Josh Heupel Press Conference - South Carolina State Week
There were some issues to address, notably tackling, but UCF head coach Josh Heupel came away from his first game incredibly pleased following their resounding 56-17 win at UConn. Focus shifts this week to South Carolina State and their first home game on Saturday. The FCS Bulldogs lost their opener to Georgia Southern, 37-6.
Here's everything Heupel had to say during his weekly Monday press conference.
On the status of CB Aaron Robinson:
"He's back in town and doing well. I saw him again here this morning and I think he's definitely moving in the right direction. Obviously we're all thankful he's going to be all right."
On UConn and Randy Edsall's handling of the situation:
"Yeah, I talked to (Edsall) yesterday. Even during the course of the game, came out and was really concerned about Aaron and the situation. The university, Coach Edsall himself, did a great job of helping take care of Aaron up there. Coach Edsall went up saw him, spend time with him. It was important to Aaron and to us that the university would handle it like that. It says a lot."
On their schedule since last Thursday's game:
"We got in late Friday morning, maybe like four o'clock. Might have been later than that. Players slept in for a little bit. Coaches came in and graded the tape then we had the afternoon to to go back and watch the video with the players, make some corrections. They had Saturday and Sunday off and then today got back going and typical game week."
On today:
"Today, an introduction into our next opponent and did a little bit of stuff on the field. Really pretty brief. Our Monday's aren't heavy for us. Getting the guys moving around, jogging, some special teams get a little bit of fundamental work. They're in the weight room and have time for treatment and watching some video."
On what stood out after watching the film:
"At the end of the day really positive that we came out 1-0. Didn't have a lot of penalties. Played mistake free for the most part. No glaring mistakes, took care of the football. Got turnovers on the defensive side of the ball. At the same time, there's a million little things that you're going to correct and our players have been really good about accepting that, seeing it on tape. I think when we get back on the field tomorrow, pushing to correct it."
On whether he believes teams make the most improvement between game one and game two:
"You certainly can. I think in particular for your young guys that have never had a game experience. For us being a new staff, new schemes, the growth in communication, how we handle game day, all those things, we can make a big jump. We need to make a big jump. Will it be the biggest jump of the year? I don't know. It certainly needs to have a lot of importance this week on focusing on us. That's what I stress to the players when we got back today and really on Friday as well. It's always a race against yourself to become the best that you possibly can as fast as you can. So you focus on today. We've moved on to the next opponent, but you focus on today, control today, and that will take care of itself."
On WR Tre Nixon:
"He's played that way since he got here. He has a dynamic skill set. Does a good job of tracking the football. Competitive. Played well without the ball in his hands as well. So we expected good things from him. And he certainly played that well. A lot of our skill players played really well."
On preparing for a lower-division team and preventing players from overlooking them:
"Don't pay attention to outside noise, positive or negative. You're only as good as your next performance in sports. Focus on that. Focus on what controls how you're going to perform, which is today. How you handle the day. How you prepare. At the end of the day, I mentioned it earlier, we're in a race against ourselves to become the best that we possibly can as fast as we can. Focus on what you need to to improve, accept coaching and push to get better."
On "keeping the pedal down" and trying to win by as much as possible to impress voters:
"At the end of the day, outside observations of our program are going to be that, outside observations. I can't control it. We're gonna go out and perform and execute the best that we possibly can. Every Saturday, if you play the same opponent 10 times, the game's gonna unfold 10 different ways. It's just college football. Small details make a difference in the ballgame. One play makes a difference in how the next series is played. So you can't focus on that. You just go play ball. Week one for us it was important that one, we finished the game the right way. Two, that our kids got comfortable enough in our systems and communication that we continued to grow in the second half of that ballgame. At the end of it, felt like it was the right time to get some young guys in the game."
On the prospect of getting young players in the game this week:
"I think you always want to play as many guys as possible. They've put in eight months of work into it and some of them haven't touched the field yet on game day. If the opportunity affords itself, you want guys to get work because the time and energy they put into it, plus the growth they can have from that experience.
On QB Darriel Mack Jr.:
"It's important for him to continue to grow. Time on task, experiences out there, are only going to continue to make him better. He certainly has grown a lot through practice. The series that he got was important for him. Thought he handled the pass game pretty well and then obviously made a big play with his feet. I want him to continue to grow."
On gameday communication:
"Jon and obviously Jeff Lebby as well. I thought communication on the offensive side of the ball went really well. Defensively, they didn't have many mishaps. There was one substitution where they were short handed and then got a guy out, had a little bit of confusion, but I thought in all three phases handled it pretty well. I thought myself as a head coach, I didn't feel like I was outside looking in at any point and didn't feel like I wasn't in position to do what I needed to do."
On whether he graded his performance:
"My performance? I did not grade my performance. We're 1-0. At the end of the day, that's my job."
On missed tackles being a technique issue or was it UConn's QB being elusive:
"He is elusive. He's a really good player. We'll probably face another guy like that this week. I think one, it's week one and you have some tackling during the course of training camp but it's still week one out under the lights. Two, I think fundamentally I think our guys put themselves in a bad position a few times so those are things we're going to continue to work on, continue to correct, something we got to do at a high level for us to go be the team that we want to be."
On South Carolina State:
"Just watching them on tape, I think their front on the defensive side of the ball is big and strong and tries to play on the other side of the line of scrimmage. Offensively, they got some experience at wideout. The guys have made some plays. They played a few different quarterbacks last week and one in particular is pretty elusive."
On going on the road in week one:
"Conference game, we talked about it beforehand. Conference game on the road, new staff. Handling all that was important. At the end of the day, it puts us at 1-0 inside the conference."
On playing at home:
"I think everyone's excited to come home and play in front of a packed stadium and excited about the opportunity we have. This is our second opportunity to go out and play and compete as a team. I know the players and staff are excited to be here."
On getting the first teamers game reps and then allowing the second stringers to play:
"I think you want enough reps and enough time on task that your kids feel really comfortable in communication, fundamentals, technique, eye discipline to go out and continue to grow as a football team and put yourself in position to continue to grow and be successful as the season unfolds."
On whether he looked at other conference games this past weekend:
"I did not really pay a lot of attention to the scores in our league."
On the health of the team:
"We came out really pretty healthy from from the ballgame. Aaron, play one, if you watch the tape he was absolutely flying with his hair on fire. Did a tremendous job. Unfortunate with the injury, excited to get him back here eventually, but for the most part coming out of the ballgame we're pretty healthy.
On the specifics regarding Aaron Robinson's injury:
"Concussion."
On whether he was able to watch other games on Saturday:
"Watched some ballgames. Got a chance to spend some time with my two kids as well and then obviously Sunday morning you're back in early and getting prepared for the next opponent. Starting on a Thursday night, I love it because you're on national TV, great brand recognition for our program. Exciting for our players to play on it and at the same time it's kinda like a mini bye for your players as well. Coming out of training camp, going into game week, they get chance to kind of rest up for a three day break and get their bodies back underneath them before you go into a long stretch here."
On the new kickoff rules changing strategies:
"Yeah, I think it really depends on the game situation. It depends on your personnel in the matchups and what you feel like maybe gives you an advantage. If you have an advantage on the kickoff return side of it against their kickoff coverage, also depends about their kicker, how deep it is, how high it is. There's a lot of different factors that take place within the game in that side of the strategy, but certainly saw it during the course of the weekend and the ability to raise your hand and fair catch it and get the ball out in good shape. You saw us do it at the end of the ballgame."
On McKenzie working inside the pocket:
"I thought he really did a good job. Maybe the two throws that he missed from inside of the pocket it was body position. His eyes were in the right place though. He's continuing to grow. We certainly don't want to take away any of his playmaking ability. You saw that and that's a lethal weapon during the course of a 60 minute ballgame. Plays that are there from within the pocket we're on him to continue to grow and make those plays."
On whether McKenzie should slide better:
"We'd prefer he take no hits during the course of a ballgame, but I'm not sure that's realistic. He's a player and he's got to make decisions during the course of a play. We trust him. We talk about him getting down and protecting his body."
On whether he slept well after the game:
"When we got back that night? It was a fast night's sleep. There wasn't a lot of sleep. Yeah I mean I slept good, but I slept really good the night before the ballgame and on Thursday night too. I didn't have any problems. We've got a good staff and good players that are about doing the right things. Can't predict the future, but they compete the right way. Going into kickoff we're pretty excited and pretty relaxed."
On whether he's relieved getting the first one out of the way:
"I don't think relieved is the right word. Excited to get out there and play and compete. Excited that we played in some areas the way that we're capable of. Then you look at the tape and it's never as good and never as bad as it seems. There's a ton of things we need to correct going into week two."