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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 18, 2018Zach AustinLubbock, Texas THE MODERATOR: Questions for Zach. Q. What are some of the qualities you have seen from Alan that's made him successful so far? ZACH AUSTIN: He's pretty composed. He doesn't really get rattled that much. He's kind of just a guy that stays even keel. For a freshman, that's really, really hard to come by. Davis was kind of like that. I've had a couple quarterbacks that have been like that over the years. Not much bothers him, which is good. It can be bad sometimes because some things need to get fixed. But he's working really hard. His qualities are kind of showing. He can throw the ball obviously. He's smart. He's smart with the ball. I don't think he's turned the ball over yet, knock on wood. Hopefully that can keep up. Q. How much did that first semester where he came in help him? ZACH AUSTIN: Yeah, he's improved dramatically from that spring ball. I wasn't really playing, but I got to be around him a little bit, ask some questions, see how he was doing, how he was moving along with the offense. Seems like he's taken it on his own to hold guys after practice, work on things. He's asking questions himself, which is really good. Like I said, he's a guy that stays composed. He's the kind of guy that is communicating with people, like the receivers, asking them where they're going to be, how they want the ball, where they want the ball, stuff like that. That's really, really promising for someone that is so young like him. Q. What did you learn as an offense from last weekend? ZACH AUSTIN: Be a little bit more physical. 63 points is a lot of points. From the outside looking in, it looked really good. There's obviously some stuff we need to do in the run blocking game, some of the blocking stuff we have. Just be more physical. That's really the one thing that Coach Kingsbury has been harping on here this past week. I think that's something we can fix. We're not a soft team. We have a lot of veterans in here that are not afraid to put their helmet on somebody, with rules permitted (smiling). Put their hands on somebody, say it like that. Q. Being around Antoine in practice, did you see this type of week coming? What have you seen from him? ZACH AUSTIN: Yeah, he's the kind of guy that hasn't really changed much. But performance-wise, yeah, you could kind of see through the week. After the Ole Miss game, you could see where he was headed. In the spring he did really well. I think he was playing a little bit of inside during the spring because some of the guys were down. We didn't have most of our inside guys. He's really special. His ball skills are second to none. Kind of reminds me a little bit of Dylan Cantrell. He's obviously gotten faster. I was faster than him at one point, which is something to say. Yeah, you could kind of see a little bit through the first few weeks. But last week was incredible. This last weekend was incredible. Hats off to him for doing that. Q. We're seeing the phrase 'lock the gates' a lot on social media lately. Is that something hanging up in the locker room? What does it mean to y'all? ZACH AUSTIN: It's just have kind of something about protecting the Jones. It's something that kind of Coach Kingsbury is really big on, the leadership here is big on. We need to win games at home. That's what needs to happen for us to be where we want to be at the very end of the year. 'Lock the gates' is kind of a cool thing to do, to get some of our guys riled up there to protect the Jones. Q. Are you and Kliff growing out your beards together? ZACH AUSTIN: I don't know. I don't really have much of a beard. It's pretty patchy. Maybe I'll shave it or something. I don't know. We'll see. I'll go through this next weekend. If we win, I'll keep it or something. I don't know. It really doesn't grow much more than this, so... His may. I've never seen him have such a big beard, I guess is the words. As much of a beard as he has right now. Q. (No microphone.) ZACH AUSTIN: I think he said he wanted to keep it. I don't know if he'd say the same thing. I think that's kind of the plan. I don't know if he wants to jinx himself with saying anything otherwise. I'll keep it at that. I don't know. I think it is. It looks good, so... Maybe he should keep it if we're winning. Q. (Question regarding Ja'Deion.) ZACH AUSTIN: I don't think he's doing much more than he's always done. Like me, he's had a couple of injuries that have kept him away from the field. For as long as I can remember, he's always been making plays like that in practice and in the games when he's gotten opportunities. Now he's in the position where the ball is getting thrown to him a lot. He's getting open, which is a testament to him. The defenses that we're playing aren't bad. They've got some people out there that can cover. It helps that he's playing the Y position, which is a position that we like throwing the ball to a lot. Without giving too much away, he's open. That's just it. He's been open. He's really good about finding spaces. I think that kind of just goes along with how long he's been here. He knows the offense really well. He's seeing defenses. Heat really good about talking to people, the quarterback, knowing where to be. Me and him have a lot of conversations about where we should be, how we want to line up, which guy to run off where and stuff. That's just kind of -- he's always been really good about that. Maybe that's why. Q. How is the rotation working at your position? ZACH AUSTIN: Me and KeSean, Ja'Deion and Seth are all kind of rotating at much as we possibly can as the game permits. Some of the third down stuff, me and Ja'Deion will go out. KeSean will be out there as much as possible. He's an explosive athlete, as you guys can see, have seen. I'm sure they'll be finding ways to get him the ball more and more often throughout the season. Same thing with Seth. Seth is a really good player. Both those guys are going to be huge, huge -- make huge impacts on the team by the end of the year. Q. Do you think Alan is ready for this first true road test? ZACH AUSTIN: Yeah, I think he is. I think he's had a couple of games under his belt. He's played against an SEC team that has a lot of speed on the field, a lot of size on the field. That's kind of what Oklahoma State is. They're a big team. They'll be physical. There's going to be tight windows he's going to have to figure out where to throw the ball. I think he's ready. I think he's kind of the kind of guy that's going to be smiling in the huddle and stuff, making jokes, cracking jokes and stuff. I don't think that will faze him. I think he'll be fine. Q. Have you seen him be more confident or always been like that? ZACH AUSTIN: He's just been louder, talking more. As the spring went on, I was trying to get him -- when he first got here, you could tell he was trying to feel things out. He was still outgoing like that. He's just been more loud. If something is wrong, he's going to fix it in practice. That's kind of what we need from the quarterback position. Our offense goes as the quarterback goes. Also our running game. It's always been the offense goes as our quarterback goes. He knows that. As long as he keeps talking, keeps that up, I think he'll be fine for this next game. Q. You think Bowman is going to be cracking jokes in the huddle. Does you do that a lot? ZACH AUSTIN: I said cracking jokes. Maybe he won't be cracking a joke. He's the kind of guy that's going to be smiling, fist pumping, let's go, let's see what we can do right here, put a drive together. Small things, but they matter in the larger scheme of things. Especially to the guys that are new in the huddle like Jah'Shawn and even me who hasn't been out there for two years. That matters to me, hearing the guy that's leading the offense, he's not worried about things, kind of even-keeled there. Cracking jokes, I don't know. Q. (No microphone.) ZACH AUSTIN: Yeah, I don't have any jokes. He's a funny guy, though, I guess. Not many jokes that he's told me, though, so... FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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