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UNIVERSITY OF THE INCARNATE WORD FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEAugust 31, 2019Mar'kel CooksJon CopelandEric MorrisSan Antonio, Texas UTSA - 35, Incarnate Word - 7 ERIC MORRIS: Obviously not the outcome we wanted. I thought they played better in every facet than us, special teams, offense and defense. They controlled the clock. I'm looking at it now, they had the ball 40 minutes, we had it 19 minutes. 3rd down conversions we were 0 of 10, which credit to them, they had a great plan. I called a bad game, didn't have our kids ready in the right spots offensively. They were 8 of 14 on 3rd downs and 2 of 3 on 4th downs. I think they were good in the red zone. So all those things added up over the course of the game. I think we had some chances to kind of get a spark there, never really felt any kind of momentum for our squad. We got the one explosive play and then scored right after, and then after that, nothing really -- we never got clicking and got any kind of rhythm on offense. That starts with me. So got to get that corrected for our kids. Q. What were you impressed by tonight? ERIC MORRIS: Yeah, I think we didn't quit. We played nine true freshmen on defense and four on offense, and so didn't quit at all. The speed was fast for those guys, obviously, and so this will be a group that we have to continue to get better with, and we have a bunch of great leadership on this team and guys that are back, but then also we're playing a bunch of young guys in some key roles, so we're going to have to bring those guys along, and we're just going to have to get better at a lot of things. Q. What can you take from a game like this as you move forward? Is it just seeing the things that were not good today and trying to correct those? What can you take forward? ERIC MORRIS: Yeah, just without watching the film at all, I think we probably had a little bit too much game planned. We had a whole off-season to watch all this tape and we had studied a lot of them, and they came out and they blitzed the dog out of us, which credit to them. Kind of threw us off balance, got us rattled early, and I just never thought we were able to get out of that funk. Without studying the film, we've just got to be able to execute an offense that is good about everything. Whatever they give us, we take it and be able to march up and down the field. Just like I said earlier, we were never in sync offensively, and then defensively I think we got them into some 3rd downs and some opportunities, 3rd and long even, and I think Frank Harris was the X factor today. From last year, you know, just a different deal when he's able to get out of the pocket and rush. I don't even know what he ran for, 129. And not many of them were designed. So that's just him breaking the pocket and being able to extend plays. Q. Mar'kel, what were the challenges trying to stop Frank Harris? MAR'KEL COOKS: He was getting outside the pocket really fast, he was quick, doing everything right. So it was just hard to contain him at times, on 3rd downs especially. We got them in a lot of 3rd downs, we just couldn't get off the field. Q. What was the energy like in the game today, Jon, playing against another San Antonio team? JON COPELAND: Yeah, there was a lot of energy coming into the game, and we were really focused on doing our job and not focusing on the outside noise, and I think our team as a whole did pretty well handling all the fighting and arguing that was going on in the game, and so that was a really big improvement from last year. We had a lot of personal fouls, and it was really a good sign to see our guys be the bigger man and just walk away from all that. Q. You were under pressure a lot in this game. What were the challenges that came with that and how did you try to handle it? JON COPELAND: I just missed my reads. I wasn't making my throws when they were there. There were things that I can work on in practice, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to go back and have a better game plan for myself, so when they did this, I'm going to put the ball here, and I kind of was rushed today, and I didn't do a good job at doing that, so that's something I can really work on. Q. Coach, you mentioned Frank Harris breaking the pocket. We talked about how you knew about him when you were at Tech. What does he bring to this team, for a guy -- you talk about rush, he hadn't played since the eighth game of his senior season at Clemens High School in 2016. That's almost three years ago, and to be able to pick up where he left off, so to speak, what is it about him? Is it his presence and just his running? Is he so deceptive? Seems like you might have him wrapped and he just shakes out. ERIC MORRIS: Yeah, you saw him tonight just like I did from the sideline. Did some great things. He's a guy that people are going to have to put some spies on him, and I thought that we did a good job on the back end for the most part, gave up one long post there at the end, but I thought our coverage was pretty solid throughout the whole game, and he was able to break through out there and scramble for a bunch of 1st downs. Yeah, I mean, I think he'll definitely help this team going forward to be a much better ball club. Q. Coach, you didn't run the ball as much as you were passing today. Is that because of the score or because of what the defense was giving you? ERIC MORRIS: Combination. I think we tried to run it early, and they do a good job. That's what they sell out to do. They play one high defense. They put an extra guy in the box always, so they were able to stop us early, and so I think it was a combination. I probably got away from it maybe a little bit too soon, and we've got to do a better job at just being a little bit more simple as an offense. That way our players can go out there and execute. Difference is that they were bringing pressure from different levels, they were bringing corner blitzes, linebacker blitzes, safety blitzes, so I think that had us a little bit off. We were kind of playing a guessing game as opposed to us just going out there and being able to execute. But credit to them. They did a great job game planning, and that was something that they didn't show on tape to pressure that much, and so full credit to their coaching staff. Q. Coming off all the momentum and hype from last year, was this somewhat of a wake-up call, and how do you use this to fuel the team going forward? ERIC MORRIS: Yeah, I mean, I love those kids in that room. I mean, we have a great unit that's built off of love, and we support everybody in every facet. So we just talked in there, and I told them I'm going to give them my best going forward, not that I haven't already, but they can count on me, and we're going to correct these mistakes. These young guys have got to come along, and so yeah, I mean, we have a special bond. We have a special tight-knit group in there, so we'll go back to work tomorrow. We'll evaluate the film, find out what our mistakes were, get better at them, and on we roll. Q. Coach, you've coached in a lot of stadiums, a lot of games. What was the atmosphere here like tonight in the dome? It's kind of a unique place to play. What was it like for you? ERIC MORRIS: Yeah, I thought it was a great atmosphere. I thought UTSA did a great job at putting some fans in the seats. I thought the entrance was really unique. I had never seen that before, turning the lights off, so I thought it brought a lot of energy to the game right there from the get-go. And so you know, I like how our defense came out. We chose to go defense first, we stopped them to start there, and then we had a little bit of a miscommunication as a staff, didn't call a fake punt, and ran one, which was -- that all falls on my shoulders at the end of the day. I've got to get that corrected. I will. But it was great to see San Antonio out here fully supporting these kids that work so hard. Two great universities, so I thought our kids had a lot of fun. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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