couple of nice blocks. We were getting the defense off the field. Things were working in a pretty good system, and it felt right.
Q. On the Lucas touchdown, I saw Dane look at him with the hand signal, and then I heard on the radio the same thing with, I think, the next one as well. So talk about some of those adjustments he's making and maybe how far?
COACH BLANKENSHIP: There's no question. That's some of the stuff he's grown to. That particular play to Keevan, you saw him motion out there, a possible run pass check and he got it into the right throw for the coverage. Keevan did the rest.
Q. Dane has played pretty well lately, and your offense seems to have grown to a point where maybe you deemed you had hoped it would grow to. Did you feel like today offensively, pretty much other than the start, seems like you're pretty much in where you'd like to be?
COACH BLANKENSHIP: I think we're getting there really close. I still think we left points on the field. Obviously the fumble right at the end zone was one that left points on. We didn't kick the ball very well today, so we probably were might have not kicked a couple of field goals that we would have if things were a little more copacetic. But the offense is playing well enough that I think they're keeping us in rhythm. They were very confident that they can run the ball if they didn't gang up on us. So we basically checked it off enough to try to keep them balanced.
Q. The question is where do you go from here after a loss, where do you go from here after a win?
COACH BLANKENSHIP: Well, I think the guys have an idea what they want to do with the season. We talked about what you do in November gives you a chance for what people remember you about. We're going to go to Central Florida. It's a short week. They've got a bye week. We understand all of that. Lot of things working against us. But I'm going to take a very hungry football team to Central Florida. We've matched up with them in some critical games, and I think we're looking forward to another opportunity.
Q. What's it like that feeling to know that you have to run the football and you're able to run the football?
COACH BLANKENSHIP: Well, today it's an offensive line dream. That's their kind of game. They want you to pound it. The receivers want to catch it and quarterback wants to throw it. But to get into a fourth quarter and need to be able to run the ball and have a guy like Langer be able to get the hard yards, it really gives us a lot of freedom. I've been happy with the other backs too, but Zack's become the work horse.
Q. They just have to win to learn how to win?
COACH BLANKENSHIP: It's a process. I think everyone knows how to play the game. But College Football is a highly competitive format. You have to learn how to close people out. It's a lot longer game when you think about high school. When you think of high school and the four 12 minute quarters and now you go 15, it's like playing a whole extra quarter. And for young players there is a loss that, man, you've got to do this for a long time. You've got to stay focused and you've got to grind and you've got to be able to not get those critical mistakes that can cost you games.
Q. Maybe you mentioned it earlier, defensively today after that first play, I thought you guys played pretty solid throughout most of the game. Can you just talk about that?
COACH BLANKENSHIP: That first throw they wrapped and really played pretty strong. It was not the end of the game. I thought that was way too easy. We just had trouble tackling their quarterback. Again, he's a very, very talented kid. We had not seen him a lot on film, but it didn't surprise us. It was certainly what Coach Guy had thought they would do is probably go to a little more run game with him. He just out athleted us sometimes.
Q. You mentioned there were several different emotions in the locker room. What was it like for you?
COACH BLANKENSHIP: I was very thankful. This is, again, I try not to be theological with all of this, but there are some things I do know, all good things come from God, and this is definitely a good thing.
TULSA JUNIOR DEFENSIVE END Derrick Alexander
On SMU switching quarterbacks...
"We suspected that he was going to be out there just from watching film. He has been their guy to move the ball down the field, so when he was out there we weren't surprised. He had good pocket pressing, he was pulling it fast and like coach said he just got away from us a couple of times."
On finally getting another win and what it meant...
"It's great. It's always great to win especially when we've been going through what we've been going through. To have a week of practice like we did and go out and get a W, it just puts everything in place."
On the big first play and how the team's reaction was different from previous big plays...
"We didn't panic. The guy that throws the first punch doesn't always win the fight. When they did that, we could settle down and go play football. And when we go play football, we can play."
On the losing streak impacting the team...
"It's really hard. It's really hard to lose, but one thing about this team is that we never quit. We don't just give in to another person or another team's will. We go out there and have great practices. In the locker room, even after practice, everyone's got there heads up you don't see people's heads down or sulking or thinking the season is over. We always come back out there and are ready to fight."
TULSA SOPHOMORE QUARTERBACK Dane Evans
On the turning his performance around after the rough start...
"Just a bad start, the first pass of the game was a little inside to Josh [Atkinson], it was my fault, I threw it too far inside. And then, I don't know, we just got the ball rolling. Honestly the past two or three games we've been playing really solid offensive football and it was really nice to see really simple plays like the screen pass to Bishop [Louie] going to the house. I think it was against UCF, we got an exact same look like that and one guy pulled him down. It was good to see us keep fighting and take the easy plays and making big plays out of them."
On clicking with the receivers...
"They are really great players. I always tell them I have the easiest job on the field, I just have to get them the ball. I'm like the point guard in basketball. They make it really easy throughout practice, because everyday in practice they bring it just as hard as they do on the games. It's not just something they turn on for the games. I think it's been really great that we just haven't quit the whole time we were losing and still been playing really solid offensive football."
On the audible long passing plays...
"That was in our game plan this week. The majority of the snaps we were calling two plays in the huddle and so I would come up to the line and it was simply a numbers game. Whatever numbers were best either to run it or throw it, I would keep that play on. It's easy when you have a bunch of playmakers around you."
On where they go from here and taking on tougher teams...
"Honestly I wouldn't have it any other way and I don't think any real competitor would. If you're going to go play a game you might as well go play someone who is pretty good and beat them too. You don't want to play cupcakes every week and continue to beat them."
On Zack Langer helping keep the offensive options open...
"At the beginning of the game, they were giving us bad numbers in the box and they were making us throw it to win and we did so they started spreading out too and then they were giving us favorable numbers in the box until the last couple of drives when they knew we were just running it down. It's nice to have a workhorse like him back there when even if you don't have favorable numbers in the box he can still get past the first and second tackle."
TULSA JUNIOR WIDE RECEIVER Keyarris Garrett
On where they go from here and taking on tougher teams ...
"I think this game is going to give us a big boost. To see what we needed to do to win. Because we've been winning and then in the second half we just don't finish, but we finished this game. I think it's going to bleed over to the next three games."
On how good it feels to score at Chapman Stadium again...
"It felt great. I knew going into this week that I was probably going to have a big game because they play man-free the whole game, so every day in practice we just played man-down and we'd hookup and go deep and it then it happened in the game. It kind of felt like old times."
SMU INTERIM HEAD COACH TOM MASON
Opening statement...
"We just couldn't play enough defense today, that was the hard part. If we played any defense we win this game. We gave up too many big plays again. I talked to the kids at halftime about it -- if we just do our assignment and not try to do too much, quit over-reaching on things, and just do our job, we win this ball game. I'm really disappointed in the way we played defense and that's on me, I'm the defensive coordinator. I have to do something to get this thing straightened out if we're going to win."
"We gave up a couple of big plays. We had two or three fade routes that we have to make plays on. If you can't play one-on-one with your corners, you're going to have some problems. We have to look at that and figure out if we're going to go to a role type coverage or what. But I think we gave up three touchdowns on fade routes today. We have to play better defense. We only had two sacks today and not enough turnovers, we had only one turnover today I think."
On Matt Davis' Performance...
"I thought he was a stallion today. He played really hard. I loved his effort. He kept us in the ballgame with his ability to scramble. I loved the way he competed. That's what I'm looking for in guys on our football team, to compete. We had a chance to win that ballgame there at the end, and that's all because of Matt and what he did at the quarterback position."
Was this game tougher on you with how close the score was?...
"They're all tough. I hate losing. I didn't get in this chair because we are a great football team -- I know that. I'm really competitive. It's a hard one. It's a game we could have won. I'll take any win any way I can get it right now."
SMU QUARTERBACK MATT DAVIS
On the game...
"It was a tough game. We didn't execute and I'll take the credit for that because of some bonehead mistakes I made. I made a couple bad reads and turned the ball over - I think it might have been two times, three at the end. We can't have that and win the football game. So that's on me. I think the defense did a good job. We put them in bad positions offensively. We need to go back and correct them. We're progressing but there are certain things that are happening at certain times."
On how he felt out there...
"I think the preparation helped in the game today. The coaches did a good job putting us in the right position and giving us a good opportunity to succeed with the game plan and the plays we were given. I felt pretty good out there."
Did you expect to run as much as you did today?...
"I don't know if I ever just expect to drop back and run - unless it's a designed run play. Sometimes there's pressure and sometimes I look up and there is nothing there. Depending on what the situation is - if it's second and short or if its third and long, if we need a first down, I try not to be hesitant, I don't want to confine myself by not using my God-given abilities. God blessed me with the ability to make some plays and extend some things."
