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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 18, 2018

John Bonney

Lubbock, Texas

THE MODERATOR: Questions for John.

Q. I know three games in, do you feel like things have slowed down for you a little bit? Got here late. Seemed like you took to the defense.
JOHN BONNEY: Yeah, everything is starting to slow down a little bit, being here for three games. Getting more and more familiar with the scheme and everything.

Yeah, it's getting to be better for me as far as that understanding defense, being able to play fast.

Q. What was the light bulb moment that made you feel that you get this defense now?
JOHN BONNEY: Just because of the timing of everything. Coming so late, only having about two weeks maybe to learn everything, learn a whole spring's worth of defense, learn it in two weeks. I understood the importance of it because I felt like this defense would need me to contribute. I don't want be the one person out there to kind of slack off, let anybody down. I wanted to put that pressure on myself to learn quick.

Q. How much extra work would you have to put in studying the defense to catch up?
JOHN BONNEY: Yeah, spent a lot of time with Dewurst and Coach Gibbs, coach general things, hammering through everything. Hardest barrier is learning the language this defense used compared to where I've been. That was probably the toughest hurdle to climb.

Learning new techniques here and there. Other than that, just knowing schemes and everything was something that I kind of had a background in.

Q. What did you learn from playing against Ole Miss and Houston? What do you feel the team has learned from playing those two teams as a defense?
JOHN BONNEY: Ole Miss, very good team. Kind of hit us in the face as far as defense. I think the main thing we had to learn is once we can eliminate big plays, I think our defense will run a lot more smoothly, help our offense. This last game our offense definitely picked us up after we started getting some big plays.

Q. Texas Tech, Big 12, what do you remember about your previous trips to Stillwater?
JOHN BONNEY: Stillwater is a hectic place. I played there last time, it was daytime. I heard night games are a little bit more crazy. Fans right on top of you. Not much room on the sideline, anything like that.

Yeah, I'm familiar with the territory we're about to go into. Those fans are going to be right on top of us. We have to stay focused and take it one play at a time, focus on your job.

Q. How much an influence has Jah'Shawn Johnson had on this secondary unit?
JOHN BONNEY: He's definitely had a big influence. Vocal leader because he hasn't been able to play out there. He definitely is the vocal leader. You can tell a lot of guys respect him, what he has to say. He was like an extra coach out there these first three games, telling us what he sees, what we need to do better, what we're doing good at and everything like that. He was definitely an extra voice we really needed, so...

Q. What is one thing David Gibbs has taught you in that timeframe, two months?
JOHN BONNEY: One thing? He has a background as being a DB. A lot of his defense is geared towards him playing DB in his playing days. Having that, I think he calls a lot of defenses to where it will help DBs, but at the same time it will put us in very uncomfortable situations. That's something we just have to cope with.

I've learned a lot from him as far as why he calls certain plays at certain times, kind of just think through the mental psyche of why he would call certain things at certain times, it's my biggest take away from him.

Q. The number of big plays y'all have given up, against Ole Miss and Houston, was it simply an example of those are two teams that have good receivers, a lot of speed? Do you feel like y'all helped them out?
JOHN BONNEY: I think it's a little bit of both. A lot of situations on both those games where we busted coverage, weren't communicating like we should have. I think we did give them a lot. On top of that, they are very good athletes. If you give up plays to really good athletes, you're going to be behind.

That's something that we have to fix. In the Big 12, no matter what team you play, you know you're going to play against a bunch of speed and strong, physical guys, so...

Q. How much of a factor was just the speed of their offense, the tempo they played at?
JOHN BONNEY: The tempo was very fast. The offense is rooted with Baylor, how Baylor moves the ball quickly. That's one thing that he definitely did a really good job of, U of H did, having a lot of tempo, knowing what plays they wanted to call, what they're calling next.

At times it did put us out of position and everything like that. At the same time we got to understand that all we can practice they're going to go fast. A lot of teams in the Big 12 will continue to go fast. That's something we're going to see week in and week out. Just got to adjust to it in practice and keep hammering it in.

Q. Wide receivers, what are the experiences you've had against this group of Oklahoma State wide receivers?
JOHN BONNEY: Man, seems like every year they have somebody that's going to be drafted high. Last year was James Washington. I think they have McCleskey. He's really good. All three to four receivers are very, very good, very well-coached. They're physical. They play smart. It's going to be a challenge. Oklahoma State since I've played them have always been a challenge when it comes to receivers.

We definitely know what we're getting into, what we have to do every day in practice to get ready for these guys.

Q. Do you consider the performance a good performance by the defense? How do you look at the performance Saturday?
JOHN BONNEY: We look at it, there's definitely some bright spots. When you watch film, you critique yourself, you don't really want to focus on what you did good. You know what you did good. The main thing is being honest with yourself about what we did bad as a defense, focus on that. You have to be kind of hard on yourself, be your own worst critic when it comes to that.

Yeah, we made some stops and everything like that, but thankfully our offense was firing on all cylinders, picked us up when we were down.

Q. You played in a lot of Big 12 games. What do you consider to be the toughest place to play at?
JOHN BONNEY: Definitely Stillwater is up there. It will always be up there. West Virginia, places like that. Actually here. When I played here a couple years ago, it was very, very, very hectic. Those three places are pretty hard to play. It's just something you know you're going to get into, especially in Stillwater. They're loud, literally right next to you on the bench.

It's fun, though. I think that's one of the cool things about the Big 12, all the different fan bases.

Q. (No microphone.)
JOHN BONNEY: It's definitely different. I know going out for the Lamar game, I was still kind of getting used to actually running out of the home tunnel here and everything like that. It's definitely a good atmosphere, especially with the students. I didn't realize how big the student section was here. I thought it was maybe one or two sections. Seems like it's almost the whole lower deck. That's pretty cool.

This whole community, being out here in West Texas, really loves Red Raider football, have a lot of pride. It's cool being around this type of tight-knit community.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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