Sept. 23, 2004

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2004 HOUSTON COUGAR FOOTBALL
2004 Administaff Bayou Bucket
Houston Cougars (0-1, 0-0 C-USA) vs. Rice Owls (1-0, 0-0 WAC)
Sunday, September 5, 2004 * Reliant Stadium * Houston, Texas

POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH Art Briles
"Give all the credit to Rice. They came in with a hungrier attitude. As for the players, I don't think they got beat. I got beat. They came ready to play. They did good job of preparing and made adjustments during the game. Consequently, we got beat by the better football team.

"The season is long. This doesn't make or break our season. Hats off to Rice. We'll go from there."

(ON OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES EARLY): "We had a chance to hit a couple of big things early and create some momentum for us. As anybody who watches this game, field possession and momentum are usually the best coaches on the field. We didn't take advantage of the opportunities that we had. We just couldn't overcome those downsides.

"I think they were hungrier than we were. They came in a little more hungry. I put that burden on my shoulders. "

(ON IF OFFENSE WAS GOING TO COME AROUND): "We certainly would like to think that, because we've able to do that through last year. Every year is different. You adjust differently. You have to feel your way through it differently. Last year when we played, everything went our way. This year, it started from the opening kickoff.

DEFENSIVE END Joe Clay
"Looking at it from our perspective on the sideline, we have a real young offensive line and real young wide receivers. They're going to find a way to win the game. The defense stepped up a lot. We had a lot of young guys from last year. It shows this year how much we improved. We're going to get stronger and we're going to get better. We play OU on Saturday, and we're going to get ready for them."

LINEBACKER Lance Everson
"They may have the Bucket, but they can't touch our hearts. This team has a lot of heart. We're going to show the rest of the world as well as football fans that the Cougars are for real. It's games like this that you have to learn from. Whether the offense didn't score or not, we as a defense have the mentality that we shouldn't give up anything. We can't be satistified with the effort that we gave right now."

QUARTERBACK Kevin Kolb
"It's frustrating. The defense played well. We just didn't come through like we normally do. We prepared well, but they prepared better than we did. It's a long season. That's what it is, a long season, and we can bounce back."

(ON DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 2003 AND 2004): "Last year, we had every bounce. We had an interception when we needed one. Every thing went right that could go right. Tonight, nothing went right. We missed a few field goals, we missed a lot of opportunities. I made some wrong reads. We will have to step up this week in practice and head to OU."