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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEAugust 31, 2019Matt WellsLubbock, Texas Texas Tech - 45, Montana State - 10 MATT WELLS: Well, let me, I would like to start off just by saying that our thoughts and prayers are with the people in our neighboring community of Midland, Midland-Odessa area. I was just informed actually a few minutes ago of the, really a tragedy, and the occurrence over there. And just want to pause. That's kind of real life, this is just a football game. Although I'm proud of our players, proud of our staff and our organization, it's still a game. So hopefully everything will work out right and sense will be made of it at some point. But I just want, Midland-Odessa is a huge, huge support of Texas Tech, Texas Tech football and our university and athletic department as a whole, and so those people, they're part of us. And so want to know that our thoughts are with them at this time. So just talking about the game. Good start. Really good start to the game. I thought we came out ready to play on both sides of the ball. Hit a little bit of a lull there maybe in the about the middle of the third quarter. I would like to have finished it off at that point but I was proud of the way our guys responded. We got a lot of guys in. As the game went on in the second half, I thought a lot of guys stood out and there were a lot of good plays. You look at, first of all, defensively I thought Jordan Brooks was all over the place. But truth be told you win games and you win games consistently as a program with how you play up on the O-line and the D-line in the trenches. I'll always believe that. I always have. You win in the front seven. Broad Rick Washington, Nick McCann, Eli, J-Boog, Yontz, Mbanasor, all six of those guys I thought set the tone early. Had some TFL's early, had a big stop on third and short early, and I think that set the tone for our defense. Offensively we ran the ball extremely well. Truth be told we would love to run the ball, that's what we want to be about. Alan, I thought made some really good decisions tonight. He had control over the clock, showed some calmness and a poise and I'm proud of him for that. We caught the ball very well. But I thought our running backs ran hard, ran behind our pads. There's some things that we need to clean up but overall a good first start. Good crowd, appreciate the support, everybody coming out, we're going to need it next Saturday, 7 o'clock. But we will always do everything we can to make Jones Stadium the hardest place to play in the Big-12. And the continued support by them is appreciated by our staff and our program. So thank you so much to everybody that came out and supported us. So with that we'll go ahead and open it up for any questions. Q. You talked a lot about discipline with your team and pre-start and post-whistle penalties. Today only four penalties by your team. One was kind of intentional and just setting up the time. MATT WELLS: That one was on me. We held them probably a shade too late, truth be told. I didn't know we were going to stand over the ball that long. Maybe I'll learn that little bit better later. That was me. We had the two back-to-back there in the red zone, kind of shot us in our foot on left side of our O-line. But those are, that's three out of the four penalties. The big emphasis for us will always be pre-snap penalties, post-whistle penalties. Pre-snap really looks at coaches, administrative, players' discipline. And then post-whistle a hundred percent players' discipline. And so that will always be a point of emphasis for us as a program every day in practice. And I was pleased with the way we started out. Q. How about your play on third down by your defense. The defensive efficiency today was 5-15, so getting off the field was really a key today for your guys. MATT WELLS: Yeah, a big part. We probably hit our goal there. Want to be at 70 percent for third downs. Part of the success, I think, of that defense in terms of third down is playing really good on first down. Had some TFL's early in the downs and you end up getting in third and long and make somebody a little bit more predictable. Q. You said a couple weeks ago that y'all had more at the H position than you thought you might have back in the spring. Today you get a lot of production out that have position. What did you think of those guys play in particular? MATT WELLS: I thought Rigdon came out strong, really early, Mannix caught the ball strong, blocked his butt off. And then how about Lubbock's Xavier White. I've been telling y'all he's the surprise at camp, just in terms of, surprised in terms of how fast he moved up. And I thought he had a really good debut here in his home city so I'm proud of all three of those guys. Q. (No microphone.) MATT WELLS: I thought he started out really hot. Alan found him, he was open, he made the catch, he did his job. Then he made one really contested catch and moved the chains. But really all three of those guys have been very consistent in training camp. They all deserve the right to play, they will all continue to play in that rotation. Q. How does the, offensively, the validation ultimately comes on the board in points. Is there any sort of validation you get when you see the defense physically gassed and exhausted on the other side, cramping up, forced to call timeouts? MATT WELLS: What do you think? Absolutely. Yeah, I mean that's, I think that's something that we feed on. We want to play fast, we want to be physical up front, we want to continue to put the pedal down. And I think as soon as you can see your opponent tired and tapping his helmet and needing a break, I think it gives you a little bit more internal motivation as an offensive player. Q. And Xavier, mentally, to get past that fumble and then get in the end zone the next time. How much of that was just kind of an effort play versus maybe ball-security type of thing for him? MATT WELLS: You talking about the first play or the touchdown? Q. The first play and then his mental ability? MATT WELLS: I'm proud of him. He made a mistake. It's very correctable, that's an easy correction. The only time you reach the ball out is on fourth down or the last play of the game. We'll learn from that, he'll learn from it. You know what, his teammates will learn from it. And unfortunately that cost him, cost our team a little bit right there. But I was proud of him. We just talked to him about his body language, talked to him about his mindset when he came off the field, told him I was going to put him right back in the game. And you know what, I'm really, really proud of him. Because he could have sulked, he could have went in the tank, probably normal person does. But I was proud of Xavier and he bounced back. He had a really good finish to the game. Q. You talked about your running attack. Talk about the meshing of the offensive line in coordination with your two running backs of how they did things and got you the good running attack going today. MATT WELLS: I apologize, sir, is there a question? I didn't understand it. Q. Just talking about the meshing of how the offensive line coordinated with your running backs to set you up for a good running attack today? MATT WELLS: Well, I was proud of the O-line. What did we rush for? 255, 40 carries, 255. Decently balanced, almost 700 yards total offense, the run sets our play action up. The ability for our O-line to run off, roll off the ball. We played six guys consistently up there, actually maybe seven. Zach Adams played a couple series at right tackle. Weston and Madison kind of rotated a little bit at left guard. But Dawson went for a while and Jack and Bruffy. Hats off to those guys. And I thought Travis Koontz and Donta Thompson blocked well. The addition of the tight end is -- well, addition -- addition to that in terms of what y'all are used to. But it's part of what we do and I think it opens up more gaps, more run games, more run-game opportunities and Donta and Travis played well. Q. Combined rushing and receiving, is that something that we're going to see going forward and how do you go at those touches to the hot guy or how? MATT WELLS: Well, we started off this game all three of those guys on a fairly consistent rotation with Coach Smith and Coach Yost. That was the game plan going in. And then we were going to play the hot hand in the second half. And but we're still going to roll all three of those guys. We totally believe, our program believes that reps are cumulative throughout the week, throughout the season, to be able to keep those guys fresh and have a stable of three backs that's really solid is important to us because I think it keeps them fresher. But really that was the plan going in. I do know we averted it just a little bit in the second quarter. Armand kind of, he got hot and started breaking some tackles and I think started creating a little bit of momentum for us and so we probably went to him a little bit more in the second quarter. Q. How big was it for Armand to get that touchdown run, kind of just the response to them scoring so you kind of still kept that momentum like you were speaking of? MATT WELLS: I'm just glad he didn't get caught. Somebody said kick it right out of the gate and I'm like, whoa, yup, kick it. You know. But I'm glad he, I'm glad he didn't get caught. That gave us momentum because I think it was an answer. They scored and we answered right back. And teams, good teams got to play off each other. There's going to be times where we struggle on offense that our defense has to really pick us up or our kicking game does. And then there may be times that we're having trouble stopping somebody and that we're going to have to match serve, serve after serve or touchdown after touchdown. And there's going to be times and that may be we're struggling a little bit and our fans are going to have to pull us through until we get to halftime to make some adjustments. That's kind of that we, us, and our mentality. And so I think it absolutely answered their call. Q. Last one from me. Just in terms of the start that you had where Alan went 8-8, is that something y'all practiced in terms of all those plays and if you could just speak to the execution of that? MATT WELLS: We practice completions, yeah. (Laughter.) Q. (No microphone. MATT WELLS: Fairly early in the game Coach Yost has a good idea of what we're going to do and how you're setting it up. And I think Coach Yost does a great job of getting in the flow, getting a QB in a flow. And part of that is a feel of a game once you get in with some third down calls but it's also how we game planned over the summer. This game, this game plan's been in since probably the first week in June and then we tweaked a few things and everything for about the last 10 days. But we kind of knew what we were going to do and I'm proud of our coaches and our staff. They put a lot of time and effort into this thing. And to start off the right way you only get one chance to make a first impression, we're very, very well aware of that and so I was proud of both sides of the ball the way we came out ready to play. Q. Speaking of first impressions, seems like every year there's a team or teams that look bad in week one. That happened today with Tennessee. There were some other top-25 teams that struggled today that maybe were not expected to. Did you have any anxiety this week or the last week or over the last 48 hours just over how you would look the first time and did this go about as well as you could have hoped for? MATT WELLS: No, because we hit a lull in the middle of the third quarter. But, yeah, I mean there's plenty to coach from in this room, Monday morning at 6:30. And we'll go back to work. But I'm happy with our players, I'm happy with our staff. You asked me my mindset really the last 48 hours. Honestly, truth be told, I didn't know what to expect. You're coaching a team for the first time, under the lights and in front of fans, were we going to look like we had in our closed scrimmages and our practices? We were close to that. I'm proud of our guys. There's been a lot of change since December the 1st. A ton of change for those guys. I'm proud of the way they have reacted to it. New ways to get ready for a game on Friday. Saturday morning I thought our guys handled everything right really the last 24 hours and we got to continue to make good decisions, but we'll go right back at it. We celebrate all wins, we go right back at it Monday morning. Q. (No microphone.) MATT WELLS: Significant. Q. (No microphone. MATT WELLS: Not to my knowledge right now. Q. (No microphone.) MATT WELLS: He was suspended for this game, violation of team rules. Q. Just one game? MATT WELLS: He was suspended for this game. Violation of team rules. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Q. You talked about in the lead-up, kind of what your emotions would be going into this game and walking out on that field. I think it was a couple hours before you were just standing on the double T at the 50 just kind of taking it all in. What was going through your head there? MATT WELLS: You were wondering what? Q. Kind of what was your mindset? You were just kind of taking it in standing in the double T. MATT WELLS: You stalking me out there? Geez. (Laughter.) I'm just messing with you, man. You try to take it all in, try to appreciate where you're at. It's a privilege to coach here, it's not my right. It's very humbling. Opportunity Kirby gave me. And our staff. It's not about me, it's our staff. But you just always reflect. Everybody has a why, why you do stuff. I think it's important for our players to understand that. It's important for our coaches to understand that. And it's just I was probably just reflecting on all that. It's pretty much a game-day deal for me and you are trying to get in the right mindset. But just thankful, very humbled, very appreciative of everything that's been given to you. Q. How do you feel like the secondary performed today? MATT WELLS: A little up and down. Had a couple missed tackles. We had a couple busts underneath coverage in rerouting some receivers. Those are more second-level defenders and it makes a third-level defender look bad. And so everybody probably thinks that the deep safety screwed it up and it's really somebody underneath. So there will be some things that we need to clean up there, but I think okay. I thought, Doug missed a tackle but before that I thought he tackled very well. Damarcus, I thought before he went down, I thought he had a good game. Frye stood out a couple times, did a nice job on punt return. We got Ja'Marcus Ingram in there. I don't know if you noticed, but Ja'Marcus played corner when Damarcus went out, he's practiced at safety since the minute he's been in here. The first time he lined up at corner was today. So I thought he handled himself very well. Q. Damarcus's injury, is that going to be serious? MATT WELLS: I got, I don't have, I don't have any information yet. I don't think so. Q. Talk about your kicking game a little bit. Kickoffs, field goal, punting. And what, were you pleased with what you saw? MATT WELLS: Yeah, yeah, I thought Tre kicked it off well. We don't cover a kick that we're suppose, like we're supposed to in this program. We'll figure it out real quick I promise you we'll. We didn't cover it good enough in terms of how you kick, when the ball's kicked out of the end zone how you cover. We are believers in this program. Internally as a coaching staff when your opponent looks at your video the culture of your program is seen through your kickoff cover team and your field goal block team. And that's something that we preach. I don't like the way covered the kick. Trey Wolff kicked, he saved them, he kicked them all out except, I guess, the one. But I thought Trey handled himself well. First time starter. You got a true freshman -- did you guys know we got a true freshman snapper in there today? No, you didn't. No, you didn't. Yeah, good job there. Oh, okay. All right. True freshman deep snapper, true freshman punter and a red shirt freshman kicker. I thought they all handled themselves very, very well. So proud of them. Q. How will you celebrate this? What's your routine? Is it a pizza? Is it a burger? What is it? How do you unwind? MATT WELLS: It's 7:11. I got no clue right now. Jen's got all that figured out. I'm going to go back to the house with some family and kind of hang out with them and unwind a little bit, so whatever she's got on the counter, I hope she's got it figured out. So she usually does. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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