UNIVERSITY OF TULSA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 18, 2023

Kevin Wilson

Press Conference

North Texas Mean Green 35, Tulsa Golden Hurricane 28

KEVIN WILSON: Again, proud of the guys fighting. Had a poor third quarter offensively. Probably got a little impatient. Didn't get much. Got a few big plays. Played hard. Some big plays, too much rushing yards. Guys battled. A lot of respect. Appreciation for the group. Just on a string of being short and on the wrong side, I think it's four one-possession games we've been short on.

Got to keep fighting to get on the right side of that. But good fight. Proud of the guys. A lot of love for those kids. A lot of love for the Seniors. Disappointed for those guys. Last home game.

Thanksgiving. Got a great week, big Thanksgiving week, a lot to be thankful for, grateful for, this crowd, collectively, individually.

So want to finish with a good week and take a great group of seniors out here. Playing East Carolina will be a tough task, so a lot of respect for North Texas. Thought they were playing really good on offense. Listening to their coaches, it sounded like they wanted to try to run the ball and they did today which kind of hurt us a little bit there.

But again, just disappointed for the outcome but proud of what -- the effort and what the guys are giving us.

Q. How important was that last-minute drive they were able to put together at the end of the second quarter?

KEVIN WILSON: You know, it's been a couple times. We had that like at the Rice game, where you got a little momentum. Popped a couple runs. I think initially, I think they are thinking, hey, get three on the board right before the end of the half and they were able to pop in a big play. It was a nice drive for us to kind of answer, take the lead, and you feel pretty good.

We actually had an opportunity to come back, got about the midfield. We were trying to push it a little without being too greedy because momentum could go sideways. But they scored last in the first half, and they start the third quarter. So basically they win the last of the first half and the first of the second half and that's kind of the difference in the ballgame.

Q. How would you assess Kirk's play at quarterback?

KEVIN WILSON: He's doing well. We've got to help him. I thought just the way we're doing things and their attack, completely different than last week. Last week was a really strong defense that loads it up and gives you one-on-one shots.

These guys are playing that umbrella with multiple coverages. So I thought we would actually struggle to throw the ball. Got to be very smart. He's played well now. Trying to make these throws that aren't there. Thought we would try to see if we could run it and be patient.

But we did get a few things going. I thought we played well. We didn't protect him well once or twice schematically where they kind of wired us on a couple blitzes that we had to adjust, and then once we figured that out, settled down, took care of him. He took a couple hits but he stays composed.

Just we got in that third quarter, and not nothing to do with what's going on in other schools, but it was obvious when we went to a couple pass plays and they dropped everybody and played Cover 2. And then all of a sudden we ran the ball and it's like, hey, they got your signals.

So that's why the last drive we just started bringing them over and telling them the play and huddling up, and then we got some 50/50 calls. All of the sudden we got a last-minute drive and gave ourselves a chance to get in it.

I just didn't do a good job in the third quarter of getting some plays going, and didn't anticipate that maybe we would be battling slightly uphill with some of the calls. And give credit to those guys. They made the right calls. They are playing pass defense on the pass play. That's a little bit of the game and shift in football. There's nothing wrong with that and I'm not complaining about that. Sometimes you know that's going to happen. I didn't sense that going into the game, but all of a sudden, there's a couple calls, like, wait a minute now, there's second three, are you sure you're playing two-deep right now and we are in a spread set.

I looked over and said hey, I think the guy is your signature guy. I think that's where I could help Kirk. I think sometimes Kirk battered (ph) a little bit today uphill. I thought the receivers battered well for him. Protection has been a little bit -- last two weeks, receivers, Carl Chester is playing better. Kam Benjamin, Malachai is playing better, so I appreciate those receivers growing, getting better. And it's helped Kirk and Kirk's -- but he handled it well.

It was unfortunate, I didn't think we could get some of the run game going for Braylon today just with that umbrella, and I thought just talking with Braylon after the game, I thought he handled it well because there is a guy that's been a starter, hadn't played great, been playing some and all of the sudden this game, we went with Kirk. And that wasn't a battlefield emotion as much as I didn't feel there was a lot of quarterback run options for this game the way this thing presented itself to Brandon (ph).

Appreciated talking to him after the game where he's at and like the thing Kirk is doing, I think Cardell dressed today and we're close to getting him back and we'll keep trying to build that room.

Q. When did you decide Kirk was going to be the starter?

KEVIN WILSON: Kind of after last game unless he didn't have a good week of practice. I just thought -- one of Braylon's attributes and he's not been this year sharp. Everybody is fired up about Kirk's 300-yard game last week. Well Braylon had two of them last year. It's only happened four times in the history of the school, and three of them are downstairs in that locker room.

All of a sudden it's one game and you're like, are they anointed. Great game. Your teammates played great. But I thought if he practiced well, I thought with their style of defense, it wasn't going to be a quarterback running things today. I just didn't see that in this plan.

Each week is a little different. You have certain flavors you go with. And I just thought that one of his best deals when you run the nakeds and the bootlegs and you're on the perimeter, there was not a lot of that today because of their structure; and I just kind of felt unless Kirk didn't handle it and Kirk's done well, and at the same time, we'll go back and battle them both this week.

I don't know if Cardell gets in the mix. I don't want him to have any setbacks but those are some young guys that got to keep coming.

Q. Do you have any updates on Owen Ostroski?

KEVIN WILSON: He got an injury to his thumb and I think he's got a chance to maybe be potential, we won't know until Monday but has a chance to probably be a surgical deal. If they have to pin it, I guess it could end his season. Sometimes those injuries, if it's not going to get displaced, you could sometimes club it up and play.

But if there's a chance, especially if it's his thumb, so that's a major -- that's what separates us from a lot of those species, so that's one thing you need functioning well.

So I think our doctors will handle that the right way and if he does need surgery, maybe put a pin or something in it, he'll be done for the season I guess.

Defense played well down the stretch.

Q. If you could talk about Kopenski, obviously three sacks, played his heart out.

KEVIN WILSON: Just love him. Haven't been around long, till the summer but for us, he's one of our guys. Stroll him out there with the captains every week. He's one of our vocal guys. Strong faith kid and shares that a lot with our team in the right kind of way, the way he handles that. But he plays his hard out. K-Ray is out there playing heart out, and like I say a lot of appreciation for a guy who just got here. He's blending in well. The best thing about him is he played well, he practices like that, he trained like that in the summer and he probably is one of the top two, three, four, five guys on our team that the players truly respect because he does it every day. He's a hell of a player.

Q. Going back to your time at OU, I remember you loved to go fast if you can. You've had young quarterbacks and now as young as it gets. You think they have your signals and you have the huddle and everything else. How much has this taken you out of your comfort zone?

KEVIN WILSON: No, we are drawing up some stuff in the dirt now sometimes. We need, dah-dah-dah, and the kids are handling it. I don't want to say it's not like -- the way they are playing us, like by the way we need to do this. You know can we double move this. I thought we had a double move in the first half, and thought we got maybe grabbed.

But at the same time, too, when you're a little guy, are you strong enough to grab and get the hold because sometimes you get more plays when you can fight and compete for it.

I don't feel by any means, I mean, Kirk is as cerebral and Braylon and Cardell have been able to handle things extremely well. Their academic thought process is high. But Kirk's is as high as any of them, his ability to handle information and then process, and it's one thing to have info but what you don't want is clutter. You want to be clean, clear and concise.

So what do you see what does it mean to you and can you trigger and get a throw. It's like a golfer. Quarterbacks can't be that paralysis of analysis guy. You've got to see it, you've got to trust it, you've got to rip it, you've got to know what you see.

And they are seeing things in, my mind, my view, I didn't play quarterback so quite honestly, I don't see that. I don't see that. I see what a southern guard sees a lot of times. When you think about it, I didn't sit in the pocket where guys have views of the game. Of course, Spurrier's dad was one of those guys from the sideline, be looking, hey, where is the curl (ph) because you play the game. And so you know, I think Kirk sees it well, and I don't feel by any means hamstrung and it was not a big deal.

I just felt we were calling plays and all of the sudden he was throwing passes against pass defense and we are running the ball against run defense. I say, let's maybe get this more than 50/50, and with that all of a sudden we go down the field and score.

And I wish we would have the intellect or knowledge to help us early because in the third quarter, they had some tremendous big plays. I think we had fourth and ten we gave up, several, we got stopped, third down, fourth down, conversions, and popped some big plays on us.

I was disappointed in that third quarter offensively that I could not generate the opportunity to get a first down to get a drive to help the defense, and to me, that was the difference in the football game.