Sept. 15, 2009
RB Tre’ Newton
On if playing in a spread offense in high school prepared him for Texas’ offense: A little bit. The similarities are we ran the shotgun in high school and we run the gun here, and things like that. The offense is a little different, so I still have to learn the plays.
On his performance against Wyoming: It was a lot of fun for me. I redshirted last year so I didn’t get to play in any games. I was just on the scout team, so it was a lot of fun finally getting in there and getting to play a little football.
On how has felt to play in two games after redshirting last season: I try to work hard each and every week. It was good to get in there. The line did a great job and made my job a lot more fun and a lot easier. It was a lot of fun. I was just glad I was able to come in and help my team out when they needed me. I always just try to stay ready for whenever my number’s called.
On what the coaches have told him this week: Be ready when your number’s called. Always work hard and make sure you’re on top of your plays, things like that. When the opportunity presents itself and they need me, I’ll be ready.
On his confidence level: Confidence comes with being prepared for your opponent. (Running backs) coach (Major) Applewhite does a great job of that for us. As long as I know what the other team’s doing and I’ve had a good week of work, I feel pretty good going in.
On what former Texas RB Chris Ogbonnaya taught him: Chris Ogbonnaya taught me a lot. He’s a real mature guy. He’s great with his academics. He taught me how to balance both academics and football. He came out to work and he worked real hard every day at practice, and I picked up that from him.
On his father, former Dallas Cowboys OL Nate Newton, and his influence on Tre’s football career: Growing up, my dad originally didn’t want me to play football until I was in the sixth or seventh grade. I talked him into letting me play in third grade. Now when he calls he always asks about my grades or how I’m doing in school.
On the focus of the running back group: All of us in the running back group, we just focus on what we need to do. We all just try to make sure we’re ready whenever coach needs us and whenever our team needs us.
S Blake Gideon
On the growth of the secondary from 2008 to 2009: Experience plays a lot into that. Every day going out there all last season, this spring and all summer during seven-on-seven, playing around each other has been important. (Defensive backs) coach (Duane) Akina talks about how a secondary needs to get a feel for each other, and you need to be able to trust that somebody is going to take this cut and that cut and have your back. That’s when you truly grow as a secondary. That’s all about reps together. We think that we have grown.
On the secondary receiving criticism from last year’s Texas Tech loss: It all goes back to, we didn’t win the game. With how close we were and how mature we were as a team, everyone wanted to take the responsibility and no one was going to run from that. The best way for us to deal with it was to move on. As much as other people would like to point fingers, we knew that’s something we couldn’t do.
On how much he has grown from last season: I’ve grown because everyone else has grown. We’re all able to trust each other, and so we know where each other are going to be and we trust that everybody knows their responsibility. It’s a huge part in playing defensive football.
On moving on from last year’s game and focusing on Saturday: We need to be ready for this game. Last year is last year. There’s no revenge factor in it. It’s about getting a win, and obviously that’s something we couldn’t do last year. That held us back from our ultimate goal.
S Earl Thomas
On the challenge of playing Texas Tech’s offense: We’re just taking it like it’s another team. We know they throw the ball a lot, so we’re just working hard and executing and trying to do everything right.
On Texas Tech’s quarterbacks: They do good with their quarterbacks getting them good with their system. Their running game is screens, getting the ball vertical down the field. So, we’re just doing everything we can do get ready for the game.
On what stands out about Texas Tech on film: We just look alignments and splits. We look at how far they line up off the ball. We try to get a read on the snap before they even do it.
On Texas Tech’s receivers: Their receivers all can catch. Their offense is good for receivers. All of the receivers are good as a unit together.
On how far he has come as a player since last year’s game: Just not on me, but the whole secondary has grown up a lot. As you can see we’ve been playing lights out for the last two games. We just try to get better every Sunday when we come back and watch film and correct what we did wrong. Everybody grew up, and it’s paying off.
WR Dan Buckner
On how it feels to be able to make big plays: It feels great. Texas is a big program with a lot of tradition. To contribute this season feels great.
On Texas Tech: We want to win. That’s all we want to do. We’ve got one goal, and that’s to win. We don’t care how we win. We just want to win.
On what he learned from last year’s game against Texas Tech: I learned that every game counts. In high school you can lose before playoffs and it didn’t matter. It doesn’t work like that. Every game counts here. We’re just trying to win every game. That’s what we’re going to come out and do. Right now we have a good chance at doing that. We’re undefeated, so we’re just trying to win and keep it that way.
On his chemistry with quarterback Colt McCoy: I graduated early, so I’ve been here for a while and I feel like you don’t need to have that much chemistry with Colt. He’s going to put it there. He’s accurate, very, very accurate, so he’s going to put it where it needs to be. It’s just my job and the receivers’ job to make the catch.
On if he feels like he belongs after a few games: Coach Brown wouldn’t put you on the field if you didn’t belong out there. Last year I wasn’t on the field as much, but looking back on that, it wasn’t my time to be on the field yet.
LB Roddrick Muckelroy
On how the team is getting ready for this weekend’s game: We’ve just got to continue to practice and watch film. We’re not ready right now because it’s the first practice this week. We’ve just got to continue to progress and make steps forward.
On what he sees from Texas Tech’s offense: They’ve got great receivers. They run great routes. (The quarterback) throws to everybody. It’s not just one receiver that you have to key on. He throws to everybody including the running backs with screens. They’ve got a pretty good running game. We can’t go in and just try to stop one player. We’ve got to go in and prepare really. We’ve just got to go in and continue to work hard this week and just get ready for them.
On forgetting about last year’s game against Texas Tech: You’ve just got to go forward. We can’t live in the past. Yes, we played the game last year, and things happened. You’ve just got to move forward, you can’t live in the past, you can’t harp on it, because the more you think about what you did last year, this game is right now. You can’t worry about the past really.
On starting conference play early: It is kind of fun. This is a big game, Texas Tech. It’s the first conference game. It’s going to be a big weekend. We’re just going to practice hard for this game, because it’s a big game.
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