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UNIVERSITY OF TULSA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 25, 2016Phil MontgomeryTulsa, Oklahoma Cincinnati - 37, Tulsa - 40 PHIL MONTGOMERY: I'm kind of at a loss for words to be real honest. I don't know what you say after a game like that. We played, really as a football team, as about as bad as you could in the first half. Just didn't execute offensively, gave up explosive plays defensively, didn't even look like the same football team that we have been all year. And able to get that score right there before half, I thought that was a big score. Then come out the second half, and just got to keep battling and kind of stepped up and started making plays. And guys kind of settled down a little bit and we started executing a little bit better. And get into the fourth quarter and those guys just they don't quit. They're always believing that this is going to be the play that's going to change the game. And a bunch of guys made a bunch of plays in there that did that. Defense gets the stop and then I can't even remember how much time was left, but about a minute something and drive it down the field and make a couple big plays and get the field goal and me, I'm thinking about going for it, but that's dumb. Kick the field goal, go into overtime, you're playing at home. We got momentum right now. But we started this thing off, if you remember two years ago with an overtime win. We have had several of them all the way through this thing. I don't know this season I think it was just meant to be that we needed to do it in overtime again. I can tell you our guys are confident when we get to overtime and they played their tails off. I love them to death and to be undefeated at home, that's a big deal. Those guys took a lot of pride in that with it being senior night and finding a way to win for those guys. But being undefeated at home is hard to do and we, our football team, has done a really great job of defending this area. So, nine wins later, here we are. Obviously, there's some games out there that we would love to have back. We would love to play them again. But excited where our program is at this stage and looking to get number 10 as we get into bowl season. With that, I'll take questions. Q. Even if the night didn't go, as a whole, the way you would like, you couldn't have scripted it any better to have the ball in Dane Evans hands on a third down, in overtime, in the last throw he'll ever throw in a game on this field. It's kind of appropriate, really, to have it in his hands in that kind of position, isn't it? PHIL MONTGOMERY: Really was. Really got a free play right there. We got them to jump offsides, and then Dane did a great job. And then, obviously, Josh has been that receiver throughout his career at least while I've been here, that just comes up with those type of catches and those type of plays. For Dane, to buy a little time back there and then spot him and make a really a nice throw kind of high and knowing that he's going to go up and get it and got all the confidence in the world in Josh. What a spectacular play right there. And then like you said, for those two -- and you can throw a lot of guys in there -- but for those two to be able to end their career here at home like that, it's just magical. Q. Do you think maybe it's, did you feel destined to have some magic there at the end when you have a field goal that hits like the burger King sign over here and bounces through. That's the most unique field goal I've ever seen? PHIL MONTGOMERY: Yeah. That was finally the first, I thought, big break that we had in the game. We had some other opportunities and we had some big plays made in this game. I look at our stat sheet and we rushed for 306 yards. I don't know where it came from. We didn't have any big, big runs, we just kept plugging away at it. We ran 104 plays and I feel like it goes back to our philosophy here in the sense of we're going to be the most conditioned football team no matter who we step on the field with. And our conditioning takes over late in games. Our guys get stronger and stronger as the game goes on and they believe in that. That's why I think we close out games well. Q. There's been games this year where you might start slow or here and there throughout a game things don't go your way. But tonight was different. It just felt different, felt like it was hard to kind of get a consistent roll going. Can you walk us through the emotional swings of this one, just in, from you, from the head coach? PHIL MONTGOMERY: Yeah. You can ask my wife, I try to stay pretty level headed most of the time. And I try not to get on those big old highs and lows because our football team, they don't need that from me. Especially with it being senior night. Everybody's wanting to play their utmost best, everybody's pushing little bit harder trying to make that play. We had some routes in there that really needed to be probably sat down and everybody's blowing and going. We had some throws in there that we probably could have checked it down underneath and kept us on the field. But again, everybody's wanting to make that play. So, I think it was us just calming down, getting back to us, and finding a little bit of rhythm. I thought we found a little bit right before halftime. We sat there and we kind of just methodically were moving it down the field and just kept hitting a run here, hitting a throw there and trying to stay ahead of the chains. That drive right before half, I really think set us up for what was going to happen in the second half. Q. A lot of people are going to be talking about the work put in by your offense and Dane and the receivers down the stretch to pull you through. But without a couple of short yardage stops by your defense, the stage isn't set for that kind of thing? PHIL MONTGOMERY: No doubt. And I'm trying to find it on here, I don't know. But they went for several third and short plays that they made a couple throws in there that we got stops. But they had a couple of fourth down plays in there that our defense really stepped up and played big. We had some explosive plays get away from us, especially in the first half. But I thought overall, I don't know how many rushing yards they had, they had 134. I thought our defense did a pretty good job all night against the run. We have been banged up all year long. We had guys step in and do a good job. We had some young guys make some mistakes. But overall, I thought our senior leadership kind of led us defensively tonight and guys stepped up and made some big plays. Really, the emotional up and down of the overtime, where you think that you got a turnover right there and here it is. And then to go back on the field and do what they did, I thought it was just unbelievable. Q. Seemed like it happened a long time ago, as far as this game is concerned. But could you comment on Lucas's catch and have you seen, I mean, that's the greatest catch I've ever seen on this field and there's been a lot of receivers here. PHIL MONTGOMERY: Yeah, I don't know that I've seen a better catch than that. And I've been around some really good receivers that are playing in the league right now. And I don't know that I've ever seen a catch like that. If that's not the number one play on Sportscenter, I don't know what is. Just, I thought it was overthrown and then all of a sudden, it just comes out and I'm not sure if he caught it like this (Indicating) or if owe turned it over and caught it this way (Indicating). But it was undescribable, spectacular play. And that's what Keevan brings to you and that's what he can bring to our offense. And he just, you just got to get it close, and he's going to give you everything he's got to make that play happen. Q. That silly field goal might be number one. It could be. PHIL MONTGOMERY: That's probably true, too. Q. I think in a lot of games time of possession doesn't really tell much of a story, but do you think it really might have tonight? You had a nine minute edge. Cincinnati's averaging 20 yards per pass completion. They can't do that if they're on the sideline. PHIL MONTGOMERY: Yeah. We just felt like we had to try to sustain some type of rhythm in there. We felt like we were getting some looks that we liked. We weren't popping any big runs, but we were getting some things kind of going and we felt like if we'll just stay on the field offensively, and just stay ahead of the chains, we'll have an opportunity for big plays to happen a little later in the drive. So, for us, it was about us trying to find that rhythm in what we were doing and taking advantage of what they were giving us. I said it all week long, this is probably one of the best offensive, defensive line combination teams that we have gone against. They got some really talented guys up front. I thought Alex and Zach stepping in again tonight did an outstanding job. Tyler Bowling playing with a club on his hand. Those guys up front just continued to keep pushing our offense forward. They do a great job of it. Q. On the field as they were celebrating heard a lot of guys saying you can never count us out. It's fitting that it would end like this. Another overtime win. Is that one of the most gratifying things for you that just two years ago, this was a group of guys that had won five games in two years, found ways to lose a lot of times. And now, they have like complete confidence that they're going to find a way to win. PHIL MONTGOMERY: I think that's been the biggest thing that we have, as a team, that we have been able to overcome. And that culture change that you have to have within your program to understand, it's not always going to go right, you're not always going to get the breaks, you're not always going to get the calls, but you have to find a way to win. And you get 60 minutes to play and we're going to play for a full 60, and we're never going to be out of a contest, we're never going to be out of a game. And as long as we keep playing, one play at a time, one series at a time, one quarter, one half, whatever, we're going to battle and we're going to find ways to win. And these guys have continually stepped up from the very first game I coached here until the game tonight and it's going to continue of finding ways to win and believing in each other. I think that's been the biggest culture part that we have changed since we have been here. Q. You guys didn't have the lead until the very last play. The entire game -- PHIL MONTGOMERY: Good point. Q. A little bit of a follow-up to that, how do you quantify that on the field when you're down whatever it was, 17, I think, and literally the calls are going against you, the ball is bouncing against you. How do those guys, after what they have went through, five wins in two years, how do they change that? PHIL MONTGOMERY: I think that it all started in spring ball. I think it's the way we approach things. I think that it's that never quit, never die attitude. We know we're fighting an uphill battle and when we're in between the lines, we have got to make and take advantage of all the opportunities that we get. I think those guys just continue to keep working at a level in that workman-type atmosphere that we try to put on each and every day, of going in and putting in the work. And when I put in work, I do the job in front of me, good things happen when you do that. You're not always going to get all the breaks, and sometimes we run out of time. We don't lose games, we run out of time. But if we continue to put in the work that we need to, things work out. That's what I'm so proud of this football team for. Q. You've mentioned the seniors a couple times, but just how gratifying for you and your staff is it to send the guys off, they have one more game, a bowl game, but to send them off here with a win at H.A. Chapman Stadium? PHIL MONTGOMERY: Oh, especially a win of this style and magnitude, that's nine wins this season. We got an opportunity for 10. But as a guy that has had to put up his cleats before, who is going to forget that game? Right? I mean, that's the one you're going to tell your kids about, tell your grand kids about. I mean, that guy walking in the door back there will be talking about that when he's 80, on the front porch in Tulsa, right? In Tulsa, on his porch, rocking in his rocking chair, telling grand kid up here on his knee, you should have seen this play I made right here at the end of the game. Q. When you mentioned, we know we're fighting an uphill battle, were you talking about coming from behind today, being the smallest university in Division I -- PHIL MONTGOMERY: Keep going. Q. -- some of the other calls. PHIL MONTGOMERY: (Laughter.) Q. Could you be a little bit more specific as to what you mean by that? PHIL MONTGOMERY: You know, for us -- and I've said this from day one, we're fighting for respect in our state, and we're fighting for respect in our conference and you can put all the odds up against us as a university and as a football team, and I can promise you we're going to keep coming out and we're going to keep swinging. And we talked about this season as being kind of a title fight. You get so many rounds in that title fight and we're into the championship rounds right now. And we're coming out and we're looking for those knockout blows. We're not at the top of the hill, but we dang sure are working up that hill and we're looking for an opportunity to place our flag on the top of it. And as we continue this journey, guys have got to continue to step up. And that standard has been set for a certain level, and it's got to continue to keep raising that bar and raising that standard each and every year. Q. As good as Dane Evans and your defense has been for you and your special teams and your kicker's gotten a lot of points for you, do you think the single most important component for your football team might be your ability to run in the middle third of the field and get yards? Because it's almost become an old school, unique component, that a lot of teams don't do it like you do it, really attack, whether it's for three yards or seven or 25 or whatever, but your commitment to trying to get yards in the middle of the field the way you do. You got 35 first downs tonight. PHIL MONTGOMERY: Wow. That's a bunch. I told everybody from day one when I got here that we're going to be a balanced football team. And as I look down at these stats, I think as I see it, we had a 306 yards rushing and we had 305 yards passing. And we're going to be committed to the run, we're going to be committed to throwing the football, but we have to be balanced in what we do if we're going to be effective. You're going to come against teams that are going to give you a bunch of different looks and you have got to be able to do both. So many teams out there are one way or the other and sooner or later it comes up and bites them. So, we got to continue to keep working that. We take a lot of pride in what we do from an offensive line standpoint and being able to run the football and we, just like you said, I feel like we run it from an old school standpoint. We're not being fancy with what we're doing, we're going to come down hill, we're going to get double teams, and we're going to hit you in the mouth. And we'll throw it around when we get the opportunity, too, but we have to establish the run. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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