DALLAS - Seven C-USA teams are in action this week, with a trio of league contests, with all games taking place on Saturday. UAB hosts Middle Tennessee at 2:30 p.m. CT to kickoff the weekend, while WKU travels to UTSA in a rematch of last season’s championship game at 5 p.m. CT. FIU hosts UCONN in the lone non-conference game of the week for C-USA schools, at 6 p.m. CT for homecoming and the final game of the week pits UTEP against Louisiana Tech in Ruston, also at 6 p.m. CT. Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas and Rice are all on byes this week.

Every week head coaches take to the podium to answer questions from the league's media members - let's see what they're saying this week:

FIU
Head Coach Mike MacIntyre’s Quotes from Tuesday’s Press Conference
 
On bouncing back from Western Kentucky, getting the win against New Mexico State, and his analysis of UCONN:
“Our kids went to New Mexico State, played extremely hard and was really proud of our coaches and our players. How they bounced back from the week before, and kept getting better. So that was exciting to see. As we head into University of Connecticut, Jim Mora I know well, we both have the same agent. We've coached against each other two times and also both our dads are coaches we're kind of coaches brats, I guess you'd say and that’s good seeing him, he's got a football team that is improving and had a big, big win against Fresno. He's an excellent program last week. He's played an extremely tough schedule. And they're a big powerful football team. They're probably the biggest team, they’re the biggest team we've played all year. They're physical, they're powerful, they're long, and they pound the rock.
 
“Their starting quarterback is Zion Turner, who played at St. Thomas Aquinas, he's a heck of a football player. He won a ton. I don't think he ever lost the football game and St. Thomas when he was quarterback. He's doing a great job with him as a freshman. They got a powerful line and a lot of two tight end type offense and try to knock us off the ball. Defensively, they played really sound. They've got a big defensive line. Their linebackers are aggressive and extremely impressed with them. They played excellent defense at times. And last week, they played really really well. And in their kicking game, their kicker has extremely strong play, been impressed with what they've done in those areas. So it's going to be a tough contest. Fortunately, Homecoming and our kids are excited about playing and I know UCONN will be excited about playing also.”
 
On what impressed him the most about the defense against New Mexico State after giving up 73 points to WKU:
“Coach Dewitt and our defensive staff did a great job working with young men, but also our young men are really, really young. And they're kind of growing up. And so, we've made some plays and we gave up a couple early in the Texas State game and then we kind of started playing better. And then Western Kentucky. They're excellent. They've been one of the best offenses  in the country. As you saw their quarterback from last year is playing for the Patriots and the quarterback they have now is excellent. Their speed, their size, they kind of consumed us a little bit and we just kind of miss a tackle here, be off here, quarterback was accurate could have run a little bit wrong literally go outside of a guy when you should go inside of a guy makes all the difference in the world.
 
“They worked at it, they saw it, our kids kind of got used to the speed of the game. And we kept practicing them next week and the New Mexico State tried to do some of the same things to us and we fit them up right ran to it better understood it better. So I think the process of them growing up helped a lot that we're gonna have to do the same thing again this week. But I thought that the kids really, really responded well, to us coaching them and didn't think about the past learn from the past and don't let it affect themselves Saturday and I thought it was impressive to give up 73 points and then they give up seven and zero in the second half was really impressed by that and those group of guys.”
 
On what he thinks about the DB Demetrius Hill’s play on defense:
He's one that's just kind of gets keeps developing for us. In the spring he would, he'd have a bad scrimmage and he'd have a good scrimmage and you can ask him like he was like Jekyll and Hyde. He was just learning and he is very smart, very physical and good size good athlete. He's a really good player. He really asked a lot of intelligent questions. He's understanding what the offense is trying to do to him now and he's able to correct himself during the game which really helps us and he's playing really really well and I look forward to watching him play a lot more football.”
 
On the importance of gaining momentum after a big win:
We definitely want to string a couple together. But what I keep talking about is you go back to ground one again on Monday, you learn from mistakes because other teams are going to copy what you did. They did other things they did good against you. Especially with their offense, we cleaned up the bits and pieces that other teams have done good against us. So we need to be able to keep multiplying, improving, improving, improving. The good thing about it is as you play, a team comes out and tries to do something, all the kids go oh, they're trying to do what they did to us we know how beat this now or we know how to block this. Coach Yoast is going to call this play now because we know how to beat this coverage or whatever. So that familiarity with everything starts making you calm down in a game. You hear a lot of times athletes kind of they kind of slow down and they can kind of see it better. And now it's going to slow down a little bit and they'll be able to make more plays. So hopefully we'll be able to do that. You know UCONN is going to come in and just try to pound us and those shot deep shots off on us on defense and then offensively, they're going to try to corral us and keep us in there and use their big D line and try to progress against our offensive line. So it's going to be a battle of the wills on the lines in this game.”
 
FLORIDA ATLANTIC
Head Coach Willie Taggart’s Quotes from Monday’s Press Conference
 
On giving up big plays:
"We have to simplify some things and allow our guys to just play ball. First and foremost, being able to line up and be in the right position. When it comes to the run game, it's down to that: being in your gaps and owning your gaps. Guys can't jump out of their gaps and linebackers have to stay in their gaps. I think simplifying some things is going to allow our guys to be able to do that better. I think that will make a big improvement for our defense. We have a lot of talent. We should be playing a lot better than what we've been playing and not giving up runs like we've been doing. We've got fast guys, but sometimes we're not playing fast. To me, that comes down to thinking too much and not playing instinctively, and if you're not playing instinctively on the defensive side of the ball, you're dead. We're reevaluating what we're doing this week and making sure we're putting our players in the best position to be successful. They're playing hard and trying to give us what we want. We have to make sure that we're giving them just enough so that they can go play at a high level and get back to that dominant mentality and keep people out of the end zone."
 
On making stops on third down:
"We have to be better on third down. If you ask me, that's the killer. We'll get you in third down and on third-and-12, we give that up. Those types of things can't happen. Being better there will help our football team."

On QB N'Kosi Perry:
"If you look back to this last game, he threw a couple of dimes in there. That's big for a quarterback there early in the game if you're throwing passes like that and you drop them, that takes a lot away from a QB in games. We had three possible touchdowns on all of them that they have to make it happen. From our standpoint, we as coaches have to help him out. I think one thing that will help us was running the football. We have to consistently run the football and not ask him to throw the ball 50 times a game or even 30 times a game. We have some really good running backs and a really good offensive line. I think you help your QB by running the football."

On working with coaches during the bye week:
"That's going to be a big part of this bye week, is how we can put our players in the best position where they can be successful, where they can play fast, not think a lot and just go play football like we all know they can. We have the talent there and our guys are giving us great effort, it's just being consistent with the execution in what we're doing. That comes with reps, reps, reps, and accountability. We have to hold guys accountable to doing their jobs and if they can't get it done, we have to get the right guys in there to get it done for us. I think there's a lot of things we can do this bye week to get better at that can help us with some of our issues that's causing us to lose."
 
On practicing this week:
"We're going to work on us. We have to get better at what we do, really working on those things to get better, and probably more importantly, eliminate some things so that we can continue to get better. And then we'll spend some time on Rice. But a big part of this is us working on us and getting better at what we do. And then fundamentals, that's a big part where we can be a lot better in every phase."
 
LOUISIANA TECH
Head Coach Sonny Cumbie’s Quotes from Tuesday’s Press Conference
 
Opening Statement:
“We are excited to have our second home game. I am looking forward to Saturday night and getting out in front of our home crowd here in Ruston with UTEP coming into town.”
 
On Starting Quarterback:
"It will be Parker (McNeil) he took all the reps with the ones last week and will do so with the ones this week as well. There are situations watching film where he probably just needs to take the sack or throw the ball away. We need to give him better help on third and long and second and long with the play calling as well."
 
Adjustments during Bye Week:
“The biggest adjustment is just the use of our practice time. We wanted to get better at fundamentals, look at ourselves from a practice standpoint and on the practice field try to get some reps with guys who have not gotten many reps with the ones or twos… You have a chance to really show the players how important practice habits are. You watch the game from the week before obviously but you also have more time to look things over during practice and comb over film from then. We also looked at how we prepared the players during practice as well. Finding ourselves on offense and our identity were two big things that we focused on.”
 
On a home game changing the practice routine:
“It does not change anything until Friday as we get a later start on everything. Besides that everything we do routine-wise we try to do the same. So basically it is just copy and paste the schedule from the afternoon and slide it to the morning on Friday for a road game. We are going to have the same chapel, team meetings, position meetings and walk-through’s every Friday. The comfort level of our players from being local matters too. You also have to look at both sides and sometimes there is more distractions at home because people are coming into town for the game and you have people traveling to Ruston and staying. We just try to eliminate all potential distractions for our players whether it be on the road or at home. Our guys are really excited to be playing a night game in front of our fans. Hopefully we build off the success in the last home game we played.” 
 
On wide receivers:
“They have down a nice job of creating space and getting open. The consistency of where we are putting the ball and their ability to catch the ball and making plays down the field. We saw that with Tre (Harris) with Smoke (Harris) I think he just needs to relax and play football. He is putting a lot of pressure on him for wanting to make that big play and make everyone miss. If he just takes a deep breath and let his natural ability take over and play football like he has the past few years that will help him. I am excited because Julien Lewis should be back this week and Griffin Hebert just continues to make plays. We need to keep getting him the ball whether it is over the middle of the field or in the play action game. I am excited about how those guys have made plays.”
 
MIDDLE TENNESSEE
Head Coach Rick Stockstill’s Quotes from Monday’s Press Conference
 
Opening Statement:
“Obviously, (UAB is) a really good football team. They lead the conference in rushing, they control the ball, their quarterback is very experienced, Dylan Hopkins. Has played a lot of snaps for them, does a great job protecting the ball and running their offense. It's a really tough, physical offense. They want to come in and run the ball on you. We've got to do a good job defensively of stopping the ball and slowing it down because they're very talented. They've got some really big a dynamic wide receivers that can stretch the field vertically. 
 
“They had a tough one last week, they're 2-2. They've already had their open date, so they've only played four games. But looking forward to this opportunity and this challenge to go down there.”
 
On what Rice did well to get past UAB:
“Rice is a really good team. I think Rice is very underrated, it's a tough place to play. They're going to do what they do. A lot of their games are close games, not only this year but in years past. They did a good job, I don't know (what) to say that the did to get them off their game because I thought UAB played good. They had a chance to win the game, they had a sack-fumble on the last couple of plays of the game, so they were right there to win it. Had a chance to win it. UAB was able to run the ball, had success running the ball. It's not like Rice went up and down the field on them. 28-24 is a close ball game.”
 
On UAB's defensive strengths:
“I think it's their whole defense. They don't give up a lot of big plays. They don't have a lot of sacks, but they do push the pocket because they're so big up front. Their linebackers run really well. On the back end, like I said, they don't give up a lot of big plays. They keep the ball in front of you and make you go the long way. All 11 of those guys on defense, they've been in this system a long time. They've all got a good understanding on what they want to do.”
 
On if UAB looks similar under Bryant Vincent as they did under Bill Clark:
“To me, there's not many changes. Vincent had been their offensive coordinator there for the last four or five years. The defensive coordinator had been there for the same amount of time or longer. So those two guys, even when Bill stepped down, schematically offensively and defensively, didn't change. You weren't bringing somebody in that was completely different from what they've been doing. They're still a tough hard-nosed team that plays hard every snap.”
 
UAB
Interim Head Coach Bryant Vincent’s Quotes from Tuesday’s Press Conference
 
Video available here: Tuesday Press Conference
 
Opening statement:
“Obviously disappointed in the outcome at Rice. I felt like we had a chance to be able to pull it out in the end and just came up short. Felt like the two turnovers offensively, the one interception in the first half kind of swung some momentum even though we came up with a big stop. The turnover in the second half on the backwards pass obviously gave them the momentum back. We were able to respond and come back and take the lead late and then we had the opportunity to go down there and win the game but came up short and didn’t execute there in the end. Kids played extremely hard. Proud of our team, proud of our coaches, just disappointed that we didn’t come away with the win. We’ve got a long season; we’ve got a lot of football in front of us. I want to move forward to what I feel like, and what this town and this university feels like, is one of the best traditions in college football. It’s our Children’s Harbor game, it’s our homecoming game, it’s a tradition that was started by coach [Bill Clark] and UAB. We’re going on year six. It’s a game where our players wear the jersey of patients from Children’s Harbor. We honor them, we play in the memory of them. It’s a game and it’s a tradition that we take very serious here and that we’re very proud of. It’s what this program is about. It’s about things bigger than this team and this program. It’s something that we’re very excited to play this coming Saturday versus Middle Tennessee.”
 
On moving past the Rice game:
“Obviously there was a lot of adversity throughout that game Saturday night, a lot of momentum swings, a lot of emotions going on throughout that game. It was a game that we prepared hard for, that our players and coaches prepared hard for. We played hard. At the end of the day, you’ve just got to be able to move forward. You’ve got to be able to learn from your mistakes. You’ve got to be able to press forward. There’s a lot of football left. We had a team and locker room that was hurt. [We had] a team and locker-room that was very disappointed. We’ve just got to stick together and that’s what this team is doing, we’re sticking together. We know we’re playing for something that’s much bigger than us in this Children’s Harbor game. It’s a game that means a lot to this town, it means a lot to these families, and it means a lot to this football team. That’s what we’re focusing on doing. It’s tough and we’ve got to put it behind us. We’ve got to move forward. We’ve got a really good Middle Tennessee State football team coming in. [It is] a conference game, a home game, a homecoming game, and, most importantly, a Children’s Harbor game.”
 
On what the players take away from the Children’s Harbor game:
“This is a game that our players look forward to, that our program looks forward to and that we’re excited about. Our players understand the importance of this game, they take pride and passion in playing for these families and playing for these patients. This is bigger than football. This is real life, and this is something that our players have created bonds with these children, created bonds with these families. It’s ended up turning into a life-long relationship.”
 
On bouncing back from a tough loss:
“At the end of the day, when you do stumble and you do fall, you’ve got to regroup and come back stronger. You’ve got to bring a great focus on rewriting from what happened the week before. Creating and fixing, really fixing the mistakes and the situations that maybe we didn’t necessarily handle well. I felt like we let our emotions start to stray away from us in the second half and really got caught up. We’ve got to maintain our focus and we’ve got to work on staying the course and being able to execute the next play. That was a tough one, it was a tough one last year. Every loss is a tough loss here because that’s something we’re not used to doing here at UAB and its something we’re not going to get accustomed to at UAB. The Children’s Harbor game is a personal game for us because we play for something much bigger than us. This team has great leadership. We have a team that’s driven, a team that’s tight, a team that cares about each other, and we realize that we’ve got a lot of football in front of us. Everything is still within our reach, but there has to be a sense of urgency on this football team that’s coming into town.”
 
CHILDREN’S HARBOR PATIENT DARIYA LARRY
 
“This game means a lot to me because it gives me a chance to bond with all the players and the football players get to bond with us. I love Children’s Harbor because it’s a fun place for kids, like me, to take their mind off of being in their rooms or thinking about how sick they are and [they create] fun activities for all of us to do.”
 
CB DEVODRIC BYNUM
 
On the meaning of the Children’s Harbor game:
“I feel like this game is really the most important game because the names who we play for on the back of our jerseys mean a lot to us. Some of us have kids, I have kids. My daughter was born four months early, so she had complications as well. It touched me probably more than anyone. My grandmother, she owned a daycare, and she took in all kids, no matter what. She passed away [the day] we played [Appalachian] State. This game means a lot more to me because I know how she felt towards kids as well. I know, with the kids, they just want [an] opportunity. It’s not fair always, but that’s how the dice roll. For me to go out there and be able to perform for them means a lot to me.”
 
On getting to know the patients and their families:
“It means a lot. It goes past football. After the game, I’m still going to be in contact. I’m still in contact with my other families that I played for as well.”
 
On the lasting impact of the Children’s Harbor game:
“The last game that we played I didn’t know Lexi was in the stands. That was my last child I played for last year. She sent pictures – I was holding my daughter and her mother was taking pictures of me playing. That was my first game, well my second game, that I started for UAB, and it touched her a lot. She sent me a long paragraph after the game, just thanking me for being there for them emotionally, physically, financially, and any way that I can. We still stay in communication. I reach out to them, make sure Lexi is doing fine and she’s well. Even after I leave UAB, I’ll still be in contact with the families. For Christmas, Thanksgiving, things like that, I just want to make sure the kids feel loved, and their mind is just not always on what’s going to happen next.”
 
LB KELLE SANDERS:
 
On playing in the Children’s Harbor game:
“Any time you can play for anything that’s bigger than you, it’s special. Playing for something like this is truly special because knowing that you can be someone’s limelight for three and a half hours. It’s just, being there for somebody, for the game, it’s special. I’m just at a loss for words thinking about it.”
 
On taking pride in playing for the Children’s Harbor patients:
“I guess, every play – say I go out there this Saturday and make a big play, that play is going to be a little bigger than any other play I make any other Saturday, because I know it’s for a bigger cause than just me. I’m wearing somebody else’s last name on my back [and] I want to represent them as well as myself and the team at the same time.”
 
On learning the impact of the Children’s Harbor game throughout his career:
“It was definitely something I learned. You know, I never knew about it coming here to UAB until the week coming up and Coach [Bill Clark], going into the team meeting, hearing about everything and then in the locker room, everybody talking about the uniform, because the uniforms are definitely cool uniforms. It’s also a big deal that we’re playing for somebody else other than us. It was something that I learned going through and after the game I was like wow that was a big deal. It felt special to me.”
 
UTEP
Head Coach Dana Dimel’s Quotes from Monday’s Press Conference
 
Audio Available here: Monday Press Conference
 
Opening statement:
“We'll get started here with normal procedure. Talk about last week's game and then we’ll roll into this week's contest. Obviously, a big road win for us and a game that was very frenetic and lots of things went on throughout the game. I think there's a lot a lot of good learning from it in the win, which is always good. I think our team has had a lot of good learning experiences this year, which is what you want as you go throughout the schedule. Going into that game I was very concerned about their offense. I talked in the press conference last week about their quarterback and how good of a player he is. I just really thought their offense was a difficult task for anybody. They had played a difficult schedule. But I knew they had some tremendous weapons in their offense and did some really good things. The quarterback is a hard guy to tackle as you would watch games previously. He is just a hard guy to get ahold of. They're very good on their opening drives. They've been good on their opening drives for a long time, ever since he's been there. So, when we fell behind seven to nothing, that was no surprise to me. I like the way we responded offensively. They ate up more clock than what they traditionally do. That was a little bit surprising on that first drive. I think we got the ball back just a little bit over nine minutes left in the quarter, so they ate up almost six minutes of the first quarter with the drive. But I liked the way we responded offensively.
 
“We put together a good drive of our own and ate up a lot of clock there, had some good conversions in that drive, We took some chances in that drive just because I knew the nature of the game was going to be one that we were going to have to score some points to win the game. So, I liked the way we performed from that point on, both offensively and defensively throughout the first half. It was a very close-fought game after our first touchdown drive and we were able to get another field goal, which we just need to continue to improve on because a 14 -7 lead would have been a lot better than a 10-7 lead at that point. But we took the next opportunity that we had and went down and scored a touchdown, ran the ball a lot. When we've been going to our play-action passing game it's been really good. We went to the play-action pass there in the red zone and hit it to Trent (Thompson) for a touchdown and got the 17-7 lead there. They got the ball back with a little bit of time and because we got the ball to start the second half, I felt like it stimulated them to try to take chances there. I think if they would have got the ball to start the second half, they probably wouldn't even have been that aggressive. But in that time and junction in the game, you should be aggressive, and they were. We were able to make a play and get the turnover and score there. So, it gave us a really good closure, which is always so important on how you finish the half.
 
“We finished the half with two scores there very quickly and got us into the locker room with a good lead and feeling comfortable. We came out in the third quarter and it just shows you how fast in college football things can turn on (you). We go four and out on the first drive and punt the ball to them. They put together a good drive. Again, not anything unexpected. After five minutes in the third quarter, they got 14 points. I mean, they're going to score, they're going to get their points, they're going to do their thing. The next drive. we start off with a big run with Ronnie (Awatt) and he gets hit really hard. It was a really good tackle by them, a real physical tackle, and we didn't hold on to the ball and they get the ball back and go down and score and here you go. We got ourselves a football game before you know what's going on. A lot of teams would have folded their tent right there, and we didn't. We stayed within ourselves. So, we made one of the biggest plays of the game when Gavin (Hardison) stepped up in the pocket under duress and made a great throw to Tyrin (Smith) and Tyrin made a great catch. We got a big scoring play right there to get the lead back to where we wanted to have it, more than a one-score lead. But again, they got opportunities. Probably the biggest play in the game was when they were inside the red zone and Jadrian (Taylor) got the fumble recovery and took it back all the way and got us a 20-point lead that we needed to get secured there at that time of the game. But again, tribute to Charlotte, they did a nice job of coming back and executing their offense and creating some plays. We had the unfortunate penalty on the stop when the game should have been over there at the end of the game and got it extended. They end up scoring and making it even more exciting. It led down to IJ (Ilijah Johnson) making that big play at the end of the game, a really gutsy play. A lot of good stuff went on in all three segments of the football game.
 
“I think our special teams is continuing to improve. We made a lot of plays on special teams in the 19 snaps that we had of special teams play. A lot of guys played tremendous on both sides of the football and in the special teams. So, I'm really happy with the way we played, and we knew it was going to be a difficult game. Everybody expected it to be a hard fought, close game and it sure was and it was an exciting win for our program.”
 
On playing at LA Tech on Saturday:
“So, moving on to this week, another challenge lies ahead for us, another road game, back-to-back road games outside the state of Texas. So again, it'll be against a team that has a good passing attack, runs the ball well, really talented receivers, big, tall quarterback with a very strong arm. The running backs got good shiftiness and speed to them. Defensively, they're very athletic on defense and have a lot of returners from last year's defense, a very experienced defense with some new faces in there. But the new faces are athletic. They have a lot of depth on their defensive football team. It’s a big challenge for us going into another road conference game here as we go into this week.”
 
On the team running the ball more after being pass heavy to start the season:
“Your team takes a different identity every year. In the second half of last year, we were really throwing the ball well and doing that well. I think now the identity of this year's team has taken a little bit different of a turn. What we're doing now really fits our personality better. And obviously it's helping us to have some success. If you guys look at the Boise stats right now, I think they're the number six or number five team defensively in the country. So, if you can run the ball like we did against them, against a team of that caliber that’s especially that good on defense. They were really, really strong on defense. It just shows you that that's probably something we should be doing more of. Then it's really allowing Gavin to be real precise and his game is really picked up because he can start attacking people with his arm talent and he's just running our offense to a high, high level. So, I think he's feeling really comfortable with what we're doing, too. So, it's just morphed us into the type of offense that we need to be in the game. We held the ball for 40 minutes against Boise and 33 plus last week, and so that always is a real positive for you. Knock on wood, we've been minimizing our turnovers because of it too. So, it's been a real positive turn for us and it's going to be important in these games down the stretch here for sure.”
 
On the secret to his team handling adversity:
“I think that the quality of character and the experience of our guys on our team. I gave our guys a lot of credit as to the quality of character and how they've matured as a football team. It's a good sign because most teams that you would be around would have really panicked in that situation. Instead of us panicking, we step up and make that huge play on third down with Tyrin and Gavin, and that kind of jumpstarted things again. The defense was playing with a lot of passion too. Just so much character gained from that, but I think it's a lot to our leadership and our experience on our football team.”
 
On the team bouncing back from the loss at New Mexico to win back-to-back games:
“I just think again us trying to find our identity on what best fits our football team. We go back and look, and the New Mexico loss was just a tough weekend for us.  We had a bad, bad weekend and we had to get it fixed. We tried to really look at things and say, hey, how can you get these things fixed? We made some good adjustments to do the things that our team does the best and those guys rallied. As I said before, we got a lot of good football players that are proving that they can play well and now they're starting to play better. But now the challenge just lies ahead. Here comes another week and we got an even tougher challenge than we had last week. That’s just kind of how the conference is going to be. We got to have a great week and great preparation going into this ballgame.”
 
On the impact of winning consecutive contests:
“I think we're gaining confidence from it, and if we were going to stumble from prosperity, we were sure set up for it after the Boise win. I feel like our guys handled it really well because I felt like we probably played one of our very best games of the year. Boise was our best, but I think Charlotte was real close because again, Charlotte's offense can be really explosive. They have played a lot of good teams. I felt like we went out and handled that long trip. It was a long trip. It was a difficult schedule getting up early and we handled all that well. So, I was pleased with that part of it. Now our guys, more than anything, need to continue to realize that the work's going to be better this week and that's how we handle it. Our work is going to be better this week than what it was last week and the week before. We got to really raise our game up for this game.”
 
On Deion Hankins’s impact in the win at Charlotte:
“Deion was a force on Saturday the way he ran. The play I didn't even mention was our conversion there in the second quarter, what was that 30 yards, I don’t even know. He converted on a zone play. The (offensive) line got him 15 and then he got whatever the rest of that run was on his own and moving the whole pile. I don't know if I've ever seen a running back move a pile like that in a game where he actually took him from about seven yards short of a first down to two or three yards past the first down stick. That was just Deion in the middle of a bunch of people moving forward. It was really impressive to see his strength show itself like that. It probably hasn't been talked about as much as it should have, how really impressive that run was. But it was more than once. If we get him started, he's really doing some stuff better than he ever has done. So, it's really nice to see him operating at that high of a level and getting his strength back.”
 
UTSA
Head Coach Jeff Traylor’s Quotes from Monday’s Press Conference
 
On how valuable it has been to have some extra time off with playing on Friday:
“We haven’t been on the field yet, so I haven’t really gotten to see us move around but I’d imagine our kids’ bodies feel a lot better. That’s the hope anyway. Nick, our trainer, gave a really good report back for us. You know, there’s a couple guys we’re still evaluating but he said the kids are in relay good spirits and are excited about rehab and getting their bodies ready to go Saturday. I know yesterday at our team meeting, just reviewing the game, everyone was in really good spirits and seemed to enjoy having a day to themselves.”
 
On what jumped out on the game review of Middle Tennessee:
“It seems like the game was a week ago now because we’ve been working on Western Kentucky so much. I guess just our defensive effort (stood out). You know, we turned the ball over three times, we had three terrible kick covers, we had a terrible punt cover. So, we put our defense in five really bad spots and to only allow 23 points … how great they were in the red zone on defense is probably the thing that stood out to me the most. I know that is what jumped out at me after reviewing the game video.”
 
On the team’s updated injury report:
“I think there’s a chance you’ll see a couple more faces out there again. But there’s things that come up that you just don’t know during the week. You know, we didn’t know we were going to lose Rashad and that was a game where we didn’t know we were going to pick up Tre(lon) Smith. That was kind of a game decision. So, you know … you never know in this business. We lost Makai (Hart) last year in pregame. I don’t remember what game that was but … you think when you get them to the field for pregame you’re going to be able to play them so you never know. But we should be getting a few more bodies back this week.”
 
On if he thought his offense had this kind of potential (being the #1 passing offense in the country):
“We had kind of prepared for that (being a passing first offense) all offseason you know we’ve got … we lost Makai (Hart) but other than that we’ve had the same center, the same guards the same tight end, the same three receivers, Brenden (Brady)’s been on the two deep, Frank … those guys have all played together for three … those have been my guys since I’ve been here. That’s been my offense! So, we lost Spencer (Burford) at left tackle, we lost Leroy (Watson) who rotated with Oscar (Cardenas) and obviously we lost Sincere (McCormick). But that’s a lot of players playing together for a long time in the exact same system, the exact same verbiage. So, you would expect just time on task, familiarity, talent, playing a lot of big games together that we should and have picked up right where we left off.”
 
WKU
Head Coach Tyson Helton’s Quotes from Monday’s Press Conference
 
Video Available here: Monday Press Conference
 
On the big matchup at UTSA:
"Back in conference play, we're really excited. Going on the road against a really good UTSA team. Probably the most talented team in our conference. They're doing a great job averaging 500 yards a game and picking up right where they left off last year. It's going to be a very challenging game, but a game we look forward to. It should be a good matchup, and we're looking forward to getting going."

On UTSA QB Frank Harris:
"He's grown so much. I've watched him from a young, talented, kind of a raw player, to a just a true polished quarterback. He has full command of the offense. You can see they're allowing him to do a lot of different things now. Really, you're just trying to contain him more than anything."
 
On facing the UTSA defense:
"Big up front. Really big. Talented, quick-twitch and get after the passer. Last week with Troy they were able to get some push on us with the offensive line, so it will be another big challenge for our offensive line this week. We've got to do a good job of protecting the quarterback, and the run lanes have got to be there for us. We've got to be able to move the line of scrimmage."