Cincinnati Bearcats College Football Pregame Quote, 09/19/2023

First of all, obviously disappointed in the way the game ended on Saturday. Something obviously that we didn’t anticipate, but I give Miami (OH) credit, they finished it off and won the game. I said this to the guys, we have to learn from it. We have to move on, we have to move forward from it to this week and Big 12 play. I want to mention how awesome the atmosphere was on Saturday. Our fans are incredible, and certainly not an empty seat in the whole stadium. They were into it and what a great college football scene and we anticipate that again this week with Oklahoma coming to town and our first Big 12 game, very excited about it. Very excited about playing in this league. I was not here for it, but I think about all the people and the hard work that went into getting to the Power Five and getting to the Big 12 conference. All of the past coaches, administrators and presidents I mean just the hard work that went into it is awesome. It’s really neat to be playing at this level and playing in this new league. They are putting us with one of the better teams in this league for the first game in the Big 12 with Oklahoma. They are as hot of team there is out there right now. So, we know we got a huge challenge coming in here, but one that we welcome. You think about our team right now after you kind of assess where we’re at after three games in our non-conference schedule. Offensively, I’ve been pleased with our offense. I think we’ve been able to move the football against all three opponents. We’ve ran the ball well, we’ve thrown it well, we’ve done both. I think we’re sitting here ranked 12th in the country in total offense and eighth in the country in rushing. We have had a 100-yard rusher in every game, had two this past week. I mean all those things were very good. This past weekend, inside the five-yard line was a huge issue for us. We have to get that fixed and corrected as we move forward. I think defensively we’ve been solid. Really and truly it’s been the big plays on the outside really has been the difference defensively. The corner play, with the defensive pass interference’s and some of the deep balls that we’ve given up, we need to clean up. Overall defensively, we played very solid other than that and those things that we have to get better at. As we look forward, I think in the kicking game, we’ve been very solid. The blocked field goal, we had a little bit of a short edge on that side, and I think that was the difference and that’s all it takes. It was about two inches there off his fingertips to get on the ball. He had a great jump off that, but if we’re appropriate in our splits than he doesn’t get there. That was a huge play because we had the fake punt and you go down, you melt the clock down, everything’s working like you want it to. You kick the field goal to win the game, but we’re all sitting here a little bit different, it didn’t happen and we have to learn from that and get better you know as we look at Oklahoma. They have a great offense averaging 55 points a game right now. Dillon Gabriel, which you guys are familiar with. We played him when I was at Louisville as well. A really good quarterback, left-handed, throws a great deep ball. They really stress you defensively, horizontally and vertically, to keep the pressure on the defense and they go extremely fast. There’s zero hesitation in them snapping a football and you have to get lined up quickly. You have to be ready to go with what formations they’re going to show you. They’re very good at what they do, and it is certainly a huge challenge for our defense. I think on their side defensively [head] coach [Brent] Venables is an outstanding defensive coach. We faced him at Clemson many times and he did an unbelievable job there and such a good job, he got the head job at Oklahoma. I think this year their defense is playing very well. They have held their opponents well, they played to single digits through these first three games. They like to apply pressure; they play a lot of different coverages in the back end. They run well, they have good size. Obviously a very good team. So yeah, we’re looking forward to playing the Big 12 game and playing Oklahoma. Fox is going to be here because it’s a big-time atmosphere and a big-time game. So, we’re looking forward to this week.

On teams slow jogging on the field when Cincinnati is substituting:

Well, I just think something we have to be aware of. Ironically, that was one of the things that was brought up by the head of Big 12 officiating this past spring in our meetings. As well, we brought them over to higher ground and he talked to our staff. There’s gamesmanship that’s being played within that. If it’s allowed to happen, then coaches are going to do it. What they told us is that they have to do it in a jog and not at a crawling pace. The other night they were going so slow, and then they would send another guy and the next thing you know, is that the clock is winding down. The thing that has to be done there is that they have to go ahead and wind the clock as we are ready to play. If they are not off the field yet, that’s on them and that’s what they told us, that they are going to do that in the Big 12. We will see how it goes moving forward in the Big 12, you certainly going to be able to substitute, but just in a timely manner.

On the problems Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel presents:

Playing a lefty is what it is, as far as that goes. I think more importantly it’s when you’re playing a good quarterback, which he is. I think he’s very accurate. He understands what they’re trying to do within their offense. If he has guys open, he’s going to hit him. He’s not going to miss many throws at all. I think that’s the thing that makes him very good. He’s not a tall quarterback, but they do enough things to hinder the rush. He’s always got a little bit more time back there. They go really fast so guys can’t dig their cleats in the ground to be able to rush the passer as effectively as you could if you have more time. He knows what he’s looking at. They are coached well on what to do offensively, he knows the keys he’s looking at, he knows where to go with the football. He’s completing 82.5% of his passes in his first three games, which is incredible. They’re playing as good as you possibly can on offense. I don’t know how you can play any better with 55 points a game and 82% completion percentage, and so they’re doing a lot of things right now.

On managing positions in the run and pass game with so many players that can make things happen :

I talked about this last week; we have an unselfish group here particularly with both of these positions. They are all good kids, and they play hard. When they get the opportunity, they try to make the most of it. Xzavier [Henderson] had one catch at Pitt, but then last week he had a bunch of catches. Braden [Smith] did not have as many catches this week, but he had more against Pitt. Whatever the defense is trying to take away or give us, we want to try to take that, and our guys know that. I believe in terms of the running back room, we just felt like Ryan [Montgomery] was seeing things and was running hard. He was breaking tackles. We are going to keep playing him and we saw the same thing for Cory [Kiner] in the other two games. Corey [Kiner] got 15 carries in this game too. I believe when you get your opportunity and your chance to go out there and make plays, then do it. If you are making plays, then you are going to be able to make more. We have told them this since day one. They know that, and they recognize that, so they will go hard when they get a chance to play.

On not being able to convert in the redzone:

I think it was a combination of a lot of things. Number one I want to give credit to them and what they did in that particularly tight redzone. I thought we moved the ball once we got inside of the 20, but I think it was more once we got down inside the five. They had a great plan for our quarterback run game. When you get down into tight red, somebody is going to have to beat somebody else because everybody there is basically one on one. There were several times where running backs and quarterbacks had one on one with their guy and they got us down. It was simple, we have to try to win those and get into the endzone. I also think, we as coaches, could have done a better job in doing some different formations, different things down there inside the five to help our guys out and create a little bit more space for our guys to be able to get in the endzone. We just have to block better. I think it was a combination of a lot of different things and obviously, when things don’t work, you go back and say, ‚ÄòWe shouldn’t have done this’ or ‚ÄòWe should have done this’. It’s really easy to do. There certainly were things that, as coaches, we could have done a lot better and put our kids in better position to make plays.

On Emory Jones’ talent:

I mentioned the first week, I don’t care what level it is rec league, high school, college, professional, you have to have a trigger man. If you have a quarterback and he gives you the chance to make plays. and Emory [Jones], I thought he played really well. He had 91 snaps the other night, he would like to have four or five of those back obviously, but I think he’s playing well. It gives you a chance, and now everybody else surrounding him, he’s has to play well. Up front, we have to play well. Obviously, we have to run the football, that’ll help the quarterback play. Then those guys out wide have to be able to make plays once they catch the football. In order to win football games, you have to be very good on defense. Particularly in this league, there’s a lot of teams that can score points, so you have to be very good on defense. It gives the team confidence to know that we have a guy that we feel really good about, that can go win us some games here in the quarterback position. I like Emory man, he’s humble, he’s poised. Again, he doesn’t get rattled. He’s easy to talk to. I love having a quarterback when they come off the field and they ask, ‚ÄòHey, what do you see?’ He’s easy to talk to, which is great because now you get good conversation to where we can get stuff that will work next time we go back out. He’s just got to continue to play at this level.

On competing at the Power 5/Big 12 level:

I think we are there. I mean look at the Pitt game. You go into a hostile environment, you’re playing Pitt, and my team has a lot of pride and plays very hard, and our guys didn’t bat an eye. They went out there and they played their butts off. You don’t look at the jersey and say, ‚Äòoh a team like Oklahoma, with tons of history and all this and that.’ We respect them, but we still want to go out and win. We still want to go out and play our best football. That’s how you approach it, you approach it with your training. How good can we prepare this week to go out and play great? Then we go out on the field, and we expect our guys to make plays. We expect them to do the things that they have been shown they’ve done in practice. We got to go out there and play our best ball and hope we can go out and get a win.

On the blocked field goal and not being able to call back-to-back timeouts:

Really, the only thing you could do was take a delay of game but now you’re going to back them up five more yards, which you don’t really want to do in that scenario. That brings up a good point if you just called the timeout. So therefore, I think maybe coaches in the future could potentially maybe hold the timeout and say, ‚ÄúLet’s just go out there and kick‚Äù. In that scenario we are trying to melt as much clock as possible to get it down to one second, so they didn’t have as much time to go back out and try to tie the game back up. I think at the end of the day, we have to execute. We have to line up the way we are supposed to line up and we have to make the snap, the hold, and the kick. You just have to execute what your assignments are. I don’t think I would change anything as far as anything goes on the last segment, the last drive. We just have to execute the operation.

On thoughts of Oklahoma being the fastest team so far :

They are always looking to push the ball down the field, but what makes them so good with pushing the ball down the field is the horizontal passing game. The screens, the quick outs, the bubbles, those type of things that are happening towards the sideline. What ends up happening is you throw the ball out to the sideline. We are telling our guys to chase the ball. The whole defense runs to the guy over here well then, the ball gets spotted then they’re snapping it again. So, if you just ran all the way to the sideline you have to get lined back up and they may be trying to push the ball forty yards down the field, you have to turn and run again. Therefore, that’s what makes them so good because of this tempo and the speed they go.

On what needs to happen defensively against Oklahoma:

Number one, I think as individuals, we have to continue to work on our techniques of how we are trying to defend. You have to mix that up with your technique, meaning you can’t just walk up and press every time. You have to play a bail technique where you play off a little bit because if you’re up, now it’s a lot easier for that guy to run right by you. We have to switch up our techniques, some things individually. We also have to help them out in what we are calling defensively. Having safeties overlap, having them over the top and some things like that and continue to mix those things up and not playing the same things. I think in practice we have to be able to do different things technique wise with our corners and our safeties that will hopefully continue to help them because those are big plays that have hurt us. If you think about the Pittsburgh game, they had a couple of touchdowns on the vertical passing game. Obviously, this past week they hit the first play they had. We had a great punt on minus ten and they throw a fade down our sideline, they begin defensive pass interference call, they call the same play and then catch the fade on us. So, we have to be able to mix things up as coaches to be able to help those guys out as well.

On how he processes and moves on from a loss:

We just have the same routine. When we come in on Sundays and Mondays, to me, the routine stays the same. You just keep putting one foot in front of the other. No you might not feel as good and it hurts but the sun came up Sunday morning aand I said, ‚ÄòI have to get ready to go to work.’ We have to figure out what we didn’t do as good on this game and then we have to get a great plan as we move forward, whoever our opponents is going to be. So, it’s the same, you don’t change anything. You can’t panic. When adversity strikes, you continue to do your same routine. It’s a process that you go through and you stick to it. That’s how you get through the bad times.

On what went wrong for the offensive line:

Miami was more of heavy techniques meaning their head up to hold your line, and they’re really trying to penetrate and blow those guys up. So much to where they can’t get up to the linebackers. I think it’s just their scheme of how they do it which looked a little different compared to the other two teams that we’ve played. I still think we were very effective moving to football. We ran for 200 and some yards and threw for over 250. So, again, it was fine the whole field up until we got inside to five-yard line which was the issue. I still think when you go back and watch our film with our offensive line, you see they played hard. They’re doing some really good things up front. I was proud of those guys. Those five guys played the whole game, it was a lot of snaps 91 snaps and, the most time on the field for our offense that we’ve had all year, really camp too. That’s the most exertion that they put out throughout the whole time we’ve been here.

On how the defensive line can improve stopping the run game:

Yeah, that’s going to be the case moving forward. Anybody we’re playing with a quarterback that can move a little bit. There’s a fine line there, right? Because you want to get penetration, you want to get to the quarterback but also, we can’t get past the quarterback. I think that’s what was happening in the game the other night. We’re getting to the quarterback but then we’re moving past him and obviously he’s stepping up and then has some clear lines. Once you get to the level of quarterback, you have to converge in and that’s one thing that we will certainly work on again this week. To be able to have guys converge on a quarterback and not run past the quarterback. There’s a big difference there. With our defensive line, a couple of times, we get stacked on each other, meaning you’re not in the lanes you’re supposed to be in. We all went into the same lane. When you’re doing that obviously more gaps open free for the quarterback. We have to do a much better job with that and we will continue to work on that.