UAB Blazers College Football Pregame Quote, 09/13/2021

Good morning, obviously coming off a tough loss it goes without saying our guys are disappointed. I know we have to play better than that. Give them (Georgia) credit, they played well. Early this morning, we were watching the good, bad, and the ugly. That is one of the toughest things we go through as coaches. Of course, coming off a loss, we have to revisit it and we have to grow from it. We are going to put it in the rearview mirror and not forget it. Looking ahead when we play conference games, they are like super bowls. They are super bowls for the opponent, and they are super bowls for us. North Texas had greatly improved last year. I think Coach Littrell does a great job. I think they had about 100 snaps on offense and are very up tempo. They spread the ball around. They have a new quarterback who has a big arm. They do a really a good job with their physical running game. Their defense is much improved. We saw in their special teams. We’ve got to put this one behind and more forward and just learn from our mistakes.

On playing a divisional opponent:

Yeah its tough, we’ll start with that first. I think we said who is Jacksonville State? You know that is a game that we had to get up for. We knew they were tough. Obviously, they found a way to beat Florida State at their place. I think for us the biggest thing is to understand what this conference game means to the opponent. It is a big deal. We break it down on “CHAMPS!” every day. I think it is what we are working for is conference championships. We are going to have to be at our very best.

On what is different about UNT this year:

Offensively they are high tempo and they run a lot of tempo plays. Their biggest improvement already is their defense. They’ve had some times that they were good on defense and probably weren’t quite as good as maybe they wanted to be the last few years. I see them coming back. You know they made a change at their defensive coordinator spot, I know him. They’re going to be better thereand they’re always tough.

On preparing for UNT high tempo offense:

I think one of the things we do and we have been doing for years is we put two huddles going at us just as fast as we can go. I think that is the only way you can simulate them is just practice. You got those two huddles coming at you. Your guys are just waiting for it. It is tough, and I don’t care how much you do it. They move fast, and they are going to spread you horizontally. If you look at their splits with their receivers, they are at the bottom of the numbers. So, that really opens up running lanes and you have a quarterback who can make those throws. They have a transfer from North Carolina with a big arm. He can run so it is going to be a big challenge. Last year statistically, they were one of the top teams in the country in the numbers categories.