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LOUISIANA TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 4, 2017

Skip Holtz

Ruston, Louisiana

North Texas - 24, Louisiana Tech - 23

COACH HOLTZ: Frustrating to be so close and yet being in this position again where we couldn't close out a game late in the fourth quarter.

To have the lead, it was -- it's hard. I mean, it's hard, I know, for the players. It's hard for the coaches. It's hard for our fans. It's hard for the alumni, the administration, to watch it all be so close and not be able to get it done.

I thought it was a hard-fought game on both sides. I thought it was a very physical game on both sides. I give Seth Littrell a lot of credit for the job he's done with that program.

I thought defensively, I think we didn't play very well in the first quarter -- I wouldn't say that. I would say that in the first quarter we played a lot more zone coverage and Mason, their quarterback, did a great job of picking us apart, was throwing the ball very accurately.

Then we went to more man. And I thought the defense played really well after that. I had a decision to make in this game on fourth and two in the fourth quarter and I made a decision to kick the field goal because I wanted to put pressure on them to score a touchdown rather than kick a field goal.

And in hindsight, yeah, I'd go back and I'd go for it. But looking at it at the time putting a little pressure on them to score a touchdown and not be able to tie it up with a field goal. And I thought offensively there were some solid performances, some guys did some really good things.

We did not have many big plays when you look at this game, and that has been the thing that we've got to be able to create more explosive plays because we're trying to work our way down the field and we would have a lost yardage play. We'd have a miscue. We'd have a penalty and it put us behind the chains and it just made it really hard. I give them a lot of credit. I thought they played hard. They made the plays they needed to down the stretch but just very frustrating on our end to be as close as we have in so many of these games and not be able to close them up.

I told the team, we're not going to put our head in the sand. We're not going to pout. We're not going to have a pity party. We're as close as we are and we're certainly not going to quit. We have a really good football team coming in here next week. We've got 24 hours to kind of mourn it and then we've got to come into this team meeting room tomorrow night and gotta be ready to play.

We've gotta get ready to go because we've got another great challenge this week. So we'll just have to see where the bumps and bruises are, who is going to be in, who is going to be out. And then we'll have to put it together and get ready to go play again next week.

So it's just frustrating to be this close and not be able to get it done, especially when there's so many great individual performances but as a team we're close again, we've just got to find a way to close that door.

Q. Are these the types of losses when you're looking at the film are just eating away at you?
COACH HOLTZ: Yeah. I mean, it eats away at you when you lose a game. But what's frustrating is again you look back and go, golly, if I would have called this. If we would have done that. You know what I mean? What could we as coaches have done? And that's where you eat yourself up. Would I have done it differently if I to do it all over again?

The players are asking the question: Golly, if I only caught that ball, made that block, wouldn't have had that penalty, to be that close. If I would have made that tackle. If I would have, God, just squeeze that one gap.

I mean, everybody -- that's what's frustrating when you lose a close game, and that's why it eats at everybody. But it's certainly, as a head football coach, that's my responsibility to get this team straight. And we're going to continue to bang that rock until we can get it straight because I believe there's some talent on this team.

I believe there's some guys on this football team that are going to be excellent football players, and I believe in what we're doing as a program right now. We've just gotta keep banging that rock.

Q. What was the conversation like on the sideline when it came down fourth down, you had to decide between a 53-yard field goal or going for it?
COACH HOLTZ: At the very end?

Q. Yes.
COACH HOLTZ: It was fourth and 12 and you've got a kicker that has a leg to get it that far. If you go for it and you don't make it on fourth down, on fourth and 12, I think we averaged about 10 yards a completion today because we didn't have any big plays. You know what I mean? Nothing to really stretch the field.

And I think if you've got a kicker like Jonathan Barnes, who you trust that much, you're in his field goal range, you make the first -- you know what I mean? You kick the field goal.

On third down, I mean, we ran a run on second down that was, you know, a play we've run since I've been here. We had a missed block. We had a lost yardage play, came back, made a third down call. Thought maybe we had an opportunity. I wasn't trying to get the ball down the field.

But when J'mar got pressure, he had to run out of the pocket and he ended up throwing the ball deep down the field to Marlon Watts, down that sideline. But really all I was trying to do was I was trying to get a first down, get an eight- to ten-yard completion, and if we were short, at least get ourselves that much closer to a field goal.

Q. When you have a kicker like Jonathan with the ball with five minutes left to play, only down by one, is the play calling designed to eat up the clock, just kick the field goal, or do you want him to score?
COACH HOLTZ: No, we threw two deep balls there, you know what I mean? Two deep balls that went down the field. You're trying to score a touchdown. Now obviously when you get in third and three, you try and make a first down. But you're trying to score. That was the whole mindset.

I really didn't want to give them the ball back with any time. We've been in that scenario a couple times this year. So once we had the ball, I wanted -- it wasn't a two-minute mindset, hurry, hurry, hurry. We had five minutes, you know what I mean? Let's drive the field.

We're not in a panic mode at this point. Unfortunately, we got across the 40-yard line, and we kind of stalled there with a loss-yardage play and an incomplete pass and found ourselves in a third-and-long situation where we ended up kicking the field goal without making the first down but we were trying to score.

You want a touchdown. It would have made it easy. There was a couple times we split through them and blocked everybody up front, and we had one-on-one in the open field. We just weren't able to shake that one guy and make him miss because there was a lot of green grass behind him.

Q. Watching them drop field and take the lead there, was that kind of like watching a recurring bad dream?
COACH HOLTZ: Defensively, we did so many good things in this game. We did so many good things. And we were able to get off the field.

But, yeah, it's frustrating when the game's on the line and you've got a lead that we're not able to protect it. It's also frustrating to have the opportunity as an offense from the 40-yard line, where you've got first and 10, and not be able to make a first down or get yourself in a little closer field goal range.

The offense had their opportunities in this game. But certainly the offense can't point their finger at the defense, and the defense had a lead when they stepped onto the field in the fourth quarter. And they couldn't protect it.

So, I mean, there's a lot of great individual efforts. And that's why I don't think you can say, oh, they're bad or they're good. You know what I mean? This was them.

You can't start pointing fingers. There's plenty of people that are going to do that on the outside. And on the inside, what we have to do is look at it, say what do I need to do as a head coach to do a better job to put this team in a position to win late in the games.

And that's what we've got to continue to look at. And our team has to look at it like what do I need to do -- what could I have done to help turn the tides of this game? And that's the only way to get better. And we still have three games. I know with where we are with three losses you're not talking about the conference.

There was a mathematical chance with where it was, coming into this game and the opportunity we had to play at home. But losing this game, there's not a mathematical chance. And now we've got to get ourselves -- right now you're trying to compete to get in a bowl eligibility situation, because right now we're 4-5, and we've got three games left.

And we get to play two of them at home. We're going to need to find a way to win one game at a time and approach this one week to week, with what we're doing. But certainly frustrating to be this close and not be able to get it done.

Q. You mentioned the three games left, still needing two wins to be bowl eligible. Are you preaching an overarching thing for the final three games, or is it just let's focus on the next week?
COACH HOLTZ: We've got to find a way to win a game. It was like last week, the best thing we could do to help this program was beat Rice.

This week the focus, we weren't talking about conference champions, if they beat them, if they beat them -- let's find a way to win a game.

Let's put all our efforts, energies into North Texas, let's find a way to win North Texas. Let's find a way to get one win. You win North Texas, find a way to get FAU.

Let's just stay focused. We don't have the luxury to look at the four-week picture right now. You've got to climb in and put both feet in the boat to try to do what you gotta do to beat North Texas. And that's the approach we're going to take again this week with FAU.

Q. When I talked to you guys at Media Day in Dallas over the summer, going from talking about we want to win the conference championship but we're going to go to another bowl game, we're going to try to do really big things this year. Now that the whole mentality has shifted to: We've got to do something just to win a game, how tough has that been just to see the mentality shift?
COACH HOLTZ: I think the goals of your program every year, we want to win a conference championship. That's something that you want to do. We don't sit here in August and put up conference championship every game. We talk about what we need to do to get better, what we need to do to improve.

I think what this team has overcome to put themselves in a position to be as competitive as they have been has been incredible. I've said this before.

You look at the moving chairs you've had on the offensive line and some of these positions, you get Outlaw back and O'Shea Dugas is down.

So you're sliding Ethan Reed from right guard to left guard so Shane Carpenter can play right guard and to still put yourself in a position where you have a chance I think has been pretty incredible.

So I certainly don't look at it like, oh, this has really been hard, because we shot for the stars, you know what I mean, and we missed. And we're still close. And like I said, there's a lot of seniors that sit on the front row of this team meeting room that I'm not willing to come in here and say: It's too hard, we quit. Let's not try anymore. Let's throw our arms up.

What we're going to do is roll our sleeves up and find out what we can do for FAU. Again, you want to look at the big picture. We're trying to find a way to win a game. And that was our approach week one. That was our approach week two.

I sit up here every week and say 1-0 mentality, that's coach's talk -- no, that's football talk. And that's what you have to do as a football team. That's how you have to look at it inside of a team meeting room. We don't have the luxury to look at the big picture. We have to roll our sleeves up and we've got to compete.

And, ultimately, it falls on my shoulders. I'm the head football coach. And it has been frustrating because you feel like you're putting your fingers in holes in the dam, and as soon as you get one clogged up or get somebody back, another one pops.

And injuries are part of this game, everybody is dealing with them this time of year, but we've got to find a way to get some of these close wins and get them closed up and find a way to win a game.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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