Excerpts from Coach Steele's Weekly Media Call
9/23/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 23, 2002
Quotes taken from Kevin Steele's Sunday (Sept. 22, 2002) media teleconference:
On the Tulsa game:
"It's all about winning. We won. I think special teams wise we're making improvement. We're getting the right mix out there, the right guys. I thought Randy Davis has been so focused and intent on making something good for him and the group that's out there and you can see that. He's running with a reckless abandon. He's just on a mission. I think on our kick cover teams, both punt and kickoff cover, there's a good mix out there. And, there will be some more changes as we get through this open date because we'll have time to get them more reps. Robert Quiroga, Willie Andrews and that group of guys, Michael Tolbert, they're covering well. I thought our punt coverage was much improved with the exception of the reverse. That was a little bit frustrating, but that was at the end there and we kind of anticipated the trick play, but I guess maybe we shouldn't say anything about it. Our field goals and extra points, when we missed things, it hasn't been crucial, but in the stretch of this I think we've missed two or three in non-crucial times and you've got to make the extra points.
"Defensively speaking, this defense is coming along. We're further along than we've ever been and we've got guys in the secondary like Maurice Lane, Derrick Cash, Bobby Hart playing very well. I thought up front Ethan (Kelley) and Kevin (Stevenson) have played well all season. I thought our ends really played well. We had kind of a conglomeration of starters with Aaron (Lard) being out and Charles (Mann) being out, but with the original starters this is the second our third game for Charles and the fourth game for Aaron. The two guys who have emerged, and we knew we had a good group, there wasn't a lot of seperation in them at any point in time. A.C. (Collier) does a good job of rushing the pass on third down. Khari Long and Dominick Cravens have really done a nice job playing the run and they've been playing with great effort. Then Joe Simmons had two sacks, so that's a pretty good group there. We've still got to come along at linebacker. We've pared things down to make sure the guys can play and not be thinking. We've got to continue to help the linebackers because that's a hard position. Run, pass and all of the coverage things, but we still need to improve there. All in all defensively we're stopping the run and when you look at the points, you can't do it this way. But, you have to put out fires where they are. There's been too many points put on the total score because of turnovers. Turnovers for touchdowns give the defense no chance to keep them out and too close close to the goal line makes it tough. We still need to keep them out, but it's tough.
"Offensively, we're doing some good things. I think Reggie (Newhouse) is playing well. I think Cedric Fields is playing well. I think T.J. Helmcamp is playing well. The receiver corps all-in-all is blocking really well down field. They're hustling and making the plays. We've got a little bit of a glitch in the offensive line with having to move some guys around with some injuries. There's some problems, things we need to get better at. It really comes down to we just can't turn the ball over, period. We've got to take better care of the football. I don't know that we ever really put the game in jeopardy, but we weren't far from it with nothing but turnovers, period. It wasn't play it was just giffs. I never had the feeling it was in jeopardy because of the way the defense was playing but when the stretch of the Big 12 starts, that will not be the case."
On the off week:
"It's not a time to rest. We'll start preparing for Kansas. We've given the guys today (Sunday) off. We'll have them Monday for film and lifting and a little running. We'll practice Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for Kansas and give them Friday and Saturday off. We'll get them Sunday and practice for Kansas all next week."
On possible position chances after the off week:
"We've seen what we've got where. I think you'll see some guys playing more and some guys playing less. Some guys who have been in a backup role on some special teams, we'll do some reshuffling for who's where on that. We've been in instances before where guys lost their position and they didn't lose it because they got beat out. They lost it because we needed a change. There's a lot of competition going on."
On the defense:
"These guys on defense have been working hard. When they go to practice it's not an easy task. The big thing is we're stopping the run. We've got to keep building. We can't give up a 65-yard run and we can't give up big plays. We can't stay on the field 11 plays. That's unacceptable."
"I think the linebacker position is where we need to make the most improvement in the next two weeks. They're not playing bad, but there's a little thing here and a little thing there that we can make a huge difference in."
On the turnovers:
"We've got a young quarterback. We're going to have some miscues, but you can't turn the ball over because that just doesn't give you a chance. It may get out of control if you turn it over."
"The turnover margin is huge and you're never going to win it if you turn it over five times in one game and five times in another."
