Today is my birthday, and my reward is writing three stories for The Advocate due to early holiday deadlines. But since I actually love what I'm doing, I can think of far worse ways to spend a birthday.
Fritz, Jalen McCleskey and Cam Sample spoke at the Tuesday presser. I missed practice entirely because I was finishing my Advocate story that had a noon deadline.
FRITZ
"I wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving. We had another tough one on Saturday. I talked to the guys on Monday and also after the game, for us to win those type games we have to be on point and play hard, number one, and number two you've got to be physical and play tough, but the last one we didn't do up to the best of our ability, and that's play smart. We can't have assignment errors and beat a quality team like UCF. They are loaded with good players and if we do all those three things that I talked about, we have an opportunity to win a bunch of games. It's disappointing. I liked our fight and effort throughout the game, and we've got to come away with victories in those situations.
"SMU is another great team. They went on the road and played in some tough weather conditions against Navy and almost came away with the win out there. Another great team. All these teams in this conference are outstanding, and we are going to have to do those three things I talked about--play smart, play tough and play with great effort. If we do all those three things, we'll have an opportunity to win on Saturday at 3 o'clock against a really good team that's been ranked in the top 25 I don't know how many weeks in a row. They are out of it this week but they've been in the top 25 maybe eight or nine weeks in a row. Good club."
They are another team that runs a lot of plays at a fast pace. How much will it help having played UCF last week?
"There will be a little bit of carry-over. Different offensive systems. SMU's kind of from the Gus Malzahn tree. Their offensive coordinator worked for him in high school in Arkansas, and UCF is more from the Baylor family of offenses, so there's a little bit of difference. They use more tight end and 11 personnel. Sometimes they've got two tight ends in there as well, but there are some similarities, especially with pace of play. I think UCF is 1, and they are like 9."
No one has really stopped their offense. How big is the challenge?
"It's a huge challenge. They've got a great quarterback, an excellent stable of receivers, a really tough back, two good tight ends, so they've got a lot of weapons over there. They are averaging over 500 yards of offense, very similar numbers to the team we played last weekend."
Their defense leads the AAC in sacks. What challenges do they bring?
"They come after you, again some similarities with defensive style and philosophy (to UCF). They have a lot of tackles for loss and sacks. They'll come at you from a lot of different angles. They've given up some yards but they've also made a lot of big plays."
Are the penalties driving you crazy?
"Yeah. I'm disappointed. There's some reasons why you have penalty. Sometimes an athlete gets out-athleted. That happens on occasion. Or you use improper technique. Another reason is you're not quite sure what's going on and locked in and focused. We had a few in each category on Saturday, and that doesn't help us in any way, shape or form."
Are teams blocking you differently up front based on the success you had last year?
"Yes. Definitely. They are changing some things they've been doing in protections. You know we had some pressure on Saturday. We hit the quarterback quite a few times and it didn't equate to sacks. They've done a good job of nullifying some of the guys we're trying to get featured."
Are they chipping your best guys more?
"A little bit. More it's turning their protection towards certain guys instead of maybe what they do against other teams."
How have you adjusted to that?
"Well, not so much boundary but getting a little bit more field going and trying to put some of the guys we're trying to feature at different spots than maybe where they lined up in the first eight weeks of the season."
How much can you improve your bowl position?
"I think we can improve it. I don't understand the ins and outs of the whole bowl thing, but I think there's one guy who controls the whole thing and he makes a decision other than the six that go to the bowl championship series. They want good matchups, so the more you win, the better bowl you get an opportunity to play in, so yeah, this can help us out big time. We're looking for that seventh win. We haven't played as well as we're capable and a lot of that is we've played some really good teams. In order to win these games, which we can do, we've got to be on point in all three areas we've talked about."
Based on the opponent and the fact you're on the road, would this be a very significant win?
"Yeah, it would be a huge win. We're going in and playing a team that's been 9-2 and gotten as high as No. 15 or something like that. It would be a big win for us."
How much of a difference is Buechele to them?
"When you get a quarterback who knows what he's doing and their offense fits what he's doing. He's smart. He can make all the throws and is really accurate."
MCCLESKEY
How frustrating has this recent stretch been?
"Of course it's going to be frustrating. We've been close in all the games but haven't been able to come through, but it's something that happens in football. We know what we have to fix and what mistakes we made where we could have possibly won the game. We watched film, made our corrections and now we're watching film on SMU and getting ready for them."
How significant is 200 catches for you (McCleskey has 198 for his career; only five active receivers have 200 or more in college)?
"I feel like that is real significant. I didn't even know until my dad told me. I don't really look at stuff like that, but he had told me and I was like, dang, that's crazy."
What have you learned from your father this year that you didn't know about him from being around him as a coach?
"He's the same from when he had the workout facility, dancing, messing around with people and then he can get real serious real fast. He hasn't changed since I was in high school and he was working people out across the lake."
SMU has had a lot of sacks this year. What is your impression of their defense?
"I feel like they are a really good defense. Obviously with the record they have, you have to have a pretty good defense. The coaches have a great game plan together for us to attack them and we just have to go out there and execute."
Fritz, Jalen McCleskey and Cam Sample spoke at the Tuesday presser. I missed practice entirely because I was finishing my Advocate story that had a noon deadline.
FRITZ
"I wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving. We had another tough one on Saturday. I talked to the guys on Monday and also after the game, for us to win those type games we have to be on point and play hard, number one, and number two you've got to be physical and play tough, but the last one we didn't do up to the best of our ability, and that's play smart. We can't have assignment errors and beat a quality team like UCF. They are loaded with good players and if we do all those three things that I talked about, we have an opportunity to win a bunch of games. It's disappointing. I liked our fight and effort throughout the game, and we've got to come away with victories in those situations.
"SMU is another great team. They went on the road and played in some tough weather conditions against Navy and almost came away with the win out there. Another great team. All these teams in this conference are outstanding, and we are going to have to do those three things I talked about--play smart, play tough and play with great effort. If we do all those three things, we'll have an opportunity to win on Saturday at 3 o'clock against a really good team that's been ranked in the top 25 I don't know how many weeks in a row. They are out of it this week but they've been in the top 25 maybe eight or nine weeks in a row. Good club."
They are another team that runs a lot of plays at a fast pace. How much will it help having played UCF last week?
"There will be a little bit of carry-over. Different offensive systems. SMU's kind of from the Gus Malzahn tree. Their offensive coordinator worked for him in high school in Arkansas, and UCF is more from the Baylor family of offenses, so there's a little bit of difference. They use more tight end and 11 personnel. Sometimes they've got two tight ends in there as well, but there are some similarities, especially with pace of play. I think UCF is 1, and they are like 9."
No one has really stopped their offense. How big is the challenge?
"It's a huge challenge. They've got a great quarterback, an excellent stable of receivers, a really tough back, two good tight ends, so they've got a lot of weapons over there. They are averaging over 500 yards of offense, very similar numbers to the team we played last weekend."
Their defense leads the AAC in sacks. What challenges do they bring?
"They come after you, again some similarities with defensive style and philosophy (to UCF). They have a lot of tackles for loss and sacks. They'll come at you from a lot of different angles. They've given up some yards but they've also made a lot of big plays."
Are the penalties driving you crazy?
"Yeah. I'm disappointed. There's some reasons why you have penalty. Sometimes an athlete gets out-athleted. That happens on occasion. Or you use improper technique. Another reason is you're not quite sure what's going on and locked in and focused. We had a few in each category on Saturday, and that doesn't help us in any way, shape or form."
Are teams blocking you differently up front based on the success you had last year?
"Yes. Definitely. They are changing some things they've been doing in protections. You know we had some pressure on Saturday. We hit the quarterback quite a few times and it didn't equate to sacks. They've done a good job of nullifying some of the guys we're trying to get featured."
Are they chipping your best guys more?
"A little bit. More it's turning their protection towards certain guys instead of maybe what they do against other teams."
How have you adjusted to that?
"Well, not so much boundary but getting a little bit more field going and trying to put some of the guys we're trying to feature at different spots than maybe where they lined up in the first eight weeks of the season."
How much can you improve your bowl position?
"I think we can improve it. I don't understand the ins and outs of the whole bowl thing, but I think there's one guy who controls the whole thing and he makes a decision other than the six that go to the bowl championship series. They want good matchups, so the more you win, the better bowl you get an opportunity to play in, so yeah, this can help us out big time. We're looking for that seventh win. We haven't played as well as we're capable and a lot of that is we've played some really good teams. In order to win these games, which we can do, we've got to be on point in all three areas we've talked about."
Based on the opponent and the fact you're on the road, would this be a very significant win?
"Yeah, it would be a huge win. We're going in and playing a team that's been 9-2 and gotten as high as No. 15 or something like that. It would be a big win for us."
How much of a difference is Buechele to them?
"When you get a quarterback who knows what he's doing and their offense fits what he's doing. He's smart. He can make all the throws and is really accurate."
MCCLESKEY
How frustrating has this recent stretch been?
"Of course it's going to be frustrating. We've been close in all the games but haven't been able to come through, but it's something that happens in football. We know what we have to fix and what mistakes we made where we could have possibly won the game. We watched film, made our corrections and now we're watching film on SMU and getting ready for them."
How significant is 200 catches for you (McCleskey has 198 for his career; only five active receivers have 200 or more in college)?
"I feel like that is real significant. I didn't even know until my dad told me. I don't really look at stuff like that, but he had told me and I was like, dang, that's crazy."
What have you learned from your father this year that you didn't know about him from being around him as a coach?
"He's the same from when he had the workout facility, dancing, messing around with people and then he can get real serious real fast. He hasn't changed since I was in high school and he was working people out across the lake."
SMU has had a lot of sacks this year. What is your impression of their defense?
"I feel like they are a really good defense. Obviously with the record they have, you have to have a pretty good defense. The coaches have a great game plan together for us to attack them and we just have to go out there and execute."