	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 5, 2015

David Gibbs

Lubbock, Texas

An Interview With:

COACH DAVID GIBBS

Q. Coach Gibbs, how do you set the benchmark for your guys on a lopsided affair? Do you make small goals? How do you keep them motivated and keep playing hard?
COACH GIBBS: Good question. I'm going to give my generic answer. We're going to go back to the basics, the fundamentals and techniques and try to get better in practice every day. Obviously disappointing. They're really good, and we were not very good. So bad combination when you go play that team. But we didn't play very good. I've been saying that a lot this year. At some point we gotta grow up and start playing good on game day, because you can practice good. You can do all those fancy drills you want to, but if you don't put it on game film, it doesn't matter. These kids are amazing. You know, they've been through a lot throughout their careers and they continue to come to work every day and try to get better. And you know, I wish I could help them. I'm trying my dangedist and we'll just keep grinding and keep working.

Q. There's a difference between trying hard and trying soft. Do you think they tried too hard and got in their own way?
COACH GIBBS: No, I don't. I don't. I mean I think -- just you know, it's overwhelming when you're playing a run defense on a first -- third down of the game and they hand the ball off and nobody touches the guy for 80 yards. There's no excuse because you're gapped out and it just is what it is. I wish I had a reason why. But you know, they practice hard. They played hard. They didn't quit, which it would have been easy for them to do. There were teams during the game where watching the game you probably felt like they quit, but they didn't. I mean even the end of the game they're playing their butts off. So we gotta get better, and obviously we gotta do it fast.

Q. How do you change it?
COACH GIBBS: We're working right now. I don't know. Shoot, you know, we didn't go crazy. We didn't go blitz crazy like human nature wants you to. Like even the head coach wants you to when you get in those games and it's frustrating, everybody just go blitz, go blitz, go blitz. We did not. Maybe we should have. I don't know. But at least throughout the 70-some-odd plays we can watch and those 11 guys can know what they did right, know what they did wrong and you can move on and learn from those reps. They're valuable reps when you're trying to build a defense, you know. You know, just keep grinding. That's all I know to do. It's football. It's not that hard. You get off blocks, you make tackles. You cover the guy you're supposed to cover. But obviously we make it hard.

Q. They went 11 for 16 on third downs. Obviously that's not good, but that means that you got them into third-down situations 16 times. So do you have some new first and second-down sequences?
COACH GIBBS: We did at times. We just -- you know, two of their touchdown passes were on second, and one was second and 11, one was second and 13. And I called man coverage because I thought it was a play action pass, and it was on both of them. And both times we didn't cover the guy. So we're just, you know, we're learning. We didn't do anything good. I mean obviously third down was -- if you let them convert the first five third downs of the game, you're going to get your brains beat in. We can't do that. You know, we put so much pressure on our offense to try to match them and then the offense starts to panic. It's a bad combination. Our job is to fix it. You know, there's no easy way around it. You gotta play better, you gotta coach better. You know, we'll start again this afternoon and go back to work.

Q. Looking ahead to Iowa State, what do you see on their offense that poses you concern?
COACH GIBBS: First of all, I'm looking ahead to coaching my guys this afternoon and trying to get them better. You know, everybody is a challenge for us right now. So I keep saying we need to do our job and keep getting better at our techniques and our fundamentals and playing the calls that are called. You know, Iowa State, obviously the quarterback has played a lot of football. They got a bunch of big wide receivers, which as of right now we don't cover anybody. So I'm sure if you're looking at our film for the last couple of weeks, you're pretty much licking your chops ready to come play us. But our kids will be ready to play and hopefully we'll go out there and play better.

Q. Is there a part of the defense that you're more pleased with than the other, like the defensive line as opposed to the secondary?
COACH GIBBS: I'm really not. I mean obviously our secondary is not very good. Looks like the same secondary from a year ago to me when I watch last year's film. And I'm helping coach those guys. So you just gotta keep working and coaching them and do a better job. I wish I had a magic wand. I'd fix it. Trust me.

Q. ^ (indiscernible) That you mentioned a moment ago. (No microphone) misses the tackle.
COACH GIBBS: It is. You know, it's really -- I mean Baylor went -- they snapped the ball like within four seconds of the second down play, which our kids, oughta be good at getting lined up and we didn't get lined up until late. And it was on a few guys. It wasn't just one guy. Keenon looked bad, but trust me, there was four or five guys who didn't do their job. I mean it's pretty much if they hand the ball off on that play on third and four, they know they're about to beat your brains in. That's the bottom line. So I took that as an omen of what was to come. But our kids, you know, they kept fighting. I keep saying that. They did not quit, and I know y'all get tired of hearing it, but I don't know what else to tell you. Just keep coaching them, and sooner or later they'll get better.

Q. That was the first game Nigel played. I know he had those two P.I. penalties, but what was kind of your assessment of his first action this year?
COACH GIBBS: Looked like Nigel from last year to me, which -- he's actually practiced good the last couple of weeks, and he earned the right to go play again. And he played like the rest of them. Not very good. That's coaching. I mean he's in the same positions that he was a year ago, which is totally different scheme, totally different techniques and fundamentals. But things go fast, you revert back to your old habits. We do the same thing as people. So our job as coaches is to break those bad habits and get him to play better, because he's got the skill set to do it, obviously, but he played like the rest of them.

Q. What are his bad habits?
COACH GIBBS: What are his bad habits? Getting P.I.s, playing with his back to the ball all the time. He practices hard. He really does. I'm not going to beat Nigel up. Shoot, he was in there for a reason because the other guys were so bad. So at least he earned the right to get out there. And those wide receivers are really good. But it's the conference we play in.

Q. You started Thierry Nguema, he played a lot. Did he practice well last week?
COACH GIBBS: He did. He did. He actually played pretty good in the game. Probably should have played him more. Just the matchups and he's a smaller guy and Nigel is a smaller guy and you go against those bigger wide receivers. Same problem this week. Gotta try to protect them more with the calls which I said I was going to do when I first got here. And those last two teams, they don't let you protect your secondary very much, the way they can run the ball. But we gotta fix something. Obviously can't be bad at everything and right now we're bad at everything.

Q. (No microphone)?
COACH GIBBS: I don't think so. I really don't. I'm disappointed, not discouraged. I went with that last week. It didn't work. I'm going to try it again.

Q. What did you see from D'Vonta Hinton?
COACH GIBBS: Did good, man. I tell you what, he's going to be a good football player. I mean he looks like a little runt out there running around. But one thing he can do, he gets off the block and makes the tackle, which a lot to be said around here for that. So he's going to continue to get more reps and really this is the first game we put him out there and he actually got us excited so we kept him out there the rest of the game. But he's going to be a really good player here.

Q. Coach, do you think your players appreciate your candor in terms of how you approach things without sugarcoating it and telling them how it is?
COACH GIBBS: I don't know. If it's not working on Saturday afternoons it ain't working so maybe I need to change my approach, too, because these are new situations for me, too. So I'm learning as I go. Thank you y'all. Y'all have a great Monday.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297