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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 5, 2019

Douglas Coleman III

Lubbock, Texas

Texas Tech - 45, Oklahoma State - 35

Q. Doug, what kind of defensive game plan was put in that y'all showed maybe something different that they hadn't seen before?
DOUG COLEMAN: I think in the back end what we tried to do is just stop all vertical routes. Like don't give them any explosive plays. Based off the Oklahoma game last week, that's where we were weak at, so we tried to stop all explosive plays on their half.

Q. How important was it for the defensive line to kind of get that push early on, kind of obviously take away (indiscernible)?
DOUG COLEMAN: When the D-line gets going, it just helps the back end a whole lot more. Like the more time you give the quarterback to make a play, it kind of hurts us because the longer we have to cover. When they're on that thing, then the back end does good.

Q. How proud are you of the secondary as a whole, especially those young guys, freshmen that came in that played just as well as any starter?
DOUG COLEMAN: They played great to me. I feel like Alex Hogan and Rabbit, what we call him, they stepped in and played great. Alex made a PBU and I was really proud of him.

Q. Did you tell them anything before they kind of come to the game?
DOUG COLEMAN: What I told Alex before he came in, this being his first real game, I told him, like, Bro, just play ball. It's nothing different from what you did in high school. Just play ball.

Q. Did you have a message to the team before running out of the tunnel?
DOUG COLEMAN: Not really. I'm not really a talkative guy.

Q. So who stepped up there and said something?
DOUG COLEMAN: The coach.

Q. What was the locker room like after this? I know a win is a win, but this one seemed somewhat important for you guys?
DOUG COLEMAN: Yeah, it was just full of energy. I liked to see how everybody enjoyed the win, so that's good for us.

Q. How important was it to get off to a fast start?
DOUG COLEMAN: I think it was just something that we had to show the world, like we can play defense at Texas Tech. I think it was just a big statement we had to prove.

Q. Now you kind of put it on tape, how big was that for you guys to get the turnovers -- the first couple weeks you struggled with it.
DOUG COLEMAN: Yeah, we struggled, but we just stayed the course. We knew the turnovers was going to come. We just kept playing our game like the turnovers are going to come, just start doing your job and being in the right place at the right time; turnovers will happen.

Q. After what happened last week, how important was it for you guys to just have a good defensive performance and especially in the secondary, kind of play your game?
DOUG COLEMAN: I think it was really important because what we put out last week is not our defensive identity, and we didn't want that to be our identity for the rest of the season, so we had to come out and put something different on tape.

Q. You mentioned back at Media Day how big it was going to be for you to be able to come up with turnovers. You have five interceptions already. What's allowed you to have the success like that?
DOUG COLEMAN: Well, all my success goes to the D-line, so without the D-line putting pressure on the quarterback and containing him and making him throw inside the pocket, that allows me to make plays on the ball and stay inside tight coverage.

Q. How do you enjoy kind of being in center field, all those balls that are coming your way?
DOUG COLEMAN: Yeah, it just allows me to read the quarterback's eyes basically the whole game, and that's what I'm good at.

Q. You have five interceptions now, but how many do you feel like you could have, because there's been two or three more that --
DOUG COLEMAN: Yeah, I feel I should be sitting at like eight picks on the season right now.

Q. (Indiscernible) two guys in. Did you have a shot at that one?
DOUG COLEMAN: Yeah, I just second-guessed myself. I should have just kept going and made the play.

Q. (Indiscernible) he had that touchdown at the end, but for most of the game you held him down pretty solidly.
DOUG COLEMAN: That was our game plan going into the game was just stop No. 2 and No. 30. That was the whole objective of the defense was to stop those two.

Q. Are you guys being coached to be a little bit more aggressive maybe than in previous years at defensive back just in terms of receivers getting up in them, that sort of stuff?
DOUG COLEMAN: Yeah, I think going into the game trying to be more aggressive because last week we were playing off of them and giving them too much space, and we wanted to change that, so we pressed them a lot more than we did before.

Q. How much difference do you think that makes just in terms of defensive back play in general?
DOUG COLEMAN: It makes a lot of difference. Like when we play off of teams like to attack us back throwing the screens like you saw today, but once we started coming out playing aggressive, like we could stop those plays in the backfield.

Q. Jordan is another guy who had another great game. What did you see from him?
DOUG COLEMAN: I mean, I see it every day, so I mean, it might be like new to y'all, but Jordan plays like that at practice and every game, and he just makes plays all the time. That's what I expect out of him every time we step on the field.

Q. That stop on the two-point conversion kind of sum up who he is as a player, making big plays in big times?
DOUG COLEMAN: Most definitely. I think Jordan is a great leader on our defense.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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