UNIVERSITY OF TULSA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 19, 2023

Kevin Wilson

Press Conference

Rice 42, Tulsa 10

KEVIN WILSON: Again, didn't by no means play well. Rice did a really good job controlling the second half. Turnovers early. Our Achilles' heel all year. Got us for three in the first quarter. Weathered the storm, a nice two-minute drive.

Second half both sides of the ball we didn't do anything offensively. Mentioned our defense wore down. Kind of embarrassed with the way we finished.

Like our group, like the way they're working. Don't like our result. Keep looking at it to do what we can to finish strong this year.

Q. You talk about playing both quarterbacks, quarterbacks in the game at the same time. At what point were you originally planning after starting Braxton to play Williams?

KEVIN WILSON: Just kind of felt neither one has demonstrated, separated, ready to day okay totally you're the guy. Cardell has played enough. Braxton's only competition was in the rain last week. So what we're seeing in practice, play, they're kind of even.

I just thought, not trying to quote, be fair, but in fairness to both of them, I thought they both deserved to play. We had an injury with Tahj Gary, he wasn't able to go. Thought we were down at back. A reason to get both of them on the field a little bit, kind of help the running back situation a little bit.

But we were going to play 'em both. If a guy makes a bad play, wasn't going to yank a guy. Weren't trying to have competition. I think right now they're both kind of similar now. The offense doesn't change significantly from one to the other.

Again, we start out with both those guys contributing to three turnovers. That's been our Achilles' heel. They both show some size, but a lot of inconsistency.

Going forward, it's not going to be a revolving door. I saw Cardell make a poor throw, maybe got a little cold, wasn't in rhythm because he had an open receiver toward the end he missed with just a poor throw, which is unusual.

Just trying to get them better. Right now no one is separated so we'll kind of keep playing them short-term. It wasn't like, hey, second drive you're in, third drive you're in.

I thought the way Braylon finished, he has some great leadership skills, start with him. Cardell, going to play the two quarterback package, get you in the game. We kind of went back and forth a little bit.

We'll look at it. If it was a part of some of our inconsistency. I don't think it had anything to do with us missing pass protection, pass blocks, not running the ball well.

But we'll look at that and make sure we are giving our team the best chance to win. Today we thought it gave us the best chance trying to play both of them.

Q. On defense, seems like you had momentum. The drive at the end of the half...

KEVIN WILSON: Good drive by those guys. You look at it, you weather the turnovers a little bit, you kind of play the end of the first quarter and second quarter playing good defense till that drive.

If you look the numbers, there's about the same for both sides. You take our turnovers out, we're in a 14-10 game. We had had a chance one time. Went for it, fourth and short. Didn't get it. We left some points on the board there.

But you're probably playing the first half kind of even. They did have a good drive. We come out with three plays of nothing to start the second half. They score. Put Cardell in. Miscommunication on the second play. Punt again. They score. Kind of a slow death march for us there.

Q. From your perspective, what is it that's going into these turnovers early and the slow starts?

KEVIN WILSON: We went through the other day and showed them, this is the first game, second game, third game, fourth game, some things in the first quarter. We changed a little bit of some things we did what I would call Friday and Saturday. Just slight with the meeting structure, just for whatever.

We practiced well, but we've started slow. It's concerning. It's been kind of everyone. I mean, I think Braylon's opinion, the first play he's trying to make a play when he's outside the pocket. It's over, dead, got to check down, throw it away. Protection broke down. All of a sudden you're throwing a layup interception.

We run a double-move play that maybe we could have thrown, didn't. Cardell starts hanging, gets the ball knocked out. You're outside the pocket. If it's not there, throw it away. We were trying to drive, be aggressive.

I think you take the OU game out where I tried to be a little bit more aggressive. There's probably been four or five plays - don't do that - in six games. It's not been as bad.

My thought going into this game was we played a little close to the vest. We needed to push it, get the ball down the field, get the ball out in space a little bit more. I told them that I could hold their hands like we're a kindergarten teacher or we need to try to push our way through it. Some of it backfired.

I think we've got to grow through it. We'll keep working. It's got to be eliminated if we're going to be a good team. Winning teams don't do that. For us too win, we need to eliminate that. We'll just keep working at it is all I can say.

Q. What do you tell your guys as you get ready to play a team picked top two in the conference on the road?

KEVIN WILSON: I don't really get into that as much just coming out the game. We had a great vibe with our guys and we're going to stay together. We're not pointing fingers and mad. We need to play better. We need to coach better. We need to game plan better. We need to play better. Everybody, let's just make sure we're doing the best we can.

We're not going to get negative. If you do, we'll have some issue with that 'cause I'm not going to be that way with you. We're going to work our way through it. A bunch of old guys that are quality, great people, that have loved, given so much. I want to see those guys finish strong and have success down the end.

We laid an egg as an offense and defense tonight. It's kind of tough to swallow. But we're not going to cast those guys under the bus. We're going to fight our way through it, have a good week, put it together. Get a chance to play Thursday night. Catch our breath a little bit. We can reflect and analyze a little bit. At the same time we're going to do our darnedest to stay together and finish strong.

Q. Back to the quarterbacks. Cardell threw it a little bit more than Braylon. Was that by design or the randomness of the game?

KEVIN WILSON: A couple times I called a couple maybe designed quarterback runs for Braylon being a little bit bigger. Not as many for Cardell. A good runner, but not as big. Sometimes I try to minimize the context. Braylon got a few more designed runs. Then I don't know, maybe just with the flow of the game where a couple of third downs, where he got a few more.

My thing with both those guys, we had several first down or second down calls, we need to throw this ball here. It didn't work sometimes. But we needed to not run it for one or two, one or two. We got to get our running game going. Running game has been okay now the last two weeks. We got to get our running game going with our linemen blocking better, getting our running backs going. Our running backs have not played that well. Our normal running game has not been good. A little bit more quarterback fed.

That being said, I could probably feature Brax a little bit more in the run. Maybe those plays got skewed, not throwing the ball because he was the quarterback or throwing it more because Cardell was the quarterback.

I did call a couple of runs with Braylon being the bigger runner. I did that a couple times. That was my call.

Q. Is more on the backs or offensive line?

KEVIN WILSON: Combination. I felt last week we didn't block as well up front during the game. I didn't feel that. We had some decent runs.

Again, we're kind of a grind-it-out offense right now. We're not popping. A quarterback run might pop or a throw. We're having a hard time finding chunk plays. As we move, if we get off schedule, get the second and 11, third and nine, we're having a hard time staying on the field the last couple weeks.

Guys have a good weekend.