Oct. 15, 2001

ABOUT FACING TULANE SATURDAY:

"They have the best offense we'll play all year.  We'll play  two of the better ones back-to-back.  Of course the weather (thunderstorms, tornado watch) helped us with Cincinnati.  But Tulane is the best offense we'll play this year. They don't have a weakness, they can run and throw.  They've got a really good quarterback (senior Patrick Ramsey) that's been there a long time, and I think the most talented tailback we'll see all year long (sophomore Mewelde Moore).  And then a fleet of wide receivers who can all catch the ball.

I think it will be a close game.  If there's not a close game in this league, it's usually because somebody turned it over a lot or whatever.  I said before the season that I thought that all the teams were probably within seven points of each other across the board on a given day. And maybe other than Louisville, that's been true. And they've only played one conference game so far. There will be a lot of tight football games.

It's been one of those years. We catch everybody - it seems like every week. Now this team (Tulane) is on a roll, they beat a good team (TCU) and beat them bad - it was worse than the score (48-22) - it was a lot worse early in the game. It got a little closer at the end. So they really stuck them good. But we can't worry about that. What we need to do is worry about ourselves, try to get better and figure out how to win the close games, because I think it will be a close game Saturday."

ABOUT THE LOSS TO CINCINNATI LAST WEEK:

"It was a big game, a tough loss.  Again, we just didn't make enough plays to win the close game - that's what we haven't been able to do for the last three weeks. We've got to regroup."

ARE THREE STRAIGHT LOSSES WEARING ON THE PLAYERS?:

"I hope it wears on them - if losing games like this doesn't bother your players, you've got real problems. I haven't had one effort problem. If I had that, well that can be corrected. But we haven't had an effort problem, and they want to win. They're very frustrated. So we've just got to figure out a way to win this week."

ABOUT THE BAD WEATHER IN THE CINCINNATI GAME:

"We threw it 30 times, they threw it over 20 times, -- it's our style. I think that it's what you do. We did rush for 200 yards, so we ran the ball well. I don't think either team really backed off their game plan (because of the weather).  Cincinnati was able to eat the clock in the fourth quarter, knowing we were backed up.   The rain and wind were really bad in the fourth quarter, with thunder and lightning all around us."

ABOUT THE PLAY OF THE "STEEL SHIELD" DEFENSE:

"I've been very proud of our defense, of course, we could have as many as five guys drafted from this group, so we should play well.  The Cincinnati game was a `two-quarter' game, you had to move the ball when you had the wind behind you. That's pretty much when all the points were scored, other than the two we gave them (an interception for a TD, a blocked punt for a TD).

ABOUT LIVING UP TO PRESEASON EXPECTATIONS:

"Our expectations were high. We were picked fifth in our league - we could probably still do that, that's for sure. But our expectations were high. I set it up that way. I wanted us to think we could win it all - we can't do that now. It would take a miracle to do it. Really, what we need to do is win a game. This is what happens. Some teams get on a roll, some don't. If you watch across the country, the ones that get on a roll `fall' into games sometimes. I was watching Fresno State the other night (vs. Colorado State), different things happen to help you win a game, and sometimes you just `fall' into them. It was crazy in the Maryland-Georgia Tech game, Georgia Tech had twice the amount of yards and yet Maryland won the game. When you lose your momentum a little bit, you've got to find a way to regain it. All we can do is win a game. We're not winning the close games right now. Last year, we beat Middle Tennessee State late, we beat Memphis when they had returned a kickoff to take the lead with about 1:50 left in the game and it was called back for a penalty, at LSU it was 10-10 and we were going to overtime and they threw one right to us and we kick the winning field goal,  and we beat Chattanooga with an 80-yard drive with about a minute to go. We won the close games (five of UAB's seven victories in 2000 came by five points or less) - we're not doing that right now. That's the difference."

ABOUT THE TEAM'S SPECIAL TEAMS PROBLEMS:

"It was really just one play (a blocked punt for a touchdown in the third quarter vs. Cincinnati). We were actually much better on special teams last week until that play. And what happened was, the player who was blocking just got run over - he was blocking the right guy and he kind of slipped and the guy ran over him, stuck a hand out and blocked the punt. They were only rushing three guys. It wasn't a "block" at all, it was kind of a freaky play."