Houston press conference, including preparation for SMU

[PonyPride]

From uhcougars.com:

Houston at SMU: Press Conference

HEAD COACH MAJOR APPLEWHITE

On D'Eriq King running the ball
"D'Eriq is just taking opportunities, plays breaking down, playing off schedule. There are some designed quarterback runs that we have to use, that's his strength or one of his strengths. We try not to run our quarterback too much, but there are some instances that we do want to run him."

On Ed Oliver
"Ed still has a knee bruise, and it's still day-to-day. We'll kind of increase his workload throughout the week. It's looking better, but it's just day-to-day and we need to be patient."

On Courtney Lark
"Courtney, it's not as severe as we thought. It still is a knee injury obviously, so we just need to continue to monitor him. Right now he's very questionable for this weekend, so we'll just continue to monitor him and keep him in our prayers. He's done a great job; I don't want to just brush by him. He has come so far and has worked so hard, on and off the field and in the classroom. That's the fun part about our job, yes winning is awesome I'm with you on that, but just seeing guys develop and grow up. Not just seeing tremendous things they do on the field and on game day, but academically and all of those types of things. It's a proud moment for a coach."

On the play where Courtney Lark received his injury
"He just came down. He came down and made a play on a ball he scored on earlier. He jumped up to make a play, and he just came down funny. Thank goodness it wasn't super serious. We have to count our blessings, move on, heal up and he'll come right back."

On his role as a coach on Ed Oliver's injury situation
"It's up to Ed and the doctors. That's our approach as a coaching staff. We're not going to meddle in something we don't know about in terms of how somebody's body is actually feeling to them and what doctors know. To us, when we get an injury report and it's questionable or out, you move on. Your mindset is on developing these guys and getting them ready for the game. If someone is able to join in later in the week, then you add them into the game plan. You go into the week knowing these are the guys we're going to go into the game with. We prep these guys, and trust our doctors and the young man to tell us how he feels. We work our plans around it."

On Mason Denley's concussion
"Yeah, right before the half at Navy, he took a shot right through the head. He went through concussion protocol. He could not play last week, but we expect to have him back this week. He's been going through that pretty clean. We hope to have him back."


On going against SMU
"For the last two weeks, it's not about record, it's about what kind of ball you're playing right now. Anytime you beat a Navy team, you're a tough team. Anytime you can go down to Tulane, that's a disciplined team. Then, they got into a dog fight in overtime with Cincinnati, so they're playing their best football right now. You always have to have that mindset as a competitor that Saturday may be their day, regardless of what the record is, that may be their best shot and that's what we're always preparing for. It's always difficult to go on the road, it's always difficult to go on the road at night, but our guys have a great mindset right now and we have a great feel with our team, in terms of focusing on what you need to do this week and the discipline to do it.

Regardless of whether your class-load is heavy, you're tired, you're having success, you're injured, or you're banged up, just focus on the finer things and the discipline to carry it out. Those guys' minds are in the right place and wouldn't expect anything different tomorrow when we go out there and practice in terms of the way they prepared and that's what allowed them to have success. It's November, they'll always remember November, but we haven't won anything yet. We haven't won the west, we haven't won the conference, there's no bowl games being handed out. Everything is still ahead of us, so it's a matter of what you want and what you're willing to put in. When you look back five or six weeks from now, what kind of Tuesday practice did I have, what kind of Wednesday practice did I have, what kind of studying did I do at night to get myself that opportunity? Understand it's a week-by-week approach, but you have to look at it that way. There's four games left, we're two-thirds of the way through the season, so what do you want and what do you want to do to get it?"

On using senior running back Terence Williams in the offense
"We're going to continue to snap the ball to different people, whether it's Terence, Patrick Carr, Bryson Smith or D'Eriq King. We're just trying to get a lot of different playmakers involved, and sometimes the easiest way to do that is to snap it to them. We'll continue to have these elements in what we do offensively."

On Terence being back to himself
"I saw the way he ran. He had a couple of times in there where he looked like Terence. It's hard when you've got a knee or an ankle strain as a running back, and you're a big guy because that's a lot of weight that you have to put on it. He looked like he was back to himself on Saturday."

On how the team feels about being No. 17 in the national rankings
"I think they're grateful. They're grateful of the recognition and the respect of the coaches' poll, but I think we're all on the same page because we haven't won anything. These are just rankings. These are the entertainment dollars right now; these aren't real. This is what people want to get involved with, talk about, like and re-tweet, but it doesn't matter.

What matters is that we go out and have a great Tuesday practice, just like we've been doing. We try to be different in everything that we do, and that goes for everybody. We're going to be different in our preparation, and that's what we're going to hang our hat on, and be proud of. It's about focus, and discipline in our assignments."

On Coach Applewhite having influence on SMU quarterback leaving Houston and seeing SMU as a two quarterback team
"You always have to prepare for both. Ben was a mid-year enrollee at SMU and I think I was hired maybe a week in a half into January. I had about two days to recruit him and keep him here, but he had already had SMU sheets and everything. He was ready to move into the dorm, so it was a tough get with about 48 hours to try to flip him, I love the way he plays. He is a tough guy, quarterback, competitor, can make a lot of throws, and he has given us fits before. He is a great player, so our defense has their work cut out for them and we are going to have a great plan for him."

On the defense's biggest takeaways as season progresses
"On the way they have responded. The response of the staff, Coach (Mark) D'Onofrio and his staff, and the players. We know the way we played in Lubbock wasn't us. We have great players and great coaches and we've got to go back and focus on the things that we need to be a better defense. We talked about free ones and we still have got to get better at that. There are a couple of times that we have given up a big play in the passing game there in the third quarter, and we've got to correct those things. There were some tackling issues in the first half, they got much better in the second half; we are tackling better on the perimeter, but we just have to continue to stay humble and hungry. I know it sounds like coach speak, but that is the reality of it. Having arrived after week eight, you're not knocked dead after week three. The whole point is to continue to improve and get better. That is the positive. Right now I feel like we are getting better as a football team and when you can say that about your team across the board for week eight, then you are doing the right things. Now you don't fall in love with yourself. You go back to work and continue to improve every day."

On if the interception was reviewable
"All turnovers and scoring plays are subject to review. I saw what you saw. I saw the TV copy and the ball hit the ground. You just play the game and don't worry about things. That was another thing I was very proud of with our team. We got backed up on the one yard line, and their defense got a stop. D'Eriq threw the ball away, and it was called grounding. I saw our team respond and overcome anything and everything. Offensively and defensively it doesn't matter if it's a good call or bad call, that's irrelevant. What matters is the response. The way our guys responded and continued to fight. Our defense only gave up 29 yards rushing in the second half, and six drives they didn't score a touchdown, and we had two takeaways. That's where the score started to spread apart. Our offense ended the game with a seven minute drive. We just need to continue doing the right things during the week and prepare the right way. We need to have the same focus and discipline and close halves like we did the second quarter, come out the way we did in the third quarter, and then close the game like we did."

On defense stepping up without Ed Oliver
"I was proud of them. I know Ed is a tremendous part of our football team and our program. We always want to do something that makes us a little more special. This was an opportunity to play an undefeated team without your best player, and prove what you can do. They really did that in the second half. They took the ball away a couple times. I thought D'Eriq's fourth down play was a game-changing play. I thought Nick Watkins' interception in the end zone was a huge play. Those were the plays that swayed the momentum of the game. I was proud of the defensive players. Again it's back to SMU, we're not going to fall in love with ourselves. We're going to keep working to improve every day.

[JasonB]

If you read the quotes in Jason Garrett voice, it seems oddly similar.