UTEP Football: Quotes from Thursday's coaching change press conference

Sean Kugler's Opening Statement:

"It's an exciting day here for us at UTEP, as I want to introduce three new coaches.

I just want to tell you these are all excellent football coaches, but more importantly, excellent people with excellent families and people who will add to our program where we want to go. If you talk about all three of them, these three guys right here have 79 years of coaching experience at the collegiate level. All three have coordinators experience at the collegiate level; the Division I level. They've been to 14 bowl games. Two Grey Cups in the CFL (Canadian Football League) and one national championship at the FCS level.

"They've coordinated in the CFL, the Big 12, the SEC, the ACC, Mountain West, Conference USA and the AAC. They've got a lot of experience throughout the country."

Brest Pease Introduction:

"The first coach I'm going to introduce is Brent Pease. He's going to be the offensive coordinator. He's going to work with the quarterbacks. He's go 25 years of coaching experience and 13 of those years as an offensive coordinator at the Division I level. He's been a coordinator at Boise State where I had the opportunity to work with Brent. He's a good friend of mine. We got to know each other pretty well the first three months we were both there and lived together for three months while we were waiting for our families to arrive and really got to know him as a person and as a coach. He's an outstanding football coach. He's also coordinated at the University of Montana where they won a national championship. He's been a coordinator at Baylor; he's been a coordinator at Kentucky in the SEC and Florida in the SEC. His Florida team went to Sugar Bowl his first year there as a coordinator. He played in the NFL with the Houston Oilers. He backed up Warren Moon and learned a lot in that avenue. He coached on two undefeated teams at Boise State that both played in Fiesta Bowl, and beat Oklahoma and beat TCU. He coached Kellen Moore the quarterback at Boise State, who still holds the record - I don't know if it will ever be broken - which is 50 wins as a quarterback at Boise State. His record at Boise State is 50-3 when coach Pease was coaching him. He's going to recruit the Phoenix area for us, and he's going to recruit Dallas and also East Texas."

Don Yanowsky Introduction:

"The next coach I'm going to introduce is Don Yanowsky. Don will be the assistant special teams coordinator. He's also going to coach linebackers. He's got 35 years of experience, four of those years of experience in the CFL. He just came from the Ottawa team that just played in the Grey Cup just recently. He's got 10 years as a recruiting coordinator. Don has been to six bowl games as a football coach at the Division I level. He's been to two Grey Cups in the CFL - one with Calgary and one with Ottawa. How about this for experience and how about his for versatility? He's coached on the offensive line, he's coached running backs, he's coached tight ends, he's coached defensive line and he's coached linebackers. He's been a special teams coordinator, and he's been recruiting coordinator at LSU, Utah, Memphis, he's also coached at Arkansas State, Minnesota, East Carolina, Duke, Boston College and as I mentioned, Calgary and Ottawa. And I thought I moved around a lot. He's going to recruit Chicago (where he's from), Houston and Northern California JCs (Junior Colleges). When Mike Tomlin (Pittsburgh Steelers head football coach) gives you a call recommending somebody highly, you listen."

Theron Aych Introduction:

"The other coach I want to introduce today is Theron Eych. He's going to coach our wide receivers. He has 19 years of experience of coaching. He just came from the NCAA Coaches Convention where he was a finalist for the 2015 AFCA Assistant Coach of the Year. He was the offensive coordinator at Angelo State. His offense was ranked number one in the country. They averaged 560 yards a game and they set school records for passing yards, total yards and points per game. He's coached at the University of Houston, University of Washington, and Central Missouri. Theron is going to recruit Houston for us."

Kugler on all Three New Coaches

"These are three outstanding coaches with a lot of experience. They're quality people and I know everybody in this room, since we're all family, will get a chance to meet and interact with these guys and I think you will be pleasantly surprised and pleased. I'm excited about this. Again, by early week next week, I hope to have our entire staff in place. I tell our players, as I tell our coaches, change happens."

Kugler - On Decision to Make Changes and Specifically Improvements Looking For:

"When I took this job three years ago, I made a commitment to myself and the program that I would not make any changes for three years. I evaluate the program after every year. At this point after three years, I decided to make some changes. And those I'll keep to myself. There are reasons for those changes. But this day isn't about that. I wish all those coaches the best of luck. I think they're all outstanding coaches and outstanding people. I know they'll all be successful where ever they go. But I decided to make change to help push this program over the edge and improve in every area. I'm all about improving, improving myself, improving the coaching staff, and improving the quality of play from the players."

Kugler - On Coaches Pease's Offense and Having Similar Personnel at Boise State and UTEP:

"That is very true. Brent is a coach that has a lot of the same values when it comes to football. He wants to run a physical offense. He's a very creative and smart guy. He's going to open it up too and he's going to take shots. I'm very pleased with the direction the offense is headed."

Pease - Talk About Getting to Know the Quarterbacks:

"First thing I have to get into is develop a relationship. Get in the room, have a good feel for them and get to know what they can do and can't do. There's going to be a learning curve in everything they can do and how much they can handle. Like I told them the other day, create opportunities with their arms so they can throw the football; make good football decisions and then let their feet be a great part of their fundamentals. If they can put those three together, they'll be successful with what we do. It's not always about them; it's about the players around them and the multiplicity of using the personnel that we have, especially with this great running back we have, and big kids up front blocking. It's really how we blend all that. But the decision making is part of what can make us successful, putting us in a good place and keeping us out of a bad place."

Pease - On Running back Aaron Jones:

"I had a friend coach at a junior college and he said UTEP has the best back in the state, which put a smile on my face. Meeting the young man and watching film on him, he's obviously very talented. He's got to be the workhorse in what we do and build around him. He's definitely going to be the face of what we do on offense."

Pease - On Running a Wide-Open Offense:

"I think that you can't sit here and say that.  You have to do what your talent has. You have to be creative. Well what's creative? Creative is having some exotic plays, some type of creativity in what we call funk plays. Using shifts and motions on occasion to make things difficult for the defense. It's really a combination of all that stuff. We did it Florida for two years, and at Boise State for six years; you just kind of blend all that.  But you use the strengths and talent of the kids on this team."

Pease - On Three Main Keys:

"Keys being creativity, physicality in the run game, and having an explosive passing game and great quarterback play. I want to create those foundations and center that on the personnel that you have and go from there. We were very fortunate when we were there (at Boise). We had a great quarterback in Kellen Moore in the time I was there; I didn't coach him every year, but fortunate to coach him his last year. The running back was a great running back. He's playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, an all-pro kid. We had a good compliment of wide receivers in what we did, and had some talented kids up front too that had good work ethic and understood the scheme. They knew how to execute and were fundamentally sound."

Yanowsky - How much film have you gotten to watch of UTEP? And your thoughts on Alvin Jones:

"I think No. 16 is a pretty good player, good players make you a good coach, real fast. I'm excited to have that opportunity. I've gotten a chance to watch a little bit of tape in the few days I've been here. We're going to find out what the others guys can do and we are going to let them play real fast and have some fun, and I'll be a good coach."

Yanowsky - Thoughts on the scheme UTEP defense will use next year:

"I think coach has some ideas, and people who he is talking to. Sometimes scheme is important, but using what you have and asking your players to do what they can do the best and let them go play fast and be successful is most important. On defense, we'll find the guys that can do that."

Yanowsky - Alvin Jones importance:

"He's an explosive guy, tough guy, playmaker and he plays with passion. When you do those things, which means I'm going to be a pretty good coach when you have guys who do that. We will use that as a starting point and go from there."

Yanowsky - Why UTEP and Coach Kugler:

"I've never worked with him, but for the same reason that some of the people that I have worked with, that he has worked with. They told me what kind of guy he is and what kind of person he was and they worked together. That's what drew my interest towards this place.  I started to research it and where they've been, where they are going and where they are. It's pretty exciting. It is a win-win."

Aych - On the type of offense used at Angelo State:

"I would call it more of a power spread offense, which was great for me personally when I got the call from Coach Kugler and Coach Pease because philosophically everything that I've tried to do really lines up with what they want to do as far as being physical in the run game as Coach said. Even though we did it with maybe a little different personnel package it's literally the exact same offense with what we've been talking about since we've been here."

Aych - On getting acclimated and learning UTEP's personnel:

"I had a chance to watch a little bit, just really trying to get to know some of the guys.  A couple guys have popped in too as well since I've been here. I'm looking forward to spending some time with them, getting the chance to know them and letting them get a feel for how my philosophy is going to be as far as in the meeting rooms and obviously when we get to the field."

Aych - On what brought him to UTEP:

"For me it's similar (to other coaches at press conference). I've not had the chance to personally work with Coach Kugler yet. The first time I met him was 15 years ago at a camp. From what I've known about his career, for how he's come through here as a player, grad assistant, assistant coach and now head coach. That's an opportunity that is very rare to see a guy who has had an outstanding career like that, and now to be able to work for him. It's the same thing with the relationship with Coach Peace. He and I have coached together; this is my third stop with him. Even though I lived in San Angelo, I knew a little bit about the program (UTEP). As an outsider's perspective, some of the things I saw that were going on and how they did things, it was a no brainer for me. It's an exciting opportunity, and I'm definitely looking forward to getting plugged in here."