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UNIVERSITY OF TULSA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 7, 2016

Philip Montgomery

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa, 43

SMU, 40

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Sorry, I ain't got much voice left. Obviously, it should be understandable. You know, just now looking at this sheet, but you know all this stuff that's on this sheet really doesn't matter at the end of the day. For our team to come out and play the way they played, compete the way they competed, kept fighting for each other, you know, back-to-back overtime wins, you know? I think it says a lot about our players and about our leadership on our football team and those guys stepping up in big situations and making plays. They're running years off my life right now, but they are finding ways to win. In college football every win is a big win. Doesn't matter, you better celebrate when you get 'em, and you gotta keep fighting to keep gettin' 'em.

So for our team to do what they did, extremely proud of them, overcome a lot of adversity in this game. Some of it's self-inflicted. Some of it's not, but still had to overcome it. But still really proud of our football team.

Q. We asked you earlier this week if momentum could carry through a bye week, and maybe it wasn't momentum, but I could see the confidence when this game went into overtime that probably carried from Fresno State, am I correct in that?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Yeah, it's not new to us, and guys understand the situation that you're in, and your back is against the wall. Every play matters. Every technique thing that you do matters. Guys just kept executing, and I think we went into overtime with a lot of confidence.

Q. Was that the same play as Fresno State?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Similar, just a little bit -- tweaked it a little bit, but felt like we had it set up. We had been running a play that kind of -- working the stretch and having some success with it. We had a tough time running the football. We had some guys go down tonight; other guys had to step in and play. Felt like we had it set up and really just executed extremely well on the plain. I just talked to Dane about it. He said there was nobody in front of him, so just a well-executed play and guys did a great job.

Q. You were talking about how what was on here doesn't matter. A win is a win, but is this the definition of what people call an ugly win?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: I don't think there are ugly wins. For me, every win is beautiful. Every win that you get in college football is a beautiful, beautiful win. I don't know what the stats are. We had 562 yards of offense, something like that. Stayed pretty balanced as much as we could in it. Obviously the penalties are something that jumps out at you. I will be interested to go back and look at the tape and see how those play out.

Q. Talk about overcoming the injuries, looked like the right side of your offensive line was out and looked like Kerwin Thomas was out as well?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: We had two guys both on the right side of our offensive line go down tonight. Hopefully we will get 'em back. We will wait and see. Anytime you're losing guys up front it ain't good, so it's an area of concern. But guys stepped in tonight, and I thought they did a good job, kept battling. Obviously, you know, when you're losing two offensive linemen it's tough. With Kerwin, Kerwin has been battling a little deal, tried to play, kind of affected him. I thought Reggie stepped in and played well tonight.

Q. D'Angelo almost replicated his carry total, 38 tonight. What's it say about that kid? We asked you about it on Tuesday, but the fact that when the lights are on you can hand it to him however many times you need to?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: He's a gamer, a tough kid. Like I talked about at fall camp the weight that he's added has allowed him to be a big-down back and a big carry back. I think the combination of him and James has been really good. Those guys are feeding off of each other, two different styles of running, too, and, again, our offensive line coming off the football and creating some things.

Q. Would the most important play be the save on the snap?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Yeah, it was a high left snap on us. Dane got a hand on it, tried to get it back down, but Brewer getting back on it, obviously a big key in this.

Q. Special teams provided, I don't know, a half a dozen massive plays tonight?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: They really did.

Q. When your defense is getting stops against an offense like that and your offense is hot and cold is a good way of putting it tonight. You lean on special teams?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: We're always going to lean on those guys. They got opportunities to make plays in those situations. We spend a lot of time doing it. The defense is playing well in spots, offense is playing well in spots. It was just kinda back and forth. When you're playing in conference especially until a rivalry-type game, those things are going to happen.

Our guys just kept battling with it and we had some big plays in there on the special teams side of it, big returns and got us some short fields that we didn't take advantage of, but we gotta continue to keep working. And when it happens it happens, and when it doesn't it doesn't. We can't sit there and mope about it.

Q. Trent and that entire defense played well the entire second half. Was it adjustments, or they were getting used to what SMU was doing?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: I really thought toward the end of the first half our guys were really making some plays. I thought I guys were being really physical. I thought we made good adjustments at halftime, and I think more than anything I think our conditioning and our physicality in the second half on both sides of the football, but especially showing up on the defensive side of the football, I thought that took a toll in the game.

Q. Dane's performance tonight, he finished it off with a big run. Uneven? Hot and cold? The drive at the end of the first half was amazing.
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: I thought Dane played really well tonight. They were giving him a bunch of different looks. You got a lot of blitz stuff. You got a whole new right side of the offensive line in, so he was having to make some adjustments there. I thought he threw the ball really well. I think Keevan had 12 catches. I think Josh had 11, and those guys, you know, ran good routes.

We didn't hit the deep ball. I thought he dropped a couple of dimes on deep balls, one time we just kind of miscommunicated on the route. On the pick, that was one of those things we were looking for one thing, and when we came back to the backside we were just a little late with it. I give them credit. Twenty-nine minute was nice break right there and made a nice play.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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