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LOUISIANA TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 6, 2016

Skip Holtz

Ruston, Louisiana

Western Kentucky - 52, Louisiana Tech - 55

Q. A big sigh of relief in this one, kind of ironic that this was an offensive battle all night long, and the Tech defense gave up a lot of points, but when it counted, they came up with a big turnover there at the end.
SKIP HOLTZ: Yeah, they ended up with a couple of them tonight, which was really nice to see. We've talked about our turnover woes, and it certainly isn't pretty and there's so much we've got to get fixed.

But you know what, I thought we improved. We're improving on our tackling, we're getting better with that. But talked about the challenge with our pass defense, and you know what, when you can score a lot of points, people are going to play wide open against you.

And you know what, if you can learn to stop the pass -- if we can learn to stop the pass a little bit better and in our zone defenses, then you know what, you've got a chance to win some games going away. But you know what we made it interesting without a doubt. Got a punt block late that really upset me that just special teams-wise was not what we've been.

And you know, a lot of things we've got to get cleaned up. But, we won. You know what, like I told the team, found a way to win. A lot of pressure on this team, dropping one early in the conference when we had our opportunities at Middle Tennessee.

Knew we were playing the defending champion coming in here. Knew it was going to be a challenge: 13-game winning streak, longest conference win streak in the country. We knew they wouldn't go away. We talked to our players about it was going to be a 12-round heavyweight fight, and it's not going to be over till the very end. And you know, I'm just really proud of our players the way they were able to compete in there and they were able to get the win.

Q. And one of the things that kind of helped them get back in it at the end, we had a couple first downs where penalties were down, also negated the first downs?
SKIP HOLTZ: Second half was really bad penalty-wise. We're trying to milk the clock, grind it out, take the passing game out of it and kind of run the ball; nickel, dime, dink and dunk, put a drive together. And I thought we moved the ball really well.

But then we had two holding calls on one drive, to a chop block in one hold on one drive. Then we come back, get a first down. We get a tripping call. Just I mean, those are things that you shoot yourself in the foot, and that's what we talked about. I mean, I'm anxious to see them on film, but those are things we've got to eliminate if we are going to keep moving forward.

Q. How good was it to have Carlos Henderson back out there?
SKIP HOLTZ: 232 yards worht made a difference. I'm telling you, you look at what Trent has had to do carrying the load all by himself. They came out here, and really, they rolled everything to Trent. They rolled everything to Trent, and that left Carlos one-on-one. And pretty much the whole first half, we were able to take advantage of it and exploit it a little bit.

But Carlos was healthy. We haven't had him for the last two weeks and so to get him back out there tonight really made a huge difference. Like I said, he went for 232 and it was good to have him back.

But Jarred Craft I thought ran really hard, made some big runs for us. And Ryan Higgins continues to protect the ball. I get mad at him. You know, I get mad at him. I yell, scream and holler, and he looks at me and like with a "yes, sir, are you done, I've got to go run a football team." He's poised. He's protecting the ball. He's running the offense. I just couldn't be more proud of the progress that he's made and the things he's doing on the field.

Q. And Jarred Craft, another productive night, 80-something yards rushing, I don't know how many he ended up receiving, but two touchdown receptions and one running. He just continues to become quite the weapon for you.
SKIP HOLTZ: Yeah, he really does. Here he ends up with five and a half yards a carry, 5.6 per carry, and another 53 yards in receiving with eight catches. He's a workhorse. I can't say enough about those four that we mentioned tonight on offense right now. I thought the offensive line did a great job of giving Ryan Higgins time. I thought they did a great job of giving him time in the pass protection.

I didn't think we ran blocked as good as we need to, but they were giving up two yards a rush, and here you've got a guy like Jarred Craft rushes for five and a half yards a carry against that defense.

But I thought they protected Ryan. But Ryan Higgins, Carlos Henderson, Trent Taylor, Jarred Craft are four really special players and what they are doing right now. But it's like you said, too, you know, it's a team effort. The defense came up with the stop when they needed to. Really proud of them to see them be able to do that.

And Jaylon Ferguson came up with the final turnover and we didn't know last night and this morning if he would be able to play, fighting a flu bug and getting IV'd before the game, halftime; probably getting another one now. Just a lot of guys, some great efforts right now.

You know what, Thursday night, I know how hard it is for everybody to get here to the Joe. But you know what, this is such a special place to play and such an advantage and a home-field advantage for us, and the people that were here, the student body was awesome. They were loud. You wish there were a lot more people here, but I do understand it's Thursday night. When we got to the stadium, it was 4:30 and most people were still at work. So I know how hard that is for people to travel.

Thank you to everybody who made their way out here to support this football team. We said it was going to be a heck of a game. You're going to see an entertaining game and it was certainly that.

Q. The three-point margin of victory came on a 54-yard field goal by Jonathan Barnes, third-longest in Tech history.
SKIP HOLTZ: Yeah, Jonathan, he's been a superstar. I'm sitting there going, all right, it's fourth down and Jonathan is right there. He goes, "Coach, listen, I've got it. I mean, I've got it."

I just have great confidence in him. I mean, everybody was upset we missed the field goal at Arkansas, but nobody was more upset or determined than he was. And I don't believe he's missed one since. You know, I'm just really proud of him, the way he's bounced back and the way he's competed, he's an unbelievable competitor.

There are not many that compete like he does, and strong leg and you know what put it through the up rights. I think it went right through the middle, didn't it?

Q. Barely, sort of. Congratulations on win. I know it's a big one and you've got the weekend to kind of enjoy it.
SKIP HOLTZ: Yeah, we need it. Not having an open date for 12 weeks, we've got to go 11 straight games and playing this game on a Thursday night gives us the opportunity to kind of, we'll get a lift and a run in tomorrow and get the bodies flushed a little bit and get some of the bumps and bruises to go away.

And they will get a chance to go home for Saturday and get a chance to spend some time Saturday and Sunday at home, and then we're back here Sunday night, Monday and it's on to next week. But at least they are going to get a couple-day break to get their legs underneath and take a deep breath.

Thank you to everybody who came out and supported the team to it into. Great venue, environment, the blueout. Just really proud of the players and what they were able to get done on the field.

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