UTEP’s Sean Kugler talks about win over UTSA, upcoming game against Southern Miss

UTEP head football coach Sean Kugler talked to the media Monday, Oct. 27 about the win over UTSA and the upcoming home game against Southern Miss.

(On Saturday’s 34-0 win at UTSA)
“It was a great team win for us on the road against a conference opponent. I thought the team from start to finish played with great energy. It was really exciting to see them root for each other and rally for each other. It was very fulfilling as a head coach to watch the team prepare all week and then carry it into the game from the practice field, because we had an outstanding week of practice.
“Offensively some goals going into the game were zero turnovers. We accomplished that. The players were very good with the football. We did lay one of the ground that we recovered. But that puts us at +5 on the year. I told the players we’re not big into stats, but there is one stat at the end of the year that’s going to be relevant to our win/loss record and that’s turnovers. Right now we’re sitting at +5 and that’s a good start for us. We talked about starting fast. We had a touchdown on our first drive. It was an outstanding throw and catch from Jameill to Jaquan White and got the team very energized. I thought Jameill’s play was extremely efficient throughout the entire game, making plays with his legs and making decisions with the run read pass game and some accurate throws. He managed the clock extremely well and he threw the ball close to a 67 percent success rate. That’s right where we expect him to be and he has been performing at that level for the past few weeks.

“Seven different players caught the ball for us, and we had our highest per catch average of the year at 15.9. There were more explosive plays down the field and the two touchdowns. One of the goals going into the game was to steal two possessions from UTSA in the form of controlling the clock, and there are a lot of things that go into that — eliminating negative plays, putting ourselves in manageable third downs, controlling the tempo and we did that. We held the ball for 39 minutes and 12 seconds. That’s two less possessions that they had that we got on offense. Really, the most impressive drive to me was at the end of the game when we held the ball for over seven minutes against an excellent UTSA defense and ended the game in a victory formation. That just shows the willpower of this team that they wanted to be on the field and finish that game on offense, and they controlled the clock in doing that. I really felt offensively we had to fight for every inch against that defense. I felt going into the game, and I still feel that’s one of the best defenses in Conference USA. They are very stout up front and last year a team that really physically manhandled us up front, and that wasn’t the case the other night. I thought our young offensive line did an excellent job. There were times they lost the battle, but all in all they won the war up front. We had to fight for every inch that we got but I was very pleased with their effort.

“Defensively, I have been around a lot of good defenses and a lot of good defensive performances. That may have been the best performance I have ever been a witness to. Shutout, only two first downs, one in each half, and the team just flying around with energy and playing the game the way it is supposed to be played. It was very energizing to our entire team. It was very energizing to me. I love watching defensive football, and that was as good of a display as I have seen in a very long time if not ever.

“One of the goals going into the game was to rattle their quarterback #3. I felt we accomplished that. We had three sacks and four quarterback hits. He had one interception which we returned for a touchdown with Jimmy Musgrave. We wanted to make it a third and long game for them. We wanted to shut down the run game. We accomplished that in a big way. #2, a very solid tailback for them, had six carries for 13 yards. #11, a very solid tailback for them, had five carries for 16 yards and we had six tackles for losses behind the line of scrimmage. The defense was on point in stopping the run game. It did put them in kind of tough situations and third downs and they were 1-of-14, which puts us right at 31 percent for the year. Our defense has been doing an outstanding job really all season long of getting off the field on third downs. Thirty-one percent is an excellent success rate.

“We wanted to start fast on the defensive side of the ball. We accomplished that, they had seven straight three and outs. They didn’t get their first first down until midway through the second quarter and they only had two for the game. Our goal going into the game was to force two turnovers. We did that. We had a fumble forced by Nick Gathrite that was recovered by Kelvin Fisher Jr., and the interception return for a touchdown. We had another forced fumble by Nick Gathrite that did not get recovered by us. We had our opportunity to get three. We talked as a defense to be ready early for something new from them. They run a multiple offense, they did a lot of different things and they really ran pretty much every run that you can possibly imagine in the first half. They were running option, they were running their power reads, they were running their inside zones, we saw it all and I think the defense really responded well to that. Again, 70 total yards, two total first downs and our first shutout win on the road since 1988. That’s a long time coming to have a performance like that. It was due to their energy, and their energy carried over from the practice field to the game and it was fun to see.

“I thought it was an outstanding performance by the special teams. Jay Mattox had an outstanding day. Field goal wise he was 2-for-2. He had a 20-yard field goal and a 47-yard field goal that he banged through. He was also 4-for-4 on PAT. He had four touchbacks on kickoff cover. They had only one return the entire game. Most impressive was his punting. Jay is a very good athlete. We had seen him in practice in a roll punt mode. As I mentioned last week, we’re not going to sit pat and expect to do the same things over and over again with different results. If we have a problem, we’re going to try to find solutions. The solution for us was to change our schematics into a roll punt, something he does very well and gets the ball out very quickly, something that we were struggling with. He has a very good knack for the roll punting. It was probably a big decision on our part in the middle of the season to change something like that, but a change was needed. It ended up paying off for us because we played with a flipped field the entire night. He pinned them down inside the 10 four times, which is very hard to do. That also has to do with protection and coverage. He pinned them down at the two, he pinned them at the six twice and he pinned them at the eight. It was as good of a punting performance as I’ve seen. He had a 46-yard average but more importantly a 44.3-yard net. It was an outstanding night by him.

“Punt return, Damian Payne had a 16-yard return which is excellent and a 28-yard return that was called back due to a block in the back. We’ve got to do some improving there. I thought our kickoff coverage was good. We had four touchbacks. We had a good sky kick. They only averaged 18 yards per return. That unit has been outstanding the entire year. We had one kickoff return but it was only for 19 yards, below our standards. We had two missed blocks on the opportunity to return that one. All in all, it was a very good night offensively, defensively and on special teams. It was a great team win. We need to bounce back just as quickly from a big win as we do a big loss. That has to do with the maturity of your team. When we lost to Louisiana Tech a few weeks back, I really felt that was the time for our senior leadership to show and it showed in a big way. They came back that Tuesday ready to work. Sometimes after a big win like this, the same mentality has to hold true. I expect these guys to have the maturity to come back on Tuesday ready to work, focused and ready to go because last week means nothing. Everything is focused on Southern Miss and playing a home game in front of our great fans in El Paso.”

(On Southern Miss)
“I think they’re one of the most talented teams athletically in Conference USA. They played Alabama, Mississippi State, they beat North Texas who was a bowl team last year at their place handily, they played Rice, Middle Tennessee and Louisiana Tech – arguably three of the top teams in our conference — down to the wire. This is a very talented team, with a lot of athletes on both sides of the ball. Offensively they had 506 yards against North Texas two weeks ago when they beat them. Their quarterback #9 has close to 2,000 yards passing and 10 touchdowns already. He was injured on the seventh play of this past game so we’re going to have to monitor the progress of his injury status. But the guy that came in, #11, had 338 yards and a touchdown last week against Louisiana Tech and kept those guys in the game the entire time. It might be a situation where we’ve got to prepare for two quarterbacks again, but they seemed to run pretty much the same system when this guy was in the ball game. It’s kind of a running back by committee for them. #24 has six touchdowns, #25 has 283 yards and he’s also their kick returner. They have a very big, physical group of wide receivers. #88 is 6-1 and is averaging 15.3 per reception. He has five touchdowns and 474 yards. #83 who is also their punt returner has 44 receptions, he leads their team. #23 is about 6-4, 230 at a wide receiver position. He is averaging 12.1 per catch. And #6 is 6-2 with 246 yards, 11.2 and two touchdowns. They have great size at the receiver position, great depth and these guys can run. They are a very athletic group of receivers. “Defensively they have some very athletic linemen. #45 has had great production for them. He has 38 tackles and 10 tackles for losses, 4.5 quarterback sacks and four quarterback hits. The other defensive end #94 has three sacks, three tackles for losses and two quarterback hits. So they’re getting good production from their ends. They’ve got a very stout defensive tackle that has played for them for a while, a 6-2, 305-pound defensive tackle who’s got nine stops behind the line of scrimmage with 35 tackles, four quarterback hits and one sack. So great D-line production for them. Their leading tackler is #39. He is a very stout linebacker, 248 pounds. He’s got 54 tackles, two for loss and one fumble. So good production from the linebacker corps. They have a strong safety that will hit you. He lines up in the box primarily as a run stopper. He is a hitter #28. They’ve got three defensive backs that have two interceptions each, good production from them, #17, #13 and #11. They force 14 turnovers on defense. They have had some rush yards against them, but a lot of that came early in the year against an excellent Alabama and Mississippi State team.

“Their punter is returning. He’s got a 38-yard average. Teams have been averaging 6.9 per return against them. Their punt returner is excellent #83. He is kind of like their little Wes Welker in there as a slot receiver. He leads their team in receptions but he is also averaging 11.2 yards per punt return. That’s the second-highest average that we have faced all year. Their kickoff return is by committee. #88 one of their receivers has a 21-yard average. #25 the running back has a 23-yard average. They are very stout there in their kickoff return. Their kickoff cover team has been averaging 24.7 against them. PAT/field goal they have a kicker with a very strong leg. He kicked three field goals against North Texas. He is 16-of-19 with a long of 52. So they have very solid special teams, a very athletic and active defense, and on offense they really like to chunk the ball all over the place. They play a lot of what we call 10 personnel with four wide receivers. They will jump in some 20 personnel with two backs. They do try to establish the run game but all in all they try to get it in the hands of their big playmakers and they’ve got plenty of them. It’s going to be a big chore for us getting prepared for this team. Football is a game where you’ve got to wipe the last game clean quickly. We have a 24-hour rule, whether you win a game or lose a game, where you wake up on Monday and that thing’s over and you’re getting prepared for your next game. We’re doing that as a staff and I’m really banking on the maturity of the senior leaders and this team to bounce back on Tuesday and come energized and ready to work.”

(On handling success)
“I only know one way and that’s to go back and work hard. I think they can draw from an experience now though. They really did have their best week of practice and they had fun at practice. And they went out and played the game and they had fun during the game and they played energized. You can draw from that experience. You can also draw from experiences where maybe you didn’t have the best week of practice and it carried over into the game and you didn’t play well. I think this team is really starting to understand our practice habits throughout the week really do translate into our quality of play on Saturdays. I really feel they’ll come out and practice hard this week.”

(On opening up the defensive playbook with depth)
“First off, I can’t complement our defensive staff enough. I wiped last year clean. Coming in under that situation, and your first meeting with the players is the first week of fall camp, you’re behind the eight ball already. This group that he’s coaching this year has bought in 100 percent. They understand the scheme and what’s being asked of them. They’re playing with great energy. That all comes from coach Stoker and his staff. He is as energetic and detailed of a coach as I have been around. I’m excited for him because the fruits of his hard work are really starting to show on the field.”

(On allowing two first downs to UTSA)
“It really was an unbelievable performance. I have never seen a game where there were only two first downs. I hope we see more. That would be awesome. But I don’t think you can bank on that week in and week out. It was one of those games. Probably for UTSA, that game for them was like our game against Louisiana Tech. Things just weren’t going right for them. A lot of that had to do with our defense, just like a lot of that had to do with Louisiana Tech when we played them. It was just one of those games for them. I think they are an excellent football team, I really do, but man our guys were flying around. What they can do is they can bottle that energy. There’s no rule that says you can’t play with that energy every single week. If they do that, I really feel good things will come to them because they’re excited. They’re excited about the way they played and they should be.”

(On how much has the team improved from the start of fall camp)
“I think they have matured. They have gone through ups and downs. We started the season extremely fast. They went through a very emotional loss against Texas Tech, a game that they feel they should’ve won and they bounced back. They went through playing a top-10 team on the road at Kansas State where they were getting thrashed at halftime and they fought back. And then they went on the road and had a difficult game where basically everything went wrong. That could’ve been, in my mind, a turning point one way or the other. Either you come together as a team or you fracture as a team. And I’m proud to say they came together as a team at that point and decided `You know what? We want to stop the bleeding. Enough is enough. Let’s play some quality football.’ Which they really have from the Old Dominion game, all the way through the bye week, the effort was outstanding with the preparation for the UTSA game. They are believing in each other and the thing I like the most is they’re playing as a team. You should’ve seen the offense cheering for the defense in that game. You should’ve seen how energized the defensive players were when the offensive guys were making plays, and even how everybody was excited for Jay Mattox when he was punting. That’s the most excited I have ever seen a kicker. I didn’t know they even got excited. It was an energized game from start to finish. There wasn’t any lulls. There wasn’t any `Here we go, third quarter, we’re going to struggle,’ those type things. They maintained that energy. We always talk about things you can control. You can control your energy and the passion that you play with. And that’s where I have been pleased with the team the last few weeks.”

(On where Southern Miss has turned the corner)
“The quarterback is outstanding. They have a really good scheme. They can hurt you in a lot of different ways. They are a much improved football team. They played soundly against Mississippi State and Alabama. This is an excellent football team. When you watch them on film, they’ve got as many athletes as anybody that we’ll face. It’s going to be a challenge for us and we understand that. They’re going to come here ready to compete and we’ve got to get ourselves ready to compete and let it play out.”

(On Southern Miss selling out to take away the running game against Louisiana Tech, do you expect the same this week?)
“We do try to get the ball in our running backs’ hands, whether it be through the running game or the passing game. You saw Aaron Jones with his 40-yard screen for a touchdown. We have implemented a lot of run pass reads where if you are really overselling for the run we do have the option to throw it and that has been successful for us. We need to be creative and continue to find ways to not be stuck in one mode. You learn your lessons. We got stuck in one mode against Louisiana Tech and it didn’t fare in our best interest. I think as a staff we’ve learned from it. I think as players we’ve learned from it. I’ll make as many mistakes as anybody on our team but I tell our players, I’ll try not to make the same mistakes twice. As long as we have that mentality and learn from our mistakes and always try to work to get better, we’ll be fine.”

(On the team’s injury status)
“Knock on mood, we have maintained our health. We have only really had one true devastating injury and that was Jeremiah Laufasa. He had to have knee surgery and he’s out for the year. All of the other injuries I would attribute to just playing football. We’ve got a couple of guys banged up, but I would anticipate they’ll be ready for the game. A lot of that has to do with the players’ mentalities and their mental toughness. I attribute a lot of that to Kirk Davis and the strength and conditioning staff. These guys work relentless throughout the year. And then Dawn Hearn and her training staff, they are always working with these athletes. They are tireless in their preparation getting these guys ready for the game. When you have an excellent strength and conditioning and training staff, and you have a good mindset with the players, it’s amazing how many fewer injuries you have.”

(On being physically tough and taking on that identity)
“You talk about starting fast, that first hit on the quarterback [at UTSA] was a tempo setter. It certainly energized the sideline and it energized me. I love seeing things like that. It definitely carried into the rest of the game. One play can change the momentum of the game. When you set the tempo early and it carries over to the rest of the game, that’s what you’re searching for. What’s what we talk about, starting fast.”