REDEMPTION ON THEIR MINDS
BAILIFF, OWLS EYEING TURNAROUND FOLLOWING DISAPPOINTING SHOWING AGAINST COUGARS
Following last week’s 38-3 loss to the University of Houston, a noticeably frustrated David Bailiff addressed the media, flanked by two players with eyes trained towards the floor, as they shook their heads in disappointment.
“What the hell do you think it’s like when you give up the ball inside the ten,” the Rice coach scoffed, “it’s a nightmare scenario.”
On Tuesday, Bailiff struck a much calmer tone; less phased by the loss and ready to resume conference play against Florida International on Saturday.
“We have to play like we did at UTEP, so we know what the standards are and what we’re trying to achieve,” he said.
For players, that even keel comes from experience.
In this case, it’s the experience of responding to a 62-7 loss to Stanford with a 31-14 victory over UTEP earlier this month. After last week’s loss, they’re looking to do the same.
“I think our team responds well to diversity,” linebacker Brian Womac said. “Following that adversity against UH, I’m looking forward to get back in conference and seeing what we can do there.”
Defensively, Bailiff said his unit must be more physical and more aggressive this week.
“We couldn’t get off the field on third downs and we couldn’t get them into any third downs,” he said. “You can’t play good football teams and have turnovers, we didn’t have any takeaways defensively and we’ve got to change that.”
Bailiff said he’d like to see his players try to strip the ball from opposing ball carriers more often. He thinks they could hit harder and wrap up on tackles more consistently, too.
“We’ve only got one (turnover) on the year, you know,” he added, “that’s something we continue to emphasize and hopefully we’ll see this week.”
Still, he likes that some of his best players performed well against UH.
“We had some individual superlatives, Brian Womac continues to play well. Emmanuel Ellerbee had 15 tackles. We’ve just got to start creating turnovers,” Bailiff said.
Punter Jack Fox has also been an underrated contributor through three games.
“I thought our punter Jack Fox really had an incredible night, he almost had a 46-yard average. He had 5-second hang time on everything,” Bailiff said.
The junior is averaging 46.1 yards per punt — six more than his average a year ago. He also slotted an extra point against UTEP.
“We’re definitely getting better,” Fox said of the specialteams unit, “you can kind of see that in the net punting stats, which is kind of like the team punting stat. This past game was our best game by far. We’re really covering better, especially inside the 20, so that’s good to see.”
Heading into this week’s game, Bailiff is impressed by FIU’s experience at quarterback, its productivity on the ground, and linebacking corps.
He’s looking for the team to step up again and suggests they have the mentality to do it.
“You can see it in their demeanor in meetings on Sunday,” he said, adding that they’re “hurt” and “aggravated.”
Improvement and physicality go hand-in-hand for Bailiff. He sees it as a matter of mindsets.
“Against UTEP, we were incredible with how we controlled the line of scrimmage, so I guess it would have to be more mental since I’ve seen it,” Bailiff said. “You don’t have to be great but we want a consistent level. That’s exactly what we told Sam, we just need consistency at these positions.”