UTEP Football Media Luncheon Quotes
Head coach Dana Dimel
Nov. 19, 2018
Opening Statement
“Starting off with the whole performance of our team on last Saturday’s game. I don’t think we handled the trip very well, the challenge that comes with playing a night game in November on the road and playing in a little different environment than what we’re accustomed to. That part of it as I go back and look, I don’t think our football team handled that very well. We came out and had a really, really poor first half, more so with what we did offensively than what we did defensively. They’re (WKU) known for putting together a scripted first 10,12-play drive on the first series of the game. We got them into a fourth down there on that first drive, and they had a nice play. They ran a nice scheme right there and caught the eyes of our secondary a little bit and converted on a fourth and three. Again, we got them into one play from stopping that initial drive of the game. Then, what happened from there was the part that set the tone for the whole football game. On our very first (offensive) play of the game, we ran an RPO (run/pass option play). The execution of the play just wasn’t very good. We didn’t get any presence on the backside backer with our offensive line blocking. So, that allowed a guy you don’t even think about to show (up) in the quarterback’s eye level there on that play. We ran the route a little bit short and get a tipped ball that goes right into their hands. The execution of the play just wasn’t very good for us. That led to our first interception. Obviously, that gives them great field position. They were a motivated football team, playing with a good edge to them and got the touchdown on the first drive. But then they came back and had a short field and responded and got another score. So, again now we’re down two scores, a little bit shook up from the start of the ballgame. We go out on the next play and the execution of that play wasn’t as good as it could have been or should have been. We forced a throw on that one into a look where we very could have easily thrown it away and gone to the next play. So, that’s kind of the gist of where I’m going with things. Some of it was execution, some of it was just decision making and living to play (another down), some it was not seeing a defender that was in a throwing lane and might not have should have been there. That happened another time with Brandon (Jones) on his interception. On both of his interceptions, there were execution issues. Again, they were tipped balls that got tipped right into their hands. All in all, it led to the four interceptions there early in the first half. It gave them so much momentum and put them in position to take some chances on offense and have some fun with what they were doing. They got a lot of momentum going. We put our defense on the field much too quickly between possessions. So, our defense was fighting from behind the eight ball all evening in the ballgame. As you look at their performance, obviously it wasn’t as good as it needs to be in the first half. But, it was also under some really adverse situations that they were put into. Then the last interception that we threw in the second quarter, again there’s an opportunity to throw the ball away. We just have to take that opportunity and then move on. Mistakes were made and execution was poor. It led to a poor performance from our football team. Kai (Locksley) is nursing through some injuries. He’s not practicing at a full practice pace, and it affected his play this weekend for sure. You can really tell that he’s trying to overcome the injuries that he’s dealing with. He’s been very, very good about it, and I respect him for that. He’s trying to work through it and get himself on solid footing. He’s trying to get himself where he can perform on a level high enough for us to have success. In the second half, we went with Brandon (Jones). We had 335 yards of offense in the second half, had a chance to, if we put that one in there, to put 24 points on the board. We shut them out and held them to 150 yards of offense (in the second half). That said a lot for our football team because we went in down with that huge deficit in the first half. We came out (fighting) again. That’s a hard thing to do with a football team, is to get them to come out and continue to fight. It’s not my doing, it’s their doing. I’m so proud of these guys. They’ve had to overcome a lot of adversity, and they’ve done a tremendous job. They just responded in the second half, giving us everything they had, giving us great effort and doing some really, really good things to allow us to make the game competitive at least in the second half. So, I was very happy with that part and very pleased with what they did. Some of the positives that come from us. It’s the third game in a row that we blocked a kick. So, that’s an effort thing. I was really proud of that. We talk about all of the offensive injuries that we’ve had, we’ve lost three of our really good defensive tackles throughout the season. Dedrick Simpson before the season started, Sani Buckingham in the first week of practice and Jenson Misaalefua. Chris Richardson had to play 83 snaps at 295 pounds as a nose guard in the game. They were snaps that were close together because of the turnovers that happened in the first half. He played a really good game, I’m just really proud of it. That’s happened for a lot of our guys on the team. Chris (Richardson) has to take every rep in practice because he doesn’t have a back-up in practice. Those are the things that we have to be cognoscente of as we prepare for games. I think the fatigue of it all kind of showed up in our team early in this ballgame. The injuries, the numbers are getting up to the upper 20’s and close to 30, it not only affects your performance on the field but it affects your practices and what you can do for scout guys and what you can do for twos. Basically, we’re down to only two offensive lineman that can run reps with the twos. Some of those affected the team, but we’ll continue to tweak and figure out ways to work around that and make our practices fit the issues that we have. That’s our challenge this week moving forward to Southern Miss. We need to play a lot smarter and protect the football better against them moving forward this week. That will be a key component for us in this ballgame. (We need to) get our defense back on track and don’t put them in bad situations and give them a chance to be more aggressive and not playing from their heels. We play much better when we’re aggressive on defense. So, we need to give our defense a chance. We showed again with 335 yards of offense in the second half that we can be explosive offensively, even with some of the issues that we’re dealing with on our offensive line. We played a good second half of football. Now we want to move forward and to play (good) four quarters of football in the Southern Miss game.”
(On Southern Miss)
“Southern Miss had a big victory last weekend. They pulled out a 21-20 victory over LA Tech. That was big for them because it got them to the point where now they can get themselves bowl eligible with a win against us. That’s their motivation. They’re very, very good on defense. They have some great statistical numbers defensively. They’re good on third downs, they’re good in the red zone. They got really good team speed with what they do. They play sound, sound defense. People have had trouble moving the ball on them consistently all year. That’s been the strength with what they do. They’ve got a younger offensive unit and a more experienced defensive unit. On offense, they try to be real sound with what they’re doing. They try not to turn the ball over too much. They try to help their defense win football games for them. That’s the style of play that they’re doing right now. They’ve been building some success here with some victories down the stretch. For us, it’s going to be going out and not just beating ourselves like we did in the first half of last week’s ballgame and having the team ready to play. If we can, try to shorten the game as much as possible this game. Try to shorten the snaps and try to make it a game we shorten as much as we can and still create some big plays on offense like we did in that ballgame (at WKU). (We need to) continue to keep our tight ends involved in what we’re doing. David Lucero had a nice game. Josh Weeks played a solid game. We’re getting those guys involved more in what we’re doing. I’d like to see (Quardraiz) Wadley have more touches than what he had last week. He’s a really, really talented player for us. (We need to) stay a little more patient with the run game early just to help us not to turn the ball over and control the clock a little bit more.”
**QUESTIONS FROM MEDIA**
(On who will play QB vs. Southern Miss)
“We don’t know yet. We’re not sure yet what we’re going to do at quarterback, it just depends. We’ve got to evaluate Kai (Locksley). Kai can move, he moved better today than he has in any (recent) Monday. This is the first time he’s practiced on a Monday for quite a while. He moved better. The evaluation will be when we get down to it after Thursday’s practice. We’ll just see if he’s moving. If he’s like he’s been the last few games, where he’s pretty much not able to move and to press off to get the throws the ways he wants to have them, with the accuracy the way he wants to have them and the rotation that he wants to have on the ball, then we’re going to start Brandon (Jones) because Brandon did a lot of positive things in the ballgame. I think Kai has been improving so much, that when he’s healthy he competitively gives us more of an advantage than what Brandon (Jones) does. But that gap is closing for sure. There’s no doubt about it.”
Head coach Dana Dimel
Nov. 19, 2018
Opening Statement
“Starting off with the whole performance of our team on last Saturday’s game. I don’t think we handled the trip very well, the challenge that comes with playing a night game in November on the road and playing in a little different environment than what we’re accustomed to. That part of it as I go back and look, I don’t think our football team handled that very well. We came out and had a really, really poor first half, more so with what we did offensively than what we did defensively. They’re (WKU) known for putting together a scripted first 10,12-play drive on the first series of the game. We got them into a fourth down there on that first drive, and they had a nice play. They ran a nice scheme right there and caught the eyes of our secondary a little bit and converted on a fourth and three. Again, we got them into one play from stopping that initial drive of the game. Then, what happened from there was the part that set the tone for the whole football game. On our very first (offensive) play of the game, we ran an RPO (run/pass option play). The execution of the play just wasn’t very good. We didn’t get any presence on the backside backer with our offensive line blocking. So, that allowed a guy you don’t even think about to show (up) in the quarterback’s eye level there on that play. We ran the route a little bit short and get a tipped ball that goes right into their hands. The execution of the play just wasn’t very good for us. That led to our first interception. Obviously, that gives them great field position. They were a motivated football team, playing with a good edge to them and got the touchdown on the first drive. But then they came back and had a short field and responded and got another score. So, again now we’re down two scores, a little bit shook up from the start of the ballgame. We go out on the next play and the execution of that play wasn’t as good as it could have been or should have been. We forced a throw on that one into a look where we very could have easily thrown it away and gone to the next play. So, that’s kind of the gist of where I’m going with things. Some of it was execution, some of it was just decision making and living to play (another down), some it was not seeing a defender that was in a throwing lane and might not have should have been there. That happened another time with Brandon (Jones) on his interception. On both of his interceptions, there were execution issues. Again, they were tipped balls that got tipped right into their hands. All in all, it led to the four interceptions there early in the first half. It gave them so much momentum and put them in position to take some chances on offense and have some fun with what they were doing. They got a lot of momentum going. We put our defense on the field much too quickly between possessions. So, our defense was fighting from behind the eight ball all evening in the ballgame. As you look at their performance, obviously it wasn’t as good as it needs to be in the first half. But, it was also under some really adverse situations that they were put into. Then the last interception that we threw in the second quarter, again there’s an opportunity to throw the ball away. We just have to take that opportunity and then move on. Mistakes were made and execution was poor. It led to a poor performance from our football team. Kai (Locksley) is nursing through some injuries. He’s not practicing at a full practice pace, and it affected his play this weekend for sure. You can really tell that he’s trying to overcome the injuries that he’s dealing with. He’s been very, very good about it, and I respect him for that. He’s trying to work through it and get himself on solid footing. He’s trying to get himself where he can perform on a level high enough for us to have success. In the second half, we went with Brandon (Jones). We had 335 yards of offense in the second half, had a chance to, if we put that one in there, to put 24 points on the board. We shut them out and held them to 150 yards of offense (in the second half). That said a lot for our football team because we went in down with that huge deficit in the first half. We came out (fighting) again. That’s a hard thing to do with a football team, is to get them to come out and continue to fight. It’s not my doing, it’s their doing. I’m so proud of these guys. They’ve had to overcome a lot of adversity, and they’ve done a tremendous job. They just responded in the second half, giving us everything they had, giving us great effort and doing some really, really good things to allow us to make the game competitive at least in the second half. So, I was very happy with that part and very pleased with what they did. Some of the positives that come from us. It’s the third game in a row that we blocked a kick. So, that’s an effort thing. I was really proud of that. We talk about all of the offensive injuries that we’ve had, we’ve lost three of our really good defensive tackles throughout the season. Dedrick Simpson before the season started, Sani Buckingham in the first week of practice and Jenson Misaalefua. Chris Richardson had to play 83 snaps at 295 pounds as a nose guard in the game. They were snaps that were close together because of the turnovers that happened in the first half. He played a really good game, I’m just really proud of it. That’s happened for a lot of our guys on the team. Chris (Richardson) has to take every rep in practice because he doesn’t have a back-up in practice. Those are the things that we have to be cognoscente of as we prepare for games. I think the fatigue of it all kind of showed up in our team early in this ballgame. The injuries, the numbers are getting up to the upper 20’s and close to 30, it not only affects your performance on the field but it affects your practices and what you can do for scout guys and what you can do for twos. Basically, we’re down to only two offensive lineman that can run reps with the twos. Some of those affected the team, but we’ll continue to tweak and figure out ways to work around that and make our practices fit the issues that we have. That’s our challenge this week moving forward to Southern Miss. We need to play a lot smarter and protect the football better against them moving forward this week. That will be a key component for us in this ballgame. (We need to) get our defense back on track and don’t put them in bad situations and give them a chance to be more aggressive and not playing from their heels. We play much better when we’re aggressive on defense. So, we need to give our defense a chance. We showed again with 335 yards of offense in the second half that we can be explosive offensively, even with some of the issues that we’re dealing with on our offensive line. We played a good second half of football. Now we want to move forward and to play (good) four quarters of football in the Southern Miss game.”
(On Southern Miss)
“Southern Miss had a big victory last weekend. They pulled out a 21-20 victory over LA Tech. That was big for them because it got them to the point where now they can get themselves bowl eligible with a win against us. That’s their motivation. They’re very, very good on defense. They have some great statistical numbers defensively. They’re good on third downs, they’re good in the red zone. They got really good team speed with what they do. They play sound, sound defense. People have had trouble moving the ball on them consistently all year. That’s been the strength with what they do. They’ve got a younger offensive unit and a more experienced defensive unit. On offense, they try to be real sound with what they’re doing. They try not to turn the ball over too much. They try to help their defense win football games for them. That’s the style of play that they’re doing right now. They’ve been building some success here with some victories down the stretch. For us, it’s going to be going out and not just beating ourselves like we did in the first half of last week’s ballgame and having the team ready to play. If we can, try to shorten the game as much as possible this game. Try to shorten the snaps and try to make it a game we shorten as much as we can and still create some big plays on offense like we did in that ballgame (at WKU). (We need to) continue to keep our tight ends involved in what we’re doing. David Lucero had a nice game. Josh Weeks played a solid game. We’re getting those guys involved more in what we’re doing. I’d like to see (Quardraiz) Wadley have more touches than what he had last week. He’s a really, really talented player for us. (We need to) stay a little more patient with the run game early just to help us not to turn the ball over and control the clock a little bit more.”
**QUESTIONS FROM MEDIA**
(On who will play QB vs. Southern Miss)
“We don’t know yet. We’re not sure yet what we’re going to do at quarterback, it just depends. We’ve got to evaluate Kai (Locksley). Kai can move, he moved better today than he has in any (recent) Monday. This is the first time he’s practiced on a Monday for quite a while. He moved better. The evaluation will be when we get down to it after Thursday’s practice. We’ll just see if he’s moving. If he’s like he’s been the last few games, where he’s pretty much not able to move and to press off to get the throws the ways he wants to have them, with the accuracy the way he wants to have them and the rotation that he wants to have on the ball, then we’re going to start Brandon (Jones) because Brandon did a lot of positive things in the ballgame. I think Kai has been improving so much, that when he’s healthy he competitively gives us more of an advantage than what Brandon (Jones) does. But that gap is closing for sure. There’s no doubt about it.”
