Danny Hope Interview

Q.    First  off,  maybe  if  you could give an assessment of Rice.  Obviously, they pushed Texas pretty hard for three quarters.  The problems they present.  

 COACH HOPE:  They're a very physical football team and an experienced football team.  They have a lot of players back.  They're similar to us in some ways, as far as last season goes.  They thought they could have a good football team in the season last year possibly and had a lot of injuries.  I think they had three or four starting quarterbacks last year as well.   They got a lot of good players back.  They're an experienced football team, very physical on defense.  They're a little more vanilla than what we just saw this past weekend, where Middle Tennessee State was a high pressure football team.  Rice is a lot like Iowa.  They'll line up in a couple of front and a couple of coverages and execute and play very  physical, not making any mistakes.  Good speed at the corner spots and very physical defensive football team.   Offensively, they return some weapons.  They can get in the shotgun, and they can really give you some headaches passing the football, and they're very good at all the option run game, including the quarterback as a runner.  They also bring in a very good football player and have a very good wildcat package.   So they pose some challenges to our football team.  They are a good football team with a lot of weapons back, and it should be a heck of a game. 

   
 Q.  Can you play a whole lot better than you did in terms of special teams than you did last week?  

 COACH HOPE:  I think so.  I think we can manufacture more return yardage.  Obviously, we had a turnover on special teams.  We didn't have many turnovers last year.  We got hit one time on a kickoff when Joe Holland turned and ran, and there were a couple that we really couldn't avoid last year.  But we had a turnover in special teams.  So we could do a lot better with that obviously.   I thought our specialists really played well.  I thought Carson Wiggs played to All-American standards on Saturday, and Cody Webster really punted the ball well.  I thought all the support cast did well on Saturday.  

We can do better.  We can score more points with our special teams.  We can secure the football better with our special teams.  We have a lot more potential than what we demonstrated on Saturday.  We played very well on Saturday.  Special teams was an edge for our football team this past Saturday.  

 Q.  The fourth quarter in particular, the game-winning drive, do you get a sense that maybe Terbush grew up quite a bit on that last drive?  

 COACH HOPE:  I thought the whole second half our football team matured some.  It was a defining moment in some ways to come out in the second half and come from behind on a really hot day against a very determined and talented football team and learn how to win, found a way to win.  I thought it was a big second half for our entire football team, and I thought Caleb Terbush really played well in the second half.   I think we scored on all three of our possessions there at the end of the game to really impact the outcome of the football game.  We had a 99-yard drive.  There were a lot of things that we did well Saturday offensively that was taken away some by the amount of mistakes we made pre-snap.  Once the ball was snapped, for the most part, we played really well offensively Saturday.  I thought we blocked really well Saturday, picked up a lot of blitzes, really established the line of scrimmage for the run game.  I thought our receivers caught the ball well for the most part.   I think Siller had an ugly drop, but I think we caught the ball well and ran tough at the wide receiver position.  I thought our quarterback completed 60 percent of his throws and did very well for the most part.   We made some errors prior to the snap that made it look ugly offensively in the beginning, and it slowed us down some.  We had about 100 yards of offense called back as a result of penalties, and we were penalized, I think, about 85 yards.  That's a 200-yard difference in the game.   I thought we did really well offensively.  The backs ran really hard.  They blocked really well, protected Caleb really well.  I thought we did some good things on Saturday.