North Texas/Alabama 9/14/02 - Dennis Franchione druidcityonline.com your guide to Tuscaloosa, Alabama and the Deep South
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Dennis Franchione (Head Coach - prev. HC @ New Mexico 92-97 & TCU 98-20)

Coach Fran Faces the Media

It was a good night in a lot of ways.
We got a lot of yards offensively. The defense, other than the first drive, played well. That first drive we were disappointed that they drove down. But they missed a field goal so that was good. Offense hurt itself with turnovers and few penalties there in the second half, but all in all a pretty good effort. The value of the game is addition to getting a good convincing win is that we got to play a lot of people, get to give them some experience and that will only help us on down the line as we go on. We had a chance to put them away there in the first half but just did not quite get that done. That was probably the most disappointing thing was those three turnovers in the first half. There really could have been a nice cushion, but it ended up being maybe a 17 point swing right there. I guess if there was a good night for it to happen, it was tonight. We don’t need that in the future, that’s for sure.

Was there anything in particular you saw in North Texas that made you use the A-Back position as much as you did tonight?

Our game play that we developed through the week featured him more. We were in more two-back sets with him in the game. We ran four wides tonight, and he was the fourth wide receiver so that was the benefit. We haven’t been in those sets as much in the first game, but we were in them more this game. Shaud had a good night. He ran the ball well, caught the ball and did a great job on punt returns for us. We were certainly pleased. He had almost a hundred yards rushing if I’m correct (93 yds.), so he had a good evening and looked good running the football.

Was there any concern that the emotional loss last week (to Oklahoma) would have a negative impact on today’s game?

There was. I think as a coach I spend about 90 percent of the time worrying about 10 percent of the things that happen. But because I do that, in case those things happen, we are ready and can counter them. I was concerned about that. You know, sometimes you can’t play at the same emotional level 13 straight games. I wish you could. And as a coach you try for that to happen. But sometimes you have to come out and play with enough of an emotional edge that you play well enough to win the football game, and we did that. I don’t think we were flat at all. I think we had a good week. The coaches did a good job and the players came back with a little bit of an anger and frustration over the game last week. Not certainly a satisfaction and I think we came out and played like that.

Talk about the use of tight end in your offense, specifically Donald Clarke.

Well, Donald has come in the last two weeks and played well for us. As I’ve said many times, he’s made the catches for us and made plays … big plays. Those are the same plays we’ve ran for the last two years. Some weeks they cover him and we can’t get him the ball. But the last couple of weeks we’ve been able to do that. Defenses have had other things that they’ve covered and they’ve given us the opportunity to throw to the tight end, and our read has taken us there and we’ve taken advantage of it.

Talk about your quarterback play, as far as ball security.

Well, Tyler did a lot of good things. You know, he and I are both disappointed with his turnovers. And then it was great to get Brodie so much action and he did well. I thought the last throw right before the half was a miscommunication between him and the receiver. It’s just one of those things. He had a good drive going until that time. He threw the ball well and got some good runs. That’s big I think. He didn’t just sit in the pocket and force anything. When it wasn’t there he just pulled it down and ran and made some plays for us.

Did you worry about Brodie diving headfirst on the end of those runs and sticking his head in there on those blocks?

I just worried about him not getting in the endzone. You can’t worry about guys getting hurt. You have to play the game. I was really pleased to see him do that. The young man hasn’t played a lot of love football in the past couple of years. He showed a lot of guts and courage and ran with determination. Those were the big things I was excited to see. I certainly don’t want anyone to get hurt, but we can’t sit around and play cautiously like that. We’ve got to play to win, and it was great to see Brodie do some of those things. He felt good about it, got his first touchdown as a member of the Crimson Tide and that was big for him. Those are plays he can build on for his future.

Can you talk a bit more about how the defense played?

I thought other than the first drive they played very well. They did not give up much. Had good pressure and constantly after their quarterback. I think they had 11 first downs tonight and about 141 of offense. We going to face better offensive football teams, but North Texas is a team capable of getting some first downs, moving the ball and grinding the clock on you. We didn’t let them do that. We they had to go three-and-out and put the football, that kind of destroyed their game plan. We held on to the football, and won the time of possession battle pretty convincingly which is what they would have liked to done I think.

What does it add to your offense when you’re clicking on all cylinders?

Well, it just let’s us do more from a single personnel grouping. With Shaud in the game we can be four wide receivers, three wide receivers with two backs and then he can also play tailback. He gave us a burst of speed that was really good to see. But there’s going to be some weeks when it’s not going to be a Shaud Williams week or this guy or that guy’s week. The good thing about us offensively is that we don’t have to depend on any one player. So often you hear, “He’s their go-to guy.” Well, we don’t have to have a go-to guy right now. We ca utilize all of our guys. In the big scheme of things, that makes us harder to defend. Tonight was Shaud Williams night, and last week ya’ll were asking me why Shaud didn’t get the ball. I think our offensive coaches did a good job of taking what was given to them and utilizing their personnel formations and game plans. This week, Shaud did good things and we went back to him a few times.

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Dennis Franchione (Head Coach)

Shaud Williams (#21 Jr. AB, 5-8 189 lbs. Andrews, TX - Texas Tech transfer)

Santonio Beard (#34 Jr. TB, 6-1 225 lbs. Nashville,TN - Pearl/Cohn High School)

Kenny King (#55 Sr. DT, 6-3 280 lbs. Daphne, AL - Daphne High School)

Tyler Watts (#14 Sr. QB, 6-3 220 lbs. Pelham, AL - Pelham High School)