UTSA Roadrunners College Football Pregame Quote, 09/26/2022

On his big takeaways after watching the Texas Southern film:

We’re just, defensively … we didn’t tackle real well. We weren’t as sound on some gaps as we wanted to be. It was disappointing. Offensively … didn’t run the ball real well but a lot of that is dictated by the way the defense plays and, you go back and watch … you know, you all have been around me long enough to understand that if you give me one on one, we’re going there … outside. We’re not, I’m not going to try to run the ball into a bad look. There are sometimes you have to and when we had those opportunities, we didn’t do it very well. Obviously third and one was a huge disappointment, not being able to run the ball for a first down. As for special teams, we’re really excited about the play of our kickoff return team. You know, first touchdown in school history. I’m very disappointed in our “nightstalkers” (the kickoff team). Overall, I think after the game I was asked about what my assessment of the four games was and I didn’t have a real good answer at the time but looking at it … we played really well against Houston and lost, played really well against Texas and lost. We didn’t play very well against Army and won, didn’t play very well against Texas Southern and won. So, that’s why I always talk about … we’re disappointed right now as a team. We didn’t represent the brand we don’t feel like. We were not as physical on defense as we wanted to be. We did not run the ball very well. Our nightstalkers are not very good kicking the ball off and covering.

On how they’re changing the practice schedule for a short road week:

We practiced last night, believe it or not … we just … the kids know I’m upset, they’re upset. So, we put the ball down and went to work last night. So, we’ve already got in one practice so Tuesday is already done. Today is Monday because of the kids’ class schedule but tomorrow will be Wednesday even though it’s a Tuesday and so forth the rest of the week.

On how the team is doing from a health perspective:

It won’t be 21 (student-athletes on the injury list), but it’s not as good as I wanted it to be. A few of those guys could not practice last night which is unfortunate. If they can’t practice this week, they won’t be making the trip.

On where to find the offensive balance (with the passing game going well and running game not):

Well, common sense still prevails. We’re built so the quarterback has control of this thing and we’re … if it’s there we’re going to take it. Where I’m disappointed … I’m not … I would rather run the ball more than we are right now but that’s not the way people are playing us. When people play us differently, we’ll start running the ball more. But right now, they’re not and, for the life of me I don’t know why you’d single cover our receivers but if they’re going to do it, we’re going out there. I know it looks great when it hits and when we don’t catch it and we’re punting it? It’s not great. I just don’t believe in running the ball into looks where they have got extra hitters in there. And this coordinator is as good as we’ve gone against. We’ve never exploited this guy. He has held us in the 20s for two straight years in a row. And it’s even misleading because our defense has been so dominant the last two years against them. So, he has really had our number and we’ve got a lot of respect for him. Coach Shafer does a fantastic job. They are very well coached … they know their scheme … he does a fantastic job. Scott has been there 17 years. They (other NCAA teams) are trying to fire coaches every week nowadays and 17 seasons … that’s pretty remarkable.