Texas Longhorns College Football Pregame Quote, 11/18/2019

Obviously, we’re extremely disappointed with the outcome Saturday. That was a game that all of us expected to win, not that you don’t’ all of them. Despite playing so poorly offensively for most of the game, we still had a chance to win it in the end. Credit to Iowa State. They made many, many more plays than us on both sides of the ball. I’m sure you want to know where we go from here. We’ve still got a bunch of seniors in that locker room that have bled, sweat and cried for this program, and we owe it to be determined to correct the mistakes that were made and do our best to go 1-0 against Baylor this week. A top-25 team, and deservedly so. And that’s, again, 18-22-year-old kids are pretty resilient and they’re all competitors and they understand that we’ve got a game to play this week against an in-state opponent, and they’ve only lost one game, and that was by three points last week. They understand the difficulty that lies ahead of them. Pretty somber around the facility yesterday, as it should be when you lose. After we watched the film, got coached up and had a pretty on-point practice yesterday. The thing that we have stressed to them is that you’re not ever going to be defined by when you get knocked down. You’re always going to be defined by how you get back up when you get knocked down. This will be a good challenge for us to see what we’re made of in terms of responding to being knocked down. I do want to clarify something that has been eating at me for two days. Brian (Davis), you had asked me something postgame about being outcoached. I had taken that to be ‘Were we fooled? Were we duped, tricked?’ or whatever it is. But when you lose a game ‚Äì any game ‚Äì you were outcoached. I do want to clarify the context of what I understood that question to be. Any time you lose a game, you’re outcoached. From player execution ‚Äì that’s our job, to get them to execute better ‚Äì to play calls, tendencies to you name it. All of it is on us. Injury update. Anthony Cook does have a tibiofibular sprain, very similar to what Caden Sterns had. Collin Johnson still listed as doubtful with that hamstring. The good news is that Junior Angilau was back at practice yesterday. You’re talking about a guy that returned to practice eight days after a grade II MCL sprain. If you want to look for a tough S.O.B. on our team ‚Äì we’ve got a lot of them ‚Äì Junior Angilau is certainly one of them. Remarkable what he was able to do, and the time and commitment he put in to his rehab, because it means that much to him to be out there with his teammates and fighting to get a win this week.

Questions.

Coach, after watching the film, what did you see about the run game? For it to disappear like that, and what do you have to change going forward.

We had hats on hats for the most part. We did, early in the game ‚Äì against a defense like that, structurally ‚Äì five yards, seven-yard gains are good runs. The issue was we had sprinkled in there way too many TFLs early. Some of those were communication issues with our blocking and some of those were fundamental issues with how we were blocking it. I think you saw a unit offensively that couldn’t get out of its own way with a bunch of self-inflicted wounds.

It was not anything we had not practiced. The coverage adjustment, the biggest coverage adjustment they made was with their Sam linebacker, No. 23 and kinda where he was playing and what we call the joker – I think it was 33 in their game had been – No. 12 part of the season, they were really doing a good job trying to take the bubbles away from Devin that had been such a big part of our run game, and credit to them for that.

It was a confluence of things. If everybody was on the same page from a communications standpoint, a guy missed his block, if four guys made their block and one guy was not on the same page, then we had an issue, or we would block it all perfectly and the back hit the wrong hole or we got the back to the free hitter as we call him and they made some good one-on-one tackles on our running backs, too.

It was a lot of things.

Tom, can you take us through how the offensive game plan is formulated? Who all is involved, you have Fedora and Coleman on your staff as analysts. How does that process work? In the end game with the adjustments, I know it’s been collaborative, but if you could take us through who is involved in the formation?

We’re all involved, I think, even young coaches like Zach Coeur and Jordan Salkin, they do a ton of deep digging in terms of hey we understand that they lineup in this look 78% of the time to this formation but how does it change when the back is offset here, how does it change when the tight end is maybe in a different alignment.

Those guys are big for us in terms of, like I said, the deep digs. Then just to take you behind the curtain a little bit, you know, Herb Hand, Derek Warehime, Stan Drayton at 7 a.m. on Mondays they go down and watch cut-ups in the O-line meeting room and formulate game thoughts, and myself, Tim Beck, Larry Fedora and Andre Coleman are kind of watching formations for big picture blitz tips, front tips, coverage tips, who are they from a personality standpoint.

Then Coach Mahringer and Coach Meekins, they separate and watch for a lot of personnel in the back end, who do we attack, how do we attack ’em, coverage adjustments to different formations. Then we get back together about 10, 10:15, kind of all in the same room and put our thoughts together and have a round table discussion on that.

This is all just first and second down, what we call “CNN” competitive normal normal, meaning the game is still competitive, you’re not breaking down film of a 45-0 ball game with third stringers in there, the field position is normal, it’s not backed up and not red zone or goal line and the down and distance is normal, so first and 10 and second and 7 or less and situationally we look at third down red zone goal line and off-schedule, which would be first and more than 10 or second more than 8.

Sometimes we get to it late Monday night and other times it waits until Tuesday morning, but we don’t practice that until Wednesday, those situations, so you try to narrow down to ‚Äì I think we had 12 runs on first and second down and not different run schemes. It could be inside zone, but from three different formations and wide zone from a different formation, and then you try to have a couple of quick game passes, a couple of move the pocket passes, a couple of deep play-action shot passes, a couple of screens, and a couple of intermediate drop-back passes where your throw game package on first and second down is somewhere between 14 and 16.

I don’t know if you want me to get into anymore detail than that, but that’s a typical Monday/Tuesday morning.

I know you say that or you’ve said before that the only opinions that matter are those that are inside your locker room and offices, but you do have a disgruntled fan base that you guys are sitting at 6-4, and you have a fan base that this will be the tenth straight year where they have had four losses within a season. What do you say to those people who support your guys but are a little bit disgruntled about where the program is right now?

Well, they have every right to be if they are true supporters. We have not played to the level of our expectations. If you’re a fan of us, you probably have very similar expectations, and we haven’t met those expectations thus far. I guess they have every right to have that opinion.

Tom, when you described the breakdowns in the run game, those sound kind of shocking for this to be game ten. Why do you think there are so many issues like you’re describing. That sound basic and sound like coaching issues.

Everything is a coaching issue. I think, you know, having to play your six offensive linemen in there and have that ‚Äì again none of these are excuses, you asked for reasons. I’m going to give you a couple. Having two guys in there in the starting lineup that for the first time all year were playing those positions I think did affect a little bit. I think the uniqueness of the defense, again, I likened it last week to getting ready for a defense to play a triple option offense in one week. It’s extremely unique. Certainly nothing that we hadn’t practiced.

There is a level of human nature that kicks in when you start getting frustrated. You start pressing. Those are all things that can derail the run game.

I definitely wanted to ask because I’m curious about the last drive, having watched it again. I still don’t get why you guys had such great success pushing the pedal to the metal and having Sam throwing it, why go conservative when the run game had not worked all night long, really?

Had we thrown three incomplete practices and let 30 seconds run off the clock, I would be answering a lot harder questions than I am right now. We called a quarterback run where we had an extra blocker that we didn’t fit properly. We jogged an extra tight end out to try to get another hat, something we hadn’t done all game, or only a couple times all game, and did not have success. But at that point in the game, time is a factor. It is a humongous factor and we were playing pretty damage good defense. To hold a team to two touchdowns at home, one of them being on a crazy scramble coverage bust, we felt like time ‚Äì and we felt confident, regardless of how we had been running the football throughout different games in our tenure here, we have been able to do that at the end of the game at a very, very successful rate.

You will remember two years ago against Kansas State we chewed 6 minutes and some odd seconds off the clock, this year against Kansas State we chewed 6 minutes and some odd seconds off the clock.

We felt like the right thing to do was to use the clock to our advantage and make them use one if not more of their timeouts. And the third down play you throw a tunnel screen that is probably going to be 99% completion percentage on it, and you’re getting it in your best player’s hand, and their nose guard makes an unbelievable play to have a zero nose get a pass break up on a tunnel screen. That’s an excellent individual effort.

But to use the clock was the prudent thing to do, because, again, I mean, three straight incomplete passes would have been a disaster at that point.

At the end of last year, especially leaving New Orleans after the Georgia game, it felt like you established your identity, what you wanted to be here as the physical nature of this football team. You have done it at times this year, but why do you think the physical nature of this team hasn’t established that identity this year?

We haven’t coached it well enough. I do think there was a time when we were very, very banged up, and, again, not an excuse, but you’re asking for reasons. I’m trying to give you the best ones that I can. Even getting some of these guys back ‚Äì they’re playing hurt, and they’re playing through a lot of stuff, and I commend them for that, but you hit the nail on the head. We have not played to the level of physicality consistently. That is our expectation and that’s our job to coach it better.

Tom, your thoughts on how Malcolm has performed in Collin’s absence throughout the season and do you have any opinions on Devin not being named a semi-finalist for the Biletnikoff?

You saw Marcus Washington start the game, too. That’s a young man with a really, really bright future here. Malcolm gives us some advantages, obviously, with his catch radius and size advantage. He will be the first to tell you, he busted a few routes and that was uncharacteristic of him, because he is such a smart guy.

Then I don’t know how you leave off ‚Äì the guy is leading Power Five in catches, leading the country in broken tackles, he is leading the country in third down receptions, and you’re telling me he’s not one of the 20 best wide-outs in the country? That’s a shame.

I don’t know what the criteria is, then. I’m going to have to call whoever the committee that deals with the Biletnikoff and say, what does a guy need to do to get on that list, at least a semi-finalist.

The first I heard about it was the conference call right before this, and shocking is the only thing I can say. I have no idea how that can happen.

Tom, you’ve used the term come out with your hair on fire, other coaches use that too, which we take to mean ready to go. You have been outscored 21-0 in the first quarter last two games. What’s the disconnected there, and how dangerous that going into a game against a really good offense in Waco?

It’s very dangerous, obviously. I think the disconnect is offensive rhythm. We’ve got to do a good job of getting our players comfortable. We’ve got to do a good job of making our players feel like they don’t have to be perfect.

I thought the mentality was great, obviously, the ball gets kicked off and it wasn’t. So we’ve got to examine ‚Äì I think the simplest answer is get the offense in rhythm, get the quarterback in rhythm, and then on defense, maybe keep some of the calls simple so they can get their feet wet and not have to think and fly around.

Hindsight is 20/20, and I don’t want to get into “what if’s,” but situationally, there in the first half, what needed to be different in order for you to send Cameron Dicker out to try and get your first points of the game, rather than go for it in fourth and short?

We had game planned for that scenario, fourth and 1 or 2, this was the play we were going to call and this was the look that we expected. We’ve got the ball in our best downhill runner’s hands and felt like we could get 2 yards. Just like most of the night went, at that point I didn’t know how the rest of the night was going to go, had that situation occurred later in the game it probably would have been a much easier decision to send him out to attempt a field goal, obviously in hindsight it was a poor decision.

Coach, people talk about not letting one loss turn to two. How do you motivate these guys when it’s unlikely a trip to the Big 12 Championship? How do you motivate ‚Äì I know you talked about the seniors, but how to you motivate 18 year old guys to say, let’s get out and let’s get up for this game against Baylor?

It’s not harder than probably what you guys may think. These guys are competitors and losing is embarrassing. Nobody wants to lose. So they’re going to ‚Äì you appeal to every fiber of competitiveness that they have in them. That’s what I told them in the team meeting yesterday. I said, if you’ve got an ounce of competitiveness in your body, then getting motivated to play a game to go 1-0 against an in-state team that’s in the top 25 on the road, if you can’t get motivated for that, you’re probably playing the wrong sport.

Tom, do you think there would be a clearer picture of what the team’s identity and strengths are at this point? Are you, frankly, stunned the program is not further along than it is right now?

Did I think we would have a clearer identity? Yes. Am I stunned? No. I knew that we had a difficult schedule. I knew that we had a lot of inexperience defensively, and especially when the rash of injuries hit kinda early in the season, no. Disappointed that we couldn’t overcome those things better to this point. We still have two regular season games and a bowl game to continue to improve overcoming those issues, but I would not use the word “stunned.”

What do you see as your strengths?

I still think, despite the lack of performance on Saturday, I think we can be a very good offense. I thought our defense showed a lot of signs of life here these last ‚Äì what would it be ‚Äì seven quarters. I know the last drive was awful, gut-wrenching, but, again, to hold a team in their house to two touchdowns, especially when the offense wasn’t giving you any kind of help and then to hold Kansas State through the final three-quarters of the ball game to 3 points. I think there are a lot of positives to be taken from that side of the ball.

I think the defense wound up ‚Äì Iowa State’s offense was 3 of 14, I believe, on third down conversions. We held them to three field goal attempts, kept them out of the end zone for the most part. First drive of both halves, that was it, that was it is only time they found the end zone.

I think there are signs of life there, where there hadn’t been, and I think, you know, we have shown throughout the season, especially against good defenses, that we can be a good offense, and we’ve got to get back to that.

So I do think we have some strengths, and especially defensively we’re continuing to build ourselves back up.

Tom, when you look at Baylor, what has made them 9-1, top-15, the ability to win a lot of close games? Obviously they’re dealing with a lot of their own disappointment going into this week, too.

Yeah, their season has been eerily similar to ours, although they found a way to win those close ones. They found a way to win a couple of overtime games in conference play. They blocked a field goal to win the game Wednesday West Virginia. They have found a way at the end of games to make plays on both sides of the ball when it matters to get the wins. Their defensive front, two guys especially, 93 and 99, they’re guys that you’ve got to game plan for. They are real, real dudes that are going to be an issue and we have to make sure we are buttoned up, how we’re going to block them and who we are going to block them with.

What that allows them to do, it’s similar philosophically Iowa State, where they are going to be a three-man front, drop everybody else into coverage, keep everything in front. The vertical pass game is going to be very, very difficult to manufacture, and the last thing on that side of the ball, man, they fly around. They’re not the biggest guys, but man are they physical, and they can run, really, really run and will hit you. Again, there’s eight of them back there with only three down linemen.

Offensively, scheme very similar to us, a little bit more ten personnel, with four wide receivers, but when they do play with a tight end, very similar concepts to us and very similar quarterback. Obviously he’s the gas that makes their engine go, much like ours is, and he’s having a great season, can run around, make some plays with his feet.

The receiver, again, just another day in the Big 12 with a great quarterback with a potentially All-Conference receiver in Denzel Mims, so we gotta know where he’s at, at all times, and obviously the quarterback, we’ve got to find a way to slow him down a little bit.