North Texas Mean Green College Football Pregame Quote, 08/27/2019

First off, I want to say, I’m really excited about getting the season started up this Saturday, again, against a very strong opponent, Abilene Christian, and their staff has does a great job with that program. He’s (ACU head coach Adam Dorrel) building, you know, much like we had to do here, he is building a culture there. And they’re doing a really good job.

More importantly, I’m excited about this group and how they’ve worked this spring through the summer and now through fall camp. I’m really excited about the commitment they’ve made and the hard work they put in. I think our senior class is exceptional. It’s a group that we all kind of came in together. They’ve done a great job of buying into our culture, continued to help build and grow to where we want to be. And I know they put in a lot of a lot of hard work. And I’m really excited about seeing kind of how they finish this thing off, you know, the legacy that they set. You know, they’ve done a great job over the four years, and I think they have a great opportunity to set a huge legacy – something that they’ll be very proud of in the future.

We are also excited about getting back home and playing in front of our fans and alumni. We haven’t played a game at home since last November 15, so I know we’re really excited about getting back in front of everybody for the first game of the season. This is the opportunity for us to show all the hard work that we put in and let you know – let our fan base and everybody see what this North Texas team is all about this season.

On prepping for ACU:

We always start with our character, who are we? What are our core values? And that’s how we have to come to work with every day. And that’s who we have to be every day. And I think that leads into your preparation. Again, having some of the experience that we do, our guys know how to prepare the right way. So the preparation has been good thus far. We started a little bit last week, started kind of having a mock game week. So the game plan has been in pretty much now for about a week and a half. So we’ve gotten good work in. Now it’s about seeing the different looks that you’re going to see. They’ve had some coaching changes, so it’ll probably be some different defensive looks. We’ve got to go into this game and expect the unexpected on all three phases. I’m sure they’ve made some adjustments and some tweaks to their systems. I think any Game one, they truly don’t know exactly what to expect, and we don’t either, so it comes more down to your fundamentals, blocking, tackling, understanding your scheme, and then also just preparing the best you can within your system.

On Redshirt freshman Jyaire Shorter’s progress:

eah, Jyaire’s had a really good offseason, I think just a lot it is just being more comfortable. You know, he’s a big, strong kid, I think he’s had a great offseason with Coach Womack. He’s even bigger, stronger and faster – he’s very explosive. To be honest, he’s probably one of our more explosive receivers on the outside, and he can really stretch the field. The biggest thing with him has just been getting in the system and understanding, knowing exactly what your technique is on each and every play. I’m really excited about where he is, and, again, he’s put in the work. I think Rico (Bussey) has done a great job with him, kind of mentoring him and continuing to help bring him along. Look, we’re all going to have strengths and weaknesses. We’re all looking to get better each and every day. And he just continues to come to work and take it one day at a time. He can be a special player.

On what he’s seen from ACU:

I think the biggest thing is the way they’re coached in all three phases. I know (head coach Adam Dorrel) does a great job, you know, he’s won national championships and there is a reason why he’s won championships. He’s a very good coach. He has a great plan and a great vision for his program. And they play extremely hard and are tough kids. I think just top to bottom, they’re just very sound. I think that a lot of it has to do with how they’re being coached. But they also get great players, and they got some talented guys, guys that can run, block and tackle.

On the senior class and their desire to make this a special season:

A lot of these guys, we all came together. They’ve done a great job within our culture, with our core values and what we’re about. I think they feel like they have something to prove. We’ve had success, but not the success that we want and we put a lot of pressure on ourselves, as coaches. And as players, we want to compete for championships, we want to win championships. And that’s the culture we want to build. And we want it to be withstanding. It’s not like, you know, we’re trying to prepare a team that could maybe compete one year and not the next, we want it to be a sustainable thing. I feel like our seniors have really put in a lot of work. I think they have something to prove and want to go out there and compete and win championships, whether it’s bowl championships, conference championships, state championships, it doesn’t matter.