Postgame Press Conference (UNLV)

e e e this I guess opening remarks very disappointed I thought we'd play better than that did a poor job coaching as a head coach poor job with my assistant coaches and poor job playing so I didn't see much good out there we didn't tackle real well in the beginning of the game that hurt us on a didn't get some knockbacks they knocked us back uh then offensively boy we had a hard time protecting you know we we had some uh stuff we thought we could run against them but some of it were a little bit longer developing type routes and we just couldn't protect it very well kind of got away from the run early and I think that hurt us as well had some things going in the kicking game then we had some some uh unfortunate miscues guys trying to make plays and they they made the wrong kind of play so uh very disappointed questions Willie along those lines how much can you chalk up to it being game one especially with like the the the holding call stuff like that or was that just simply I hope that's a big reason for it you know I I don't know I uh you know it was kind of kind of a a road game for me you know everything was new with with the first game and uh you know we just didn't come out crisp and sharp and sometimes our worry we over prepared him you know I don't know if that's uh part of or not but we we really worked hard you know we spent every second we possibly could so that we'd be prepared and play the very best we can but uh just didn't do it you know you go back you know look at the tape and I'm sure there's going to be some guys that played a little better than I thought and and uh some guys played about how I thought they played you know and then and then as coaches we just got to do a really good job of putting them in position where they can be successful and do things that they they can they can do and I think at times we you know just you know we got to you know you got to know your limitations sometimes and uh uh so that's something that's important as well that we got to identify over the next couple days coach you mentioned uh you feel like you guys did a poor job um and protecting what what would you attribute that was it unlb and and what they brought some of the stuff was just really simple they were just bringing you know two backers in the a andb gap and little slant twist and we didn't pass it off the way we needed to pass it off you know then there sometimes we got beat but uh you know that's going to happen on occasion but it's disappointing when they do something we've worked on a buch and we don't you know we don't handle it the way we should have so uh you know just uh some of was the backs when always the offensive linan couple times his tight ends chipping you had one time where we ran the wrong route and you know Don got stuck holding the ball and and uh you know we took sack so there there's a a lot of things to attribute it to coach you kind of went away from the running backs early in the game uh there anything that really contribute or something that you saw there that limited no we we weren't having a ton of success but I agree with you we should have stayed with it a little bit more you know we got some good backs and and uh you know then we had a couple PS on that too an inside Zone play and the guyy supposed to go left he went right you had somebody shoot the cap and lost four yards so you know it just was uh it was hard finding things that were working Willie the the penalty on the long return and some of the Holdings I mean yeah you know we had one you know young man thought he guy fell down you know and and uh thought it wasn't a hole was on tape but you got to play really clean in the kicking game they're looking for stuff you know to throw a flag on and and uh you know we had a nice return out to the 30 something yard line we had another hold on hit so you know you got to practice clean and then in the game you got to come on you got to execute it clean and we didn't do that on a few occasions coach was putting Zeon Christ in something that was predetermined or was that just with the FL we were going to put him in you know and then uh you know he got banged up a little bit so we we had to take him out and hey I thought OU came in at the end of the game and did a good job you had some some nice balls and and uh you know got the ball off on time and obviously they you know I think they had their backups in during that time period but we were able to take the ball down the field and score but he he did a nice job coming in there hi coach after a loss like that what does your next week kind of look like going into the next matchup do what you really want me to say now we're I got some ideas but I better not do them uh you know I told the guys we gotta flush that down the toilet we gotta move on plain and simple you know when you when you have a horrible day it's you know if we would have won 24/7 I would have said the same thing I know you probably don't believe that but I would have told us hey man that game's done it's over with we got to move on to the next one we're guaranteed 12 of these opportunities one of them's gone we got 11 of them left and uh we can't sit there and not you know have our best attitudes this week or we're destined to you know have have the same outcome so we got to do a good job of moving on from this and uh I have a 24-hour gloat and pout rule you know so well you I'm gonna pout for a little while then tomorrow I'm gonna come back get after it Willie if I could just go back on on Zeon that last Drive I don't know if I saw him on the sideline there was he not available he was on the sideline but he got banged up a little bit so that's why that's why he didn't come back in and and getting getting those points at the end I mean can you take something from that obviously you don't want to get well you know you want to keep fighting and scratching CLA you know all four quarters you know and I thought uh you know most of the guys did that you know and and uh uh but you know it's my job to get all of them to do it Willie the the defense was in some adverse situations at times and how do you think that side of the ball you know performed overall you know I I thought we got a little better as the game progressed tackling you know we you know we we we went live two different times maybe about 70 80 plays each one of the scrimmages but you know it's different when you get out there and playing the game I thought their quarterback was a hard running guy uh we were trying to tackle him up high like you do most quarterbacks and and uh at times we were bouncing off of him and you know as a game progressed I thought we tackled a little better you know but uh uh first quarter we didn't tackle great uh you know had some guys get behind us we we allowed the quarterback to get outside the pocket didn't keep a good contained pass rush Lanes like we needed to and uh you know that uh gave up a few big plays as well uh Willie despite any despite the loss and the negatives would you say were there any positives that you could take from this matchup oh there's got to be one out there someplace it's hard to find it right now but we we'll find couple more questions Willie how would you evaluate just the I know you mentioned the o line kind of didn't do what you want them to do but how would you evaluate the quarterback play moving forward and and do you feel comfortable with what you have in the room yeah I do feel comfortable what we have in the room I just you know you're going to have to go back and look and see what was maybe something that he did incorrectly I think you're talking about Donovan and something that the offensive line or the running backs or the receivers or whatever the case may be you know it's uh you know you can't have a one on 11 it just doesn't work that way so everybody's got to do their one 11th and and uh you know but we we'll get better from this and uh he he'll play better I know that I'll coach better two more Willie did anything specifically surprise you about unlv's defensive front or Blitz packages and what made it so hard to address you know it's just same same stuff we've been working on they probably played a little more even front than what they'd shown in the past and uh you know but I thought they they tackled pretty well and uh did a good job with penetration but some of that was you know our fault not picking up the the penetration last question coach you kind of touched on it on the defense um how you feel they improved as a as a game progressed one of the players um AJ Hy how do you feel like he did K away Kick In The End Zone took it out 40 50 yards you know there there's some good play defensively at times it really was we they got put in a whole lot of tough situations throughout the ball game and answered on quite a few occasions but when you get a game like that you got you know to win it you got to answer every time so there there's some room for improvement but there's also some good things they did how Johnny uh hopefully he'll play this week thanks so much coach thank you e e e Joseph manjack [Music] all right guys thanks so much we'll go ahead and open it up for questions here Jose Joseph can you kind of just take us through what how you felt in terms of maybe just not being able to get things going offensively as a as a unit and was it things that they were doing or did you just guys just felt like you never got into a rhythm uh cou just can't beat the cou as coach Fritz has been preaching since he's got here just cou can't beat the coup simple as that just need a move on take care of business at practice this next week coming up seems like you you guys had trouble you know getting the ball down field was that something they were doing on defense or the protection or how did you see that um kudos to the defense they did uh unlv's defense they did a great job of doing what they were uh had go for their game plan and you know you got to be able to move on your feet and execute the job and task at hand and you know sometimes it doesn't go your way but uh I feel like we gave it our best and you know we just got to figure out what we got to do going into the next week and get ready for [Music] Oklahoma yeah Joseph um what was kind of coach's message after the game keep your head up um if if you have anything good to say speak up if you have anything bad keep your mouth closed cuz uh cou just can't beat the coups and it's as simple as that just just keep your mouth closed if it's not anything positive um Joseph the touchdown that you had to get to give cougars the six points do you feel like um that was your um like one of your good drives of the game do you feel like you know you can expand on that as the season progresses um anything I can do for this team I'm going give it my absolute best every single play and you know uh glad I could help execute on that play and you know hopefully we can get this ball rolling and put some more points on the board J you talked about you know the cougs don't be the cougs you know Mantra um does that make you know the holding penalties on the long return and some of the other holes does that you know make those even more frustrating penalties and not executing your job you know if it's an effort thing or not getting the job done whatever it is just cougs can't beat the cougs simple as that uh just doing what you have to do every single play and not taking one step forward and two step back two steps back keep it open for two more all set okay thanks so much Joseph thank you e in the back just a moment to get set [Music] up got the mic right here we'll go ahead and lead off with chis hey how how frustrating is that you know all the buildup off season and then you you know get a big crowd of students and then you know sort of have that result I mean I'm sure as you can imagine it's pretty frustrating but at the end of the day I feel like we got the tools to go out there and win every game that we play I feel like it doesn't matter who we match up against we got those tools on our team and I feel like we can compete with anybody so we'll just move on from this put it behind us and keep getting better every week L TR coach was saying Willie was saying the um there were some moments that you can kind of take from the game especially on defense with the Hy pick and I think there was another Red Zone stand that you guys made are those the little things that you you guys will sort of try to build on or do you feel like you know it wasn't all bad I mean the loss is a loss but that there's things that you can take from this game yeah uh I mean I feel like as far as both sides of the ball we got a lot that we need to clean up it's not the offense it's not the defense I think it's us as a collective team so I just feel like we got to go back to the drawing board and be coachable and do everything we know that we need to do because at the end of the day like I said I feel like we can compete with anybody Chris some of the m m tackling early what I mean do you attribute to that first game what do you sort of what did you see there I mean I can't make any excuses we have to tackle better plain and simple keep it open for two to three more go over to Blake obviously not the result you wanted today but you didn't get to play last season how did it feel to get back out there for the first time I mean I'm blessed I can't do anything but thank God but at the end of the day this is a team sport and it's not all about me so I just feel like everything needs to be team oriented so I don't really think about it like that I mean yeah I'm I'm happy to be out there playing again but at the end of the day we lost and this is a team sport so you can imagine how I'm feeling lro what was it like going against that quarterback and Matthew sluka and kind of his scrambling to the side that make it a bit tougher for you guys in the coverage aspect no comment I just feel like they're a good team and we're a good team I don't feel like it was one person that beat us or one particular play or anything like that I just feel like we lost the game and it took four quarters to do so so um looking ahead how do you guys turn the page um and not dwell on this loss I mean we got a good head coach and Coach Fritz so we just got to be coachable I mean it's not like they don't have the right plan set out for us every week and it's not like we're not being coached to do the things that to do the things right that they're telling us to do so at the end of the day coach Fritz and the rest of the coaching staff they don't go out there and play any snaps we play all of those snaps so we got to go out there and make those plays and it's that simple last one um the the def the defense in the first half it didn't look so good you know uh you know QB was QB was getting out of pocket some men were getting behind you some missed tackles but the second half things looked a bit things look things looked a bit promising do you guys you know can if you guys can clean that mistakes you know can you put can you can this defense you know make some B big progress later on in the season I mean yeah it's honestly first week so there's a lot we have to clean up and I think that'll come with a lot of our guys being experienced together and building that chemistry because at the end of the day practice is not the same as the game so we can go out there and run those calls and practice all we want but if we can't go out there and execute in the game it means nothing so I just feel like this game was something to build off of and we did things right we did things wrong but we got to focus on the positive and just keep going thanks so much l appreciate you all appreciate you e e