OPENING STATEMENT:

“I thought we played our first complete game of the year where our guys played for the full sixty minutes. I thought we played hard, which gave us the opportunity to win. We fought throughout the game and came away with a win on the road which is hard to do, so pleased with that. Now we know as we go into this week, playing Tulsa, they are coming off a good win versus Houston. They are a very talented football team and what we have to do is continue to work real hard each and every day, work to get better and go out and be ready to play on Saturday.”

YOU SHOWED A LOT OF EMOTION AFTER THE GAME, HOW DID THIS WIN COMPARE TO OTHER BIG WINS YOU’VE HAD IN YOUR CAREER?:

“Any time you win it’s good, but you just want to make sure that the message you are getting across to these young men, who haven’t had a lot of success, is reaching home. Somtimes you have to express that message in a way that it’s truthful, it’s heartfelt and maybe direct and to the point. I felt that with our players, they were able to get that win and fight through some of things you have to fight through. We came off of a game where defensively we gave up a lot of points the previous game and the defense went out there and did a really good job. They had a pick six, they held them to 5-of-15 on third down and 0-for-3 on fourth down. When the game was tight there at the end, 28-21, Temple had a first and goal at the three and our kids rose up and stopped them to keep it at 28-24 and we were able to win it. You just feel good for the kids and you are just happy that the messages that you are telling and giving them kind of sunk in a little bit, at least for that game.”

YOU’VE SPENT LAST FEW WEEKS ON THIS CALL TALKING ABOUT CLOSE LOSSES, HOW’S IT FEEL TO EXPERIENCE A WIN AS YOU TRY TO GET THE PROGRAM BACK ON TRACK?:

“The one thing that I’ve learned throughout the year’s and I’ve had the experience of being a head coach before, there’s a lot of things when you come into a program that hasn’t won in six years that you need to change. You have to be patient, but the sooner the players understand the things that you are trying to do, it’s all about making them better and making them achieve at a level that they didn’t think they could achieve at. It’s being up front, honest and truthful with them. It might hurt some of them at first, but if they don’t know that what you’re telling them are the cold, hard facts of life and reality, then they’ll never be able to achieve to a level that they thought they couldn’t achieve at. When they finally get it, it makes you feel good. It might have taken us a little longer to understand that you need to play hard for sixty minutes, but that doesn’t guarantee you a win. It will at least give you an opportunity to win, but if you aren’t playing for a full sixty minutes, you don’t have a chance. It’s no different in life. If you are going to go on and be successful, you need to work hard each and every day. You need to expend energy, then prepare yourself each day. Respect the game, don’t cheat the process and if you do that, you can have success.”

THOUGHTS ON CHALLENGES THAT TULSA PRESENTS:

“They are a very up-tempo team that plays extremely fast. They have two running backs, De’Angelo Brewer and Shamari Brooks that each went over 100 yards last week. They made the change at quarterback with Luke Skipper in there and it looks like it paid off for them. They are agressive on defense. Every game is a challenge and every game is a game within itself. For us to have an opportunity to win, we are going to have to play for a full sixty minutes and have to correct some of the mistakes that we made last week because this is a talented team that we are going to be going up against.”

MATT SCHONVISKY / SITE CREATOR