View from the East
Friday, July 27, 2012
By Al Myatt |
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West
Division coaches face challenge
[Editor's note: This report from Dallas by Al Myatt is Part Two of two.
Click here to read Part
One.]
By
Al Myatt
©2012 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
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DALLAS — Conference USA's
West Division teams are mired in a losing streak when it comes to the
league championship. C-USA went to two divisions in 2005 with Tulsa
defeating Central Florida 44-27 in the first conference championship
game in Orlando.
Houston defeated Southern
Miss for the title the following season but since then the league
championship has been the exclusive property of East Division teams,
including C-USA's first back-to-back champions in the division era when
East Carolina won in 2008 and 2009.
In 2011, Southern Miss
stunned previously-unbeaten host Houston 49-28 in the title game to deny
the Cougars an outside shot at a BCS bowl.
The East Division has won
five straight C-USA championships as the league gears up for 2012.
Here's what the coaches in
the West Division had to say when asked about the foremost factor for
their team to reach its potential this season. The coaches responded at
the C-USA media kickoff in Dallas on Wednesday.
Tony
Levine, Houston: "I'm going to answer the question two ways. Winning
football games comes down to a number of things. It's holding onto the
football offensively, creating turnovers defensively, cutting down on
penalties, controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides of the
football. That, to me, philosophically will never change. For us,
specifically for this season, you're going to see a lot of young men on
the field in game one running onto the field for the first time in their
careers in a significant role. We have quite a few young men playing who
are inexperienced. We tried to create some game-like situations this
spring. We may have some true freshmen play into the mix. The quicker
the young men can gain valuable experience, learn from their mistakes,
which they'll make, the more successful we'll be."
David
Bailiff, Rice: "Offensively, to improve, we've got to have some big
plays. We've got (to) have yards after catch. Instead of a three-yard
run, we need a seven-yard run. ... We've got to take care of the
football. We had too many turnovers last year. Defensively, we've got to
reduce the big plays that we've been giving up, which means we've got to
stay on wrap-arounds. We've got to secure the tackle with the first hit.
Defensively -- stop big plays, offensively -- make some big plays and
reduce turnovers. ... We have a really talented football team. We only
have eight seniors but they're all pretty good players. We have very
talented players below them. We've got a returning quarterback who
struggled last year but I think Taylor (McHargue) has his confidence
back. ... I really feel good about the kind of football team we can grow
into."
June
Jones, Southern Methodist: "The quarterback situation. I think that's
probably true of any football team. The quarterback better be a player.
In our offense, it's even more so that way because we feature the
quarterback. That's probably the key. We have some talented kids, three
really good passers, but again they haven't lined up and played in a
game for us. You really have to learn how to play in a system. You've
got to get in the system and play. ... I've kind of made a decision
right now that a transfer kid (Garrett Gilbert, who started his college
career at Texas) is going to be the guy. He'll get the same reps as the
others will initially but two weeks before the game (at Baylor, Sept. 2)
he'll be getting 80 percent of the snaps. He's played at the highest
level as an 18-year old freshman in the national championship game. I
think he'll be more ready to play. The good thing for him is that he's
going back in to some things he did in high school where he had a lot of
success. ... He had some things at Texas with change of coordinators and
systems and he got his shoulder hurt."
Andre
Patterson, Texas-El Paso: "I think, No. 1, for me, is that we truly have
to become a team. I'm going into my third season and I don't feel that
we've grown all the way in that area. People always say chemistry but
you've got to have team togetherness to be a successful team, whether
it's college football or pro football. In order to be successful in this
game, you have to play this game for something bigger than yourself. If
you're just out there to get your stats and to make yourself feel good,
you will never reach the potential as a football team that you desire.
I've always thought that that's something we've got to grow into. I
started to see parts of that this past spring because we have a lot of
returning guys on both sides of the ball. That gives us an opportunity
to achieve that. No. 2, offensively, we've got to take care of the
football. We didn't do a great job last year in our turnover ratio. We
not only turned the ball over but we turned 'em over for scores. ...
Defensively, we have to do a much better job of defending the running
game and we have to eliminate the amount of explosion plays that we gave
up."
Curtis
Johnson, Tulane: "I think it's getting the continuity together as soon
as we possibly can — getting our football program, our football team as
a team, jelling together. Being a new coaching staff, there's just the
unknown, being in a new conference. I think that's the most important
thing — just everybody coming together and doing what we ask them to do.
I thought things were excellent in spring. I thought Ryan (Griffin) did
an excellent job as a quarterback. He's been a starter for two years. On
the other side, (linebacker) Trent Mackey was a leader, (linebacker)
Darryl Farley was also a leader. They're guys who have played already.
They are an extension of us as coaches. I think that's working out
pretty well."
Bill
Blankenship, Tulsa: "The main factor for us is just chemistry. If our
guys start the year off with the way we finished spring, I think that
can give us some traction that leads to some victories. I don't think
there's any place where it matters more how you play together than the
game of football. You can have talent and you can have experience -- you
can have all those things -- but they key is how do you do it together.
I think (defensive back) Dexter McCoil is a great example. He makes the
guys around him better. If they'll do that on both sides of the ball,
you have a pretty good chance. I think it's true all across the
conference. It's not going to be just talent. It's going to be how
quickly they jell."
Credit: C-USA Media
Day coaches' photos by Al Myatt.
E-mail Al Myatt
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07/27/12 01:47 AM.
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