OPENING STATEMENT:

“We played a really good football team in USF and QB Quinton Flowers was outstanding. We had some issues where we couldn’t contain him and he hurt us with his feet. That’s the one thing that we tried to take away and just weren’t able to do so. Our kids fought hard for 60-minutes and we just didn’t make some of the plays that we needed to make defensively. Offensively, we came up short and we get to go play UCF, a very good football team. McKenzie Milton is a really good quarterback who is playing extremely well. They are very fast all over, attacking, good defense. We go from one very difficult team to another and we’ll just have to have a good week of practice, go down, play as hard as we can, play for 60-minutes and hopefully eliminate some of the mistakes we’ve made in the last couple of weeks.”

IS THERE A BENEFIT TO HAVING PLAYED USF PRIOR TO UCF IN TERMS OF DEFENDING TEAM SPEED?:

“I don’t think so. They are two different teams with two different types of players. They are both very, very good teams. You’d expect being there in the state of Florida and having the ability to recruit the young men that they’re able to recruit and the number of guys that come out of that state that have the ability to play at this level. Scott [Frost] has done a very good job in a short period of time there at Central Florida. Same thing as Charlie [Strong]. George O’Leary is a good friend of mine, worked for him and he was there and had things going there too. I know the type of program that they have and the kids that we’re going to be competing against because we go down to Florida to recruit some of those same type of athletes. I don’t know if it helps us at all. Every team is different in what they do offensively and defensively and you need to adjust to that and what we need to do is try to get better again this week.”

HOW DIFFERENT ARE USF AND UCF AT QB, ARE FLOWERS AND MILTON MUCH DIFFERENT IN YOUR EYE?:

“I think McKenzie is a better thrower overall. He’s very accurate, just impressed with how quickly he gets rid of the ball in terms of knowing where to go with the ball. He’s spot on with his reads. He then has the ability to pull it down and run, he’s very, very talented. Quinton is very good too, but I’d give the edge overall to McKenzie just because I think he’s a better passer, not that Quinton isn’t a good passer, I just think McKenzie is really, really good.”

HAVE YOU LOOKED AT ANY UCF FILM FROM 2016 AND DO YOU NOTICE ANY DIFFERENCES IN MILTON THIS YEAR, OPPOSED TO LAST?:

“No, I didn’t look at any of their film from a year ago. I’ve just been focusing on their film from this year.”

RB ADRIAN KILLINS, WHAT CONCERNS YOU ABOUT HIS SPEED?:

“I know this, I watch that game the other night against SMU and I saw number nine taking off with the ball and thought, wow, he’s fast. Then you watch more film on him and so he’s quick too and he’s got the burst. He’s tough. I don’t know if I’ve seen a faster or quicker back of all the teams that we’ve played and we played some pretty good teams this year outside the conference that were pretty darn good. He’s dynamic, he’s scary. If you don’t play the gaps right, he’s going to take it the distance like he did against Navy and make big play like he did the other night. You need to be gap sound, but you also need to be a sure tackler because he’s very shifty in the hole, can plant and cut and do all those things. He’s very, very good.”

DO YOU THINK BEING A SMALLER BACK, HE’S TOUGHER TO BRING DOWN?:

“I tell you what, give me someone who’s elusive and fast like he is and I don’t care what his size is. You can’t teach speed, you can’t teach the things that he has, that’s God-given. The size to me isn’t important. If I can find guys like that, the size doesn’t matter to me.”

HOW DO YOU LIKE NOON KICKOFFS, DOES IT CHANGE YOUR PREPARATION AT ALL?:

“I love the noon kickoffs. I wish we played every game at noon. We practice in the morning’s here. I’m all for noon games, I don’t want any games after 12 o’clock. The 3:30’s and 7’s, keep them off my schedule. I’ll play at noon every game. Anyone that wants to play late, I’ll change with them.”

LEAST RECOGNIZABLE COACH ON ANY STAFF IS STRENGTH & CONDITIONING COACH. ON SCALE OF 1 TO 10, HOW IMPORTANT IS THAT POSITION TO BEING SUCCESSFUL ON THE FIELD?:

“To me, with ten being the highest, it’s ten. That’s one of the things we need to do, we aren’t nearly strong enough or fast enough as a football team. When I was here before, we had a guys by the name of Jerry Martin who’s no longer with us, God rest his soul. Those guys because of the way the rules are now, they spend more time with the team than we do. That guy to me is the most important guy you have on your staff in terms of developing your kids, getting them strong and getting their work ethic up and that tenacity. Then doing things from a stretching standpoint, getting them as big and strong, but stay as flexible as you possibly can. Most of these kids, I can talk on our behalf here at UConn, they aren’t developed, we need to develop them here. That guy has to be very good at what he does, he needs to be able to relate to those kids and the kids need to have their trust in him that he has their best interest, but also make them make the games to be able to go out and be successful on the field.”

UP UNTIL TURN OF CENTURY, PLAYERS DIDN’T LIFT IN SEASON, HAS THAT PHILOSOPHY CHANGED IN RECENT YEARS?:

“I think it changes awhile ago. We lift twice a week for our guys that play and if they want to get in on another day they can. Our non-travel guys life three days a week. For the starters, you’re just trying to maintain what you have throughout the season. For the guys that don’t travel and redshirt, you’re trying to increase their strength so they can go into spring ball and they’ll be able to go and compete and give you a little more. The philosophy has changed over the year and it’s also changed in terms of the things you do. You want to get strong, but there are things like flexibility that goes with explosion and those sort of things.”

LOOK AT QB SITUATION, BRYANT GOING OUT WITH CONCUSSION, WHAT HAVE YOU TAKEN AWAY FROM THE TWO OF THEM AND MOVING FORWARD, WHAT HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT DAVID’S PERFORMANCE SO FAR THIS SEASON?:

“David [Pindell] came in, did a good job in preseason, won the job and went out there and didn’t perform as well as he would have liked to. We felt we needed to make a change, put Bryant out there, who’s done a good job and took advantage of that situation. What David has done, he’s gone out to make himself better and take advantage of reps as the second team guy. He’s gone out there the last two weeks and he did a good job this past weekend. We’ll see where we are at this week with what’s taken place, but whoever is in there, I expect them to go out and play well, lead our team. That’s what we tell our team here, regardless of what position it is, you’re one snap away from going in and playing. If your number gets called, make sure you’re ready and take advantage of all the reps you are getting in practice. I don’t know if that opportunity will come, but when it does, be ready so you can make your contribution and help the team win.”

THREE GAMES LEFT IN YOUR FIRST YEAR BACK, WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED MOST ABOUT THIS TEAM THIS YEAR?:

“They are working to give us everything they have. Any time there is a transition, it makes it tough. We changed the scheme offensively. We changed the scheme defensively. Maybe some of the things don’t fit the way you want, but these kids are doing the things we ask them to. We’ve come up a little bit short, but I expect them to give everything they have just like they have been for this game this week and the ones we have remaining as they work to build the culture and the program back to where it was when I left here in 2010. It’s going to be a lot of hard work, these guys are laying the groundwork, putting the foundation in so that it stands the test of time and we can put it back on good footing and we can accomplish the goals we want to accomplish as we move forward.”

MATT SCHONVISKY / SITE CREATOR