What Arizona coach Kevin Sumlin said at his pre-Houston press conference

Despite high expectations coming into the 2018 season, the Arizona Wildcats started the season with a 28-23 loss to the BYU Cougars.

After a game in which new head coach Kevin Sumlin said efficiency and consistency were major issues, he and the ‘Cats will head to the University of Houston desperately needing a win to avoid an 0-2 start.

Sumlin got his first head coaching job with the Houston Cougars, but he said there will be no extra emotion in his homecoming.

“If you’re lucky enough to be around this business long enough you’ve got friends, you’ve got places that you’ve played, and that’s football, that’s college football,” he said.

Arizona has a lot of lessons to learn from the BYU game and a lot to prepare for against Houston, which beat Rice 45-27 in its opener.

Here’s what else Sumlin talked about during his weekly press conference (the full video can be found at the end).

On what he noticed after his first game at Arizona...

“There’s a lot of feeling that we could do better as coaches, we’re not gonna make excuses or anything. We’re gonna continue to try and put our players in better position to be successful. ... We ran 42 plays in the first half and we had 10 points to show for it, and so the efficiency of those plays, the efficiency of the offense needs to get better. And conversely, we ran 11 plays in the third quarter to their 23...obviously the third quarter was an issue.”

On questions concerning how Sumlin and offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone used Khalil Tate’s skillset...

“What we have to do is play to our team’s strengths offensively. I would say too it’s not just Khalil, I think for Shun Brown to have one touch, that’s not OK...It’s not so much about plays, it’s players and putting them in the right position for us to be successful.”

On how Khalil Tate’s comfort level affected the game...

“As the game progressed, I feel he did a really nice job. You look at the number of pass attempts (34), and really we were only ahead in that game for what, 10 minutes right before half? We got behind in the third quarter, so because of the number of possession you’re gonna have in the third and fourth quarter, knowing we have to throw to get back in the game, I thought he handled that very well. Really in the fourth quarter when our guys could’ve gone the other way, the biggest takeaway was our guys kept playing...From a leadership and poise standpoint I thought [Tate] did really well.

On how to combat fatigue in the defense...

“There’s a lot of things we can do. We can have a better rotation, number one. We had guys playing 77 snaps the other night. We have to have confidence in some guys in the rotation. The hydration is critical, and we have to be able to manage that as coaches. We have to have some confidence in the guys behind them and get them in the game.”

On whether Sumlin and Mazzone are still trying to figure out how to balance Khalil Tate’s running and passing...

“Yeah, I think it’s not just me and Noel with Khalil, I think it’s our team. We know a lot more, like I said last weekend, we’ll know a lot more Saturday night than we did last week, and we do know a lot more. Because of that, we as a team, have a lot better feel for what we can do, where we’re gonna go with what we’re doing offensively. Unfortunately, what you saw on Saturday night was not we wanted. It’s football, just like any other sport and in life, you learn from it, now what are you gonna do?”

On the performance of the offensive line...

“You know, we had four first-time starters, and I didn’t even think about that going into the game because that’s who we have right now. When you’ve got four first-time guys, you know, there are some good things and some bad things. The positive is how they handled the fourth quarter.”

“When you have new guys against an experienced defense like that with a lot of moving parts. I can’t call Herm or Chip and trade guys, those are our guys. That’s college football, it;s not like we’re gonna get someone else so we gotta coach them.

On how the young team handled adversity...

“You know, as I said before, we ran 42 plays in the first quarter, and you have 10 points, and that efficiency is not what we want. The other side of the coin is, for a first football game, to have no turnovers and only four penalties, you know that’s midseason. Unfortunately we didn’t get any takeaways, but 0 turnovers and four penalties by the whole team was pretty good. The operation was good, but the execution needs to be better.”

On the defensive line...

“It’s a situation where ... we’ve got to continue to develop the two-deep and a rotation in there that we feel good about. I think you saw some young guys get in there and play. It’s disappointing that we didn’t have any sacks.”

On the defensive line only having two tackles for loss...

“You have a Mike linebacker (Colin Schooler) making 17 tackles, so there’s not a whole lot of people getting to him to make 17 tackles in a game like that and there’s a reason for that. But yeah, we’d like more production out of the front.”

On what he likes about J.J. Taylor returning kickoffs...

His explosiveness. ... With running the ball, he’s got a unique ability to make people miss and for his size, he’s got real power. So he’s explosive, he’s got everything you want in a return guy, particularly kickoff return and he wants to do it and that’s a big part of it because it’s not for everybody. You’re going as fast as you can down the field and they’re going as fast as they can and there’s some violent collisions in that deal, but the biggest part of that is he’s got the ability and the want to. And I think he’s going to be dynamic at it.”

On Taylor possibly getting injured on kickoffs...

“No matter where I’ve been, the idea is to be as successful at all phases as you can and it’s no different than worrying about him being handed the ball in the backfield. So what you want to do is give your team the best chance to be successful in all phases, which means that you wants your best players out there and particularly guys that want to do it and he wants to do it and he’s good at it, so that gives us an opportunity for field position and/or points with him back there.”

On covering running backs out of the backfield...

“Yeah, we can be better in that area. We had another injury in the third quarter that because of where we are with our depth, I had freshmen in there on two of those occasions in the flat, playing spur and safety. And with all the shifts and trade motions that were going on, he got a little lost, but we got to be able to handle that. And, as I said, we’ve got to put our guys in position to be successful. That’s been our discussion over the last 48 hours.”

On Houston All-American defensive tackle Ed Oliver...

“He’s a great player, not a good player, a great player. So we played some pretty good players last week, too. I think you’ll see at least two of those guys in that front last week are NFL guys. [Sione Takitaki] is as good a linebacker you’re going to play. And Oliver is a very, very special athlete and one of the best players in the country. So you can’t ignore his talents. He’s done it against everybody and as a coaching staff, we’ve got to put our guys in the best position to be successful.”

On what he likes about Oliver’s skill set...

“Everything. That’s why we tried to recruit him at [Texas A&M]. He’s powerful, he’s big, he’s quick, he’s got great demeanor. He’s a special talent and he’s a handful.”

On why some Arizona players sat in the stands for the BYU game...

“There’s a lot going on on the sideline. We’ve got 110 players. We’ve got a travel squad and a dress squad, so when you travel with 70 guys on the road, nobody asks you about that when you travel. At home games, just for efficiency’s sake, you know 40 more guys on the sideline is a lot of guys. Our ability to communicate with players and have the guys who are ready, there’s a little more at home but not many more.”

On advantages Houston could have with a morning kickoff at home...

“I don’t know, this time of the year it’s not so much heat it’s humidity. When I was there we played at all different times, we played at 11, and I think we had a kickoff with Texas Tech at 9:30 one night. It’s one of those things where television dictated the kick time. It’s gonna be hot no matter what, just like it’s warm here. It’s just the way things are in college football, when you play at 7:45 our time...now we’re playing at 11 their time which is 9 o’clock our time.”