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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 21, 2015

David Gibbs

Lubbock, Texas

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Q. Coach, you guys are atop the Big 12 in forcing turnovers with eight. Just what are your thoughts on the production through the first three games and the effort?
COACH GIBBS: Kids have done a good job, but doesn't surprise me. They do it in practice. All spring and all two-a-days I thought they did a nice job trying to rip and punch and do all the things you have to do to create fumbles. Our offense did a great job, knock on wood, all through spring, all through training camp. The truth is all three of the teams we played, in my opinion, are very well-coached, very disciplined football team. So to come away with eight is pretty good.

Q. Could you talk about the second half or even the game on Saturday, only giving up three points and the effort your kids put in?
COACH GIBBS: They played hard the whole game. Obviously the way the first half went they had a few more possessions than they did in the second half. We could twist statistics anyway we want to, but they played hard against a good football team who was fighting for their life. They never got discouraged, even though they were beating us up pretty good. Tried to maintain gap control, which was hard against those guys. They're so big and strong. The running back, I told you, he's an NFL guy. But the kids competed, and I was proud of them.

Q. What do you think it's been about the third quarter defense that's only allowed three points all season so far?
COACH GIBBS: Luck.

Q. Adjustments?
COACH GIBBS: No, no adjustments. We play the same defense in the first half as we do in the second half. I think the kids get a feel for the game and realize we're not going to make adjustments. But it's like I told you from day one that I've been here, we'll play the same technique, fundamentals and defenses. They'll continue to get better at them. Obviously, the teams you playa tack you differently each and every week.

I'm not sure we're mature enough or understand enough to be able to adjust and adapt quicker, but coach is doing a great job on the sideline during the game making adjustments. So therefore halftime adjustments are already pretty much made before you go in at halftime. But you can twist it how you want to.

Q. What did you think about Jah'Shawn Johnson, obviously, being named Big 12 player?
COACH GIBBS: Awesome. He got run over. About 10 of his 15 tackles, he probably got run over, but he held on. He played hard. He's a good, young player. He'll continue to develop and get better. He's all over the place, but he happened to be in the right place the other night.

Q. What is the key to slowing down the TCU offense?
COACH GIBBS: Holding the ball for about 45 minutes, which I know is not going to happen. No, they're amazing. Shoot, got our hands full again. Last time we played a spread offense, we were terrible, so we'll see what happens Saturday.

Q. What do you tell your guys about adjusting from a style like Arkansas to a style like TCU?
COACH GIBBS: You really don't. The good news for us, and you know, which was a shocker in the opening game, was we go against our offense every day in practice. Even now we do two or three different team periods against them, so we see the tempo and the spread, and we see it all every day, even when we're practicing against Arkansas. There are team periods where we go against our offense just to get speed on speed.

So the bulk of the practice now will obviously be the spread instead of all the two-back power run game. But it's a problem. It's a problem coaching defense, playing defense. When you go back and forth from different styles of offenses, which is why college football is fun to watch every Saturday. You never know what's going to happen.

Q. That possession kept your defense out there quite a bit. How did they hold up endurance-wise?
COACH GIBBS: Fine. They only played 65 plays. I mean, we played close to a hundred in the opener. So it's all relative. If we had -- playing 12 play drives that take ten minutes or actually probably not as hard as when your offense is out on the field to score a touchdown in 30 seconds and you've got to go back out there.

It changes from week to week, game to game, but I thought they were fine.

Q. Tech hasn't trailed at all this year.
COACH GIBBS: Are you all trying to hex us or what, man?

Q. If and when adversity comes --
COACH GIBBS: We've had plenty of adversity on defense. I don't know what games you've been watching. Now, offensively, I don't know what they've had. But defensively we'll be fine. I just watched Sam Houston State again this morning. We gave up 30-something points in the first half. So we've seen adversity.

These guys are capable of scoring 82. We've seen that. We've got our handsful.

Q. How do you overcome adversity?
COACH GIBBS: I think they're good. I don't think they've panicked yet. It's my job to make sure they don't panic, but it's my job to make I don't panic also. So we'll continue to get better.

Are we going to shut these guys out? No. Like I'm saying, we've got to slow them down. Make them kick a couple field goals, try to get a couple turnovers and give our offense a chance to win the game, that's our job. We'll continue to go along that way.

Q. How did you feel about the opportunities that you made starting (Indiscernible) quarterbacks? How did those switches work for you?
COACH GIBBS: I think they worked well considering the style of game we were playing. We tried to get our tacklers out there, our bigger guys that can tackle against a power run game. Did it work? I don't know. They held the ball for 45 minutes. But just tried to give ourselves a chance. It will change every week, week to week, depending on who we're playing.

Obviously, this week everybody's going to play again. It will be more like Sam Houston where you're out there so much that you have to rotate guys in. So you'll see a lot more players this week.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
COACH GIBBS: They tried that last year. We play left and right, so...

He's a great player. That dude on the other side is a great player too. I don't know. It's not a good match-up for us. They know it, we know it. It is what it is. We'll see what happens.

Q. Do you ever do where you have one player just on the quarterback spying? Do you do that?
COACH GIBBS: We'd love to. I'm sure we'll try. But everybody tries against this guy. Every week he runs for a hundred yards. He's special. He's similar to our guy. Good news is we see our guy every day in practice.

Are they the same guy? No. But I'm not sure anybody can spy our guy and tackle him either. So we'll try. We'll have a plan. Hopefully we execute it.

Q. Is this week one where maybe you preach even more discipline in pursuit to not get out of position and allow Boykin some of those yards?
COACH GIBBS: It's fine line. It sounds good until he stands back there in the pocket and nobody's rushing him and he throws the ball 80 yards down the field for a touchdown, which they do on a pretty regular basis. So there is a fine line. Because if you don't rush him, he's going to throw it deep. If you do rush him, he's going to scramble around and make plays with his feet.

So double-edged sword, pick your poison. All the coach talk. He's a great player and that's why he throws so many touchdown passes and so many yards. That's why he's a Heisman candidate.

Q. Coach, Gary Moore's played more snaps in the last couple weeks. From your perspective, how does he look? How has he come on so far?
COACH GIBBS: No, Gary, it just wasn't his football game last Saturday night. Wasn't a style of game that would fit him. He'll play and get all he wants Saturday afternoon. He'll be dog tired when he's done. He's come along nicely. Very pleased with him.

Q. Coach, I know you weren't here last year. But are you using any of the motivation from the TCU game last year for this week?
COACH GIBBS: No, I've got my own problems this year. I've got my own problems.

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