Aug. 8, 2009
Video: Fall practice press conference [Aug. 8, 2009]
Opening statement: We're really excited that we're starting the fall. Everybody came back at a record pace this morning. We asked them to check in between 10:30 a.m. and noon, and I think everybody was here in line at 10:30 this morning. Just talking to the guys, it sounds like they've had the best summer ever. The heat has been so intense, but they've worked out really well and they are in great shape as we get started.
Two young men have been granted medical scholarships. Michael Wilcoxon will not play in the fall, but he will stay with our team. Also, Josh Marshall will not play. Obviously, we cannot discuss the medical reasons.
When we start practice, the NCAA rules give you one practice per day for the first five days. You have to be in shorts the first and second day, you're in shoulder pads and helmets the third and fourth day and full pads the fifth day. You can only practice one time per day for players, but we, as coaches, can practice as many times as we want. So, last year, we decided to give more guys more reps in shorts. We would take two practices a day, where we practice a group in the morning and another group at night. It would be two different groups, where the other group would watch the other one. So, we're still practicing one time a day per player, even though we're out there for two sessions. We will start that in the morning at 6:30 a.m., and we'll stay out there for a little over an hour with an older group. Then, tomorrow night, we'll do some of the same with the large majority of the freshmen practicing at night after watching the varsity in the morning. We'll have practices in shorts for the first two days, then we'll come together as a team on the third day in shoulder pads and shorts, and then we'll be open to the public for the fourth and fifth day.
The heat is a real issue for all of us. Right now, we're having record heat, and it doesn't look like it's going to change for the next two weeks. We are planning on practicing outside in the morning at 6:30, because we do not feel like that will be dangerous to the kids. But, when you're practicing with fewer guys for an hour, you still have to make sure you are watching them closely. We will have to make a decision tomorrow night whether we will have the night group practice inside or outside, or maybe a mix of the two.
In the older days, you were really concerned about the freshmen overheating when they get here because of the anxiety. But, the fact that they can come in during January and the summer now really helps, because they've been working out with the other players all summer. So, you're not as concerned with them being out of shape. It also gives the freshmen a lot better chance to play than it did four or five years ago, before this rule was changed.
We will not have a depth chart. We will kind of start guys where they finished in the spring. You have to have a starting point. But, we do feel like it's a great advantage for us to change the depth charts each day based on how a guy performs. I know that gets frustrating sometimes for our fans, but it's the best way to motivate our team, and that's what we're going to do and we'll continue to do it.
When you're talking about philosophy, one of the things you try to do in the spring is to reestablish your philosophy on both sides of the ball and in your kicking game, because in college, players change. The guy you're going to feature may change. Your depth changes, and it may even change over the spring with somebody getting hurt. In pro football, you have a lot of the same thing. You have the same coaches, the same coordinators and the same players in most cases, and they run the same offense and the same defense. When you have a guy like Sergio [Kindle] for example, the feature may change when you're trying to figure out how to get him to the passer, how to disguise him and how to move him around. So, when you ask [defensive coordinator] Will [Muschamp] right now what kind of defense we're going to run, the answer becomes multiple, because we're trying to figure out how to get the best players on the field and try to get them to run the best schemes. So, if you have more man coverage guys one year, you may put the emphasis on man, and that has changed since the early years here.
Offensively, it's the same. When you start looking at who we want to be offensively, we had the second most productive offense we've ever had in our 12 years at The University of Texas last year. The most productive offense was 2005. We felt like we ran it well on short yardage and on goal line, but we would like to be more efficient running the ball out in the field, and that's something we're working on right now to try to do. We'd like to average four yards out in the field. You're not going to do that on short yardage and on the goal line. But, we're not going to take the ball out of Colt McCoy's hands. We'll still be no huddle and we'll still be quick tempo. We felt like with the 40-second play clock change in the rules, we want to get more plays in, because the rules tend to limit you to fewer plays, especially if you're huddling up every time and motioning and shifting a whole lot. We want more plays, we want the defense on the sideline and we want the offense on the field. That's something that's very important to us. We do not feel like it would be smart for us to take the ball out of Colt McCoy's hands and try to line up and run the ball, but we feel like we want to be more efficient in running the ball. We want to be more efficient in pass defense. When we are ahead of somebody and they are throwing it every time, they're going to get a lot of passing yards. We want the efficiency to be good.
We do want to continue to protect the ball like we did last year on offense again, because we protected it as well as anybody in the country, but we do want to force more turnovers on defense. We forced a lot fewer than we really want to.
We found with our self-studies over the summer that in the past eight years, the scoring offense and the scoring defense were the two most important things that happen. Rush defense was the third reason that people win, so we've got to continue to stop the run. Total defense is really important and turnover margin is very important. We still stand with the fact that when we win turnovers and explosive plays [in games], we're 65-0. When we've lost those two facets, we're 1-17, and that one was the game against Arkansas State, where we played very poorly and still won the game. You go back and study the offensive production of this four-year class going into their fifth year, they were first in scoring in 2005, sixth in scoring in 2006, 14th in scoring in 2007 and fifth in scoring in 2008, so this team knows how to score offensively.
We talked about more turnovers on defense. Last year's passing efficiency was much improved from the year before. In fact, we were second in the Big 12 in pass defense efficiency, and those are things we need to continue to do.
There are two rules that have been changed that can really have an impact on teams this year. The first one is taking care of a defenseless player. If the official feels like there is a shot at a player who is defenseless, like a punt catcher, a receiver reaching out or a head-to-head shot at a quarterback, they can now kick them out of the game over just giving them a 15-yard penalty. Another one concerns the tackle box. The tackle box will be from the center out now instead of outside your tackles. So, the tackle box will be cut down and shorter than it used to be, so the quarterback doesn't have as much room to scramble and throw the ball away, and the defense will be able to hit him when he gets out of that tackle box more readily. This is the same for your rugby style punter. Since so many people are rugby style punting now, when your punter turns to run and starts to rugby punt, he is treated more like a runner instead of a punter.
On if the coaching staff is considering running a wildcat package: Probably not. We got into it some last year with the Q package and trying to get John Chiles back there with Colt, so we could have Colt run the ball less and get John more involved, and it was not productive for us. So, we feel like we want the ball more in Colt's hands. People have asked if it concerned us that Colt was the leading rusher for us last year, but you know, Tim Tebow was the leading rusher at Florida and they won the National Championship. We played four backs a lot last year. If you're going to play four backs and your quarterback is going to run some, he'll probably be the leading rusher. We just want to keep him healthy and we don't want to get him beaten down. We do want to score points, and we felt like what we did last year was good. We just want to be more efficient on the field running the ball.
On when they start seeing other leaders step up during the fall practice: We feel like leadership will be determined at the end of two-a-days and at the end of fall camp when they're really tired. Tomorrow, everybody will be excited. Everybody is fresh. Through my 30-some years of coaching, everybody says, "What a great practice," after the first one. If the first one is bad, you better quit, because it's going to be bad. Preseason camp, for a better analogy, is like boot camp. It's trying to prepare you for tough days and the days where things aren't going your way. That's when your leadership steps up. When I was in Iraq, the General told me that our jobs were very similar, because in both football and the military, you both want to beat the other team down, you want to gain ground, you want to take territory away from the opposition, you don't want the opposition to get back up, you want to have good body language and be positive and you want to fight. The difference is that the young people over there can die, and in football, we don't fight. So, we don't call this war and we don't call this a battle. But, two-a-days prepares you for that fourth-quarter game where things aren't going well and who is going to step up and make a difference. Last year, it developed into a handful of players stepping up and being leaders. We're already seeing Roddrick Muckelroy step up and make some plays on defense and lead in the spring. It sounds like he has continued to do that through the summer. Sergio (Kindle) is asserting himself more as a leader. I felt like with his negative thing that came up this summer, it probably helped him in some ways to mature and have to step up and face the team. It was the only incident that popped up all summer and we all have learned from that. I do not text now in the car. I'm still bad where I text at red lights, but I've quit while I'm rolling, so that's better. I'm trying to do it and that's one thing we'll address with the team tonight. A friend of mine had a great friend die, because he was texting and missed a curb and went over the corner. I do think that Sergio has come out of that feeling more responsible to his teammates. Also, our safeties, both Blake [Gideon] and Earl [Thomas] are leading, even though Blake had his shoulder injury and didn't get to as much with the other guys. Overall, we do feel like the leadership ability is there, and we've tried to put much more emphasis on developing leadership, instead of just finding it, than we did before this summer, and we're continuing to do that. We'll even start leadership seminars with the young guys when they get here, to try to help them develop leadership at an early age.
On team building and the leadership seminars: We've done a lot of the team building stuff and we'll continue to do that. We did bring a guest speaker in and we've given them some books to read. Our coaches and staff are being taught more about leadership. We were on the plane going to Big 12 media days, and I saw Jordan [Shipley] reading the book, which I thought was a very positive thing that he was taking it seriously. I also had a parent call the other day telling me that they thought their son was doing a lot better with leadership. So I think just the fact that we're talking about it, teaching it and studying it has helped us all. Our staff is working in that field and we think we can help our players with that instead of just sitting around trying to find it. We're making sure we'll always have it because we are developing it.
On deciding a slogan for this year: We actually give them a slogan every day and the coaches read it to the players every day before they start their meetings when the fall starts. We won't do that tonight. We have a slogan for the year that's developed at the end of two-a-days, where we talk to the players about it over time and we, as coaches, decide as a staff what their slogan should be for the rest of the year. We also have a theme for each game. We divide the season into sections, so we feel like they can be fresh and start over. Those are all things that we continue to do each year, and we learn from them each year and we want to get better.
On the back up quarterback situation: Sherrod [Harris] did not get to work out some this summer because he had his knee worked on before the summer. He and Garrett [Gilbert] will both we working as the second-team quarterback, and we'll let them have some head-to-head competition and the one who comes out the best at the end of two-a-day practices will play.
On if he predicts opposing teams will continue to pass more against them instead of run: Part of what happened to us last year was that every team we played was a throwing team even in the pre-season. I don't remember all of them, but off the top of my head, if you look at Florida Atlantic, Rice, Arkansas and UTEP, all four had coaches who were experienced with throwing the ball. So we felt like the combination of those passing type teams and our young secondary, people probably tried to throw against us more. Then you get into our league and most teams' feature player was their quarterback in the Big 12. I think it will continue to be that way. I don't see the trend changing, but you also have to continue to try to be ready to stop a power running game. That is something we'll try to work on more during practice, because you have a tendency to get away from that philosophy when you're not seeing it at all. It popped up with Oklahoma State and Ohio State last year. It's very hard to try to stop the downhill runs if you're not looking at them in practice. So, we'll try to continue to work against the downhill runs in practice every day, regardless of the team we're playing.
On how they keep their players from not buying into all of the media and coverage: We're lucky here in that we have a lot of media coverage. Our program not only gets a lot of statewide coverage, but a lot of national coverage. The younger guys watch the older guys and we've always asked them to be respectful of their teammates, coaches, opponents and college football in general. There's competition between every league and states. That's just going to happen. They're very aware of the things that happen nationally. Now, with technology, they read every thing that's out there, I'm sure. We just tell them to be respectful and to not overload themselves. Obviously, when you're talking about another league, if it's something that can't be decided on the field, then don't talk about it, because it's just an opinion.
On the competition at tight end: Greg Smith has lost 30 pounds. He was around 285-290 pounds in the spring and now he's down to 250. I just saw him a few minutes ago. They felt like he has had a great summer. We brought him in at tight end, he hurt his knee, he was thin, and then he moved into the interior line and played all five spots and got to 290-300 pounds. When Blaine [Irby] got hurt last year, we shoved him back out to tight end quickly and he didn't really have a chance to prepare. Being thinner and being back at the position for a year will really help him at tight end. You've got Ahmard Howard who moved from defensive end over to tight end, so he should be more ready to go. You've got Ian Harris healthy now and you also have D.J. Grant who moved in there for the spring, but only got half a spring since he sprained his ankle. They said he's back to full speed this summer. Then you've got the two freshmen in Barrett Matthews and Trey Graham, so we've got numbers there. We've been so talented in tight end with our last three going to the NFL, that I think when we don't have a headliner that's ready to step up and go, everybody talks about how we don't have one. We've got plenty of prospects at that position. What we've got to do is to do a good job of teaching them and coaching them and getting the right one on the field.
On if they will still run the rugby punt even with the new rule change: We're constantly looking at the rugby punt, because it is so new. Justin [Tucker] is now working on running to his left and punting to his left or right. He may even have to check with me at the line of scrimmage. We have to constantly look at it, because we were so effective with it last year, that now everybody spends all of the off-season looking at all of the possible ways to block it. We'll work on more fakes with it. Then, we've got John Gold who averaged 46 yards per punt and is one of the best punters we've ever had. So, we've got to look at how to balance both of them, and we feel like if people worked so much on the rugby punt, that we'll stick John back in there. We have to continue to work on what we can do without doing too much and still make sure we can be efficient.
On the question marks he wants to see answered this fall from spring camp: They would be the balance of the running game, because we were so effective last year that we do not want to take the ball out of Colt's hands. He needs to be our featured player. Our receivers are really good, and we need to continue to play on that and not get stubborn and slow the game down with running the ball. We have to do what we do best, but be more efficient when we are running the ball. Secondly, we need to find a tight end and find two or three more guys who can help us there and get us back to where we can have more flexibility. After mid-season when Blaine got hurt, we were pretty much locked into wideouts, and we had to figure out how to run the ball with people spread out all over the field. That's different from having a 250-pound tight end. We also need to try to make sure we are more efficient in our four-minute offense at the end of the game. When we want to kill the clock and whether we're going into the wind, it's raining or snowing, we need to be able to kill the game and be able to do that and not punt and have to play defense and hang on. Defensively, we need to get depth in the defensive line and separate the young linebackers more. We need to find backups at defensive end that can be effective pass rushers. Also, we need to make sure we have a package that is really good when we know they are going to throw the ball and we can still rush the passer with having four ends in the game if need be. We see so many passing teams that we need to figure out a balance between running nickel or dime. Then, we need to figure out a balance in punting, I don't want to get away from John Gold because he is so good. We also need to do a better and more efficient job on kickoff returns. We obviously had a big return against Oklahoma, but we did not consistently return the ball like we could and take a huge advantage with the rule change last year. We need to be better in that area. [wide receivers coach] Bobby Kennedy has gone to pro teams and we've put a lot of time in kickoff returns to try to improve in that area.
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