View from the East Friday, July 27, 2012 By Al Myatt

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
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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.

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PAGE UPDATED 07/27/12 06:23 PM.