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CONFERENCE USA CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: CENTRAL FLORIDA v TULSADecember 1, 2012Bill BlankenshipTULSA, OKLAHOMA UCF – 27 COACH BLANKENSHIP: I guess we had to find something to finish the game that we hadn't done before. Done about everything else. This team came from behind. They played in the lead.  They've done all those things. And I just couldn't be prouder. This is a great moment for these players and hopefully for the city. Q. Coach, on the last punt return, you were watching that play unfold, was it one of those: Oh, no, don't touch it, don't touch it; okay, great move? COACH BLANKENSHIP: No, the rule is in our favor. And I'm just so proud that Coach Bitson and Coach Downing had talked to Trey about that. Once they touched the ball, there's really no harm/no foul for us. Even if he ran and fumbled it, would go back to the original touching if we wanted it to. Just that Trey was so smart to notice‑‑ I mean, I immediately want him to go try something. That's what you do. That's why you teach our guys that ball happens, you try to pick it up; if you're on the cover team, you try to pick it up, give it to the referee so it goes dead. Trey's just a smart, smart, smart kid and a playmaker. I didn't think he was going to score. I thought, man, if we just gain a first down out of this deal, that's a big deal. Q. That was a great block. COACH BLANKENSHIP: That was Derek Patterson. Derek is one of our guys‑‑ there's a group on special teams that are guys that don't play much. And they've had really solid year. We've had some crazy things happen on special teams. But today was a really good day. Q. In all your football life, is that as good as an improvisational play as you've ever seen? COACH BLANKENSHIP: I heard two or three coaches say if they've been around a smarter football player in terms of just being, having the savvy and the instinct, Trey does that. He gets it. And the neat thing about him is that if you teach him something, if you tell him something, he remembers it. So that's one of those things, a lot of times we talk about it but maybe the returner doesn't remember, oh, yeah, get away from it. He saw what happened and took a shot. Big, big play. Q. Did Patterson think the play was over for a moment? COACH BLANKENSHIP: Yeah, I think he was already walking off the field. He turned around right in front of us to get the block. Q. Had a number of blocks, fumble in the opening kickoff, talk about special teams in general? COACH BLANKENSHIP: It's been a journey all year. We certainly have opportunities. And we get one blocked ourselves, a PAT there. They made plays. We get a great block and I would almost bet the house that Marco would have run it in. He makes a great diving tackle‑‑ we save the one but could have turned it around and got two more out of the deal. So special teams has been an adventure, to say the least. Mostly from what we've had to deal with our young kickers. But the cover teams, the blocking teams, all that has been solid all year and they played extremely well. This is another game. And, again, the wind was a big factor. But they have the best kick returner in the country, at least in my opinion. And for us to keep him in check was a big deal. Q. You came out for pregame, did you sense just how much the wind would affect the game? COACH BLANKENSHIP: Yeah, that's one of the things, if you play here enough you know you get that wind, it can make a difference. We had a couple of those last year. There's all kinds of discussions: Do you take the wind? Or do you try to play? Defer for us was the easier choice because that way we would most likely get the wind, if they took the ball. And then we would have the ball coming out second half. But it's a factor. It's a huge deal. You saw how it knocked down punts and the kick off that Cole kicked into it really almost went backwards once it hit its peak. It was a tough deal. Q. You talked about in the press conference Tuesday almost (indiscernible)? COACH BLANKENSHIP: Conference champs. Q. How does it feel? COACH BLANKENSHIP: Big time. Mostly because of the seniors that come up and they've been breaking those huddles for four or five years. And I think I said this before, but there are seniors that tell me: This is something I've not gotten to do. There were guys that were on the team that carried over from the'05 team, but these guys were not around for that. And so it's a huge deal to them to do something for this program that they haven't got to experience. Q. You changed the game. At least you restored order on your sideline when you scored right before the half. And the drive begins. Were you just really trying to kind of‑‑ COACH BLANKENSHIP: Yeah, if we didn't get something real quick we would run it out. It's kind of one of those things: Oh no, okay, but I think we ran‑‑ I don't remember if it was Alex, but somebody ran out of bounds and stopped the clock. What I didn't want to do was give them the ball back with that wind, you know, that we would have had to kick against. But as soon as you got a first down and got some tempo going, we felt like we would be able to keep it going and we made some big plays. Q. I remember the third and six Cody keeps for eight. I don't remember if that was Cody improvising or‑‑ COACH BLANKENSHIP: It was a replay. It was a play that he either gives the sweep or carries it. And it's a fairly safe thing. I think that's the one I'm talking about. And once he got the first, then you knew that we had some time to do something with it. Q. Now that it's over how difficult is it to beat a team twice in two weeks? COACH BLANKENSHIP: Well, it's tough. They knew a lot about us. But I felt like we knew a lot about them. UCF is a really good football team. They're very well coached and again they did not do things to give you the game. And they make you earn it. We still had a couple of turnovers and kind of kept us from doing everything we needed to do. Q. Did you decide before the game that you're not going to try a field goal unless you're in a certain area or was it just situational? COACH BLANKENSHIP: No. We had talked with Coach Downing, and we were probably not going to try a field goal going into the wind. It was going to be really tough blowing around. And we get to practice here every day so we know what strong south winds do. And so we had a pretty good feel for that. We would have gone for field goals coming this way, going to the north. But what we wanted to make sure was‑‑ right before half I didn't really even think about seriously going to field goal because the ball was on the 2. Would have been a hard angle. Get one play. It wasn't going to be‑‑ you couldn't even go center of the ball and have time to kick one. So kind of rolled the dice there a little bit. But felt we had a good selection from the previous game plan. Q. Would it have been the same philosophy, Coach, in the final possession before over time, if you would have picked up another first down, would you have taken a shot down the field to try to get into position? COACH BLANKENSHIP: Are you talking when we got the ball at the minute and a half or two, we did exactly the same thing we ran a couple of the same plays. The interesting thing was, I don't know if you remember the sequence, but we had about a second and four and we ran the ball to Watts. If we had gotten a first, we'd have already called the shot play. Call play action and get it going, be something we could look at. What a lot of people didn't realize they were sitting on two timeouts and if I throw an incomplete they could force us into a punting situation on our own end and that's not a comfortable place for me. So it was important for us to understand that they still had timeouts left and not to let them force us into giving the ball back or even having to punt it on fourth down. Q. You talk about Alex grinding it out for you there. COACH BLANKENSHIP: You know, he did what he's done all year. There were times that he didn't play, didn't get it going as well but if you keep pounding the rock ‑‑ one thing Coach Johnson says all the time, you don't break the rock on the first pound most of the time, second or third, you have to keep pounding it. We felt we got momentum right there before halftime with him, and then we struggled a little bit going into the wind in the third quarter. But we still had some good plays, but big Al's pretty strong when he's heading downhill. So we actually tweaked a couple of calls and helped him there at the end. Q. Broke the record today. COACH BLANKENSHIP: Yeah, I didn't think about that. That's kind of cool, too. Q. Would you describe him as kind of the ultimate role player? COACH BLANKENSHIP: Absolutely. He understands his role. He embraces his role. And if anything we would like to find ways to get all of them the ball more. But UCF is so well‑coached. They knew what we were faced with and they were going to come down and load up the box and not a lot of space to run. Trey has a real knack for finding some open space even in tough situations, but big Al is straight downhill. We're at the late part of the season. They identified Ja'Terian and every time we were trying to go with him and did a good job of defending him as well. But we'll get J.T., get him broke loose. Q. Where do you think this team gets its resiliency from? COACH BLANKENSHIP: I think we've got a lot of guys that have played a lot of games. And there's just no shortcut to experience. A lot of‑‑ they don't even have to be seniors but there are a lot of guys playing that have played in a lot of games, and I think we've just got guys with a lot of heart. I mean, we had kind of a devotional chapel on Thursday and they were talking about Secretariat and the big heart he had and how he finished even with all those huge finishes at the end. And it was a great challenge for our guys, because that's the way they've played with a lot of heart. Q. What can this win do for you as you get ready for the Liberty Bowl now? COACH BLANKENSHIP: Certainly gives you momentum. You want to go into Bowl season with a win. I think it's a springboard to that. It's just another opportunity for our guys to do something that they haven't done. And we're excited to be going to Memphis. That's a big time‑‑ I was a fan the last time we were in Memphis. And I can't wait to go back with the team. Q. You guys have gone to a lot of Conference U.S.A. title games but you haven't won one until 2005. COACH BLANKENSHIP: I don't know how to answer that other than I just think it's huge. It's big to us since I came in '07 as an assistant coach, we've, I guess, missed on two different occasions in '07 and '08. And it doesn't feel the same going into Bowl season without a win. But this is what we talk about trying to focus on championships and building on those kind of things. And we're excited. We've had one of those for a long time that we look at and guys talk about, and we want to get another one. Q. Did you know you had 94 plays? COACH BLANKENSHIP: Not really surprised. But it felt like we were getting a lot of reps. Our defense was playing really, really good. They made it tough on them. We gave up way too many third down plays. Bortles did a great job with his feet. He extended plays and scrambled out of trouble and in a way he'd scramble, hit the receiver over on the sideline to get them out of, I guess, coming out of the south end was reminiscent of the play he made for the touchdown on the first game we played. He's just an outstanding player. We had a harder time getting pressure on him today than we did the time before. So you give them a lot of credit for that. Q. To get touchdowns from Watts, Singleton and Ja'Terian seems appropriate for this team, doesn't it, for this team this season? COACH BLANKENSHIP: It does. And I'd be remiss if I didn't point out, and I think you guys know, Thomas Roberson had a big time game. He made huge catches for us, touchdown and the whole thing, and he continues to kind of be that receiver that‑‑ people tend to forget about that. All he does is help us win. Q. When you struggled on the fourth downs three times, did you start to think that it wasn't your day? COACH BLANKENSHIP: Oh, yeah. I mean, it's what we've been good at all year is fourth and one. And I'm anxious to go look at it and figure out what happened that we don't get those. But it was frustrating for us, no doubt. But I guess we were probably would have gone for it again. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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