2020 UTSA Football
Media Roundtable
Sept. 28, 2020
Head Coach Jeff Traylor
On Frank Harris' injury …
"Best news possible. Knee sprain, a game time decision."
On planning an offense without Harris …
"Planning around both possibilities. They both have to do well, and we will do what those guys can do. If Frank is 100 percent, we will go with him on Saturday, and if not, then Josh (Adkins) will go."
On quarterback reps in practice and how it will go this week …
"We always have a guy that goes with the ones and a guy that goes with the twos. We will always have a Low Zone package, as well. That is how we will split them up again this week."
On the mood of the team with a 3-0 record …
"The kids are excited. We have a long way to go. There is a lot of stuff out there that we didn't do well. Winning is the best deodorant ever created. We can cover up a lot of stuff that we stink at. The kids are excited about being there. That is how you get better, by practicing. We've got some stuff we have to fix. We did not run the ball very well, our defense was out there way too long, and we have got to get that fixed."
On early impressions of UAB …
"You can see why they have won a lot of ball games. They have a fantastic coach. Bill (Clark) does a great job. They have got really, really good players and they execute. You can tell they have been winning for a long time, just tell by the way their kids play, they are used to winning."
On the offensive performance against Middle Tennessee …
"We had six three-and-outs. That is very disheartening, in critical situations in the fourth quarter. We just couldn't run the football. It was the perfect storm. Some of those RPOs (run-pass options) we had the play blocked exactly right, and the read said 'throw it' so we threw it. If we had handed it, Sincere (McCormick) would have had it really hard. Some of it was just them whooping our tails, and some of it was just missed assignments. We have got to get that better. Our defense is on the field too long, but our kids did score 37 points, and I know, being an offensive guy, you never feel like you did enough, no matter what it is. It is just part of the game."
On the shuffle of the offensive line with the return of Kevin Davis …
"Kevin (Davis) is a really good player, and he is a veteran. He has played a long time, and it is the best way to motivate young men. I have told this story before. When I was a head basketball coach, I was listening to Bobby Knight's speak one time, and I asked him what it was that made his kids play so hard. He made the comment that B.O.B., and I asked him what that meant. He said 'Butt On Bench.' It is the only way that really motivates young men, and we are just trying to move some kids around and get their attention. Let them know that if they don't play well, the next guy up will get a chance."
On the benefit of moving Spencer Burford to left tackle …
"I just felt like he looked more comfortable at left tackle, more of his natural position. We are just trying to do what is best for Spencer. He didn't play real well in the game at right tackle, and he just wasn't himself, in my opinion. He never complained, he is a great kid and a local from here in San Antonio. We are just trying to do what is best for Spencer."
On Josh Adkins' performance on Friday night …
"He missed a couple throws, but he bounced back. There are not many guys in the country who can run a two-minute drill like he did with one timeout and 40 seconds. First play, when we turned the linebacker loose, they ran a nice little stunt right to his face and he never flinched. He stood right there and threw a bullet right on the sideline. His leadership skills, he has been there. He is a super kid. Him and Frank (Harris), both, I cannot say enough good things about those two people, and I know you guys are around (them) so you get to see that those guys really are what I say they are. Some people might believe it is just coach talk, but everybody on this screen (Zoom call) has dealt with both those kids, and you know what fantastic humans they both are."
On conditioning for the second half …
"The score right before halftime changed the momentum a little bit. We went right back down and answered. We did a great job of saving our timeouts and that gave us a little time to go back down the field. We answered back there, but they came back out. We talk about the middle eight quite a bit. The middle eight being the last four minutes of the second quarter and the first four minutes of the third quarter. At moments, we have been really good in those times, but they scored three straight drives right there right before halftime and two to start the third quarter. I attribute that to our lack of running game. Our defense was winded and tired. Their play count was high, and I think that hurt us in regards to our conditioning. We are trying to play our way into shape, and we are not quite there yet."
On the defensive performance overall …
"They play very hard. You can tell they really want to please Coach (Tyrone) Nix, and I am thrilled with their effort. We have to get better at playing the deep ball. They were the first team that has been able to run the ball on us. That surprised us. We really felt good about our interior. Our defensive line did not play as good as they usually do. I expect them to play better, but we have to get better at playing the deep ball as well. We had another situation where we had two guys on a receiver and he went up and made a play and we didn't. We have a lot of stuff to clean up, all of us do. That would pretty much be my summary of our defense so far."
On cornerback Tariq Woolen playing with a cast on …
"We almost didn't let him play. He didn't run real well in practice carrying that big thing (cast) around. We didn't know if he was going to catch the ball or tackle it, so we weren't sure we were going to let him play. The interception was phenomenal in itself. Then how about when the running back got loose and he ran him down. He tried to grab him with his club and when he realized he couldn't, he switched hands and got him with the other hand and pulled him down. We had more plays from guys with casts on than I have ever seen in my life. Peter Gray probably had the play of the game. It hasn't been talked about much, but the play of the game was the block on the field goal, the extra point. It totally changed the whole game. Then they had to start going for two. We have more casts out there than most hospitals do, but they all showed up Friday night."
On adjusting practice due to injuries …
"You have to use your common sense. That is the hard part about this being a new staff. We are behind to begin with. It is just tough. I'm not complaining, but you have to be very smart, but we were only in helmets last night and how good can you get at football in pajamas? It's tough, but what good is it to get them all banged up and then they can't play on Saturday? it is a fine line we are walking right now, but I would rather be walking that line and banged up and frustrated at 3-0 than I would beat up and frustrated at 0-3."
On pushing expectations …
"We really don't get into it much. I know y'all are getting tired of hearing my culture talk, but that is what we live. We can't get into all that, we just can't. I tease people all the time that ask me 'what were you thinking when you made that call and it didn't work?' Everything y'all are saying in y'all's head, I am saying to myself. It is just parting of the game. We know we have stuff to fix, and we are not hiding from that, but it is not like we don't know when we are trying to fix it. Our kids get it. I am going to tell you, and I have said it a million times, I have never coached a perfect game, but you can always give perfect effort. I think that is the story of our team so far. Look how many different players have stepped up. Were y'all expecting Jamal Ligon to step up as a true freshman and have 19 tackles? Brennon Dingle, have y'all even heard of him? He comes in here and does fantastic. Chuck (Charles) Wiley stepping up. Josh Adkins stepping up. So many different kids that we haven't even heard of that keep stepping up each week. Peter Gray with a cast on. Trevor Harmanson with a hands play on an onside kick. There are a lot of things that we can focus on to get better at, but here is what I will challenge all of us to do, I challenge my coaches the same way, let's try just as hard to catch a kid doing something right as we do catching a kid doing something wrong. We had a lot of right Friday night, as well."
On being the first coach in program history to start a season 3-0 …
"It is better than the alternative. We could be 0-3 right now. Every game was down to the end, fourth quarter. This is about my players, they have bought into us since day one, and I will be forever grateful for that. It has been tough, what these kids have been through, and they never blinked. We were a seven-point dog at Texas State, and we were a 19-point dog this weekend. I bet we don't blink again this week, and I bet we get out there and get after it. We don't ever talk about winning and losing around here. We just talk about being the very best every day. We are going to try to be the very best we can be today, and we are going to get up and try to be the very best we can be tomorrow. If you keep stacking great days on top of great days, you are going to have a great program. We plan on doing that."
On the culture pillar for the week and translation of that to the team …
"I am a simple fellow. I have my fingers, and we just keep going right in order. I'm at my thumb this week, which is perfect effort. Our kids will be pointing to their chests a lot this week, and it is not about perfect execution, it is about perfect effort. They have done that for us this far, and I expect them to do that for us again on Saturday."
On addressing being the underdog for the weekend …
"I am always trying to get a great practice out of them, whatever that is. I just want to win the day. I want to be the very best at practice that day. That is how you are going to play well on Saturday. To get the things cleaned up that we have got to get cleaned up, we have to be better at practice. Practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes permanent. I am going to poke the bear and jab at it, I am going to have fun, and we are going to put it up all over the place so we will play better. It's not like it is some Knute Rockne speech or Grant Teaff motivational speech. It is just that I want them to play better in practice, and the better we practice, the better we are going to play. Yes, we will use that, not like some 'win one for the Gipper.'"
On Jamal Ligon breaking the single-game tackles record …
"We had some pretty good inside information on that kid. My brother was his high school coach. I have known Jamal it seems like his entire life. What is more amazing than the 19 tackles was that kid played 93 snaps. That will let you know what is wrong with our defense. They were out there too long, but that was on the offense, on us. We really take great pride in playing team football. That triangle of toughness we talk about all the time, we start with being very physical on defense, but the next part of that triangle is being able to run the football, which we did not do well, and then the third leg of that triangle is our special teams, which showed up. We had 221 yards of hidden yardage of special teams. All we do to figure that is our net punt versus their net punt and our net kickoff versus their net kickoff. On our net punt, we had a 49 yard net punt, they had a 38.5, which means we beat them by about 10 yards of net punt. There were 12 punts in the game, so we picked up 126 yards in the punt game. On kickoff, we started on the 31, they started on the 24, so we beat them by about 7.5 yards on every kickoff. There are 13 kickoffs in the game, so we picked up 97 yards of kickoff team. If you add 96 yards on kickoff plus 126 on punt, we picked up 221 yards in the kickoff game, and I am not even talking about extra points. We blocked a field goal, an extra point. We also recovered a hands, so our teams, if you were to go through each game and give an MVP, in the first game, you would probably say the offense. In the second game, you would probably say the defense. In the third game, you would say the special teams, so we have played team football this year, and we are just ready for all three phases to show up at one time, and then you will see our best performance."
On Ligon transitioning to the faster speed of the game at this level …
"I think y'all could tell in his interview, he is different. He has an extremely high IQ, he comes from a great program, and you could tell he has been in front of the media before. He is just different. He is extremely sharp and the kids love him. I still don't know why he loves to wear that number 88, but he loves that 88. He is a heck of a kid. When you recruit enough kids like him, you become a really smart coach really fast."
On Ligon's transition from defensive line …
"My brother really wanted me to recruit him as a tight end when he was younger because he loved him so much. I said 'Kurt, he is just too short. He is just not tall enough to be a tight end at the next level. I think you need to move him to defense.' He is a college football player, no doubt, so for once my little brother actually listened to me, and he moved him to defense. He ended up playing outside linebacker and linebacker. When you have a kid like Jamal and you are a high school coach, you just put him wherever you can to win the ballgame. Sometimes those kids get punished in their recruiting because they get moved around so much, they don't have a real position, but we just knew the kid was a winner and that we were going to take him. We recruited him as an outside linebacker. He stood out in fall camp, so we moved him inside and it was a heck of a move by Coach (Tyrone) Nix."
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