USU bowl game press conference round-up
Friday morning Utah State interim head coach Frank Maile addressed the media along with sophomore stars Jordan Love and David Woodward.
Questions have been plentiful in the past couple of weeks in the wake of former head coach Matt Wells’ departure. Who will coach the team? How will they respond with a bowl game still ahead? The three men addressed some of those questions and talked about their opponent for Saturday, North Texas.
Maile, who has been the lead man for the team even after it was announced that Gary Anderson would become the new head coach, was asked about his future. He deflected the question, saying he wants to make sure the team wins in its last game of the year.
“My number one concern right now is this team, first and foremost,” Maile said. “This ain’t about me, it never has been. The reason why we’re here is because of these two gentlemen (Love and Woodward) and their teammates.”
Love is set to start his second straight bowl game but has been without his head coach and much of the former offensive staff. When asked what it was like, the California native said it wasn’t easy, but that it hasn’t stopped him or the rest of the team.
“It’s tough, losing your coaches, especially having another game left,” Love said. “Coach Maile, he’s been great, he’s stepped up. He’s been leading us the right way, getting us ready for this game. No doubt in my mind that we’re all ready for this game.”
On a similar note, Woodward said the seniors on the team have been thrust into a quasi-coaching role.
“(They’ve) done a great job stepping up with the coaches being gone and taking sort of a coaching role,” Woodward said, “and helping the younger guys and all of us get prepared for the game.”
North Texas head coach Seth Littrell was asked if the Aggies’ missing a large portion of its coaching staff is a weakness, to which he responded with a quick “no” and praised Maile’s work and the experience of USU.
While there has been a transition, Maile said there hasn’t been a change in how the team will play schematically.
“Nothing’s changed,” Maile said. “We have a blueprint on offense, defense special teams and is the foundation of what we’ve done so I haven’t asked them to change one thing. The mentality’s the same.”
When it came to the Mean Green, Love said the defense he’ll be facing presents a challenge, though not an insurmountable one.
“They bring a lot of pressure and they get a lot of turnovers,” Love said. “I have no doubt, though, our O-line, they’re able to pick pressures up really well. They’ve done it all season and then in our offense we have built in things to get the ball out quick when teams bring pressure so I think we’ll be able to handle that pretty well.”
Maile had high praise for UNT, calling them the “most well-rounded team we’ve seen all season in all three phases.”
“They’re a really good football team and it’s going to be a really good game,” Maile said. “Defensively we’ve got to be able to stop the run. We know that’s a huge emphasis for them, they want to run the football. So, for us we’ve got to stop that first and foremost. They’ve got a really good QB that’s surrounded with really good skill (players). So we’ve got to cage him, we’ve got to disrupt him and make sure we play everything top-down and not give up any explosive plays.”
The New Mexico Bowl will kick off Saturday at noon. Fans can watch the game on ESPN or listen to it on 1280 and 97.5 The Zone in the Salt Lake City area or on 92.3 KBLU-LP in Logan and Cache Valley.