Texas Longhorns College Football Pregame Quote, 09/16/2019

Just to recap this past Saturday’s game: I want to thank our fans. There was a ton of burnt orange there in NRG (Stadium). Really neat atmosphere. Anytime you have a chance to play in a pro stadium, it juices our guys up a little bit.

Proud of our team for responding not just on Saturday but the way they went about their business in terms of the week of preparation, very businesslike and very mature.

Injury update: The three guys you’re all going to want to know – Zach Shackelford, Collin Johnson and Joseph Ossai – are all probable. Zach will be fairly limited in practice tomorrow. Joseph Ossai sprained his shoulder. He will put a brace on and practice today — not today, I’m sorry, tomorrow. Collin will practice tomorrow as well. Questions?

Coach, can you just from a defensive standpoint going into this, it’s a ‘pick your poison’ kind of game. What do you concentrate on more, or do you have to stop everything?

Yeah, I’ve used the phrase before, it’s a scene from ‘Armageddon,’ scariest environment imaginable. That’s all you have to say: Scariest environment imaginable.

They’ve got the nation’s leading rusher, an All-American wide receiver, a quarterback that cannot only throw it to that receiver, but is a threat with his running ability, too. It’s going to be a challenge, for sure, but you can’t sell your soul, I guess, to stop one, because they’re so proficient in the other that you’ve got to be sound.

Coach, fourth quarter, defense gave up points against Rice, but you had a big lift with the kickoff return. Does that put a better taste in your mouth going into this week in practice by ending Rice’s game on an ‘up note’ with a big kickoff return?

No. Couple things. Score was 38-0. I think we out gained them 467 yards to 112, and they crossed the 50-yard line one time going into the fourth quarter when we put all of our backups in.

Some of those guys playing were on the scout team in the week’s preparation. So there wouldn’t have been a bad taste in our mouth for sure, but I do want to say I think it’s a testament to our players and their culture. The score is 38-13, a minute and change left, and we got starters that are on that team that jog out there and they’re fighting and blocking like it’s the opening kickoff of the Super Bowl. That’s how intense they were.

You don’t see that a lot at many places in the country that the game is certainly decided. You’ve got to jog a special team in there to take care of business.

We could have easily told D’Shawn to fair catch it or guys could have taken the play off, just really proud of how hard they played on that play.

You brought in a lot of guys in recruiting for defensive back talent, but one of your starters was here when you got here, Chris Brown. What were your impressions of him when you arrived, and what has he done to solidify a spot on this defense?

Playmaker, got great instincts, physical, but had a lot of development to go in terms of, you know, he’s not going to grow. He’s not going to get any taller, so we needed to make sure that he was as strong and as prepared to withstand the physicality of that position, but I think we all knew very early that he had a knack for the football and wasn’t afraid to throw his body around.

Coach, obviously you’ve known of Mike Gundy for years; you’ve coached against him at least twice here. What are the attributes of a Mike Gundy-coached team? What do you think he does so well year in and year out for his program to always be so competitive?

He’s obviously done a really good job of two things: One, evaluating talent and recruiting and recognizing some diamonds in the rough, and then he develops the heck out of his guys, you know, and they’ve had a lot of skilled athletes go on to get drafted.

I think when you think of him, that’s what you think of is talent evaluation on the recruiting end and development once they get there. Obviously his offenses speak for themselves.

(Tylan Wallace) How does he stack up talentwise?

Oh, I never want to get into comparing players. I don’t think that’s fair to anybody. I know he’s really good. I know he’s a preseason All-American for a reason. They don’t give those distinctions to guys that are bums. He’s really, really good. He’s as complete of a receiver as we’ll see in terms of his route running ability, separation ability, speed, and then the really cool part is when you watch his game, he’s a ferocious blocker, too, which, for a receiver of his talent is rare to see. We certainly respect that about him.

From the good problem department, is there a way to or have you started thinking about how to get Jake and Devin on the field at the same time?

Why do we need to?

I don’t know. I’m asking, would anybody consider that?

Sure.

Follow up on Jake Smith then?

Okay.

What do you think of how he started? Like Devin, he’s catching everything that’s thrown to him, seems like. How do you feel he’s done?

Great. He was not an early enrollee, so his first taste of college football was training camp, and it hit him like a shovel to the face, but he made it through those dog days of training camp. Really proud of our staff, too, for not panicking when all those running backs went down and saying this is a kid that played a lot of running back in high school, because it would have stunted his growth at the slot receiver position significantly.

We still keep it fairly simple for him, we don’t ask him to memorize the entire offense just yet. Pleased with his toughness and his dependability.

How would you describe the internal discussion moving him to running back? Was it there?

It was educated. I don’t think anybody was standing on the table one way or the other, pounding the table. We were talking through best scenarios and felt like Roschon had the body type, Roschon rushed for I don’t know how many yards he did in high school, so he knew the offense, and even though he had never played that position, the cost benefit was much more slanted to benefit Roschon’s side than Jake’s.

And about the running backs. Getting Daniel back, full week of practice, do you feel much more relieved about that position now, even though you would want all five of them back, I’m sure?

Yeah, we do, and we’ve got to have discussions then on what we do with David Gbenda moving forward if Danny stays healthy, so to have, you know, two scholarship running backs and a third converted quarterback playing that position very well allows you to take a deep breath a little bit in terms of the crazy contingency plans that we were all trying to dream up.

Keaontay is admittedly tough on himself. Is that a good trait, a unique trait? Do you have to tell him, hey, don’t be so hard on yourself sometimes?

Yes, to all of that. It is a very good trait. He’s very self-critical, and every successful person in life that I know at least is very self-aware and self-critical. The challenge with him is obviously not letting two mistakes follow one. Not letting, hey, I missed the hole on this run, so now I’m thinking about it, and I missed the hole on the next run.

So we just talk to him all the time about you’re going to go 0-1 every now and, again. The mark of a champion, the mark of an elite player is not going 0-2. Bounce back, learn from it and immediately flush it and move on.

I thought he did that really well, because personally I didn’t think he started the Rice game really well. He had a few misreads, and he was impatient a couple times early, and I was really keeping a close eye on him, and he bounced back and wound up having a really good game for us, so I was really proud of him for that.

Not only how he went about the week, but then to how the game started and then after those first couple of runs, he really bounced back and had one of his better games.

Curious, your thoughts on the other running back, Chuba Hubbard just named offensive player of the week. The style and the way that he runs, does it emulate others you’ve seen even, though you’ve had to deal with him before?

I don’t know. I don’t get into comparing players. I just think his vision is really good. I think they list him at 6-1, 207, so he’s got some good strength and size to him. The offensive line is playing really well in front of him. The thing that stands out is his vision and the ability to be going this way and see that the hole is there and making an immediate cut back or be going this way and see that the play is to bounce — his decision-making with the ball in his hands is really, really good.

Tom, can you give us an update on B.J. Foster and DeMarvion Overshown and how would you rate your team’s past defense through the nonconference and where have you seen progress?

D.J. and DeMarvion will be out this week. Our goal for both of them would be the week after the bye week.

The pass defense? Tough measuring stick in terms of Rice’s style of offense, but when our ones were in there, I thought they did a good job against the pass. We are what our stats say we are. The LA Tech game was not nearly as concerning to me because they had to throw the ball 54 times and a lot of those came against our twos and threes at the end of the game, but we’ve got to do a better job against the elite teams like the LSUs of the world. We’ve got to do better, and I think we have been.

Every experience is a learning experience. No player is a finished product, ever. The good thing is I haven’t seen the same mistake over and over again and we just need to keep coaching every technique and scenario.

Give us insight into the film room yesterday. When y’all dominated as y’all did, can you use this as a teaching tool?

Oh, yeah, and you don’t always have to learn from mistakes; you can learn from things that you did well. The two biggest takeaways for me on both sides of the ball were how well we handled such a multiple defense, for the most part, and they got their TFLs, and we knew going in as multiple as they are that might happen once or twice, but we did well on third down. All those things, you know, if you’re good at something, enhance it, if you’re not good at something, figure out a way to fix it.

I was proud of that. On defense, just how physical we were, and then how disruptive the front three guys were. I thought Ta’Quon Graham might have had his best game at Texas, and Keondre and Malcolm continue to be disruptive.

How did your number-one line grade out against Rice? I know you didn’t have much choice with regard to playing Derek as a true freshman, but how huge was that in the development of Sam and Junior?

Oh, they graded out well. I don’t know what the percentage was, but good enough to have 500 yards of offense and 38 points. If you ask Kerstetter, I’m sure he would tell you he wished he would have been able to redshirt, but there are pros and cons. Obviously he got to be — it was trial by fire for him, and he was better because of it.

The redshirt for Junior and Sam were both for different reasons. For Sam it was obviously he needed to put on some weight. For Junior it was just a transition from a triple option offense in high school to what we were asking him to do, but he came in pretty physically there, which is why a year and a half with Coach McKnight and his crew, it was an easy decision to throw him in there as a redshirt freshman.

Tom, y’all had a lot of close games last year. This year you had two blow outs and played LSU tough. Is the confidence level on this team the best since you’ve been here? You almost go from hoping to win to truly expecting to win every week.

Yeah. I don’t have much to expound upon that. The confidence level is as high as it’s been and should be, because of how hard and how well these guys have trained. I think the first couple years there was ‘I think we’re going to win’ instead of, ‘Hey, we put in the work. We’ve had a great week of preparation, we go out and play our best, we’re going to win.’

Coach, Sam is in rarified air for three games with his numbers and what he’s doing. What do you like most about what you’ve seen from him through three games?

Just his control of the offense. Completion percentages are great and all that stuff, but knowing where to go, getting us out of bad plays and into better ones and being on time with his throws. It’s a testament to him to be honest with you, that we were — Sunday after last week’s game, we were, like, Sam, probably wasn’t his best game and you look up he’s got 400 yards of total offense and five touchdowns, and you’re talking about that not being his best game. So we have high expectations of him; he has that of himself, but the thing that stands out the most is just his management of the game.

Tom, how would you say your tight ends are playing? I think Cade has three catches through three games. The importance of Joseph Ossai to this defense thus far?

I think our tight ends are playing great. Cade and Reese graded out as champions. They’re blocking their tails off, they’re getting involved in the throw game when we need ’em to. They have been an asset certainly in the run game.

Joe and Keondre are kind of the Energizer bunnies on that side of the ball. They go so hard all of the time. Joe is extremely athletic and has a great skill set, but the thing that you really notice and the thing that stands out is just how hard he plays.