ECU PIRATES (2-7 • 1-4 The American) at HOUSTON COUGARS (6-3 • 4-2 American) Saturday, Nov. 4, 2017 • TDECU Stadium • Houston
HEAD COACH MAJOR APPLEWHITE On how he feels about the win “It feels great. I’m proud of the guys and proud of the way they worked. I was obviously concerned, nervous and worried about how they would respond after a big win last week. They came out and had good practices on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and yesterday at the hotel. They started out playing well and got to a lead. I’m proud of the way they played early and not necessarily defensively late.”
On if he had used the same plays for D’Eriq King “Same plays and what we feel like is there defensively in terms of what they’re doing structure and coverage wise.”
On what he enjoyed from D’Eriq King “His consistency, competitiveness, and focus. I’m very proud of him. He’s been through a lot in terms of coming here with the opportunity to play quarterback, and then Marquez Stevenson got injured 2 weeks before we played Oklahoma last year. ‘Yeah, I’ll do it for the team, I’ll go play wide out.’ He was on pace to catch 60 balls as a true freshman and then Kyle Postma got injured in the Tulane game, so he had to go back to quarterback. He lost the production he had at wide receiver. Then he went into the weight room before we played San Diego State in the Las Vegas Bowl, suffered a knee injury and was out for 4-5 months knowing he couldn’t fully compete in the quarterback position in the spring. All of that was who he is and who we thought he was in recruiting. He’s proven us right. I’m proud of consistency and plays. We have to continue to be humble, come back the next week and get better.”
On if D’Eriq King’s injury played a part in him not being able to compete for the quarterback position in the spring “Yes, him nor Kyle (Postma) went through spring practice. They did some drills, but they never went full 11 on 11. Kyle Allen was the only guy that got any live scrimmage reps, neither one of those guys had any opportunity to compete in the spring. Kyle Postma came back and was healthy all throughout fall camp, but D’Eriq got hurt halfway through and had to have surgery and miss four weeks. For a guy who never really had the chance to step all the way in the ring and fight, he’s done a hell of a job staying poise, patient. That says a lot about his character and how he was raised.”
On if the team is starting to reach the potential he envisioned at the beginning of the year “In some cases, yes. I see some discipline, and some accountability. In certain cases of the game, I see guys being hard on themselves. At the same time, you also see some things that aren’t getting better. We have to address those in a different way. We can’t continue to go back and say we’re trying if we’re doing the same thing, then we’re the same. We have to find different ways to get some of these issues fixed. We’re getting ready to play two teams that run triple option, but I’m sure they have a pass in their playbook. We have to get some of those things fixed because at some point in the second and third quarter, we couldn’t cover anything.”
On how important it was to answer ECU in the second half “What we talk about as a team is that football is like being on the driveway, it’s a giant game of horse; a guy hits a shot, and you have to hit it, then he misses, and now it’s your turn to put him on the defense. That’s what was going on because they started answering, getting closer and got it to a two possession game. We were getting ready to make it a four possession game, but when we came back from halftime, the script flipped. It made us get a couple of letters in there by scoring quickly and getting a turnover.”
On the defense’s health “We had six guys in the backroom that started the season when we went out to Arizona. None of those 6 guys played today, or were healthy enough to play, and every one of them played in that game.”
On Brandon McDowell’s performance “That’s a testament to him. He’s a fifth-year graduate transfer which obviously says a lot about him. He’s graduated college, he’s thorough, he pays attention, he’s a smart guy, and he listens in the meeting room. He did great things for us in the return game; punt return and kick return. It doesn’t surprise me that he was in the right place at the right time and then capitalized on it. I’m very proud of him.”
On Garrett Davis “He came out of the locker room at the half and was fine. He started cramping in the middle of the third quarter, had to go back in and get an IV. When he came back out, the complexion of the game had changed, so I kept him off.”
On the open week next week being good timing “No doubt. If we use it right. I know what we’re going to do as a coaching staff in terms of creating a schedule that’s optimal for recovery, but we only have them four hours a day. So a lot of this is up to these 18 to 22 year olds and what they do with the other 20 hours of the day. We have to do a great job as coaches being on the phone, text messaging, facetiming and making sure we’re doing the right things.”
On if D’Eriq King’s performance sparks the need to model offense after Greg Ward Jr… “It allows you to do a lot of the same things that Greg (Ward) was able to do. Today specifically, we tried to take some of the run game out of D’Eriq’s hands, unless it was an absolute advantageous run because he had suffered some really hard hits last week against South Florida. We tried not to feature him in the run game too much. We were doing some things in the run support that allowed us to throw the football more. I was very pleased with the way he stood in the pocket and threw the ball. Those were some things that were hard for us to evaluate when you’re not practicing. When you miss all of spring practice, it’s hard to see can a guy do that. He did a great job at sitting in there and throwing. We just have to keep working, we’re not there. We’re still the same yahoos who lost to a 1-5 team three weeks ago. You have to continue to fight those things and not let those kinds of behaviors come up again. Continue to fight that every day as a coach and a player.”
On if it is tough to take the run away from D’Eriq King… “Sometimes when you talk about a dual-threat quarterback, there’s two types: the ones that run when everyone is covered, and they take off and create something. Then there are guys when you call direct runs; this quarterback is going to keep this ball and run like a tailback. Those are the type of things we want to stay away from. When you run between the tackles with somebody like D’Eriq’s or Greg (Ward)’s size, common sense tells you that is not going to last very long. Open it up, spread the field, play fast, and when people are covered or you don’t have a good look to throw the ball. Use what God gave you and go make yards for Houston. He’s done a good job at understanding when those opportunities are, when to save hits, and when to get his eyes back down field and hit open receivers. We just need to continue practicing those things, and as coaches and players stay humble and know we’re not there yet.”
On the pass defense in the second half… “Well, you also had two interceptions, but I’m not defending it. I’ve got to back and see if we’re in the wrong place, are we not recognizing when patterns are coming, or are we too predictable with our play calling? There’s a fine line. There are weaknesses to every side of the football. So, there’s things you have to do as a play caller to hide those weaknesses. When you do something to hide them, you’re going to give up something else. In some cases you’re saying, ‘I’ll give up the eight, six and ten yard routes, but I’m not giving up the 40, 50-yard route.’ But there are some things we can do to eliminate that too, so people can’t nickel and dime you down the field. We’ll go back and look at that. It’ll be a point of emphasis for us tomorrow and Monday, but also we’re going ready to play to completely different teams. But in the bowl game, we could end up playing a passing team. So we’ll get those things addressed.”
On if there was preparation for Gardner Minshew… “He played some against Virginia Tech, he’s a great player. He made some plays in that game, but give Coach Montgomery, him and the wide receivers some credit, there were some plays being made. There were some guys caught some ball in dead spaces in zones, but there were also some guys laying out for balls, making some good catches in tight coverage with guys coming up and hitting them. I don’t want to make it sound like it was us, and it was all our fault that they got a yard. Those guys made plays too, so give them credit.”
On if the lack of pass rush was a problem for the defense today… “It’s that fine line. The more you pressure, the more you open yourself up. It’s just trying to balance that out in terms of when can we effecting the quarterback to where some of these balls aren’t as accurate. But the moment you start to pressure, you start to give something up. It’s a fine line, and we’ve got to learn to do our job better as players, coach better and continue to recruit at that position. You lose a guy like Howard Wilson in the fourth round, that’s huge. He was going to be a starter for us. But that doesn’t matter, there’s no free agent wire, so we have what we have and we just have to get better.”
On how Leroy Godfrey has progressed… “He’s starting to pull the trigger more. I saw him in on a few plays. I’d like to be able to go back before I just critique his whole game. I do see him showing up more, around the ball more and being more physical. He looks like he’s starting to play more instinctual ball. He just needs to keep coming along, there’s never a work ethic issue with him. He puts it all in, I’m proud of him from that standpoint.”
HOUSTON SENIOR WIDE RECEIVER LINELL BONNER On what it means to become bowl eligible “It was very fun today. We haven’t been up that much on an opponent in a while. I don’t know how it would feel to not go to a bowl. Since I’ve been here, I’ve gone to a bowl game, so I don’t know how I would take it if I didn’t go to one.”
On having a bye-week “This week is definitely going to be good on our bodies, just getting some rest and the mental break to look at yourself and see what you can work on with your game. I think the most important thing that we have going for this week is healing up and remaining healthy.”
HOUSTON SOPHOMORE QUARTERBACK D’ERIQ KING On being comfortable in the pocket “I was comfortable in the pocket and the offensive line did great being open and making plays for me.”
On going between quarterback and receiver “Yeah we’re pretty close. Playing receiver, I kind of know what they’re going to do and what routes they’re going to run because I ran those same routes. It helps a lot.”
On ECU making a run and Houston answering “Coach Applewhite is always putting an emphasis on pushing responses. So when they scored, we didn’t panic. We just went back at there and tried to get back up.”
On what it means to being a starting quarterback “It meant a lot to me. I’ve been working for it, for a while now so I’m just excited with the rest of the team and try to get a win.”
On modeling his game after Greg Ward Jr “Greg is a great player, any quarterback would want to do some of the stuff that he did here. I kind of looked up to Greg whenever I was here last year, and he taught me a lot. So I would say I wouldn’t try to be exactly like him but I try to take from him and do just as good as he did.”
On past experiences before being starting quarterback “It’s been a long journey, I just kept God first and kept working every day. When I first got here, I played receiver. It was something new, but I helped the team out as much as I could. Finally getting a chance at quarterback, it’s been a dream of mine to be a college quarterback so it feels pretty good.”
On your journey as starting quarterback that started today “It’s a pretty big deal to me, but it’s not about me, it’s about the team. I just wanted to help the team win any way I could and that’s what I’ve been trying to do.”
HOUSTON SENIOR WIDE RECEIVER STEVEN DUNBAR On the offense clicking “I wouldn’t say we just started clicking, we just work hard. Trying to find a rhythm as an offense, that’s what we’ve been working on.”
On winning with a big lead “It’s good to see success for the team. We’ve had some ups and downs, but it’s good to see us come together for the rest of the season.”
HOUSTON SENIOR LINEBACKER AUSTIN ROBINSON On the game not going down to the wire “Like he said we prepared hard and we are learning each week, it’s great that we finally put one to bed pretty early.”
On having an increased role in the defense and being bowl eligible “We do it for the next guy next to us, we are just trying to do our role and there is 11 people on the field and we are one of the 11. Being bowl eligible is always awesome, as far as taking our time and doing each role we are just doing our job and when our number is called we are there for coach.”
HOUSTON SENIOR SAFETY TERRELL WILLIAMS On winning a game that didn’t have to go down to the wire “It feels good. We put the preparation in this week and put in hard work and had time to benefit from it.
On if yards were given up because of East Carolina’s QB change “Coach did a good job of coaching us up on both quarterbacks, but we have to go back and fix the little things as well as fix things that we gave up overall as a defense. Whether that be on the defensive line, linebackers, or DBs we’ve just got to tighten the screws.
On the targeting call “At the time I didn’t know whether I was going to be ejected out of the game or stay in, but as a player I have to be smarter on that and not have that unnecessary roughness penalty. It puts our defense back, I’ve got to be smarter.”
On holding ECU to 17 points “As a defense we take pride in that. How they got in the end zone whether it be turnover or drove down the field, that’s when we tighten up and then it’s go time.”
On the fumble that lead to points “Turnovers definitely help. They help with the confidence on the defense and we love putting the ball in our offense’s hands. They are explosive and dangerous so I want them to have as many possessions as they can.”
On what the bye week means “We are pretty banged up so we will definitely take this off week, get a lot of treatment, lot of people have injuries so we will just get right.”
On time to get healthy with a late bye week “As the season goes on you start to get banged up more and more every week, so to have a week where we don’t have a game it helps and you get extra time in the treatment room.”
ECU HEAD COACH SCOTTIE MONTGOMERY Opening Statement “We didn’t execute the way we had this week during practice. I thought turnovers on offense were a big deal and defensively we didn’t cover. I thought we did a good job on the interior, we mixed the coverage up on them. They did a good job schematically of attacking some of our coverages, but overall we just have to execute better in coverage. I thought Gardner Minshew gave us a great rhythm on offense. It was my plan to play him during the third series, but we were not expecting him to come out that clean and distribute the ball the way he did. The run game was a lot better than what it looks on paper, because those spit outs to the perimeter count as runs. We use those when they stack the box, it’s nothing but an extended sweep or handoff. Overall, I thought our offensive line did a great job against #10 (Ed Oliver), he was not as disruptive as we predicted. Our game plan was to do what we could to keep them off the field and we did a good job until the second half when we gave up big plays. We’re putting our guys in situations where eventually they will start making plays and we need to do a better job of coaching them into those positions.”
On giving up big plays “Last week we had a team win, but today it was a team loss. We executed the plan on offense until we turned the ball over and gave them a quick touchdown. Then you turn it over later, followed by another quick touchdown. It makes it hard. The one thing that was the biggest change was that I thought King threw it better than we had seen him throw before. He was a lot more accurate. They did a good job with their personnel of stopping the run, but overall we just couldn’t stop their passing game.”
On who will start at QB next week “We will take a look at it. I don’t think the numbers lie, the operation doesn’t lie. I don’t think Thomas got past two series and Gardner just came in and gave us a boost. Once we got that going I just couldn’t pull him out. He is very quick with his hands and that helps him get the ball to the perimeter. Once I saw that that’s where the game was going I couldn’t pull him out.”
On the first half missed FG “That was huge for momentum. What we wanted to do was kick it in a Bonsai situation. We had our guys ready. The kicker was the only one that wasn’t ready. He got confused with the game and play clock. That is definitely upsetting because we practice that situation many times during the week. It’s even worse because if we got that we would’ve came out and scored again out of the locker room.”
On pregame expectations “I felt like we were going to start fast,and when I say fast I mean we thought we had found some new good stuff in the QB run game. It was disappointing and then follow that with disappointing defensive play, it was tough but we still fought. You can never question the heart of this team.”
On the lack of execution “That’s what is hard about this game. You know there’s a scheme and a plan, but then there’s execution. There were a lot of plays that we missed that could’ve put us in a better situation, plays where you can be in second and short etc. It’s tough when you miss big plays that are open. We could’ve hit the first play of the game on the flea-flicker and that could’ve swung momentum our way, but unfortunately you look up and it’s 21-3.”
ECU JUNIOR QUARTERBACK GARNER MINSHEW On preparing and what was it like to be out there “We had to do some different things to help our run game with some of their run-pass stuff. We knew that we were going to have to spit the ball out, take our bubbles and our quick screens.”
On closing in on the Houston lead “I feel like we never stopped moving the ball, but we would either get down or stop ourselves with turnovers and mental errors. There is always confidence when you’re moving the ball the way we were.”
On going back and forth between himself and Thomas Sirk “We are both guys that are going to prepare our tails off and we’re going to be ready whenever it is our time to go in. Through practice and film we prepare, so that gives us confidence and we know that our guys are going to make plays for us.”
On how he can continue to build a relationship with the receivers “Those guys aren’t changing. They’re going to be really good for the rest of the year, so I feel good about it. I’m in a great spot to be able to play with these guys. I feel like we can build on this game. We definitely did some great things and we have some things we have to work on, but I think we can go and get better throughout the remainder of the season.”
On the turnovers “They were extremely frustrating because we’re stopping ourselves. That’s the most frustrating thing. They’re a great team, did a lot of great things, have a lot of great players, but offensively we really got in our own way in a game that we really could’ve played better.”
On how Houston is compared to other teams they’ve played “They’re a great team, they did a lot of really great things. They played hard, they’re fast, and really well coached. They did some good things on offense and defense, they a definitely a great team for this conference.”
ECU JUNIOR WIDE RECEIVER TREVON BROWN On closing in on the Houston lead “You know it hurts. We practice hard, we play hard together, and we all buy in as a team. This is a brotherhood. We believe in the quarterback every time they throw the ball, no matter who it is we are supposed to go get it. I believe in Gardner, I believe in Sirk. We just need to keep running the routs and believe in each other.”
On 50/50 plays “A lot of it is just us having to execute. Those 50/50 balls, we have to take advantage of those. We took a lot of shots today and we just have to come up with those in the back end. It’s just a matter of execution all around.”
On if he expected Houston to throw that many deep balls “A little bit. We were more focused on the run game, but we still need to expect everything.”
On playing on special teams “Every time I’m back there I try to make a spark for our offense. The better position I can get on the field, the better our offense plays. Anytime I can get the ball inside the 50 I feel like we’ll score. The more I get on kick return the more motivated the offense is to go put the ball in the end zone.”
On playing Tulane next “We go out every game and play hard no matter who it is.”
ECU GRADUATE TRANSFER PUNTER AUSTIN BARNES On the missed field goal “Jake was looking at the play clock and I was looking at the game clock so there was a little miscommunication there, but i have the final say so I snapped it when coach told me to. I feel like I did my job there.”
On if it would have been easier to call a timeout “If we would’ve had a timeout to use there it would’ve been easier, but everything doesn’t always go our way all the time.”