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BAYLOR UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 21, 2017

Matt Rhule

Waco, Texas

West Virginia - 38, Baylor - 36

MATT RHULE: Appreciate you all being here. Obviously, a disappointing night for us. Credit goes to West Virginia. I thought Will Grier was sensational. I thought David Sills, Gary Jennings were sensational, and they did a nice job making big plays. A lot of the big plays I thought we were in good coverage and good position, and they made a play that we needed to make. So I wanted to make sure I take my hat off to them, and Coach Holgorsen and the job that they did.

That being said, obviously, proud of our team the way they fought back in the fourth quarter, and had a chance to go make -- had a chance to go tie the game up with the two-point conversion there at the end. Was proud of their effort, proud of their ability to rally. I was proud of the defense. I think basically having a shutout in the fourth quarter, so a lot of young guys stepped up, a lot of new guys stepped up, and for that, I'm proud of them. We'll continue to try to work with them.

But I know that they're disappointed. And we, unfortunately, let the game get too far away before mounting that comeback. We'll continue to try to get better. We'll continue to try it to get ready for a really good Texas team next week. Hopefully we can build off some of momentum that was there in the fourth quarter. We had a couple injuries tonight, so we'll have to continue to bring guys along and have them ready when we need them.

But, again, I take my hat off to West Virginia. I hurt are for our kids, and I really hurt for our seniors. I think the thing that stood out to me tonight was those seniors who I haven't always known, but seeing them running down, seeing Taion and Taylor, Davion running down on kickoffs and doing everything they could to keep us in that game. They said a lot to me about who they are. And I'm proud of them, and proud to know them. Hopefully we can send them out on the right note. So with that, I'll see what questions you have.

Q. What were you trying to do when you brought Charlie in? At that point, are you just trying something new or different?
MATT RHULE: No, I mean, just a couple things. I think started the night out and three guys had the stomach flu yesterday. We weren't sure if it was the same thing we had last week. We weren't sure if Mo Porter was going to play. And Zach at 3 o'clock said I don't feel good. I have the stomach flu. So we told Charlie to be ready. You look at Zach's numbers, he was 16 of 27 for 261 yards. He got sacked five times, and I didn't want him to continue to stay in there and take a beating. The one thing that Charlie brings to the table is the ability to run and to move. Sort of the guy that's going in the run game with some quarterback reads.

So we just figured why continue to let -- Zach doesn't feel well to begin with. Why continue to let him take a beating? Let's let Charlie get in there and have meaningful snaps like he did last week. I think we saw what Charlie brings to the table and the job he did. Ended up one play away from doing it. So yeah, that was sort of the thought process.

Q. Was there a quarterback controversy?
MATT RHULE: I think you would say that both quarterbacks would have an opportunity to start, but I'd have to see everything, see the film, and see who's feeling well. Charlie got beat up a little bit out there too because he was running so much. I don't want to minimize the job I thought Zach did. I don't want to minimize the job I thought Charlie did in getting in there.

Sometimes it's easier to get in there in the end when people are playing a little bit more off, and Zach was getting zero blitz and coming at him. Made some throws down the sideline that we had to come up with to help him. I'd hate to jump to any conclusions.

We've known Zach's a good quarterback, and we've known Charlie is a good quarterback. So they're freshmen and a sophomore. So we'll just continue to bring them along, and see who continues to emerge.

Q. Is it a good problem to have?
MATT RHULE: Yeah, I think at the end of the day, like you're going through a tough spurt like this, when you know that you have a quarterback, you feel good. When you know you have two quarterbacks, you feel good. And I think Charlie showed that he had moxie out there tonight. He showed that he's going to go out there and compete. I think Zach's shown his toughness to stand in there and take all the hits he took tonight. So I definitely think it's a good problem to have.

Q. Trestan Ebner has taken a tremendous leap the last couple weeks. What have you thought about his play?
MATT RHULE: For a guy that's never played running back before, he's certainly doing a heck of a job. He's shown some toughness, some explosive plays. The ability to help fight for extra yardage. So I think you see him, you know, Lovett went out there and tried to play. After being banged up, I didn't think he was going to play, and he went in there and gave us a little changeup.

So I think all those young kids are growing up, and Ebner is certainly a guy that emerged tonight.

Q. (Indiscernible) still good enough today?
MATT RHULE: Their training staff did a great job. They tried to do a little bit on Thursday, and the plan was not to play Pooh a ton. If he felt like he could go, he could go. He looked good in warm-ups, then Sneed goes down, Trevor went down for a little bit. So already a depleted running back -- receiving corps, got hurt a couple more guy, so we played a little bit more than we were probably planning on playing on.

Q. Not sure you were aware. But after the two-point conversion was no good, the entire stadium stood up and gave you guys a standing ovation of their appreciation (Indiscernible). What's that say about that, and I guess, any thoughts on doing that for the fans? Like you said Tuesday, (Indiscernible) do it for the fans, and they showed an appreciation right back?
MATT RHULE: Well, I think for me, I think the people that stayed till the end and saw that effort, I'd just say thank you. We're beyond -- we're not here for moral victories. I was talking about it in the press conference last night. We want to bring honor and glory to God with the way we play and the way we handle adversity, and I think that our kids did that tonight.

Now we didn't -- there are other things I wanted to talk to them about. But they scored that touchdown right before the half, and we went into the locker room, and it was like a morgue. We were down 11 against Oklahoma at halftime, and guys were dancing in the locker room. We're down 11 right now, and we're so emotional right now. Then we come back, and get the outside kick, and to go down 11 and we're dancing on the sidelines. I said we're just down 11 again. What are you doing?

But to go back to your question, I said it to those guys in there when we said our prayer, none of those kids in that locker room are here by accident. They were all chosen to be there. And they are strong enough to go through this. Somebody has to go through this for Baylor. And somebody has to go through this tough time. I'll say the men, the doctors, the trainers, the administrators, the coaches, the players, especially, you know, they're enduring this tough time, and they did it tonight with class and toughness, and they didn't quit and they fought for their university.

So for that to be recognized, I think it's a special thing. There are not many places where you go where people value what they see over just the scoreboard, and that's what's happened twice at our university. Now, why is that important? Because there's going to be a day when the scoreboard is going to be flipped. And there is going to be a day when we win, and we win a lot. And we'll always know, though, that our value to our university, to our fans, to the Baylor line is not just the wins, but it's the way we play, and the way we do things.

And that's what these kids are learning right now. When it all comes together, I tell you what, they're going to be something else. They're going to be something else. They don't quit. So the people that stayed till the end, I'm grateful, and I know our players are grateful. Hopefully, we honored them.

Q. To get back in it, how big was the on-side kick?
MATT RHULE: You think about Jay. I think the last time he was on this team he was on the Baylor line. He's done that once in practice, and really wasn't there. I looked at Taylor and Taion said y'all want to do it, and they said, yeah, we'll find a way to go get it. I said if we don't get it -- yeah, Coach, we'll go get it. Same thing with all the fourth downs in our territory. Our kids were saying go for it, Coach.

It was a tremendous effort by Jay. I don't even know who came up with the ball. All the different names. You guys might know better than me. I just think our kids fought. Just tried to give them a chance to go win the game, and maybe I could have done a better job in the first half of giving them some chances to go win the game.

But we went after, tried to block punts. We tried to do some things, and the kids stepped up in the second half and made those plays like that one.

Q. Charlie sparking the offense the way he did, did you feel it reverberate to the whole team? Did it snow ball and get rolling?
MATT RHULE: Yeah, those kids wanted something to happen, you know. So I think when gavin hit that long post down to the three-yard line, I think our kids emerged, right and they answered. So it was one of those back-and-forth games. We weren't ever really able to sustain some energy.

But I think the touchdown to the on-side kick to the touchdown really gave member some hope. As I said, those guys are tough. It's hard to be optimistic when things aren't really going your way. But they're being optimistic and they continue to pound the rock. But I think, you know, I think kind of the way it started to go with the fourth down conversions, the energy, the running, seeing guys make plays, I think that was fun for everybody.

Q. You said a couple days ago that you've been noticing Gavin Holmes and saying he would play more. Other than the catch, just overall what did you think of his night?
MATT RHULE: I thought he was really good. He made some crucial catches. He played on special teams. You could see that he's got some explosiveness to him. So he started counting up and made plays by the young kids. Lynch gets the sack and I think we had one sack, and Lynch had the sack. You know, I think a bunch of those kids stepped up. Eric Ogor stepped up and made some plays.

But I think Gavin is a guy you could just see in the bye week he's starting to get it. I used the word process. And all that really means is practicing, and practicing, and practicing to get yourself better, so that you become a good player. And Gavin's done that. So I actually texted his dad this week and said you raised a winner. This kid's a winner. He went out there and played really hard, and then the production shows up.

Q. It's hard for anyone that plays 60 minutes. You have seen spurts in certain games. That's just basically the inexperience of this team not yet understanding urgency at times?
MATT RHULE: I don't think there is any issue with urgency. I think there is some emotion at times. I think there are some times where there's a spot where we're just not quite good enough yet. Doesn't mean the kid's not good enough, it's just he's not where we need to be, and that can get exposed.

I think we make some mistakes on defense. We play defense to take people away, and you could see when it works. I mean, we play well. The guy makes a mistake or the guy gets beat, and it doesn't look really good right now, but I wouldn't say urgent. If anything, I'm telling the kids on the sideline just relax and play ball, man. Stop trying to do so much. Stop trying to win the game on one play. Just do your job and play as hard as you can.

I think you see some of the young kids playing that way, and it shows up with the way they play.

Q. Other than the shorter field, what do you attribute the struggles in and just outside of the red zone especially earlier tonight to?
MATT RHULE: Inability to run the football. At the end of the day we thought we had a really good run play coming in. We thought we were going to be able to run the football and just here and there. But not really to the level we wanted. I said on the radio, that opened up some of the RPOs where we were hitting the seam ball to Gavin and to Mims, so there were some big plays that were run calls. But they put an extra guy down in the box and said, hey, you're not going to run it. That was kind of unfortunate. Then the game got away.

I said, hey, play differently. Let's go after them. Throw the football. So in the second half one of the reasons we got the run game going a little bit was Charlie's ability to do some of the zone-read stuff and the quarterback-read stuff, so that accounted for one extra defender.

But until we can run the football in, we're losing those four-point plays. We're taking field goals instead of touchdowns, and that's really the difference in the football game.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
MATT RHULE: Well, it's not really weird to me. It's, you know, I don't like it, but I appreciate it. I don't ever want our kids to like losing. I don't want them to like any of this. But I appreciate what we're trying to get done. I appreciate how much better they're playing. I appreciate you can see when we don't play well, we can get down 37-13, and we start playing well. So that's really it.

I mean, you know, my job just to coach them. My job is not -- I just have to keep coaching them, keep coaching them, keep coaching them. I brought up being down by 11 and the different emotions in the game, but really at the end of the day you're just down by 11. All you can do is score a touchdown, get a two-point conversion and kick a field goal. That's really where it is.

All I want to see is down the stretch I want to make sure we honor our seniors who are out there fighting with us. Send them off on the right note and continue to build momentum for the guys on the football team where they learn how to win.

That was a team that was trying to go win. We put the ball in the hands of Charlie on the two-point conversion, and thinking he could run it. They made one more play than we made. He'll come back from that, and he didn't make that play, but they made a great play. We'll just continue to coach, and coach and coach. Not like what's happening, but appreciate the effort and the coaching and the dedication, and the work that's going on to go from a team that lost to Liberty and lost to UTSA, to a team that at the very least, they don't quit and they don't fight.

Q. Does Charlie Brewer's ability to open up the running game, because they have to account for him?
MATT RHULE: Yep, very much so, Yep. That's why I think some of the runs, you know, and his ability to throw the RPOs, but in college football, if you want to lineup and put nine guys in the box, you know, you're going to be able to stop the run. You have to be able to throw and catch the football, or you have to be able to read somebody and have a quarterback that can run. Charlie brought some of those plays.

Even when some of the plays today where we took some drop back shots and when they weren't there he ran around and made a big play. That mobility opened up the field and kept drives going.

Q. Any early word on R.J. Sneed and any other injuries that might have an effect next week?
MATT RHULE: When I was out there with R.J., it didn't sound like it was good, but I'll wait to hear. I haven't seen the doctors yet, but it sounded like it was an injury. It wasn't a knee or anything. I it was a bone, but I don't know. I haven't gotten the official word yet.

Q. Was that a run pass option on that?
MATT RHULE: It was a sprint out, he keeps running, not there, turns and throws the ball back to the tight end who runs the wide allay, and there is aback-side in cut. So there are four options on that play, and their kid made a play. I haven't seen it. He was turning to throw the ball back to the backer in the outside corner when their guy made the play. So credit to them. They made the play, and I really thought we were going to make that play.

Q. You talked a little bit about you've been wanting that fourth quarter shut out. The defense shut them out in the fourth quarter and gave you a chance?
MATT RHULE: Yeah, and they didn't have the ball a ton, but we got the key stops when they needed them. And really got off the field on third down when we needed them. That was the biggest key, you have to get off the field on third down if you want to have a chance. We were able to do that. Those big long drives, we gave up 3rd and 15, or 3rd and 17. Even on the first drive, we gave up that first third down, the player had the sack and they just threw the ball up and the kid made the play. That was the difference to me in the fourth quarter.

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