Aug. 30, 2010

Tulsa, Oklahoma - The University of Tulsa football team is preparing for its opening game of the 2010 campaign at East Carolina Sept. 5. Head Coach Todd Graham sat down with select members of the media to discuss the nationally televised matchup with the Pirates.

Opening Statement:
I appreciate you guys being here. Naturally we're excited. It's gotten on us in a hurry. Our guys have had a great camp and have worked extremely hard. I feel really good about our football team. Our guys are a close-knit bunch. I feel like we've gotten better every day of camp. We start our first game on the road. We talked to our guys all camp about the importance of being road warriors. Starting off with the defending two-time conference champion is a tall order. Our guys know the challenge ahead, and we're excited about the opportunity to head out to East Carolina. I think it's going to be a great game-day atmosphere with Coach Ruffin (McNeill) and the new staff - a lot of new excitement. I think they've got, from what I understand, a sold-out crowd and a new end-zone facility. Our guys know what a challenge that is, and I'm excited about getting our guys on the field and going at it. We're excited about the opportunity and looking forward to this weekend.

On not being able to play a lesser opponent in the first game of the season:
You take the hand that's dealt to you. Any schedule you ever have, there's always things you like about it and things you don't like about it. I can tell you that Conference USA is extremely competitive week in and week out. There's not a team that can't beat the other team. The hardest thing in college football is winning on the road, and we're starting on the road against East Carolina, the two-time defending conference champion. That's a tall order. With that comes great opportunity, so we don't worry too much about things we can't control. We're focused on going to East Carolina and making sure that we are a disciplined team when we get there. It's going to be a very hostile environment, we know that. Usually early in the year, teams beat themselves. We're going to make sure we don't beat ourself with stupid penalties and we're going to take care of the football and make sure we play disciplined, Tulsa football.

This is the fourth year in a row that you guys have started the season on the road, and your team came out with wins the first three years. What makes your team prepared to play on the road those first games?
Well, I guess it's because we play all the time to start the season on the road. Matter of fact, if you wouldn't have mentioned that, I wouldn't even have known that. How we go about business is we go about preparing for each opponent. Right off the get-go, you're going to be right in conference play in a critical game. There's no question this is a very critical game for us. To be on the road in college football is the hardest thing to do. We don't give much thought to being prepared. Every season this is a new team and I'm anxious to see how we respond.

How do you prepare for an East Carolina team that lost a lot of starters, a lot of seniors and has a new coaching staff?
Well they have a lot of great players. Dwayne Harris is probably as good a player as we have in our whole league. He's probably as good of a return specialist as there is in the country. They've got great skill players on offense. They have the (Darryl) Freeney kid coming back. The running backs, the (Jonathan) Williams kid and the (Giavanni) Ruffin kid. They're as good of running backs, as good of receivers as we're going to play against all year long. They seem to be settling in on a quarterback. Their offensive line are 6'6", 330 pounds so they've got great talent. They've got one tight end, I think he's 6'7", 260. They've always had great defensive talent. I'd put their corners up against anybody in the country. They've got really good personnel. There's no question that they're going to be a talented team and a big, physical team. I know coach McNeill, I've got a lot of respect for him. They're going to do the things that they've done defensively in the past. I think what you've seen them do at Tech, the offense speaks for itself. It's been No. 1 in the Big 12 and one of the best in the country over the last several years. I look for them to do the same things even though it's hard to prepare because you don't know. Everybody is going to have special things that they do. Again, the key in this game for us is working on us and making sure that you don't beat yourself. You can overprepare and try to prepare for everything and not be able to execute anything. Good coaches and good programs are going to do what they do and that's what we're going to do. It's a little blinding going into the first game with a new staff and all that because you don't know exactly what the wrinkles will be, but for the most part I look for them to do what they've done in the past to win.

On playing a game on a non-Saturday:
There are only a couple games this year where we're not on Saturday. We just back everything up from gameday and have the same preparation as we always have. It won't be that difficult for this week, but it will be for the next week because it actually puts us a practice short from what Bowling Green is going to have to prepare for us. The short weeks are challenging, but an opportunity to play on national television to start off the season to showcase our program is well worth that opportunity and that inconvenience.

On being an 8.5-point favorite on the road against an ECU team that is dedicating their stadium prior to the contest:
That's the first I've heard of that. I don't really look at any of those things like that. I think that's kind of silly in my opinion. These guys have won back-to-back conference championships. I think any coach in our league would tell you that personnel-wise, they're going to have as good a personnel as anybody we play. I would say Houston and East Carolina last year had the best personnel that we played against. Much of that skill is back. I just hope we can end up one point ahead. It's going to be a big challenge. I don't know how you can have somebody as an underdog that's won the conference championship in back-to-back years.

On ECU possibly developing into a rivalry game:
I think our kids have a lot of respect for their program. They are the two-time defending back-to-back conference championships. We felt like they came in here in '08 and took it. We turned the ball over and all that stuff, but they were a very physical football team. I think they've been the catalyst for defense in our conference. If you look at the amount of players they've put in the NFL and the type of defense they've played against the type of opponents they've played - Virginia Tech and people like that - they are a very physical football team and a very good football team. I think there's definitely a healthy respect and our players know that East Carolina represents the best in our league for the last two years. Our guys are very excited and very motivated, and it has developed into being somewhat of a rivalry for us because they are the team to beat. If you look across to the East Division and in the conference, they are the team to beat right now. On our side it's Houston, and on their side it's been East Carolina. We've got a lot of respect for them and know that going into their place is going to be a challenge. I think there's some really difficult places to play - Central Florida is one of them, I think UTEP is another, and I think that of East Carolina with this addition that they're putting in. I've been there before and I'm very familiar with their program. When I was at West Virginia we played them and it's going to really change the game-day atmosphere there.

On where the offensive line is right now:
Like I've said all along, I think Coach (Spencer) Leftwich has been a great addition to our staff. He's done a great job of developing those guys fundamentally. The strength of our team I feel like is our offense. We've got a lot of experience over there at the skill positions. East Carolina has been known for their defensive prowess, especially their defensive linemen. So we'll be challenged early, but I believe in our kids. The guys have developed and gotten better. We have a couple injuries there with Jared Grigg and Jake Alexander, but I've been really pleased with their development. We're going to have to continue to get better every single week. I'm anxious to see them get on the field and get after it. I've got a lot of confidence in them.

On how quarterback G.J. Kinne will play this week:
Coach (Chad) Morris has done a tremendous job of developing him in his second year. There's no substitute for experience. What we talk to him about is just operate the offense, manage the game. Don't try to do too much, don't try to make something out of nothing and take care of the football. That's the key in this game is not having stupid penalties and taking care of the football. We do that and I think our guys will be successful.

On the excitement of Coach Morris going into his first college football game:
I've got my hands full working to try and get the defense prepared and we've worked and met and gone over our game plans and stuff like that. Coach is calm, cool and collected, and very poised. He's a guy with great character, and I've got tremendous belief in him. As any situation, I told him to just go out there and do it like you've always done it and don't put too much pressure on yourself and he's not. I've been very impressed with how he's handled everything. He's very meticulous in his planning and how he goes about doing things. He'll do a great job.

On whether he felt butterflies in his first collegiate game with West Virginia:
I don't know. About four games into it, I couldn't believe I was that nervous because football is football. Naturally it is a different level, there's no question about that. I think some of the things, the knowledge of our offense and what he brings. (Coach Morris) has been on the ground floor developing this offense and just knowing what you're doing and how to attack. The challenge of taking the players that we have and getting the ball in the hands of your best guys on their less guys is the whole idea of what we're doing. It's not that complicated. I remember when I went from coaching against Plano West and Plano East to coaching against Miami and Virginia Tech and those guys. No question it's a different level, but the big thing is just being able to focus on the job at hand and adapting to your players. There's a lot of reasons why I've looked at the high school ranks for guys. It helps us in recruiting and also they have similar philosophies that I have. I think the key is being adaptive. Being able to adapt to your personnel is big and that's something I think is a great strength of his and a great strength of our staffs to be able to do. I'm not worried about Coach Morris one iota. I told him I knew just about everything about him. Everybody is asking me all the time about how he is going to react and all that, I think he's going to be fine. Anytime you're taking on a new challenge, the big thing I think is his poise and his character and his belief. Preparation is the key to being successful and just knowing who you are and what you do and how you do it and don't deviate from that.

On how to get G.J. confidence early in the game:
You don't want to get your quarterback hit, that's for sure. We've got a pretty specific plan about what we're doing. I really don't want to say what we're going to do. I think that his development throughout camp has been one of understanding the offense a lot better, doing a great job with his reads and just being a lot more familiar because it's different. Your first time out there things look a little blurry and it's hard to pick up coverages and things like that. He is really at a different level than where he was last year and I've got a lot of confidence in how he's going to handle things. It's going to be a big challenge right off the get-go because you're going to play against probably as good a defensive football team that we're going to play against. A team that's been the best defense in our league. They've put a lot of pressure on us in years past. He'll be tested early and often, but I really like his poise and how he's gone through camp. You know how that is, you'll find out when we get out there. Good things are going to happen and sometimes bad things are going to happen. You just have to continue to play the first snap. The key in this first game is don't beat yourself. That's not having stupid penalties, it's not getting procedure penalties and things like that - penalties in the kicking game. I think the kicking game is real critical because they have very explosive returners and so do we so that will be a big matchup. The key is going to be penalties and takeaways.

On the emphasis being placed on this game:
I think it's really important. It's your first game, but it's also a conference game. It's a conference game that has a lot of implications. In this conference, it's extremely competitive and you don't want to start off with a loss. It's a big game no question about it. We put a lot more emphasis on being conference champions than anything else. Naturally this being the first game, and being a conference game, and being the two-time defending champion we're playing, this is a big, big game for us.

On the emphasis placed on ball security after having numerous turnovers in the past two matchups with ECU:
I don't know if we can emphasize it anymore than we have. I think it boils down to a couple factors. One is not making careless decisions, protecting the football and understanding that all we have to do is execute one play on offense to score. Be patient and make good decisions with the football. Taking care of the football has been our No. 1 focus on offense. The other side of it is that many of those turnovers that you're talking about are forced errors. If you want to beat East Carolina you have to go into East Carolina and out-physical them. You look at any game, that's going to be the key for us is we have to go there and we have to play extremely physical up front on both sides of the ball, and then we have to take care of the football and make sure that we're making good decisions. Anytime we're changing possession in special teams, anytime we're throwing the football or handing the ball off we have to make sure that we're taking care and guarding the football because that's going to be the key in this game, there's no question about it. You have to take care of the football and not have stupid penalties. That's going to be the big thing for us.