Nov. 3, 2003

Tulsa, Oklahoma -

On last week's road win at UTEP:

It was a great win for us as a football team. I was really proud of the way our football team played. It was well-documented in terms of the struggles that we have had on the road in the past, but I thought our guys were focused in the game, came out, and played well. We took a 21-7 halftime lead and then they got it back to 21-21 in the middle of the third quarter, but I thought our guys really responded well. A big play in the game was Eric Richardson's kickoff return out to the 45-yard line and then we hit the wheel route to him off the fake reverse down to the one-yard line, then score with Caleb on the second-down play. I thought that was a key point in the game. We came back and made it 35-28 and then we close it out with three unanswered touchdowns. Again, I was really pleased with the way our team played. I think we are continuing to make progress Are we there yet? No we aren't. We are still in the journey stage of this entire operation. We continue to improve on a weekly basis and we are going to have to continue to improve on a weekly basis to play the kind of football and win these three games down the stretch starting with Rice.

Have you determined who your scout team wishbone quarterback is in preparing for Rice?

We are working on it right now. It is obviously very difficult to simulate the wishbone in practice so we will probably take either a wide receiver or a defensive back. I am not quite as fleet a foot as I used to be, so they probably won't use me this week. It is a challenge to simulate in practice the speed and all the things, the different combinations, that you are going to get from a team like Rice. We will definitely take a guy that we feel like can run around and be the rabbit so to speak. Monroe (Nichols) is in on the list of candidates sound

How does 3-3-5 match up against Rice's offense? Is there anything interesting about that?

I think it matches up well to most everything people are doing these days. The challenge is that we don't see the wishbone other than this one time. The biggest challenge is configuring whatever defensive scheme you employ whether it is a 4-2-5 or an under defense or a 3-3-5 stack like we have here, taking it and configuring it to match the wishbone. One of the keys in this game is that they are throwing the football extremely well. They are not a one-dimensional football team. I have been in situations, teams I have coached, where we played wishbone teams that all they could do is run the wishbone. Shoot, we put nine or 10 guys up there and said don't worry about the pass. In this situation, Rice is throwing the ball extremely well. Kyle (Herm) is throwing the ball as good as any wishbone quarterback I have ever seen. In some respects, they hold you hostage with the run and then get one-on-one coverage on the outside and make some plays with the receivers.

What area your thoughts about winning on the road last week and snapping a long road losing streak?

I think it is big just because of all that has been made of it. We really don't change our approach a lot in terms of playing on the road. It is kind of like I told our players on Saturday, "The only difference is we stay at the Marriott instead of the Adam's Mark and we're going to wear white jerseys instead of blue today. We still have to go play the game I thought our guys responded well in terms of that. We try to keep our routine very similar to what we would do in a home game situation by that I mean -- we practice at home and we try to get as much work as we can, some teams like to go and walk around the stadium. I think we talked about this last week. And we will do that this week because we are going to leave a little bit earlier. We will still practice here then we will go walk around Rice stadium a little bit. The bottom line is, when you go and play, you have to be ready to play whether it is at home at Skelly or Rice Stadium, the Sun Bowl or wherever you might be. But it is big just because of all that has been made of it. I didn't think going into the week, last week, that we hadn't played bad football on the road. We played some good football teams. As evidenced by the fact that Arkansas is continuing to win, Minnesota is continuing to win; Boise State is continuing to win. I wasn't really concerned with the fact that we hadn't won a game on the road. I was more concerned with the fact we just needed to win another game.

What are your impressions of Rice?

I think Rice is a very talented team and they are very, very disciplined and that is going to force us to be disciplined ourselves and play great assignment football. I know there is going to be a lot said about defending the wishbone, but they are very, very good defensive team also in terms of being assignment sound and making plays on that side of the ball. I am impressed with their team. Ken Hatfield's teams are always going to be extremely well-coached. They have a great staff. They don't make mistakes. You have to beat them, because they are not going to beat themselves.

On James Kilian being named WAC Offensive Player of the Week:

Just about every week he's been nominated, but the problem has been everyone in the WAC has been playing so well. To me, it is a team award especially in this past game because we set our offense up with great field position with Kedrick's interception that we converted into a touchdown on first down. We set up our offense again with a great punt return, a 20-yard return, which gives us the ball on the 49-yard line. James scores in one play. Again, I thought James operated the offense extremely well on Saturday night. He was responsible for five touchdowns-three with his own feet and two through the air. What I really liked about James was after the interception the way he approached everything. He wasn't cautious in anyway. He continued to be aggressive and make plays. I am really happy for James. He embodies everything that our football program is about. He is very unselfish. He is not concerned with who gets the credit. He is only concerned with getting the opportunity to win the football game.

On James becoming starting quarterback during two-a-days:

I met with all the quarterbacks because I wanted them to know in particular I guess because of my background and everything, that it was going to be a wide open race and that I didn't have any preconceived ideas. You know, I remember him as being maybe a little bit soft spoken, very respectful, very intelligent, taking everything in. You could kind of see that he was processing all the information. As I was trying to get a read on him, I think he probably was trying to get a read on me also because of the things that he had gone through. I am really happy for James because I think that he has worked himself into this position that he is in right now. And I think that his teammates see that. I think they understand it. If you want to put one word or one tag on James, it is unselfish. I think his coaches see that. I think that because of the way he operates, the way he conducts himself, the way he handles his business, he gets a lot of respect. He is a guy who isn't concerned with who gets the credit. He is guy that is concerned with putting himself in position to be as good as he can be so that the team can win the game. He is a hard-worker. He comes to work every day with an attitude of I know I am playing pretty good football right now, but what can I do to get better. What things can I improve upon this week to help our team win football games? One of his greatest characteristic is that he is a tremendous worker. He comes from a rural background where hard work and those things are a daily part of life. I have said it before, I have three sons, but if I had a daughter, I would want him knocking on the door. He is that kind of guy. He is tremendous person and takes care of his business academically. He is a 3.4 student and never has any social challenges in terms of things that come across my desk or any of those things. He's great.

What does James have that you look for in a quarterback?

He has a lot of characteristics that you look for in a quarterback. The one that really comes to mind though is his toughness. He is very physically tough and he is also very mentally tough. If something doesn't go or the way we want it go (i.e. the interception the other night), it doesn't get him down. His chin doesn't hit his chest. He realizes he made a mistake and he wants to go out and rectify it. In modern football, with the speed and athleticism of the defenses out there today you have to have a guy who can make some plays with his feet and James can do that as evidenced with the runs he made the other night. What it does for us offensively is that it allows taking advantage of his abilities and making people defend the quarterback. If the guy is just a pure pocket passer without the threat of running the football whether it is a little speed option, whether it is a zone read play, whether it's a quarterback draw, or whether it's throwing the ball back to the quarterback like we have done on a couple of occasions, then you have become a little bit easier to defend. So, I think that James and his abilities make it tougher on defenses in terms of preparation for our entire offense and then you know. Again, I think he possesses the physical ability to throw the football well. I thought he really threw the ball well the other night and really put the ball on the money in a couple of critical situations, the one to Eric (Richardson) when it was 21-21. He couldn't have thrown that thing from five yards any better than he did from 45 yards. He put the ball right on the money against pretty tight coverage. That was a great throw. You know one of the hardest passes for a quarterback to throw is when a guy is wide open and he put the ball right on the money to Caleb (Blankenship) for the other touchdown. A third and 22 situation where puts the ball right on the money to Romby (Bryant) and we go down and score again. I think he possesses all the attributes you like in a quarterback. He is tough, he is bright, he is a hard worker. He can throw the football; he can run with the football. To me, he is the total package.