Quotes before the UH-Charleston Southern game 9/25/10

About how the evaluations of their players have been completed over the past 3 games, Mack said:
"We're going to play our best players." (HSA)


About becoming an effective blocker, Alex Green said:
"Right now I'm focused on helping the team win.  If it's blocking, I'll do that." (HSA)


About how he was at a fast-food restaurant when a friend pointed out a poster featuring UH sports legends that included his father Mario Monico, a star baseball player for UH, Jordan Monico said:
"That was pretty cool." (HSA)


About getting 7 tackles on kickoffs in their first 3 games this season (UH's high for kickoff tackles was 13 in 13 games last season by Mike Wadsworth), Monico said:
"I have to go all out.  I only have a limited amount of plays.  I'll use all of my energy during those times." (HSA)


Trying to describe their offense, Charleston Southern QB A.J. Toscano said:
"It's complicated.  It's a spread, but we have option, and we can throw, and ..." (HSA)


About using a no-huddle offense out of the shotgun, Toscano said:
"It's easier to get away from the big linemen." (HSA)


About giving their DBs a quiz on the coverages, checks, and assignments the night before each game, Rich Miano said:
"It's a way to know if they've studied our game plan. It's a way to see if they know their alignments and assignments. And it makes you feel better as a coach when you see continual progress with their grades." (HSA)


About how players with good grades tend to play the best, Miano said:
"To be honest, the guys who are starting usually are the guys who have the best grades. This was a few years back, but the (NFL) teams with the most degrees were the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts. Those were the teams that were the most successful at the time. When you are focused, when you are doing the details of your assignments -- and anticipating nuances and checks -- you're probably going to be successful. Smart teams win football games." (HSA)


About how their goal is to get their players to be "football smart", avoiding penalties while doing their assignments correctly, Miano said:
"When you turn on the (game) film on Sunday, or whatever day you turn the game film on, it's the team that made the fewest mistakes that usually wins. If you can get guys who can progressively make fewer and fewer mistakes -- where everybody is in their gap, where everybody knows where their drop is -- we'll be a hell of a defense. We'll win a lot of championships." (HSA)


HSA Note: "Miano said the players receive DVDs with breakdowns of opposing teams, allowing them to study on their own."


About how he gives the QBs "tip sheets" to review the night before the game and meets with them to discuss different situations, Rolo said:
"That helps you get a feel of where the quarterbacks are. It's more of a review sheet. The quarterbacks are pretty dialed in." (HSA)


About how he gives his OL a quiz the night before the game, Gordy Shaw said:
"It's really not a test; it's a final preparation mentally for what is about to take place in a game. I give it to them the night before. We go over it in the morning to catch any final detail that we might not be all on the same page with." (HSA)


About how the information he gives the OL includes "the winning edges", with a list of 10 to 15 essential keys and inspirational quotes, Shaw said:
"Most players are like me. I can't sleep the night before a game. I think (the package) allows them to visualize what they need to do." (HSA)


HSA Note: "CSU's deal, valued at upwards of $250,000, is, in some ways, as good as nationally ranked Wisconsin got in 2005 and was originally contracted to get last year. It is on a par with what Navy received last year with a bigger traveling party. Not only is UH contracted to provide the buses to take the Buccaneers to and from the airport, practices and games, but, according to the contract, "Pearl Harbor, Hanauma Bay and possible luau," too."


About the great deal that UH Athletic Director Herman Frazier gave them in 2007, Charleston Southern AD Hank Small said:
"They were motivated -- and so were we." (HSA)


HSA Note: "The Buccaneers called with an interest and were willing to take him off the hook for one of those games -- but at a price. Small gave him the 2007 game, but not before getting the very favorable financial terms plus what UH hasn't given any other FCS opponent in a quarter-century, a second game and at the guarantee of the same or better rates."


http://www.staradvertiser.com/sports/ferdswords/20100925_Charleston_Southern_knows_a_thing_or_2_about_leverage.html

http://www.staradvertiser.com/sports/sportsnews/20100925_Coaches_quiz_defenders_about_coverage_under_Friday_lights.html