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UNIVERSITY OF TULSA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 15, 2018

Philip Montgomery

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Arkansas State - 29, Tulsa - 20.

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Obviously disappointed in the loss. Got to take your hat off to Arkansas State and Blake. I thought they did a nice job. A good football team. I think we just didn't come out the first half and play very well, took the opening drive, went down and scored, and then really just sputtered offensively there in the first half. Defense had to stay on the field way too much there in the first half.

I thought the second half, came out and you had the turnover there early, first play there, after picking up good yards, and put our defense in a bind again. But then we kind of started getting on track.

But you can't wait that long, and you've got opportunities, you've got to take advantage of them. Had opportunities in the first half that we didn't -- I've got to do a better job of making sure that we're all in the right spot, and we've got to do a better job of just executing at a better level.

I thought our defense at times tonight really played well, and again, I thought in the first half they were just on the field way too much. Did a little bit better job of keeping them off the field in the second half and got some better drives and established some things. I thought our tempo in the second half was much better, and I thought that helped us tremendously.

That being said, we've got a five-day turnaround, so in five days we're right back on the field, and we've got a tough Temple team who I think won today versus Maryland. We've got our hands full. We've got to travel all the way up there, so we've got to learn from this one, let this go, and get focused on the next one and not let this one carry over into this five-day turnaround.

Q. You mentioned opportunities. It doesn't come down to one play, but that safety ended up being pretty big. What was supposed to happen on that play?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: We were just running a jet play that we've been executing really well. They slanted the front, and we just didn't handle slant very well, got penetration up inside. If we get to the outside, I think it's fixing to be a big hitter, but just didn't get it communicated up front. They had a good call into it, and we didn't handle it very well.

Q. Given obviously an ability to come back in games, did you feel pretty good about how things were going heading into that play?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Yeah, I know we're backed up. That being said, plenty of time on the clock, and I think really we'd established some things offensively, felt confident about taking it down the field. I thought we had plenty of time to do that. We were down by seven at that point, and being able to get points on the board will tie the ballgame up, still have some time left, and we'll see where we're at at that point.

Q. You mentioned the offense sputtering. Are we maybe not giving enough credit to the opposing defenses? What do you attribute those issues to when it seems to be coming up?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Yeah, I mean, we played three really good defenses right here in a row. I thought they did a good job schematically. You know, more importantly, though, I think it's us not executing at the level we need to execute at. There's a lot of times where it's just -- it's one thing. We didn't -- slid off a block here, if we maintain that block, we've got a big run. We've got guys open. If we can just have half a second longer, maybe we get that. We have a guy open, and we just miss him. Not from the standpoint of didn't see him, we just were a little high with this or high with that, and then you end up in down and distance situations where you've got to go convert. There was a couple times we shot ourselves in the foot with some penalties. That really backed us up. Our second drive we're taking it right down the field. I mean, I have to see it on tape, we get a holding penalty that kind of backs us back up out of that, puts us in a hole or I think we score right there.

You know, things like that that we have to eliminate on our part.

Q. It's got to be frustrating when the execution isn't there for long periods of the game because you know it's possible because other long periods it's there.
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Yeah, and it's about being consistent, especially offensively, and that's -- we've been hot and cold too much, and we've got to be a more consistent offense. I thought our tempo was much better in the second half. I thought we mixed it up. We did a good job of hitting some underneath stuff. We had some shots down the field that could have been big plays. I thought our running game came out and established something there in the second half, and I think our offensive line really came out in the second half and did a much better job from that standpoint.

Q. At some point do you go back to the drawing board somewhat, or do you feel like you guys are headed the right direction still?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: I mean, I think our plan is there, and we've just got to execute at a better -- we're not going to go back and all of a sudden throw everything away and reinvent the wheel. We've just got to be more consistent offensively. We're showing flashes of what we can do and how we can play. Now we've just got to do it more consistently.

Q. Can you talk at all about Christian Williams?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Christian, you know, been a tough week for us from that standpoint, and Christian is coming off his best game ever. Led our team in tackles last week, did an outstanding job, was playing at a really, really high level. He noticed some things in fall camp, and it had nothing really to do with football. I mean, he was coughing and sneezing, started feeling some pains in his right arm. All of that to be said, give credit to Dr. Boone and our team doctors. You know, it happened once, we did some X-rays, did some stuff, just to make sure. We thought it was like a little pinched nerve type deal. It reoccurred. Give a lot of credit to Christian, too. Was able to really articulate to Dr. Boone kind of what his symptoms were, and then Dr. Boone started doing a lot of research, and then I can't remember which day it was. He had five different MRIs done with a contrast, and we found that he has and has had it since probably birth, but he has a cyst in his spinal column, and it has grown for whatever reason. Don't know.

And there was too much -- there was not enough space really left with the cyst doing what it's doing. Now, he is perfectly fine. He's not in any type of tragic type situation from the standpoint of just being a regular person and health. That being said, if he took a shot or a load of some certain stance, this could paralyze him. And so very, very tough on Christian and our football team. Very proud of Christian and the way he's handling it. But at this point right now, his football playing days are probably over. They can do a surgery, but even if they do the surgery, you can't play again after the surgery. Like I said, he's going to live a great, normal life. He's going to get a great education right here that's going to carry him through. He's going to continue to be part of our family and a part of our football team and help us in a lot of different ways. But it's a pretty -- that's a pretty tough talk to sit down and have with a young man, and a guy that's been a great leader for us that has worked his tail off and was playing the best he's ever played.

And the tough part about that is it's like dropping a bomb, you know, because for the most part, he feels fine. Even all of us have to hang up our cleats at one point in time or another, but you kind of have an idea that it's coming. It's my senior year, I want to go to the next level, am I going to have that opportunity, but I know there's a chance that it could be over. This is one of those deals where he's playing the best he's ever played, he's right in the thick of it, he's just coming off the best game he ever played, and then all of a sudden to say I've got to pull your pads and it's over is tough.

He's one of those guys that's very contagious in our locker room. He's still going to be a huge part of what this team and this football program is about. We're just going to have to do it in a different way now.

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