Opening statement:
"Temple game, we'll cover that first. As I review it and stuff, it was as game of opportunities and we didn't take advantage of them. I thought defensively, for three and a half quarters, played better than they have played. Tackling well and gave up a couple big plays in that first series. Other than that, they held Temple pretty much in check. Then we're up 16-14 and we've got to make some stops. The biggest play was the punt return. We put the ball where we shouldn't put it, in the middle of the field, and the kid took it to the 29 and they went up 22-16 on that. Then we had an opportunity to stop them and we have to stop them. Offensively, when you get turnovers on the 20. The 29 and 41 and you come away with three points, that's the missed opportunities. Played better in some areas and other areas still have to improve in."
On the offense taking a step back:
"Each week it's brought up in staff meetings as far as the reasons why it's happening. Each and every play there's a breakdown somewhere. As I told them this morning, I went through the tape, they did one thing we didn't practice against. We handled it pretty well. Made a catch on it and stuff and worked out well. I think it's execution. Comes down to execution. When you have a chance to make a play, make on. You have to make it. The quarterback looked as if he was having a bad night, but when you really analyze it, he's played better, but I don't think his surrounding cast is helping him a lot as far as things having to get done. It's just a work in progress with some of these young kids. That's really where the issues are right now, the young kids on the field. When they have an opportunity, they're not taking advantage of it."
On Holman's finger bothering him:
"Not that I know of. He took some hits in that game that probably shouldn't have been. We had protection for it and stuff. He's fine. Right now we're getting some players back which is good. It's a very good Houston team that's undefeated. We'll need everybody we have back."
On whether he considered putting in Bo Schneider or Tyler Harris:
"During the game, what I look at is just fluidness and what we're doing with the ball. I think he needed to see what was going on on the field. Sometimes you take a quarterback out, not because he's playing bad, but he needs to see what's going on out there as far as making sure he's looking at the right things. I had told Bo to warm up in case we did make that move."
On the strength of the American:
"I tell you what, I said it a couple years ago, I thought the coaches in the conference were good. I thought they were going to get better in recruiting. I thought what Mike Aresco said was 100 percent accurate. The conference will sell itself. I think right now with a lot of non-conference wins they've had this year, I think there's three or four teams that what I see on film they can play with a lot of people in the country and are playing very well right now."
On the health of UCF's running backs:
"We're hoping everybody is back. We spent time on film today. Right now, from what I understand, maybe just one person that won't be back. The rest of them should be back and ready to play."
On the new receivers not familiar with Holman's "zip" on the ball:
"I said earlier that I think Justin has really worked on his touch. I don't think there's any, last year was a bit too much. I don't think that's the case at all this year. I think it's a case of youth and the ball jumping on him a little bit maybe, but I don't think that's the case. I think it's ball concentration and youngness really. Having confidence in the catch. That's why you don't see a lot of YAC. Ball concentration, they forget when you get it you've got to run. I see him improving a lot in that area. I think his touch has been better. I think sometimes when you look at the quarterback, where is he throwing it, but sometimes it's the receiver not running the right route."
On the challenges of keeping the team motivated:
"Any time you're 0-7 it's a challenge keeping everybody motivated, not just the players. That's part of the job. They're on scholarship. That's why I don't deal with the season. I deal with one game at a time. 12 one-game seasons and we have the eighth season coming up. That's what I look at as far as what's going on. I think the players are too. That's one thing about being young. I think they know they have a lot of years left. When you have an older team and you're 0-7, you have issues because they're looking to see what they're going to do with their future."
On whether he "feels" for the older kids:
"No. Football is a business. Most of our wounds have been self-inflicted, in my opinion. Nobody wants to lose. I always talk about how bad do you want to win. You've got to eliminate the mistakes. That's what you've got to do. We're covering them on the field. As a head coach you go back and look at game plans, you go back and look at everything and see if it matches up. The plays are there, we're just not executing them right now, which we are in practice. I've moved more people to the practice field to try and pick up the competition over there so we're getting better looks over there."
On freshman HB Aaron Cochran playing:
"The problem is getting enough speed down field. I think Aaron is only a freshman. He's going to be a very good player."
On the similarities of the 2009 Houston game:
"The kids were in sixth grade and stuff. I look at us just getting better ourselves. That's what I look at each week. That's what we have to get done. I don't think it's a matter of comparing anybody. More so, it's good to be home. I think obviously you hope to play better at home. I think the biggest thing is just working on improvement as far as in the base stuff that you got to be good at. Again, there's nine guys doing their job and one or two not on each play. They know what to do, they're just very slow reacting to getting it done. That's what we have to improve on, just continue to rep them and make sure they understand the concepts of what we're trying to get done in the run and pass game and on the other side in coverage."
On the changes at LB and DB:
"I thought T.J. Mutcherson went out and played very well. I think he had a fumble recovery, forced a fumble and was involved in a bunch of tackles. I was happy to see that. I think the changes made really worked out very well, except for a couple plays that I thought we were just too loose in the coverage. I thought the secondary improved except in the latter part of the game, coming up and reacting to the run game and make some tackles."
On Houston QB Greg Ward, Jr.:
"He's very good. He's exciting with the ball in his hand. He's very similar to the last guy we saw at Temple. Greg likes to take off running a little bit more than the last fellow. I think he's very talented. We saw him last year. They're playing very well. He had some talent outside receiver wise. Again, I think he just plays very headsy. Very tough to tackle in the open field. Has great quickness and can extend the field real quickly."
On the status of Jordan Akins:
"He's being operated on October 30 for the ACL and some other injuries he had with that."
On Houston being the best team they've faced:
"I think they're playing very well. Stanford was a very good team I thought. From an execution standpoint, I thought Temple went out and did some good things. You can see the experience on the field that they had back. Three years, a lot of seniors there. Houston I think is playing well. All these teams that are playing well right now, they've got a quarterback who is playing very well. They all have defense with some experience, making plays and keeping great field position. Houston has that. It'll be a tough game. Houston is playing with a lot of confidence now. They should be. I think they're doing well in all phases of the game, offense, defense and special teams."
On Houston being the homecoming opponent:
"I don't get involved in who picks homecoming. I guess it used to be you try to pick someone you thought you were going to beat all the time. It doesn't make any difference to me. I use to use it the other way, if we showed up as the homecoming game, an away game. I think they try to pick a date."
On the similarities between Greg Ward and South Carolina QB Lorenzo Nunez:
"Different style game. Nunez, I think had good speed. This kid has great quickness. He can stop on a dime and make you miss. I think they're different style quarterbacks. I think this kid throws the ball very accurately too. Again, a lot of play action. Linebackers up playing the run game, and they have 6-3, 6-4 receivers out there that can go get it. We'll have our work cut out for us on defense. The key to the game is going to be offense as far as controlling that ball."
On WR Tristan Payton:
"He's back this week. His hand is better. He's out of a cast. See if we can get him getting some things done."
On the importance of having a fast start:
"I think you have to stop them from a fast start first. They're a no-huddle, high-tempo team. You've got to create some three-and-outs. I think the big thing is it doesn't change. When you play teams like that, you've got to tackle very well and keep the hidden yardage to a minimum."
On why T.J. Mutcherson didn't start until now:
"I think that's part of his own doing. I think he had some health issues there a little bit. Tried him at corner to see if he could help at corner. Again, he was a transfer in. He was playing on special teams for us. Finally I said hey, put him at safety. I liked some of the things he was doing. I thought he went out and played very well. Played well on special teams for us. Did some good things on defense. Obviously had some mistakes to work on. I was pleased with the way he played."
On whether he knows much about Houston coach Tom Herman:
"No."
On kicker Matt Wright:
"I put him in to kickoff too. I didn't think the other guy was hitting it like he should have. I've been very pleased with Matt. He hit the 48-yarder and kicked off very well with the wind and against it. I was pleased with him. I said I thought we had two decent kickers when we started the year and we do. They're both very good kickers, only true freshmen, so I think they have a great chance to be really, really good players in the future."
On his midseason assessment of the two new coordinators:
"That's something I do at the end of the year. I'm not a professor. I don't give out midseason grades. Obviously when you're 0-7, I know what their grades will be."
On the three ranked teams in the AAC and how quickly UCF can get back there:
"There's some good players on the team. Right now they just need to get stronger in the weight room. They need to grow up a lot, maturity wise. But there's talent there. Again, we voted for captains last night. There was only seven seniors on the ballot. Normally there's 20, 21. We graduated 21 last year. Lost a couple of them to the NFL. I think the big thing is that it shows in how young you are in certain areas. I think they'll be fine, I really do. I think you're going through a season that if's and can's and should've type of things are happening. Again, I think the biggest thing was what I mentioned before. Injuries have been a factor. You hope they wouldn't be, but they are. The youth. Then I think that 5-5-5 for the scholarships kicked in a little bit. 10 of them would have been sophomore or juniors this year which is what you'd be filling in with rather than walk-ons right now."
On the offensive line and possible quick fixes:
"There's only one senior up front with them. They're all young kids. It's like everything else. I think you win a lot of games in the offseason from a strength level to a conditioning level to a toughness level. We need to grow up in all three of those areas."
On whether he would like to make his contract public:
"Make my contract public?"
On whether there's anything he wouldn't want people to see:
"No, not that I know of. It's not my responsibility, the contract. I signed one. You have a question specifically?"
On potential clauses regarding certain members of the staff:
"In my contract? No. No, there is not. That's why it's my contract. I worry about me. But no. There's nothing in there. What are you talking about? A coach in house or something like that? There's nothing like that in my contract. Not at all."
On the new linebacker starters:
"Maurice Russell started this game because I wanted some guys with a lot more thud ability up front to flat-wall the line of scrimmage. Domenic is running second team. Domenic played a bunch on Saturday. Both are good. I think Hampton is a freshman and as I said earlier, from a maturity standpoint, learning the game standpoint, has a lot to go, but he's going to be a very good player. You can see it. He just needs more experience."
On penalty issues:
"Holding. I thought that was all in the center. I think there was a cadence being yelled. There's two quarterback miscues as far as center and quarterback. Watching the film and talking to the coaches, it was pretty much on the center as far as missed snap. Snapping it, pre-snapping before the call was made. He was anticipating something. Justin was ready to check a play and he snapped it on the next sound. That was on him. That will be corrected. The holding calls are something you can't do, especially when you're down in that area of the red zone. You've got to stay out of that stuff. It's just moving your feet. You have the right guy, move your feet, stop trying to grab people. Run your feet. That's what we've got to continue to learn."
On Spurrier's resignation from South Carolina:
"I'm sure Steve had his reasons for it. I don't know what the reason would be. I think a lot of coaches think about leaving midseason. I think it's getting tougher and tougher with some of these young kids to deal with them. But you know, I've always said you start something, you finish something. That's how I look at things. Things aren't going well as you'd like, but the one thing you've got to do, is that's why I deal with one game at a time. It's a new week, a new season, and that's how I attack it. I'm sure there are other reasons Steve did what he did. He's been so good to college football. I'm sure I'll see him sometime and we'll have a laugh about it. He'll be missed. I think he's done a lot of really good things, the places he's been. I don't know anything more than that."
On Mike Aresco's comment about Memphis' win vs. Ole Miss being the most significant in the AAC:
"I think it was a good win. He's talking about this year? I agree with him and stuff. Obviously I think the Fiesta Bowl win was probably the most noted win in the conference. I'm sure Mike would agree with that. I think he was probably talking this year. Good win by Memphis. I think the American Conference with Memphis, Temple, Houston, Cincinnati, I think they're all playing at a very-high level of football. That's great for the conference and great for the notoriety of the conference."
On how GOL stresses academics:
"That's why they're here. They're student-athletes. I make no bones about it. Good grades and going to class. I treat it like I treat practice. We check classes and make sure they're at class. We just had a meeting last night about academics and the expectation level of academics. The one thing I promise them when I recruit them is I'll make sure they graduate. That's what's going to be done. Again, we have some young kids that test the waters, but they don't test it for very long and stuff before the ship is righted and they understand that they're going to go to class and be respectful in the classroom. Sometimes it's a learned process. Some of our kids, we've got a couple that need constant reminders, but they're understanding now after much legwork, walking, running and all that. They understand they're going to do the right things when they're in college. God bless them if they can play on Sundays. Most of them can't, but they're going to get a degree. That's what's important."
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