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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 4, 2015David GibbsTHE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for Coach Gibbs. Q. What have you learned about this staff, working with them? COACH GIBBS: Relentless recruiters. These guys are phenomenal. To win four football games, put this recruiting class together, credit to Coach Kingsbury and the rest of these guys because as well you know, the recruiting game, it can be great and it can be relentless and people will say and do whatever they have to do to get players to come or to change commitments to their school. For these guys to put this class together is incredible, in my opinion. Q. Do you feel confident you can turn around a defense that has been struggling? COACH GIBBS: Well, first of all, I'm still getting to know these guys here. First thing, to play defense in college football right now is hard. It is. Discrediting people for what happened in the past is not fair. At the same time playing this style of offense hurts the defense. Playing this up‑tempo offense hurts the defense. Any time you get a chance to make somebody punt, get off the field, do those kind of things, it's a victory in college football nowadays. What this recruiting class has allowed us to do is get players who can make an impact right away, which you need. Obviously you got a lot of guys coming back. That's the good news. Bad news statistically they weren't very good on defense. But experience, whether you're playing good defense or bad defense, just the experience of being out there and playing on Saturdays is a benefit to you. It's going to be a challenge. At the same time we'll see. We'll blend these new guys with the old guys coming back, put the best defense out there we can. Q. (No microphone.) COACH GIBBS: Paul is a long range cover corner who is not afraid to hit, but at the same time he's not a killer. One thing that happens in the recruiting process is you have a tendency to recruit speedy DBs, which they're usually shorter guys. Any time you can get some length with Paul and Jamile Johnson, whether or not they play corner or safety, gives you some length so you can cover these wide receivers you have to play against. We signed about 12 of them today. These big, tall wideouts. Hopefully we can cover some of them. Q. Out of this recruiting class, who are some of the guys you can see yourself plugging in right away? COACH GIBBS: Good question. One thing I've learned down through the years, I know it's Signing Day, we have all these great high school football players, junior college players. To discredit the guys who are already here for two, three, four years, put time in the weight room, out there on the practice field, the game field, they'll have a chance to compete. We got some good players. Got some good high school players coming here. At the same time they got to beat these other guys out. Fitting in the right system and playing in the right scheme, some of these guys already here have an advantage. But I'm not going to single anybody out. Everybody knows who the three star, four star, five star, whoever those guys are. In my mind it's just like the NFL, you don't know who you're drafting. Just because a kid has four stars doesn't mean he's going to be the best player. We didn't get many on defense, but the ones we got are quality guys, quality players, and we're excited about them. Q. (No microphone.) COACH GIBBS: That guy is a dynamic football player. One thing you'll know, he'll play this year as a true freshman. You can't keep that guy off the field. I tell everybody he's 5'9". If he was 6 feet tall the odds of us getting him in Lubbock probably aren't very good. One of the things you will know about that guy, he's a football player. When he hits people, they go backwards, which nowadays is a lost art. Tackling in college football is hard. That guy, he's a dynamic football player and also a great tackler. Excited to have him. He was going to come here regardless. Coach Curtis and Coach Kingsbury were the first to offer him. That young man is a loyal young man. I'm blessed to come here and get to coach him. Q. Is that D'Vonta Hinton? COACH GIBBS: Yes, ma'am. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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