2020 UTSA Football
Post-Practice Quotes
Sept. 21, 2020
Head Coach Jeff Traylor
On receiving votes in the top 25 for the first time in program history …
"We talked back in the summer, with social distancing and COVID, would this be an opportunity or be adversity? We challenged ourselves that most schools would not be able to pull this off, but if we could, the more of them that didn't play, the more attention we got, the better chance we got to put our brand — the 2-1-0, the triangle of toughness. Did we know we were going get three nationally televised games in a row? No, but we put ourselves in position. ESPN, ESPN and CBS. I'm really happy for my kids. When the season was started we were ranked 75 out of 76 and I'm not even sure UMass was going to play, so I guess that would make us the worst team in the country. So it's a lot better than we were for sure."
On improving to 2-0 with the win last Saturday …
"At the end of the day, 2-0, 0-2, 1-1, we don't talk about that much at all in our program. We want to be the very best we could be today. We want to have the best practice we could today. Whether we had beat Texas State or not, or if we had beat Stephen F. Austin, or not, it doesn't define who we are as people. We have to get better as a football team. Y'all watched the same game I did and you know we have plenty to work on. We're better today than we were yesterday and that's what matters to me."
On winning the fourth quarter …
"One, our energy on the sideline got a lot better. We just gave them a new nickname. We are calling them the 'Pilla Killas,' those are players on our team that help uphold our culture pillars. They bring a lot of juice on the sideline and they had us going in the fourth quarter. It started with Sincere (McCormick's) great run, had a great block by Josh Oatis on that play. Then you had Frank (Harris) on a quarterback draw, we had a great block by B.J. (Daniels) on that play. Then you had a great punt by Lucas (Dean) in that quarter. Clarence Hicks with a strip, Jamal Ligon with a recovered fumble. Those were all huge plays in the fourth quarter. What I challenged them on was, it's kind of like when you go to a track meet and you watch a guy run the mile and he's in last place and then that last 100 yards, he just sprints past and everyone claps and goes crazy. I never really think you should do that. Because if you guys were running hard the whole time he wouldn't be that far behind. So obviously, we had a little juice left in our tank or we wouldn't have been able to surge like that and that's not perfect effort. Perfect effort is the first play is as important as the last play. But obviously, I'm proud of my kids and proud of winning the ball game in the fourth quarter."
On the short-yardage offensive package to clinch the game in the fourth …
"It's one of the things that's kind of gotten overlooked in this game. You remember how bad our four-minute offense was against Texas State. We were at second and five and couldn't close it out. We really worked hard at that this week. We call it the Low Zone, obviously a short-yardage package. A Low-Zone area play for us. Myles Benning comes in the game and does a great job blocking on that. Low (Lowell Narcisse), those six carries, everybody in the building knows what's going to happen out there. He just willed it through."
On freshman linebacker Jamal Ligon's first career start …
"It just shows the kind of kid he is and the program he came from. He wasn't perfect but he gave perfect effort. He'll get better every week. He just shows up. He's been that way since the day he got here. The older guys knew him immediately. He just belongs because he prepares so hard, works so hard and brings his energy level every day. Great people, great program and the sky is the limit for Jamal."
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