UNIVERSITY OF TULSA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 2, 2021

Phil Montgomery

Press Conference

UC Davis - 19, Tulsa - 17

PHIL MONTGOMERY: Hats off to UC Davis. I thought they played a really good game, stayed ahead of the chains, for the most part, I thought they executed well on both sides of the football, gave us some different looks than what we have seen. But I thought they played well.

As far as our side goes, I mean, we just got a lot of work to do. Had things open, had some success here and there, but just inconsistent with all of that. Our play has got to be better. We have got to be better in all three phases.

That being said, one game doesn't make our season. We just know we got a lot of work to do. We got to get back on the practice field. Got a big test next week and got to get prepared and get ready.

Q. As veteran as this squad is, how disappointing is it to feel like you have a lot of work to do?

PHIL MONTGOMERY: Yeah, I mean, it's like I told those guys earlier today, we're a different team. This is a new year. We have got to find our identity and who we're going to be this year. We can't live off of what happened last year. We're talking about right here, right now, and veteran or not, we have got to go to work and we got to come together as a football team and get ready to excel.

Q. On defense, how much did it affect things not having some of your guys out there?

PHIL MONTGOMERY: It is what it is on that part of it. So we'll have those guys all back next week and be ready to play.

Q. I know that you worked so hard to cut down on penalties in the off-season and pre-season, so how frustrating was that to see that tonight?

PHIL MONTGOMERY: Well, yeah, you know, I'll have to see them all on tape. I really wanted to really cut down on those self-inflicted ones. I mean, you're going to get a holding here and there. You may get a face mask. One or two of those face masks were just kind of in the throws of things and that generally happens at time to time. But the self-inflicted wounds are the ones we got to eliminate and we still got work to do.

Q. Why do you think the offense, it seemed like it was close at times, why do you think it never really settled in and found a rhythm?

PHIL MONTGOMERY: Yeah, you know, like I said, it's a new year, new faces in there, so got to continue to work and come together. Offense is about timing and rhythm, gelling. Again, I'm not taking anything away from UC Davis, but I felt like most of the time it was us stopping us more than the other way around.

So we had things open. Either we missed them, we had our eyes in the wrong spot, had good runs in there, needed to put it together. And, again, you got to sustain drives and make those things happen and stay ahead of the chains. We have got work to do when it comes to that.

Q. Your out-of-the-gate thoughts on Davis, how he played?

PHIL MONTGOMERY: Again, there was a lot of hype coming into it with him, after the quarter and a little bit that he's played. But you got to remember, he's still, this is his first start, first rattle right out of the box. At times, I thought he did some really nice things and other times we got work to do.

The one thing you know about him, he's very competitive, he's a guy that's going to look at that tape and grow from it and come out and be better starting with practice and then leading up to games.

Q. It's a veteran team that accomplished a lot last year and probably felt like it could do a lot this year and didn't expect it to start this way. How do you hope they process this and bounce back?

PHIL MONTGOMERY: Like I told them downstairs, we got to come together and we got to go back to work. We have always been a program that has grinded. Work has never been our issue. We got to show up on the practice field, put all the other stuff aside, and go back to work and put diligent work in and be focused on what we got to do to get better.

Q. Prince busted the touchdown run and carried down to about the 10. I think you got a blindside block called that marched you back. That seemed like your one shot to maybe breathe a little bit. Did you get a sense --

PHIL MONTGOMERY: I thought that was a pretty important drive, obviously. I mean, he gets the big run. I don't remember exactly where we were, but I think we were inside the 10 or close to it. I haven't seen the block. I mean, I have to see kind of what happened on that part of it.

But, yes, I thought there was a lot of momentum in that. We go ahead and punch it in there, get a little bit of separation, and I thought that was a crucial point of the game.

But I would tell you the same thing on the last drive. I mean, had a good drive, put some really good things together, obviously, you convert there, you kind of go up and you're in a different scenario there. So there's, it's never one play. It's never one drive. It's multiple things throughout a game. We had our chances. We just got to capitalize on those.

Q. Anything surprise you about tonight that you didn't see coming, for better or for worse, probably more worse given the result, but did you get a pretty good sense coming in you guys were ready to play, all that stuff?

PHIL MONTGOMERY: I thought we were ready to play. I thought our guys were locked in. Obviously, with the first game, there's a lot of unknowns when it comes to it, so just got to continue to keep working and that's where our mindset's got to be.