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LOUISIANA TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 21, 2017

Skip Holtz

Ruston, Louisiana

Southern Miss - 34, Louisiana Tech - 27 (2-OT)

Q. Tough one tonight. I think you look over these stats, the things that you have worked on, you came out tackled better in the first half, you played disciplined free football, came out with the first half with no penalties. But here in the end have a lead 4:07 left to go in the game and then the Golden Eagles just back.
SKIP HOLTZ: Yeah, to have a 11-point lead, I thought that Marlon Watts made a great play over here on the sideline and when we were backed up and got the ball all the way down there and then we ended up running it in and you take an a 11 point lead and we just weren't able to hold on to it.

Defensively, I thought we did some really good things, but we weren't very good on third down. We couldn't get off the field. There was a number of third and medium situations and we just couldn't get off the field. It's just unfortunate. As hard as these players work and as supportive of a fan base as we have to come out here and to play at home. And I'm sure there's a message in all this, when you look at some of the way that we have lost games with South Carolina and this one and UAB. But all I know is you better have an incredible amount of resolve. We got talent in that locker room, we've got some willing players that we have got to do a better job as coaches, we have got to put them in better chances to give them a chance to be successful, and we have got to have some resolve. And the thing that happens sometimes when you lose, you get frustrated and but we got to keep this thing together and we just got to continue to battle.

Q. You look at it talk about third down I think clearly the difference in the game you look at the total offensive plays. We only ran 63 plays tonight and they got 98.
SKIP HOLTZ: Yeah. And they also, you look at it, they had 30 first downs to our 15. And that was a big difference. They were really good on third down and we were really bad. We did not throw the ball very well tonight, we did not throw and catch it very well tonight. So we just, again, we got to look at what we're doing, we got to look at who we're doing it with, and we got to find a way to move the ball and put more points on the board for sure.

Q. You talk about that, that was it the throw in motion? I know a lot of passes were short hopped tonight and that's just something that we haven't seen.
SKIP HOLTZ: No, one of J'mar's biggest faults is when he starts over thinking everything. And he starts getting mechanical and over thinking and I don't know what -- I can't speak for him right now. I haven't had an opportunity to really sit down and visit with him. But I know he was as frustrated with it as anybody, but he certainly didn't play with the same confidence, the same stinger that he has played with at other points in times during the year.

I thought that the offensive line came out and I thought they did a really nice job running the ball. I thought the running backs did a nice job of protecting the ball. We just certainly weren't able to throw it very well tonight.

Q. You're still -- the resolve what you talk to your team about, you look North Texas loss today, you still got to play them there's still things to play for, it's not in your hands, the western division is not out of reach.
SKIP HOLTZ: Oh, we got -- and we talked about this before. We can sit down and we have all got goals and what we want to accomplish and you've got your goals, but the first goal on the board is find a way to get bowl eligible and we better start worrying about that. That doesn't happen automatically. That doesn't happen just because you've gone to three in a row. And so as a football team, we got to start sitting down and say okay, let's get the bowl eligibility as quick as we can, let's get to the sixth win. Once you get to that, then you got to look at it and say, okay, do we have any shot at the conference. There's still a lot of football to play, there's still a lot of things that could happen. I've said before the winner of this league could easily have two losses, but we can't just keep losing these close games and they're not going to have three. The winner is certainly not going to have three. And all we can do right now is kind of lick our wounds a little bit over this, we can kind of let the pain and the hurt sink in a little bit, and then we can come back tomorrow and we can find a way to start getting ready to race and find a way to go win one game. We can't win a conference championship this week, we can only win one game. All we can do is find a way to go from 3-4 to 4-4, and that's what we got to find a way to do, we got to find a way to win one game.

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