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UNIVERSITY OF TULSA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 5, 2016

Philip Montgomery

Tulsa, Oklahoma

East Carolina - 24, Tulsa -45

COACH MONTGOMERY: Haven't got to really look at this sheet yet, but overall very, very proud of our football team. Defensively I thought we played tremendous really throughout the whole game. They had a couple drives in there that were just good drives, I mean, guys making plays.

I thought overall, especially in the first half, we got a bunch of three-and-outs I believe in there. Gave us the chance. We took the first two drives down and scored. Then we kind of stumbled around a little bit offensively. Defense playing extremely well. We get back on track, get a field goal. The drive before half was big.

Going out, they take it down. We answer. I think at that point momentum was on our side. I thought defense played extremely well there.

Obviously we had too many penalties in there. We'll go back and look at the tape and see what we got. But like I said, this late in the season, you're playing really good people. That's a dag-gum good football team in East Carolina. Coach Montgomery is doing a great job over there. Got very, very talented athletes. Long, skilled guys running around.

I thought our football team really stepped up to the challenge tonight, played extremely well. Knowing that right now we're trying to climb that mountain, get to the top. Everything is still in front of us. All of our goals are in front of us. Big game next week. We're going to enjoy this win tonight and move on and get ready for Navy.

I'll take questions.

Q. What does it say about your team and the confidence level on the defensive side that you can win these type of games?
COACH MONTGOMERY: Our defense has played tremendous all year long. Been very proud of them. They stepped up to the challenge each and every time.

I thought it was a good overall team win, but our defense is playing extremely well now. They got to continue that trend. We got to continue the trend of getting better each and every week.

We saw a lot of looks from an offensive standpoint. They were changing up each and every play, each and every series. Our guys made good adjustments on the sidelines.

Going out there and being able to execute things at that rapid of a pace, really, really proud of both sides.

Q. In the 22 games you've been here, you've scored 103 touchdowns offensively. 22 games before you got here, Tulsa scored 55 touchdowns. Did you really believe from the beginning that you had the personnel to be this productive?
COACH MONTGOMERY: Well, those guys have worked tremendously hard. I believe in what we're doing offensively. They believe in what we're doing offensively. Allowing guys to make plays, they're excited about getting on the practice field, they're excited about getting in the games. That enthusiasm is what has carried us through. We've had great senior leadership since I got here. Those guys have bought in since day one.

Every time you go to a place, you have an opportunity to kind of set the tone at the start. These guys really have bought in to our coaching staff and to what we're doing. That makes the total difference.

Schematically, yes, we're putting them in some good spots, but they still got to go out there and make those plays, make adjustments in games. Those guys are doing a tremendous job of that.

Q. Symbolic with Brewer and Flanders tonight. They had virtually carbon copy games. It is fitting in that you don't really have an A running back and B running back, you got two A guys?
COACH MONTGOMERY: We really do. Ever since I've been here we've been runningback by committee. We're going to give it to the hot hand. Those two guys I think were both hot tonight at different points in times during the game.

The great part about that is those five guys in front of them, plus Minter, are doing a great job of understanding the different looks we're getting, opening up holes.

But those guys are running the football with a tremendous amount of passion and pride. They get the ball in their hands, they got a chance to get big yards. Both of them popped big runs tonight but also picked up those tough yards on short down, when you get in the red zone, all those things, those things you got to do as a runningback.

Early I thought our pass protection was really key to us to be able to dink and dunk, do the things we wanted to do down the field.

Q. Can you describe the scene in the locker room. We got to hear a little bit of it up here.
COACH MONTGOMERY: The locker room is always great. Wins in college football are hard to come by. Each and every one of them is special. You cannot take that for granted. We're going to celebrate. We celebrate at a very high level (laughter).

It's fun. Everybody gets involved from me all the way down to tonight we even had some of the coaches' kids in the middle of it. It's a tremendous atmosphere.

But that's a special place. Those guys, you work all week, you gear up for this. To be able to celebrate like that after a W, you got to continue to keep that.

Q. 600-yard night offensively. One of the key sequences was what you did defensively on the goal line late in the game. Talk about that sequence.
COACH MONTGOMERY: I mean, defense made a couple of big stands down there in the red zone. That one late was huge. I mean, I think they were first-and-goal from about the three. To be able to hold them out on the first two downs, even putting Summers in as a wildcat, trying to go plus-one on us, I thought defensively we stepped up and played really well right there.

Then you end up with the big sack there, which was a great pressure. Guys just being relentless to the football. I think if there's one thing that's been characteristic of our defense this year is how they've, in times they needed to, really have been relentless and physical to the football. If we continue to do those things, we're going to be great on defense.

Q. Too early to look ahead to the next amazing opponent you have, Navy, the way they run the football?
COACH MONTGOMERY: I'm going to enjoy this one tonight. We know we've got an extremely tough opponent. I know they beat Notre Dame today. I got to watch part of it sitting in the hotel waiting for this kickoff. Their quarterback is playing at a really high level. They're executing at a high level.

They're putting a lot of points on the board right now. I think they only put 28 on the board today. Was it 28-27? But they've been putting 40. They're going to limit the possessions that you're going to get by what they do. We've got to do a good job of making sure we take advantage of each and every position and defensively, you know, our guys will get a good scheme together.

I thought really last year, especially early in the football game, we played really well defensively. We just didn't do anything offensively early. Then we kind of got a few things going here or there.

We ain't the same football team, I promise you, as we were last year. Our guys are going to enjoy this win tonight. We'll come in and get a good plan together. We'll go on the practice field, get ready to get that done, fly up there and play a tremendous game.

Thank you.

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