Rice Owls College Football Pregame Quote, 10/26/2021

Getting the win on Saturday felt great. I’m really proud of our guys. I’m proud of our coaches for keeping everybody locked in. I’m proud of our leadership for the way they led last week. I thought it was outstanding to be able to respond that way. To be able to come out here and practice the way you need to (and) lock into the plan and be able to believe in each other to get that win. It was just awesome to see. Doing that against the defending Conference USA champions no less. So, I’m really proud of this football team, proud of the direction that we’re going and proud of the momentum that they are creating.

After watching film, I saw a lot of really good things, obviously. Our sideline had even more juice than it had the prior week. These guys are loving pulling for each other and playing for each other. I thought the momentum that we needed early in the game was Juma Otoviano’s kickoff return. It got us out to midfield. We didn’t have a great first series on offense but our punter gets run into. So we have an opportunity to go for it on fourth-and-two. Wiley (Green) throws a great pass and now we’re rolling. We put the ball in the box. The first play that (UAB) had, Gabe Taylor punches the ball (and) we recover it. The offense goes and puts another drive in the box. So, I’m incredibly proud of how we started the game. Obviously, it took everybody playing well for four quarter to find a way to win that game down to the last second. Again, at the end of the day, I’m really proud of what our team did and proud of the direction. A big shout out to Wiley Green and Gabe Taylor for earning Conference USA Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week. I’m proud of how those guys played and proud of how they led our football team.

It really goes back to what we’ve been preaching. It really goes back to what we’ve been talking about. A couples of things. Number one, we needed confidence and what comes first the chicken or the egg. We did a great job of making it happen. The other thing that I’m really proud of is that I’ve been telling you guys that we’re a really good football team and we failed to show it a lot of Saturdays. So I’m glad we were able to put that together and show a piece of who I know this team is on Saturday.

Putting that one behind us and moving on to a very good North Texas team. I think too much of Seth (Littrell) to placate him about the record. What I see on film is a very good football team. I see a dangerous football team with skill all over the place. A team that’s played a great schedule (and) a really difficult schedule. I know that it’s going to take us preparing the way we did last week and even better for us to come out here and go 1-0 this week. That’s our challenge. Our challenge is real simple: prepare the way we know that we need to, go out there and practice in such a way and then find a way to still go green light on Saturday to give ourselves the best chance to win.

On how QB Wiley Green responded when his number was called:

I’m just so proud. You don’t have to talk about him being our Game One starter. You can talk about him being our Year One starter in this program. All of the peaks and valleys that we’ve gone through as a program with Wiley together. How we’ve come out the other side a little bit in this game. It meant the world to me. There’s nobody I would have rather seen that success and the fact that he was able to go out there, turn it loose and play the way he’s capable of playing in a green light manner meant everything to me. It really did. I said it after the game, he put on a quarterback clinic. That’s exactly what he did. He started one-of-four and then hit 16 of his next 18 (passes). He had a heck of a day. Over a 200 quarterback rating. But more than that, just his demeanor on the sideline (and) his ability to communicate with the coaches and his leadership. Those are the intangibles that Wiley is perfect at. So when we can get him to relax and play that kind of football, he’ll give us a chance to win every football game.