Nov. 24, 2007
UCF HEAD COACH George O'Leary
Opening Statement:
"Good win. Nothing was easy out there. I thought we fought through some problems. It was a character game as far as we were ready to go in ourselves and score and we give up a 98-yarder. It gives us the division outright as I told the players, that wasn't our deal. Our deal was (the) conference (championship). We have another week of practice left and we'll go from there. It's a good win. Again, a lot of different people had moments in the game."
Satisfaction on winning the division:
"The ultimate goal is that you can't get to the conference (championship) unless you win the division. This is the game I said all along I was nervous about. They played better than their record as far as athletically. We had to change up some things offensively and defensively to take care of some of the things they were doing. I think it's great to win the division. Anytime you can win nine games in a year is great, but 10 is a lot better. We have to get that done next week against whoever we are playing. The great thing about that game is that it's home and it should be a wild atmosphere."
On defensive performance:
"They played well, but we have to get a lot stingier on third down plays. You can't let a team run and throw. We took the run out of there and we made some plays in the passing game, but we gave up some plays too that you would like to have back. I always look at the most important defensive stat and that's the score."
On Kevin Smith:
"I think Kevin is a very humble guy. He hasn't changed since day one. I would like to tell you different but I can't. I think Kevin is a competitor. He gives praise where he is supposed to give it. Kevin understands how much he's worked to get where he is at. I think you have a very good running back in the city and the nation has started to pick up on it."
#24 Running Back Kevin Smith:
Reflection on 2005 Conference USA Championship:
It is a whole new feeling. It's a new year. We have a new group of young guys. This is a whole different team and we know what we have to do. I'm just ready to play next Saturday.