Sam Houston State Postgame Quotes
11/1/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 1, 2014
Recap | Final Stats
Stephen F. Austin Head Coach Clint Conque
Opening statement:
“First of all, congratulations to Sam Houston. They are a fine team. Certainly, they deserved to win the way they played. It was pretty obvious everybody didn’t play their best game tonight on the defensive side of the football and execution on offense. Congratulations to those guys. We certainly have to play better, but we didn’t do that today.”
“First of all, congratulations to Sam Houston. They are a fine team. Certainly, they deserved to win the way they played. It was pretty obvious everybody didn’t play their best game tonight on the defensive side of the football and execution on offense. Congratulations to those guys. We certainly have to play better, but we didn’t do that today.”
On Sam Houston State's big plays:
“First of all, just the poorest half in football that we’ve played this year. We didn’t play that poorly against Kansas State, the number nine FBS team in the country. I don’t know if it was the pressure of; see these guys have not been in the situation that they’re in right now. We’re 6-2, just beat a big team last week, a top ranked team, defending conference champions, and our maturity level is probably not where it needs to be. Take that aside, we just didn’t play very physical. Give Sam Houston credit for some of that, but we didn’t fit gaps. We’re in man coverage and we cut people free. Quite frankly, I thought we reverted back to some things that apparently ailed us last year. Of course I wasn’t here, but I got to see it firsthand playing against them. I thought we took a step back defensively and looked really tentative on the defensive side of the football. We started I don’t know how many drives. First and 15, first and 20, it takes no talent, no talent to watch the ball snapped. We put ourselves behind the chains. We self inflicted ourselves. At times we played hard. I want to give our kids credit. We played hard, we scored there late, got the onside kick and just kept it alive and tried to extend the game. But you know, you can’t give up half a dozen gash plays like we did and expect to win. So we didn’t do a very good job, but the offense had 500 some odd yards of offense. Offensively we only scored 21 points and that doesn’t add up. I know we got a defensive touchdown. We’ve got a lot of work to do. Part of it is just maturity. We always talk about as parents and as coaches being able to handle adversity. How do you handle success? There is a maturity level that you have to have too. Obviously I’ve got to do a better job of preparing the team. We didn’t play very well tonight and Sam Houston had something to do with that as well.”
“First of all, just the poorest half in football that we’ve played this year. We didn’t play that poorly against Kansas State, the number nine FBS team in the country. I don’t know if it was the pressure of; see these guys have not been in the situation that they’re in right now. We’re 6-2, just beat a big team last week, a top ranked team, defending conference champions, and our maturity level is probably not where it needs to be. Take that aside, we just didn’t play very physical. Give Sam Houston credit for some of that, but we didn’t fit gaps. We’re in man coverage and we cut people free. Quite frankly, I thought we reverted back to some things that apparently ailed us last year. Of course I wasn’t here, but I got to see it firsthand playing against them. I thought we took a step back defensively and looked really tentative on the defensive side of the football. We started I don’t know how many drives. First and 15, first and 20, it takes no talent, no talent to watch the ball snapped. We put ourselves behind the chains. We self inflicted ourselves. At times we played hard. I want to give our kids credit. We played hard, we scored there late, got the onside kick and just kept it alive and tried to extend the game. But you know, you can’t give up half a dozen gash plays like we did and expect to win. So we didn’t do a very good job, but the offense had 500 some odd yards of offense. Offensively we only scored 21 points and that doesn’t add up. I know we got a defensive touchdown. We’ve got a lot of work to do. Part of it is just maturity. We always talk about as parents and as coaches being able to handle adversity. How do you handle success? There is a maturity level that you have to have too. Obviously I’ve got to do a better job of preparing the team. We didn’t play very well tonight and Sam Houston had something to do with that as well.”
On gaining maturity in big game situations:
“It comes with confidence. It comes with just being in these moments. We’re playing for first place in the conference. It’s a big moment, big game. The successes that we’ve had prior to this game made this an even bigger game. If you’re a little unsure of yourself, if you’re not playing fast, if your confidence is not where it needs to be, then they hit you in the mouth once or twice, can you stop the bleeding? We just didn’t do that. We’ve got to grow up. We’ve got to grow up a little bit.”
“It comes with confidence. It comes with just being in these moments. We’re playing for first place in the conference. It’s a big moment, big game. The successes that we’ve had prior to this game made this an even bigger game. If you’re a little unsure of yourself, if you’re not playing fast, if your confidence is not where it needs to be, then they hit you in the mouth once or twice, can you stop the bleeding? We just didn’t do that. We’ve got to grow up. We’ve got to grow up a little bit.”
On the biggest faults SFA had today:
“Just the mistakes we made. Not fitting gaps, jumping offside on first down. We had 10 men on the field twice. We had to run a guy out on the field. That’s just guys not being sharp. I have to take responsibility for all of it and I do. It is my football team. We haven’t had those things really all year. We have done a pretty good job of fitting the run. The jump balls that they caught, when we were covering them, that’s football. I get it. It is when we were in man coverage and you just run right by me because my eyes aren’t on you, they start but they go someplace else. They probably missed three other big balls. It is about us. Sam Houston is a good football team. We have played other great football teams this year and we are going to play other great teams in the future. We have done pretty good up until today. So, it is about fixing us. Starting with our mentality and then execution on the sidelines. You learn a hard lesson.“
“Just the mistakes we made. Not fitting gaps, jumping offside on first down. We had 10 men on the field twice. We had to run a guy out on the field. That’s just guys not being sharp. I have to take responsibility for all of it and I do. It is my football team. We haven’t had those things really all year. We have done a pretty good job of fitting the run. The jump balls that they caught, when we were covering them, that’s football. I get it. It is when we were in man coverage and you just run right by me because my eyes aren’t on you, they start but they go someplace else. They probably missed three other big balls. It is about us. Sam Houston is a good football team. We have played other great football teams this year and we are going to play other great teams in the future. We have done pretty good up until today. So, it is about fixing us. Starting with our mentality and then execution on the sidelines. You learn a hard lesson.“
On the momentum change early in the first half:
“That’s tough. If you have a mature football team, you say ’Okay, we have made some mistake here lets put a tunicate on it and stop it’ and we just couldn’t do that on a consistent level. We had some stops. I got to see their punter tonight. We did not win the field position battle. We were starting inside our 20(-yard line) the entire night. Either we couldn’t get first downs coming out or we had a short punt. Once momentum gets going one-way or the other. We have to have a maturity about ourselves to tighten things down a little bit. We have done that in the past. Last week, Southeastern comes out and pops us in the mouth with two scores pretty quick. Then we responded. We didn’t do that tonight. That’s my responsibility to make sure that gets done.“
“That’s tough. If you have a mature football team, you say ’Okay, we have made some mistake here lets put a tunicate on it and stop it’ and we just couldn’t do that on a consistent level. We had some stops. I got to see their punter tonight. We did not win the field position battle. We were starting inside our 20(-yard line) the entire night. Either we couldn’t get first downs coming out or we had a short punt. Once momentum gets going one-way or the other. We have to have a maturity about ourselves to tighten things down a little bit. We have done that in the past. Last week, Southeastern comes out and pops us in the mouth with two scores pretty quick. Then we responded. We didn’t do that tonight. That’s my responsibility to make sure that gets done.“
On the mistakes made:
“I don’t want to disrespect Sam. They have some really good players. I love the running back, the quarterback is going to be a nice player in this league. Their offensive line is tenacious. Defensively, I think (Mike) Collins did a great job with mixing up the blitz. They did a fine job. As the coach of my club, I can point to the mistakes we made. That made a huge difference in this game. Congratulations to Sam on the win. For us it is as much about what we did tonight as what our opponent did. Or what we didn’t do. That is at every position. Our quarterback skips one on the hitch screen and that is a fundamental play. That is the first route we teach on day one install. We were fortunate to go down and get a touchdown but it took another two minutes off the clock. With it being a touchdown we have to go kickoff and spend more minutes late in the third quarter to get that next touchdown. We are not built as an explosive football team right now. We have to execute, we have to get stops on defense to give our offense field position. We just didn’t work together very well in any of the three phases tonight that we have seen or you watched play. We have had some chemistry with that. Sam is a fine club and they did a great job. This is not to take anything away from their victory, but this is just as much about us, and what we didn’t do to make it a more competitive game. “
“I don’t want to disrespect Sam. They have some really good players. I love the running back, the quarterback is going to be a nice player in this league. Their offensive line is tenacious. Defensively, I think (Mike) Collins did a great job with mixing up the blitz. They did a fine job. As the coach of my club, I can point to the mistakes we made. That made a huge difference in this game. Congratulations to Sam on the win. For us it is as much about what we did tonight as what our opponent did. Or what we didn’t do. That is at every position. Our quarterback skips one on the hitch screen and that is a fundamental play. That is the first route we teach on day one install. We were fortunate to go down and get a touchdown but it took another two minutes off the clock. With it being a touchdown we have to go kickoff and spend more minutes late in the third quarter to get that next touchdown. We are not built as an explosive football team right now. We have to execute, we have to get stops on defense to give our offense field position. We just didn’t work together very well in any of the three phases tonight that we have seen or you watched play. We have had some chemistry with that. Sam is a fine club and they did a great job. This is not to take anything away from their victory, but this is just as much about us, and what we didn’t do to make it a more competitive game. “
10.16.23 | Football x Coach Carthel Press Conference
Tuesday, October 17
10.2.23 | Football x Week Six Presser
Monday, October 02
9.22.23 | Purple Lights Spotlight x Jarvis Anderson - SFA Football
Tuesday, September 26
9.18.23 | Football x Week Four Presser Colby Carthel Press Conference
Monday, September 18
