Tulane Talking Points: UCF HC Gus Malzahn Press Conference
It’s five more days until the UCF Knights take to the gridiron against the Tulane Green Wave.
UCF head coach Gus Malzahn’s traditional Monday press conference was a bit more intense with numerous questions about injuries to not only quarterback John Rhys Plumlee, but also other banged up Knights.
He’s also trying to rest his squad as much as possible now that the final quarter of the season is coming into view. Here are some major talking points from Malzahn’s press conference today.
When Malzahn began discussing Tulane’s strengths, it was apparent that he was impressed based on his opening statement.
“Defensively, they lead the (AAC) in total defense,” Malzahn began. “They lead the conference in scoring defense. It’s so impressive, when you watch them on film, their run fits, how hard they play. They are really good tacklers. They cover well, too.
“Offensively, um, they have a really balanced team. Passing efficiency, (they are) top 20 in the country. They ran for 357 as a team last week. Their quarterback is a dual-threat guy. Very impressed with him; high completion percentage. A veteran guy.
“We’re playing at their place. This is a big one. We had a big road victory last week. Real pleased with our guys. Last night, we kind of took it off our guys. We didn’t practice last night. We kind of let our guys rest and recover. It was well needed and our coaches got a head start on Tulane, which is needed, too.
“I like where we’re at. Um, this is the type of game that you look forward to. You know, before the season starts our guys put themselves in this position, and we’re playing one of the better teams in the country at their home place. We know we’re going to get their best.”
Of course, once Malzahn’s opening statement concluded, the first question was about the quarterback situation. Here’s what Malzahn had to say.
“We’ll play that day by day, see where we’re at.”
Being extremely unclear is probably by design. Malzahn has never liked to give away injury information beyond just snippets of information. Hard to imagine he’s going to do much different prior to No. 22 UCF playing at No. 16 Tulane.
As a follow up, Malzahn was asked what goes into making the final call for which quarterback starts?
“What (quarterback) gives us the best chance of winning. Both guys, like I said, we’ve got two real guys, you know that. Everyone knows that. That’s a great luxury.”
UCF just came off a tough road win against Memphis after a poor performance against East Carolina on the road. When asked about the learning experience of road games, here’s Malzahn’s response.
“That was a learning experience, like we talked about. We responded well on the road (at Memphis). A lot of ups and downs last week. Our guys responded like champs. It was a pretty good environment, too, at Memphis. Our guys found a way to win, and they (Memphis had won a whole lot of games at home.
Going back to the Plumlee or Keene situation, an old situation came back into play regarding whether a player can lose a starting role even after coming back from injury?
“Yeah, just depends. Every situation is different. You know, when you have a head injury, obviously, that’s different in its own right. You protect your players. You make decisions that are best for them and your team. That’s what we did.”
As for how UCF has been able to tap into its depth after injuries, Malzahn made a good point with his response.
“Yeah, we were fortunate earlier in the season to play some of those younger guys; some of those inexperienced guys. It really helped us at this time because, you know, at this time of year very few teams are completely healthy.
“You have to have depth to have a chance to win a championship. We are banged up, somewhat. We will heal up this week. We will be very strategic the way we practice. It’s (a) next-man mentality. We’ve been talking about that. Guys have stepped in, and handled that, so far well.”
Speaking of next-man mentality, Keene exemplifies that mentality.
“Mikey (Keene) is a champ. It was a close, a hard-fought battle with him and John Rhys at quarterback. He’d been waiting his turn. He’s been preparing like he’s going to play every week. So it didn’t surprise me (when he played well versus Memphis). It probably didn’t surprise anyone that he played like he did. Last two games, very efficient. Very impressive to see.”
There were also injuries to other key players like linebacker Jeremiah Jean-Baptiste, and safeties Divaad Wilson and Quadric Bullard. Malzahn touched upon these situations.
“I really don’t (know) at this point. We are kind of taking it day by day, with our doctors and training staff. So hopefully, when we get to Thursday we’ll have a better idea of those three statuses.”
When questioned about defensive depth, Malzahn discussed his confidence with the players off the bench.
“You know, it’s like we talked about. It’s next-man up. We have quality depth, and the good thing is we’ve got guys that have played a lot of football. It’s not like if somebody can’t play, we’re just going to put somebody out there for the first time. I think they understand coach T-Will’s defense, their position coach and what they’re asking them to do.”
As a final point to discuss, Tulane quarterback Michael Pratt is an experienced quarterback that started last season as a true freshman. He’s more experienced and wiser now. Malzahn discussed what he’s seen of him on film.
“Yeah, he’s a dual-threat guy. He can make plays with his feet. He can make plays in the passing game. He’s very efficient. They spread the ball around. I mean, I think they’ve thrown it to more guys than anybody in the country, which makes it more of a challenge defensively.”
Here's Malzahn's full press conference:
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