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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 26, 2015

Micah Awe

Lubbock, Texas

Q. What are you most frustrated with on the defense right now?
MICAH AWE: Can't stop the run. I feel like that's just on me honestly. I put a lot of pressure on myself, and I feel like if we can't stop the run, it's probably my fault and I take all the blame.

Q. But you're just one of 11 guys out there. Is it just that they're running and you can't stop it, because I don't think that's really okay.
MICAH AWE: I mean, I'm 1/11. You always hear the greatest players make other players better around them, and I have a super high expectation for myself. It really stems from my high school years when we always stopped the run. I was just used to that. And being a middle piece of that, I expect that to continue, whether it's my fault or not. I think we've just got to continue to work that way, and I've got to continue to get even that much better.

Q. Is it just missing tackles, not tackling properly?
MICAH AWE: It's a whole bunch of small stuff going against a great team with two great running backs that's going to make that much difference, that much worse. When you misfit one run against those guys we just played, it's literally a touchdown. You miss a tackle like I did, it's a touchdown, and that's Division I football. I've got to get a lot better.

Q. The past couple weeks the defense has started to force a couple more turnovers. What do you think the biggest difference has been?
MICAH AWE: The biggest difference probably would just be we're going to go out there and keep fighting. I think that's one of our biggest struggles right now is to understand we play in the Big 12, which I believe is the best conference in America, so in order to win the Big 12 every week, week in, week out, you've got to fight every single snap because you never know when you're going to have that ball in your hands and make a huge difference in the game. We're growing up, we're getting there, but we're definitely not there yet.

Q. Micah, when you just can't stop the run, on the sidelines how do you keep guys from getting demoralized and that just taking a snowball effect?
MICAH AWE: I can say, you can hoot and holler and do whatever you want to do on the sideline, but you've got to do it by example. Whole thing about this game is even if you do your 1/11, it might not seem to make a difference, but that's why every play you've got to continue to -- if the play does go your way, if you go, hey, likely they'll look up to you as an example like all right, he's stopping the run, and maybe it'll spark a fire and eventually stop the run later.

Q. Coach Gibbs talked about guys being out of position. Is that a combination of maybe not knowing the defense as well as they should, knowing where they need to be, or just running themselves out of position? What do you chalk that up to?
MICAH AWE: I think a lot of it is just experience, being out there. A lot of the guys who play haven't really been on the big stage like that and been calm with it. Playing OU, you know, OU has their history, but they're still a Big 12 team. Got to go out there and do what we've been doing all week in practice. I think we've just got to step up and step up our mentality because I think our mentality right now is just to just do your job, but sometimes you've just got to be aggressive because you're going to make mistakes. There's not a single person in football history that has went 100 snaps with no mistakes. I guarantee that, and I don't even know the history. The best thing to do is just to be aggressive and make things happen within your own scheme; make things happen within your own ability.

Q. That being said, you guys, for as long as this coaching staff has been here, offense and defense have been preaching saving the football and stopping the penalties, eliminating the penalties. Obviously you can't help protect the football; you guys' job is to take the football away, but how do you prevent the penalties on the defensive side of the ball?
MICAH AWE: That's just simple. It's within yourself. I remember my freshman year when I played on special teams, I had two false start penalties on my first-ever Big 12 punt snaps. Coach Tuberville screamed at me, Don't ever do that again. It's just within yourself. You can't help me not make a penalty. You've just got to know, hey, just your D-linemen, stay behind the ball until it's snapped. If you're a linebacker, don't jump the snap. I mean, simple things is really all it is to it is just accountability within yourself.

Q. How do you feel the pass coverage has improved over the past four games?
MICAH AWE: Yeah, I mean, we're still getting better, but you know, point blank, it doesn't matter what I say up here. We've got to stop the run and win games, and that's what we need to work on.

Q. When you referred to maybe missing a gap or just mistakes on defense and it's a touchdown, why do you think it's that drastic? Why is it just a little mistake but they're that far out of position that it leads to a score?
MICAH AWE: I believe the reason is if you're supposed to make a tackle on a play, Coach Gibbs expects you to make the tackle. If you don't, there's really nobody mathematically to make that tackle. A lot of that could be made up by a lot of extra efforts, but again, I said when you play against great running backs and great teams like Oklahoma, you can't make those mistakes. So we've just got to limit those mistakes and make up for it with effort. That's all there is to it. There's really no magic behind that.

Q. Jah'Shawn just seems to have the nose for the ball as well as J.J. Is that something you see in practice or some guys have it and some guys don't?
MICAH AWE: Coach Gibbs puts us in very good positions to make plays, and he always says when those plays are thrown towards you, make them, and they make a lot of them. That's why they've got a nose for the ball, because they're natural playmakers. Like I said, we've got to stop the run. We've got to stop the run and win games. That's all -- I can't say much more than that because it doesn't matter what I say at this point. We've just got to show it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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