UNIVERSITY OF TULSA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 29, 2022

Philip Montgomery

Press Conference

SMU 45, Tulsa 34

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: All right, you know, hard-fought game. Just dug ourself too big of a hole early in the first half. You know, offensively had the one drive in there that we really executed at a good level. Just not consistent enough offensively in the first half.

Defensively, you know, explosive plays hurt us early. We got to do a better job of eliminating those parts. I think we were there a lot -- a couple times in there. Just comes down just making tackles.

But we didn't help each other. We didn't play off each other very well in the first half. Thought we did some better things in the second half. But, again, couldn't really ever get ourselves climbed back in it.

Had a little bit more opportunity there late, and just weren't able to finish it off. And so if we could have scored there on that last one, put a little bit more pressure on that part of it, you know, who knows what happens.

But those are all ifs and buts. Got to come out of the gates better. Got to come out and play more consistent in the first half, you know, give ourselves a chance in these type ball games.

Q. Talk about Davis and how he's doing or...

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Yeah, at this point, you know, until we really get a chance for the doctors to really truly evaluate him, it would be -- I really don't have solid information.

So heck of a play by him right there on the touchdown run where he did get hurt, but don't really have any more information to add to it yet.

Q. What did you think of Braylon coming in for him?

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Again, did a nice job. Came in, I thought he operated the offense well. Gave us a chance on several different drives. Couple big fourth down conversions in there.

Got him a touchdown in there as well. Made a few good throws. I thought Keylon made a we can heck of a throw on the one where he kind of split the two defenders and caught.

Thought he did a really nice job of operating. Stayed really calm and did what we see him do throughout practice. Came in and operated the offense and did a nice job.

Q. With Davis, the way he went for that touchdown in that sense and still getting drilled, continuing to fight for it, what does that say about his character?

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Just a really gutty, gritty type performance. Obviously didn't quite start the way we wanted to, but really came out the second half and I thought he was operating really well, seeing it well, and had an opportunity -- there was two plays on that drive where he picked up one on a big run and then again right there.

I can't remember exactly how far out we were, but saw the goal line and was relentless towards it. You got to give him a lot of credit for the guttiness of sacrificing your body out there knowing you're fixin' to get hit, but knowing we need the points, and really did a nice job there.

Q. Would you have wanted him to do anything different?

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Until you see it on tape is there a way maybe he could have dove and protected himself a little bit better? I don't know. Couldn't really see. Obviously knew he took a good shot, but got to give him all the credit for going in and knowing that we needed that touchdown and really giving everything he had to get that done.

Q. You told me earlier in the week this is going to be a physical game. Regarding the other players, do you have in any update?

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: I really don't. We just got through in the locker room. Haven't got a chance to talk with Chris or the doctors. Obviously we've got a few guys banged up. Some of that will take time, whether it's MRIs or whatever to figure out the extensiveness of their injury.

Q. Defensively what was the toughest thing about stopping SMU?

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Well, you know, obviously they're explosive, right? I think they do a good job. Obviously Rashee is going to be their top target. We made some good plays on him and had some other ones get away from us on it.

So I thought they did a decent job of spreading the ball around. Used a lot of different running backs in there. Tried to be balanced in what they were trying to do. Hit you inside, hit you outside.

So any time a team is able to do that, you want to make them one dimensional, right? We didn't do enough today to get them in those situations of being one dimensional.

Q. Braylon's first drive, the first play, there was a fumble. Obviously wasn't him. Still, what did you think of how he responded in those following drives?

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Again, Braylon has a lot of confidence. We got a lot of confidence in him. I thought he stepped right back up, took control of the huddle, and gave the type of body language that you need to give as a quarterback in those situations.

So I thought he handled those situations well.

Q. Question for two separate instances. First when that missed field goal happened late in the fourth quarter, what do you say to the players? Then similar to that, what was the message to your team following the game regarding the rest of the season?

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Well, again we dug ourselves a hole. We can't continue to do that part of it. Thought we were resilient in fighting our way back and giving ourselves a chance there late.

But these conference games come down to this. We got to do a good job of getting off to better starts on both sides of the ball. That being said, we still got some goals out there that we want to try to accomplish; those are still available.

It's about coming together and going back to work and trying to really find gutsy ways to go win. Got a great opponent coming in next week. We got to be prepared for it.

Q. You said a couple times just the rough start there, and earlier in the week you talked about with homecoming a lot of stuff going on, distractions. Did you feel before the game your team had the focus that you wanted, or was that just SMU making plays early?

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: No, thought our guys were locked in, thought they were focused. Obviously we took a big punch in the gut there on the first play, but our guys have been in situations before. There is a lot of time left, and we needed to go out and just get ourselves reestablished and calm down, go out and start making plays.

So I thought our guys were prepared. I thought they were ready, focused. I don't think homecoming was that part of it. I think it was just we didn't start the way we wanted to.

We got to do a better job of that.

Q. On that drive that ended with the missed field goal, you guys had the ball at the 8 and there was three straight plays where it was either a sack or the runner was tackled deep. What did you see from that sequence?

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: We just got to do a better job, right? Obviously you're in an area that from a space standpoint there is not a lot of room to work. You got to be really precise about what you're trying to do and get accomplished. Got to do a good job giving the quarterback time a little bit in some of those areas. We got to do a good job of getting the ball out on time. And so we had a couple missed cues to finish that drive.

We had a couple missed cues to finish that drive off. We had some really good plays with that drive to get us down there. Just got to do a better job finishing.

Q. Zach Long has been so good for you all season long. I guess what did you say to him afterwards? He's become the kicker that you wanted.

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: We got tons of faith in Zach in those situations. Obviously we'll look at the tape and see what happened, but just didn't operate as well right there as we normally do from an execution standpoint. We'll look at the tape and see where we kind of fell off and kind of what happened.

But doesn't change the way we think about Zach and having the type of confidence that you need to have in him and him having in himself to step out there and go make big kicks.

Q. And then if Davis is unable to go, how confident are you with Braylon moving forward with this offense?

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Like I told you before, I think all of our quarterbacks, I think we got a good quarterback room. Those guys are continuing to grow. They got a good understanding of our offense and we'll be confident in whoever lines up back there at quarterback.

And moving forward, think our team feels the same way.