	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

UNIVERSITY OF TULSA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 21, 2019

Philip Montgomery

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa - 24, Wyoming - 21

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Wow. That's about all I can say after that. Great team win, all three phases, made plays throughout. You're dealing with a team that is -- came in here really 7-0 because they finished last year 4-0, been rolling 3-0, and really just an unbelievably well-coached team, very disciplined about what they do.

They threw the ball much better than what they've been throwing it. I was impressed with that side of it. I thought their quarterback made a ton of plays. Knew they were going to be really, really stout defensively. That's what we saw on tape. Knew it was going to be difficult for us to run the football, but we had to try to find ways.

But you know, just guys continued to make plays, whether you're talking about what the defense did predominantly throughout the game, they make the unbelievable strip play right there at the end, you know, we fall behind, get down the field, 4th down catch by Toe was unbelievable right there, and then hadn't really been able to run the ball all night and pop a big run right there to score at the end.

Gave us a lot of different problems and looks, but I think this is one of those wins that we as a football team can continue to build on, and every win is important. They all matter. Really feel like this was a big one for our young football team as it's continuing to gain confidence and gain experience and continuing to grow.

Q. You talked -- I remember you talking in August one day about Cooper Edmiston and his uncanny knack for either getting turnovers or forcing turnovers. Was that as big -- obviously with the circumstances --
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Well, circumstances like they were, the play that he made right there -- and again, in my opinion, Cooper in the last couple of years, and especially last year, his -- from a stats standpoint, I'll put his stats last year against anybody's in the country.

And Cooper just has that knack. And a lot of it is because of the way he works, the way he prepares, and his never -- his relentless desire on the football field. He's a great leader in our locker room, great leader on the field, and just continues to make plays for us.

Q. You won in a really physical type of a football game with much fewer penalties. Even if there's a lot of stuff you'd want to see get cleaned up, were you proud of the way you won?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: No doubt, yeah. Yeah, I'm extremely proud of the way we won because a lot of adversity throughout this game. You know, first half, we're moving the football, we get behind the chains a little bit, and then all of a sudden we're having to punt. We fall behind 7-0, and then right there in the last part of the first half, we finally get something going and ignite and have a couple of big plays.

And it's good to see our guys just continue to stay together, continue to battle in a very, very physical game, and then you come out the second half and it just continues in that same process. It's back and forth, back and forth.

You know, those games -- as I looked at our schedule before the season started, every one of those teams that are on our schedule, knew every one of them were going to be tough games. It's going to be games that come down to the wire, that you have to find a way to go win, and I thought our team today just continued to battle adversity and then found a way to win.

Q. Did you feel like it took you a quarter just to get used to their physicality and pressure?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: You know, the pressure part of it, and then -- because we had guys open, and you know, it's just getting the ball out in time or making that one catch right there or I'm trying to work a route too long, and those are things that you can work all you want to in practice but until you have to do it in a game, it's a different deal.

Give Zach credit, took a lot of big hits tonight, just kept standing in there throwing the football with confidence, with power, with consistency, and those guys continued to make plays. I mean, the catch Toe made right there -- or Keenen, sorry, what a play by an older guy in a time when we really needed it.

Q. Can you expound on that catch by Keenen just a little bit? Zach, like you had said, took a lot of hits and had to stand in, probably hit less than 50 percent of his throws, but to dial up that, which was a pretty high degree of difficulty, and pull it off at both ends?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Yeah, it was an incredible play by everybody, but obviously Toe going up in that situation, Zach really having to put it up in the air a little bit because of things that were happening. I mean, we had probably four or five balls get batted tonight, which we hadn't really had an issue with.

You know, this defense was extremely long, and they do a really good job of different pressure packages and a lot of movement up front. You know, that catch and that play at that time was -- it's a huge one. It's probably in my opinion, that's the biggest play Toe has made since he's been here.

And I don't know what Zach's stats were. I haven't even got a chance to look at them yet. Yeah, we threw it 50 times. How many times since I've been here have I thrown it 50 times? And he threw the ball extremely well with a lot of pressure in his face coming from a lot of different angles, a lot of man coverage things in there. You know, I don't know how many drops we had in that, but I know we had guys continuing just to get up, I'll get it the next time, and staying positive about what we're doing.

Q. You probably already touched on it in a couple different ways, but you mentioned it being one that you guys can build on. Why? What makes this win kind of special in that way and one that you think can --
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Well, I just seen it over the course of my career. I think back to -- in '16 we're down 31 points at Fresno and come back and win that game. You can't always say, well, it's going to happen that way, but I'm just saying, those type of games, those down to the wire, you find a way to win type of games, we had a bunch of them in that season if you remember. I think we had three overtime games, one of them was double overtime.

You know, those games -- the only way you can coach that is go through it, and the only way you can be prepared for it is to go through it. Tonight was one of those types of games.

Q. On your last possession before they went and scored to take the lead briefly late, went for it on 4th down at about midfield. Just what was the thought process there in deciding to go for it rather than punt?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Yeah, you know, we would have had to punt against the wind, which probably would have helped us, could have pinned them back. You know, what I was worried about more than anything was I didn't want to punt, put it in the end zone, they start on the 25, the exchange there is not good, plus I thought our defense was -- they'd been out there a little bit.

Just felt like we needed to go and make a play right here and thought we had a good play called, and we didn't execute it as well as I wanted.

I thought Shamari got basically almost tackled right there, but it's one of those -- it's one of those gut calls that you have to make and you live with one way or another. Now, it could have come back and bit me and I'd have been in here saying, well, I probably should have punted. But sometimes you've got to roll the dice and see what happens, and I felt like that was one of those times.

Q. If any game underscores your commitment to the run game, it's this one because every yard was difficult and yet you get the game-winning touchdown on a run play with Shamari on your 43rd attempt.
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: I want to be balanced, and we were actually close to being balanced tonight. We threw it 50 times, ran it 43. We had a couple of runs here and there, but for the most part we really didn't.

You know, to keep people -- you've got to continue to respect the run, right, and I think really in the last drive right there, I think we threw it I think every down until that one, except maybe we got in a short yardage and I had to run it maybe -- I can't remember.

But it's one of those deals where I know we have talented backs. I trust those guys with the football in their hands, and our offensive line, they're continuing to grow and get better. Tonight is a great learning experience for them. But we're always going to try to run the football and be balanced.

Q. To go into an off week with a victory like this after y'all have been doing football every day for like nine weeks, is the idle weekend coming up perfectly timed for you?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Yeah, I really think it is. We're bumped and bruised up pretty good, just like they are, and I hope all of their guys come out healthy. Obviously the situation there on the field, you always worry about those things. But I know they're bumped and bruised. I know we are too. We need a week to try to get back healthy again.

Just like you said, we've been going since August 1st and pushing really, really hard in fall camp, and then you know what our schedule has been. We've played physical games. We've played 60 minutes of physical games, and it's going to be good to have a break right here, try to freshen them back up a little bit, and then get ready for conference play.

Because as you look at it, we go to SMU after the break, and SMU has been playing extremely well. I don't know what they did today versus TCU -- did they?

So again, every team in our conference, I watched a little bit of that Tulane-Houston game while I was up here doing play cards the other night, and both of those teams extremely talented, extremely well-coached. Every game in our conference is going to be like this, and we've got to get prepared and geared up for it.

Q. Talk a little bit about your defense in the middle of the game. I don't know if it was eight straight, I'm not sure if I got this right, but three-and-outs. It was just unbelievable form. Talk about the key to that and talk about how your defense played.
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Yeah, I thought our defense just continued to keep attacking. I thought we did a really good job, knowing that they wanted to come in here and run the football. They'd been really good at it, and I thought our guys did a nice job on early downs and then getting them in predictable 3rd down situations where they were having to throw the football.

I thought Chambers threw the ball probably better tonight than what I've seen him do on tape. They made some plays down the field. We had a busted coverage on the one long one, and so I thought our defense just continued to stand up and make plays and play together and trust each other and did a phenomenal job.

Q. Outside of the rest for that bye week, what are your main objectives for the bye week to accomplish?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Well, I mean, we're still a growing football team. You know, we've got to continue to get better up front. We've got to protect Zach better. We've got to run the football better. You know, defensively we've got to continue to keep grinding those things because there's a lot of different and unique styles of offense that we're going to have to face within our conference, and those guys have got to continue to keep raising the bar and raising the standard just like we do offensively.

You know, I thought our receivers did a nice job tonight versus a lot of pressure looks and a lot of coverage things, but those guys are making plays for us and continue to make plays, so we've just got to continue to keep growing. Every week and every time we step on the field, we've got an opportunity to get better, and we've got to take advantage of that.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297