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TAMU FB press conference
HEAD COACH MIKE SHERMAN
You mentioned that you may make some personnel changes, have you come up with anything?
“Yeah.
I will keep that to myself and the players at this point. We’ve thought
about a couple of things and a couple of changes we’ll make. We’ll go
from there.”
Are there similarities between this year and last year with the losing streak?
“I
imagine from a scenario standpoint, where we were psychologically last
year after losing to Missouri and where we are this year, there are
some similarities and some difference. We’ve had two devastating losses
which have been tough to handle. Sometimes you’re almost better off
getting your butt kicked. We’re between 5 and 7 points of being
undefeated at this point. That wasn’t the case last year. We’re a
better team but we’re missing on a couple of cylinders right now. We
have to get those cylinders working. I was optimistic last year, but I
have more optimism this year. I think we have a good pulse on things,
and I’m confident we’ll get fixed what we need to get fixed.”
After watching the film are you more frustrated with the defensive performance or the offensive performance?
“With
our team. This was a team effort, coaches and players alike. We don’t
point fingers in either direction, except at ourselves and what we can
do better. There were multiple reasons why we didn’t have the success
we needed to have.”
Coming into this year you had 9
starters back on defense, are you shocked that you’re having to deal
with the issues you are defensively?
“I take things in
stride. I knew when we lost Von Miller that he was able to do a lot for
us. But along those same lines I have and still do have very high
expectations of our defense. We’re four games into the season and have
a lot of football to play. I have high expectations that the defense
will sort things out and make the necessary adjustments we need to make
as coaches and players and move forward. I think we’ll be playing good
defense here shortly. We have good coaches and good kids, and I think
we have a good team. We haven’t demonstrated that the last couple of
weeks, but I think we’ll get there. And we need to get there soon.”
Was there a point in the second half where the players were thinking, oh no, here we go again?
“I
think that’s human nature. Any Aggie fan probably thought the same
thing. I guarantee you every fan in the stadium or watching on
television probably thought same thing. I gave the team wristbands, ‘Do
your job on this play’. In order to handle that, you have to deal with
what’s in front of you right now. If you start looking at what ifs, it
becomes overwhelming and you start to fall apart. But you have to have
the maturity and the focus to fix what you can fix at that second, and
not worry about what ifs. You can’t play with what ifs, you have to
play with what is, right now. And in the second half we didn’t do that.”
In terms of offensive play calling, is Coach Rossley the one you bounce things off of?
“Pretty much, yeah.”
And why is he that guy?
“He
and I have been together for a while. You can’t talk to multiple people
about things. On that fourth-down call….what they did is something
people have done. We called a fourth-down call, and they called timeout
and they went to a goal-line defense. They had 10 guys in there. It was
a tough down. When people call a timeout (in that situation) it means
they are going to a goal-line defense. It makes it very difficult to
run the football. We were ahead by 15 points, and had I anticipated a
15-yard punt I don’t know that I would have done that. I anticipated
pinning them down and making them go the length of the field. With a
15-point lead that’s what I felt comfortable doing. With the other
fourth down, we had an 8-point lead in the fourth quarter, and I think
you can go either way with that. That one could have gone either way.
They got the ball on the 9-yard line after the penalty. They had to go
91 yards to do what they did.”
On the last fourth down, Arkansas said they had figured out what Tannehill was calling. Was that the case?
“I
couldn’t tell you. They had to play coverage. That was more of a
pass/run situation than any of the other ones. The others were more run
emphasis. I don’t know if they’d have thought we would pass or run
there.”
Talk about Texas Tech and the way they’re playing…
“Their
quarterback (Seth) Doege has done a great job. He’s only thrown 1
interception. Eric Stephens, their running back, is doing a nice job
maintaining balance. They have a first-year defensive coordinator (Chad
Glasgow) in their system, and they run a 4-2-5. They’re getting used to
that system. And they’ve always been a good special-teams team.”
What can you do to keep Seth Doege from getting into a comfort zone?
“It’s
hard because of the way they take their pass sets and the way the
quarterback drops. It’s hard to get to him. He’s making really good
decisions. You have to admire the young man, it’s really his first year
of football in quite some time. He’s really playing lights out and
doing a good job in their offense.”
Talk about Christine Michael’s day against Arkansas…
“I
thought in the last ball game against Oklahoma State he really ran with
a lot of passion and explosiveness. I just thought he deserved that
opportunity. With their offense and their weapons, going into the game
I wanted to run the ball and play great defense. We did run the ball
but didn’t play great defense. I think we can. My confidence in our
defense still exists. We will be a very fine defense. Christine’s
day…he really should have had more yards than he did, he was tired.
There were a couple of runs there in the fourth quarter that he could
have taken. He ended up falling down a couple of times. We have got to
make sure he does enough running. That’s probably my fault, he needs to
get more running work in practice in preparation for the game. A couple
of those runs in the fourth quarter he could have broken.”
Talk about the touchdown run where he took the ball from Ryan…
“They
pressured us on that play, it’s a run/pass option. You can pass the
ball outside or run it. We block it as a run and Ryan can throw outside
if he wants to. It was blocked well, and they blitzed us, and we were
able to capitalize on that.”
What have teams been doing to limit Jeff Fuller?
“Jeff
really hasn’t practiced a whole heck of a lot. He won’t practice today
either. I think he’ll be as close as he’s been this week. Jeff’s a guy
who has always benefitted from getting reps. He has to get his reps and
get his timing down. He hasn’t been able to do that this year. We have
to get him out there this week and really work him. We haven’t had the
opportunity yet to push him. I think this week will be a great week to
get him back on track.”
Has not having Jeff 100 percent hurt the vertical passing game
“We
took our shot (against Arkansas) and got a pick on it. Ryan threw the
ball a little bit inside and Jeff faded a bit on the route. We were
taking what they were giving us too, catching the ball in front of
their cushion rather than behind it.”
There have been very
few passes to the middle of the field over the last two weeks…was that
on purpose or is it adapting to the defense’s scheme?
“There’s
no specific purpose. We have plenty of plays. I would disagree with the
assessment of Oklahoma State. We dropped a ball over the middle which
would have been a third-down conversion. Then we caught one and we
fumbled. In this ballgame, those passes—we call them basic crosses—I
would say we didn’t attack that part of the field quite as much. We
attacked them on the edges. It just ended up that way, it wasn’t any
strategic scheme to avoid doing that. We did have a guy open on a drive
route one time that we just didn’t hit. We did have people in place at
times in the middle of the field.”
On the play of the offensive line…
“They
keep getting better and better. I’m real proud of them. I thought they
showed a significant amount of toughness and passion in how they played
the game. I’m really, really pleased with their production at this
point. Patrick Lewis has done a great job of leadership with that
group. He’s really helping bring that group along.”
Comment on the play of Cedric Ogbuehi…
“He
did great. He’s a long guy and we really saw him more as a tackle, but
an opportunity arose that we wanted to get him on the field. He did a
good job at tight end the week before, then we slid him inside at the
guard position last week. He’s a tough kid, very athletic, long. He
wasn’t perfect but everything he did wrong we can fix. He was fine
athletically and fundamentally.”
What’s the injury status of Stephen Campbell and Jonathan Mathis?
“Campbell’s
injury is less significant than originally thought. We should see him
back in a couple of weeks. Mathis will be out for the season.”
Will Texas Tech run a high-tempo attack much like Oklahoma State?
“Yeah,
the tempo of the game will certainly be enhanced this week, much like
it was against OSU in the second half. Their guys are getting a bunch
of reps and snaps. We have to be well-rested and ready to go, and match
their energy and speed with our guys.”
Were the second halves very different in your mind, or were they very similar?
“Completely
different. I thought we came out at the half ready to go. We had a good
halftime. I’m still not quite used to the length of halftimes in
college as opposed to the NFL. I wish we didn’t have to in at the half,
we would have played a lot better if we didn’t go in. I may just keep
them out and watch the Aggie Band from now on. From your vantage point
you could say it was a very similar situation. From my vantage point I
thought they were very engaged on the sidelines. I thought the kids
were very engaged. We went to the Nth degree, changing up how we did
things the day of the game so the 11 a.m. kick would not be an issue.
The coaches did a great job in the locker room with a lot of kinetic
energy. They were ready to play. The second half though certainly
wasn’t what it needed to be.”
With the way the rushing game was going and the passing game struggling, did you work to slow the game down late?
“We
did slow down the game in the second half. The first half was very
fast. The offensive guys were telling me to go faster and the defensive
guys preferred I go slower. I was pleased with the rushing total. I
think about the Arkansas game 3 years ago and we were not even in the
same ballpark. I thought we had a chance to beat Arkansas. Take nothing
away from them, they did a great job coming back. I thought we were two
evenly-matched teams and I still feel like we should have won the
ballgame. I don’t want to diminish what they did though.”
ASST. HEAD COACH/DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR TIM DeRUYTER
Did you pick up some things after watching the tape this week?
“Yeah,
we didn’t coach very well. I thought we started the game playing pretty
well. We went 3-and-out on the first two series. There was one
particular coverage we ran that we didn’t do a very good job at all
rerouting receivers, so we had some guys open through seams. It’s kind
of typical, sometimes you play pretty well on Saturday, and you look at
the tape and realize you didn’t play so well. We played awful at times
on Saturday but in the first half we had some glimpses where we did
play well. We have to clean up some coverages and we will get that
cleaned up.”
I imagine you guys have some tough decisions to make in terms of personnel this week…
“Absolutely.
When you don’t play well you examine everything, from how we coach to
personnel to how we practice to how we run meetings. And we’re
examining everything. Clearly in the second half, the last few weeks
anyways, we have not gotten it done, and there have been varying
reasons for that. We’re going to close ranks and there will be guys
that will be disappointed and be guys that will have to handle that. We
have to have guys fighting for positions, and through competition in
practice, better execution in our defense. Because right now we’re not
executing it very well. I don’t want to take anything away from these
two offenses, they are very, very good offenses, but we did things that
didn’t make it hard on them.”
Terrence Frederick mentioned how the secondary was out-leveraged at times. Can you explain what that means?
“In
any particular coverage, we’re going to be inside or outside leverage,
or low or high leverage. When you’re in a multiple coverage defense
like we are, guys have to understand where their fit is, whether it’s a
low-shoulder, high-shoulder, inside our outside leverage. We didn’t
always do that. Part of it is we’re trying to run multiple packages
personnel and group wise, and guys are getting on the field and are a
little frantic. We have to do a better job with that in matching
personnel to get our guys on the field with the call and be ready to
play. When you take guy in a 72-degree room on the board, they know
exactly what to do. But in the fog of war, during the middle of a game
where there’s noise and emotion going on, some of that stuff gets lost.
As coaches we have to be cognizant of that and we have to give players
the absolute best opportunity to execute that defense. And I didn’t do
a good enough job of that last week in the second half. And even in the
first half, we had two home run plays that were very poorly executed,
and that goes to me. And we will get that straightened out.”
Is it surprising that this is a pretty veteran defense that is missing those assignments?
“It
is in a sense, but we’ve got some newer guys playing in it. So there’s
some guys that were out there on Saturday that weren’t necessarily
starters for us that were busting some things, and guys that were there
starters a year ago that aren’t getting it. So there’s a combination of
things there that have to get cleaned up. We’re going to simplify some
things because we’ve got to play faster and much more efficiently.”
Scheme-wise, does this force you to blitz less?
“It
depends on who we play. I believe last Saturday we blitzed probably 45
percent of the time. I think when you have a Von Miller it’s a lot
easier to get 4-man pressure. So you’ve got to be judicious when and
how you do it. We had some blitzes that should have come free and hit
the quarterback and we had busts on them. We either had a guy not going
full speed or guys missing gaps, so one guy ends up blocking two and
when you do pressure and the guy doesn’t hit the right gap, you’re
hanging guys out. We’re telling the secondary that we’re expecting
balls to come out quick, and when they don’t, bad things can happen.
It’s a myriad of things. We clearly had too much in place last week for
what Arkansas gave us. As a coach you’re always torn, do you have
enough, or too much in, and we had too much in. We will clean things up
and coach much better.”
In the first half, all but 44 of their passing yards went to one player. Was that a product of them moving him around?
“It
was a couple of things. They do a good job of moving him around. The
biggest thing was 3 of our major busts happened to be in spots of the
field where he was the guy. And not to take anything away from him, but
they were throws that we should have had guys in the area to defend and
we didn’t get that done.”
Will Tech’s offense run more like Arkansas, or Oklahoma State?
“They
are more of a Mike Leach, OSU lineage type of attack. They will be
multiple but base mostly out of four wides, a Coach Leach traditional
spread attack where it will be the quick game, read the zone and they
will take some vertical shots. In the past they have done a good job
protecting their quarterback by giving real big splits, although they
haven’t seemed to do that as much this year. It’s a traditional Texas
Tech attack. But with Coach Tuberville there they are much more
committed to try and establish the run game too. Their back Stephens I
think may be their best offensive player.”
Will you look to put more pressure on the wide receivers at the line of scrimmage?
“It’s
something we’ll add this week in practice. We’re being too nice to
receivers right now, letting guys run through seams. You can’t play
zone coverage that way. I think it goes back to trying to be multiple
and we weren’t detailed enough in the way we teach. We will do that
this week.”
Will Texas Tech go as fast as OSU and is that a big concern?
“It’s
always a concern. You watch them on tape and they are catching defenses
off guard. We will practice against our offense where they will go
up-tempo. We’ll have the scout team doing the same exact thing with two
huddles. We will be much better prepared going against that.”
How can you improve the number of takeaways your defense is getting?
We’ve
been awful in takeaways. Flat awful. Part of that is not rerouting
receivers, to get them where they’re not where the quarterbacks need
them to be. I think we’re getting some decent pressure at times. Most
of it we have to manufacture and we have to do a better job in that.
Part of it is the breaks of the game too—if we get that fumble, I think
it’s a different ball game. We talked to our team this morning. If we
get that football, we probably win that game, we’re 3 and 1 and
everyone feels good about themselves. But we’ve got major problems in
how we’ve coached things and how we’ve executed things. Nothing changes
that sense, but we feel better about ourselves. Right now we feel
horrible about ourselves. I thought last week we had a great week of
practice. We entered that game and played the first half like we had a
great week of practice. We’ve got to get over the hump and execute when
it’s all the chips are on the table time, and we haven’t executed well
enough to do that. We will push that this week.”
Talk about the third-down busts in the second half…
“They
converted 5 out of 8 on third down. We were 6 out of 9 successful in
the first half, even with the 3rd and 19 where we fell and didn’t make
the play. On some of those we didn’t get lined up in the goal line.
When they hit the back out of the backfield, we had a corner
pressure…Dustin (Harris) did a great job of getting a sack on the
corner pressure earlier, but this time he didn’t get there for whatever
reason. And I don’t mean to single him out. Our safety didn’t have the
proper leverage on the 3rd and 2 where they threw to the tight end in
the flat. He made the play the week before against Oklahoma State. This
week, same route, same coverage, he steps in front and misses and it’s
a 20-yard gain. It’s a game of inches, and we’ve got to do a much
better job with the details so those inches play in our favor instead
of the opponent’s favor.”
Did you see some good things
from players this weekend? “I thought Jonathan Stewart did some good
things. Sean Porter played really hard and did some good things for us.
I think Ben Compton stepped up for a young guy, I’m pleased with what
he did. But as a defense—individual accolades, when you give up that
many points and lose a football game—those go by the wayside. And our
guys know that. It’s good though as a coach to see guys making
progress.”
Coach Sherman said after the game that some assistants prefer experience over talent. Where do you stand on that?
“I
like talented, experienced guys. I think you have to coach talent. I
tell our guys every year when guys come in, I tell the freshmen class
and the upperclassmen that I hope every one of these freshmen beats you
out. Because if they’re equal, they’re playing. I was told the same
thing when I was a player. When I was a senior, I thought it was my
time and I deserved it. Uh uh. Guys who deserve to play are the guys
that play, and if you haven’t differentiated yourself from a freshman
and you’re an upperclassman, you’ve had time to improve. If he’s the
same as you, he’s going to get those reps. It may seem harsh, it may
seem mean, but what it does is it keeps those guys that are
upperclassmen on edge. I better be better. I better compete every
single day, because if I don’t, we’ll have guys go by. And we’re going
to have some freshmen playing this week. That’s the way it is.
Everyone’s accountable. As a coach I’m accountable. Players have got to
be accountable to their position groups. That’s the only way you can
continue to get better and compete at the highest level. We ought to be
competing at the highest level, and if we all are competing for our own
individual positions, and not being comfortable, we’ll get the best out
of everybody.”
Where do you think your defense is emotionally right now?
“Their
confidence is probably hit a little bit. As we showed them the bad
plays we had from Saturday—and there were way too many of those—we
showed them the things we did as good as any defense I’ve been a part
of. Our challenge to them is, who are we guys? Are we this team that
busts these coverages, or don’t read routes, and are playing soft, and
we don’t get lined up? Or are we this defense that gets after a really,
really good offense in Arkansas? I think on the heels of last year,
with the guys we had returning, we were in a very similar situation as
a year ago. It’s funny how seasons parallel sometimes. We were able to
pick ourselves up from getting knocked to the mat. We’re in a 12-round
fight. We’re 4 rounds in, we’ve won 2 rounds and we’ve lost 2 rounds.
We got knocked down. Can we get back up and do what we did a year ago?
I have every confidence just like I did last year when we were 3-3 that
we can go out and win every game. I think our kids really do, but we’ve
got to have takeaways. We’ve got to have fanatical effort. We have to
play with a swagger that we’re not consistent enough playing with.”
TONY JEROD-EDDIE (Sr., DeSoto, Texas)
Evaluate the play of the defense in the first and second halves Saturday…
“I
feel like we played pretty well in the first half. We still gave up two
touchdowns that we didn’t make them work hard for. But overall when all
11 guys did their jobs, we played pretty well in the second half (too).
We had a lot of missed assignments and mental errors. Hats off to
Arkansas, they took advantage of our mistakes and capitalized on every
one of them.”
Has there been somewhat of a regrouping process after Saturday?
“Today
is that day. We’ll have a team meeting later and I would imagine this
week the defense will get together and we’ll have a heart-to-heart
without the coaches around.”
What kind of runner is Christine Michael during practice, and what makes him so difficult to defend?
“He
runs just like you saw on Saturday. He prepares well and it shows. He
attacks everything. He doesn’t wait, which sometimes can be negative,
but nine times out of 10 for him it works out.”
Were the second halves of the last two games similar, or were they totally different?
“I
think it’s different. Two weeks ago, it was more us not getting lined
up and they were taking advantage of that. This week it was more
self-inflicted wounds. We were hurting ourselves. I’m not taking
anything away from Arkansas, they capitalized on our mistakes, but I
think we hurt ourselves more than anything.”
What did it mean to have Coryell Judie back on the field?
“Coryell
is a great defensive back. He’s very physical and not afraid to bring
the fight to whomever he’s lined up against. He’s a savvy player. He’s
very smart. He understands the scheme and understands what he can or
can’t do. That experience helps us out a lot.”
Is the most frustrating thing that you’re 5 points away from being a top-5 team and undefeated?
“Yeah.
Both games we should have won, but for whatever reason we didn’t. We
have no one to blame but ourselves. It’s nothing that any of our
opponents did to us. We didn’t win.”
How tough is it to play in Lubbock?
“Especially
as a defensive player it’s very tough. Year in and year out they have
great skill on the outside and at running back and a pretty good
offensive line. I know it’s going to be tough. They will give us all
they’ve got. They are undefeated right now and near the top of the
nation in total offense. It’s going to be a tough game. If we can go
out and play the way we are capable of we should be fine.”
Can you take anything from the game two years ago up there?
“It’s a new year, new team. We just have to take it one play at a time, one day at time, and prepare well.”
QB RYAN TANNEHILL (Sr., Big Spring, Texas)
When Christine Michael is going like that how much does that help the offense?
“Christine
is a physical runner. He’s a short, stocky guy that is going to make
something happen. If there’s a crack there he will hit it full speed.
Guys bounce off of him. He’s a strong guy that you’re not going to arm
tackle. Usually he’s falling forward when he makes contact. He doesn’t
get hit and go backwards. He brings a lot of energy to the offense. You
see him run guys over and that gives the offensive line energy and
confidence.”
What do you take from the last 2 games and how do you use that positively going forward?
“You’ve
got to play a full game. We learned that the first weekend, we just
didn’t put it into action. You can’t play one half and expect to win.
You have to play the full game on both sides of the ball. Offensively
we didn’t score enough points in the second half. Three points is not
going to work. We know as an offense we need to move the ball better.
We had a lot of drives that stalled once we crossed the 50.”
Personally, how special is it to go home to West Texas as the starting quarterback?
“Yeah,
I guess it’s cool, but right now I’m just focused on winning the game.
We are coming off two tough losses and we need to win this game. It’s
nice to be able to go back but this game could be anywhere in the
country. We just need to win this game.”
Is the most frustrating thing that you’re 5 points away from being a top-5 team and undefeated?
“That’s
extremely frustrating. We are so close. Things haven’t worked out. We
haven’t capitalized on our opportunities. We haven’t gotten the lucky
bounce we need to get. The ball they fumbled into the end zone and
ended up recovering, if it bounces to the left or the right, we recover
it and the game is totally different. But that’s part of football,
sometimes the ball bounces your way and sometimes it doesn’t. If we
play like we can for a full game it doesn’t matter who we play. We can
beat anybody. It’s just a matter of us playing a full game and not a
half, or three quarters.”
Offensively has there been a common theme the last two second halves?
“I
don’t think it was the same both games. In the first game it was
turnovers, three in the third quarter that killed us. This game we
moved the ball effectively across the 50 but weren’t getting first
downs then. We’d get into 3rd and medium and not convert, and get to
4th and 1 or 2 and when you play with the lead you have to kick that
ball away.”
On the fourth down plays, do you tell the coaches you want to go for it?
“Yeah
I was lobbying, but we trust Coach Sherman and the calls he makes. He
believed in our defense that we could kick the ball away and they’d get
us field position. We believe in Coach and in whatever call he makes.”
What was making the run game so successful?
“I
usually miss the initial hole, but after watching on tape you see guys
moving people up front. With the kind of runners we have in the
backfield if they get a crease they’re going to make something
happen. It’s a matter of the small things in the second half. A
run could have gone the distance but maybe someone tripped him up. I
think we played great especially on the ground the entire game.”
Take us through the first touchdown and the confusion with Christine…
I
was trying to throw the slide route on the outside when he came
through. He put his hand real high and it hit the ball out of my hand,
and he happened to catch it and he ran it in. When I got the ball in my
hands there was no hole, that’s why I was throwing it. He somehow got
out of that, hopped over people and took it the distance. He thought he
was getting it, he didn’t know I was throwing it. That was a lucky
break. I came to the sideline and I told someone that we finally got
one to go our way. And I guess you could say we got one there.”
Why haven’t we seen the fade to Fuller much? Are teams taking it away?
“A
lot of teams are taking it away. They’re playing zone coverage to him.
If they do press they press at the snap, then they just turn and run
back. That’s where you see a lot of our completions to him, because
guys are turning and running away from him. They want to make us work
the ball down the field. We want to get the ball deep to Jeff but the
way teams are playing him now makes it tough.”
Because this team needs a win, does this week bring any more pressure?
“I
don’t think we need to press. We’re so close. It’s a matter of guys
making plays. We been in position a couple of times and just didn’t
make a play. It’s no time to get crazy or freak out, we just need to
make plays. We are so confident in what we can do. We saw how we played
in the first half and we believe that’s how good we are. We just have
to play two halves.”
Are their similarities to the trip to Texas Tech 2 years ago?
“I
haven’t thought about that but right now we are in dire need of a win.
We are excited about going to Lubbock. We know Texas Tech will be
bringing their A game. They are undefeated right now. They will come in
with high expectations as well. It should be a fun, competitive game
and we’re excited about it.”
WR RYAN SWOPE (Jr., Austin, Texas)
What’s the mood of the team?
“We
took a look at the film this morning. It’s a tough loss to get over.
There are some positives in the game and some negatives. We’ll make
those corrections today in practice. For the most part we will stay
positive. That’s something we can do. We have a great team and great
character on the team. We have to keep moving forward and can’t move
back.”
What positives did you see on the film?
“The
offensive line did a great job. They really controlled the game. We had
good tempo. We were really rushing to the line of scrimmage after every
play and trying to speed the game up. We got them tired and ran the
ball pretty effectively. We just have to keep staying positive.”
What was the difference in the second half?
“To
be honest, at the half there was a lot of energy in the locker room, a
lot more than the previous game. We felt like we needed to keep that
energy going. I tell you this team has a lot of character. We feed off
each other and we tried to stay positive thru the third and fourth
quarter. There was energy on the field, it’s just a matter of finishing
the job. We’ll work on it in practice and try and get better at that.”
How do you guard against Saturday bleeding over into this week?
“I
can’t put my finger on it but it’s just one of those things where we
have to take a look at the film and make the corrections. It’s a
football game. There are four quarters and you have to play every
quarter with 110 percent. This team has so much heart. We’re all in it
for the seniors. With a couple of plays here or there, it’s a different
ballgame. It’s going to be interesting this week in practice to see how
guys will react. It’s only two games, it’s not the end of the world. We
can bounce back that’s for sure.”
Was there any second-guessing on the two fourth-down calls to punt?
“No. No. We’re all in this together. We knew what we were doing. There was no second guessing of Coach Sherman.”
How much would a win in Lubbock energize the team?
“That’s
a positive thing. We have to look forward. This is a big game in
Lubbock this weekend. We have to stay positive and have a good week in
practice. Ryan has done a great job of being a leader. We have to stay
positive and put that behind us and move forward. It’s not the end of
the world, we have a long season ahead of us. With the team we have we
can do great things.”
DB TERRENCE FREDERICK (Sr., Katy, Texas)
On Arkansas being able to beat the blitz…
“If
we’re going to go after the quarterback we have to get to him. Half the
time we weren’t getting to him and the big throws hurt us. Also after
watching the film we missed a lot of tackles as a whole defense.”
As a leader, how much will you put on yourself to get the secondary going?
“I
have to step up. It’s a two-game losing streak and it’s not the end of
the world, just two losses. We’ve got to bounce back and get ready for
Tech. We just got out-leveraged on the field. We either got too deep or
not deep enough. That’s what hurt us in the game.”
Talk about the challenges of Texas Tech’s offense…
“This year they’re like fourth in the country in passing. We just have to go out there and play and execute.”
How can you prevent the passes over the middle like Arkansas had last week?
“We just have to read the quarterback and break down to the ball.”
How daunting is it to face the type of quarterbacks you’ve had to face in a row?
“We
are trying to block that stuff out. We’re a secondary. We’re in there
to make plays. If we don’t make plays the refs are going to put their
hands up. If we go out there as a secondary and put our hands on the
ball we’ll be successful. And we haven’t done that the last few weeks.”
How frustrating is the lack of takeaways?
“It’s
definitely frustrating, especially for me as a secondary player. The
quarterbacks are throwing 50 to 60 times, we just have to get our hands
on the ball.”
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