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Louisiana Tech Head Coach Skip Holtz

Opening statement
"It's great to win. It's always great to win, and when you can go on the road and win in a conference game, I'm really proud of this team. We went out there, thought we competed hard. We felt like this was a trap game, which is what we had talked about all week. I think Bill (Clark) has done a great job with this football team. I think they play incredibly hard, they compete incredibly hard, they do what they do and they do it well. We knew we were going to play a good football team. We knew that we had to have a six hour bus ride to get over here. We knew that it was going to be an 11 a.m. game and we knew that we were going to have to bring our own energy. For all those reasons, that's what we really challenged our team with in this football game and making sure that we were focused on a one game at a time mindset.

"We came out, played the game and I thought we competed. I thought we played really hard and made an awful lot of mistakes, but I was really proud of the way they continued to compete and the way they were able to make some plays in critical situations. It was a physical game. Kenneth (Dixon) went out at halftime, I thought the offensive line did some good things and I thought our defense started to shore up much more in the second half, especially against the run.

"I give UAB an awful lot of credit, they do what they do and they do it very well. Running the ball was definitely one of them. Howard ended up with 148 yards today. I thought he ran hard, he was a workhorse. He had 27 carries, we knew they were going to give him the ball and they're sitting there with five wins trying to get to six to get to bowl eligibility and I thought they played incredibly hard today. I'm proud of our football team, proud of what they were able to go out on the field and do, especially in a game where we certainly had our share of mistakes. You look at some of the special teams blunders we had, it seemed to certainly make it very difficult to gain any momentum in the second half. The bobbled punt that went for six and then the kickoff that they ended up scoring on, and then the kickoff return - which, we knew how explosive he was and it showed today - but there's 21 points right there we gave up in the kicking game and that can't happen. To find a way to make those mistakes and still win, I think is a testament to our football team, their maturity and the way they handed the challenges we gave them this week."

On the defensive performance
"I thought the defense played really well. There were some times the defense, they were able to run the ball. They got down in the red zone a couple times early, we were able to hold them to field goals. In the second half I thought they really stepped it up. I thought in the second half they really challenged up front and made some adjustments in the running game and did a much better job. This is a team in conference games that's averaging 450 yards of offense and what they've been able to run the ball, and we held them to 320 yards today and pretty much for the most part defensively kept them out of the endzone except for a couple of the special teams blunders that put our defense in bad position with our back up against the wall.

"I thought our defense played well today, thought the offense really came out focused, dialed in and we had five possessions in the first half, scored on four of them and the other was an interception that we were moving the ball down into the red zone and drove the field. I felt like the offensive coaches and the players did a really nice job of moving the ball and controlling the ball in the first half, because our defense was out there for some long drives when we made them kick field goals, our offense was able to answer it. In the third quarter I thought one of the keys to the game was after the bobbled punt and they scored on the fumble on the kickoff, they were going down there and had an opportunity to tie it up. Our defense held them, our offense got the ball, went down the field and scored, made it two scores again and I thought that was the difference in the game."

On Xavier Woods' play on defense
"Five interceptions (on the year) is a lot of them. We've talked a lot about what a phenomenal young man to play. He's started every game since he's been here, came in here as a true freshman a year ago, played every game, started every game at safety, is a 3.8 student, is one of those guys you hope your son grows up to be, the type of young man Xavier Woods is. A classy young man, a great young man, academics, carries himself, poised in everything that he does. Nobody enjoys that success more than he does with what he's done and what he's done for our program and our defense."