Tulsa Football Coach Steve Kragthorpe

Harry · September 13, 2005

http://tulsahurricane.collegesports.com/sp.../091205aad.html

Tulsa Football Coach Steve Kragthorpe Press Conference Quotes

Tulsa travels south of the Oklahoma border to play North Texas

Sept. 12, 2005

Tulsa, Oklahoma -

Steve Kragthorpe Press Conference Quotes on Sept. 12

Opening Statement: I am very proud of the way our team played Saturday. I thought they played with great effort in a very challenging environment. You have to give a lot of credit to the University of Oklahoma and their coaching staff and players. They made plays at the end to beat us. Our team responded extremely well to the challenging week of practice that we put them through and they played hard through the course of the game.

I think I saw a team that was disappointed about what transpired throughout the game. And again, we felt like going into the game that we could win. We knew we were going to have to play some good football on the road in order to do it, just like we are this week going to Denton.

Again, I thought there were no moral victories. They were disappointed that we did not win the football game they knew that we went toe-to-toe with a good football team, and had opportunities to win the game. So, I would say that they were disappointed, but not discouraged. We can take some positive things out of this football game in terms of the ways that we improved for week one to week two and like I said after the game on Saturday we need to continue to make significant improvements each week to put ourselves in position to hopefully secure our first victory.

How big of a leap was it from week one to week two for your team? Does it seem like a vast improvement? Well, I think it was pretty significant. But again look at Minnesota and what they did to Colorado State. Minnesota has a very good football team, and I think that they are going to have a fine season. They are well-coached and have good players. We did not come out and play the sisters of the poor in week one and then go to Norman and play them in week two. We played a very good football team in week one and diagnosed some things we knew we needed to improve upon, such as taking care of the football, minimizing turnovers, which for about 55 minutes of game we did a good job of that. But again as we approach this week we knew that there were some things that we were going to have to improve upon to compete and to put ourselves in position to beat Oklahoma and I think we did that.

On the match up problems Garrett Mills presented to Oklahoma: Garrett Mills is a very good football player. Again, you have heard me say on numerous occasions the thing that Garrett provides us is not only his athleticism, but his ability to think on his feet, so we are able to move him around and put him in several positions and situations to try and create those match ups for Garrett as we do for a lot of the players on our football team. The thing that you saw in the Oklahoma game is once they finally found him they did try and double him and we were still able to get the ball to him. One time they tripled him and we went somewhere else with the ball. We are going to continue to find ways to get Garrett the ball and if they want to try and minimize his impact on the game then we are going to have the ability to get the ball to other players and that is the team concept, really the concept of playing offense.

What are your impressions of UNT running backs Patrick Cobbs and Jamario Thomas? They are both very good players. If you look at the statistics that they have been able to put up in each of the last of the two years -- they have a great one-two punch and we have certainly played some good tailbacks in the first two games of the season in Laurence Maroney and Adrian Peterson. But as I look at North Texas they have more depth in their offensive backfield than any team we have played thus far. It is going to be a real challenge for us because again they have a great one-two punch. When either of them is in the game they are able to take the ball and do some significant things with it. You cannot relax when one of them is out of the game, because they have another guy that can go in there that is just as effective and I anticipate maybe seeing some things this week where they put both of them in the game at the same time.

Can you reflect on your time as an assistant coach at North Texas? I met Coach Schultz there and Spencer (Leftwich) and I worked together there in 1994-95 and then I left to go to Boston College for the 1996 season, but that was a great experience. Our youngest son, Nick, who turns 11 on Wednesday, was born while we lived in Denton. So we have a lot of fond memories there. Denton is one of my wife's favorite places that we have lived. There are a lot of great people there and I look back on those times as fun times in my coaching career.

How did Paul Smith come out of the game on Saturday? He came out fine. He got bumped and bruised a little bit, but heck that's the nature or playing quarterback. I thought he managed the game well. He avoided the big hits. You're going to get knocked around a little bit, but that comes with the position.

You can't block them all, and Brent (Venables) was going to bring a bunch of them throughout the course of the game. We knew that there were going to be some match ups we could create for all of our players if they were going to employ that type of strategy. When you are playing a blitzing aggressive defense you know you're going to get the ball out, but the expense is you're going to get knocked around a little bit. We made some big plays versus the blitz. It's often easier to complete passes against the blitz, than it is against people who are going to play two deep or three deep zones because the holes are tough to find in those situations. But when you create some match ups like we did for Garrett or some of our other players throughout the course of the game, and we can get the ball out to them in a pretty expedient fashion, you are going to be able to make some plays.

What about Paul Smith's performance? I was really pleased with Paul's decision-making process throughout the course of the game. The measure of a quarterback in my opinion, is when you get knocked down, can you dust yourself off, get back in the huddle, and go snap the ball again, and play with great proficiency and move the sticks on third down? Because that's what it is really all about. And Paul made a lot of plays on third down with guys draped on him, or scrambling out, and getting some yardage from a run standpoint. He did a good job, but particularly in the second, third, and fourth quarters at keeping his eyes up and getting the ball down the field. That's something we talked to him about on the sideline and he made that adjustment from the first quarter. Again, I thought he played well, no question about it. He completed almost 70% of his passes and did some very good things in terms of pulling the ball and running it after they were dropping the coverage in the empty backfield situations. A lot of times people say you don't necessarily have to call a quarterback draw, we don't necessarily call a quarterback draw and it might just happen because of the way the defense is configured.

Paul is a very good competitor. He's tough, he understands what the game is all about, he's been around it his whole life and he's gotten knocked around before, maybe not as significantly or by as big of guys as the other day. But no, I wasn't surprised at all by the way that Paul performed. I knew that he would thrive in that kind of environment, and great competitors usually do and we saw some guys step up and really play some good football. Guys like Paul, guys like Garrett, guys like Nick Bunting, and I thought Roy Roberts did a great job for his first start, and so I was impressed with the way our guys responded.

Your thoughts on the performance of the offensive line: I'm pleased with the way our offensive line is playing right now. They've done an excellent job of protecting our quarterback. Paul did get knocked down a couple times, but our theory is we're going to send people out in the pass route and make them cover. They can always bring one more than you can block. But again, I think our offensive line is playing very well right now together. They're protecting our passer or they're opening holes, and we played two pretty good defensive fronts. Against two quality fronts, I think that our guys played pretty good football up front and they are starting to really gel and mold together, which is important for those five guys.

On the defensive improvement from week 1 to week 2: I think we tackled a little bit better, and like I said we were able to get the runs moving North. We had a good game plan. We knew going into the game that we needed to limit the things that Adrian (Peterson) could do and his impact in the football game. We stacked the box a little bit. And we said that Rhett Bomar is going to have to beat us, and we didn't think he could do that, so that was really our thought process going into the game, is to take him out of the game. And if they could beat us throwing the football, then they would win. I think for three quarters we did a nice job with that, it's tough to bring that Peterson down, because he's a good football player, and he has shown that against very, very good teams.

Can these two games against quality opponents boost your team's confidence? Well, we haven't won a game yet, and that is something that we need to do. Obviously it's going to be a challenge again this week to go down to North Texas, and play them, because they've got a very good team. They're a team that has won the conference championship each of the last four years, and gone to a bowl game each of the last four years. They have a long winning streak in terms of their conference record, and it is certainly going to be a challenge for us. But, we have 11 challenging games this year. Everybody we're going to play is a good football team, there's no question about it. We are going to play some teams in Conference USA that are every bit as good as Minnesota, and Oklahoma, and North Texas. So it is going to be a challenge. You know you could just press rewind and run the same tape every week, I'll just put a different shirt on for you. It's going to be a challenge every week - that's the nature of the schedule we have, and that's the nature of the league that we're going to play in. We're going to play good teams every week.

Talk about North Texas on offense: I think you have to be real concerned with them throwing the ball over the top. I'm really impressed with their quarterback. For his first start he was really efficient. He was very accurate. He put the ball on the guys where they could be runners after the catch, and threw the ball down the field well. Quinn is a very good receiver he can make plays, catching the football at the highest point, I have seen him go up numerous times, and go grab that ball out of the jaws of the defense. They are a very, very good at throwing the football. I think in terms of throwing the football they're as good as any team we have faced so far. So that is something we are going to have to be very cognizant of is their ability to make plays down the field.

On Steve Craver's performance: Steven is starting to come on, and I was pleased with the way he played in the game. He did some very good things throughout the course of the game, and made some big plays. The interception was obviously a big play that we were able to convert into points right before halftime. The sack on the first play of the second half was a huge play, gosh that ball looked like a boomerang, it bounced right back to Rhett. Steven made some big plays for us in the game. I think the challenge for him is to continue to be a more consistent player, which we are asking of all of our players. But I am pleased with the progress we've made so far.

On Brad DeVault's play as your kicker: Bradley DeVault has been a big weapon. There's no question, when you get down into that area of the field, you want to be able to put points on the board. One of the things you heard me talk about after the game is that we want to score touchdowns. But, it is good to know that Brad is playing the way he's playing. I thought he had a good rhythm going in to the game and was really comfortable in pre-game warm-up, and that is why we decided to go ahead with that 52 yarder in that situation. Boy, he banged that thing right through. We know we had a little breeze, but it was a good kick. I think it would have been good from about 60. It was a good smooth kick. He didn't try to jump on it, and he's had a little bit of a tendency on the long ones to try and jump on it. But he did a good job of being real smooth and had good rhythm on that kick, and that's big when you know you can get some points that way, no doubt.

greenminer · September 13, 2005

They are a very, very good at throwing the football. I think in terms of throwing the football they're as good as any team we have faced so far. So that is something we are going to have to be very cognizant of is their ability to make plays down the field.

rinse and repeat, please. I'm bumping this baby to see if anyone else caught that.

-gm

emmitt01 · September 13, 2005

In a way he's right. We are efficient in the passing game and, yes, even dangerous.....as soon as Danny gets comfortable back there. We're a run first, second and third team. While that may seem and look boring it also lulls teams to sleep and allows us to hit them for big gains through the air. If you hit for touchdowns on 3 out of the 15 passes you throw in a game doesn't that make you dangerous through the air? That's 20% I think we could get to that point this season.