Josh Heupel Press Conference - ECU Week
Following a bye week, UCF returns to action this week against ECU. Here's everything head coach Josh Heupel had to say Monday afternoon.
In a bye week, what are you able to do? Do you self scout or take a closer look at younger players?
"We had a chance to do a lot of those things. You do self scout. You get a little bit more time to go back through and look at yourself, your personnel, your situational football, your normal downs, everything. You do that. Young guys get a bunch of work. You get a chance to go out and scrimmage against each other. Some of our older guys had a chance to call it, offense, defense. That was a lot of fun. Really good work for those guys too. You do all that. You get some guys that are nicked up an opportunity to catch their breath and get healthy. Collectively, your football team and staff a little bit over the weekend got a chance to catch their breath and get refreshed and get ready to go."
Coming off the bye week, what's the most important thing you want to see from your team in the preparation for ECU?
"Preparation, be consistent and purposeful in how we prepare. I don't think our team hasn't done that. We've got a find a way to be on the right side of the one play that makes a difference. I think that's important for us. That starts with turnovers and creating them on defense and taking care of it offensively. You look at the two games that we've lost, we've been on the wrong side of it. 6-2, collectively when you put those two games together. A lot of points and a lot of plays could make a difference right there."
When you look at the benefit of the bye week, do you have to wait until the next game to see how it's benefited you or can you see it in practice?
"You see some improvement from your young guys during the course of the week. When I saw young guys, guys who haven't played a ton of football. I think as the season goes on, in all three phases of the game, guys make strides. Sometimes when you're in the meat of it, it's hard to see that. You look back as you do some of your self scout, you see how they've gotten better in their technique, fundamentals and understanding of what you're doing."
How can a couple losses be beneficial for this program?
"You don't have to lose a game to learn a lot of lessons. You don't want to do that. I think for us, inside of our program, just understanding the way you have to prepare. How fine the line is between success and non-success, failure, in this football game. It's true every single week. You look at college football scores week in and week out. There's a really fine line of success and failure. Our guys have worked in a really good way. Coming short a couple times, I think it's important for our kids to understand that they're going to get the best from tour opponent every week and understand we've got to bring our best too."
Can you talk about what Anthony Montalvo has done to earn a scholarship and how fun is it for you to deliver that news?
"Fun for me, fun for our football team. That's a guy, since I stepped foot on campus, just a great teammate. How he approaches his interactions with everybody inside of our building. The way he works, in the weight room, on the practice field, he's willing to do anything and everything to help our football team. Special teams. He's just really consistent in who he is. I think that's why you saw the reaction if you looked at Twitter. The reaction from our entire football team, offense, defense, special teams. Guys love him and appreciate who he is."
Last week Gabe Davis said not to blame the coaches. What was your reaction to that?
"We're a family. Coaches, players, equipment managers. It's everybody. Together fighting. Trying to make a difference. You win as a football team and you lose as a football team. Our program is strong because of the character of the guys in it in all of those areas. We'll bounce back and be ready to play."
With Dillon Gabriel and the turnover issues...
"I said this last week too. Quarterback is going to get probably a little bit too much of the credit when things are going really well and probably too much of the blame. Turnovers, there's things Dillon has got to do better but there's also things the 10 guys around him got to do better too."
Sure. But the missed hand-offs, besides just stressing it, what can you do in terms of drills?
"Every rep counts. Every rep matters. Not that we don't, but you stress and emphasize the technique in everything that you're doing. Some of those things are him, some of those aren't. Collectively as a group, getting to where we need to be."
Gabriel Davis already has a career high in touchdowns this season. How have you seen him evolve as a player?
"I think it starts, just his evolution starts with him dramatically changing his body. Just when we first stepped on campus in December (2017). Just how dramatically he changed his body. He did that because of his purpose in everything he does. The way he eats, the way he trains, the way he sleeps, how he takes care of himself. He's the model of consistency. Because of that, and his work habits and understanding what we do and understanding defenses and studying the guy he's going to play against, he's continued to get better and better. He's worked himself into being a dominating player."
Do you know if Randy Charlton is expected to play this week?
"Not sure if he'll be ready to play yet. Certainly hope that he will be."
You had some struggles offensively in the red zone in the two losses. What can you do to improve that?
"Some of that is turnovers. Some of that is being a little more efficient running the football. We've had some penalties that have backed us up into longer yardage situations. Some efficiency throwing the football. It's not just been one thing. All of our guys need to get a little more dialed in and executing some of the things we need to."
Are you happy with and how do you feel the mindset of the team is right now?
"I do like where our football team is mindset wise. I thought last week they came back and they worked. The couple days we were on the grass, had great energy. Were physical and competitive, all those things. When you get a bye week, I think it's important that players get away from it a little bit. It's a long season, dating back to the first day of training camp. You get an opportunity to get refreshed, refocused and ready to go. They were in the building today, in the weight room and I expect us to have a couple great days of practice."
You talked about players getting away from it, does coaches get away from it?
"Coaches got an opportunity on Saturday and for a portion of Sunday to get away. Be with their kids and do some normal things."
Did you watch football?
"Yeah, a little bit of it. Absolutely. My daughter likes to watch football so we hopped on the couched and watched a little bit, then she had me put up some Halloween decorations too by the end of the day. A little bit of everything."
You watch Oklahoma?
"I did not watch Oklahoma this week. Caught bits and pieces of kind of all three major slots, bits and pieces of a bunch of different games."
This game features two left-handed quarterbacks. You being a lefty yourself, does that bring a smile to your face?
"Not enough of them out there. He's a really good player. Got great respect for his efficiency in the game and how competitive of a player he is. Not enough lefties out there."
You talked about the running game in the red zone. In the second half against Cincinnati you struggled running the football, what do you need to do to improve on that?
"A bunch of our struggles in the second half at Cincinnati is we were first and forever. Some of it takes you out of some of those run game situations. All of a sudden an efficient run isn't good enough to get you into third and manageable. There's missed assignments. There's technique. There's the way we put them in a better position. All those things add up."
Mike Houston is in his first year at ECU after a successful run at James Madison. What do you see from the Pirates?
"They've gotten better each week, particularly on the defensive side of the ball as they continue to gain a better understanding of what they're doing. I think they're growing in it and playing with better technique. They play hard and that's a sign of a well-coached football team."
What does Darriel Mack have to do to get more reps at quarterback?
"I think he'll have an opportunity to potentially play in this one. As he has gotten healthy and gotten more opportunities, I'm not just talking on the game field, he got an opportunity to play against UConn, but even out in practice. He missed almost the entire training camp. Just his comfort in what we're doing and playing at a higher level will lend himself to more opportunities."
You said you watched bits and pieces of other games. Did you see other AAC action? Can you comment on the depth of this conference this year?
"Caught a bit of the early kickoff with Temple and Memphis. I've said it this year. I said it as soon as I came into the league. I thought it before I got into this league. There's great talent throughout this entire league. It's got great coaches inside of it too. Year in and year out, I think you look at the track record of this league in non-conference play against other leagues. You can see that trend. This year is definitely no different. There's a lot of good football."
You said you were putting up Halloween decorations. Do you have your costume?
"I do not have my costume picked out quite yet."
Do you have options?
"I don't, but I'm sure my daughter will."