After Saturday’s loss to out-of-conference Texas Tech, coach Major Applewhite has led the Cougars to a 2-1 record this season. | Thomas Dwyer/ The Cougar
Football head coach Major Applewhite said Monday he was impressed with his team’s resiliency, despite its 63-49 Saturday loss to Texas Tech, during a weekly news conference.
“There’s a difference between playing hard and playing well,” he said. “They didn’t play well at all times, but they played hard. They’re irritated — they wanted to do better and wanted to win.”
Applewhite also offered updates on team injuries: Senior safety Garrett Davis and transfer senior running back Terence Williams both sustained what may be long-term injuries. Williams injured his knee and is projected to be out for three to six weeks, Applewhite said.
Davis is expected to be out of play for the rest of the season with a broken foot.
“I hate it for him. He’s worked so hard coming into his senior year,” Applewhite said about Davis. “It’s estimated at eight weeks. He could possibly be back for a bowl game — it just depends on how his surgery goes.”
Applewhite went on to describe some of the team’s shortcomings on offense.
“Your job as an offense is to score one more point than the defense gives up, and the defense has to hold the opponent to one less,” Applewhite said. “We’ve got to score. In the second half, when you get two or three stops, we’ve got to convert fourth down and score.”
He said an explosive offense can work, but “there’s times when you need to control the game.”
“I’m not trying to poo poo on the offense — that’s not my point,” Applewhite said. “The point is we have to understand who we are on both sides of the ball.”
