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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 12, 2015

David Gibbs

Lubbock, Texas

Q. You have to feel a little better about the way you played Saturday than in previous weeks?
COACH GIBBS: I would have felt okay except for the last drive when we still have some of our decent players in there to let them go down the field and score. But that's who we are right now. We've got to learn to start fast. You figure after the first play you might get an interception and you figure you'll play good, but for whatever reason we have no consistency.

We miss a line, we miss tackles, we do all the things bad defenses do. Until we learn to lineup right and keep doing your job and do the little things, we'll continue to struggle.

Q. You talk about starting JJ at safety this week?
COACH GIBBS: Trying to get a better tackler. Trying to get better tacklers on the field, then lo and behold, he doesn't have a lot of chances to make any tackles so it's typical. You put a guy in there to tackle, and he gets the interceptions. If I had put an interceptor back there, he would have missed all the tackles.

But it's where we are. At least he caught the ball when he had a chance to. We'll continue to play him back there and hope his body can hold up, because the reason we moved him to nickel and corner was to try to keep him from having to make too many tackles because of his shoulder injuries. But he did a decent job when he was in there.

Q. Where has your defense progressed the most?
COACH GIBBS: Did you regress or progress?

Q. Progress?
COACH GIBBS: That's a good question. We need to continue to work on the fundamentals of stance, alignment, technique. So really not pleased in any aspect, because in my mind we're not playing up to our potential which to me goes back to coaching. Not doing a good enough job coaching them, so we'll continue to focus on the little things and sooner or later, they'll get better. I keep saying that.

Q. What is the difference from what the defense is doing in the first half versus second half?
COACH GIBBS: If I knew, I'd start the game that way. Really, we're pretty good at making adjustments during the game. It just happens to not show up until the second half. I don't know why. Same thing happened to me in Houston. Though we played better in the first half, but always seem to play better in the second half.

I'm not changing a whole lot of calls. I know you would never believe that, and I'd love to sit here and tell you I was a genius, but that's not the case. We just need to learn to play from the beginning. It's not like the other team's coming out and giving us a whole bunch of different plays and looks. They're just executing better than we are.

Q. When you say that coaches need to do a better job, what specifically do you mean? Is it what goes on in practice? How you deal with them during the game?
COACH GIBBS: No, ma'am. I think every one of them are excellent teachers. I listen to them, watch them coach, we film every individual drill, we watch them all together. I like the process. But at the end of the day, the product that you're putting on the field, if they're not playing good, you have to change the way you're approaching it.

The truth is we tried that last week. After five games, it's not working. I realize we played three pretty good teams, so we've just got to keep grinding. We've got to keep grinding. Do a better job coaching, better job recruiting, and players got to do a better job playing.

Q. (No microphone)?
COACH GIBBS: They've grown. They're babies. They drive you crazy because they make one play and then you don't see the play they miss. They don't even miss the tackle because they're not lined up right, so then you put a safety in a bad situation, but they're only going to get better. They have a bright future here. You just wish they didn't have to go out there and play 40, 50, 60 plays. But right now, that's the way it is. They'll continue to develop. But they've got bright futures here.

Q. You get the sense your team is retaining knowledge week to week or do you feel like you have to start over every week?
COACH GIBBS: I think they're retaining. I think it's a product of dealing with young men. One guy makes a mistake on this call this week. His back-up wasn't in on that play, and even though you spend all your time in your meeting and in practice making sure the back-up knows the starter messed up, then the back-up gets it the next week and makes the same mistake.

But it is what it is. Your job as a coach is to get all the guys to go into the game ready to play. But we've got to do a better job.

Q. What would you consider a good performance by the defense? How would you quantify that?
COACH GIBBS: I don't know. That's a good question. I probably won't ever be happy. I'm disappointed. I'm not discouraged. I see progress. I do. I realize that you're playing defense with the spread offense, and they might score in 25 seconds. I understand that.

But if they outexecute us or their running back is better than our linebacker or safety and we can't tackle him, I'm okay with that. Some of that happened against TCU and Baylor. That's okay. But certain things aren't acceptable. When you're gapped out in the run game and they run for 315 yards and you're gapped out for 270 of those yards, they should have to make at least two people miss to get those yards. So I think execution would make me happy.

Players' efforts have been awesome. I thought they played hard again. I really did.

Q. Don't you think a key part of the ballgame Saturday was the fact that you were able to get off the field and stop them five of 15 times on third down?
COACH GIBBS: No question. That's why obviously the whole second half thing, if we can just slow them down a couple times in the first half and let our offense do what they do, then the game becomes a little different in the second half. You realize that they can't -- they have to throw the ball, and there are some certain things you can do.

So getting off the field on third down, any kind of stop to me is a miracle, and I'll take it.

Q. Take a look at Kansas. What are your thoughts about their offense?
COACH GIBBS: It should be a good match-up for us. And I don't mean that -- they're looking at our film and thinking they're going to score 50 points and I would too. We need to worry about ourselves.

Again, I said it this morning, everybody runs the same plays. Everybody's got different players at different positions. But all these geniuses run the same plays every week, which goes back to why you make the same mistake over and over again makes no sense, but it happens. Freshman quarterback looked pretty good to me. Did not look intimidated by Baylor, so we've got our hands full again.

Q. Is this as bad as you've ever seen it up there?
COACH GIBBS: On defense? I've got my own problems. Come in here, I'll watch our defense with you again. I don't have time to worry about -- I've got to mix this thing, and we will.

Q. One of the ways to fix it is obviously through recruiting. What are you looking for on the high school level from people you're recruiting to come here?
COACH GIBBS: I've got six games left. We're grinding away. We're worried about Kansas this week. Coaching these guys up, doing a better job coaching them and getting these guys to go play hard.

Q. I think you knew you wouldn't perfect it overnight. So six games in the books now, are you encouraged with where you are? Are you disappointed? What you expected?
COACH GIBBS: I'm disappointed. I'm not discouraged. But I'm a perfectionist, so it's never going to be good enough. At the same time, to me, when you have a chance to play good against certain opponents, you need to play good against those opponents because there are plenty of opponents you're not going to play good against. They're not going to let you. So to me, you have to take advantage of your opportunities.

Q. I think you told me way back months ago, you said that as far as (No microphone). At some point in the second half of the season you would come to these guys with the number of interceptions you got Saturday evidence of that?
COACH GIBBS: I was very encouraged by the number of balls that we touched. Again, I understand we played two of the better teams in the country the last two weeks, but at least we were around the football with a chance to deflect them or intercept them. They'll continue to get better at that.

I've said it since spring practice, these kids have done a great job with that. They have owned it. They have worked at it. And the turnovers will come. They will come.

Q. Looked like you played Nigel and Thierry most of the time at quarterback on Saturday.
COACH GIBBS: They did okay. The first touchdown pass was a slant. We're in man-to-man. The theory lets them catch it and run 30 yards for a touchdown. I mean, you can't do that, but they compete. Paul played a lot. Paul Banks played a lot too. They're competing every week in practice to see who starts and gets playing time.

Once you go on the field, if you're playing good, you stay in. If you give up a touchdown pass on a slant and you're in man coverage, you're going to come sit on the bench for a little bit. They're doing a good job. They're getting better. Just got to keep grinding.

Q. Can you talk about Gary and the way he played on Saturday?
COACH GIBBS: I was pleased with Gary's sacks. He was in most of the time on passing situations, so it happens. Then one of his sacks was Pete and B.J., that flush that got to him. But he's a young guy getting better. I was glad to see him play. He didn't play much the two weeks prior, so hopefully he'll continue to develop and get better because he's a part of the future here.

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