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UNIVERSITY OF TULSA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 30, 2017

Philip Montgomery

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Navy - 31, Tulsa - 21

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Jump out to a good, early lead and keep (Away from mic.) You know, for me, I feel like it's a tough loss. You know the fourth down call going for it right there, still a tight game, you know, hindsight is 20/20, probably should have punted. We don't get it, then we turn the ball over and they score the next play, and really that almost takes us out of the game right there.

You're going to roll the dice at times like that, I felt like our defense had been on the field a long time. We needed to kinda get into a groove and rolled the dice. Sometimes they pay off, sometimes they don't. I thought that was probably the turning point of the game. Us not getting it, turning it over right there and then, you know, next play they score.

I thought our defense played extremely well. I thought we showed flashes at times offensively. I probably got too conservative and probably needed to take a little bit more of a chance but we're right in the thick of it all and needing that win pretty bad.

With that being said, I'll answer your questions.

Q. Your defense is down quite a few guys at this point. You mentioned how well you thought they played but how difficult is that when Brubaker, Hill, a lot of those guys who were out there quite a bit weren't out there?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: We have basically five guys that started the season that aren't out there, and then we got some back-ups to those guys that aren't out there. We've got a lot of young guys out there playing. I thought they played extremely well. Those guys up front, you look at the guys that are rotating in, and especially on the interior part of 'em, I'm not sure the oldest one is not a true sophomore. You know, everybody else are freshmen getting after it. I thought they played extremely hard against, you know, a tough schematic team and you've got to be really disciplined about how you play it.

I thought they played really well. I thought our linebackers, were running a bunch of guys in there and they all played extremely well. J. Smith played a bunch of snaps and was fighting until the very end.

I was proud of 'em. They played extremely well. We got young corners sitting out there having to come up and fit some things against some tough looks, and I thought they did that well, so, you know, we're growing, we're learning, you know, but it's tough having games like this and watching your guys prepare and fight as hard as they're fighting and not to come out on top.

Q. Coach, from the end zone it was tough to see on that fourth and one call. Did that play have a chance or did they play it extremely well? I know the ball was bobbled, but did they have a chance?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Honestly, I think we actually got the first down and then the ball came out. We were close, you know, it looked like he had already crossed that barrier where we needed for the first, but, you know, still, I don't put that on him, I put that on me. I put him in that situation.

Q. Philip, if my math is correct, 23 offensive plays in the second half. With your emphasis on the tempo, I don't know, if you don't have maybe the vertical ability maybe to loosen the defense, I don't know what it is --
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Yeah, you know, really the third quarter -- because it's so tight of a game. We're right in the thick of it. You know, that's probably, again, that's earlier when I said that's probably where I was a little more or a little too conservative. I needed to take the rope down and let 'em play. We're right in it. I thought our defense was playing well. You know, we popped some runs in here and we had done some things in the run game, but we just weren't being consistent enough there on first down to do what we wanted to do.

Couple times in there where we started moving the football, and then we had a penalty here or there that really hurt us. The holding call on the touchdown, that's a huge play.

So, you know, those things are, like I said, hindsight. I probably should have been more aggressive in the third quarter, from a play calling standpoint and trying to soften some of those things up but we're right in the thick of it, and I want to stay in the thick of it.

Q. McKinley Whitfield, he was tied for the lead in tackles with 14. Can you talk about the progression he has made and how he has adapted to the star line backing position since being there?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: You know, really, McKinley has made a bunch of adjustments with all the injuries that we've had, you know? The last two weeks he's really played more of a down safety again because of -- you know, from an injury standpoint and playing option teams. So we're playing two stars on the team at the same time between him and Diamon. Both of those guys I thought played well.

McKinley keeps getting better and better every week. I think he is kind of finding his niche and staying locked in. He's become a really good leader for us, defensively he's talking and doing some things, and I've been proud of the way he's grown in the last two weeks.

Q. You talked the last two weeks about how close you feel like this team is. How do you keep feeling that same way when the results haven't been there?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: You gotta believe in what you're doing, and I think our guys do. We had a great week of work, and I thought they played extremely well. I mean, when you go down in that locker room, those guys are still believing in each other and believing in what we're doing and understanding that it's close. I mean, I have been in seasons like this. I had a season one year we went Oh-fer for the month of October, and then ended up rolling it out and, you know, winning the Holiday Bowl.

We're close. We've just got to -- like I told the guys, we've got to kick that bucket over and get it done.

Q. Coach, Chad President had some nice runs today. Do you anticipate that becoming more part of the game plan as the season progresses? Are you happy in that regard with him?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Yeah, you know, I thought -- he made some really big plays today. Had a couple of throws in there that I liked, made some big plays in a lot of different areas. That's always and has been for the last three or four weeks been part of our package coming in, just allowing him to be more of a threat in the running game and keeping constant what we're seeing.

We're seeing a lot of heavy boxes and trying to get some plus one runs with him, help us a little bit there. That will still be part of the game plan, and I just got to -- I gotta do a better job of trusting those guys and, you know, being a little bit more aggressive, probably.

THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for Coach? Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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