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UNIVERSITY OF TULSA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 17, 2016

Philip Montgomery

Tulsa, Oklahoma

North Carolina A&T - 21, Tulsa - 58

COACH MONTGOMERY: I thought really another good overall team win. I thought we made plays obviously on special teams there early in the game, which kind of really kicked the momentum to our side. Defensively we played lights out. I thought especially early in the game.

Offensively, the possessions that we got, I thought we took advantage of those, executed what we wanted to do offensively. I thought we moved the ball up and down the field at times. You know, there in the latter part of the game, we got some young guys in. It's a good chance for them to get some experience, get some work in live competition. Obviously they are going to get better and better as we go along but it was a good chance to get those guys in and get them some experience.

Very pleased with our football team knowing that good win, every win in college football is good, but understanding, just like last week, enjoy the win today. Tomorrow, we go back to work and get ready for a tough team that we've got to go on the road and face.

Q. You said last week's loss doesn't define y'all or your season, and you said whatever happened this game wouldn't necessarily define you or your season, either. But does it kind of define y'all how you respond to games like last week with a game like this?
COACH MONTGOMERY: Yeah, I was very, very proud of our leadership, our seniors, those guys that really controlled our locker room.

I thought we had a great week of work. Very determined about what we wanted to do and understanding, you know, things that we needed to work on, some of the shortcomings that we saw on that tape that we needed to get better at. I thought we did that throughout the week and I thought we displayed that as we got on the field today. Still got a lot of room for improvement. We've got to get better but I think we're on the right track. We've just got to continue to keep working and pushing and understanding, you know, next week we've got another big opponent, and then the next week and the next week. You look at our conference and how it's falling right now, and boy, there's some really, really tough teams in our conference.

Q. When it comes to special teams, is there something you just saw from them that allowed to you block the punts or it was just something where you guys have been executing and it finally came to fruition?
COACH MONTGOMERY: No, I mean, Kolt Shindelar (ph) did a good job. He did a good job. He came up with that block. He thought he saw a little weakness in their protection. We had worked on it all week. I thought he put our guys in the right spot, and then, you know, it's really a three-person block and McKinley did a great job of actually causing the blocks to happen. But there's two guys in front of him that made that happen, too. So those guys did a nice job of executing that, being able to block, too, were obviously big plays in the game.

Q. I brought up McKinley before and he was in on both those blocks, as you have said. He even had an interception. It just set up some quick scores for you guys. You just can't help but like the progress he continues to make.
COACH MONTGOMERY: He's really growing as a player, as I think our defense in terms of the whole defense are growing that way. They have taken a lot of pride in what they are doing. McKinley is progressing at the rate that we want him to. He ended up taking a lot of snaps today. I think he's going to continue that trend. Other guys made big plays in there, as well.

So I mean, Shindelar with the pick for a touchdown is another huge play but defensively, I thought we really played very physical. I thought we played downhill. I thought we tackled really well. I think they just done a great job all year of continuing to just come into games with enthusiasm and passion and playing that way throughout.

Q. Offensively you had some short drives that you had to deal with because of the special teams, but still how would you assess the offense? Seemed to be some drives pretty good but then maybe do you feel it's still kind of a work-in-progress still?
COACH MONTGOMERY: Yeah, you know, I was pleased with what we did. Obviously when you get a lead like that early, you just want to work on some stuff. There's some things that we probably could have done that would have attacked it more down the field but we really just wanted to stay on the field and just kind of get some work in.

As you got into the second half, you know, I played our ones only the first drive, and it wasn't even all of them that drive. After that, it was just young guys. So it was a good chance for those guys to get in and get some experience.

But you know, we are still a work-in-progress. We are not nearly where we need to be and I don't think that is the case throughout our team. But especially offensively, I think we took good strides today. We made some plays, threw the ball well. We just got to continue to keep working and punching the clock.

Q. You obviously were looking for more from your receivers, didn't seem like there were many drops, if any. What did you see from them in terms of progress from last week?
COACH MONTGOMERY: Yeah, I thought we caught the ball extremely well today. I thought we ran our routes and made good decisions within those routes. I thought our quarterbacks did a nice job of executing throws for the most part and we had a few that got away from us that obviously we want back.

You know, 48 made a great play for them on just really sky-high jump. Knocked a ball up and he ended up getting him a pick out of it. That's just a great defensive play.

But overall, I thought our passing game was much improved this week, but we've got to continue to keep improving on it. We had a couple of drops in there that I don't like that were just easy drops and we had a couple of throws that just got away from us that we've got to correct. But overall, I think we're on the right track.

Q. Can you talk about the performance of Ryan Rubley coming in, his first college action, seemed like he made some nice plays.
COACH MONTGOMERY: Yeah, Ryan did a nice job, first time really kind of get something action. Made a couple of good throws in there. Had a couple of errant throws in there. When you're translating it from practice to game time, things are moving at a little bit different rate. You know, he made some mistakes in there. Some of those he paid for because he got hit in the face.

But when you're calling protections and doing some things, you've got to make sure that we're in the right ones. But I thought overall, it was a good first outing for him. For him to be in the live action, he had not been in it in a long time, so to kind of get his feet wet today I think is going to be good for us in the future.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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