UTEP Miners College Football Pregame Quote, 09/11/2023

So, after watching our game again, you get to see it a couple, three times by now, I was really pleased with the way we played in the first half. If I have regrets from the first half, it’s that we left without a lead because I feel like we played the way we wanted to play the whole game and we outgained them 205 yards to 120 yards in the first half. So, to come out there with just a 7-7 tie, I wasn’t disappointed, but really, we should have got more out of that first half. That was played the way we expected to play it. And then the second half obviously wasn’t a good half at all for us. Things I saw from the first half, and a lot of it continued in the second half to a point, that a lot of our players are getting better. I feel like we have a lot of good players on our football team. There’s no doubt about that. In this third game I didn’t see our guys playing to a level better than we played in any of the previous two games as players themselves. So, we’re seeing some of the guys that haven’t played as much, played a lot better. Some of the newer starters that we have played their best games. Some of our seasoned veterans played their best game until it kind of fell apart in the third quarter. But my point is, as I look at it and I break it down individually, I see a lot of our players doing some really good things. And then it comes down to a nutshell. The score of the game wasn’t indicative of the game. The game got away from us, and the game got away from us very early in the third quarter. They came out and put together a really good drive. They had, like I said, 120 yards (in the first half). I think we talked about it as a staff. I think they had 40 or 50 yards after their first drive the whole rest of the first half. So, on offensive we’d move the ball and move the ball, but we didn’t finish and get scores. Something would stop a drive. We were getting ready to get into scoring position, and then we missed a field goal at the end of the half. I would like to get him (Buzz Flabiano) in better field position than a 45-yarder, but we didn’t do what we needed to do in that situation. The point is, the early part of the third quarter when they did put that nice drive together, now it’s time for us to respond offensively. And we just had some unforced errors. We had penalties and unforced errors that happened as a football team. And when you go back and look, right now where we are third game into the season, our formula for winning is eliminate unforced errors because we played three good football teams. You look at the teams we’ve played, you look at how they’re doing in their other games. We played three really good football teams. I think they’re all going to fare pretty well. I think Northwestern’s a much improved football team. I thought they are a really, really good-looking football team on both sides of the line of scrimmage, and they’ve improved their skill through the transfer portal. So, I think they’re going to have a good season as well. So, for us, we’re down 7-1 in turnovers, and that’s unforced errors. So, when you’re down 7-1 turnovers in three games, you’re not going to have as much success as you would like to have. So, we lost a close game, beat a good team and then lost this game. (We) played it real well for two quarters. So, for us to have the success that we’re going to have this season, we just need to eliminate the unforced errors. That’s a big focus for our football team right now as we move forward, play our brand of football, finish drives better, create more turnovers on defense and eliminate them on offense. So that’s our big thrust. If we do that, we’re going to win a lot of football games. It’s not a real complicated formula right now to get it fixed, but we got to do that. We got to execute it and get it done.

On playing at Pac-12 member Arizona:

Arizona is our biggest test of the year and for one reason alone is that they’re a very, very, very talented team. Start with their offensive line, a big physical athletic offensive line. (They have) a really deep backfield with running backs, good tight ends and then some good size at wide receiver. Then obviously they got Jacob (Cowing), who’s just a tremendous player for them. So, they got really a group of very, very talented receivers and a quarterback that’s very athletic and makes a lot of plays. So offensively, they’re a big, big test for us and they’re very versatile with what they do offensively. Defensively they’ve gotten a lot better. They’ve recruited well, they’ve got more talented defensive players on their team now. They’re very deep up front. They got some solid depth at linebacker, and they’re very deep in the secondary. So, they have the size and the speed on defense. I think they’re much improved this year defensively from what they were last season with the things they’re doing, as everybody expected them to be. They’re going to be a tough test force for sure, as we try to attack them offensively and then try to stop them defensively. So, definitely it will be a huge test for us to go on the road. Of our first four games, three of them are on the road. We’ve got to find ways to win road games. For us to win this game, we’ve got to make it our type of game against them because they’re so explosive and they’re so athletic. We’ve got to make it our type of game. Then when we win the turnover margin, we win games. So, we got to win the turnover margin and give ourselves a chance to win this football game. I think if we can play our style of football and win the turnover margin, then we’ve got a great opportunity to get a victory because we can play with anybody when we play football the way we want to play it.

On how the team handled adversity at Northwestern and how to handle it in the future:

We didn’t respond to the adversity at all. Things kind of went downhill real fast, quickly in the third quarter. The first response was a 25-yard gain, but we got a penalty that took us back 15 yards and the next response was an unforced error by us. The worst part about that is it was such a hard-fought game, and it was a game that played the style that both teams wanted to play. Then when they got the ball at the seven-yard line to start the drive and take a two-score lead, I think that rattled us. I figured, we’re playing better than they are and now all of a sudden, in a short timespan we’re two touchdowns behind. I think it just rattled us. I think we just got to be more mature. We got to stay more focused. We got to just take it one play at a time there. We didn’t do much after that. Then, I started taking chances you wouldn’t take if it was a close ballgame, and that’s why I said the score wasn’t indicative necessarily. Then the momentum got on their side, and they got that big 85-yard play that they executed really well. That took it to a three-score lead. With a three-score lead, it really took us out of what we were trying to do. But we still did some good things then. We just didn’t finish the drives that we had. So again, when a game gets out of hand that quickly, that’s been such a hard-fought game, I think we got rattled by it. We just got to be more stable, just take it one play at a time and not get caught up in the score.

On the key to finishing drives and getting points:

Eliminating the one play, the one mistake, the one miscue that keeps you from getting points. Again, when you got 205 yards (at the half), you should have more than seven points on the board. So, whatever it may be, you can pick out each drive and you go back and critique it, whether it be a penalty, whether it be just not executing on a third down, whether it be a turnover, those were the three things that really stymied some drives that had a chance in that second quarter to give us a lead going into halftime. I think if we get that lead going into halftime, then that first touchdown doesn’t rattle us as much as it did. They don’t get that momentum. Then they got that lead so quickly, they start playing with a lot more momentum and (the lead got) bigger towards the end of the third quarter. So, scoring more in the first half was a big part of the game. Us not finishing some of those drives was a huge part of the ballgame.