UTSA Roadrunners College Football Pregame Quote, 10/31/2022

On how his bye week was and what he did with his time off:

(jokingly) What is it with you guys and thinking there’s time off? Tuesday, we practiced. Wednesday, we practiced. Thursday, we lifted and rehabbed and Thursday night we recruited. Friday, we recruited. Friday night we recruited. Now Saturday morning … I’ll give you that. It was a little different. Got up early and got about two hours of quiet time then I actually got a couple of UAB games in before the football day started and watched Barry Lunney (former UTSA OC) and Illinois beat Nebraska. Then I watched Western Kentucky and North Texas just in case there’s a rematch. Then I watched UAB. I went to a birthday party for my niece and got up Sunday morning … went to church, came into work. So … I guess I got, honestly … I’ll tell ya the biggest deal on that is. That sick, disgusting feeling you get on Saturday as a head coach, that you’re addicted to. It’s nice that I didn’t have that anxiousness in my gut. It was just nice to relax and second-guess Barry Lunney for his play calls instead of everyone second-guessing me for mine.

On if there was anything new or different that he saw watching UAB that stood out: “You could tell (Jacob) Zeno was way more comfortable playing. You know, I’ve watched him play two weeks in a row now. They’re still just a beautiful football team on the hoof. They’re a very deep team. You know, they’ve got nine returning starters on defense, nine of those are seniors … six super seniors. They’re the number one, conference-leading defense. They have the number one runner in the country at running back. They have the number receiver in the country at yards per catch. They’re getting their starting quarterback back this week. They’re undefeated at home. They’re 27-3 at home since 2017 … they’ve been the best team in the conference. Lot of respect for them. When the season started, y’all asked me who I thought the best team in the conference was and I thought they should have been picked to win it. I still stand by, going into UAB is not just an opinion, its factual, it’s one of the toughest places to play in the country.

On OL Ahofitu Maka being named a Campbell Trophy finalist:

I like the way it was described to me … it’s the Heisman of academics. What a great honor. I’m really proud of all of our kids right now, man. The amount of community service those kids did … I gave them off both Friday and Saturday and they didn’t take any time off it looked to me. Every video, they’re speaking to kids, they’re giving back to our community. That’s something I’m really excited about. You know, with our NIL situation … you know that our 210 Inspired is done, our collectives … All those guys that have done that, they’ve put a huge emphasis on community service which I have spoken of so much. I just think it’s the city of San Antonio, so … really happy for Maka … it’s just another … it makes your community … everyone wants to win football games, but man it makes you feel really good when you see 18-24-year-old men out serving people. Because you know, football, when it’s used correctly, is one of the greatest teachers in life there is and I’m really proud of Maka and a lot of our kids in how they’re serving right now.