Gary Patterson Media Luncheon Quotes -- Sept. 17, 2002
9/17/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 17, 2002
TCU head coach Gary Patterson held his weekly media luncheon Tuesday afternoon at the John Justin Athletic Center. Coach Patterson briefly discussed last week's 17-6 win over SMU and spoke in-depth about the challenges the Horned Frogs will face from this Saturday's opponent, the North Texas Mean Green.
The following are selected quotes from the luncheon.
On Saturday's win over SMU"
"In the second half, we got the ball in the hands of people who made plays. We need to keep getting the ball in the hands of LaTarence (Dunbar) and (Adrian) Madise. I think we could have probably even used a little more patience in the fourth quarter. We started to be able to pound the ball. If you want to be able to run the ball well you have to make an effort to do so. If they stop you for two yards, you can't go away from the play. You have to keep coming back to that kind of stuff.
"You can also look at it this way: there were five or six deep balls thrown the other night and four of them were caught and all four resulted in points. That's the way the game is. Sometimes you have to throw vertical on people just to see if they can stop you. We talked about that at halftime, getting the ball to those two guys (Dunbar and Madise), as well as guys like Kevin Brown and Terran Williams.
"Terran came about one guy away from breaking a long punt return. Jared Smitherman played well. Josh Harbuck continues to be a great surprise on the offensive line. It's not just the guys that everyone remembers from year-to-year that need to be difference makers, but some of the 'no-name' seniors that step up to determine how good of a football team you have."
On North Texas' defense:
"North Texas is very good on defense. They will have the best defense that we have played against so far this season. (Defensive tackle) Brandon Kennedy is a very good defensive lineman. Defensively, offensively and on special teams, they are a very physical football team. You look at their stats and see that they have played Texas, Alabama and Nicholls State and that they are only giving up 20 points a game. I would say that's pretty good."
On North Texas' offense:
"They have a playmaker in No. 6, George Marshall. He's a big wide receiver that can go. They will do a lot of reverse stuff. They like to misdirection and run bootlegs to try to confuse you. We are going to have to be prepared to match up one-on-one because they are going to max-protect and at least four-to-six times they are going to throw the ball downfield. How we do on those four-to-six plays will probably have a lot to do with how many points we give up.
"Their offense is like our offense in some ways. They run the option, they run a lot of misdirection, option passes. Both of us will be practicing defensively this week against things that our own offenses do."
On UNT head coach Darrell Dickey:
"I think Darrell does a great job. Both as a head coach and a coordinator, he has always put his teams in a position to win every ballgame. He puts together game plans that give his team a chance to win. He has a Texas-based staff with some experience and they have done a great job in evaluating and recruiting. You won't find a whole lot of players that other schools offered scholarships to on their team, but they're all very good players. Brandon Kennedy, for example, is probably two or three inches shorter than what most people want in a defensive lineman but their coaching staff took him because of what he can do. Most of their players are probably like that."
On what he expects to see from North Texas:
"They have probably been a little more conservative against us in the past than they are at other times. But, against Alabama last week it looked like they started to open it up a bit. They threw the ball a lot more on first down and were a little bit more open offensively, so I think there is a chance that we could see about anything. Reverses, double passes, crazy sets - we could see anything."
On the TCU's running game:
"I think that the (injuries on the offensive line) have bothered us a bit up to this point, but we're starting to show some progress. This week, we'll put Jamal (Powell) back into his normal position (center). We'll have to see how soon he can get going being back there, especially since he will be up against a very good player. Brady (Barrick) will return from being out for an amount of time, so we will have to see how long he can play and how that will affect the rotation.
"To me, it has come down to the fact that (the running backs) have had one-on-one situations and we haven't been able to make the one guy miss. I don't think you can say that we're pleased with the running game compared to where it has been. We have been averaging over 200 yards a game rushing in the past and now we're in the 120-yard range. On the other hand, I don't know if that's a very good comparison because you can go back and watch film and see how many times nobody was blocked but LT would break tackles to make an eight-yard gain a 60-yard gain. We haven't had any times where our running backs make a guy miss and turn that into a 40- or 60-yard run. It's not just on the offensive line, but also on the edge. We need to block better as a wide receiver group to get where we need to go to also."
On the importance of controlling the ball:
"We have to be able to control the football. I think that is why Houston is so much better this season. They're running the football and controlling the clock. One way to keep offenses from scoring a lot of points is to not let them have the football. That is the best defense and it's been that way forever. I know I was a better defensive coordinator when I was standing on the sideline watching our offense play."
On TCU's running backs:
"Ricky Madison is getting his legs back. Kenny Hayter ran hard (versus SMU). I would expect that all three backs (Madison, Hayter and Corey Connally) will continue to play with a fourth, Lonta Hobbs continuing to work with us in practice. He will continue to have more of an impact in practice the next couple of days."
On backup quarterback Tye Gunn:
"We will decide on a specific time beforehand for Tye to get into the game. That is not an reflection of Sean (Stilley's) play, we just need to get Tye a series in the first half and perhaps in the second half. In case something were to go wrong and we needed to put a redshirt freshman in for 50 plays, we don't want it to be a situation where he hasn't played at all. There are a lot of freshmen that we wouldn't put in that situation, but he's not one of them. He's very collected. He may not command the huddle yet like Sean does but a lot of that has to do with the fact that Sean is a fifth-year senior and Tye is a redshirt freshman. Tye is also a little bit faster and runs the option a little bit better and is a guy who can take off and run with the ball.
"By no means does Tye playing mean that we have confidence-level problems with Sean Stilley. I just think that it's very good 'business' to be able to do those kinds of things."
On plans for the off week following the game with North Texas:
"We plan on getting better. We really don't consider it an off week anymore. We consider it a two-week preparation for the next ballgame. By the end of last year, we were pretty familiar with two-week preparations for ballgames. Next week we'll practice on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday and really get after each other and work to get better. On Friday, we'll begin preparations for Houston. We will have a Sunday evening practice and then go again on Tuesday, but we won't wear pads the rest of the week leading up to the game. That should help us get our legs back because I think we're a little bit tired right now."
