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BRIDGEPOINT EDUCATION HOLIDAY BOWL: BAYLOR v UCLADecember 27, 2012Art BrilesNick FlorenceChris McAllisterLache SeastrunkSAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA Baylor – 49 THE MODERATOR: Questions for Nick? Q. Nick, didn't have a lot put on you as far as passing the ball how did that help the running game? NICK FLORENCE: It was huge, best "O" line in America making the running lanes and the best backs in America running the ball. Hats off to the "O" line, that's all I've got to say, they deserve the credit, they have done a heck of a job this last half of the season. Q. Nick, comment on what a way this is to educational background your career? NICK FLORENCE: It's enjoyable, it's memorable. I think I will wake up tomorrow morning and understand what happened tonight. Still soaking it all in, you know? I've always been told your senior year winning bowl game, you remember it for the rest of your life and I get to remember that for the rest of my life. It's been a blast. The Holiday Bowl has done a heck of a job, my hats off to them. Man, I love this team, I would do anything for them. The fight never dies, I love it! I love this team! Q. Nick, can you talk about following Robert and going out and breaking his single‑season record today? NICK FLORENCE: For me, I have always wanted an opportunity to play. I've been saying it all year, all you want in life is a chance and an opportunity and I just happened to follow a Heisman Trophy winner, so I had to go out and be me. I'm not 6‑3, I can't run a 4.3, you saw that tonight. Man if I could though! He's done a heck of a job for this program, put us on the map and done a lot of things for us and, again, this team has done a lot of things. It's not just him and not just one guy and I'm honor and had humbled to hold that record and he deserves it, and it's humbling. Never would have thought that would happen this year, I just wanted to win games. Q. Nick, the offense carries the defense a lot of games. Talk about what the defense did tonight to shut UCLA down the way they did? NICK FLORENCE: Hats off to the defense. If it weren't for them, this game would have been close. We made a lot of mistakes on offense and the defense did a great job. We turned the ball over three times, and I don't know how many points did they get off that, 7? I don't know. Defense did a heck of a job, you know? Again, it's not a one‑dimensional game, you know. Like I said, that four‑game stretch where we lost, we weren't playing together as a team. The last half of the season we have been playing for each other and feeding off each other and we fed off the defense and the defense fed off of us tonight and that's the way it's supposed to be so heck of a job by the "D!" Q.Nick, what is your legacy going to be now that this final chapter has been written at Baylor? NICK FLORENCE: I don't know. I hope when people look at me and so what I've done that it's always been a team‑first mentality. I say not about me, it's about what's written on the front of our jerseys, and that's what I want to be remembered for, being a team‑player and doing whatever I can for the team. It's all about the names for our jersey. THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Chris McAllister, defensive M.V.P. and Lache Seastrunk,on the left, offensive M.V.P. Q. Chris, how were you able to do that tonight? CHRIS McALLISTER: We knew we were bowl eligible and playing UCLA and we got on the film study, and me and Terrance and the others, we knew the sets that we knew how their linemen set, and we were able to take advantage of that in practice and our coaches set up good drills, and I think everything showed up on the field today. Q. Chris, they lost a couple of offensive linemen in the first half did that factor into the pressure that y'all did bring? CHRIS McALLISTER: I don't think it changed the game plan because we have an aggressive coach and he likes to blitz and we try to get a lot of pressure. Going into the game it was trying to get pressure on the quarterback and stopping the running back. So I don't think, you know, that had a factor in how he was calling the game. Q. Lake, big night for the offensive line, can you talk about the holes that you were getting up there? LACHE SEASTRUNK: I can't tell you enough how the "O" line has been doing their job. It started in the film room, I was with my linemen after hours breaking down film and I felt like that pushed us over the tipping point is just our studying, our knowledge of what they were going to do, what kind of stunts they were going to do, I feel like it played a big factor and not to mention Nick taking pressure off me as well as the receivers. So I feel like they opened me up and allowed me to do what I had to do. Q. Lake, on that touchdown run, talk us through that and did you see No. 3 coming toward you? You made a move on him. Talk us through that touchdown run. LACHE SEASTRUNK: My line locked up on me, everybody locked up on me and I saw the part, and I just took off. I could tell you I stopped the play clock I'm just playin'. Q. Chris, with who you played throughout the year in the Big 12 and the offenses you played against, was tonight almost in a way easier than what you've seen throughout the conference schedule? CHRIS McALLISTER: No, I don't feel like it was easy, they were a great opponent and a really good team. I feel like we were just prepared for the game and had a good game plan. We were able to execute it. Q. Lake, you have an explosive offense, we all know that but dunk you would in a bowl game against a good defense explode the way you did? LACHE SEASTRUNK: It was about chance and opportunity. The entire game they let me do anything in the first half, just so happens I had the chance to tonight and seized it. They stayed home, didn't run out crazy, they stayed home, they were a great defense, the best defense we played all year. Q. Chris, you guys took a lot of heat in the early going as a defensive unit. How gratifying was this performance especially with the last few games, how gratifying is it to have such a performance on the bigger stage? CHRIS McALLISTER: It definitely feels great because throughout the season there was a lot of downs, but all the guys kept their heads up and we knew we were a better defense than what we were playing and we were inches away from making plays. So guys saw that and got in the film room, on the practice field and worked that much harder. We saw results from the Oklahoma game, the defense kinda turned over a new leaf. It was great to go out the way we did because we knew we were capable of playing like that. THE MODERATOR: We're going to excuse the players and talk to Coach. COACH BRILES: First of all, hats off to Coach Mora, and a great UCLA team. I think it's one of those things where we came out tonight and played extremely well, defensively, early, and all throughout the game did a good job of containing the run which made 'em throw the ball quite a bit. Offensively making some plays when we needed to. It's seldom that you cannot win the return yardage battle, not win the turnover battle, we won the penalty battle and won the football game. We were minus 3 in the turnover ratio, so that's a big deal and that says a lot about our team, a lot about our character. Coach Bennett, the defensive staff, did an outstanding job the last few weeks, we have been playing very well, we're proud of those players, those coaches, Coach Montgomery and the offensive staff, what can you say? Stats don't lie. We have gone up against some really good defenses and Nick Florence is the top quarterback in America statwise, the offense is the top offense in America statwise, so that offensive staff has done an outstanding job. Q. Coach, how were you able to neutralize Jonathan Franklin tonight? COACH BRILES: I hadn't seen a stat sheet but he's a guy that's been very productively throughout his career, especially this year, 1700 yard rusher. I felt we played well on both sides of the ball up front. That was and we talked about for the last month and felt like we had to‑‑ if we had a chance to win the football game we had to be good on the "D" line and on the "O" line because the Bruins are a good football team, you don't do what they did to Arizona or USC, you don't do what they did to other people in this league here and not be a really good‑‑ Nebraska, I can just go on and on. So we felt like for us to have an opportunity to win the game, we had to have some edge, and the edge that we tried to create was to be, you know accident as good as we could be up front, both sides of the ball and the rotation defense we kept our guys fresh and our offensive line has been great all year. That's why we have been able to run the football and throw it as well. Q. Coach, you touched on Nick Florence but can you expand on him? Of course now he's the single‑season passing record holder now at Baylor, but what he has been able to do his senior year. COACH BRILES: I didn't know that until a while ago, somebody mentioned that. My gosh, if you're a Baylor fan you got to see Robert Griffin, third, last year who arguably was the best football player in America a year ago and then you get to see Nick Florence come in and do what he did this year, and I don't know what the desert is going to be but the main course has been pretty good! Nick had an impossible job and whoever is coming in after him has an impossible job, but it's a good thing. Our guys, their expectations have risen, along with the program and that position is a position where through the decades in our offense in this style of offense that we have, our quarterback is going to be productive, that's‑‑ you can check for 25‑year period he and 22 of 'em are very product active for those QBs, because they understand the game and understand our system and understand what it takes to have a chance to be successful, mental and physically. Q. Art, there is a misconception for those that don't cover you that you don't run the ball a lot approximately did you think that you could win the game by throwing 13 passes tonight? COACH BRILES: That shocks me, I'm shocked, somebody told me Nick broke the single‑season‑‑ we didn't even throw it, we didn't throw the football, no, of course not because I didn't feel like we ran it well. It was a struggle, those guys are good, they're long, lean, athletic, and they're well coached. They're a good football team defensively and they did a good job preparing. First game season bowl game people have a long time to dissect you. They did a really good job. So I had no idea we threw it that few times, what was it, 10 of 13? He didn't miss many, 10 of 13? 202, what was it? It wasn't a bunch? That's extremely unusual for us, extremely. But we kinda got in a "mood" and it got dangerous to where we lost a little bit of our aggressiveness. You've got to be careful with that. The gentleman mentioned neutralizing the running back. A lot of that has to do with the way the game was dictated because they felt like they had to be aggressive throwing the football and we felt like we had to be less aggressive running the ball and watching the ticks tick off. So that's where that came from. Q. Coach, what's it mean to you and your program to win the Holiday Bowl, and any truth that you've been approached about potentially the job at Texas if there is a vacancy? COACH BRILES: No, none to the second part. The first part, God, means a lot because of the history of this bowl game, the way the red coats run, it's unbelievable. I'm surprised somebody is not behind me with a red coat, every time you look around there is somebody there seeing if you need anything, these guys are unbelievable and this bowl has a lot of national implications. As worried as we were about UCLA, which we were, we thought, doggone, we had a good finish, now you got to be careful what you wish for, because we got a tough draw. From a football professional standpoint this was a tough situation for our football team and our program. It gave us a chance of getting on a national stage with a university that's nationally respected and fortunately we were able to do our job and get out of here with a great win in a great atmosphere in a great bowl game. Q. Last four games the defense has been playing really with perform do you feel like now it's turning the corner and will be set for the years to come? COACH BRILES: You know, I really don't. I talk to the players, same thing with the offense. Is the offense good enough? No, no, it's not. I bet we had three, three and outs today, maybe four. You can't have that. The defense has played extremely well, had some huge fourth down stops, I don't know what the percentages were but off the top of my head I would say they were 1 of 5 and that's just a guess. So they made some big, big plays but you're never where you want to be, if you are you're in the wrong business so we will keep trying to find ways to keep getting better. Q. Art, two straight bowl wins, can you talk about what that does for the program? COACH BRILES: It sure‑‑ it makes the next five or six months a lot better. I've been on the other side of the coin and there is just so many times you can rollover in bed. It will just be two or three now instead of ten or 12. It just makes it better. I'm a bad bowl guy, I have had some bad draws in bowl games, that's something I wish I could improve on but we went to Hawaii when I was at Houston lost in three overtimes, then we play Kansas a year before they're in the original bowl and then we play South Carolina when I'm at U of H, and we draw Illinois two years removed from the Rose Bowl in 2010 and last year's Washington team was a dynamic football team, just like UCLA was this year. I'm still waiting for that game where we're favored! Q.Their offensive line, I know you came out blitzing early in the game and then their offensive line had a couple of injuries and it seemed like it intensified the blitzing. Was that the plan all along? COACH BRILES: We knew we had to get fracture on Brett Hundley, the guy is good. I'm impressed with him. To have that much pressure and lose their center and 60 comes in and I think there might have been one or two end over end and for him to keep his poise and not fumble the football, what did they throw it, 47 times? They threw it a bunch, maybe more than that, anybody know? A bunch! Seriously? 47 times. They threw a whole lot so to do that with that much pressure when we had a good idea they may be fixin' to throw the football and for him to be that productive was impressive to be a red shirt freshman, no doubt, one of the top guys out of Arizona two years ago. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. COACH BRILES: Thank you all it's been a great pleasure and we have been treated with unbelievable hospitality, thank y'all so much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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