September 19, 2011 An Interview With: COACH TOMMY TUBERVILLE COACH TUBERVILLE: All right. Players of the week for this week's game, offensive scout team player was Derek Edwards. Scout team defensive player was Scott Smith, who did a very good job for us and we're getting Scott in shape in terms of getting ready to play here in a few weeks. Special teams player of the week is Jared Flannel. Defensive player of the week Terrance Bullitt. Offensive player of the week and Big 12 player of the week Seth Doege. Proud of all these guys. And proud of the entire team how we prepared through the open date. And we really stunk it up in the first game other than about the seven or eight minutes of the game on both sides of the ball. So we regrouped. And as young guys do, which is very fortunate for us, they forget pretty quick things that they did yesterday. And they improved immensely going into this game, not just in the game but also in practice. We got a lot better. Even though we did start a few new guys that didn't start the week before at linebacker or defensive end, there will be consistent changes each week in the starting lineup. As I said before, each week we won't announce a lot of them because everybody will play pretty much that we take the games that we dress out on defense and offense. We're just looking for the right combination, for the right guys to put in certain situations, see how they grow and how much better they get, whether better coming off the bench or whether better starting. But we're not even close to being where we can be with our potential, but that's known by everybody because we're very young, and we'll get better each week, as long as we can stay healthy. Last week we lost Aaron Crawford in practice. He pulled a hamstring. He didn't even make the trip. We had Beau Carpenter, went out with headaches, and they decided to keep him out. He did not make the trip. Those are things that we can't control. And we're asking younger guys to step up and play in their place. So it's going to be a smorgasbord of starting lineups and backups and who plays and who doesn't play. But the one thing I liked about this game, it was kind of business-like on the road. First time a lot of these guys had not traveled, played in a college football game. Going through difficult circumstances of sitting and waiting and watching. We probably had the longest drive in the history of college football, 17-play drive, an hour an six minutes. That was very interesting how we started it, down somewhere inside the 5 and finished it and scored. It was very productive. But it was a good game in terms of having success. We controlled the tempo from the beginning to the end. And the way we play, that's very encouraging, because that's very hard to teach. It's very hard to come by other than just going out and getting it done. But proud of the offensive line. They were ridiculed last week after the first game. They got pushed around by a team that weren't expected to get pushed around by. They stepped up this week, played much better. We played several combinations on the offensive line. We played everybody that we took other than the Le'Raven Clark on the offensive line. So it all starts there. And Seth Doege was able to complete all those passes because he's comfortable in the pocket, stepped up. Didn't get touched very much. Was on rhythm and it all starts with the snap and starts with the guards and center and tackles and protection with the backs. And I thought the backs did much better at their protection also from the week before. We caught the ball. There was some T. Tuberville - 09.19.11 1
passes that were not perfectly thrown, as we saw a lot of those, and we caught those passes, and you need to do that. We had third and eight on the first drive. They went what we call zero coverage, straight up man. We picked up the blitz. It wasn't a great route by Darrin Moore. He caught the ball, made somebody miss and scored. That's what you have to do. When you're a big guy like Darrin, you're going to accumulate a lot of defensive backs and linebackers in the zone. But when you get man coverage, you have to take care of it with your size, height and speed. And he did a good job on that play. And we were able to go from there. And then turn around, we kicked. And defensively, after four or five plays, we tipped the ball, made the interception, went in and put it in 14-0. And then the floodgates opened. But it's a team game. We're not going to win games this year just on offense. We're not going to win them just on defense or special teams, we've got to win it -- everybody's got to be on the same page and understand our strength and weaknesses and get our guys to continue to improve. So as I told them yesterday in this room, we have got to get much better. Things will get tougher as we go. Nevada is 1 and 1. They didn't play as well in their first game as they would hope in a tough environment against Oregon. Their speed caught up to them a little bit as they've been able to handle a lot of people with the speed they have up in Oregon. And then last week, against San Jose, they took advantage of some mistakes. They played much better. They did make some mistakes, But Coach Ault is a very good coach. And you hear about his frame of voice, kind of like mine, after the first game, they won the game but they can't keep making those mistakes. We're in the same situation. So it will be the best team that we played to this point. And so we're looking forward to another week, not just a game of practice of trying to get the guys better and better, make sure we got them in the right positions. We did condense a little bit of our defense last week. We didn't do quite as much just because of a new linebacker starting, new defensive end starting, and I thought we looked much better. We did give up a few big plays, which was disappointing. Long passes. Should have been a touchdown on the first play of the game, post-route, got out-ran, out-techniqued and fortunately we were able to overcome that and we can make something positive of it rather than something that could have gone the other way. Injury report, Leon Mackey is much better. He's improving very fast. But he will still be out this week. Hopefully as we get through this week and also Justin Keown, we'll have a little bit better idea where they are by the end of the week. We would have loved to have taken Leon with us but they wouldn't let him fly because of his depressed, I guess what you call it, depressed lung. So he wasn't able to make the trip. Justin Keown did make the trip, as a lot of other guys did that were first-timers. Good game for us. It wasn't even close to being perfect, as we could tell a little bit on defense. But offensively they pretty much controlled the game and put it out of reach pretty quick. Questions? Q. You mentioned earlier about the short memory after the Texas State game. Do you feel that way after the good offense performance, is it important for them to forget that or is there a fine line you want to utilize -- COACH TUBERVILLE: We talked to them about the same thing you just said. When you play bad, you gotta forget about it and go back try to get better. If you play good like we did on offense, that's not going to carry over to the next game. Different defense to face, different type of personnel, different type of schemes. If you ever think you've gotten to the Promised Land, it's only a short trip to the next game, you find out pretty quick, you feel good about yourself, and things won't happen quite as easy. So, again, it all starts with being able to run the ball a little bit better. Offensive line protecting. If that happens, we do have good receivers. I thought Eric Ward really played an excellent game, his best game since he's been here. He made catches across the middle, as we talked about after the game about trying to find somebody that will catch a post route, catch a deep post, take the pressure off Darrin Moore, because he's not going to be able to be the only factor in the game once we get to games like the one coming up of people on the other side, have good players, have players that can compete with the height that he has and we've got to be able to spread the ball around as we did last Saturday. T. Tuberville - 09.19.11 2
Q. Did you know Doege was capable of something like that all along, or were you kind of watching -- COACH TUBERVILLE: Just like you. The thing about it, again, is quarterbacks, when they have time in the pocket, especially in the type of offense we have, you can complete a lot of passes. A lot of them weren't deep balls. They were short passes. Checked downs. The thing that I was most impressed with, I know he can throw the ball, but you gotta throw it to the right guy and the person that's open and go through your reads. And I was more impressed with that than I was the 40 completions of throwing it to the right guy. Sometimes you'll complete a ball, but it's not the right guy. You could go somewhere else, more production, and down the road you're going to have to make those right decisions. And Saturday he was on. He would go through his checked downs and understand why he threw and why he didn't. And he got in trouble one time with me on fourth and four you don't throw a go-route. You don't do it. You get the first down, if you don't throw a go-route throw it on first down. He's managing the game better. I think that's something he's got to understand. Sometimes you can get a little overconfident. I mean, to me that's overconfident when you've got the ball on the 35 or 40-yard line and I say, okay, go for it, head coach says go for it, doesn't mean to throw a 60-yard pass. You want to try to get the first down and control the ball, keep your defense off the field. Those are little things that he will understand as he goes through it. Even though they were giving us the go-route and pressing, we had some thing, other things he could go have gone to to get the first down, go back to the huddle and keep going. But that's one moment there that probably good that we got that out of our system and understand, hey, what we've got to do to win games, not get overbearing in terms of, hey, let's take it all at once. Q. Kind of touched on this about being overconfident, how do you keep your team from doing that? COACH TUBERVILLE: All they have to do is go back a little bit and we don't let them forget the things that they did. We were by far not perfect in this game in terms of what we did and how we did it. So there were some things that we would like to have back. But those things happen in a game. What you try to do is you eliminate as many of the negatives as you can in a game. The turnover was big. The fourth down and four, I mean, that's just like a turnover. I think that there were other situations where we could have played much better. But our guys know. And you throw the film on of a team that we're getting ready to play this week, those guys on that screen go a lot faster than the ones that we've been playing against. And so it's speed that really causes everybody problems. And that's the reason we cut back a little bit on defense was to be able to play faster defensively. And we played much faster in this game than we did the first game. We're better assignment-wise. But when you're better assignment-wise you know what you're doing, you can play faster. We've got to continue to do that defensively. We're a long ways away on defense. We're obviously up here offensively and down here defensively, and we've got to start bringing that closer to together before we have a chance to even say, hey, we've got a good football team. We played a good game. Obviously we had the best team. We had a chance to play good. The great thing about it is we took advantage of that. We didn't go out and kick it around. And kind of like we did last year, last year we had it going pretty good for us against New Mexico in the first half. Had a couple of touchdown lead. All of a sudden they score twice right before we go in. They're back in the game. This time that didn't happen. When we came back out, we took advantage of our opportunities. Q. (Question off microphone)? COACH TUBERVILLE: And it's a little bit what we were doing. We were trying to stop the run. We weren't going to let the quarterback run around. And we played a lot of matchup man coverage, putting seven, eight in the box. Their quarterback hurt Arkansas. Hurt Colorado State. And when you go into a game you look at what your best is against their best. And you try to stop their best and their best was quarterback scrambling making big plays and he had, what, 35, 40 yards. That pretty much did T. Tuberville - 09.19.11 3
what we needed to do. Now, when you do that, you've got to be able to understand you might give up some passes but not the deep ones. You've got to understand your depth, your alignment, whether you're inside or outside. Those are little things that we have not even come close to getting over to our players. But a lot of it you can talk all you want to in practice but when they see something different in terms of formations or different personnel, which they had in the game -- a lot of their personnel was different than what they had the previous week -- players didn't understand the speed of the guy or what they needed to do. And we got out-ran. I'd say three times in the game we just, we got out-techniqued and we got out-thought about how to play that certain receiver. So hopefully -- we won the game, we learned from those experiences and we go from there. But first play of the game we just basically got out-techniqued and out-ran by their wide receiver. They just didn't execute it and luckily make the play for us. Q. What did you like from Texas State to Saturday's? COACH TUBERVILLE: We looked more confident playing. And we played a lot faster. We played faster -- guys were able to get more pass rush. We stopped the run a lot better. We worked all week on containing the quarterback, not losing contain. Not letting him out. I thought our pursuit angles were not as good. We missed some open field tackles on some screens. Sometimes you're not going to make the tackle but you gotta make sure you use the number one tackler on the field. Your best tackler on the field is the sideline. And you don't let them cut back into the field. And we did that a couple of times by overpursuing them on a reverse. The quarterback reversed out and ran it about 60 yards, only gained about 10. But we should have had them in the back field. There's little things like that in major college football you gotta understand that sometimes you're not quite the athlete as that guy with the ball. And what you need to do is make sure that you use the sideline, use your proper angles and let the calvary get there and let the calvary help you. You can't do it all on your own. Those are the things we need to learn as we go through these games and this one more non-conference game before we get into the conference game in two weeks. Q. What concerns you about Nevada this week? COACH TUBERVILLE: Well, they're balanced. Chris Ault is a very good coach. They had a great football team last year and they're kind of rebuilding, kind of like we are in terms of a quarterback and running backs and receivers. They've got a good scheme. They don't panic. Their problem so far at this point is they've turned the ball over and they've had penalties. You can't win a lot of games, as we know, of doing that. And you just hear him talk about the same frustrations that we had pretty much the first week of not doing the little things right. But they've got two quarterbacks. They do throw the ball. They throw it down the field a lot. They moved it on Oregon. They just got behind so quick. They got them out of their running game. They like to run the ball, they run the pistol offense. And a little bit similar to what we run. Their offensive line is -- they lost a couple of starters. They did lose their tight end in the first game to an injury, and so they're trying to put all the pieces together as we are with a lot of younger players. Defensively, they lost some defensive linemen, but they're very good at linebacker and defensive backs. They've got a lot of speed. And this will be a true test for our offense in terms of running their offense versus man coverage and zone coverage and being able to, again, keep the rhythm and tempo. That's the type of team that we are is try to keep the tempo and keep it moving and making plays and, again, scoring a lot of points. We score a lot of points against most anybody, if we keep our composure no matter who is on the other side. So we don't change a lot of our offense from week-to-week depending on what we see. We just change our personnel and how we play them and where we play them. It's more of a personnel game matchup against what they do on defense. Q. Do you have any type of relationship with Chris Ault? COACH TUBERVILLE: Not really. I've called him a few times. Talked to him. Tried to hire a couple of people off his staff over the years. He's done the same with me. That's what happens in our business. But he's been there a long time. And he's T. Tuberville - 09.19.11 4
done probably as good a job as anybody in the country's done with their team in such a long period of time. They've been consistent and they know what they want to do. It's the type of team that worries you, that they have an offense and defense and they don't stray from it too far. They teach it and their players play it. And they're not one of these fly by night teams that's going to change anything. They do a good job of being physical on offense in terms of running and they can throw it down the field. Q. How much of the pistol stuff is kind of borrowed from what they -- COACH TUBERVILLE: I think they pretty much started it. It kind of started over the years from other teams. We just -- we're all thieves, coaches are. If somebody's doing something good that we think that might work with the personnel that we have, you look at it. And if it works for you, you continue to build on that. And this is our first go-around with any pistol at all. We don't do a whole lot but we do some. And I think it's good for us. I think it's good for us on the play action game. It's good for our running backs to be able to go to both sides of the line of scrimmage, not kind of give away their strength, so to speak. So I think it's going to be good for us. Obviously they know a heck of a lot more about it than we do because they've been running it for a while. Q. You said you play faster. My mother-in-law asked me: Are we faster this year? So I'll ask you, are you just playing faster, more comfortable, or is the team actually faster? COACH TUBERVILLE: No, we're faster. We're faster on offense and defense, on both sides of the ball. I think we're stronger. Last year, as I talked to you, I thought we were very weak, lower body; we were pretty strong upper body. I think we're better in those areas. We were much quicker on the defensive line in how we play and the calls that we make, we let our guys move around. We slant quite a bit. We zone blitz quite a bit. I think we utilize what we have more. But our strength and conditioning coaches have done a very good job. Again, we don't get that tired. But I think a lot of that has to do with, if you look at Jackson Richards, for instance, normally a starting defensive end for us, last year would have played 60 plays, he played 30, 32. And that would have been how many he would have played whether it was a close game or not because we have guys we can put in to try to keep them fresh. So a little bit different. But offensively we're definitely faster. I think Eric Stephens has gotten faster and quicker and playing all the wide receivers that we play, we look fast. But we're going to need to continue to do that, because we're -- as I said, the teams on the other side are getting faster also. Q. Do you enjoy the West Coast? COACH TUBERVILLE: Oh, yeah, I enjoy going out there, yeah. I enjoy it. Q. Have you talked to them about the discussions about (inaudible)? COACH TUBERVILLE: I still haven't given up on us keeping this thing together. I think there's still a possibility of -- and you hear all this talk, and most of it is just rumors and speculation. You know, we would know something. Obviously we're not as aggressive because I think Chancellor Hance, President Bailey would love to keep this thing all together with all the other teams that have been with us. I thought we really were on the verge of it a couple of weeks ago of this thing going south. But I think there's a true effort out there by several teams that have a lot to say about this, of keeping the Big 12 intact and maybe growing it. Saying that, you know obviously that there's other talk going on. As you can see on the East Coast from teams are starting to say, okay, this thing's getting serious we better try to fill ours up and try to change our rules of defection money-wise. You saw that with the ACC. And hopefully we can keep all this together. But there's a lot of talk, and there's a lot of different avenues that some people can take. I just hope we'll be able to keep this thing together the way it is and for us to grow and go out and take some people to come in with us. Q. (Question off microphone)? COACH TUBERVILLE: I talked to President Bailey and Chancellor Hance and Kirby once a day about what's going on. And pretty much we hear -- you don't know a lot behind the scenes. They don't even know a lot. They just T. Tuberville - 09.19.11 5
know that there's discussions going on about several different things, which as I just said, one mainly about keeping this thing together. I mean, that's not -- it's not a done deal that this thing is going to explode. Now, there's a lot of smoke, but you've seen none of that fire yet coming up. I think there's still a very good chance we can hold onto this thing if we just do it the right way and everybody comes to their senses before this thing implodes. But whatever happens, I feel we're in very good shape of what's going to happen with the facilities that we have now, the interest and the community, the airport that we have, I think we're a good candidate for whatever happens. But as we all want and have talked with Chancellor Hance, Bailey and Kirby and even the other head coaches, we'd love for this thing to stay together. Q. (Question off microphone)? COACH TUBERVILLE: I've gone everywhere. If we do go somewhere else, most of our recruiting is going to be in the state of Texas anyway. That's where we'll get most of our players. We'll go other places and look, but I think for what we have in terms of high school players in this state, it's crazy to go much farther. Last year we went out different boundaries just because we were behind. And we had to go out just because most of the players were already committed and we had to go. But the longer we are here the base we have will be consistent from the state. FastScripts by ASAP Sports T. Tuberville - 09.19.11 6
September 19, 2011 An Interview With: SETH DOEGE Q. How does it feel, have you ever felt that much in the flow before? SETH DOEGE: Couple times when we scrimmaged. It was kind of like that there in fall camp. But the credit goes to the offensive line. There's no question, because I didn't feel pressured all day but one time, and that one time was because I made the wrong protection call. It's a lot easier to sit back there and throw and catch when there's no pressure. We challenged those guys earlier on in the week because we knew that New Mexico had a really talented defensive front and they responded to the challenge very well. Q. Do you expect things to go smoothly against Nevada, or what's your thinking? SETH DOEGE: We want to execute every game as we did last Saturday. But the thing is we gotta get better every week, because every week everybody in the nation's getting better. And if we don't get better this week, then we're going to have a hard time executing our game plan. So we want to concentrate on every day going to practice and learning their scheme and trying to execute a game plan. Q. For playbook purposes, expanding as the season goes on here? SETH DOEGE: We do a little something different every week, just depending on how they play, what their strengths and weaknesses are, compared to our strengths and weaknesses. Coach Brown and his offensive staff do a really good job on trying to put us in the best position to win game. Q. (Question off microphone)? SETH DOEGE: Coach Brown did a really good job of preparing us as quarterbacks and really harping on not forcing things. The film we saw, when they played, they played soft coverage a lot and there were times when they came up and pressed you, and tried to put any pressure on you and most of the time they were very soft. So he harped on just kind of taking what they gave us and not to force things down the field when the underneath was open. So he really did a good job and it stuck in my head all game. So I kind of stayed with the game plan, and we hit a lot of quick routes, a lot of quick underneath routes. Q. Nevada, they gave up 69 points to Oregon, high-powered offense like you guys. SETH DOEGE: I haven't watched them yet. I plan on watching them right after this. But I know they're a talented football team. And I watched a little bit of that game on the bye week when they did play Oregon. I know that they finished 13th in the nation last year, and that's something to be looked at. So I know they're going to be a talented team. I know they're going to be ready to play us. So I think we need to concentrate on improving this week and being ready to play. Q. Seth, can you describe sensorially, what happens when you get into the zone? Does everything seem to be moving in slow motion? Does the ball feel really in control? SETH DOEGE: Things do slow down a little bit for you just because you feel like you're in a rhythm. And I think everybody on the team kind of relaxes, not to the point where we're not focused on what we're supposed to be doing and not being S Doege - 09 19 11 1
physical up front or anything, but we relax to where we can just do our job and it becomes a lot more easier because it's a lot more funner. Fun. Funner. It's a lot more fun to play other than being uptight and trying to make a plan you just go do your job and let things happen for you. Q. What has the reaction been like, friends and family, the game that you had? SETH DOEGE: You know, everybody's very proud of me. I had a lot of family there. And it was good. I'm glad they all came. And I'm glad I could experience that with them. But the best part was to experience it with my teammates, because I know we've been here. I guess we started once Coach Walker and Coach Tuberville got here and Coach Brown working really hard. It's good to see something special finally happen. Not just the record but how we executed on offense. It was really fun and that's how we need to kind of approach a game every week and kind of start fast and keep the pedal down throughout the game. Q. How has life changed for you from backup quarterback or so to big man on campus whatever you want to call it? SETH DOEGE: I don't go to campus a whole lot because I'm in grad school. A bunch of online classes. Just the fact that you prepare a lot different every week. I guess there's a lot of expectations for you. So other than that I'm the same guy with the same friends and same family. So not much has changed. Q. How much more comfortable are you for the two games in terms of game plan preparation? SETH DOEGE: Feels a lot better. After that first game it felt like it was kind of like a scrimmage or preseason game because it was a bye week, week two, and it felt like we hadn't really kicked off the season. So now that we're in a routine and we had a Sunday practice last night and everything feels like the way it's supposed to now and now we can kind of get in our game prep game week routine and go from there. Q. How important is it -- how important is it to get out there and play a little bit and have your team in this conference? SETH DOEGE: Like I said, Nevada is going to be tougher than the first two teams we faced, but I think it's good for us to have a team like that, prepare for a team like that, and I think it's going to, if we go out there and do what we're supposed to do and execute it will kind of boost us going into conference play and that way we'll be ready for -- when we go to conference play, everybody's good. So we definitely need to see a pretty good, pretty solid team before going into conference. Q. Talk about the different looks all these different running backs give you guys. The different looks, you guys have so many different guys back there, talk about how troubling that is for an opposing defense. SETH DOEGE: It's good to have a lot of guys to get involved in the offense because they can't key on one guy. I think Eric Ward did a really good job of coming out and showcasing his skills. Now they can't just worry about Darrin on the outside. They're going to have to worry about Eric. And then Eric Stephens did a really good job of catching the ball in the back field and making yards after the catch. So we're very versatile on offense and we've got a lot of playmakers. Q. What do you think the strongest point of the offense is? SETH DOEGE: Just the offensive line just by Game 2, they showed what they can really do and now it's expected out of them every game, because New Mexico's defensive line is very talented. I think they had like three guys, NFL potential, and our offensive line really responded and kind of shut it down. So I think if they play well then it's going to be hard for the skill guys not to play well because everything's going to be open, running lanes. We're going to have to have time to throw the football. So it's on those guys' shoulders. But at the same time we all need to do our job. But I think the strength of our team is our offensive line. Q. Can you talk about how they have high expectations now, how difficult will that be? SETH DOEGE: I think they're a strong group. I think they're mentally just as strong and I feel like they're a unit that wants to be the best in the country. So I don't think it's going to be a problem. It's just going to be a matter of focus and want to to get it done. S Doege - 09 19 11 2
Q. You said you're focusing better, how do you get better? SETH DOEGE: There's going to be different looks this game. I'm sure Nevada isn't going to play as soft. I'm sure we'll have to go down the field more than we did this week. I'm not too worried about the completion percentage as in trying to get better. There's a couple of times in the game where I maybe completed a pass but it may not have been the perfect read or it may not have been thrown on time. So there's a lot of things I need to improve on too. Q. How easy is it to replicate how you performed on Saturday? SETH DOEGE: I don't know if you can replicate it. But you still execute a game plan. And that's my job is to do my job and that's make the right reads and throw the ball. I don't know if all of them are going to get caught, and I don't know if all of them are going to be accurate, but that's what I'm going to try to do and that's what I'm going to work on. Q. Do you feel like you and Darrin have something special? SETH DOEGE: Yeah. He's a great player. I think he can make a lot of plays on the ball. And I feel very confident going to him. Q. At any point during the game does it come to you like, hey, I missed a pass, for your first 15, does that ever jog your memory, or just didn't want to do it? SETH DOEGE: No, when I looked at -- after the game I really didn't think I threw 44 passes. It felt like I didn't throw that many at all. But during the game it just felt like we were in the rhythm offensively. Like I didn't necessarily think like, oh, I hadn't thrown an incompletion. I was thinking more, we've scored the first three drives -- I wasn't necessarily thinking, oh, I've got to complete a pass or I need to stay on this streak. I was thinking, oh, we're going to score again. Q. When was the last time you felt that way in a game? SETH DOEGE: Well, I haven't played in a while. So I don't remember. Maybe 2005 versus Van Horn or Anthony something like that. Q. Were you concerned about the weather delays disrupting your timing? SETH DOEGE: It was frustrating because we had to sit in the locker room so long. The frustrating thing about I think it was the first time, it was our third time on offense and we were in such a rhythm, and they called it off and I was just sitting there thinking, God, we're in such a good rhythm right now, I hope we can come out and do it again. And I think we did a really good job as a team staying focused and being excited to play after the delays. Q. Can you talk about your defense helping the offense so much, providing short fields, getting turnovers, how important is that to you? SETH DOEGE: That's huge, because it's such a momentum swing once the defense turns the ball over. I remember one case we went for it on third down and I threw a ball to Darrin and we didn't connect. And the next play the defense turned the ball over and it was just -- when you turn the ball over on fourth down you're like we just turned the ball over and defense has to step up now. And them doing a good job of creating turnovers and giving us good field position turns the momentum swing gets the offense excited about going on the field taking advantage of a turnover. Q. When Neal decided to go for it on fourth down, how much confidence did it give you guys, how bad did you want to make that conversion? SETH DOEGE: It's huge. We want to just like any third and long, third and short, fourth and long, fourth and short we want to get a first down, we want to stay on the field. And unfortunately we missed the throw and the catch this last week. But it's good to know that Coach Tuberville and Coach Brown have confidence in us to go for it on fourth down. Q. Seth, Texas Tech's quarterbacks have set so many NCAA records over the last decade. What does it mean for you to put your name in the books alongside them? SETH DOEGE: First of all, I really want to give all the glory to my teammates because as I said, offensive line if they didn't protect like they did, there's no way that any quarterback could S Doege - 09 19 11 3
have thrown for that many completions. And there was a couple of balls that were tough catches that receivers made. But for me being mentioned with Cliff Kingsbury is special to me just because he was one of my heroes growing up. He's one of the reasons that I wanted to be a text tech quarterback. Q. Is it overwhelming for you? SETH DOEGE: No, it can't be, because we have to get ready for the Nevada. And none of these completions or percentages or anything carry over to the next week. Q. How do you temper all the expectations, your performance, how do you temper that to stay focused on the task at hand? SETH DOEGE: We want to -- we want to execute a game plan every week just like we did against New Mexico. And it may not happen just like that. But now we know how it feels to where when we're in a rhythm and when everybody's doing their job and when everybody's focused and everybody's playing hard, now we know what it feels like and what can happen if we all do our job. So I think it was a good thing that we did field that so now we know what expectations are and how good we can be when all those things come together. Q. Do you want to play in the Pac-12 next year or Big 12? SETH DOEGE: I don't care. As long as we can play football. Doesn't matter to me. FastScripts by ASAP Sports S Doege - 09 19 11 4
September 19, 2011 An Interview With: JACKSON RICHARDS Q. How good did it feel to get out there on Saturday and make a difference? JACKSON RICHARDS: It was fun. It was a good time. Q. What did you learn about yourself with your first start? JACKSON RICHARDS: I was pretty nervous before the game. But when we got out there, honestly I knew that everyone around me had faith in me and I had faith in all them. So it wasn't really that nerve-racking. It didn't feel that much different rotating in with Mackey the first game. I was a lot more nervous the first week than I was last week. That first week -- I was about to throw up I was so nervous before that game. Q. (Question off the microphone)? JACKSON RICHARDS: I couldn't tell you. Maybe around 30. Q. How aware were you guys, obviously knew the offense was keeping the ball moving, but defensively are you aware at all of what's going on -- JACKSON RICHARDS: That takes a little pressure off whenever three plays into the game we get a 60-yard completion for a touchdown and then we make a stop and then they score again. Whenever your stops are rewarded with a touchdown it makes you feel a lot better. Adds on the confidence. Takes a lot of pressure off, too. Q. When you look back, looked at yourself on film, what did you feel you did well on Saturday and what were you not -- JACKSON RICHARDS: I felt like I played hard. And that's the main thing you have to do especially at defensive end. But I saw a lot of things I need to improve on and I know we're going to work on it this week and keep working on it after that. Q. How much are you taking advantage of this opportunity with Mackey being out? JACKSON RICHARDS: You know, Mackey's a great player, and I'm just doing my best to fill in his spot and hopefully he'll be back soon. He's a really hard worker. He's a really humble guy. We miss him a lot on the field. But we know he'll be back soon. And I have confidence I can hold my own until he gets back. And when he gets back it will be that much better. Q. What's your relationship been like with him since he's been gone, taking over his spot? JACKSON RICHARDS: Whenever he got hurt he told me he'd be my biggest fan until he got back. He's that kind of guy. He's real supportive of his team. He's definitely not the guy sitting over there sobbing in the corner. He's doing whatever he can to get back as fast as he can and make a difference. Q. Any advice or tips on technique or anything like that? JACKSON RICHARDS: Does he offer advice, tips? Q. Or do you ever go to him? JACKSON RICHARDS: Anything he picks up on film, he tells me and Dartwan and Kindred and Aundrey Barr, tell us all exactly what he sees. J. Richards - 09.19.11 1
Q. Anything surprise you about playing on the road and playing in New Mexico and the kinds of things they were doing? JACKSON RICHARDS: I didn't know the weather was that bad there. I didn't know it could be sunny and cloudy and sunny and cloudy six times in one day. No, it wasn't like a giant packed house to where everyone is yelling how much they hate you. So I guess I haven't really experienced the real effects of an away game yet. Q. What did you see as some of the biggest improvements from two weeks ago against Texas State? JACKSON RICHARDS: I feel as a whole we all played better offense, defense and special teams. And I don't know, we kind of -- I felt like we were more prepared because we had more film to watch. We didn't exactly know what Texas State was going to do because there was a new offensive coordinator, new head coach. So we didn't exactly know what film to study. We just knew -- we knew what to do with New Mexico. We knew how we were going to play and what they ran. Q. Can you talk a little bit about Seth's composure and how he's stepped up to be -- JACKSON RICHARDS: You can tell a significant change in Seth right whenever we started workouts after the bowl game last year. He just immediately stepped up. Immediately a lot of people started looking up to him. He's definitely put the work in. It's paying off right now. Q. What do you know about Nevada's offense? JACKSON RICHARDS: I know they're fast. I know they won, was it 12, 13 games last year. I know they're going to be very good. We've got to get in the film room and work hard in practice, because it's going to be a challenge. They're a good team. Q. Since you run some of the pistol offense, does that help you on defense that that's what Nevada runs? JACKSON RICHARDS: I haven't watched any film on Nevada. But obviously they do run the pistol. I'm hoping it will help a little bit. It's not like we're going to see a bunch of plays we've never seen before. And especially after playing Texas State and New Mexico who are both shotgun run teams, that should help a little bit. Shouldn't be too much new things to see. But then again every team runs something else different. Q. This is the last week for the conference (indiscernible)? JACKSON RICHARDS: It's real important, I guess. I have no idea. This is my first year. So to me Texas State, that was a Super Bowl game, New Mexico is another Super Bowl game. I'm so hyped up for every game, that's honestly how I felt before both those games. I felt like we were about to go play the Cowboys or something like that when we were about to go play Texas State and New Mexico. It's all new to me. This is the first time I'm really tested, honestly. Q. (Question off the microphone)? JACKSON RICHARDS: I was kind of timid a little bit on the pass rush because the harder I was going to go upfield, it was going to leave somewhere, that B gap wide open. I knew that quarterback is going to take it and run. So I saw him going, held something, and I had big boy grab me here while the fast guy's trying to run away. I'm just holding on for dear life hoping that someone's going to come hit. Luckily right when I let go Dees came in and hit him, and that was good. Didn't look stupid. If he had broke it off for 20 yards I would have felt bad for letting go. Q. Since he was a mobile quarterback, was the game plan to kind of keep him -- can you talk about that. How well did you execute your game plan against him compared to what you were looking for? JACKSON RICHARDS: I felt like we did a pretty good job containing him. Still with a quarterback like that, I think he broke a few loose. But as a whole I think we did better this week than we did against Texas State. And all we can do is try to get better. So hopefully we'll get better next week and keep that up. There's also the McCoy brothers. We did a drill where they scrambled. We had to try to keep them contained. And I don't know if anybody is as fast as those two brothers. So I mean that might have helped a little bit. FastScripts by ASAP Sports J. Richards - 09.19.11 2