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Week 5 Conference USA Coaches Presser

By Cyrus Smith@CoolCyWrites Sep 28, 2016, 6:19pm EDT

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NCAA Football: Western Kentucky at Miami (Ohio)

FAU Head Coach Charlie Partidge

On loss to Ball State

After watching the game, I am proud of how hard our guys played. The effort was there. The effort was there from the beginning of the game to the end of the game. Our goal is to be more consistent. That is what we are fighting for and that is what we will fight for this week, a more consistent performance. [There were] signs of improvement, but not enough. Not enough to get a victory and we will fight for that this week.

On the weather delays affecting the team

No.

On the rivalry with FIU

It means a lot to players, coaches and everyone in the program. Anytime you have two schools that are this close together, the players know each other. The coaches know each other. Ice [Tim] Harris’ son [Tim Harris, Jr.] is on the staff. I can go on and on. This game last year our kids prepared the right way and I anticipate them doing the same this week.

Louisiana Tech Head Coach Skip Holtz

On Middle Tennessee

It was a disappointing loss last week on the road in a conference game, especially when you have a 20-point lead in the second half. It was frustrating to lose a game like that. When you go back and look at it, defensively we did not play very well. We have a lot of new faces on the defense and a lot of new additions. We have talent over there, but we are certainly not playing to our capabilities as a defensive football team.

More on Middle Tennessee

I felt like it was a tale of two halves. In the first half, I thought we played decently defensively. It was 20-7 at halftime and they come out and score 31 unanswered points. The frustrating part is that our special teams are not putting our defense in bad field position. Most of the time, they are driving the length of the field. We had ten explosive plays against us of over 20 yards. That is way too many... There is a lot of season left to play. As I told the team last night, we are exactly where we were a year ago. We lost our conference opening game against Western Kentucky. I said that we were going to be a work in progress and we would learn a lot about our team. We have to roll our sleeves up, we have to go to the drawing board and we have to get back to work.”

On playing back at home

This week we get an opportunity to come home. We are one of only five football teams in the country to play three of their first four games on the road. I think everyone is excited to have a chance to come back home and play in front of our home crowd, families and friends.

Middle Tennessee Head Coach Rick Stockstill

On comeback win against Louisiana Tech

It speaks volumes. I've always said that character, attitude and competitiveness is more important to me than talent. There will be times you face adversity throughout a game, and you have to have strong character and great leadership in your players to overcome that adversity. We were faced with a lot of adversity Saturday getting down 27-7 with nine minutes left in the third quarter. To have the mental and physical toughness to keep competing play after play and score after score, it's why I said after that game it's as satisfying a win that I have ever been a part of because of the competitive spirit those guys played with throughout the game. It speaks volumes to their character, their attitude and their never-give-up spirit.

On running the ball more against North Texas’ 11th ranked rushing defense in CUSA

No sir. We'll go in with a plan. We're not going to force anything. We'll do what we do and adjust that plan accordingly throughout the game based on what we are having success with or not having success with. We'll have a good plan offensively that our players can digest and understand, and they can go out and be successful executing that plan. We're not going to go in and say, 'Hey, they are giving up this many yards through the air, so we better throw it a bunch,' or, 'They are giving up this many yards on the ground, so we better run it a bunch.' We've got to do what we can execute based on our personality.

Biggest room for improvement after Saturday’s win

Offensively, we dropped way too many balls. They weren't hitches. We dropped three take-offs that are potentially scoring plays and potentially drive-extending plays. We dropped a couple of screens and Ty on the over-route. Offensively, we need to get better there and get more consistent. Defensively, our plan going in was to make them one-dimensional. We wanted to stop the run and we did. But you can't give up 500 yards passing to stop the run.

Old Dominion Head Coach Bobby Wilder

Thoughts on last week’s win over UTSA

The key to this game was field position. Our average drive started at our 36 while UTSA’s started at their 20-yard line. That is 16 yards, which is a first down and a half, that they had to make up. In the first quarter, their average drive started at their 16 while ours started at our own 44, so that was huge for us. We had them pinned, and that helped us jump out to a 6-0 lead. We would have liked to score more points in the first quarter, obviously, but the field position was really big for us early on.

On how the defense looks compared to last year?

At this point I wouldn’t say that we have fully arrived. It is a very small sample size so far. We gave up 49 points at NC State, but we are definitely improved. One of the biggest things we have done better is not giving up big plays. If they score on us, they have to earn it. That is really encouraging. We have more veteran players, so the coaches can make adjustments and execute.

Rice Head Coach David Bailiff

On loss to North Texas

I have to do a better job of coaching. The assistants have to do a better job. The players have to do a better job of executing. We’re all in this together. Together is the only way we’re going to get it turned around. We started that game jumping out to a 17-0 lead but then watched it erode. Offensively, it was pretty amazing. We had 28 first downs. We had 100 plays and completely dominated the first quarter. Once we got up to 17-0 that’s where, all of a sudden, three out of four drives we had turnovers. We had two fumbles and an interception. That’s where you have to focus the most and learn to dominate an opponent when you get up. We have to keep emphasizing it and keep working on it.

On parallels to the 2009 team that went 2-10

The only way through these tough spots is to work. Working hard works and we’ve got to continue to get these young men in positions in practice where we’re not picking each other on the route. That’s up to us as coaches to continue to drill work (and) to work these mistakes out of them.

Southern Miss Head Coach Jay Hopson

The progress made from Troy to UTEP

We just made fewer mistakes. The Troy game was kind of a comedy of mistakes and a ton of turnovers. We tackled better this week. I thought we were crisper offensively and overall it was just a better executed game.

Importance of winning the conference opener against UTEP

It’s always good to get a win. Certainly a good win and a good start and you always want to get off to a good start but, we know we have a long season ahead. We have seven other tough conference games ahead so we have to let that one get behind us and move on to Rice because it’s the only game right now. Definitely a good start but know we have a big challenge this weekend.

On the amount of penalties committed in the first three games, compared to game against UTEP

This week I was proud of our effort. We did a good job there. It’s something we want to be every week, we want to be a penalty-free football team. That’s something that we always stress in our journey and make sure we don’t get penalties.

UTEP Head Coach Sean Kugler

On this week’s starting quarterback

We’re going to have Ryan Metz and Zack Greenlee split reps in practice this week. They will compete and whoever is performing the best and bringing the most energy will be the starting quarterback this weekend. We’ll name one of those two the starter and won’t rotate.

On the status of Aaron Jones

Aaron is going to be fine. He got dinged up when he got hit clearly out of bounds. I wasn’t very happy about that. That happens in football. They miss some calls and usually they make the right call.

Western Kentucky Head Coach Brian Brohm

On what stood out against Vanderbilt

When you play good football teams you have to do the small things and we haven’t been doing the small things. Turnovers have been big - it’s hard to overcome three turnovers against a good football team - and we had too many costly penalties. We turned it over getting ready to score, missed a field goal and our defense kind of wore down at the end. Definitely had some bright moments, it’s just unfortunate we weren’t able to take advantage of them and against good football teams that’s not going to be good enough.

On how the team looks four games into the season

I like our football team. I think we’re competitive and we’re willing to play anybody. I think we can compete and hang in there with anybody, but we have to understand in order to be a great football team we have to do the small things.

Charlotte Head Coach Brad Lambert

On pressure of winning the conference opern after failing to win a conference game last year

Yeah, we want to win every game. That’s why we go out there and it’s the reason we work and prepare the way we do. We have high goals and we need to win games. Conference play is big and it starts Saturday.

The team’s confidence on playing Old Dominion at home this year after keeping it close last year on the road

It builds confidence for our guys knowing that we can play with them. We went up there and the guys played well. We had a chance to close it out and we didn’t. It was because some of the decisions I made – when we had fourth and goal on the 2 and I decided to make it a five-point game instead of going for it to make it a nine-point game - our guys will look at the film and study it. We learned from the Temple game when we were up 7-3 and then gave up the big play. We need to be in position to not give up big plays and we need to continue to emphasize that.

FIU Interim Head Coach Ron Cooper

On transition to being the head coach

It went well. As I said to the guys earlier, the most important thing right now is our players. We’ve got one-hundred players; I want them to know that some things change, but at the same time it’s about winning. We’re here to get better every day. Keep doing what we’ve been doing off the field. The guys have done a great job academically and in the community. We have to find a way to win some games and have fun. So it’s about the players. I want the players to know that we’re going to have some fun, but at the same time we know what we have to do.

The team’s state of mind entering the Shula Bowl

Well the players were excited today. If the rivalry game doesn’t fire you up, nothing does. So we had a lot of energy today. We’re looking forward to FAU. They’re coming in; they’re going to say they can win the game, we’re going to say we can win the game. It’s just like any time.

Marshall Head Coach Doc Holliday

On his experience with Pittsburgh

Pitt always had players. The University of Pittsburgh went from Marino to Dorsett to Hugh Green. The one common denominator when you line up against them is that they always have players, and they should. Western Pennsylvania has always done a good job of going to Ohio, Florida and everywhere else and finding really good players, and if you are at the University of Pittsburgh you should have good players. They have a great budget, they have a tremendous school and if they don’t have players, there is an issue there.

On Pittsburgh’s offense

They do a lot of speed sweeps, with their wide receivers. (Henderson) is their second leading rusher, and he is not a tailback. They do a lot of perimeter runs with their sweeps, so they create a lot of issues with their motions and movements.

North Texas head coach Seth Littrell

On win over Rice

I thought the team really stuck together and battled back after not everything went perfect. We’re still not starting as fast as I’d like on both sides of the ball. The thing I did like, though, is how they battled back. They stayed together and kept on grinding it out against a good football team. The biggest difference for us is we had a great week of preparation. It was their best Tuesday and Wednesday as a football team.

On Middle Tennessee’s offense

Their offensive coordinator Tony Franklin does a great job. I’ve known him a long time. He’s going to spread you out. He does a great job of running the football. He’s not going to be ‘pass happy’. It’s a true spread. They’ll run the football. They’ve got a good quarterback. They’re going to run a lot of run-pass-options, which is going to pose some difficulties on defense for us

Week 5 Conference USA Coaches Presser

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FAU Head Coach Charlie Partidge

Louisiana Tech Head Coach Skip Holtz

Middle Tennessee Head Coach Rick Stockstill

Old Dominion Head Coach Bobby Wilder

Rice Head Coach David Bailiff

Southern Miss Head Coach Jay Hopson

UTEP Head Coach Sean Kugler

Western Kentucky Head Coach Brian Brohm

Charlotte Head Coach Brad Lambert

FIU Interim Head Coach Ron Cooper

Marshall Head Coach Doc Holliday

North Texas head coach Seth Littrell

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