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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 7, 2019

Matt Wells

Lubbock, Texas

UTEP - 3, Texas Tech - 38

COACH MATT WELLS: Proud of our team. Proud of our guys. Found a way to win. We celebrate all wins. Dana Dimel has been doing this for a long time. I have a lot of respect for that staff at UTEP. Has veteran coordinators, Keith Burns, Joe Robinson, a lot of veteran guys. That's a very well-coached football team and I wish them the best moving forward.

I'm really proud of our defense. Tremendous night, 131 yards given up. Tremendous night. Wish we could have got a shutout. I'm not sure we didn't coach a little harder on the last two series. Proud of Keith Patterson, our defensive staff. Thought they had our guys extremely ready to play. Our guys executed at a high level. Still looking for that first takeaway. We're going to continue to coach it, continue to demand it. The takeaways will come. We'll get them. When they come, they will come in bunches.

Offensively, I thought Alan, again, played another good game. You know, I don't think our running game was as sharp as it needs to be. We've got to go back and probably look at some stuff. It will be good to get some guys back healthy. We've played a lot of guys in the last two weeks and I'm looking forward to going on the road next week at Arizona.

But happy with our performance. We celebrate all wins, but it was a really, really good night. The whole night belonged to our defense.

So with that, go ahead and open it up.

Q. Obviously you have respect for both the teams that you've played, but one was an FCS program and UTEP has struggled. What have you seen these two weeks that you feel like will translate when you play a Pac 12 school next week and starting into the Big 12?
COACH MATT WELLS: It's not the Pac 12 school that concerns me. It's continuing in this program to do everything the right way, Monday morning at 6:30: How we attack meetings; how we practice; how we lift; how we go to class; the discipline; the accountability.

Next week from 6:30 Monday morning till probably 3:30 on Friday, whenever our plane leaves, it's exactly the same. So I'm looking for the same investment, the same preparation. It's all in the preparation, and the consistency amongst our guys. We've got to teach that and coach that, and Arizona happens to be the next opponent.

Q. Starting off with that sack --
COACH MATT WELLS: He's two back-to-back good games, 96, that's how he practices every day, how he attacks the weight room every day. Tremendous leader. He's going to have a really good senior year.

Q. What are your thoughts on Jaylon Hutchins and how he's coming along as a young player?
COACH MATT WELLS: I think Jaylon has got a bright future. He's in there rotating at nose with Nick, and I think both of those guys can give each other some reps, reps off.

It's cumulative throughout the week. They do that during, you know, throughout the week and I think it hopefully keeps them fresh, but Coach Randolph will roll those guys through.

Jaylon was really one of the surprises towards the end of camp, and I say surprise because he really wasn't in that role coming out of spring ball. But I thought he had a tremendous summer. It's another guy that's a hundred percent bought in, everything that we've asked him to do since December 1.

Q. How does it feel for Dalton Rigdon to get his first varsity touchdown catch?
COACH MATT WELLS: I didn't know that until right now. I'm happy for him, yeah. He looked very fast; I will just say that out in the open.

Q. Besides his obvious speed and athletic ability, what has he done to put himself in position to get playing time?
COACH MATT WELLS: Same guy every day. Since the minute we walked in here, it's like, who is this dude. Same guy every day. Never busts assignment. Catches everything thrown to him. He's 160 pounds dripping wet. Blocks his tail off. Catches everything and he's really fast.

He's been a joy to coach. I know Luke and Joy's coaching him, but he's been the same guy. He's a consistent guy. You know exactly what you're getting with Dalton every day.

Q. Last week you talked about the lull in the third quarter. Did you feel like there was a similar lull in the first quarter that led to the interception and how do you break that out?
COACH MATT WELLS: I didn't feel -- I don't feel that that was similar. I just think the first quarter woes can probably be traced back to some missed blocks and not executing the running game very well. I didn't believe we ran the ball very good early in the game.

Q. How much of that do you attribute to not having Jack Anderson, not having Terrence?
COACH MATT WELLS: Just a little bit. We got Division I Power Five offensive linemen. They need to block like it. Probably has a little bit to do it, but I'm not going to blame it on that.

Q. You said the game belonged to the defense. What about the defense impressed you today?
COACH MATT WELLS: Just their -- with how we play great team defense. We ran to the ball. Rallied. We made some really good opening tackles -- excuse me, not good opening tackles but some good open-field tackles early in the game on some of those bubbles and perimeter now screens and some of the things they were doing to try to put us in space and we made good tackles in space. But we were rallying, running to the ball and I thought our D-Line kind of dominated pretty early in the game.

Q. In regards to the defense, how anxious are you to get your first takeaway? You had the Pick-Six, but negated by the off side. How anxious are you to get that first take away?
COACH MATT WELLS: We all are. I'm not going to over-dramatize it. I mean, we're coaching the heck out of it. Last place we coached, we led the country in turnovers. We're doing the same drills. We're going to continue to coach it and emphasize it, and I truly think when they come, they will come in bunches.

Q. Is Jordyn comparable to some of the big-time linebackers you had?
COACH MATT WELLS: I think Jordyn Brooks is a big-time linebacker. He practices really good. He's a football junkie. He can blitz. He can come in gaps skinny and come out thick and that's a natural art.

To answer that question directly, he's very, very comparable. I think we have four linebackers on active roster right now in the NFL and he is very, very comparable to those guys -- you got a bug on your hoodie. It's coming inside your hoodie right there. I'm dead serious. It's on the inside of your hoodie. I promise you it's in there -- no, it's for real.

And I know some of you guys are still recording that, aren't you (Laughter).

Q. What did you see from Alan Bowman tonight that stood out to you, just in terms of having played through some things and keeping the offense going?
COACH MATT WELLS: What do you mean by "playing through some things"?

Q. Well, just didn't seem like he ever got into a flow. Seemed like it never really flowed for you that you wanted -- I realize you put a bunk of points on the board. Just didn't seem like that you were consistently going --
COACH MATT WELLS: Well, I think that's -- yeah, I respect the question. But one, two, three, four -- I mean, we had four touchdowns under two minutes and 33 seconds. That's pretty fast. I think the thing that probably makes you feel that way is we had a few more three and outs compared to last week. And again, I think I can kind of contribute to the running game. We have to run the ball better.

But any time you -- I mean, six touchdowns, and the longest drive was three minutes and 30 seconds -- excuse me, 3:34 for the field goal. That's fast.

But we've got to be able to run the ball better and there's a few more three and outs. This offense needs a first down. I think it's 58 percent of the time or something like that, we get a first down, we're going to score something, and then you add two first downs, and then it continues to climb. That's what the offense needs. It needs plays, but there's going to be some times that we're going to be pretty quick striking and as long as you're putting points on the board, that's good.

If you go three-and-out, we hurt the defense a couple times tonight, putting them back out on the field. It's probably the way -- it's probably why you feel that way, but you finish drives with touchdowns, we'll take it.

Q. What do you think of Vasher tonight?
COACH MATT WELLS: T.J. had a good thing night. Solid.

Q. UTEP did you a favor by putting Kai in. How was it to get the defense out there and see how to may against both guys?
COACH MATT WELLS: Well, I'm not sure Dana was putting him out to do us a favor. Kai is extremely athletic. I've known Kai since he was that tall. Extremely athletic, dual-threat kid and he can create some plus-one mismatches for us in the run game.

Q. Are Jack, Terence and Damarcus, are they day-to-day?
COACH MATT WELLS: You got it. We've already talked about this last week.

Q. In other words, they weren't serious enough to be longer than day-to-day?
COACH MATT WELLS: They are day-to-day. They need to improve day-to-day, too. They are.

Q. Austin, just looking at the numbers, I think last year in high school, the average I saw was he averaged like 42 yards a punt. Now he's averaging like 40 -- did you see that cannon leg that he displayed? When did you first see that?
COACH MATT WELLS: When did I first see him? Two Junes ago. He came and kicked for us in camp two years ago, and is the best punter I saw. We offered him. Thought we had a chance at him.

He got some bigger school offers that -- I was probably out of the recruiting game and as soon as I got here and figured out we needed a punter, that's the only one I went to was him. I think he got a little altitude factor here in Lubbock, and kid's got a big leg. I think if he continues to stay grounded and continues -- he's very strong mentally. He's very confident. I think he's got a bright, bright future. He's a talented young man.

Q. Get a little hoarse from coaching tonight?
COACH MATT WELLS: Yeah, we tried to dial it up at the very end. I was trying to get a shutout. I don't know, I lose my voice. It's just verbal encouragement.

Q. Other times out there on the field -- officiating -- pointing at the video board, making the call --
COACH MATT WELLS: You watching me close.

Q. That's typical of your style, though, right?
COACH MATT WELLS: Just got to help encourage them to make the right call.

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