La. Tech's Skip Holtz Press Conference Transcript: UNT

[Harry]

“Looking at North Texas, I am really impressed with this football team and what they are doing on film right now. I start with their staff and I have great respect for Dan McCarney and the success he has had. He is a first class individual and he has done a good job of building that program at North Texas. You can see as he is getting into multi years that they are getting better and better fundamentally, recruiting wise and upgrading their talent. Right now, they are really playing well together as a football team.”

“When you look at them on offense with Mike Canales as their offensive coordinator, and I was the offensive coordinator the year he was at Arizona. He had a little quarterback at NC State named Phillip Rivers. He has developed some great talent. He is a great football coach with a good mind. I have had the opportunity to be around him a little bit in this business and I have great respect for him and Mike Simmonds, the offensive line coach, and Michael Grant, the wide receivers coach. I have a lot of history with a lot of guys on this staff on offense.”

“I am really impressed with what they are doing now. When you look at them as an offense, I would say balance is the key. They have had games where they have thrown for 300 yards and games where they run for 300 yards. I think they are playing really well right now as an offense and are doing some things to put up some yards and points on the board. They have a quarterback who is completing 68 percent of his passes. He is a third-year starter. He has an awful lot of experience and a great head on his shoulders.”

“Mike Simmonds’ offensive line returns four starters off last year’s team. They are playing really well together and you can see just the way they are communicating, turning back, picking up blitzes and protecting the quarterback.”

“Their running back is by committee. They have about three guys that carry the load with the ball for them. They are always keeping fresh guys in there at running back and then with wide receivers, they have some big-play receivers. I will talk a little bit more about (Brelan) Chancellor when I get to the special teams, but he is a big-play guy that they will put at receiver, in the back field and throw him the ball. They will throw him the ball as many different times as the can in many different situations. They have a very good, sound offensive scheme. I think they are very fundamentally sound and hard-nosed and a very physical group with an experienced quarterback.”

“When you look at them on defense and what (defensive coordinator) John Skladany has done with them defensively, you can see the progress they have made from the beginning of the season to where they are now. They are a very simple team in what they do in that they are a 4-3 based defense with quarter coverage. They have held their last two opponents to seven points. Defensively, they held Middle Tennessee to seven. They also held Tulane to seven, but Tulane had two pick-sixes for 14 points to win that game 24-21.”

“I think defensively they are really playing well. I talked about them being physical and fundamentally sound. As I said, Skladany is really doing an awfully good job with them on the defensive side of the ball. They play an awful lot of people. I do not think it is about one superstar as much as it is the power of the pack when you talk about them as a defensive football team.

“Statistically, they are a little bit gaudy when you look at them, especially in their last two conference games. One of the great things Conference USA does to try and get a good evaluation of the entire conference is they keep statistics of just conference games, not everyone we play because we have played such a wide variety of non-conference opponents. When you look at this defense, they are first in total defense, scoring defense, passing defense and first-down defense. When you look at what they are doing as a defensive football team, they are ranked in the top three in almost every statistical category from a conference play standpoint. I have really been impressed with what they have done defensively.”

“Coach McCarney has done a really good job of building this program up. I know Frank Wintrich, their strength coach, we were together at South Florida and I have great respect for him and the job he does and I have a lot of respect for this program. I think it is up and coming. I think they are in the same boat we are. They are excited about having the opportunity to play in Conference USA with where we are both trying to go with this program.”

“I think it will be a great challenge for us Saturday, but one we are looking forward to after having the opportunity to have an open date and get that fundamental work. Not only for the coaches itching to get back into game week and ready to play a game, but I think these players are pretty excited about getting back into the season. I do not think they want to go through another open date and some of the things we did fundamentally this week. We are really looking forward to the challenge, having the opportunity to be here at homecoming and for me, experience my first homecoming here at Louisiana Tech and we are excited about the week.”

- See more at: http://www.sportsnola.com/sports/local-sports-news/louisiana-tech-news/600759-louisiana-tech-weekly-press-conference-transcript-oct-14.html#sthash.JtcIesPg.dpuf

[LakeTravis]

Wow lol

A lot of praise

[NT03]

This should be a good game. I'm little worried with them having 2 weeks to prepare , but I sill think we get the win. Stoked about this road trip

[meangreenthirteen]

Seems like Skip is giving a lot more respect than some of the fans are:

http://imgur.com/1Lc75ia

[KRAM1]

Seems like Skip is giving a lot more respect than some of the fans are:

http://imgur.com/1Lc75ia

Ours or theirs?

[UNT90]

And he managed all that praise without saying La. Tech is modeling it's program after UNT.

Interesting...

[meangreenthirteen]

Ours or theirs?

Theirs. The LaTech board is rife with dismissive attitudes. The post I shared actually called our game "a battle to be the tallest pigmy".

[greenminer]

Do they know how to browse the web in Ruston?

I'm looking at our main unt.edu website and I see links to athletics, and a story about our Soccer team captain...front and center.

[greenminer]

Okay, further reading: only a couple dismissive posts. Most seem on edge about this game. "As Dixon goes, so do we..." seems to be a common theme between both boards.

If you look at nt's record so far this season and how competitive they have been, i dont see is beating them. It may not even be close. That's reality talking not substance abuse.

Someone also corrects the "no athletics link" poster.

[Christopher Walker]

Do they know how to browse the web in Ruston?

I'm looking at our main unt.edu website and I see links to athletics, and a story about our Soccer team captain...front and center.

I skimmed through their university's website yesterday.... yikes. That sucker needs major work done. Looks like it was made 10+ years ago.

[Marty]

This should be a good game. I'm little worried with them having 2 weeks to prepare , but I sill think we get the win. Stoked about this road trip

We had 2 weeks to prepare for Tulane & we came out flat. Finally woke up the 2nd half and made a game of it. I hope La Tech comes out flat also but we've put the game away by the time they realize it.

[greenit]

I would not be surprised with a low scoring game with both teams trying to establish the run game. They have a very good run game and a below average/bad run defense. We have slightly below average numbers in terms of run defense. Two coaches that both like to run.

This could be an ugly, not very exciting game to watch, but I sure am pulling for the guys in green to come away with a win regardless of style points. LA Tech has to feel like this is darn near a must win game, at home.

We have shown an uncanny skill for losing on the road. This will be a tough test. If we can somehow come away with the win, we may not look back. If we lose, we immediately go right back behind the 8 ball.