UConn Football Postgame Press Conference 9/7/2024

should I do one of these should I pull a lane kein uh well it was great to get a win um first thing I want to do is is complement our student section in my three years or two years in one game that was the best I've ever seen pregame they were they were into it they were in their seats early and I guarantee you it matters to our football players you when they come out of the tunnel and they feel that support behind them they look down to the left from our sideline and they see the student section full um that's a big deal for us so um just want to make sure that that we acknowledge that it's it's you know that's they're they're classmates so fantastic appreciate it very much and I know that Neil and everyone else had a lot to do with that just promoting this game and Dom and and everybody so it's uh is a big deal for us but it was good to get a win I like the way we started uh especially on offense you know we came out and we were able to get some big plays out of players that we're depending on to make big plays as this season goes on on I thought Joe did a really nice job we ran the ball well um you you can see that we've got some playmakers that can go do some things um defensively we're still a work in progress um we still got to become a better tackling football team I think that we're still adapting to the scheme a little bit but we we have to make huge progress and we have to make it like right now like right now we can't come in and say that anymore um and I know our guys will work towards doing that um we've got to make field goals you know we have tons of confidence in Chris I think Chris is a really good kicker I think the wind pushed that one um so you know he that's something that we we've got to do we've got to put points on the board when we when we call on Chris to do that and I'm confident that he'll do that um my disappointment would be uh the second half after the last touchdown uh I felt like um we got a little bit complacent when we put some young guys in and uh we can't operate that way there's going to come time this year when we're going to count on young guys to win a game and they have to be able to step in and play at the same level of intensity um and passion and emotion and execution level that the starters are playing at and so we'll work hard on that but that being said it was good to get those guys some time and so that they can see that and they can learn from it and they you know getting Tucker some snaps and getting Cole some snaps I would have loved to have gotten some stops on defense we could have gotten those guys more snaps which is what we needed but I also didn't want to take Joe out of the game until we got a second half touchdown so that was the thinking there but uh All In All We we'll take the win we've got a great test this week it's been uh quite a while since this program has has gone on the road and beat a power Conference team and it's going to be a really tough task at Duke they're two- 0 they're a good team uh they've got a quarterback who transfer from from uh Texas who's a really good player so it's going to be a great Challenge and then I also just want to end by you know uh paying my my respects to marac and the way that they played and the physicality with which they played with and the way that they kept fighting even when the score got a little bit out of touch or out of you know out of control there we've been in that spot before we know what it feels like and so ton of respect to to their staff and their players for the way they continued to fight what did Joe do well and what is the Nick's situation at this point Joe was very calm um Joe read out his progressions Joe threw the ball with accuracy Joe ran the ball uh you know well got some first downs made some plays got us into second and short third and short running the ball so was very pleased with his performance want like I said wanted to give him uh a couple Series in the second half and see if we could get him you know not to try to run up a score or anything I don't believe in doing that but trying to just get him you know one more successful drive so Nick's uh situation will be evaluated daily by our medical staff you got a lot of bigs how encouraging was that to get some of those well yeah it's that's what you need you know when you can come when you don't have to grind it out for every touchdown I mean that's a that's a great thing you know when you have some guys you can get the ball in their hand and they can go do it themselves you know as a coach you drop the perfect play but your objective always is get the ball to your Playmakers in space and then let them use their natural ability to go make some you know great plays make something great happen and I think we saw that out of a number of players today and uh you know we've got to build on it we got to become consistent with it it can't be just a a you know one week wonder you know it's got to be something that we we continue to to emphasize and and get production out of you alluded to before the season but you know Joe's attitude coming in rather than maybe Suk how the situation he handle things the right way I just if you could expand that a little how happy you are to see opportunity well he you know in the time that I've been here we haven't made it through two weeks without losing a quarterback and uh Joe came in and and he competed really hard but you know we we ended up you know giving the job to Nick and at no time at all at least in front of me or his teammates did I ever see him pout did I ever see him acting it with b b bad body language did I ever hear him say anything negative all I saw was a guy that just kept his you know his eyes right on the top Target which is I'm always going to be prepared to go in and and play if called upon and when you have guys that have that attitude and the selfish selflessness that he showed that permeates the team because you know when a everyone always concentrates on the quarterback decision understandably so he's the trigger man and if you have a guy that's going to is going to pout he's going to be a locker room lawyer and he's going to cause dissension and you say well I don't know why they didn't choose me it can pull your team apart when you got a guy like Joe that does just the just the opposite just the opposite opposite you know and that's what we expected of Joe but that's very that's very good for your football team he's you know he's a pro he's a mature individual he cares about this team his teammates trust him um and he was ready to go you know he was ready to go last week he was ready to go today and he'll continue to be ready to go that's just who Joe is and that's one of the things we love about him lock you know not one of those uh hey it's z00 kind of guys I'm like listen we've done good things to get to this point let's continue to do them and here's it's very objective I'm I'm objective and here's the things we need to do better you know um that's just you know the the worst thing you can do as a coach is start looking at the scoreboard the worst thing you can do as a player is start looking at the scoreboard because it's an external factor that can have an influence on the way you play and it never should and so if you want to be a good football team if you want to be a good football player if you want to be a good football coach you worry about and you concentrate on things you can control and that's you know we don't look at the scoreboard and that was one of the messages is don't look at the scoreboard doesn't matter play to our standard regardless we've been in a lot of those games where we're behind right and and against some really good teams and it's got to be the same attitude whether you're ahead behind or even you've got to play a certain brand of football a certain style a certain standard that you're that you're responsible to and I think I think it was N I didn't know that [Music] yeah last I I felt like last week our offense wasn't terrible I felt like defensively weren't good but I saw Sparks on offense things that I liked we just didn't get enough opportunities we didn't convert a couple third Downs it could have kept the drives alive uh things you know we held ourselves back but I've had a feeling since you know we came out of the portal period that we had some Playmakers on offense you know when you add guys like Skyler and you add guys like TJ and ezariah and Josiah and you add guys like Mel and you add guys like Shamar Porter and you add guys like um like derell you know and you add a guy like Nick um you know those guys we added them because we felt like they were Playmakers you know and uh they did it today Skyler did it last week TJ did it last week now we've just got to do it on a consistent basis against you know really good team this week in Duke I mean if any of you guys watched him last night but you know really good football team and so we can't become satisfied with today we have to push for more but it's nice to feel like there's depth and guys that can make plays and I didn't even mention you know Brock Montgomery who I I think is going to be a really good football player for us do you feel the offensive line made progress today in what was well they were more consistent and um their protection was good we missed some things U we overran some things on our outside Zone stuff you know we're never going to be completely satisfied you're never going to play a perfect football game but all in all yeah they they played with physicality um Precision uh they did a good job in protection and uh we'll clean up the things that we you know we didn't do well enough but I I'm sorry I like our offensive line you know do we miss Christian Haynes and some of those guys yeah but these guys that are stepping in are are doing a good job and they got a tall task this week Jim is today a product of you being more talented than an FBS team or is it you guys really went executed well well listen it there's levels right and you know we have more resources than a team like marac and they do a great job there I mean that's a good Pro prog right I mean they look coming off the bus they look better than I thought they were physically they play hard you know they play fair they play tough um but you know this program thanks to David and and you know Jared and and and and what we've been able to to do in the nil space we've been able to add some Playmakers right and when you have talent talent wins in sports Talent is what wins coaching's overrated Talent wins and so uh I'm not saying coaching doesn't matter it does putting those players in the right place matters but you know getting the ball to talented guys that can do things on their own where they can out aete a guy that's that's what you're trying to do you know you're trying to scheme space you're trying to scheme to get guys into space so they can just use their god-given ability or the ability they've worked on so hard their whole life to go to go do something special with the ball in their hands and we've got some guys that can do that what you think about what you saw from your younger quarterbacks wer like you know they might thrust into a playing situation well I I I would hope not because I don't want guys to get injured you know I would like Nick to come back healthy I like Joe to stay healthy but uh I think it's important to get those guys some plays some snaps like I said I would have loved to get them more turns more snaps we didn't get off the field on defense when I needed us we needed to get off the field on defense to give them more snaps they need to play through some mistakes you know they need to understand you know the speed of the game um they've got a lot of learning to do and the only that they're really going to increase their level of performances to play so you know I would say if there was one thing that was disappointing to me and and there's several and I mentioned a couple but I wanted to get those guys more snaps I wanted to get them more snaps which was in conflict with wanting to get Joe another successful Drive coming out in the second half and so you know unfortunately we just didn't get off the field and give them enough and we didn't stay on the field either on offense in order to get them snaps did you come out relatively healthy or just jiah get Josiah took a shot uh he he's he's good now well you know he'll our doctors will decide you know where he is and if he's in the protocol or not um javarus Sims slight groin um hopefully we get guys like Malik back this week hopefully we get price back this week you know we need those guys back but I think we came out of it uh fairly healthy you rarely come out of any game totally healthy it's a violent sport okay okay thanks everyone appreciate you players here very quick CL players is a big part of my game how big was it for you guys to come back and just get rid of last week's performance and put something good out there yeah it was huge uh last Saturday left a bad taste in our mouths um you know nobody wants to ever get beat like that so you know coming out started with week of practice though week of prepar preparation and just going to work you know not worrying about anything else and just worrying about maram and I think we showed that on Saturday when we came out came out fast scarl you've been around a lot of quarterbacks when a quarterback loses starting job like he did like Joe did and but has a good attitude keeps himself ready to play he's ready to play when called upon how much the teammates look at that and and have a certain respect admiration for that oh no we respected a bunch cuz you know at any given point anybody could go down so everybody's got to be ready so having Joe who knows the offense knows what he's doing back there um you know he's calm cool Collective so you know you don't really have any problems with him behind Center and I think you know Nick Nick did a great job today just being on the sideline being there for guys so you know I think both of those guys are doing a great job to get a a comfortable win you know obviously coming off a tough loss and everything uh absolutely it's good to get this win you know we got a shake back from last week uh obviously as you guys know it's a tough one um but it's good to win at home in front of our fans uh to you know build that trust back with everybody at the rent so uh you know we're just looking forward to next week at dup anything you're particularly proud of from what the defense did today uh we just did what we said we were going to do all week uh we practice we said we're going keep off the scoreboard we didn't do exactly that you know we we still got more work to do but uh we held him for a very long time um we got a lot of negative plays uh you know we're going to take what we did today obviously and learn from it and and add it for next week for Duke refreshing out there just watching the off score almost every time what did that feel like uh it felt great and like I tried to do a good job of you know whenever they did go over and talking to those guys like Wes and and Val and chase you know we play dline they play o line just you know letting them know that we support them and we see the work that they put in every day and we you know we all saw what they did today so I just wanted to make sure you know we went over there and congratulated those guys kept them kept their heads High even when they didn't score even if it was a turn over you know what I'm saying so we just wanted to make sure uh those guys are appreciated always and you know we're happy that they put up as many points as they did today that's great does the margin of Victory matter to you as far as like how much you went by just because it I don't know just everybody got involved like that you were talking about um I mean margin Victory like it's whatever with us as long as we get to win that's all that matters I mean I mean you obviously want to search your dominance and and show that you are a a good football team at the FBS level but um as long as we get the win man that's all that matters at the end of the day everybody's happy everybody's joyous the fans are happy we going to give them a win for state of Connecticut so that's great joing last new team new season obviously but Duke beat you guys pretty good last year what do you remember about it and what you take any extra motivation going down to D um I mean we're just going we're just going to focus on right now winning this game and then obviously we're going to get into uh Duke tomorrow like Coach Moore was telling us at the end of the game today it's been 12 years since we beat a power four power five team um at their Stadium it's been 12 years so we're going to try and make a difference this uh this next weekend so