Weekly Press Luncheon Quotes
October 30, 2006 | Football
Oct. 30, 2006
GREENVILLE, N.C. - East Carolina University head football coach Skip Holtz addressed members of the media prior to this week's game against UCF. The following are selected comments:
On Saturday's Victory Against Southern Miss:
"It was a huge win from a program standpoint. I talked all week with the team about trying to keep things in perspective and not look at the big picture. That was a game about our program verse their program and us trying to gain some respect back from where the series had been. We have had a hard time with Southern Miss and we went into this game and we said if we're going to win then we've got to win at their game.
"I think Coach Bower has done a great job with that program. They've developed toughness the way they play and run the ball and they play great defense. It's not about stats or winning pretty so to speak. They just line up and they're going to turn and play a filed position game and run the ball and play great defense. We talked about if we were going to win this game we were going to have to win it as a low scoring game. We went in a played their football game. We were patient. We continually tried to run the ball.
"This was one of the higher rushing attempt games that we had even though we were not running the ball with a lot of success. When we went into overtime at the end I told the defense that we wanted to win on defense. I was going to make sure that when we won on offense that we would give the defense a chance to win. That meant that we had to score points. We didn't throw the ball at all in that last series we ran it every snap. It was an 8 play 24-yard drive. We got the ball down there on the 1-yard line and we went to a goal line package and ran the ball right up the middle. I really wanted to run the ball; I didn't want anything crazy to happen. I didn't want an interception, a sack or something to take us backwards. The worse thing you can do in overtime is not score. If you don't score then they run the ball up the middle three times, kick a field goal and all the sudden you lose the football game and your defense never had the chance to win it. We kicked the field goal that put a little pressure on Southern Miss that they had to score. Any kind of turnover any kind of sack gives your defense the opportunity to win the game. They turned and ran a play action pass and put three people in the end zone. They laid the ball up to one of the better players in this conference, their tight end, and I thought Travis Williams made a great play going up and taking the ball away from him. I didn't think that there was a lot of doubt that Travis Williams had possession of it. They both went up fighting for it. When Travis came down on his back with the ball on his chest, that's when pandemonium broke out on our sidelines.
"There was so much joy, excitement and celebration in those players. So many of the older guys had tears in their eyes in the locker room after the game. It was a great feeling. It's one of the reasons you coach is for games like that, to be in that locker room afterwards. You hear it all the time; it's not about the prize at the end it's about the journey along the way. It is really nice to see so many of these players growing in so many different ways. Not just as football players but as young men and students. The joy and celebration in that locker room makes it all worth it. The thing that I enjoyed the most about this football game was to watch the team come into its own."
On Playing UCF:
"I know everybody wants to talk about bowl games at this point. Our only goal at this point is that we have to go 1-0. That is our goal every week. Central Florida came out here and beat us 30-20 and they are defending conference champions. They also returned just about everybody on the team from a year ago. When you look at them statistically they have had a difficult out of conference schedule with Pittsburgh and Florida. Their offense has been very explosive. They had 530 yards of offense against Houston last week. However, they have turned the ball over 11 times in the last three games. Our football team has great respect for Central Florida and understands the type of athletes that they are playing with and the program that they have. We just have to stay focused on our task at hand right now. I used it as a battle cry last week and I'll use it as one now; this football team needs to stay humble and hungry. By staying humble and hungry it helps us keep last weeks success in perspective. I told the team that I've never seen a football team go to a bowl game with four wins and I've never seen a team win a conference championship with three wins. We still have a long way to go to get to where we want to be, we just have to stay humble form where we are with our past success. At the same time we need to stay hungry and remember what we're trying to get."
On Building the Goal Line Package:
"What we are trying to do is build a little bit more size. We are playing the biggest players we have with the Simmons brothers. Brandon Fractious and Chris Johnson are more slashers with speed and they are open field runners. We need some power backs. We are really missing the loss of Dominique Lindsay right now. He really brought that to our football team last year and earlier this year. We are just trying to get the biggest backfield that we can develop. We have looked at maybe the possibility of trying to cross train a couple of defensive players with a couple of linebackers that we have right now. We need bigger backs back there because there is always going to be somebody on block. "
On ECU's Defense:
"A lot of the credit for our defense goes to Greg Hudson, Rick Smith, Rock Roggeman and Donnie Thompson. Those are four great football coaches and they've done an unbelievable job with this football team. The year before we came I think that our defense was giving up 39 points a game and then last year it went down to 29 points a game and now it's down 21 points a game. It's not about the progress we've made at this point it's about the progress we are going to continue to make. We have some very talented players on the defensive side of the ball. So many of the younger guys had to step up because of injury. Scotty Robinson, C.J. Wilson, Van Eskridge and Quentin Cotton all now have eight games under their belts. They are starting to gain more experience and confidence. So many of these guys have really stepped up and are making a huge impact for us right now. Our defensive productivity and growth can be attributed to a lot of different things, they players, the coaches and the experience."
On Quentin Cotton:
"He is doing everything he can to get back on the field. He did not practice last night but he is hungry to come back. Watching him grow up not just as a football player but as a person and what he is doing academically is really encouraging."
On UCF's Mike Walker:
"He is a great player. He's got great size and speed. I believe he's got over 60 catches already this year. He is their go to guy. I know both Steven Moffett and Kyle Israel very well and they are very talented young men that throw the ball very well. They execute their offense extremely well. It is definitely something that we are going to get attacked with. We are really going to have to challenge our secondary and we're going to have to be really smart with our decisions. We know that they are going to test us which is what they do. They have been very successful with it with a great receiver and to very good quarterbacks."
