USF Head Coach Skip Holtz
Postgame Quotes
Sept. 25, 2010
I'm certainly excited about the win. You look at it, again, I've said this before, 50 percent of the country would trade with us today, right now. And as I've said to the team: there's no such thing as an ugly win. A win is a win. It goes as a two and a one in the column.
There's a lot of things that we can improve on, a lot of things that we can get better on. When you look at tonight, I thought we played really well defensively. We did some really good things on defense. We're facing a tailback averaging 6.1 yards per carry, averaging 150 yards a game. He averaged two yards per carry tonight. I thought the defensive front seven did a great job, they were very active. The linebackers were very active especially. I thought they did a nice job. We said that they're going to have to do it left handed and they're going to have to do it throwing it. They threw the ball pretty well and they made some plays on it, but we weren't going to let them just take the ball and grind it out, then turn and let that tailback beat us. We're going to make them do it left handed. Defense played a great game tonight. I thought they played really well.
Offensively, there are some really positive things in the running game. We talked about our experience right now on the offensive line, with the juniors and seniors, and the running backs. And we came in here the first half and we tried to be multiple, do some different things. Give Western Kentucky a lot of praise. They had a couple of different schemes and came at us from the weak side and the strong side and got into a little bit of a guessing game. Everything was hit or miss and we couldn't really get into a momentum or get anything rolling. So at halftime we came in and said 'Let's put the saddle on those guys up front, secure our edges, and let's run the ball. Let's run it at them and make sure we give our players a chance and an opportunity to win.' I thought that's what they did in the second half.
The inexperience and the injuries, obviously, are a concern at wide receiver. This goes back to a conversation we had during spring practice. We still have a long ways to go there and there's still some things that we're going to have to do to develop it. Then we're going to have to turn and we're going to have to look hard at what we have to do as an offensive football team. So, offensively, a lot of good things.
Demetrius Murray - can't say enough positive things. Rushed for over 100 yards. I think he was about seven and a half yards a carry tonight. Really did a nice job in the game when some things were struggling. We did not ask BJ to throw the ball down the field very much, a lot of ball control stuff. Run the ball, high percentage stuff. When you look at how long our defense was on the field in the opening drive, we just wanted to make sure that we didn't turn and put them back out there with a quick turnaround. The kicking game and the defensive running game was the difference in this game.
Brockhaus-Kahn did a great job today punting the ball. The punt team did a great job covering it. I believe we netted about 52 yards per punt, which is huge. I mean Brockhaus-Kahn, the last two weeks, has averaged 48 and 52 punting the ball. He's done a great job.
I thought our kickoff team, we had three tackles inside the 20 yard-line. Kick-off cover team did a great job, but the punt return team, how nice was it to see that? To see Terrence Mitchell get that ball with a little bit of room and be able to make some things happen. He is electric and he is exciting and I thought the punt return team, the punt team, and the kickoff team was a huge field position battle swing tonight. They really did a great job.
I'm proud of our players, excited about the win, as I said, we'll smile tonight, we'll scream tomorrow. A lot of things that we can turn and get better on, a lot of things that we can improve on, but just really proud of the way this team came in there and they competed. Nobody panicked, nobody flinched. The locker room at halftime wasn't a panic zone. It's like David Bedford stood up at the end and said 'You know what? A lot of people expect us to win by a lot.' It wasn't our best effort, but we found a way to get the win. We're 2-1 at this point. Now let's turn and let's enjoy this victory tonight. The season is too hard in order not to enjoy the victories. Enjoy this victory tonight and get ready to play next week as we've got FAU."
On if he was surprised about leaning on the running game:
"I don't know if you watched the Florida game, but we were five of 20 with four interceptions. And we really didn't give ourselves a chance to turn and move the football on offense because we kept turning it over. So we just said 'You know what? In this game, the gameplan was we didn't want to throw the ball way down the field. We didn't want to put ourselves in a situation where we were throwing interceptions and turning the ball over, giving them a short field.' If we had to run the ball in this thing, I was ready to do that. Like I said, a win is a win. But I'm not going to let our inexperience at wide receiver and our inexperience or lack of productive passing game down the field turn and beat us. Right now we had to put the saddle on the running game and come in here and our mindset was more 2 to 1. It wasn't 4 to 1, but that's just how it worked out with some things that were happening. When we tried to spread it out, that's when we turned in the second half and solidified our edges and ran the ball."
On if he needs to get the receivers back healthy to get the offense he wants:
"Yeah, when people start playing-like I said, Florida turned and just locked up and played man coverage and brought the safeties downhill and said 'Okay, we're going to stop the run, throw it to beat us.' Right now, we're not there. I love Bravo-Brown, he's doing a great job. I love TJ Knowles, he's doing a great job. I love Evan Landi, he's doing a great job. None of them were here last fall. It's like playing a whole bunch of true freshmen at wide receiver and right now we're really inexperienced there and it's a concern. I was worried about the wide receivers when we lost two, and you take Bogan out of it and it really makes things a little bit lopsided."
On the 15 yard penalty that gave the team a spark:
"We were pretty much running the ball up inside the tackles and they started bringing everything down inside. BJ checked to the play, which was a toss sweep inside by the boundary and he took it and he did a nice job. That was the drive in the 3rd quarter to open and the offense turned and did a nice job going down and putting it in the endzone."
On Terrence Mitchell fielding punts:
"He's done a phenomenal job. He really has, and he's getting better and better at catching the punts. He's the guy that has the ability to turn and do something with it when he gets it under his arm because he's electric with it. But he didn't catch the ball consistently enough and that's the ironic part. He was the least consistent of the three and he's been the guy that's been the most consistent in the games. He brings not only a guy that's catching the ball and securing it for us, but he brings some big play potential once he gets it. He is a tremendous talent."
On the status of the kicking game:
"Huge. Punt return, kickoff return, we've got to be able to turn and make something happen. As I said, that was one of the differences in the game. Really, the punt returns set up two scores tonight. "
On the kickers:
"Schwartz missed the first two and I let him kick the extra point, and it wasn't the first two misses, but it was the way the extra point wasn't clean. When I brought everybody over I said 'Explain to me what's going on. Tell me what the problem is so we can fix it.' There weren't a lot of answers. I just said, 'You know what? Let's go with Bonani and we'll turn and we'll get back out on the practice field and try to figure it out. Bonani did a nice job. He made the one by at least that much."
