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OFFENSIVE LINE COACH MAC McWHORTER
On UCF head coach George O’Leary: George is a hard-nose football coach. He is fundamentally sound and works kids hard and UCF will be a disciplined hard-nose team. I’m not surprised he became a head coach again. He was very successful at Georgia Tech and he seems to be very happy at the University of Central Florida now. He’s building a nice program there. They’ve been playing for quite a while now, and he has a way of building a foundation. He is a no-nonsense coach that is all business and right in the heart of things.

On coaching with George O’Leary in the past: I think everybody you work with, you take something from them. He has a great temperament about him and he has a way of getting the kids to do a fair amount of stuff but making it simple for them.

On the personality of George O’Leary’s team: I can’t really say because we haven’t played Central Florida yet and we haven’t played them in the past. I know his teams at Georgia Tech were hard-nosed and disciplined and did things the right way. You know what you’re going to get when you are around George.

On what to expect from the offensive line this Saturday: I hope great production, that’s what we shoot for every week. Chris Hall will play some right tackle and [Cedric] Dockery will of course play right guard. Everybody else will keep on keeping on. This is a physical game and people get hurt in it, unfortunately, and if somebody else gets hurt, we’re going to step up and put the next one in there and keep on coming.

OL CHRIS HALL
On playing multiple positions this season: It’s just a blast to play ball here at The University of Texas underneath Coach [Mack] Brown and all of the guys. It’s just been a blast and anywhere I can help the team is great. It’s a little different playing multiple positions, but one of the great advantages of getting to play some different positions is that I feel like it really gives you a bigger perspective of what the offense is doing. The coaches have done a phenomenal job of helping me out, as well as Tony [Hills], Adam [Ulatoski], Dallas [Griffin], [Cedric] Dockery, and Charlie [Tanner].

On if he thought he would play this many positions: Originally, coming in as a freshman, I didn’t. But Coach [Mac] McWhorter has done a great job and the guys I play next to have done a great job helping me out, so all the credit goes to them.

On the TCU defensive line: They were really good. TCU has some great ball players and they win 10 or 11 games every year. They have great speed and have really strong guys, and they could definitely play in the Big 12 for sure. They came down and played a great game and I’m just glad we came out with the ‘W.’

On getting so much experience early in his career: Hopefully I can pass some sort of experience down to the younger guys, but I don’t have a whole lot. Whatever I can help out with, I will do that.

DE LAMARR HOUSTON
On having a good group of defensive ends this year: Some of us have played here before for a couple of years, so we know what it takes to be a good defensive end. We had great examples before us as well.

On his sack against TCU: The defense was just doing their thing and everybody was playing sound gap defense. [Roddrick] Muckelroy actually held the block for me and I came free. It was a good all around defensive effort.

On the defense progressing: We’re just trying to progress one game at a time and stay forward by looking at the week ahead. This week is going to be a big game by opening up a new stadium with a good team. Central Florida has a lot of good players, and the state of Florida has a lot of good high school football players as well. It’s going to be a good game to play.

On UCF’s running back Kevin Smith: He’s a very good running back. I expect us to play tough and play some sound defense against him.

On playing the first road game of the year: Hitting the road, we’re just trying to keep our energy high and stay positive. We won’t have many fans out there, so it’s going to have to be about the team and supporting each other. Coach [Mack] Brown has us pumped at practice, and we all play hard and tough and do the same thing every week in and out.

LB RODDRICK MUCKELROY
On the first away game: It's going to be pretty exciting. We started to prepare today. Road games are always different because we don't have very many fans there and (UCF's) students and fans will be there to support them. It's going to be a challenge for us.

On playing in the inaugural game at Bright House Networks Stadium: It's their new stadium so I'm pretty sure their fans will be there early and they'll be loud. It's going to be a tough place for us to play this weekend, but we're up to the challenge.

On coming off the win against TCU: (The feeling) is pretty much the same. We know we need to work hard and continue to get better each week on offense and defense. We've got to prepare mentally and just get ready for the task at hand – Saturday. You've got to let the victory go. Today we started fresh preparing for UCF. We've just got to take it one day at a time and get prepared for (UCF) because they're going to come out just as hard as TCU and Arkansas State. So we've just got to be ready.

On UCF's RB Kevin Smith: They've got a good running game, but our defense is working hard and we're getting better every day so we're ready for the challenge.

On the defense: We have fun out there, the offense has fun and we all have fun as a team. As far as last week, it was emotional, but we've got to continue to play at the same standard this weekend when we take the field.

DB RYAN PALMER
On the TCU game: It was just a credit to coach (Duane) Akina. He hung in there with me and just told me to keep fighting and he was behind my teammates and me. We didn't play as well as we wanted to in the first game, so we just wanted to come out at the TCU game and make a statement. I think we all played well as a defense. We're just trying to improve from game one to game two and so on.

On his confidence against TCU: I'm not going to say confidence. I just really went out there and did what coach (Duane Akina) told me to do. He told us the call and I just went out there and executed. I saw an opening and just did what (coach Duane Akina) really wanted me to do. I just executed.

On UCF RB Kevin Smith: He's a great back. I think he's leading the nation right now in rushing after his first game against North Carolina State. We have a real challenge in front of us, especially going on our first road game. I know (UCF) is going to be pumped to open up their new stadium. So like I said before, I think it's going to be a good challenge for us.

On practice: We've got to keep the intensity up. You can't relax any in practice because that turns into what you do in the field. So if you just go out there and work hard, then you'll carry it over in the game.

On the main difference between the TCU game and the UCF game: There really is no difference. TCU came out hard just like UCF is going to come out hard. And (UCF) is opening up a new stadium so we've got to come out there just ready to go, make sure our game plan is right and that everybody is focused to play. We just need to go out there and play hard.