Say What? Ron Turner talks UTEP vs. FIU

On Goal-Line Stop at UMass:

It was a great stop. Our defense has been doing that in short-yardage, goal-line situations. You know stepping up and getting stops. They did a really good job. We got good penetration in the backfield. Jerimiah McKinnon made a great play. They tried that little flip play where they fake the inside run and flip it outside to the back. Jerimiah was disciplined, did his job and went and made a tackle for lose which really forced them to kick a field goal. If it wasn't for that lose they probably would've gone fir it on fourth down. But we got penetration inside and ended up blocking a field goal. So it was a very good goal line stand.

On Vontarius West's Play:

He came here as a safety. He is at linebacker. Really started the season as a backup. Because of the injury to Davison Coleman, he went in there and got some playing time. When he got that opportunity he took advantage of it. We are very confident with him in there right now.

On Jephete Matilus' play at UMass:

He did a nice job, he really did. As the game went on he got better. We talked about some second half adjustments, and in the second half I think he felt more comfortable, and as the game went on he got better and better. He was flying around making a lot of plays and doing a good job of making the right calls and directing everybody.

On Alex Gardner's Touchdown Run:

He did a nice job on that. It was an inside zone play. The offensive line did a good job getting some movement, and Alex did a great job of getting his pads down and exploding through the gap.

On UTEP:

They are a good team, solid team. Offensively they have all five starters back in the offensive line. Sounds familiar because we've had that the last two games. They are a big solid physical group. They are well coached and they know what they want to do.

They are young at QB but they are very athletic. That presents problems there with his athletic ability. Running back is by committee. They have several guys play, but they do a really good job of running their offense, a little bit of spread, and they'll tighten it down some. But they are just very solid.

Defensively it is a high pressure team. They are going to play a lot of man to man and come up and pressure us. They will force you to beat man coverage and force you to handle their pressure. So it will be a challenge for us in that regard, but will also give us some big play opportunities as well.