North Texas Mean Green College Football Pregame Quote, 09/10/2019

After watching film and assessing, you know, there were a lot of mistakes that we definitely need to get cleaned up. There were definitely some positives that we’ve got to continue to build on. But there was also some negatives that, you know, we’ve got to get the film room to get corrected and make sure that, you know, we’re not coming back again next week talking about the same things.

No matter what, I always tell our guys that no matter how great a win is exciting, no matter how bad a loss hurts, you’ve got to put that win or loss behind you. After Sunday, we’ve got to get back on the practice field on Tuesday and get ready to roll and reset, make sure we get prepared and show our next opponent the respect they deserve throughout that next week.

We were excited to get back on the field and I thought there was a lot of energy coming off the disappointment. You’ve got to come back out ready to go no matter how bad it hurts and you have to make sure you reset and have a great day of preparation.

Cal’s coming off a great win versus a top 15 opponent on the road, in their house, which I’ve played at and it’s not an easy place to win at. So Cal’s a very good team. And we need to make sure we have great preparation this week. You know, a lot of all our goals are still in front of us as a team. We’ve got to make sure we are focusing and making sure that we win every single day, every single rep, every single practice, and make sure we’re focused in on one another every week. So that’s been the message – the team started well today but we’ve got to finish to have success.

On the offensive struggles against SMU:

It was a struggle, especially early on. We struggled with a lot of different things early on, and we didn’t get in the rhythm. You know, our first- and second-down production weren’t good enough, especially early on we got in way too many long yardage situations.

On digging a hole early:

You know, you go offensively go three punts and an interception, or punts, a four-and-out and an interception, and then defensively you give up 21 straight points, sticking yourself in a hole on the road and playing an opponent like SMU and it’s hard to overcome that and bounce back. The positive was, I thought we fought hard to get back in the game and give ourselves an opportunity. But we just couldn’t ever get it all the way back, you know, all three phases together.

On SMU taking WR Rico Bussey Jr. away:

You know, a lot of people are going to do different things with brackets, whether it’s, you know, playing guys over the top, and that’s where other guys have to step up. And we have playmakers and they’re going to step up and make plays for us. It’s not a one-man show. But for the most part, you know, it’s not like they were doing anything special or bracketing, they just mixed up their coverages well.

On what he sees in Cal’s defense:

First, they are probably one of the best secondaries in the country with multiple all-conference players. They are very similar to us in a lot of ways. They’re very multiple ‚Äì three-man, four-man fronts and different pressures. They mix their coverage well. They’re very good. They’re a very mature, veteran group, and they play together.

On the Mean Green’s running backs group:

There’s no doubt I think this past week, I thought Tre [Siggers] did a phenomenal job and I thought [Loren] Easly was really solid, too. We’ve got to continue to make plays out of that group and figure out different ways to get those guys involved.

On what makes Cal defense so good:

They’ve got two very active linebackers there in the middle. They’re both players that run to the ball. One of the most impressive things about their entire defense, I believe, is obviously they’re really good in the secondary, but they make tackles at the point of attack, they get to the ball.