Texas Longhorns College Football Pregame Quote, 01/06/2025

Q. Jake, how similar or different is Ohio State’s defensive front to Georgia?

C JAKE MAJORS: Good question. I would just say that they’re very big up front. They kind of replicate an SEC front. Very talented linebackers. Very sound secondary.

So, for us, it’s we’ve just got to own our game plan and trust our techniques to put us in the right position against these guys.

Q. Jake, this game, everything it means being a half hour or so from all the guys in DFW, for you personally, what’s the best part about playing this game so close to home?

C JAKE MAJORS: Yeah. Like you said, just playing close to home. I grew up in Prosper, which is about an hour away from Arlington, so to know that it will be an easy transition for my parents and my girlfriend’s family and stuff like that, it means a lot.

Close for my extended family to come from West Texas. So, just excited to be able to stay in the great state of Texas and play a football game at AT&T Stadium.

I’m a Cowboys fan, so it means a lot more to me because I’m a big Cowboys fan.

Q. Just given where the program was when you first arrived to where it is now, is there a sense of pride that you are leaving the program in much better shape than what you found it?

C JAKE MAJORS: Yeah. I’m just happy to be a part of it, man. When I first committed to Texas, I said this a good bit, and I’ll say it again, my commitment wasn’t just for my personal well being. It was to bring Texas back to where it belonged in the early 2000s.

So, to say that I’ve been a part of this journey for Texas has been a true blessing. All glory to God for being here, being in this exact moment, getting ready to prepare for a historic game like the Cotton Bowl.

All credit to Coach Sark (Steve Sarkisian) as well, because without him, he wouldn’t have set the blueprint, the foundation for this program.

Q. Jake, obviously, you guys on offense have really jumped out to fast starts against Clemson and against Arizona State. How much do you need that same sense of urgency given how Ohio State is playing loose and confident and scoring a ton of points?

C JAKE MAJORS: I think everybody’s objective is to come out swinging, come out fast and have a hot start. Like you said, it’s very important. Ohio State is playing really good football right now, and if we want a chance, we’ve got to match that and exceed that.

So, we’ve got to put our best foot forward and come out swinging and come out fast.

Q. Jake, just real quick, I wanted to ask about fourth and 13 against Arizona State. When those guys were creeping to the line, how much of that did you see? Or was that all Quinn [Ewers] seeing that? What’s your vantage point and take on that whole play?

C JAKE MAJORS: Yeah, for me, it was easy for me to see. And I was about ready to turn around and tell Quinn to hold up. But he saw it just in time.

Total experienced veteran play from Quinn just to recognize all the tips and traits of cover zero blitz and to get us in the right protection to be able to convert on that fourth down.

Q. From your football mind, and when you look at the Ohio State defense, is there anything that they do that you guys have to adjust for in this week of practice? Or is it a standard, they’re coming at you with the bulls? Or are they going to throw anything at you, a scheme at you that you haven’t seen before?

C JAKE MAJORS: Yeah, that’s a good question. I’d say that they have a very unique style of defense. And like everybody we’ve played this year, they’re really good at what they do.

And so, for us, it’s just recognizing tendencies, what blitzes match with what coverage, and then just to know what are we going to do to match that.

But like you said, their defense is who they are, and so we’ve just got to prepare the right way to match it.

Q. Jake, I’m just wondering, what gives you confidence that the run game is going to look more like what we saw against Clemson than what we’ve seen in some other recent games against Georgia and Arizona State?

C JAKE MAJORS: Yeah. I would just say that we, as an offense, the running back room, the tight end room, the O line room, we know what we’re capable of, and what we’ve put on film is not our best. And so we can have a chip on our shoulders with that. And we understand that there are high expectations, and we’ve got to meet those expectations.

We were frustrated, but at the end of the day, we were able to win. But what we did wasn’t good enough to our standard. So everybody kind of that next day, we were kind of walking around with a chip on our shoulder, ready to get back to work and get this run game going.

Q. Jake, I know you talked about Ohio State defensively a minute ago, but you faced Jim Knowles, DC, when he was at Ohio State in ’21. I know it’s been a minute since that game.

But is there anything that you go back to from that study that looks similar to what Ohio State is doing now? Or is it just is it pretty drastically different from what you remember?

C JAKE MAJORS: I think there are some similarities from what I can remember. Like you said, it’s been a while.

But to me, it’s just a completely new defense, just because of his personnel and the type of players he has at Ohio State.

And so, that allows him to play call differently and stuff like that.

And for us, it’s all about recognizing what’s in front of us and executing at a high level.

Q. Coach Sark (Steve Sarkisian) has kind of let us in on it the last couple of weeks with the fourth and 13th and I guess audibling to a couple of runs for Jayden Blue that ended in touchdowns on Quinn’s [Ewers] part against Clemson. What I’m asking is: How much does Quinn do that we can’t see? Because we know about it when we’re let in on it, but I’m just interested in your perspective on that.

C JAKE MAJORS: Yeah, there’s a lot that Quinn does, whether that’s audibling routes, protections, stuff like that. There’s been a lot of plays that go unnoticed where he’s getting us into a slide that ended up picking up a boundary blitz that got us a first down that nobody talks about.

So, stuff like that. You guys may never see it. It may seem like a routine play, but to us, that’s Quinn doing his job, being a veteran quarterback and leading his team by executing at a high level.

So like you said, those runs against Clemson and protections against Arizona State, those are just some things of Quinn that really stick out when it comes to recognizing the defense and putting this offense into the best scenario.