We were provided only one player after the game--Rod Teamer--which I will address with the proper people this week. The quickest way for the Advocate to pull me off the road in future years is limited access like that.
Fritz, as always, was accommodating, answering every question.
FRITZ
"When we throw the football, we've got to do a good job of completions on some big hitters for us. We didn't complete those. They dominated time of possession in the first half and they probably dominated the second half as well. Give them the credit. They were well prepared. They had a good game plan against us, offensively and defensively and they won the ball game."
Do you feel like your players bought a little too much into the positive attention they received after blowing out Tulsa?
"Well, I hope not. I know we sure didn't talk about that. You can't sit around and pat yourself on the back when you play well, and you can't dwell on the negatives either. I guess we got to move on from this game, too. It's just disappointing."
You had nine yards passing at halftime. Was there an emphasis on switching anything up?
"No, we just hit on any of our big hitters like we did last week and we've done so far this season. For us to be successful in the passing game, we have to run the ball effectively and we just didn't have enough opportunities to do that. We had some big rips, but they were between the 30s and not in the red zone."
Dontrell Hilliard had another good game, but it didn't look like he got much help.
"Yeah, we'll look back. There are a few times we should have just stayed on the ground and run the football and not tried to get too cute. Hindsight's 20-20, isn't it?"
You mentioned the lack of opportunities. Is that time of possession, number of plays?
"Well, they were packing the box and playing a lot of man coverage and giving us some nice shots. We just missed on two or three of them. When you look from the sideline and up in the box, you see some things you can do, but you still have to execute them."
The defense had a hard time getting off the field and appeared to miss a lot more tackles than usual. Did you feel that?
"I thought we did a really poor job of tackling. Too often the first guy in was trying to strip the ball instead of tackling, so we missed a lot of tackles and we've been pretty good at that. I think they were 4 of 8 in the first half on third-down conversions, and they had a fourth-down conversion also. You've got to shove the door when you get them in third downs so you can get off the field and your offense can get out there."
Did you see something like this being possible during the week of practice?
"You know me. I'm worried about every game under the sun. We certainly knew they had a good squad. Their quarterback is a pretty good player. The (running) back is a lot better player than I bave him credit for. I'll say that. He's a good running back. The real thing they did a nice job of was scheming us. They ran some unbalanced (lines) and a little bit of zone read, taking some pages out of our playbook."
They are the first team that has really gone after Parry Nickerson a lot. Were you surprised with that tactic?
"That's a good receiver out there. We had to man (-to-man coverage) a lot. You hope to get a little pressure when you're bringing four or five or six guys, and we just didn't get a whole lot of pressure against them. They did a really nice job of moving the pocket, too. They were running some bootlegs and getting out in space and were giving the quarterback a bunch of time."
It looked like Jonathan Banks was late on his decisions. Did you sense that?
"He's like a lot of guys. He didn't play one of his better games. When that happens, everybody's got to pick up around him. He's our guy, though. He'll bounce back and have a great game this week."
EDIT: Q&A CONTINUES HERE AFTER A 40-HOUR DELAY
Was the way FIU played their run defense different from other teams?
"It wasn't totally out of the realm of what other teams have done against us. Looking back on it, I'm sure we wish we would have been a little bit more patient running the ball and giving ourselves three downs to get ten yards instead of a lot of times it was two downs (due to an incomplete pass)."
Did you consider going for the first down on that fourth-and-2 after you had scored a touchdown to cut the deficit to 13-10 and gotten the ball on a three-and-out?
"Yeah, I came pretty close to going for it. I think it was a little closer to fourth-and-2 maybe. We felt like if you go for it right there and you don't get it, the game's kind of over."
You lost Eldrick Washington early. Cameron Sample played well in place of him but it hurt your depth. How much did that affect the defense?
"He (Eldrick) is a good player. Hopefully it's not real serious. He's a really good young man. You hate to see that happen to anybody, especially a senior."
With South Florida coming up next, do you feel like you'll get a good response from these guys?
"Yeah, we'll bounce back. We're coming back home. We are going to learn from our mistakes, flush this tape down the toilet and move on to the next game. It's what you have to do."
RODERIC TEAMER
The defense had a hard time getting off the field tonight. What went wrong?
"Really they came out and had some wrinkles, some things that we hadn't seen all week that they really confused us with. We had to make a lot of halftime adjustments. That was really what happened in the first quarter. It was a lot of adjustments, and it's hard to play on the run. When you have the advantage all week of knowing what your opponent is going to do, hat's off to them with that."
Do you feel like anyone got too excited about what happened against Tulsa last week?
"No sir. Coach Fritz always preaches to us the next game. We celebrated the Tulsa game, but we had a 24-hour rule and moved on to this game. Nobody overlooked this team. We went out, we felt we had a great week of practice. Things just didn't go our way tonight."
You were on the field a long time as a defense. Did you wear down in the second half?
"You could say that. I'll have to look at the film to really tell you if we wore down defensively, but of course being on the field getting demoralized when they get first down after first down and they converted a fourth down on us. When that type of stuff happens, it gets you down a little bit."
You got a three-and-out right after cutting the deficit to 13-10, but the next time they had the ball, they ran it right down your throat. How surprising was that drive?
"I won't say it was surprising because all week we watched them. They did a great job running the ball all year, so it wasn't surprising, but like I said, in the running game they did some things we didn't expect them to do, and that really caught us off guard. That's just great coaching by them."
They really went after Parry Nickerson with a good receiver. Did that surprise you guys because everyone else had stayed away from Parry?
"I mean, it surprises you a little bit, but we never lost any confidence in Parry. That receiver is a great receiver. Throughout the scouting report, that's what we talked about all week was we were going to have to stop him in the passing game. It wasn't surprising. On a 50-50 ball, if he goes up and gets it, that's his ball."
How quickly can you bounce back for the South Florida game?
"Tomorrow we're going to get in and watch film, Monday we're going to watch film on this game and then after that we're moving on. No one is going to dwell on this game. It hurts. We felt like this is a game that we should have come out and won, but we have to move. We have a ranked opponent, South Florida, coming in, and we want to get that one."
Fritz, as always, was accommodating, answering every question.
FRITZ
"When we throw the football, we've got to do a good job of completions on some big hitters for us. We didn't complete those. They dominated time of possession in the first half and they probably dominated the second half as well. Give them the credit. They were well prepared. They had a good game plan against us, offensively and defensively and they won the ball game."
Do you feel like your players bought a little too much into the positive attention they received after blowing out Tulsa?
"Well, I hope not. I know we sure didn't talk about that. You can't sit around and pat yourself on the back when you play well, and you can't dwell on the negatives either. I guess we got to move on from this game, too. It's just disappointing."
You had nine yards passing at halftime. Was there an emphasis on switching anything up?
"No, we just hit on any of our big hitters like we did last week and we've done so far this season. For us to be successful in the passing game, we have to run the ball effectively and we just didn't have enough opportunities to do that. We had some big rips, but they were between the 30s and not in the red zone."
Dontrell Hilliard had another good game, but it didn't look like he got much help.
"Yeah, we'll look back. There are a few times we should have just stayed on the ground and run the football and not tried to get too cute. Hindsight's 20-20, isn't it?"
You mentioned the lack of opportunities. Is that time of possession, number of plays?
"Well, they were packing the box and playing a lot of man coverage and giving us some nice shots. We just missed on two or three of them. When you look from the sideline and up in the box, you see some things you can do, but you still have to execute them."
The defense had a hard time getting off the field and appeared to miss a lot more tackles than usual. Did you feel that?
"I thought we did a really poor job of tackling. Too often the first guy in was trying to strip the ball instead of tackling, so we missed a lot of tackles and we've been pretty good at that. I think they were 4 of 8 in the first half on third-down conversions, and they had a fourth-down conversion also. You've got to shove the door when you get them in third downs so you can get off the field and your offense can get out there."
Did you see something like this being possible during the week of practice?
"You know me. I'm worried about every game under the sun. We certainly knew they had a good squad. Their quarterback is a pretty good player. The (running) back is a lot better player than I bave him credit for. I'll say that. He's a good running back. The real thing they did a nice job of was scheming us. They ran some unbalanced (lines) and a little bit of zone read, taking some pages out of our playbook."
They are the first team that has really gone after Parry Nickerson a lot. Were you surprised with that tactic?
"That's a good receiver out there. We had to man (-to-man coverage) a lot. You hope to get a little pressure when you're bringing four or five or six guys, and we just didn't get a whole lot of pressure against them. They did a really nice job of moving the pocket, too. They were running some bootlegs and getting out in space and were giving the quarterback a bunch of time."
It looked like Jonathan Banks was late on his decisions. Did you sense that?
"He's like a lot of guys. He didn't play one of his better games. When that happens, everybody's got to pick up around him. He's our guy, though. He'll bounce back and have a great game this week."
EDIT: Q&A CONTINUES HERE AFTER A 40-HOUR DELAY
Was the way FIU played their run defense different from other teams?
"It wasn't totally out of the realm of what other teams have done against us. Looking back on it, I'm sure we wish we would have been a little bit more patient running the ball and giving ourselves three downs to get ten yards instead of a lot of times it was two downs (due to an incomplete pass)."
Did you consider going for the first down on that fourth-and-2 after you had scored a touchdown to cut the deficit to 13-10 and gotten the ball on a three-and-out?
"Yeah, I came pretty close to going for it. I think it was a little closer to fourth-and-2 maybe. We felt like if you go for it right there and you don't get it, the game's kind of over."
You lost Eldrick Washington early. Cameron Sample played well in place of him but it hurt your depth. How much did that affect the defense?
"He (Eldrick) is a good player. Hopefully it's not real serious. He's a really good young man. You hate to see that happen to anybody, especially a senior."
With South Florida coming up next, do you feel like you'll get a good response from these guys?
"Yeah, we'll bounce back. We're coming back home. We are going to learn from our mistakes, flush this tape down the toilet and move on to the next game. It's what you have to do."
RODERIC TEAMER
The defense had a hard time getting off the field tonight. What went wrong?
"Really they came out and had some wrinkles, some things that we hadn't seen all week that they really confused us with. We had to make a lot of halftime adjustments. That was really what happened in the first quarter. It was a lot of adjustments, and it's hard to play on the run. When you have the advantage all week of knowing what your opponent is going to do, hat's off to them with that."
Do you feel like anyone got too excited about what happened against Tulsa last week?
"No sir. Coach Fritz always preaches to us the next game. We celebrated the Tulsa game, but we had a 24-hour rule and moved on to this game. Nobody overlooked this team. We went out, we felt we had a great week of practice. Things just didn't go our way tonight."
You were on the field a long time as a defense. Did you wear down in the second half?
"You could say that. I'll have to look at the film to really tell you if we wore down defensively, but of course being on the field getting demoralized when they get first down after first down and they converted a fourth down on us. When that type of stuff happens, it gets you down a little bit."
You got a three-and-out right after cutting the deficit to 13-10, but the next time they had the ball, they ran it right down your throat. How surprising was that drive?
"I won't say it was surprising because all week we watched them. They did a great job running the ball all year, so it wasn't surprising, but like I said, in the running game they did some things we didn't expect them to do, and that really caught us off guard. That's just great coaching by them."
They really went after Parry Nickerson with a good receiver. Did that surprise you guys because everyone else had stayed away from Parry?
"I mean, it surprises you a little bit, but we never lost any confidence in Parry. That receiver is a great receiver. Throughout the scouting report, that's what we talked about all week was we were going to have to stop him in the passing game. It wasn't surprising. On a 50-50 ball, if he goes up and gets it, that's his ball."
How quickly can you bounce back for the South Florida game?
"Tomorrow we're going to get in and watch film, Monday we're going to watch film on this game and then after that we're moving on. No one is going to dwell on this game. It hurts. We felt like this is a game that we should have come out and won, but we have to move. We have a ranked opponent, South Florida, coming in, and we want to get that one."
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