Quotes from the UH-Tulsa Hawaii Bowl, 12/24/10

AP = Associated Press
UH = University of Hawaii website
TW = Tulsa World
HSA = Honolulu Star-Advertiser
ESPN = ESPN.com

------------------------  Quotes from the UH coaches  --------------------------


About how he felt that their special teams did a great job at limiting the damage from Demaris Johnson, Mack said:
"I thought our kickoff team and our punt team did a good job of minimizing his (Demaris Johnson) ability. He's a great player, one of the best in the country, but he made some big plays to hurt us. He's fast, he out-ran some of our guys and out-quicked some of our guys." (UH)


About how they accomplished a lot this season, Mack said:
"We've accomplished a lot of things this year. We've won a championship, we've won 10 games which has happened only 4 or 5 times in the history of the school. We've had some good times playing football, tonight wasn't necessarily one of those. One of our goals was to get 11 wins and remain in the Top 25 but obviously today we're not going to get that. Up until today, everything's been pretty good." (UH)


Giving credit to Tulsa, Mack said:
"I thought their quarterback was outstanding, he threw some great balls. I think they have a good football team." (UH)

"Give credit to Tulsa. They flat did a good job of beating us." (UH)

"You're not going to win a game if you turn the ball over six times. Give credit to Tulsa. They did a good job. They have good players and they have good speed. They ran by us a couple times — more than a couple times." (AP)


About how he felt sorry for their seniors and how their defense played well in the first half, Offensive Coordinator Nick Rolovich (Rolo) said:
"We wanted to start fast and be mistake free and felt if we took care of the football we'd have a very good chance in this game. Defense played great in the first half, it should have been a different game. I feel sorry for the seniors who had to go out like this." (HSA)


About how losing Pilares hurt their offense, Rolo said:
"He gets the majority of the reps, and he and Salas have a good relationship, and he and Moniz have a good relationship." (HSA)


About how they tried to get their defense to not be too aggressive in this game, to avoid how the defense struggled against their biggest competition (USC, BSU, Colorado), Defensive Coordinator Dave Aranda said:
"We made a big point not to say it was a big game, looked at it as another game. I think there was some pressing going on that doesn't need to be pressed." (HSA)


About how Tulsa scored in 2 plays in each of their first 3 drives after halftime, Aranda said:
"All those plays, the first three series (of the second half) however many plays they had, I think six, seven, eight were gadget plays. They felt they needed to score quickly, they needed to score now. So they went to their top 100 gadget plays, and they reeled them off. All those things are defendable, but we've got to defend it as a team and, like I said, I take responsibility for. I should have made a bigger point at halftime how we got to this point, by playing team defense, and we should've finished playing that way." (HSA)


About how they only gave up 95 yards to Tulsa's offense in the first half but gave up 436 yards in the second half, Rich Miano said:
"We handled their speed in the first half. In the third quarter, they had three momentum plays when our offense was starting to get back into the groove. We needed to make a stop, and we didn't. That's the frustrating thing." (HSA)


------------------------  Quotes from the UH players  ---------------------------


About how Tulsa was successful at getting interceptions, Bryant Moniz said:
"They had good pressure and were jumping all our routes. They jumped a lot of the short stuff, and it gave them a lot of points." (ESPN)

"They got good pressure up front and they studied real hard and knew our route. They jumped all our routes." (HSA)

"Terrible performance in our last game. They had good pressure up front. They studied really hard in those four weeks that they had to prepare. It seemed like they were jumping all of our routes, so in the second half we went a little more deep." (AP)


About how Tulsa alternated between man and 4-deep zone defenses and defended UH's routes, not the receivers, Moniz said:
"They were on all of our routes. They were cutting it. They knew our offense. They made some great plays. They were getting good pressure up front. They were jumping the lanes. I wasn't able to read them." (HSA)


About how this loss will linger during the offseason, Moniz said:
"This will sit in our stomach for a while." (HSA)


About how he suffered a hip pointer on a second-quarter sack and had to be kept out of 2 series and played in discomfort the rest of the game, Moniz said:
"I was trying to stretch on the sidelines, anything to get my hip loose." (HSA)


About his four first-half interceptions, Moniz said:
"Everything bad that could have went on, went on in that first half. It's a tough one to swallow, but I'm just going to go home tomorrow spend some time with my family on Christmas and try to enjoy the holidays a little bit and get back to work." (HSA)


About how he had a pass intercepted and returned for a TD when he was hit while trying to throw it out of bonds, Shane Austin said:
"I was trying to throw it away. I think I had Salas up the seam, but I lost sight of him, and moved on. I tried to throw it out of bounds, but I didn't get enough on it. Their guy was in my face. But I have to do better. This one was on me. That's the way it goes sometimes." (HSA)


About how they made too many mistakes, Greg Salas said:
"We just shot ourselves in the foot. We had way too many turnovers, and it cost us. We turned the ball over in key situations. It just goes to show you that the team with the most yards doesn't always win." (ESPN)

"We had way too many turnovers, and it cost us. We turned the ball over in key situations. It just goes to show you that the team with the most yards doesn't always win." (AP)


About how it is tough to lose their final game of the season, Salas said:
"Losing that last game is tough. We wanted to go out with a win, and be the team to be remembered. We didn't get it." (HSA)

"Right now I just have to get this taste out of my mouth with this loss. But I'm sure I'll look back on it and be happy with what I did here and what I was able to accomplish and all of my teammates and coaches putting me in position to do that." (HSA)


About how Kealoha Pilares suffered an injured left knee on a 0-yard punt return before their first drive on offense and was lost for the game, Salas said:
"We definitely missed Kealoha. He's a big part of our offense. He's an explosive playmaker. He's done it all season. It affected our chemistry." (HSA)

"I felt bad for him that he had to miss his last game here. We were looking forward to this all week. We were roommates the entire season and had real good chemistry on the field and off the field. And I just feel bad for him that he didn't get to finish out his last game." (HSA)


About suffering an injured knee in his final UH game before their offense even took the field, Kealoha Pilares said:
"It just sucks how I ended in my last game. But I just have to stay positive and just have to remember things happen for a reason. I know God has something planned for me. I just have to try to stay positive." (HSA)


About how they missed Pilares and Bradley, Royce Pollard said:
"I felt we were a unit with them. Nothing against the guys stepping in, but it's a rhythm we had. We didn't execute, and we needed to execute more. There were pieces that were missing." (HSA)


About catching 2 passses for 72 yards, including a 54-yard reception to the 1-yard-line to set up a TD, Miah Ostrowski (who replaced the injured Dustin Blount who replaced the injured Pilares) said:
"I was ready, I could have done a few things better on my route running to open somebody up. It's a bowl game and everybody has to step up." (HSA)


About their struggles on defense in the second half, Corey Paredes said:
"It was a weird game. It's hard to explain what happened. We came up short. The defense kicked in the first half, and then was kicked in the second half." (HSA)


About how Tulsa saw how aggressive they were and made adjustments at halftime to take advantage of that, Jeramy Bryant said:
"I guess they saw how aggressive we were on defense, and started doing a lot of play-action. Started opening things up, draw people out of their quarters. Guys sitting on routes, guys coming up ... and dumping off. And that was the story of the second half. Play-action." (HSA)


About how they missed too many assignments on defense in the second half, Aaron Brown said:
"They have a lot of explosive athletes. We contained them the first half, we let them get away from us the second half by missed assignments, and look what happened — they gashed us." (HSA)


About ending his UH career 105-for-105 on PATs and breaking the UH single-season record for PATs with 71 and the total points in a season with 122, Scott Enos said:
"I gotta give a lot of credit to my offense and defense both for giving me the opportunity to do what I did. It was tough losing the last game, but you know what, I'm so proud of these guys, I feel special relationships with all these guys. I'll never forget it. It's great." (HSA)


-----------------------  Quotes from the Tulsa coaches  -----------------------

Proud of their players, Tulsa head coach Jeff Graham said:
"I am extremely proud of players today, this team did a great job of preparing. They're truly champions on and off the field. It was a spectacular day—the takeaways defensively were unbelievable, and what an exciting football game to watch." (UH)


About how they exploded on offense in the second half, Graham said:
"We came back out and had some unbelievably explosive plays in the second half—it was a tremendous game for us beating a ranked team very soundly and hopefully I believe we should be in the Top 25." (UH)


About getting 10 wins in 3 of their last 4 seasons, Graham said:
"We have 10 wins for three of the last four years and we've been in three bowls in the last four years. I'm very proud of our guys and what we've been able to accomplish this year." (UH)


Feeling that they dominated both sides of the football in this physical game, Graham said:
"It was very physical today and I think that was the key—we impacted their quarterback and got after it on both sides of the ball. I thought we dominated both sides of the football and we had some special players make some brilliant plays." (UH)

"We were very, very physical today, I thought that was the key. I thought we dominated both sides of the football." (ESPN)


About how the Hawaii Bowl is the best bowl game he's been to over his 26 years of coaching, Graham said:
"We are a very close football team and I'm very proud of them and I'm very, very honored to come to Hawai`i. I've been to a lot of Bowl games over 26 years of coaching and this is the finest Bowl I've been to—absolutely spectacular—the events, it's a tremendous place to come and the people were incredible and it's been a great experience for our players and it's a great reward for the finest team I've ever coached." (UH)


Hoping that they end the season in the top 25, Graham said:
"What an exciting football game to watch. We made some unbelievably explosive plays in the second half and we beat a Top 25 team today. And hopefully, we should be the Top 25 in the country." (AP)


HSA Note: "The Golden Hurricane were such underdogs that ESPN analyst Todd McShay picked Hawaii over Tulsa as his most confident bowl pick of the season. Three minutes in, Alex Singleton scored one play after a Bryant Moniz interception, and Tulsa never trailed on its way to demolishing the Warriors, who were a double-digit favorite at game time."


About how UH was heavily favored to win this game, Graham said:
"(There was) a lot of talk going in that we were picked as the lock to get beat (in bowl games), and this football team did a great job of preparing." (HSA)


----------------------  Quotes from the Tulsa players  -------------------------

Happy that he has one more season to play with Demaris Johnson, G.J. Kinne (343 yards passing and 3 TD passes in the game) said:
"He's a great player. He breaks records every week, it feels like it. It's a privilege to play with him. We got one more year together." (AP)


About how Johnson set an NCAA record for all-purpose yards with 7,796 in his career (and he has 1 more year to play), Kinne said:
"It seems like he breaks records every week. The exciting thing is I know we've got another year, another summer and another offseason together." (HSA)


About their 3 drives to start the second half that each took 2 plays to get a TD, Kinne said:
"I think our pace started to get to them." (AP)


About how they return 17 starters next year and want to win C-USA, Kinne said:
"I think we can be really good, definitely Top 25. Our goal every year is to win (Conference USA) and that's something we're really going to harp on next year." (HSA)


About his 9-yard TD pass with 76 seconds left in the game which was originally supposed to be a running play, Kinne said:
"Maybe, they shouldn't have booed our highlight film at the banquet." (HSA)


About how their team was fired up when UH booed their highlight film at the Hawaii Bowl banquet, RB Alex Singleton (who scored 2 TDs) said:
"That boosted us up. That fired us up. After that happened, I knew we were going to win." (HSA)


About how they avoided being distracted by being in Hawaii and got the win, Demaris Johnson (who had a career-high 326 all-purpose yards to break the NCAA career record) said:
"Coming on this trip out to Hawaii, we knew in the back of our minds that there were a lot of distractions, but we played good and came out with this win. We have to get on this eight-hour plane ride back home now, so maybe I'll get some sleep on the plane and it'll hit me in the morning." (ESPN)


Looking forward to getting some rest on their 8-hour flight home after the game, Johnson said:
"We came (to Hawaii) and played pretty good and now we've got this 8-hour flight home. I'll be thinking about getting a little sleep in." (HSA)


About how he needed to play well to help their team beat UH, Johnson said:
"I knew I had to step up my game. Hawaii has a great team, and we had to play a great game to win." (HSA)


About how their coaches had worried about how the humidity could affect their team, Johnson said:
"I'm from Louisiana, so I was OK. We have a lot of humidity there. It was hot, but our guys persevered, and came through with the win." (HSA)


Asked if he would enter the NFL draft or return next year, Johnson said:
"I'm going to come back (to Tulsa) next year." (HSA)


About how the critics of their passing defense motivated them (Tulsa came into this game rated #119 out of the 120 D-IA teams for passing defense), LB Curnelius Arnick (2 interceptions in the first half) said:
"For us, it was just motivation. We always hear about our bad our defense is and it just motivates just to come back and play harder," Arnick said. "We were just disguising our coverages, moving around and confusing the quarterback." (ESPN)

"I can't speak for everyone, but me, personally, I was very motivated hearing people talk about our defense. We had a lot of time to prepare and study for this game and it came down to making the plays when they were there." (HSA)


HSA Note: "Arnick, the team's leading tackler, did it again with a team-high 10 tackles and two sacks. But his biggest contribution was the two interceptions that matched his career total."


About scoring a TD on one of his interceptions and returning another interception 52 yards to the UH 3 to set up an easy TD run, Arnick said:
"Our offense carried us a lot this year, scoring a lot of points, so it was a good feeling to be able to help them out." (HSA)


About how he set up the pass that Moniz threw that he returned for a TD, Arnick said:
"I faked like I was coming, and the quarterback threw it straight to me. After that, it was straight to the end zone." (HSA)


About his interception that he returned for a TD when Shane Austin was hit by DE Tyrunn Walker when trying to throw the ball out of bounds, CB John Flanders said:
"We were playing, man, and he just lobbed it up. Big T hit him, and I returned it. I was happy to make a play." (HSA)


About how their seniors are from Graham's first recruiting class and averaged 9 wins during their 4-year careers, with wins in all 3 of their bowl games (63-7, 45-13, 62-35), senior Trae Johnson said:
"We were challenged to leave the program in better shape than we found it," TU senior Trae Johnson said. "We did that." (TW)


--  Notes I had from the game (I flew to Hawaii and went straight to the airport --

My Dad and I saw the coaches before and after the game. Before the game, we were walking on the ramp towards our section when the coaches were walking to the booth. Mouse Davis said to my Dad that he liked the hat he was wearing (Dad had a Christmas-themed hat on). The coaches looked focused and determined, they really had their game faces on.

After the game we were walking down the stairs at the same time as the coaches were walking down from the booth. Mouse, Brian Smith, and Dave Aranda were in front of me and the other coaches were behind me. I said to Coach Aranda that at least UH had a great season...but all he did was grimace and it was clear that he and the rest of the coaches did *not* want to be consoled after that game.

The look on the coaches after the game was completely different than the look they had before the game. You could see that the game meant a lot to them and that they were not happy about how things turned out.


I sat in the yellow section (in J, about the 30-yard line) in the first half and the seats there are in HORRIBLE condition. It really looks bad there!

It was also sad that after 5 drives in the game, there were *no* people in the 8 seats to the left of me and *no* people in the 7 seats to the right of me, with nobody in the 9 seats in front of me. However, every seat was filled by the end of the first quarter. Heck, I came all the way from San Diego and I got to the game on time!


Congratulations to Tulsa for truly earning this win. Their passing defense was *horrible* this year, truly one of the worst in the country. Their coaches and players worked extremely hard over those 15 practices and in countless film sessions to prepare for UH's offense.

You could see how Tulsa was prepared for the game in countless plays...

* The first time Salas got a WR screen pass, the Tulsa safety was running towards Salas BEFORE THE BALL WAS SNAPPED. They knew by formation and some other tipoff thing that Salas was going to get that pass and they stopped him from getting a big gain. WAC teams were devastated by that play all season, but Tulsa was ready.

* The pass that Moniz threw where a Tulsa player was standing right where the pass was going to be throws *before* Moniz even through the ball.

* The running plays to Green were not getting the same lanes as Green had in some WAC games, no matter how much Tulsa focused on stopped UH's passing attack.

I thought in the first half that it was clear that UH had athletes that Tulsa couldn't stop, like Salas, and the turnovers were the only thing that stopped UH. However, in the second half Tulsa came up with stops that were the difference.

I'm going to look at this game as one that Tulsa won, a win they earned that wasn't just given to them by UH. To read some of the comments here, it seems like some people think that Tulsa wasn't any good and UH should have easily beaten them...that sounds like the type of disrespect that UH fans are always complaining about being directed towards UH.