UTEP Miners College Football Pregame Quote, 09/05/2022

Okay. We’ll get started. Normal protocol. We’ll talk about last week’s game. You know, pros and cons of what we did last week and then move on to our upcoming game this week. This thing about the pros from or just busy about last week’s game that’s let’s put it that way. You know, obviously our first seven and a half minutes of the game were pretty scary. It got pretty scary there early on. When I go back and watch the film offensively, defensively, we’ve talked about our defense in their offense. They came out and really did a really nice job and had some, you know, really good schemes and executed really well. So, as I evaluated the tape, I thought that we, you know, we just didn’t handle the tempo and the pace and the environment, you know, the one shot that you’re going to take from a first-time head coach in that kind of an environment. But they executed very well offensively. I mean, they were, you know, really, really humming on all cylinders. And we had trouble matching that. And they had 230 yards in seven and a half minutes. Right. And then I thought offensively we just, you know, we had one dropped pass and we didn’t convert some, you know, we got some first downs, I don’t know if we had, but maybe one, three and out the whole game. But we didn’t finish drives there and before you know there’s two drives for us that we didn’t we move the ball a little bit but didn’t finish with any scores and they get three in a row. And then from that point on, I think we really executed our game plan. 

The rest of the second half, you know, until about four minutes left in the second half and whole little step up from seven and a half, first quarter till four minutes second, second quarter. We played really good football, you know, and actually scored ten points to their zero and had a chance with that drive. They’re starting their own 43 to get the game within one score if we can, you know, either get a field or a touchdown on the board, they’re probably got a little bit too aggressive. You know, initially they’re we’re starting to, you know, try to win the football game. You know, that’s what we were trying to do. I felt like the momentum was back and we were trying to win and we probably got a little too aggressive when trying to throw the ball down field too much on those drives and took a couple, you know, one sack and then the other sack I think was a bobbled snap that caused the second snap and or sack in a row there. So, by not scoring there, we put the ball back to him. 

You know, if I want to play a little bit more conservative would have been, hey, maybe throw some, you know, put some run game, some short passes, move the sticks and maybe try to score late in that quarter and keep it, you know, to be a really respectable ballgame going into halftime. We didn’t do that. We got aggressive. They went, they got the ball, went down, and executed a really fine drive again with some good plays. I don’t think we executed as well defensively on that drive as we could have been, should have, you know, and they took advantage of some of our, you know, some of our situations that we were we were in with certain possessions due to maybe guys getting tired during the game or whatever. So that drive was probably our worst executed defensive drive of the game. And that gave them, you know, a bigger lead at halftime. 

But our overall evaluation was 38 minutes of possession time. And yeah, some of that was because they scored quickly early in the game. But a lot of it too was we had 26 first downs. We had more first downs than they did. Right. And so, as I look at the offensive production, when you have that many first downs in a game like that, you’re doing exactly what you’re trying to do, right? You’re trying to shorten the game. And we were trying to shorten the game to keep it make it a very competitive game. So, I felt like Gavin, I thought Phil, I thought Gavin played if his best game if not very, very close to the best game since he’s been here. He put some precision passes. He made great decisions as far as not throwing the ball and in the tough areas. I just really was really, really impressed when I went back and watched him play and I was impressed with the way the offensive line played. They only had one play the whole game where a defender came up free and pass rush that didn’t have a hat on and we took some sacks more than we normally have ever do, but those were covered sacks or bad snaps. But as far as getting a hat on the hat, there was only one sequence in the whole game where they had one more had that we couldn’t get. We couldn’t get a hat on. So, with all the pressures and blitz as they do, I was really pleased with that part. So, I thought we got a lot better. I really do. I think we got a lot better. 

I thought our defensive personnel played, you know, you know, not as good as we can play well, but there’s a lot of positives there as well. So, we left that game playing a very good football team and we got better as a football team. And Gavin made those two big field goals, which was really big for us. So, a lot of positives came from last Saturday. I don’t think we had very many pre-snap penalty. You know, we didn’t have dysfunctional pre-snap penalty in the loudest environment that we’re going to play in, very minimal. I think we had less penalties than they had. We had more first downs than they had. So, there’s a lot of positives to gain from that game.‚Äù

On this week’s opponent New Mexico State:

I see plenty of talent from their team, you know, scouting report wise. I see a lot of talent out there. I really, truly do. And I see a team that I know in play, you know, they’re playing really hard. They’ve got a lot of talent and so they’re just gelling as a football team. And so, you know, that’s the scouting report on them right now. They got their two quarterbacks that they’re playing. You know, they’re playing both the freshman and the junior college transfer. Both of those guys got potential to be very good players. They got good, talented receivers. I got to, you know, some talented running backs as well. Their offensive line couple of those three of those guys started last year form their tight ends and returning starters. So, they got some players. You know, I just think they’re trying they’re just a couple games into their system right now and I think they’re going to continue to get better as the year goes along. And then defensively they got the linebackers that are very good players for them. They got they play a lot of guys up front, on the defensive front, they play quite a few guys in the secondary, but we just look at their overall athleticism on defense. I think they’ve got a good core base to work with their defense and they so that’s the overall personnel scouting report on that. From our standpoint.

On the New Mexico State game being a must-win:

Well, I mean, any time you know, you don’t want to go in zero and three. I mean, I just dig deeper hole. Rachel for sure. So, every game is so important. Now once you start out and two, every game gets really, really critical for your football team. And so, you can’t afford to take, you know, a whole lot of losses because their early losses are just things you must overcome. And the only way to overcome or a loss is to go on win streaks. And so, if you lose the first three, now you got to go on a three-game win streak just to get back to what would get us to .500 to get us to be bowl eligible. So, it’s important. You know, it’s like any time you go you own three or and one and two or, you know, so to me, there’s a huge difference, you know, so it’s really important game for us that way.

On WR Rey Flores’ play and leadership thus far this season:

I’ve been really impressed with him. What he does. He played tremendous in both games. He’s just been just making plays and just working hard. And like today’s practice, he just did a tremendous job of leading again. Today, he’s taking that role on to be areal strong leader in our program. I really like the way I think we had ten different receivers catch passes in our game Saturday and I’ve always said if we can have seven, that’s an ideal number ten.

On QB Gavin Hardison improving on sacks:

He definitely had to do better with the sack. He’s, you know, we were frustrated with the one at the end of the half. We ran a little smash switch concept in this boundary and double post to the field, and the double post were wide open, and he just happened to look to the smash switch. They busted their coverage. So, if he looks to the field, it’s a touchdown. It’s 21-17 right there. And then what he did is came back to it late, was trying to set his feet to get back and throw it in the backside and caught him. And but the clock was running out. You know, I think it was one of those bad set up circumstances. But he knows that we can’t let 11 seconds roll off the clock. And then that’s where the sacks came. Some of them were we had a three step and he, you know, three step wasn’t open and he held onto the barn. That’s where he knows he’s got to get rid of it. Just throw it out of bounds. So, all the sacks were either cover sacks or, you know, or bad step one of them was a bad snap.