SETH DOEGE D.J. JOHNSON

Transcription

1 November 12, 2012 An interview with: SETH DOEGE D.J. JOHNSON Q. How much is just sort of how thorough that loss was last year and what a motivating factor for you guys to be on the wrong end of such a lopsided score? SETH DOEGE: It was an embarrassment, I think, for the entire program. I mean, they were probably the better football team last year, but there was no reason that it should have been that lopsided. I didn't play -- I probably played one of my worst games I've ever played, and the defense didn't play a very good game either. It was just all around. It was just a terrible football game by us. Definitely an embarrassment. But we're a totally different football team than we were last year. I don't think we'll lay an egg like that ever again. Q. What are you going to do to try and solve the red zone quagmire? SETH DOEGE: Well, if you look at it, we have some opportunities that we didn't convert in the red zone with touchdowns. But we're still top 15 in the country in red zone efficiency, so we're not terrible. But there are times that it feels like there are times that we needed to really score touchdowns, very critical times in the football game. And that's what makes it seem that it's like well, we have a red zone problem. Well, we really don't, but we need to score touchdowns. I think that puts us, obviously, in a better position to win a football game. Q. Do you go through practice schemes where you put yourself in the red zone and you run through the series of downs? SETH DOEGE: Yes, we script in the red zone and we actually did it a lot more last week than we ever have. I don't know what it is. I feel comfortable in the red zone, I feel like once we get past the 20, I think we're going to score regardless. But it seems that there have been critical moments in football games where we just shot ourselves in the foot. It's nothing that we can't fix. So I think we'll be okay. Q. You spoke a little about Eric after the game, but what specifically about his route running? Because the thing that seemed to stand out is you he's just always open. What is it about him as a route runner that makes him so good? SETH DOEGE: It's what he does. If he needs to take it seven steps and put his foot in the ground, he's going to take it seven steps and put his foot in the ground. I think that helps him out that he's very coachable. He understands that if he does his job right, then it's going to allow somebody else to get open too. I think he's very explosive out of his cuts when his legs are fresh. So that being said, I think that's what helps him get open. Discipline in his routes and how explosive he is out of his cut. Because some guys can stick their foot in the ground, but it takes them a little bit to get out. Well, Eric can stick his foot and he's out. He's not a speed runner guy, but he's very explosive when it comes to putting his foot in the ground. Q. It seemed that you made a pretty conscious effort to get the ball to Tyson. On the touchdown, when you threw it up were you thinking if the DB doesn't turn around we have a touchdown here, or were you just happy to get to this guy on Senior Day? SETH DOEGE: No, it was part of my progression. I went through my progression like I always do. I may have been a little late, that's why it looked so different. I might have been a little late S. Doege and DJ Johnson doc 1

2 on the throw because I hung on to the first progression too long. But I knew Tyson was open, because that guy was trailing Tyson. He had his back to me. When I threw it, I still thought we had a chance just because that guy had no idea where the ball was. Tyson did a really good job of he didn't act like the ball was coming to him until the very end. That's what I think really made that play was he just acted like the ball's not coming oh, there it is, and that guy had no idea. Q. In overtime, they scored first. I know you have a lot of confidence in your offense, but are there nerves when you know we have to score especially this one, you got the third down before you made the big play. Is it hard sometimes to fight those nerves that arise? SETH DOEGE: I don't know what it is about overtime games and this football team, but it almost seems like we relax even more. I know for me, personally, it's like I'm in my element. I don't know what it is. Especially that last drive, I just felt comfortable. Maybe it's because we trust each other and like each other as a football team that we know we can get it done. You know we didn't panic at all. We felt like we had a great play call, and if we executed it, it was going to be big for us. I want to say that it's just the fact that we're such a good team and we like each other that when it comes to big-time moments like that, we can just relax and play. Q. Have you had a chance to look at Oklahoma State, and what you can do against them? SETH DOEGE: Just a little bit. Just watched a few games. More like how they play and how they run around and stuff thinking of what play would be good here and what play would be good there. They're just like any other team in the Big 12. They play really hard. They're a lot better than they've been in the past. I think with the quarterback situation, the defense had to step up a little bit and bail them out sometimes. It's kind of unique that they can play three quarters and still win games. It means all three of them have the trust of 105 guys and that's pretty cool. We'll definitely have to be ready to play at I high level. Q. What's been the reaction of Eric Stephens getting the winning touchdown pass? Has that brought everybody together in the extent that if you work hard, you get rewarded? SETH DOEGE: I think everybody was excited for him. Eric's one of our leaders and a likeable guy and has a lot of guys that respect him on this football team. It was one of those things that we knew once the play call was called, if it's in Eric's hands, it's going to get done. That's two touchdowns in overtime. I remember telling Eric get in the end zone because we don't want to come out here for an inch or a yard play if you don't score. So he dove over the offensive line and did what he had to do. But he's a competitive guy. I was excited for him. I don't think going into the season he thought he would have the role that he has, but he's accepted it, and he plays hard regardless, and he plays hard for all of his teammates and his coaches. It just identified him as a great character guy. He has a big heart and loves his football team. Q. Can you talk about the emotions, you run out, your fiancee's there, your mom and dad, your family, for all of that, to get ready for the game and to go out in double overtime as a senior, getting the W in the last game at the Jones. Can you take us through those emotions? SETH DOEGE: Pregame stuff I'm not big on, especially during a football game. I'm there to play a football game. It was fun. I'm glad my parents and Abby and my grandparents got to experience that. I got to experience it with them. But once I gave them the flowers and stuff, I was ready. Like let's go. We're not going to stand here anymore. But it was a fun time. I was glad that we sent the seniors out the right way winning in the Jones. We didn't expect to -- I think we had some opportunities to put it away early, and we didn't expecting to into overtime. But that's the way football is. I'm just glad we came out with a W. But it's something we'll remember, for sure. Q. Knowing how long it's been since you've won up in Stillwater as a program, how does that weigh on you knowing that's going to be a tough place to get a win? SETH DOEGE: Regardless how long we haven't won or regardless how tough it is, I think S. Doege and DJ Johnson doc 2

3 that's the mindset you've got to have any time you go on the road just because it is tough. It's tough to win on the road regardless of wherever you play. I really think their stadium and their atmosphere is one of the top in the country. I think for the guys that have been there, they understand that it's going to be a tough place to play. Also, when you getting to in that type of environment, it's a lot of fun. Because if you do go out there and execute at a way that you play at a high level like you want to do, you put them away, and it's one of the best feelings of college football is silencing a crowd. Q. Along the same line, are there any lessons you can take from last year's Oklahoma game and apply to a game like Stillwater? SETH DOEGE: I think I'd have to sit down and think about it, but nothing that really comes to mind. I think the biggest thick when we went to OU was we really didn't at that point feel like we had anything to lose. We just left it all out there. So I felt like this time it's the same way. You know, we're in a bowl game. The only thing that matters if we win, we can get to a better bowl game. But I think we just need to relax and be ready to play and play at a high level and have a lot of fun doing it. Q. As a player in the stadium, talk about the fans being right there on top of you, and some things that make it tough playing there? SETH DOEGE: Yeah, they have these paddles and they hit these mats the whole time. It's loud. They get into the game and like you said, the fans are right on top of you. I'm sure everybody knows they love to talk to you and say things to you. But that's what makes it fun. I think something about this football team really enjoys a challenge like that. Q. Why do you think you guys have struggled so much when running the yardage? SETH DOEGE: I don't know if I would have defined it as struggling. I thought we've been pretty good around the ball, short yardage. This last game we didn't, obviously. But I think when Kansas did a good job with having movement up front, twisting and stuff like that. Sometimes when they twist, it's hard for the offensive line to identify who they have and they can twist right into a run. So sometimes the defense has play calling and that's just the way it goes. Q. Can you talk to us a little about chatter after the game? It wasn't really about the game. It was more about what went on from the sidelines and everything that's ensued from that. SETH DOEGE: I have no idea what that's all about. I know just as much as you do. Q. What are your thoughts on playing seven day games in a row? SETH DOEGE: We don't have any control over it. I think as players a 2:30 game is pretty cool, because you don't have to wait in the hotel all day. You wake up, and you eat and go through your walk through and have an hour to focus in on your room and watch a little games. But those night games are fun to play in. But at the same time, you sit in your room for three hours and it kind of gets old and you're ready to play. So I kind of like playing at 2:30. Q. Of course we know the importance of finishing strong and more games, what are you going to tell the guys this week in practice to make sure the job gets done? SETH DOEGE: Thought we had a three-game season starting with Kansas, finished that one, now we're at Oklahoma State. That's all we're focused on. Not focused about what bowl game we're going to be in. We're not focused about Baylor. We're focused about Oklahoma State. It's huge for us to understand if we play hard and fast it gives us an opportunity to finish the game. We need to have that. We have a great week of practice understanding the game plan and what we want to do going into the game. Come Saturday we have a lot of fun, play at a high level, execute, and have fun doing it. It's going to be a real battle. They're a good football team, and we are too. We just need to be ready to play. Q. D.J., how much of a motivating factor is how thorough your loss was to Oklahoma State last year? What were some of the effects of getting beat that bad? D.J. JOHNSON: I try to wash that out of my mind. That was a tough one, man. I've never S. Doege and DJ Johnson doc 3

4 in my wildest dreams even or nightmares even imagined getting beat like that, you know what I mean? I know what this team is capable of, and that was just a difficult loss. Nothing -- it seemed like nothing was going right that entire season. It seemed every ball bounced the opposite way. We couldn't just get it, and that has an effect. A lot of people don't know, but this senior class hasn't gotten a victory against Oklahoma State as well. People focused on like the UTs and things like that, but Oklahoma State has been a good football team for some time now. They started to get credit and get respect, and it's about time they get their respect. But it's going to influence us or impact us to make us want to go out there and grind harder, go out there and play to the best of our ability. We remember what happened last year, and we definitely want to make sure that that doesn't occur again. If possible, we want to reverse it, and make it occur the other way. Q. What challenges does it have switching from a team that's going to run and play to Oklahoma State now. What are you guys concerned about? D.J. JOHNSON: That's something we're a little more comfortable with, playing against Oklahoma State. This is a team that does basically the same thing our offense does. We understand scheme, and this is back to the basics. This week is definitely back to basics. It's back to understanding what we've done against our team and how to prepare for their team for the passing attack. It's a lot easier to understand route concepts than blocking schemes. So many things can go wrong on a missed block, but you don't Virginia rite of route combinations that you can just run. Our coach tells us that, and he's just so, so -- we're going to trust our coaches have their game plan ready, and going back to the fundamentals of the game, and doing what we've learned is going to take us through this game. Q. You guys had fun this past game. On the sideline, you guys are like let's have fun. We're having fun. I saw smiles even when things didn't go your way. Talk about how important that was getting through that game, and how important it's going to be in a hostile environment? D.J. JOHNSON: That's huge for us. We always have to be enthusiastic. The majority of the time the team that has the most fun and is most enthusiastic is the team that wins the game. So we have to go out there with that mentality. We have to go out there really excited to play aggressive, and just go out there and have fun. At the same time, those laughs and smiles that you've probably seen are probably smiles to just keep the team up, you know what I mean? You don't want the morale to go down by anyway. If the morale on the sideline goes down, the ballgame changes. So we want to make sure we keep that up, keep each other encouraged and feed off each other's energy. Q. When you played Texas was it difficult to maybe prepare for two guys, Oklahoma State's got three different guys. Does that change the way you prepare or do they all do such similar things that it doesn't make much of a difference? D.J. JOHNSON: In regards to? Q. To them having three different quarterbacks that have played this year. D.J. JOHNSON: I haven't really paid attention to them. I've only been focusing on the games these past weeks. So we'll have to watch film to see what they do. I'm not sure exactly what they do. Q. What is it about this team rising to the occasion in overtime this year? D.J. JOHNSON: The will to win. It's that simple, man. We have that passion and desire to win. We knew what our goal was coming into this game and coming into this season. Though we may not achieve it, we're still going to fight for it and fight for each other. Q. Is it different in overtime? Why so much success? D.J. JOHNSON: It's just that. Sheer will to win, man. We want to succeed. So I feel like since everybody wants to succeed, we play for each other. We were doing things that a couple calls that were made we probably did some adjustments that probably weren't supposed to be adjusted, but it was like look, we've got to make a play. It's time to make something happen. We had people step up that were able to do that. Q. Do more nerves come into play? S. Doege and DJ Johnson doc 4

5 Like if we don't get it done on this drive or this play, that's the game. Do you have to fight nerves once it gets into overtime? D.J. JOHNSON: No, not really. It's the same as when you're in regulation because in regulation, it can go horribly. You can give up a touchdown, one touchdown can be the game deciding, we can think that we have an opportunity and the flags come into play or someone just doesn't do their assignment, and it's the same thing. So we go out there and stay level headed. We treat it as regulation. We don't want them to score at any time. So there is no more pressure on us in overtime to get the stop. We just want to make sure we go out there and get the job done. Q. You've only had one opportunity to play at the stadium. What make it's so tough there? The fans right on top of you? What is it about that environment that makes it such a tough place to play? D.J. JOHNSON: Those fans, they have great fans out there. Their fans are passionate about their team. I respect that. Me, I enjoy that. I enjoy going into football stadiums like that, because then it's kind of like what you do when you win, it's kind of like a slap in the face to the fans. So I'm excited about that. I'd like to make things happen or try to make things happen when we go into tough crowds and things like that. But they have a great fan base. The fact that they're so close, they're loud, and they're excited about their team being out there, I think that is going to impact the game. Q. D.J., Josh Stewart is in the Top 10 in the country in receiving, and it looks like the receivers are performing well right now. What do you remember about them from last year? What are your thoughts about facing those guys? D.J. JOHNSON: Like I said, I tried to erase that memory out of my mind. I really don't remember too much about those receivers. I'm pretty sure they were good guys, pretty good route runners. But I trust in our cornerbacks and trust in our defensive back field. We have a group of senior leaders back there that are able to communicate, and communicate with each other and get the job done. So I trust that Eugene Neboh will hold his side down. I trust that Tre' Porter and also Bruce Jones and Cody Davis will do their jobs. That's going to be key to make sure we go out there, play for each other and do our job. Make sure we understand what's going on out there, and understand how to fit up certain routes and certain route combinations. Q. Do you feel that OSU is as balanced as any other team in the Big 12 with the running and passing attack? D.J. JOHNSON: No, not so much. I think the most balanced team we've faced has been TCU. That's probably been the most balanced team that we've faced running and passing-wise. From Oklahoma State, they're more of a pass team. Like I said, they're very similar to Texas Tech when it comes to their offense I just feel like we have to go out there and impact that and remember what we do against our offense to make those plays against them. Q. How much did Terrance not being out there effect you guys? I know you'll talk about guys who are there, but how much of a part of this team is he? Did we see that the first time with him being injured? D.J. JOHNSON: Terrance Bullitt is a great player, man. He's a hard worker. He has a positive attitude in every situation. He's just an overall great teammate to have. Missing him was huge for us but we have some guys that were able to step up and make things happen, so that's big for us. When your name is called, you want to make sure you're able to go out there and do some things and get that done. So missing him, we'd love to have him back. We're wishing him the best, the best in health and everything. But I feel we have guys that can step up and impact the game as well. Q. Seeing Eric Ward in practice, what makes him such a good receiver and allows him to always seemingly be open every time? D.J. JOHNSON: He's special. That guy, he's special. His hands are great; his route running is excellent. He changes it up. Either everything looks the same or something will be different that makes you think that you may think that you caught on to something, but you really haven't. So he may stem inside. He usually stems inside and does one thing, now he'll do something else. His route running is excellent. He's a hard worker. He takes off his shoulder pads and has S. Doege and DJ Johnson doc 5

6 someone throwing balls over his left shoulder, right shoulder. It goes down the field five yards, and every five yards he's turning one way and catching the passes. That guy puts in a lot of work, lot of time and lot of effort. He's a great player. Q. A lot of the game had to do with what went on the sideline. Can you comment on how that victory may have been overshadowed? D.J. JOHNSON: I didn't pay attention to it. I'm not familiar with what occurred. I really don't know, honestly. I haven't paid attention to it. Q. Going back to Eric Stephens and Darrin Moore touchdown, did you get a chance to see that? D.J. JOHNSON: Yeah. Q. How exciting was that? D.J. JOHNSON: That's funny. Because we've practiced that play quite a few times. Eric Stephens is that guy that everybody, once they see him coming in there, they kind of assume that he's going to get the ball. So they executed it. We watched it throughout practice this past week watched them execute it, and work on it until they got it right. Eric Stephens made a great pass, and Darrin Moore made a great pass, it was textbook. They did a good job. Q. Saturday being this team's seventh day game in a row, what are your thoughts on play day game versus night? D.J. JOHNSON: I'm tired of them, man. I'm tired of them (laughing). No, the good thing is we're familiar with them now, we know what we have to do to get up early get pumped up and ready to go. So that is the biggest thing. Making sure we come out full speed and we're going to have to do that. Personally, I miss the evening games. I enjoy coming out and seeing the little dimmer, a little darker, and the bright lights out. It lets me know that it's football time. We're used to it now. We'll go out there and make the best of it. FastScripts by ASAP Sports S. Doege and DJ Johnson doc 6

7 November 12, 2012 An interview with: COACH TUBERVILLE COACH TUBERVILLE: Obviously, before we get started on Kansas and Oklahoma State, let's have a little discussion here about last weekend. After watching the film when I got home, it was obvious what a lot of people were upset about. It upset me too. You don't do things like that, and it was obvious I reached up, grabbed his headset and pulled on it. Heat of the battle, some things happen, and sometimes you'd like to take back. I can't remember anything like that happening to me. But that was a tough game. We're fighting hard. I've apologized to Kevin. We talked. Of course, we talked 30 seconds after that for the rest of the game, because I talk to him more on the head set than I do anybody else because he helps me chart special teams. But it's unfortunate that that happened. I've got kids of my own. I've got a hundred kids on the sidelines and coaches, and I've got to hold myself to a higher regard than that, and I usually do. But I will say this: Some have reported that I slapped or hit. You're dead wrong. I did not do that. I'm a little bit disappointed that most of you in here know me. I think you know me a lot better than that. I can understand somebody in L.A. or California doing it and making some kind of statement like that by watching the film, but I never thought about it in 35 years. Never dreamed of hitting anybody and never have. So we'll just leave it at that. That's also disappointing to me that that would be written here in this town, but we'll get on with it. We'll get to this week. We're looking forward to getting back to work. First of all, I'd like to talk a little bit about Kansas. Our players of the game: Defensive scout team player was Jonathan White; offensive scout team player was DeAndre Washington; special teams player, Kramer Fyfe, D.J. Johnson, defense; and two on offense who had the best game that they've had since they've been here, Tyson Williams and LaAdrian Waddle. We had good performances from a lot of these guys. It was an interesting game going into a game like this. Coming off the Texas game, we knew we were going to have some problems. We knew they were a lot better than what people thought or showed with how they played, and they played well. But our team is learning how to win when we don't play as well as we possibly could. They learn how to fight back, and I'm proud of the coaches and players for doing that. We won when we didn't play our best or coached our best. We've won twice in overtime, and that's tough to do. I'd proud for this team for being 7-3. That's a long cry from what a lot of people picked us, and we're not finish. We've got a chance to do even better than that. So looking forward to it. Coming off this game, getting better. We've got some guys that are still beat up. Terrance Bullitt will be operated on this week. We're going to lose him. We hate that. Same shoulder, and he just couldn't go anymore. Hopefully we'll get Jarvis Phillips back and Cornelius Douglas. Offensively we still don't know anything on that side of the ball, if we've got anybody coming back or not. We'll have to wait to see how the week goes. But we need to get stronger there too. In that game, everybody said, why didn't you run the ball more? And that's because we felt like we could throw it better. That puts a lot of pressure on your quarterback. Seth had a good day, but it was a day that if we could have run the ball a little more and taken time off the clock, it would have helped our defense, but we're learning how to win together, and that is one of the main things. Coach Tuberville [2].doc 1

8 Oklahoma State, good football team, getting better. They're the epitome of a team that's had injuries in one particular position, and their team has come together, fought hard together. They've won some games, and they're getting much better. So we've got our hands full. They've got a good defense that's about as solid as we've seen. They've got a good offense that can run and throw, and they've got the best kicker and punter in the country. So it's going to be a tough task, but we're looking forward to going to Stillwater, it will be my first trip. I've never been there, and I'm looking forward to going to a game and seeing if we've improved. Questions? Q. Some of the players in here mentioned the word embarrassed after the game they played against Oklahoma State last year. Having lost that is that a motivating factor for these guys? COACH TUBERVILLE: Yeah, we just got whipped, outcoached, outplayed. I think we fumbled the ball in the end zone for a touchdown on the kickoff. It was one of those games you'd love to have back. The year before, we didn't play quite as bad. They had Weeden and the wide receiver that was tough. But they're all motivating factors. We didn't play very well in most games last year. I think we've improved. I think most would say that we've improved. We've gotten better on offense and defense. We just need to put more consistency together. Last week we had three or four 15-yard penalties that absolutely continued to kill us on both sides. We do things in practice to try to correct those and try to get better. Hopefully these last two games we can do that. Q. Is there anything different you guys can do this week as far as run defense after what happened on Saturday with Pearson and Simmons as far as taking on Joseph Randall who is a pretty good back? COACH TUBERVILLE: Yeah, he's a heck of a back. The thing about the team that we just saw is that is what they do, and that's what they do best. This is going to be a little tougher because they can pass the ball and get the ball down the field. They've got good wide receivers. They've got a strong offensive line that's very athletic. We're going to have to be multiple. Last week we tried to load up. We played good at times. When you make a tackle at the line of scrimmage, but when they load up and break the line, you've got problems. We've had more missed tackles in last week's game than we had in three games before that. So we'll get back to regular football this week that you normally see in the Big 12, running and a lot of throw, lot of good skill players. So our defense has got their hands full big time. But, again, we're better on defense. We'll just see how much better we are than we were last year. We've got to be much better to have a chance to win this game because we've got to play defense this week. We just can't think we're going to outscore them. Q. Does it concern you that the Kansas kid was one dimensional and you had trouble stopping them? COACH TUBERVILLE: Yeah, we're not that big on defensive line. I know most people know that. We're missing Dennell Wesley. He's probably our best defensive tackle for run stopper. His grandfather died last Thursday. He missed the game. He went to the funeral on Saturday. He'll be back. But the thing about playing defense is you've got to keep getting better every week, and we've improved in some areas. Some areas we've had linebackers last week. We got cut off from the back side. We didn't read quick enough at times. We got lined up wrong. It's just youth. These guys have gotten better. It's just the other teams have figured out a way sometimes to get us in a position that we don't play well in. I think we're playing faster, we're playing quicker, and we're playing teams with a lot more quickness and speed. Q. Do you like what you've seen out of your team in overtime this year? COACH TUBERVILLE: Yeah, wish we started in overtime. We play looser for some reason. Last week the option play gave us problems. We misplayed it one time in overtime. The rest of the time we played it good. I think we've got more confidence in each other, for some reason. Offense and defense we feel like we can play looser. I think we focus better. We haven't had a penalty in either of the four overtimes. If you look back at it, this is red zone all the Coach Tuberville [2].doc 2

9 way. Our offense, for some reason, we scored six points in three quarters Saturday against a team that hadn't played very good defense and we get the ball in the red zone two times in overtime and score very quickly. I think there is a common denominator there that we've got to focus better and rely on each other more and play, and play a little looser. Q. Can you talk about Eric Ward a little bit? Does he get the publicity he deserves? COACH TUBERVILLE: Yeah, he's had three great games. He's played well all year long. He's played hurt too now. He's been hurt the last few weeks and worked through it. He's had shoulder problems, hip problems. He doesn't miss practice. He loves catching the football. But the flip side of that, he's one of the better blockers we have. He'll block well on the run, seldom comes out. We lost some of our receivers to injury. He knew he was going to have to play a lot more. He hadn't complained a bit. Stays in the training room quite a bit. He's got good hands, good body control. I saw him coming on, was it the first or second overtime? Whether they decided to blitz, we hit him over the middle, and he got down to the one-inch line, and you knew that was going to be money in the bank. He loves one-on-one coverage, and he's pretty good at it. Q. You mentioned penalties. Is that a matter of focus, and having to wait a split second longer to avoid those? COACH TUBERVILLE: Yeah, we've played a lot of guys on offense, and sometimes you can't get into a rhythm when you're playing a lot of players. We're playing three backs, and wide receivers and combinations but we've improved. We're scoring points. Not as many as we'd like because we're not scoring in the red zone as much as we'd like. But we're getting silly penalties, a holding penalty in the Texas game that hurt us. That probably cost us a touchdown. We don't get a lot of procedure penalties. We communicate well. I think a lot of times it's the tempo that we go at that we sometimes hurt ourselves. We play well with tempo, but sometimes it also backfires on us. Defensively, I'm pleased with how we're playing on defense compared to what we played last year. But, again, it's the little things that we can shave off to make us better. If you look at Kansas State, I go back and watch Kansas State play every week and look how they play. They don't ever get any penalties. They don't ever turn the ball over. We look at it. We always look at teams that have success, not just running plays, but doing the mental things right. We've got to be a lot stronger mentally. I think that's the area that we've got to get better at. Q. What is it with the illegal substitution penalties that's caused you problems? Is it communication or just people not -- COACH TUBERVILLE: Yeah, well, you've got Torres and Zouzalik playing two positions. Lot of times who is going in, who is not going in, it creates -- we didn't have that problem when we had more depth. But now we've got guys coming in that have to turn around and go back out on the field. It's really not communication. It's being able to go three or four plays and you're gassed, but you've got to go back in and figure out whether you're X or Z or H or Y. If you don't huddle and you put 11 men on the line of scrimmage and you sub, you can't do that. We've done that a couple of times which got us a penalty. Those don't bother me as much as the 15-yarders. Those ave really hurt us. Five yarders we can overcome a lot easier, but we don't need those either. Q. How do you approach a team like Oklahoma State? That Texas Tech hasn't won there in a long time and your seniors haven't had any success against them either? COACH TUBERVILLE: You don't even talk about it. It's 11 on 11. We go play at 2:30. We know what they do best, and they'll know what we do best. We'll try to take each other on. We can't worry about Oklahoma State or Baylor next week or the bowl game that we play in. We've got tons of room for improvement. Hopefully, we'll get some guys back that we can help some of these younger players that are playing probably more than they should play. Q. Have you talked to any coaches or anybody in terms of what to expect when you go into that atmosphere in Stillwater and what it's like playing there? COACH TUBERVILLE: Yeah, the sidelines different. It's very narrow. I've been in Coach Tuberville [2].doc 3

10 the stadium one time to speak at a clinic years ago when Jimmy Johnson was there back in '83, '84. My understanding is they've built quite a bit on to it. It's noisy. It's loud. We'll have to work on some things and make sure we communicate well with. And their students and fans do a good job. Just talking to a lot of the other coaches that have gone in there, I usually call to make a few calls to find out what they think. That's pretty much their thoughts of the crowd noise and the sideline is a little bit intimidating. Q. With Terrance Bullitt out, do you always the same or do you trust Zach and Sam? COACH TUBERVILLE: Yeah, Winbush is going to play more. He didn't play bad last week. He played 15, 17 snaps. I think that's the most he's ever played. He just needs some reps, another spring practice as Awe does. Awe's going to be a heck of a player. The problem is you put him out there and he's going to play a hundred miles an hour, he might not be the right place. He might take the right gap, but he loves to play. Probably should have played him a little bit more earlier in the year, when we still had depth there. Now that we don't have the depth and some guys are getting beat up, he's going to have to play some. One thing I like about him, he's an excellent tackler, good open field tackler. I think that's what we miss as an outside linebacker tackling in open field one-on-one, we don't do that very well. We don't play with confidence in that area. Q. What are your thoughts on essentially having played all day games this year? COACH TUBERVILLE: I wish we could have had at least one or two games at night here. I love on the road playing where you can get up and go play. We play 2:30 this week. Next week in Baylor, we play at 1:30. Of course, we don't know what bowl game yet. But I think college football is better in the daytime. I think your fans are a lot more active when you're at home at night. But when it starts getting cooler, I think it helps us to play in warmer weather because we do throw the ball quite a bit. Q. Coach, going back to the linebackers for a moment. Which of those guys is likely to start in Terrance's place? COACH TUBERVILLE: Oh, they'll all play. Sam Eguavoen last week hurt us a little bit on the first drive. He got hooked a couple of times. We put him on the line of scrimmage, they ran speed (No Audio) other than that, he played the best game he's played all year. He tackled well. He's playing with a lot more confidence. He's the type that it doesn't come natural too. He loves to play, but he's one of those that everything's got to be perfect until he gets his experience and understands how to play. But I think him and Winbush probably will get more playing time this week, those two. All the other guys are pretty much how they were a few weeks ago. I haven't seen a lot of improvement because we've gone back and forth, passing team, option team, running quarterback. It's hard to get a grip on what you're doing in defense in this league because every week is something different. This week we'll see two backs; we'll see three backs; we'll see no backs. I mean, you've got to adjust to all of that mentally before you can actually play a hundred percent. I think that's hurt us at linebacker. Q. Asked you about playing two quarterbacks with Texas, Oklahoma State's got three different guys playing. Is it a challenge because they all do stuff differently? COACH TUBERVILLE: Yeah, one's a little bit more of a runner. I don't know who they're going to start. It really doesn't make any difference. They run the same offense though. One will scramble more than the other. One likes to throw the deep ball better than the other. I think one has a lot more confidence standing in the pocket. So you've just got to prepare for all of them. It's not being able to say we know who it's going to be. If we want to scramble, slide to the left. He has a hard time throwing to his left. This is totally different. Number one, not knowing who is going to play, and knowing that probably you're going to see more than one anyway, so we'll prepare for all of them. Q. Does that give you an advantage knowing what each of them does when they come in that you can sort of anticipate what they're going to do? COACH TUBERVILLE: Yeah, it would be if there was experience defensively. Lot of our Coach Tuberville [2].doc 4

11 guys get in too much of that. 4 is in the game, you know, he's going to do this or that. You start thinking, and it slows you down. We'll pretty much prepare for the offense, how many backs they've got in the game, where the wide receivers are at, and especially where No. 1's at, their running back because he's a guy that can really hurt you. He's had a great year. It's hard in a three-day practice day to jam everything into playing two quarterbacks and all these formations. You've got to play a lot of fundamental techniques and that's what we're teaching all year long, and we're getting better at it. Q. Kansas did some good stunts on the front line with their defensive line. Kind of slowed down the run and got pressure with Doege will we be expecting that this week? COACH TUBERVILLE: Yeah, we're starting to get that. Texas did that, and we'll get it. It's like anything, if you see something and you don't play well against it, get ready. You're going to start seeing it until you get an answer for that. I'm sure we'll see that. We saw a lot of movement from Iowa State during the year. I think that's where people started picking up on, if you move young guards inside, they don't play as well, they don't play as hard or play as fast. We've gotten better there. Le'Raven Clark and Bo Carpenter are much improved. So hopefully we can start running the ball better when people do run stunts on us. But it has given us problems, and we've got to come up with an answer for it. The answer is to have some success to where you can make them think about something else. Q. I was watching the Texas and Oklahoma State game they had these, I don't know if they were boards or screens behind the benches. Do you have something like that to help with the crowd being right on your head? COACH TUBERVILLE: No, we hadn't -- I hadn't seen that. I don't know whether you legally can put anything behind your bench. You'd have to put it in front of all your fans. And we'll have tough enough time, I'm sure, with the people behind our bench. But we'll go and try to prepare them as we always do to get ready. It's an away game. Not a lot of friendlies at an away game. You'll have to focus better, concentrate better. When you're on the sideline, understand what you're getting ready to get into. Hopefully we handle it a lot better than some of the away games we've gone to. Q. What is this time like for you when your job starts coming up as a coach and people start throwing your names around for places like that? COACH TUBERVILLE: I never listen to that. That's all message board stuff. We're happy here. We're excited. When I came here I wanted Tucker and Troy to both graduate here. I'm tired of moving them around. But it's good. I mean, other people might think that you've won a game or two in your lifetime. But I never get caught up in that. It drives you nuts. Q. Regarding the sideline incident, was there a discussion on Sunday that involved you and Kirby or Kent or the President? COACH TUBERVILLE: Well, of course, that's between me and KO. Of course we talked on the headphones during the game. No, there really didn't need to be a lot of discussion. Q. What did you say to your offensive line through ten games what are your thoughts on that? COACH TUBERVILLE: We hadn't played as well the last two weeks as I think we played in, I'd say, in TCU. I thought we played pretty well there. But it goes hand in hand on who you're playing against. Each week they'll see it, whether it's a three-man front, four-man front, active line, defensive line, stronger defensive line. So they've got to adjust to it. Waddle has played well. Terry McDaniel is probably the most improved of all five of the guys. The three guys in the middle, Deveric struggled a little because he's trying to help one on the right and one on the left grow up. And he suffered a little bit with his snaps. You see some low snaps and things, and that's because he's having to communicate right up to the last minute and helping all those young guys on both sides. But I'd say in the middle of the year we were probably a B, a B-plus. I'd say at this point after the last two weeks we've dropped down just for the simple fact of run blocking. Pass protection has been good and that's our bread and butter. But if we're going to win any of these game that's we're getting ready to play, we've got to be more balanced. We know that. If not, Seth's got to Coach Tuberville [2].doc 5

12 have a great day. He's had some good ones. But I hate putting it on his back. I think we've got good running backs, and we can run the ball better. We need to be able to do that and try it more. Last few weeks hadn't worked out that well for us. Q. The guys on the radio said they've seen more chop block penalties called this year. Is that something the league is looking for more? COACH TUBERVILLE: Yeah, and we as coaches want them called more. We had one start called because the guard thought he was lined up on the center, and one guy blocked high, one guy blocked low. That is one of the most dangerous blocks that you can have. None of us like to lose players. You can lose one quicker on the defensive line by guys blocking high and low. So that's an area that we've really stressed with Walt Anderson, that's over our officials. That and the quarterbacks, protect the quarterbacks. I think we all know in this league we've got some guys that can play. They make a big difference in how exciting the Big 12 is, but it's not as exciting if you've got them on the sideline. We hit the quarterback from Kansas like -- we didn't hit him with our head, we just pushed him. But we asked that to be called, because can you fall on the shoulder, get a concussion on turf and all those things. So chop blocks and roughing the quarterback, I really never have a problem with that. Of course you're disappointed if you do it and it goes against you, but you also want your quarterback to make it through the year. I always visit with the referee before the game about it. How are you going to call it? Are you going to be strict? Please protect them on both sides. That's really been important for us with the guy that we've got and the experience that he has. He's been able to play so far this year without injury. But we were going to go for it at that position. You've just got to have better communication at that time. Q. You said on Saturday that you reached for Kevin's shoulder -- COACH TUBERVILLE: We're not going to talk about that anymore. Q. -- there are people who want to know if you still stand by that? COACH TUBERVILLE: No more, no more, no more. FastScripts by ASAP Sports Q. Situation aside, what led up to the 4th and 1 miscommunications? COACH TUBERVILLE: We just had punt guys going on the field, and where we were going to go for the fourth down. We were going to go for it, and we ended up with 15 guys out there. It's just one of those things where just communication broke down. We had 4th and less than a yard, and we ended up 4th and 10. Ironic, Erxleben probably kicked the best punt he kicked all year and kicked it at the 3-yard line, so things happen for a reason. Coach Tuberville [2].doc 6