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UNIVERSITY OF TULSA MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 4, 2015Philip MontgomeryThank you all for showing up, first of all, exciting day here at TU, number one to welcome new members to our family, the excitement around town and here on campus, our coaches have done a great job getting out in a short amount of time and putting together a class that we're really, really proud of, addressing the needs that we can see throughout the roster and adding some depth in some areas and also adding some exciting players. I want to say a special thanks number one to all of those coaches. With the transition and everything going on, and the amount of moving and being here, being there and being on the road and creating great relationships in a short amount of time with those recruits and their families, I also want to thank just the city itself. As we brought kids on campus, we were able to get around in town and just the amount of excitement that they provided for us was a special treat not only for our players that get to host those signees, but for the signees and their families. And just the people here on campus, professors, our academic people, our students, our student‑athletes that hosted those guys, some of the spirit squad and those people at games, all of them had a big part in what we did and excited about this class! I mean, this is like, if you're a football coach this is Christmas! You get to open presents and the fax machine is like the presents and they just keep coming across so to see that fax machine light up, it went out there for a while so that was another headache that we had to jump through but we got three guys in this class on campus, working outright now, we have 16 others that have signed and we still got a few out there that we're waiting and holding and they've got their signing parties a little bit later in the day so we will be able to release those. As we looked at the‑‑ as we looked at our roster when I first got here and we were looking at areas of concern, we had some depth issues in some certain spots, and as you can tell in our signing class we tried to address those especially in the back seven defensively. You see several secondary guys on there, trying to provide depth, length, speed back there, also at the linebacker spot, again, just trying to add some athleticism to it and some depth. We feel like we addressed those needs, again, we did it in a hurry but excited about those additions that we have added and up front offensive linewise in whatever league you're in, especially in this one, you're going to win games up front, the battle of the trenches is always going to be a major key in the win/loss column so we added some punch defensive linewise and offensive linewise. Everybody likes to talk about you know, the quarterbacks, the receivers, the DBs are those guys up front. They're a main stay of what we've got to get done. Then, you know, when you start talking about the two quarterbacks that we added, you got an great All‑American in there, you got the No. 9, dual‑threat quarterback, both of those guys coming on campus, as well as, you know, a receiver, a running back, a tight end guy, things that address our needs, things that are gonna be dynamic players in our system. So feel like we attacked and saw some issues. Excited about them getting on campus and excited about spring ball and fall camp and at this point I will open it up for questions. You can let 'em roll! Q. Talk about doing a lot in a short amount of time, how crazy was that, the last few weeks? COACH MONTGOMERY: I'm seeing my wife for the first time in about two or three days. I haven't got a chance to see her or my family. Really you had to take almost a year's worth of recruiting and it's 15 days, but really when you got guys here on campus, when you narrow it down, we did about a year's worth of recruiting in ten days. With the way they did the "dead period" this year with the Football Championship Series going on, it really made it a new challenge for us. But our guys did a great job of finding guys, evaluating guys, getting in their homes and creating relationships with them and their parents, providing the vision that we have for TU, and, you know, being able to do that and form those relationships in the amount of time we had, that was a special tribute to our coaches. Q. How different was the experience for you as the head man as opposed to an assistant? COACH MONTGOMERY: Well, I did a ton more home visits, I will say it that way and not being able to go back and see a kid or a coach or his parents again, I got one shot to get in there and really display what my dream and what our goal and vision is for this program. So when you get those opportunities, you gotta make the most of 'em. So when you have 'em here on campus or when you are in their homes, you gotta do a great job of laying that out for them and explaining it. Q. You mentioned the two quarterbacks. What goes into the decision to bring in two guys? COACH MONTGOMERY: Different types of quarterbacks, but we have had different types of quarterbacks in this system all the way through. Whether you look at Robert Griffin or Bryce Petty, two extremely different types of quarterbacks, both guys can be effective and useful for what we're going to do. Both of them were tremendous players, high‑character kids, very intelligent, gonna do a great job of leading our football team and leading our program and just excited about the different tools that they bring to the table in the way that we can work our offense around both of them. Q. You guys are just two years removed from winning a whole bunch of football games and a League Championship. Are there enough players on campus to go with these guys to be able to play the kind of football you want to win games? COACH MONTGOMERY: I don't think there is any question about that. I mean, the few times that I've got to really be around the guys that are here on campus, I've got to do it more in the last few days, those guys are passionate about what they're doing, they're excited about the direction that we're headed. As I've mentioned in some previous interviews, those guys, every one of them, when they sat down in my office, were saying, Coach, whatever we gotta do to win, we just want to win. So the way they're working right now, the way Coach Davis and those guys are doing a great job with them in our off‑season program, I'm excited about what they're bringing to the table and I know when we step on the field, we will be able to do what we want to do and put a lot of "W"'s in the win column. Q. Coach, you talked about filling the secondary and other places. With this first class do you expect a lot of these guys to play as true freshman? Can you explain the redshirt thoughts? COACH MONTGOMERY: We're always going to have the philosophy that we would love to redshirt every freshmen we take in. I mean, are you gonna be a better player at 18 or are you gonna be a better player at 21? Your body's gonna take you in a ton of different directions. With that being said, my job, Dr.Gregg back there, he hired me to do a job to make sure that we're putting the best 11 guys on the field. So if that happens to be a senior, great! If that happens to be a true freshman, great. Everybody is going to start on a level playing field, we will evaluate them through spring ball and fall camp and whoever the best 11 is, they're going to play. It may be more than 11. We will move 'em around a little bit but we're going to make sure we've got the best athletes on the field to give us a chance to win football games. Q. You talked about the difference of being a head coach with regard to recruiting. Was there anything that you didn't expect or anything that surprised you being a head coach going through your first recruiting period? COACH MONTGOMERY: Not really. The challenge in that was having to bounce in big directions as far as one day you're in Houston, the next day you may be in Arkansas, the next day you may be in Austin, so just from a travel standpoint, jumping around and getting things done from a time frame status. Getting those things accomplished. Q. Michael Anderson and Austin Grotts, what do you like about them? COACH MONTGOMERY: Both of those guys, tremendous motors, they do a great job with their hands. As you talk about Michael, he's a tremendous athlete, starting on their basketball team, they're doing well right now, can run the hoop, using his leverage and he's an athlete that can do things. Austin is a guy that's probably going to start as a defensive end and I think his body may take him into a three technique and that's really what we look for as we start talking from a defensive standpoint, it's recruit safeties that potentially some of those guys can move down to backers to ends, ends to tackles and you're getting more speed and athleticism on the field. Austin is a guy that plays with great leverage. He has a nastiness about him. You see when he gets to the point of the tackle there is an extra punch into it. Just with Austin, just the passion that he plays with, so we're excited about both of those guys. Q. Coach, there was a previous relationship with Chad President there and can you talk about why he was so receptive to TU? COACH MONTGOMERY: Chad and I have had this deal going on with a couple years now, so he was firm with what he was doing prior to my hiring here. After the State game he gave me a call and I told him, you need to sit down with your parents and your head football coach, y'all talk about what you want to do and if you feel like something different needs to go on, then give me a call back and we'll have a really high‑level discussion on it. But for him, I think he just looked at the opportunity to start fresh, start fresh with me here, start fresh in a program and have the chance to really set the foundation and build a program and put your stamp on it. I think that's what a bunch of these guys that are signing with us in this class have gotten the opportunity to do. Just like you said it's only been a couple years removed from binning a lot of football games but setting the foundation, these guys coming in to taking it back and elevating us to the program that we want to be. Q. Can you talk about Chad's skill set and what you see him able to do for this program? COACH MONTGOMERY: Chad is just a tremendous athlete. When a play breaks down he's got the ability to make something happen. He can create on his own. He's a guy with his feet that can do a lot of different things. Throws the deep ball tremendously well, has been involved in our type of system at his high school, his head coach and I, coached together many years ago so he's got tomorrow knowledge and verbiage about the offense and how it works. So when you put all those things together it gives him a tremendous chance of setting himself apart. Q. Can you paint the picture for us, you're back there in the room waiting for the commitments to come in and the fax machine breaks? Has to be the worst day for that to happen! COACH MONTGOMERY: I don't get‑‑ I don't get angry and grumpy all that often, you can ask my wife, but on days like today when things like that happen I need to walk out because the good Lord doesn't want you acting like that. So I left the room, came back and I said, "Just get it fixed, just get it fixed, come tell me when it's done so I can come back!" It was good. Q. Looking at the signing class, one transfer, one junior college guy, sometimes coaches go heavy on those kinds of guys to turn around a program. Can you talk about that? COACH MONTGOMERY: On the junior college side of it, to me our philosophy is always going to be if we recruit a junior college guy he has to have the ability to come in and be an immediate impact player. If he's not going to do that, you shouldn't recruit him, in our mind. With that being said we're always going to build our program from the high school and work its way up. Those guys have a commitment to you, loyalty to the University and we feel like when we get our hands on them and are able to coach them and mold them into the player we want them to be, that's going to be a much longer‑lasting affect to our program than going outside of it in the other direction. Now from the J.C. standpoint, you may take a guy or two every year because of depth needs, immediate impact needs. But those guys, you've got to do good research on and make sure they're a fit for what you're looking for not only on the field, but in the classroom. Q. Coach, can you expand on the turn‑around? Sometimes people think 3‑9, 2‑10, recruits aren't going to want to come but obviously there is a chance to make a legacy, and you see that out there? COACH MONTGOMERY: No doubt! To be able to be a pioneer and to set you a foundation on your spot into a program, and this is where it was when I got here and this is where it was when I left, and you're setting that standard. When you set that standard, being able to set it higher each and every year. So as guys come in they will leave their legacy on this place, their names will be up on that wall, their teams will be up on that wall and that's what we're looking for. Q. I know it's early, but is there a moment in this process or something that you look at and that you will take away for your first experience as head coach? COACH MONTGOMERY: From a first experience standpoint, probably just it's nonstop, 100 mph, every day. You start before the sun comes up and you don't go home until it's the would he hours of the morning most of the time so just trying to get everything done. When you start looking at your players here on campus, when you start looking at your coaching staff, getting to know all the people that are going to be having an involvement with your student‑athletes, whether that's compliance, academics, professors, you know, Dr.Gregg and all those guys have been unbelievable, Earl Johnson and Christa and Brian back there have been unbelievable in giving me support and providing us with the tools we need to do our job. Q. Second and goal from the 1 yard line, 50 seconds to go‑‑ COACH MONTGOMERY: Run the power! Q. Run the power! COACH MONTGOMERY: Run the power. If you got a beast in the back, run the power! THE MODERATOR: Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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