2015 HOUSTON FOOTBALL MEDIA DAY Carl Lewis Auditorium Houston, Texas Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015

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1 2015 HOUSTON FOOTBALL MEDIA DAY Carl Lewis Auditorium Houston, Texas Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015 HEAD COACH TOM HERMAN Opening Statement As everybody is with this time of year we are excited. We had a great offseason. I told the guys heading into summer training that this is the most important, maybe the most pivotal offseason in the history of University of Houston football. They, Coach (Yancy) McKnight and his staff, have responded, and should be commended, for what they have done in the transformation that a lot of these guys have gone through both physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. This is a different team than what we inherited seven months ago. We are all healthy. The only hiccup there is (running back) Kaliq Kokuma will be limited for the first couple of weeks of practice, but we expect him to be full go by the first game. He is just now starting to cut full speed on that foot, and will hopefully be back to full speed here in a couple of weeks. I told our team, the media and our fans that I will at least attempt to make this the hardest training camp in the history of college football. I certainly will not back away from that statement. The foundation of our culture here at the University of Houston is the way that we practice and the way that we prepare. It will always be that way. There are no gamers and there are no guys that flip the switches. There are only guys that work really hard every single day, who are prepared by the best coaching staff in the country and Saturdays are a walk in the park in terms of physical and mental effort exerted compared to practices. Lastly, I do want to announce that I have a ton of pride in the city of Houston, I hope that has been made very clear in my first eight months on the job, but I do want to say a special thank you to the local media that covered our American Athletic Conference media days on either Monday or Tuesday. To be quite honest with you I am very disappointed in the few affiliates that didn t. I sat on my couch on Tuesday night and turned on a random affiliate to see what our fans, our players, what the Houstonians in our great city are going to get watch. We sent three tremendous representatives of this great program and this great University to Rhode Island to talk about and reenergize everybody, and I sit down with my wife and we turn on a random affiliate, and I have to watch an affiliate send a guy to an entirely different hemisphere to cover a sporting event that is over a year away, and yet we can t run 45 to 60 seconds of Houston Cougar football media days. That was very disappointing. I am disappointed in a few of you here, but I do also want to thank a lot of you here for having the same pride in this great city and this program that we do, and obviously trying to showcase that pride in any way that we can. On excitement of the new season There are a couple of different things. I am excited to watch our defense. We have a really good defense. I ve been quoted as saying that our starting 11 on defense are championship caliber. It is fun to see them grow and continue to get better. I am excited to see the physical and mental transformation of our team since I last saw them in April for the spring game, because we are very limited with our contact with them in the offseason. I have had some contact, and every

2 bit of that contact I have had with them they are moving, looking, acting, sounding and talking better. It excites me to see all of that come together. Then there is the new freshman that just got here in June that we haven t gotten a chance to see run around. On what his first training camp as head coach will be like Much like spring ball, we are going to be very physical. We are going to tackle, hit and block. That is the only way you are going to learn to play the game of football. Last time I checked you learned to drive a car by driving a car, ride a bike by riding a bike and learn to speak Spanish by speaking Spanish. You learn how to do things by doing them. I know that sounds a bit redundant, but it may be a lost art sometimes in our sport. That will be a signature as to how physically and mentally taxing this will be. I want our kids to come out on the other side of this knowing what they have gone through, that they have survived it and can now focus on the season. It makes you that much more mentally tough. On how much Defensive Coordinator Todd Orlando means to the team I expect them (the defense) to be really good. We don t place a whole lot of weight into statistical bowls. We look at statistics to see where we can improve, but to say that I expect this many points per game, no, I expect us to play at a championship caliber level. I expect our backups to get better and contribute. That is something that I made a point with to the defensive staff and the defensive players after spring ball. Our starting 11 were great, and a few other guys, but there were some areas where the backups, you d be afraid to put them in the game, and we can t have that going into the season. It s been well documented: he is the highest paid non-autonomous five coordinator in the country, and he earns every penny of it. He came to us with an outstanding resume, a reputation not just as an X s and O s guy, but as a teacher and a man that dives into his players lives and gets to know them as people, mentors them and makes men out of boys. On bringing fight to the team We talked about that today in fact. (Rockets head coach) Kevin McHale talks about toughness and togetherness. That things will get tough because they will get tough. They will get hard and bleak and adverse at times this season, but the great teams, the championship teams, come together. The average teams to below average teams splinter in times of toughness and adversity. It is an ongoing process that we are teaching them how to do every day, now I m not a soothsayer and I don t have a crystal ball, but they are being taught that every day and that is the expectation. On naming a starting quarterback Greg and Adam will get reps with the ones. Kyle Postma will get an opportunity because of what he has done throughout the offseason to earn it. He ll get a bulk of the reps with the twos to see what he can do. Again, there is no magic metric. We are going to keep track of everything, but I don t know if that tells the whole story in terms of completion percentage, interceptions, and touchdowns. We will keep track of that, and that will go into our thought process as to who our starter will be, but at the end of the day a quarterback has two jobs. One, protect the football at all costs and the other one is to score touchdowns. However that happens is always good. I have never seen a bad touchdown scored on offense. If he is protecting the football and moving the offense more effectively than the other guy, then he will probably be the guy that starts. On winning the close games this season Some of the pillars of our programs should help that. Physical and mental toughness is a key ingredient in winning close games. Knowing that you are physically and mentally tougher than your opponent and that you have been trained harder and better than your opponent. The other one is unit pride, and within that comes accountability that you are going to do everything you can, not for yourself or satisfaction, but for the joy and successes of the guy next to you. On what his H-Town Takeover movement means It means a lot. It means that we are the hometown college football team of this great city; of the city of Houston.

3 We have embraced this city. I have embraced this city. Our staff has embraced this city, and our team has embraced this city more than at any other time than in the University s history, and we are proud of that. I can t stress enough how much pride we have and how good it makes us feel to be a part of this great city. The H-Town Takeover is just a fun way to let recruits, fans and media know that this is our town, our city, and we embrace it with every fiber of our being. We plan to make sure that we defend this city from, to be quite honest with you, people who come in and try to recruit our city like they have done in the past. It s not going to be as easy as it was before. In fact, it is going to be very hard and there is not going to be anything easy about it. We have a tremendous amount of pride, and we want to keep not only our fans here in the greater Houston area happy and proud, but we also want to keep the great high school players from the greater Houston area home. On position battles going into training camp Any linebacker. If I m a veteran linebacker, if I m Elandon Roberts, Steven Taylor or Matt Adams, I am looking over my shoulder every second because the young linebackers that we signed will have a chance to play and play early. I don t believe in cementing positions on the depth chart. Everybody is going to get a chance to win a job that is what this is all about. Could you image waking up every day and coming and doing what these kids have to do knowing that you are not going to get a chance to play on Saturday if you do all these things and do them well and do them better than the guy that is slated ahead of you? There is hope for everybody. I can tell you now that nobody s job is secure. It will be more and more apparent as we get closer to the first game because you certainly have to define who you have to lean on and who is going to be playing the most. We preach constant competition at every position. On bringing on Major Applewhite as offensive coordinator Again, like with Todd (Orlando) and with Craig (Naivar), this entire staff lends instant credibility not only on the recruiting trail, but within your own team and with the players, and in today s generation that is important. Back when I grew up when a coach asked me to run through a wall I said yes sir how fast would you like me to go? Nowadays you say run through a wall and a kid will ask why? They ask why a lot less when you can say because I m Todd Orlando and I have done this, this and this or I m Major Applewhite and I have done this, this and this, It adds a lot of credibility to what they are preaching. For me, as an offensive coach, it was important for me to find a guy that would be able to come in, who had no ego, who wouldn t be set in his ways, who would be willing to learn the University of Houston s offense and coordinate in that way and bring some fresh ideas to things we hadn t done in the past. The offense certainly wasn t broke in terms of the system that we have been running the last few years, but it always needs to be enhanced and that is his job, to come in and enhance it, learn it, teach it and coordinate the offense and call plays. On toughness of the team There is a broader definition to the term than just running into people. The mental side of this is so much more important than the physical side, we will be physical don t get me wrong, but the mental toughness of this football team is something that we will work on every day. It will be my greatest source of pride when the clock hits zero and you beat somebody if that coach ever says you got a really mentally tough football team that will make me smile. Running into somebody, that is the easy part, but the hard part is struggling through adversity, playing for each other, preparing like a pro, like a champion, all those things take mental toughness and we are constantly teaching our guys how to be mentally tough. On adding Yancy McKnight to his staff I would not have taken the job had he not. I would probably still be in Columbus, Ohio had Yancy not said he was coming with me. He is the best strength coach in America and he was at Rice when we were there. I joke all the time with him that we won 10 games with a bunch of doctors and lawyers running around out there because he maximized their genetic potential. Then we go to Iowa State where we were not even close to bringing in the same recruits that the teams we were playing have and we go to Nebraska, beating Nebraska in Lincoln, and we are beating Texas in Austin and beating Oklahoma State when they were ranked No. 2 in the nation and undefeated. None of that would have been possible without his development of those players. That was the singular most important hire that I made was getting him here. He is my culture coach too. Not only teaches guys how to run fast and lift a lot of weight, but teaches that mental toughness part too. He is around them 10 times more than we re allowed to be around them so he has got to be completely aligned with everything we believed in and he is really

4 the one who conveys that message on a daily basis to our team. On emphasis on special teams That will be my main focus. That will be what keeps me coaching and what keeps me game planning. I will certainly help the offense and be sitting in those meetings, but I and Coach (Jason) Washington will be extremely involved in that. One of the cool things about having the head coach who is fanatical about special teams is I get to play whoever I want. You are going to look at our punt team, and when we jog our first punt team out there you are going to have Kenneth Farrow, Adrian McDonald, Trevon Stewart, William Jackson and Tyler McCloskey: you name it. You name the starter and he is probably going to be on the punt team. Even on the kickoff team you are going to see Kenneth Farrow running down the field covering kicks for the University of Houston and that is something that I believe is an honor and a privilege to play. One out of every five plays in a football game is a special teams play, so to say that it s not important is crazy. When you don t put your money where your mouth is or your best players where your mouth is, it is just lip service and we will definitely do that. On learning how to balance life and work from Ohio State coach Urban Meyer Do it. You have to make a conscious effort to do it or the game will consume you. We had a four-hour staff meeting this morning, and we had Robert Andrews come in and talk to us about the psychology of peak performance, and he ll talk to the team, but I wanted him to come talk to us first so that we can become better teachers. I relayed the story to the staff that my worst year of coaching, my worst job, was in 2007 when I was at Rice, and we went 3-9. I thought that because we started off so poorly that the only way to fix it was to stay later and get up earlier and it became this vicious cycle. Then I just became this worse coach and the team becomes worst and it is awful and I learned from that. I learned from Coach Meyer, it was hard for himself to pry himself out of that seat at 9:30-10 o clock or whenever he said we were going to leave. When he left, he left. The offseason did not consume him. He spent a lot of time with his son and his daughters at their sporting events. It is really important to just be disciplined about it or else it will consume you because we are all adrenaline junkies. We all want to win so badly. We are all uber competitors, especially when things may not be going the way you hoped. Your first reaction is to work harder, work longer, but the next thing you know you haven t seen your kids awake in three weeks. I have been there and it is a bad place to be. Not just learning from him, but my own experiences too. We will make sure we have a ton of balance. Our practices, our offices are always open. Wives are a part of our program; kids are a part of our program. I have seen places where it is frowned upon to have your kids show up to practice. Not here. We want our kids and our wives here at practices as much as they can, because to be quite honest with you a lot of these players that we are coaching didn t grow up with dads and they need positive male role models. What is the best way to learn how to be a really good parent? From your coach. It s not your coach telling you, it s your coach showing you how to be a good husband and a good parent. We want those families as much around as possible. On using tight ends this season Chauntez (Jackson) is back to defensive line. He should contribute at defensive line. Hayden Daniels has put on a lot of weight and we ve moved him to tight end, and we moved Romello Brooker to tight end. He is 6 5, 235 pounds as a redshirt freshman. He s never played the position. He was a wide out, so he has a lot of training to do, but he moved there after the spring game. The guy I feel bad for is Hayden Daniels because he was stuck at wide receiver for so long and never really got to play, and to say that you are 215 pounds going into your senior year and we want you to put on 25 pounds, his body is too lean to do that. He will probably be about 225 when we start camp. Had he had four years of solid weight gain and growth and the goal of being a tight end he could have helped himself. On losing the pass rusher and replacing it You are going to see a lot our pass rush, especially on third down, coming from all over the place. Coach Orlando

5 had one blitz where he had the water boy and Doc (Mike) O Shea blitzing the quarterback so he ll send them all. It s both confusion and disruption. On first downs you ll probably see the pass rush coming from one of the outside backers; maybe Tyus Bowser or DeJuan Hines and then hopefully those inside guys because we switched to a 3-4. That s why in the NFL everybody plays a 3-4, but on third down they play a four down front, because they want pass rushers on the edges of people. It s a lot harder to generate a pass rush on a first or second down, but much more stout against the run. On definitive passing downs you will see a lot of exotic blitzes to generate that pass rush, and then on first or second down if it is a pass we just have to transition our inside guys and our outside linebacker into the pass rush mode. OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR MAJOR APPLEWHITE On the quarterback competition and what he wants to see from the student-athlete who ultimately wins the competition We have two great competitors. (Adam Schulz) A guy who wanted an opportunity to play, had an opportunity to play at Utah, and for whatever reason went out and performed, and was still not given an opportunity. He was willing to move across the country for an opportunity to play. A guy who was highly competitive in his last game last year in Greg Ward. It s going to be great competition. It s going to be great competition across the board. After having played that spot and coached that spot, a lot is talked about with that position, but we re going to have great competition at right guard, and at wide receiver in the slot. We re going to have great competition on the defensive side as well. The quarterback position gets a lot of attention, but we re going to have great competition at all spots in the fall. Both those guys have had a tremendous summer in the weight room, and studying, and have done a great job of learning the new offense. On how the offense is designed to take advantage of the skill of running backs Kenneth Farrow and Ryan Jackson One thing that Kenneth gives you as a big back is the ability to move piles, and that s one thing that you always look for in your running game. It s those guys that can turn 2-yard gains into 4-yard gains, and 4-yard gains into 6- yard gains, because of their power and allusiveness. He s that guy that gives you the ability to consistently get those 4-yard runs, and he has more of that in him beyond 4-yard runs. He s not just limited to that. A lot of experience both of those guys have carrying the ball and protecting it on third down. A lot of college football experience already. Both of those guys will be tremendous assets to us in the run game. That s ultimately what you want to do as an offense; stay ahead of the chains. Those guys are pretty smart in terms of being northand-south runners and not giving us a lot of negative yardage plays. On what he learned in his time at the University of Texas and what of that he brings to Houston When you ve coached at several spots, there are tremendous experiences you take with you, not only from the head coach, but from the coaches that you work with from that side of the ball, to the other side of the ball. You bring everything from every place you ve ever been. There were a lot of learning experiences in Austin, as there were at Syracuse, and Tuscaloosa and at Rice. Everybody on this staff, and that s what makes this staff so great, has a lot of experience from a lot of different places, and we all bring our ideas and share, and we go with the best one. On the receiver position and the competition to replace wide receivers from last season (The Competition) has been wide open. Guys like Demarcus Ayers and Steven Dunbar, who saw some time last year, obviously are little bit ahead of the curve from the standpoint of the shine is off. They ve been out there, and been called upon, and had to make plays with the first team. They were a little more comfortable in their skin in the spring. What you were seeing by the end of the spring is guys like Isaiah Johnson and Chance Allen and others start to come along, and then spring ball ended, and you wondered what would happen. If we had three or four more days would that guy have come on? Then you get to June and July, and you visit with these guys, and you re given a certain amount of time a week by the NCAA, but what they relate to you, the information on the plays, the details of the plays, you can tell that they re progressing. Then, obviously I talk to the quarterbacks and they tell me Hey this guy is having a great summer coach.

6 So the competition level was extremely high. We ve got to find six or seven guys at wide receiver. We feel good about a certain number of those, but we have to have six or seven guys that we can put on that plane and feel really good about the wide receiver corp. Coach (Drew) Mehringer has got a great competition going on in that room right now. DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR TODD ORLANDO Opening Statement-expectations I expect us to be pretty sharp tomorrow when we practice. The one thing about this group that I was very impressed with was their amount of football knowledge. They know football. Obviously we have some young kids in the program who are going to get some reps. There is a high expectation right now, and there s an excitement in the air that went along with spring football, with the recruiting process and now into being on the field. Finally, our kids had an outstanding summer. They re ready to go! Exciting time for us that they are going to be right in this room in a couple of hours to start our first team meeting. Just being around the building and the kids being in the offices, we can t help but to be very excited. On transitioning & building a union If you ask Coach Herman, our plan to win is to play great defense. From a standpoint of physical and mental toughness, that s the culture of this program right now, and that s what Coach Herman relays down to us. It s a must for us to get our units together, and we do it as a team. The physical toughness part is how we train. I am a true believer that you are not going to have a physical football team if you are not going to tackle every day. You re not going to put kids in competitive situations where they have to be physical, and that s just all training right now. So, to try to answer your question, that s what we plan on doing. Everyone here has heard Coach Herman talk about this is going to be an extremely physical camp, and he s a man of his word. There is a reason behind it, because you just can t go out and talk about we want to do this physically. You ve got to do it. Hopefully for that training part of it, when we get into the opener the fan base will see that. On what about Coach Herman made you believe this was the right fit When you are looking at coaches, there are two sets of them. One is very intelligent, organized, they re great teachers. Then you have the other kind of coaches that demand effort, and the toughness part of it. They can get you to go through a wall. When you find someone that s both, those are the guys, regardless of where your career is at, those are the guys you want to coach with. That s the biggest thing, and it didn t take long to see that when I met and I interviewed with him going into it, that he had both of those characteristics, and in this profession it is hard to find people like that. On replacing key players that were lost in off season That s a little bit of a concern right now. It s a development of young guys. We lost some very talented guys last year and guys that not only were productive, but they were a big part, a big voice in terms of the leadership of this defense. So, there are some guys that will cause some matchup problems that we have. I won t get into specifics with it, but we might have to create some different looks and different things. To answer your question some guys have come along a little better, and I m really, really anxious to watch some of the guys up front, and watch them pass rush and do some things naturally on their own. When we key in on what they can do really well then we will create some packages for them. On coaching an experienced secondary It s a great situation. Normally if you are inexperienced in the back end then it s really scary. Our kids are great. We ve got returning starters, and when you think about the amount of football that they ve played and just they re overall presence, they ve been through it, and nothing phases those guys. They re great teammates and we expect them to be great leaders for us this year and to use some of that to help out some of these guys that played last year but are not 60 or70 play guys. They play 15 or20 plays, so there s a big difference on that. These guys are battle destined and we expect big things out of them. It s all about turnovers. When we get the football inside the forty you re almost guaranteed to get at least three points and vise versa. A longer field in terms of what we have to defend makes it much easier not to give up

7 touchdowns. So it s talked about everybody in our defensive staff will do something to get the football during their individual drills. The offensive guys are trying to protect it like crazy, and we re trying to go after it because we know the ball is so important. So, it helps to have your kids in that type of mindset especially when they ve had success. SENIOR RUNNING BACK KENNETH FARROW On how it feels to be back We had a long hard offseason, and guys have been putting in a lot of work. We re excited to get out there and throw the helmets on. On how Houston Cougar football has changed with Head Coach Tom Herman We ve been working a long time at it. Coach Herman, when he came in, brought that championship attitude, and accountability, and responsibility and all of those little things that get you those extra wins late in games. We re definitely looking forward to going out there and correcting those mistakes. On the team s offseason workouts Just looking around during the summer, guy s bodies look different. The weight program that we went through with Coach (Yancy) McKnight and his staff is probably one of the best one s we ve been through. Guys are definitely getting stronger and faster. Guys were smashing their previous PRs in the weight room this season. We definitely made a lot of gains this summer. On what he needs to do to improve during the offseason To come out every day during the offseason and just work at the little things. Whether it be agility drills, or in the weight room, I just have to attack every day and every rep. On the hype surrounding the team It s huge because there are a lot of people jumping on board right now. It s all set up, and it s on us to go out there and win games this year. That s how we ve attacked it this whole offseason, and we re looking forward to getting out on the field. On what to expect from the offense this season Being aggressive. More attacking. The past couple of years we ve had situations where the defense would get stops, and we couldn t quite capitalize on them. We ll look to get out front and have those defenses have some issues stopping us instead of the other way around. Just more aggressive. On having Major Applewhite as his offensive coordinator it s always exciting when you have a guy like that. He and Coach (Tom) Herman are pretty big names in themselves. They ve been great so far, and I m looking forward to getting out there on the field with them. On what Head Coach Tom Herman brings to the team Accountability; coming off that national championship. The biggest thing that we have to have is discipline. That s something that was kind of spotty the last couple of years, but it s definitely changed for the better. Guys have taken into account all the little things they need to do on a daily basis. On if it is easier to buy into Tom Herman s mindset because of his National Championship win As a player, you re supposed to buy in to whoever your coach is, but with him coming off that national championship he brings a lot of that attitude and that mentality. It s hard to ignore. Yeah, it s a little bit easier as a player when that s our guy. On the momentum from last season Being able to come back and end the year like that is exciting. Especially with Coach Herman coming in. We re looking to continue that and keep that rolling. On the conference splitting into divisions and adding a conference championship game It s exciting. Any time you have something to play for at the end of the season like a championship game creates a

8 little extra energy throughout the team. That s something we look forward to having right here in Houston. On the job the coaches have done recruiting It s huge, especially for the young recruits coming in. They ve done a good job on that phase in getting a lot of big players locally. That s huge, but that starts with us on the field. If we can go out there and win these games, which makes it easier on them. SENIOR SAFETY ADRIAN McDONALD On where his focus is heading into the season It s pretty big. The main focus is maintaining the standard of having the best side of the ball, not on the team, but in the conference and nationally. Just lead some categories turnovers is a big thing, a big part of production. Just keep it going. On the improvements he s made in the offseason I feel like working hard in the offseason is a big thing, getting faster and stronger. The strength program coaches came in and did some good things with us. Just work hard now, so whenever we get in a game-type situation it slows down and you don t have to panic. So we put the work in this summer. On the emphasis that the secondary places on forcing turnovers Of course, it s always a competition a friendly competition of course. I feel like if you have those type of guys who want to work with you and reach their potential, and if we get a lot of balls out, it s great. It s always fun to celebrate after a big play, so that s what we want to do. On whether the secondary, as the most experienced defensive unit, feels any pressure to perform There s no pressure. We ve been doing this for a while. We re kind of vets. We ve got a couple of guys up front that have played some big snaps growing up in their younger years and had leadership roles. We have some guys at linebacker, like Steven Taylor and Matthew Adams that are going to have to step up and make it happen. On transitioning from the quarterback position in high school to playing on the defensive side of the ball In high school I knew I was just an athlete. The main transition that I had to get used to was the physicality and tackling. In high school, I didn t get touched, so I put my nose in there every day at practice. What doesn t kill you makes you stronger. I feel like I adapted and transitioned real well. On the personalities of the defensive position coaches Coach (Craig) Naivar is the guy who brings the energy. He yells all the time and is really intense. Coach (Jason) Washington is going to do a good job with the cornerbacks and Coach Naivar is going to do a good job with the safeties. We ve learned a lot from them, and hopefully we will go out and make some plays. On his long-standing partnership with fellow senior safety Trevon Stewart On our visit, I remember talking to Travon, and he was like man, we can take over. We got to campus that summer and started off at corner. Then we started moving around. I started playing nickel; he started playing safety and vice versa, swap it out a little bit. Then the turnovers started coming. Production was big, and we haven t looked back ever since. On the confidence he gained from playing under older players early in his career It would have been real tough, if I didn t have those older guys to take me under their wing. (Guys like) D.J. Hayden, Zachary McMillian. That was big. If I messed up or did something wrong, they just kept encouraging me, telling me don t put your head down, just keep going, keep working. On the next generation of Houston safeties They ve been working really well. We got a new system going in. We don t have Coach (David) Gibbs anymore. Everything is different. The keys, the coverage and the terminology are different. (The young guys) have done a good job adapting. We learn faster than those younger guys, but we take them underneath our wings and just tell them everything s going to be alright. Stay focused, stay in the playbook, and everything will take care of itself.

9 On what he sees from the defense this season I see a lot of guys who get the sideline in a hurry. I see guys who lead by example. I feel like we can make a lot of plays, and that s big on a production level. And if we can get a couple of turnovers and get the ball back to the offense, that s more times that Greg (Ward) gets to work his magic and (Kenneth) Farrow gets to touch it a little bit. On the opportunities he will get to play special teams this season There were some times in previous years where I would be on the punt team, and the high-tempo offense would get a three-and-out, and so we d get off the field, and 40 seconds later we re back on it. We might be a little winded, but that s just something you ve got to deal with. You can make some plays on special teams, so I m not knocking it. We ll make it happen whenever the time comes. On his preparation for a tough preseason camp That s no biggie to me. I ve adapted well, and handled adversity. I don t think anything can break me. So we ll see how it goes. On the effect of the #HTownTakeover I love the #HTownTakeover. I love the idea and what they ve got going. Putting a fence around the city that s awesome. Myself and the guy to the left of me, Trevon Stewart, we aren t from Houston. We aren t even from Texas. We re out-of-staters. I feel like there s talent everywhere, especially in the Houston area, and if they dip into other states and grab a couple of athletes, I feel like (those players) could do the same things that (Trevon and I) did. On the expectations of the team after Coach Herman won a national championship at Ohio State He s got the blueprint. Obviously they did something right at Ohio State. They won a championship. We were excited when we heard the news that he was the coach. (We thought) maybe he could bring some of those traditions to the University of Houston, and we re going to work hard, be physical, and be mentally tough. I feel like we have what it takes. On what stands out about Coach Herman on a day-to-day basis He s really intense. There s a time and a place for it, but sometimes he does have a sense of humor. He s a younger guy, so he s kind of hip to what s going on and the music. He s a good guy. I like being around him. On having the coaches families at practice Coach Naivar and his family came down. I think we had a championship dinner, and at the softball stadium we did a little kickball and dodgeball. It was a family fun activity, to get those guys families around the guys that they re coaching. I feel like that s a main part of success, to have that family feel to it. On the competition level at practice We ve noticed that since (Coach Herman) came in, we would have winter conditioning, and we d match up. There d be a winner and a loser. The winner gets rewarded. You get the better things in life. JUNIOR DEFENSIVE END CAMERON MALVEAUX On spring camp They wanted to double train me at first in the spring, but we have Tyus Bowser and some incoming freshman that can possibly play, so they moved me back to end, which I m perfectly fine with. It doesn t matter. Whatever it takes. On defensive leadership We just have to know that people leave and that slack has to be picked up either way. Someone has to be a leader. Me, Tomme Mark and BJ Singleton are just trying to be better leaders. On Defensive Coordinator Todd Orlando The moment I knew Coach Orlando was the real deal was one time we didn t all run to the ball, which is a huge deal on defense. The running back had the ball and not all of us ran over there. He ended (the play) and called all of us over to the sideline and made us do up downs. That was a big deal. Coach Orlando is a high intensity guy. He

10 always hops on us trying to get us live and makes sure the energy level is always up. He s a perfectionist. Everything he does is to a T. On what Coach Orlando brings to the defense Coach Orland at Utah had a lot of tackles for loss and a lot of explosive defensive plays. So, he s going to utilize a lot of people. Even (defensive back) Trevon Stewart from the middle position. So, we have a lot of new stuff coming in. SENIOR OFFENSIVE LINEMAN ALEX COOPER On the #HTownTakeover and what it means to carry that message in Coach Herman s first season My whole life growing up, I would watch college football highlights. You d see a guy at Oregon or Oklahoma State, and on the screen, it would say he s from Houston, Texas. You d be like man, it would be really cool if that guy stayed home and played at UH. We can see those highlights at home, so it s really important to make a huge impression, especially in his first year here. On playing for the city of Houston I think we re kind of the poster guys for the city now. We have to show that if you stay home, you can make something great. You don t have to go out of state. You can stay here and be in your city. On playing for Coach Herman It s a treat for us. Everything he says, we re trying to eat it up, and we re trying to learn it and write it down. We want to be everything he sees in us. When he tells us that we re not doing something right or we re coming up short, we understand that he knows what he s talking about. He s been there. We want to be there with him. SENIOR SAFETY TREVON STEWART On the new system and new coaches Change is never easy. Just being used to your coaches from four to five to even six years ago, from being recruited, leave (before) your last year. So it s hard adjusting to those new coaches. It all works out for the best. We are feeling better and looking better body-wise so it s going to work out for us. On Coach Orlando s style I would say (he s) a dynamite. Every day he is loud. Juice is what he says every day. Get the Juice going. You need that better defensive coordinator to get the defense going and even as a team during team workouts. Trying to be the first guy out there and talking the whole workout. He yells boom or bazerka where guys fly around to the ball the whole practice. Coach Orlando has all kinds of words. On what it s like for everyone to be bigger and stronger with the sports performance staff I can give you some facts off the bat. Into the Pittsburgh game I was like 180 and now I'm 190. Last year I was back squatting like 315 and now I'm front squatting 315. Adrian McDonald and I were talking and said we never would have put 315 on the rack, so it s just guys getting stronger. He expects a lot out of us. We compete all day every day. If we re not doing something competitive, we re wondering what s going on. But I love our staff. On what it s like to play with the returning secondary I love those guys more than football and more than just being defensive backs. Those are my brothers and I talk and hang out with them every day. It s good. We came in at the same time and even the guys who had to go to a junior college like Hightower who transferred. Just being out there, I mean, it s our last year out there with each other making plays, seeing who can get the most interceptions and turnovers. So I mean that s what keeps us going and competitive. On toughness being a big buzz word this year

11 I remember when Coach Herman first came in and said man I heard y all were the freshest team in the past. Now he wants to be the bloodiest team, the toughest team, and we re going to get after it. Since they ve been here, that s what they have been doing. On the difference in the defensive unit this year I feel Coach Gibbs is a little conservative, calling plays at the right time. With Coach Orlando, whatever he feels, then that s what he feels. It s been the same, with guys coming from everywhere and guys dropping everywhere. You never know and you can never tell with Coach Orlando. On if he feels pressure as a defensive back No it doesn t put pressure on me. As a defensive back, I have faith in the linebackers. On Coach Herman s discussion about winning championships Coach Herman told us there is a difference between winners and losers in life. So we want to win. But he makes it fun; he makes winning and losing fun. Well not losing, but winning. SENIOR OFFENSIVE LINEMAN ZACH JOHNSON On if he has any limitations going into camp No limitations. I'm one hundred percent, and I'm ready to roll. On his relationship with Alex Cooper on the field Well a lot of it is just experience. We've been around the program for so long and seen so many coaches, playbooks, and atmospheres. I feel like with us, we re a little older than everybody else so they have to look up to us. On the difference between coaches he has had in his time here This year, the playbook is a little more complex. The biggest thing is the attitude from Coach (Derek) Warehime. He stresses accountability and team camaraderie. That is a big thing. On if he sees potential in the offensive line Yes, I really see it. A lot of our young guys have potential. Yes, definitely. On Head Coach Tom Herman He's a tough coach. Everything he's brought to the table and to this program is what we needed. Guys like me and Alex Cooper being seniors, are very fortunate to have him here. I have a really good chance to be successful this year. On if it is easier to listen to Coach Herman knowing that he has one a national championship Very. Knowing he won a national championship, you have to respect him a lot more. On how the atmosphere around the team has change Everything is a lot more straightforward. A lot more honesty. We always know what s going on. Everything that goes on is brought forward in front of the whole team. Accountability is one of the most important things. Looking out for your brother, and him looking out for you. On training with coach (Yancy) McKnight I love coach McKnight. A lot of the stuff we've been doing is intense. The difference between him and the past strength coaches we've had is that everything that he incorporates is all football related. He explains it to us and it all involves football. It s getting us better on the field. On how he has adjusted to Rowdy Harper graduating and dealing with new guys Well just knowing that, you have to step up. Guys like me, Ben Dew and Alex Cooper being seniors this year have had guys lead us in the past, but now we re the next guys up to be leaders to these young guys and the team.

12 On the start of a new season You can go 8-5 every year just based off of talent. A lot of us thought that s why we didn t win 10 games or the conference last year. Knowing that we finally have a good coaching staff here that can guide us with a really good playbook, will lead us to believe that we will have a good record this year.