Rice Owls College Football Pregame Quote, 09/28/2021

Saturday, we finished up non-conference play. It felt great to get a win under our belt. We’ve still got a lot of things to improve on. Offensively, I thought we showed some good improvement and took some real steps forward with this offense. We had guys making plays, guys being explosive. 349 rushing yards, 620 total yards and possessed the ball 11 minutes more. So, those are all good steps. As we continue to get reps, I believe Jake (Constantine) is going to get better and better. I certainly thought he had a good game Saturday, minus just a couple of plays and that’s what we’ll continue to work with him on.

Defensively, we made a lot of adjustments during the game. I felt like they made a lot of plays. We were really close on a lot of things but kind of a step behind on getting those things done. I don’t think it’s anything we can’t get fixed this week. That’s what we’re working towards. Coach (Brian) Smith is really doing a great job with the defense (and) getting everyone on the same page. We’re going to try to get out there and look like or defense for 60 minutes. That’s the goal this week.

Special teams-wise, we ended the game the way we want to. We really had some good plays in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, we had some in the previous quarters that weren’t to our standard. So, we’re still working to get the special teams to where we need it to be and where it’s truly an advantage for our program, game in and game out. With that being said, we always move on. I encouraged the team to treat victory and defeat as the imposters they are. Let’s learn from the film, go forward and work our process.

I’m thankful that we get a chance to start conference play this week and get a chance to play a great Southern Miss program here at home in our first conference game. I have a lot of respect for Will Hall. Even though I’ve never worked with him, I remember him as a great player. I’ve followed his coaching career. I’ve watched him be really creative running the ball and finding ways to attack defenses throughout the year.

On what he’s learned about the team after non-conference play:

I feel like we’ve took some real steps forward as an offense. That’s a big thing for us to do. 620 yards, making explosive plays (and) being able to be efficient at the quarterback position. Those are things that we’ve struggled to do over time. It’s really good to go into conference play knowing we’re on an upswing. That gives me a lot of comfort. Knowing that our defense; we’ve been missing a couple of pieces in the past couple of weeks. But we should get some of those back. That’s really encouraging to me too. Special teams, we’re just continuing to grow. So what do I know? I know that we’re a team that is playing really hard for each other and at times playing really well, but we’ve got to become a consistent bunch for 60 minutes.

On if there are any advantages to playing a team coming off a game against the No. 1 ranked team:

There is because there is great film for us to watch. Obviously, Alabama has great coaches. They were able to put a great game plan together. So I think that’s great for all three phases; to watch how Alabama attacked them and see what things fit within what we do and what matchups we can gain. There’s also the reality of, they played a physical bunch. I know after you play those guys, a lot of times you’re a little banged up after a physical contest like that. For us, it’s great film. That’s the number one thing we get from them playing Alabama.