Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery

LA Tech 28, UTEP 7

Oct. 1, 2016

Joe Aillet Stadium

Ruston, La.

POSTGAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH Skip Holtz

Q: Kind of a weird first half, you didn't have the football a whole lot, you did a good job the whole night kind of controlling the football. Defense bent but didn't really break, only gave up the one touchdown. You have to be pleased?

HOLTZ: I thought they tackled really well in space for something that we really struggled with the last two weeks, and just the way they tackled in space, I thought they did a great job. Did a couple things where we got out of some zones and gave up a couple bigger plays.

But I thought Ryan Metz, their quarterback, played an excellent job. He was 20 of 28 until he came out of the game there at the end, but I thought he did a heck of a job managing the game and doing what he did.

You know the tailback -- Aaron Jones coming in here, that was rushing for 150 yards a game, averaging seven and a half yards carries, and that's against some pretty good football teams, as well. And for our defense to hold them to 94 and four yards a carry, just really proud of him.

But you know what, first half, we threw the ball an awful lot, had some success with it. They started playing some games and they had us guessing a little bit. They were bringing the house, playing pure cover zero, or they were dropping everybody out and then only rushing three. Had us in a little bit of a guessing game.

But there in the second half, we put a tight end and that that offensive line and Jarred Craft took over and made for Jarred Craft to end up with 11.2 yards, averaging 146 yards on 13 carries, just couldn't be more proud of the team.

We won a little bit unorthodox from the way we've been winning but that's the mark of a good team. You know what, you do what you have to do and we put that tight end there at the end of the game and put the saddle on the offensive line, and Jarred Craft, they did a great job to finish it up.

Q: That will be one of those box scores people look at tomorrow and say, why didn't he give Jarred the ball more if he averaged 11 yards a carry.

HOLTZ: Well, I mean, because, you know, we are predominately a spread offense in what we do. They had a good plan. They had a good plan with what they did and they were willing to play cover zero, and also put them in a position where it hurt them a couple times, too. We ran a little trap play and caught them in cover zero and split the seam and there was nobody left and Jarred Craft went 80 yards for a touchdown.

So it's risk and reward when you want to play zero. It helped them a little bit and helped them get a couple three-and-out stops on us. But you know, like I said, I thought the defense, they bent a little bit. They gave up a lot of yards but yet they didn't break and they kept them out of the end zone except for that one drive. Just really proud of the way they bounced back.

Q: Early in the third quarter we had a couple empty possessions down in our own end. Ryan came off the field, you were a little bit frustrated, had some conversation with him, kept telling them, just run the offense. There was one play you really wanted them to hand the ball off and he tried to force it outside with Trent Taylor. How much leeway does Ryan have within this offense when he gets to the line?

HOLTZ: There's a lot of, they call them RPOs, run pass options. We do a lot of run pass option and conflict stuff trying to have run pass choices for the quarterback.

But you know, the play we went 80 yards on and scored was the exact same play. He just handed the second one off. The first one, he threw it.

And I was just -- I thought he forced the ball to Trent one time down here. Just when I thought he had the ball open down the field, I thought he just was forcing the ball inside to Trent just a little bit too much. And on that one, I felt like he should have handed it, and that's what I was telling him: Just run the offense, that's how you got here, that's where you good is when you run the offense. When you force things and pre make your mind up, I'm going to do this or that, it's not very productive for us as an offense.

We made the first down and got a holding call to start the third quarter, and then it pushed us back. And then the next series, we lost eight yards on first down and Kam caught that ball and kept running backwards. Now you're in long yardage situations. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot a little bit.

But like I said, the way the defense was competing, we only had 50 plays as on offense, so we knew we weren't going to get many chances at it. I wish I would have went to a tight end a little bit earlier in the game, and I put some of that on me and should have taken some of that off Ryan a little bit quicker with some of the confusion things they were doing to us.

Q: When you have a wide receiver like Trent Taylor, do you think at times Ryan almost gets too confident in his ability?

HOLTZ: Yeah, and you look at the guy, here is a guy that had 17 catches last week, they are double-covering him. They are playing him inside-outside, doing what they are doing. You start forcing the ball to him and it's easy to do. But he still had 10 catches for 120 yards. It's not like he had a bad night tonight, and you put on top of that that he had a touchdown to go along with it.

I think it hurt us a little bit with Carlos Henderson not being there; playing Rhashid Bonnette again for a whole game. We just have got to keep better and keep coming along. Those guys are getting a lot of reps and they are getting better and better as the season is going on.

Q: And bottom line, 13 straight quarters Ryan Higgins has not thrown an interception; taking care of the football.

HOLTZ: And you know what, that goes back to, you take that half -- the half-time of the South Carolina State game, we've only had one turnover now in really, I believe, three and a half football games. We've had one turnover.

I'm proud of what the offense is doing. A big part of that is Jarred Craft, the way he's protecting it. And Ryan is doing a really good job of not putting the ball in danger. And so we keep doing that, it will give us a chance, but that's what good offenses and good football teams do. They don't turn the ball over.

Q: I know you usually have a 24-hour rule, but you're going to play a football game here Thursday night against a very good Western Kentucky team, you have to turn it around pretty quickly?

HOLTZ: It's going to turn around quick. This was a physical game. We had some guys that are bumped and bruised and didn't finish at the end, but it is going to be quick. We've got five days, and you know normally, you take Monday as your day off and you have a day to heal and lick your wounds and do all that. Well, we've got to come right back in and play. And I know they are coming off, I'm sure, a real physical battle against Houston Baptist. I'm sure they are going to have the same issues that we are, as well.

QB Ryan Higgins

Q: Ryan, you've got a guy like Trent Taylor on your roster on your side of the ball, does it sometimes become maybe a little bit of a curse that you go to him so often, not that you forget about the other guys but that you rely too much on him?

Ryan Higgins: You could say that, definitely. There are times when -- it's hard to not go over there because there's coverages or they will try to do something extra, and I mean, and I'll still beat it.

He's kind of like, if you've got so many defensive players over there or there are certain coverages or keys that you're looking for, he's kind of like a rule breaker, because you know he can still probably get open, and at times, that can hurt me, if you kind of focus in on him too much and try to make something happen. But I mean, he's just -- he's a special player and it's tough not to go to his side.

Q: Do you think that may have had something to do with you guys stalling out a little bit?

Ryan Higgins: I think a big part of it was they were doing a good job of showing like a zero coverage, and really bringing pressure and as soon as we checked out of it, they would check out or they would drop. They were doing a good job of mixing it up and we really didn't know what to expect. Of course, play clock was an issue because if we took a little too long getting the play in, we had to change whatever protection or whatever play and by the time we did that, they change.

They did a good job, especially in that third quarter. We should have been able to handle it and we should have been better prepared for that but they did a good job of really kind of throwing a wench in our offensive system.

Q: What effect did Jarred Craft have on those two drives?

Ryan Higgins: That was big. That was a huge spark. That's exactly what we needed. It was just, I don't know, it just kind of got everybody back in the like, hey, that's all we needed. It was the right amount of juice we needed to take care of business and realize that it's a fight, but we've still got the upper hand and we need to put them away.

Q: The last touchdown with Trent, did you find an opening and got it to him or was it drawn up like that?

Ryan Higgins: I wish it was drawn up like that. It was a playing designated left. We had a nice little concept set up. Didn't work out for the coverage, whatever, the routes weren't there, and I just was going to buy some time. Caught him in my vision at the end and he does a great job with, what we call scramble drill and always being able to -- if he's short, go deep, or whatever. And he does a great job of finding open spaces, like he did in that first drive when he stopped in the middle of the field. He has got great awareness and he knew where I was going, and I was able to see him and we made something happen.

Q: With what Trent was saying, did it feel like -- as close as it was - the game should not have been as close?

Ryan Higgins: For sure. We again, just like last week, shot ourselves in the foot a couple times. And credit to UTEP; they did a great job with mixing up their coverages and as far as the pressures. It threw us off for a couple drives for sure, but again, just we didn't have as many opportunities because of an offense like they run and just draining the clock. We didn't take advantage of the few times that we should have and make this game not seem as close.

Q: On the sideline, a little bit of discomfort -- how are you feeling after the game compared to last week?

Ryan Higgins: As far as my body as a whole, I feel a lot better than last week. The groin -- just a pain tolerance issue. My groin's killing me, but I've got a high pain tolerance. It's not a big deal.

Q: Do you think it's limiting you in any way?

Ryan Higgins: Sometimes I feel like it, but if a play breaks down, or if I have to pull it or if I'm running, I don't even think about it or notice it. But when the play is over, yeah, I feel it.

WR Trent Taylor

Q: After a disastrous road trip, how does that feel?

Trent Taylor: It feels great. We've been waiting to get back on the field and make up for the losses we've had earlier in the season, and we were able to do exactly that. It felt great, being in front of your fans, and being able to come out with a victory like that and confidence, it's a wonderful feeling. I'm in a great mood right now, that's for sure.

Q: What was your takeaway from a win like that, going back to the first two drives, the offense had not scored since -- do you feel fortunate to come away with a win?

Trent Taylor: Yeah, I don't know what it was, offense just kind of went on a drought after we scored those first two touchdowns. I mean, we've just got to go back and look at the film and see what we can do to fix it, because that's unacceptable.

I feel like we should have blown away with that game pretty early, the way we were looking on those first two touchdowns early in the game.

The defense stepped up and played big for us, which is exactly what we needed. You know, props to them and Coach Baker. They did a wonderful job. I mean, yeah, the defense kind of carried us that game.

Q: When you get so few possessions, you only had 50 plays compared to last week when you had 96 --

Trent Taylor: When you go out there in a game like this against a team like UTEP, you've got to take advantage of your drives, which I don't think we did as well as we should have as an offense.

Like I said, there's a lot of room for improvement. We've got to learn how to take advantage of every play that we've got just to, I mean, not think about the next one but just take advantage of what we've got and be focused on that single play.

I think our mind-set as an offense as a whole is pretty well -- we've still just got some details that we need to sharpen up.

Q: Once the UTEP defense got tired, you seemed to take off, and really put a period on the end of the sentence -- what do you think he did early in the game to set those runs up?

Trent Taylor: I think Jarred Craft is a complete beast. I mean, whenever we give him the ball, he fights for those yards, and I mean, he is a guy that's not going to give up on that first tackle. He's going to find a way to keep pushing, put his head down and get the yards that we need to for this team. I love watching him run.

Just once he broke that long run there late in the game, I mean, it was a great feeling. I love watching him run.

Q: I think Monday you used the word cruise control to describe how you played against Middle Tennessee --

Trent Taylor: It was pretty much the same exact thing as an offense against Middle Tennessee that we did tonight. I mean, shoot, we got to find a way to fix it because that's not going to win us a championship if the offense is on and on like that throughout the game.

Q: Do you feel UTEP did something different defensively in the second half?

Trent Taylor: I don't think they did too much of a change because they still started stopping us in the first half, as well as the second half. So I think it was more on us as an offense to fix the problems that we had out there and be able to sharpen those problems up.

Q: Did UTEP cover you like you thought they would? Were you surprised the way they covered you, seemed to leave you kind of open a lot of the game?

Trent Taylor: I mean, I don't know, that's not something I think about too often. I just know they started playing some man, and we were able to take advantage of it a couple times. I thought Ryan and the O-line did a great job of facilitating that and controlling the offense when they switched it up on us.

I mean, we did our job as an offense, when it came to the end of it and lucky to come away with the win.

S Xavier Woods

Q: The defense hasn't played well the last two week; how do you think the defense played tonight?

Xavier Woods: We haven't played well, as you said, the past two weeks. Today, we played all right. We just didn't play to the best of our ability. But we got turnovers, and the end the day, it's about us having more points than they did, and they only got seven.

And we still have to -- I would say, we've got a lot of long third downs and long first down drives. I mean, on third down and fourth downs, we're making three (ph) but other than that, I mean, we still improving, still got a long way to go but today was a good day and took a step in the right direction.

Q: What was the message to the defensive unit going into the game?

Xavier Woods: We had a long talk Sunday after Middle Tennessee and just went back to day one. We just had to tackle -- last week we didn't tackle at all. Today we tackled well. It's about tackling well and everybody running to the ball, all 11 guys and we really did that today. And it's about getting off the field in third down, and we didn't on our drives, but we did on some and we held them to seven points.

Q: UTEP came in last in the league -- what specifically do you think they were doing that had success for the passing game?

Xavier Woods: A lot of them came in in third down I guess or just escaping, maybe something happening, a couple deep balls. But we have to be better at the end of the day. I mean, we still -- our standard is way better than that. We want to be the top passing, top running defense, top total defense in the country and just got to be better, especially next week.

Q: This is I think the third straight game a team has finished above 50 percent on third downs. Do you see any consistent themes there?

Xavier Woods: Man, I would like to see -- inaudible -- just because I had my back turned. But some of them were just calls -- inaudible -- quarterbacks may have throws. Every defense has a weak spot, and some of the throws were to our weak spots on defense. I know a couple of them were caught up running the ball and our eyes just wasn't on the quarterback because we were on a man or something. Just us tackling and us being in the right call and everybody run to the ball.

Q: Your interception -- in all fairness, seemed like forever, did it feel like that?

Xavier Woods: Yes, it did, but it was a point we had to make some day. I mean, we got to create turnovers. We didn't create a turnover in forever. So we worked on that all this week and it showed today.

Q: On that third down run, the UTEP quarterback looked like he was going to get to the first down -- and Coop just comes up and lays the guy out. Is that just a play he made or were you concerned he was going to get to the first down?

Xavier Woods: We had a breakdown. Had a breakdown up front. But I mean, you see what Cooper ran to the ball and stopping before he got there, and the hit that he put on, I see that from Coop, that's normal stuff. That's nothing big. Coop is a hitter. But we had a breakdown -- flying to the ball, defensively, if one guy -- if one guy breaks down defense, then it can be a big play. But if 11 guys all run to the ball, then we can stop it and that's what happened.

Q: Where would you say the defense is at after tonight's game?

Xavier Woods: I haven't watched it, but going to pass the ball and try to run it a little bit. But I mean, just from last year, we have to tackle but still end of the day, it's about us, it's about us playing our style of defense, being physical, tackling the ball, and then we just got to be better on third downs.

Q: As a unit, this game tonight, give you a lot of confidence with the way you've played the last two weeks?

Xavier Woods: I think our confidence has never let. We just didn't play up to our standard. Then we can play anybody. Starting tomorrow, just get ready for those guys. It's going to be a heck of a battle. Just going to practice hard, have a great week of practice, short week and then see how things go.