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MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 31, 2019

Jeff Choate

Lubbock, Texas

Texas Tech - 45, Montana State - 10

JEFF CHOATE: I know you had an opportunity to talk to our guys. A couple of takeaways. Obviously, the film is going to be the big tale of the tape. And I was proud of our guys. This could have been a very intimidating environment coming out here. We hadn't really, no way to simulate what we were going to get ourselves into but I thought our guys handled it very well. We didn't have a lot of miscues. We didn't have a lot of pre-snap penalties. We didn't turn the ball over. Certainly at times we were overmatched in some areas, but I think our guys continued to compete. I thought particularly on defense. And really in the kicking game, I thought our guys played extremely well. Jared had a nice day. But we covered kicks well. Obviously Tristan missed the one, but about came right back, bounced back, had another opportunity. I think what would make us feel a lot better about this is had we finished some drives. We would pop a play here or there and then we just weren't able to really produce on third down short, fourth down and short, and certainly that's going to happen sometimes when you're moving some big bodies inside. But hats off to Texas Tech. Congratulations to Coach Wells on his first win. And I know big things are ahead for this program. He's a class guy, and he's going to do some tremendous things here. So with that being said I'm happy to take any questions.

Q. With Bowman, he really kind of did some damage with passes in the flats, short stuff. What allowed him to have success there?
JEFF CHOATE: They were playing some off coverage in there and he mentioned he would like to have a couple throws back. I think in the first half had some wide open guys and wasn't able to put the ball on them, but and he did some nice things for us as the game progressed. I thought he did a better job of calming down and taking what was available. He stood in the pocket and took some shots, and I was really proud of that. I think he can continue to develop as a runner. He's a better athlete than a lot of people think. And I think he figured out today that his legs can be a weapon. And we can continue to evolve in that way.

We played a ton of guys. And I'm proud of Eric Zambrano. This guy, he's a true freshman and played probably 40 or 50 snaps for us. And they targeted him early in the game him and he came back when he threw the ball in the red zone a number of times. He deeped guys up and did a nice job.

Ty'Rese Gibson, who really didn't play anything but some special teams late last year, stepped in and started for us. And so we had to roll a lot of guys in the secondary. I thought Nolan Askelson did some nice things, inside line backer. I thought our D-line by and large held up well against a massive Big-12 offensive line and tempo. And so I think there's some good things for us certainly to build on.

Q. Can you talk about the tempo and how tough it was maybe to adjust to it early on.
JEFF CHOATE: Yeah, shoe's on the other foot now, right?

(Laughter.) It's pretty uncomfortable, isn't it? So, yeah, you know we knew what we were going to get, but there's, again, it's kind of like the atmosphere and the heat. You have to go do it in order to really see it. And I think that they're going to be a tough team to defend regardless of who is playing them because of that tempo. And there's a lot of guys, they were on us about, thinking our guys were tapping out in the second half. Well, I'm like, hey, we practiced in 75 degree weather all fall camp. So I think that was legitimate that we had some guys cramping. And then I kind of thought it was ironic, they had some guys cramping too. So I thought our Montana boys held up pretty well.

Q. You talk about the tempo. What about the positives? Plenty of those today. The fumble that stopped the touchdown and then leads to the touchdown run. Both huge plays, obviously?
JEFF CHOATE: Yeah, executed a fake punt. Callahan O'Reilly took a huge shot early and then bounced back and took charge of that. And he played really well today too. Yeah I was really pleased to see our guys continue to compete. I think one of the things that in a negative way it kind of got to us and is going to be a great lesson for our guys in terms of momentum, we're not able to continue a drive, we stop them, they punt, they get put the ball down on the one yard line. Great job by their punting team and we're not able to dig it out of there and eat enough clock. So we got to punt, they get the ball on the short field, go in 28-7. That was a huge momentum swing, I think. Plus coming back out of the break and getting the ball. Although, I thought our guys did an awesome job of slowing them up in the red zone and forcing the field goal on that first drive in the second half too.

Q. Troy. Did you see everything you liked at multiple different positions for him?
JEFF CHOATE: Yeah, Troy did a lot of good things today. Troy will do a lot more good things down the road. He didn't play a lot in the second half. Josh Hill didn't play a lot in the second half. Travis Jonsen didn't play today. Greg Filer didn't play today. And so I thought with the young guys that we put out there, they got into the flow of the game, they were not big-eyed on the sideline, they weren't, you know, nobody's happy when you're down. But they had good positive energy and continued to fight.

Q. It's tough for the players when they're running that kind of offensive tempo, but how do you think Kane held his own against it?
JEFF CHOATE: He did a good job. There's really only probably a handful of plays in the entire game where we didn't get the call in quickly, I thought. We talked about kind of having a Rolodex mentality and just going to our calls, not worrying about what the formation was, just get it to the guys and let them play. And I was pleased with Kane's performance in that area.

Q. You rotated guys around a little bit. What led to that?
JEFF CHOATE: We really liked some of the things that Denver has done. He's an undersized guy, but he's been very consistent through for us through fall camp. Tui had some injuries, so he missed a little bit of practice last week and the week before. And so, really, Zach at guard and Denver at center was kind of our rotation going into this thing, based on our last two weeks of practice. Tui got in and did some decent things. And we'll still continue to develop depth on that offensive line. That's going to be important for us.

Q. You said you have to watch tape, obviously, but just the reaction going into next week do you feel confident with what you saw enough to build on it next week?
JEFF CHOATE: Yeah, yeah. I mean, we get them at our house and we get an opportunity to play a top-25 team, that's going to be a really good test for us. And that's an opportunity for us to get this taste out of our mouths. And I think our guys will be excited to play.

Q. And one more thing. Coy Steel, I don't know how much you addressed him, but seems like he's just a really solid guy at the wide receiver spot. What was it like for him to get that?
JEFF CHOATE: That was awesome. I think the players were more happy for him than anybody else. He's a true grinder, former walk-on, has earned a partial scholarship. He's had some tough things go on in his personal life over the last couple years and he's just a great team guy. You see a smile on my face when you say his name. I'm just really happy for Coy and I know he's going to continue to produce for us.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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