UNIVERSITY OF TULSA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 1, 2022

Philip Montgomery

Press Conference

Cincinnati 31, Tulsa 21

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: You know, I thought there was some give and take in there. I thought really both teams' defenses played -- at times both defenses played well. Just got to be a little more consistent across the board. You get in these big ballgames like this, two good teams going at each other, trying to find little seams and little opportunities. Didn't make the most of all of our opportunities that we had.

But that being said, first game of conference play. Got a lot of games left in front of us right here. Got to do a good job of trying to get back healthy, get back on the right end of this deal, and we've got a big game next week with Navy.

Q. Can you talk about the decision to have Davis come in and what you saw from him in this game?

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: You know, I thought Davis played well. We've got to do a better job of giving him a little bit more time. I thought we had some things open, but got to give him a little bit more time to be able to do that.

Obviously hampered a little bit where not being able to really escape as much, but in a lot of those I don't think whether he was 100 percent or not he could have escaped.

We've got to do a little bit better job obviously in our pass pro. Got to do a little bit better job running the ball. I thought we were a little hit and miss tonight, and I thought we needed to get something a little more established.

Q. Prince came in and did some good things for you; I know it's nice to have him back. Did you know all week he was going to be playing?

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Yeah, we found out early in the week that we were going to have the opportunity to have him back. I thought he did some nice things, obviously. Older guy there, experienced guy, very talented, and I think he'll just get better and better as we go.

Q. Talk about that 4th down play with Braxton in and the decision to throw it and how that play ended up.

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Yeah, I thought Braylon did a nice job, threw a good ball, very catchable ball. I thought Ethan did a nice job of going up for it. Had an opportunity to score right there, and it comes down to small little details.

Tough decision right there, 4th and 1. I didn't think -- it's a 10-point ballgame. We're sitting there on the 1. Time is kind of running out. Felt like it was the right decision to try to go ahead and get the touchdown there where you have an opportunity to be able to move the football and get a field goal late to try to tie it up.

I thought we had a good opportunity, and we just didn't capitalize on it.

Q. Defensively against the pass, I thought your team did a pretty good job and obviously came up with a huge pick near the end of the game to get you in scoring position. If you could talk about how you did against the pass.

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Yeah, I thought we did some nice things in there. There's a couple of explosive plays that you want back, but the pick right there late by Jayce was an unbelievable play. Really got some pressure on the quarterback there late in the game. That was good to see, as well.

But I thought throughout, we did some good things versus the run. We did some good things versus the pass. We've got to continue to keep getting better, continue to keep growing. But defense gave us an opportunity to get the ball back in really good field position, and we've got to capitalize on it.

Q. What can you say about the animosity between the teams and kind of how it seemed to boil over there at the end?

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Well, you know, I think our guys were trying to get over to our sideline. Some of them went to see their folks that are sitting right over there. I thought our guys were trying to handle the situation properly. Felt as though we were trying to do our best to do the things that we needed to do to end the game right.