Houston Cougars College Football Pregame Quote, 12/03/2021

Good to be here in Cincinnati. I appreciate the hospitality, we had a good week of practice and we’ll be ready for tomorrow.

On his impression of Desmond Ridder and his progression as a passer:

He’s done great…What has he won now? 43 games? I’d say that’s a heck of a career. I said this about Clayton Tune (Houston quarterback), too, that if he is not better this year, then that is on me. I think Coach Fickell would probably say the same thing about the developments of quarterbacks – if they are not getting better, that is more coaching than anything. That is just a natural progression of what he’s done. He has played a lot of football. A lot of big games and he has performed well. You don’t win the amount of games Cincinnati has won without good quarterback play, so he has certainly gotten better in the pass game and that is because he’s got good coaches here, good people around him and obviously a hard-worker deserving of all the accolades coming his way right now.

On the health of his team:

We are as healthy as we’ve been all year. I think it’s amazing that you get healthy and practice well when you have big games. The last two games, leading into Memphis, we knew we were going to be in this game, so we had to get creative on motivating our crew. Then last week, the conference was wrapped up but for some reason we have got to go to UConn over Thanksgiving. Nobody likes being in Connecticut over Thanksgiving. So, we had to go do that. We had to get creative there, trying to get our guys to play well, which we did. I had some words with them at halftime because it was a little close. But this week is what you play for. It’s funny how guys get healthy real quick. They want to be out there for practice, and we’ve got a huge challenge tomorrow. Cincinnati is good at everything, so we needed the practice time to get to where they can play well in this game. Everybody is here, everybody is good and everybody is healthy. We had a good week of practice and that is all we can ask for.

On his expectations for Alton McCaskill (running back) and the job he’s done this year:

Yeah, we knew what we got when we recruited him. There is a reason pretty much every power five school wanted him. You don’t know how 18-year-old kids in their first year of college will hold up to the grind, because it’s a grind, college football is a grind. Playing running back is the hardest position to play, physically, and we put a lot on them. They take a pounding whether they are delivering blocks or getting hit again and again. He has handled it well. I got asked that same question six weeks into it and I said, ‚ÄòI don’t know what week seven, eight, nine, or ten is going to look like, and he got hurt again.’ So, I didn’t know what week 11 was going to look like, and then he got hurt again. Then week 12, and he keeps coming back for more and he is a competitive young man. We are fortunate to have him in Houston. He is the freshman of the year in the American, which is quite the honor because there are a lot of good players in the conference. He is going to be fun to watch moving forward.

On if this is one of the better special teams matchups this year:

Yes. The first thing we did on Sunday was show the team the special teams result from a year ago because Cincinnati won every category. It was one of our worst special teams performances in the three years that I’ve been here. Obviously, Cincinnati pays attention to it and that has got to be important to the head coach to have results like that. Coach Fickell is heavily involved in special teams and it shows with who plays on those units. I like to think we do the same thing. We have been good at special teams the three years I’ve been at Houston, and the expectations are a lot higher than what we did last year when we were here at Nippert Stadium. So, that has been an emphasis. It’s tough to go against these guys, special teams wise, and I like to think we got some pretty good stuff special teams wise this year, so I expect us to play much better in that phase.

Does Cincinnati’s defense look different under new defensive coordinator?

Not to me it doesn’t. There are no weaknesses there. They can rush the passer, they are good up-front, they can hold double teams, their backs are really good‚Ķ I know there are a lot of accolades coming to Darrian Beavers (Cincinnati linebacker) and deservingly so, Senior Bowl and all that. Joel Dublanko (Cincinnati linebacker) is really good. I mean he runs the show, you can see that, those two guys make plays every night. This is not supposed to be bulletin board material, but Sauce Gardner (Cincinnati cornerback) is one of the best corners in the country. Unless Coby Bryant (Cincinnati cornerback) is. Then, what about Arquon Bush (Cincinnati cornerback)? I don’t know, he may be better in a year. They are all three phenomenal players. They lost a couple of safeties to the NFL and replaced them with Bryan Cook (Cincinnati safety), who is a Senior Bowl guy. I don’t see a difference, they are the same guys, same team. Coach Fickell is a defensive guy, the system is the same, the schemes are the same. And those players are better, and they are playing well. It is going to be a big challenge.

How does Donavan Mutin (Houston linebacker) look this week in practice?

They wouldn’t clear him if there was anything to worry about, right? I mean that was scary, everyone saw that. He took a week off, they evaluated him daily and he passed every test. He practiced well Sunday, practiced well Tuesday. They cleared him. So, it looks like the same Donavan to me. He is our leader, our emotional captain. He is the one running the show out there defensively and it’s awfully good to have him back.