UNIVERSITY OF TULSA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 17, 2022

Justin Wright

Press Conference

Tulsa 54, Jacksonville State 17

JUSTIN WRIGHT: Hello. Hi.

Q. Justin, talk about your interception. The game wasn't out of hand then, still early in the game. Talk about, you know, big interception, cut in front of the guy.

JUSTIN WRIGHT: As a linebacker, you don't come across many interceptions -- or, I mean, in my experience, I don't come across a lot of interceptions. So when I do, it's obviously awesome.

But, you know, going back -- I've seen the play a little bit, but you can look at our D-line, at our coverage, our safeties, you know, our corners during that play. They allowed me to get that interception just as much as I did. And I immediately came off to the sideline after celebrating a little bit, you know, because I was happy, and I said thank you to them. You know, they did their job so I could do mine. It was awesome.

Q. Talk about overall defensive performance. I mean, outstanding all around -- (no microphone) -- late in the game so just talk about that.

JUSTIN WRIGHT: I think defense overall, I think we did awesome. They got us with some quarterback run plays that, you know, we were expecting, to be honest, but we weren't -- I think tempo got us a little bit. But we stayed in there. We battled. We bowed up when we needed to bow up. Yeah, they scored a couple times, but that's football. You're not going to be perfect even though you're going to try to be perfect.

But overall, I'm very proud with our defense. That being said, we've still got a lot of work to be done. And I'm excited for this next week. 24-hour rule.

Q. You were part of two turnovers you guys got, generating turnovers, got a couple sacks tonight as a team. How important is it to get those -- those kinds of things weren't happening as much in the previous games.

JUSTIN WRIGHT: They're big. Sacks are huge. You know, the best coverage is a rush, you know, a defensive line getting the pass coverage pretty much. Those are huge for our defensive line, for our linebackers. For anybody to get a sack, it lightens the load for that next play. It's manageable. I mean, you're not tensed up. You're not -- you know, you're not thinking anything less of that team, by any means, but, you know, it's good. It's awesome.

Q. Talk about -- the offense scored points on 6 of their first 7 drives. What does that do for the defense whenever your offense is just scoring at will like that?

JUSTIN WRIGHT: Like I said, it takes a huge load off of you. I mean, you've got to go out there. You've got to keep working, obviously, as a defense, you know, hopefully to leave that number a 0, you know, for the opposing team.

But, you know, when our offense is clicking like that, you get a sense of pride as a team, you know, like, wow, like, this is great. You get to go out there, hopefully get a three and out, and it means that much more.

Q. Last game you guys got out to a big lead early and it kind of dwindled as the game went on. Was that at all in your minds this time, like we're not going to let that happen this time?

JUSTIN WRIGHT: Of course. All week we've been preaching on finishing and running to the ball, not giving up on stuff, you know. The second half of practice we tried going, you know, even harder than we did the first half.

And even when we came inside to the locker room today or tonight, we were preaching it the whole time, like don't let up. We're not going to let up. Keep going, you know, as hard as you can.

Q. What was it like to -- I mean, to get -- see the backups get in there and get some playing time? How did you think they did?

JUSTIN WRIGHT: I think they did fairly well, you know, for -- I mean, those guys deserve it. Those guys -- I think TU is going to be very -- very blessed these next few years, you know, with the guys that we have backing up me, you know, giving me rest when I need it, you know, coming in when I get hurt or whatnot. And when I'm long gone and when a lot of these veteran guys are gone, I think TU is going to be in good hands.

Q. Justin, this might have already been asked. I was cutting some stuff to get it live for TV. You've got to love that.

Just picking up your guys' first sack. You know, you, interception, fumble recovery, I mean, you played out of your mind. But just as a defense as a whole, what did you think of the performance?

JUSTIN WRIGHT: I thought it was awesome. You know, us not getting sacks the first two games, no excuses or anything, but we played pretty run heavy offenses. And for the most part, I think we've done fairly well with the run game. And those guys hadn't gotten a lot of opportunities to get sacks. And tonight they did.

And, you know, we talked about it all week of getting quarterback pressure. You know, we knew he was a running quarterback. They like to run the ball. A lot of eye candy stuff that gets you moving. And D-line had one job this week, and that's to get back to the quarterback.

Q. I know you and Davis are very close. What is different about him this year, man, because he's been able to throw passes, the receivers are catching things that I haven't seen in a long time. I mean, you're seeing it as well. What's different about Davis this year?

JUSTIN WRIGHT: Davis is my good buddy. And I think -- I think him just coming together with that offense and being so close to those group of guys on, like, wide receiver, O-line. He has cookouts at his house all the time. The camaraderie of the offense itself is awesome. I'm jealous because, you know, I want to invite some D-lines, some of the defensive guys over to my house, you know, me and Goodlow. But I think him just having that extra year of experience under his belt. You can obviously tell that he's going off. He's having a hell of a -- a great season. Sorry. Having a great season. And I can't be -- I couldn't be happier for him.

Q. You're not invited because you'd eat all the food. But joking aside. Old Miss this week, coming off of a big win like this, is this at the right time to be facing an SEC team?

JUSTIN WRIGHT: You know, getting a win this week, it's not going to make us have a big head or, you know, go into that game lightly, you know, because it's a big game. But we're going to approach it like we would any other game. We're going to go into practice the same way we did this week and go hard the whole practice, second half of practice go even harder.

And I think are coaches are going to be doing the same thing. I think they're going to be coaching the same thing that they've been preaching to us all this week and all of this season so far.

So I don't think much is going to change. I think we're going to have to be more disciplined, obviously, with that caliber of team, but, yeah.

Sweet. Thank you all.