Nov. 8, 2009
Offensive coordinator Greg Davis
Opening statement: It was great to be back home. It seems like it’s been a long time since we’ve been in Darrell K Royal Memorial Stadium. Our fans showed up, and so did our football team. There are only a few teams left that are 9-0. A lot of excitement, a lot of big plays - Colt McCoy throws for 470 yards, completing over 30 passes. Jordan Shipley, 11 catches for 273 yards. No other receiver in the history of Texas football has done that. Not only did Jordan catch 11 balls, we had a lot of receivers that contributed. Malcolm Williams had five catches including a huge third down conversion right before Jordan’s 88 yard touchdown pass. James Kirkendoll had five catches, including a touchdown in the red zone. There were a lot of things to be excited about.
On red zone and third down efficiency: Red zone, we were in the red zone five times, and we came away with five different scores. Third down efficiency, we feel like if we’re converting third downs at 45 percent we’re playing at what we call a championship level. We were 10 out of 14 in the ballgame, so a lot of things our team did well. Over 500 yards of total offense just really pleased with the way the guys played.
On the long drives: I think it’s worth noting that there were three drives in the game over 80 yards including an 87 yard touchdown drive and a 99 yard touchdown drive that took four plays. On third down from the end zone Colt hit Malcolm Williams on a huge back shoulder play, and Mal(colm) barely made the first down. On first down with great protection off play action, we ran a double post, got Shipley isolated one-on-one with the field corner and the result was an 88-yard touchdown play. Three drives in the second half for touchdowns, so I think our kids really responded well and played hard. There’s still work to do, but we’re excited about the win.
On Cody Johnson: The passing game was the key in this one, because we knew coming in that Central Florida was ninth in the country in rush defense, and still two big plays out of Cody Johnson. A fourth-and-one, that Greg Smith, Adam Ulatoski, Lamarr Houston and Antwan Cobb all made good blocks, Cody slid it around the left side and ended up in the end zone. Earlier in the ballgame, he had a 20-yard dash up the middle. It’s really important to be able to protect the passer, to be able to throw the ball, that you can continue to mix up the run in there.
On the 88-yard touchdown play: Jordan Shipley’s 88-yard touchdown play was certainly one of the keys to the game. Earlier in the game, we had thrown a similar play where we had Jordan on an in and out and Malcolm Williams on a deep post, and almost came up with a touchdown. We felt like if we put both of those guys, the inside receiver on what we call an occupy post and the outside receiver on what we call a landmark post; we could get Jordan in a situation where he would be one-on-one. We used play action; our line did a great job because it’s one of those plays where you have to hold the ball longer than you would like to give Jordan time to work. Colt threw a great strike, and Jordan separated at the end. The result was a huge touchdown.
On Baylor: Going to Waco is always a tough place to play. It is an 11:00 game. We love playing early. Our kids are really focused. They understand what lies ahead that we have to take this thing one game at a time. All you have to do as a college football fan is to look around and see teams get knocked off each week. Our team has a certain maturity about it. We had great preparation last week. I anticipate we’ll have great preparation this week. I know the Bears will be ready. They had a huge win over Missouri last night. It should be another challenge in the Big 12 south.
Defensive coordinator Will Muschamp
On the Central Florida game: I’m really pleased with the effort of our players. We talked about how they would manage the game. They were going to slow the game down and try to get in third-and-three, four and five. Being able to convert those third downs, we were outstanding on third downs. We really were able to get our offense back on the field. I think we had four or five three-and-outs in the game which we knew was going to be critical to get our offense back on the field.
On Sergio Kindle and Lamarr Houston’s performances: We really challenged our front after the first two series that we needed to do a better job in the run game and stopping the run and tackling better. That’s all effort. Tackling is “want to.” We really challenged our guys and it’s good to have two guys like Lamarr and Sergio that took it to heart and really challenged the rest of the group to step up their play. We certainly did.
On only allowing 36 yards on the next six drives after UCF’s field goal: We can be a dominating defense at times. That’s what we expect. That’s what we expect out of our players. There’s a certain level we play to and that’s something that needs to happen all the time. We’ve just got to continue to work on our consistency in our performances on every drive.
On limiting UCF to one explosive play: Explosive plays and turnovers, we were unable to get any turnovers yesterday. We had one and unfortunately got called for roughing the passer. Limiting them to getting vertical plays down the field and changing momentum and changing field position is huge and our players did a phenomenal job of that.
On Lamarr Houston’s third-quarter sack: That was a big point in the game. We had them stopped on third down before and he jumped offsides, so he owed us one (smiling). He rose up and made a big play for the Longhorns there when he was able to get loose inside. We felt good about our mismatches inside. We had him singled up on a guard, and he let his athleticism take over. When we needed a big play, he made a big play.
On the second-team defense not allowing a score at the end: That was something that we really tried to emphasize this year as opposed to last year. Last year there were a lot of times where we tried to sub and get a lot of guys some playing time, and we let a lot of scores go in. We told those guys there is a certain standard that we have at The University of Texas on defense, and we do not want to let people into the end zone late in the game, and I thought our players did a great job of making that stop there late.
On Baylor: Baylor is going to be a team that unfortunately Robert Griffin tore his knee up early in the year, and they don’t have him which is obviously a huge weapon for them. They have oustanding speed at wideout in (David) Gettis and Kendall Wright really can run vertically down the field in the passing game. (Nick) Florence is obviously playing well. He had over 400 yards passing against Missouri yesterday. We’ll have our work cut out for us. They’ll be multiple formation, shift, motion, they’ll give us a bunch of different looks. Our players have to be keyed in on what they do and how they do it. Again, we have to play well in space because it’s going to be a space game.
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