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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 11, 2019

Matt Wells

Lubbock, Texas

MATT WELLS: Great road win. Really happy for our players. To go on the road, that's the hardest trip to play in the Big 12 with all the travel and an early kickoff and all that. I thought our guys were really laser focused and did a great job at the beginning of the game coming out strong. We got the two turnovers, we played right off of it, turned them into touchdowns.

Did exactly what we wanted to do. We had talked about it all week. Part of the plan to win, to play great defense, hold them to under 100 yards. We held them to 51 yards. We wanted to win the turnover margin, 4-0, and actually got two of those to turn into touchdowns.

And then we wanted to protect the quarterback. That was a huge emphasis for us is just protecting the quarterback -- what did they have, eight sacks I think the week before against Baylor, and we gave up none. We had, I think, seven yards of negative rushing, and in the last four weeks, it had been 30 plus, into the 50s, of the last four opponents before us. So that was a big part of not getting behind the chains, not getting our quarterback hit and sacked. So I thought our O-line did a nice job in terms of that. We tried to do everything we did, and I'm proud of our guys.

We hit a lot more goals. It wasn't good at times, it wasn't real pretty at times. It's still not what we want. I thought we played better in the secondary. I do think there is a lot more work to be done there. Our guys know it, our coaches know it. We're working hard every day to try to tighten that up. We can't give shots, we can't give Coach Patterson calls them walk-off homers. We're giving up a few too many. You're shaking your head. You agree? I do, too. A few too many in the last month since the Iowa State game, and it's kind of been an issue, and I'm sure TCU is going to try to hit that and see if we've got it fixed, and we're certainly going to need to do that.

The kicking game was good. We didn't do anything great, but I thought we negated their kickoff returner, who's one of the better ones in the league. Had a kickoff return for a touchdown the week before.

So you know, that's kind of a recap there from that standpoint. I thought Jett played well. I mean, he's played well the last five weeks, 10 touchdowns, two picks. But we continue to protect him. The other thing we do is we're making competitive catches. R.J., Erik Ezukanma, Donta Thompson, all three of them made big catches for him, and that gives the quarterback a lot of confidence.

Looking at the defensive side, Coleman gets another pick and plays well. Jordan Brooks, high-end production. Riko was probably -- he's going to be our player of the game. But Riko was all over the place, and very, very productive. And proud of him. Riko has made a lot of progress for the last few weeks.

That's kind of a West Virginia recap. I'll address a couple things. Bowman -- Alan and Maverick, both of them cleared to play, and certainly it's our intent to redshirt them both, so we'll move through the days to come and the weeks to come and continue to see them now lifting for the first time -- you know, full-blown lifting with Coach Scholz as well as full practicing. They'd been in parts of practices but have been very, very limited. Obviously you guys saw them suit up and they went through parts of pregame warmup. We'll go from there.

I guess any other injuries you guys can ask me about, but I think they're all day-to-day.

TCU, first of all, it's a rivalry game for us. It'll be a big game. I got asked the question earlier today, is there a lot of pressure on your guys. There was a lot of pressure on our guys last week at West Virginia. Backs against the wall, we know what we're going for. We're going for the same thing TCU is going for: To be bowl eligible. It'll be a tough, hard-fought game. This is a program that I got a chance to coach against when I was in the Mountain West, but I've known Gary Patterson for a long time, since I was 18 years old. Coached me in college, and really the last six years as I've been a head coach he's done a lot for me just in terms of helping me as a young head coach. He hadn't talked to me I don't think in 10 months, but before that I've known him for a long time. Great guy, one of the best coaches in the country, longest tenured -- one of the longest tenured, and he knows I've got a tremendous amount of respect for him.

And when I see his teams, they're tough-nosed, they're tough, hard-nosed. That defense, the D-line, their secondary is going to be on point. They'll know everything that we've done. So we'll have to be on point. It'll be a great game, and it'll be an extremely competitive game. A lot of respect for TCU.

Looking at their athletes, I mean, Max, that guy is going to be a hard guy to contend with. Again, another great quarterback in the Big 12, dual-threat guy, and sneaky quick, sneaky fast and tough, tough kid. No. 1 is legit, one of the best playmakers in this league. Look at their defense, they've got two young D-ends. Man, they can get off the ball. They created a lot of pressure last week on Baylor. They got two really big D-tackles inside. And then they've got skill. They're young guys but they are skillful and fast in the secondary. Very well-coached on defense.

You guys have seen the stats in the Big 12. They're up there in every single category, and they have been for the last 20 years, so it's one of the best defensive units we'll see all year, so it'll be a major challenge for our guys and our coaches, and we'll have to be on point. But it'll be a big week around here to try to see if we can earn the right to even deserve a victory on Saturday.

With that, I'll open it up.

Q. You mentioned plans to redshirt Maverick and Alan. Do you approach them with that idea or is there constant dialogue between you all?
MATT WELLS: Good question. Maverick, no, because it's obvious you're going to redshirt him, and there's only possible four games left, three in the regular season with the bowl possibility, so that's an obvious redshirt. No conversation there.

We talked to Alan last night, talked to his parents. It's Alan's decision 100 percent respect it. I agree with it and I respect it. It's the smart thing to do. It's the right thing to do. And it's part of the new rule that I think -- and this is a good consequence. You can have good consequences because of a rule, and I'm not sure the rule was intended like this, but it's going to be used this way, and I think it's good.

Q. Because of that rule, is there any thought to maybe getting Maverick some reps if that situation comes about?
MATT WELLS: Yeah, solid. Alan could get his fourth game, too. It's our intent to redshirt both of them, and again, they're going to have to start lifting and practicing full speed and all that. Now, that's the other -- they play the same position, and there's only one guy that can go in, and Jett is playing well right now. He's playing very well.

So you've got all those factors involved. Does the situation present itself to get Maverick in the game? Who knows. Who knows. Would we like to? Yeah, we'd love to. So I wanted to get him on the trip last week just so he can get used to a trip and warming up and all those kind of things. But we'll just see. We'll take it day by day and really kind of game by game just to see where we're at, especially with Alan because that's a little bit different situation than Mav.

Q. When you watch TCU play defense, I guess the average viewer just thinks they play really good defense and that's all. But from a perspective of maybe a little bit Xs and Os what makes them so difficult to play offense against?
MATT WELLS: They know what you're doing. I mean, the guy is -- he is good. He's a good game planner. Your routes, your protections, your backs, your quarterback's eyes, mannerisms. I mean, I think all of that goes into how a defense plays because they recruit, they develop. Over the years he's taken more high school tailbacks and made them D-ends. He's made them inside linebackers. He's taken high school option quarterbacks and made them inside linebackers. I've gone against them and they are tough, hard-nosed, really good players. I bet they're football junkies. They're just tough. They're blue collar. But they're smart coaches, and they've been in one system and they know that system in and out, and they mix coverages. You see them in man coverage, you see them pressuring, you see them dropping. Four-man front, three-man front. I don't know, Coach does everything. Very aggressive, very sound, very smart.

Q. You mentioned last week being able to -- you need to be able to rush the quarterback. When you guys are able to do that do you think you can compete with anyone else in this conference?
MATT WELLS: I think we're better when we do that. We're better in the back end because now you don't have to commit everybody to the rush. Ask a DB coach. I mean, ask a D-coordinator. Any time you can get rush with your four down or three down or whatever front you're playing, I think it's an added bonus for that guy because now you can add in a backer to be the fourth or the fifth. You can add -- you've got six-man pressure, you've got whatever, five-man, you're playing one safety, two, three. You've got -- you've just got a lot more multiple. You can't land pressure with three guys, then you've just got to start adding guys, and I think that's where we came into a problem at Kansas two weeks ago. We couldn't get any pressure on him. We got more pressure on the QB this week out of the three-man, and I kept -- I think I mentioned it in here last week. You go back to the Oklahoma State game, same thing. We got pressure on the QB with three guys. It wasn't a scheme deal, it was just kind of an effort, and they played with good technique and they got on the edge and all those things, so yeah, I think it's big.

Q. Given the fact that you guys always put a focus on 3rd downs, converting, really converting those 3rd downs, how key that can be in general throughout a game, since TCU is top three in both converting those and stopping the opponent, is there an added emphasis on that in week or something you've looked at that allows them to do that that you guys see as a problem?
MATT WELLS: On their film? I didn't get it at the end.

Q. Since they were top three in both converting on 3rd downs and stopping the opponent --
MATT WELLS: Okay, both sides of the ball. I certainly think our offense needs that. We had two three-and-outs Saturday. One of them was on me as a head coach because it was right there at the end of the second quarter and I told Yost, run it out. Just run it. We're going to get out of here, punt it, we're going into halftime with a big lead. The week before against Kansas I think we had two three-and-outs and they were real and they were right at the end of the game when we didn't need to be in a three-and-out. So our offense has actually done a better job of that, and they've done a really good job. It's an emphasis for Coach Yost. Coach P, he wants three-and-outs. He's used to three-and-outs. That's a big part of our blueprint for success on defense is trying to have those three-and-outs.

We had some 4th down stops, so we'll certainly take those, too. That was a big part of the West Virginia game. What I didn't mention really in the opening statement now that you're saying this, the 4th down stops came in an area that was huge for us, and that's red zone defense, and that was a big part of probably how I think the outcome of the game happened on Saturday was the red zone defense early in the game as well as our ability to score touchdowns the first four or five possessions. I don't know, was it five straight? Four straight? Four, five? And at that point you've got a big lead, and we played good defense in the third quarter, got behind the chains with some penalties in the third quarter.

Q. In camp I think the question was asked to you about kickers and punters and you didn't want to talk about anything else outside of that fact --
MATT WELLS: You asked it. (Laughter.) I wasn't ready to talk about them that day, was I? Did I talk about Austin that day?

Q. It looked like you'd rather talk about anything else but that. Now you have two mid-season freshmen All-Americans at those positions. Is that just a matter of they've just grown up and filled in that role?
MATT WELLS: I think they've both matured. I tell our freshmen that are playing -- Trey is a redshirt freshman, Austin is a true freshman, Luke will be a true freshman, and we have a handful, six, seven on offense and defense. Game 10 this week, they're not freshmen anymore. They've been playing since the Montana State game, the vast majority of them, and we're not redshirting a lot of those guys. I think there's around 10 total-ish, give or take a few. They have matured.

I'll give Mark Tommerdahl a lot of credit for those three specialists. Mark has done a really nice job bringing them along. We've protected them pretty well. We've protected the field pretty well, we've protected the punt pretty well. Luke has done a nice job, been consistent. They have matured, you're right, and they've gotten games where there's been wind. We haven't had major bad conditions, but they've had some wind, not just here at home but on the road. There was some wind Saturday. And there was wind at Baylor. Probably the most wind we've had all year has been in Waco, counting any home game. My trainers aren't in here. They do all that wind stuff for me.

But I'm proud of those guys. And they deserve the recognition they're getting. Hopefully they'll finish the year strong.

Q. Terence Steele on the receiving unit, Senior Bowl invite. Where have you seen his improvement this year? Is it a preparation thing or just recovering from injury, chip on his shoulder? What have you seen from him?
MATT WELLS: That one right there. I think just coming off the injury. I think he's got a lot to prove. The Arizona game wasn't one of his better games, which was his first live action coming back. I think he's improved since then. You know, we've kind of got him settled in a little bit at right tackle, but there for the month of October he's kind of gone back and forth. He's still a swing guy for us. If somebody gets hurt we can move him. But Terence is very mature. He's been here for a while. He's a graduate student, a senior captain, one of our captains, meets every week. He's very mature, does a good job of bringing those young O-linemen around and teaching them.

But I've seen a guy with an edge. He wants to have a really good senior year. He wants to go out on top, and I've been proud of T-Steele.

Q. Given the fact that both you and TCU are both in conference in the top half time of possession, I know a lot of people when they talk about your offense they want to score as quick as possible and whatnot, but is there an extra emphasis against a team like TCU that they like to control it so much that you kind of want to counter balance it and control it a little bit more than you normally do just to hold the ball more yourselves?
MATT WELLS: Well, our philosophy would be this: We want to score more than we want to possess the ball. So if we're having one-play drives, four-play drives, five-play drives, I'm good if it's ending in touchdowns. We've always been good with that. We can't have three-and-outs. We can't put our defense back out on the field because time of possession could be a factor. But we don't go into the game saying, hey, we need to possess the ball for some inordinate amount of time. It's kind of like you're playing an option team. You know that possessions could be limited. TCU is not an option team, but if you were playing that, I think there's times you think that. You just know you can't miss a turn.

We think here not in terms of that but in terms of we need to score touchdowns with our possessions.

Q. Does your system then lend to -- since you're playing that way without thinking about it and you are possessing it fairly well, does your system lend to where you don't have to worry about it as much, whether you're either scoring or you get to --
MATT WELLS: I still worry about it. We've got to stay on the field and score touchdowns. We've got to finish with touchdowns. Big job, great job by the offense. We would have hit our goal -- we're actually just a shade under our goal because we had a turnover on downs inside the red zone, but four touchdowns, a field goal and a turnover on downs inside the red zone this week.

Q. Further into the season you now have to start to make decisions on redshirting guys. Is there a certain number where, okay, this is the number we can redshirt or if the situation lends itself you'll redshirt?
MATT WELLS: Yeah, I think they're all individual decisions for every one of them. Don't ever look at the number of -- in that class. Can they help us win right now, and do we need them to help us win right now. If the answer is yes, we'll play them, and that's my job as the head coach to try to make sure our coaches are playing them. I've always said this with the freshmen: We're going to commit to playing them. We're going to play them, they're going to make a mistake, we're going to bring them out of the game, we're going to coach, we're going to teach, inspire, put them right back in the game. Put them back in the game. They don't need to come stand by me. If we're playing them and we're past four games, let's play them on teams, offense and defense.

At one point you had three true freshmen in there on defense. Rabbit, Alex and Tony, and Tyrique was the next backer in, and he was playing all over the field on teams. And then Chux is returning the punts. You've got the three specialists. I may be leaving one off, but those are all the true freshmen that we've kind of gone with right now.

Q. What's the status of Evan Rambo and SaRodorick Thompson and Desmond Smith?
MATT WELLS: All day-to day. Des suited up, was ready to go last week. As kind of an emergency guy, but he is day-to-day, kind of seeing how much he can do this week and can he go further. I certainly think he is a lot closer and it should be real soon. Could be this week, I don't know, he's day-to-day. Evan, same thing, day-to-day. SaRodorick came out of the game better, good. I'm glad he came out of the game the way he did, and I'm hopeful I guess I would say this week. I don't know the questionable doubtful, he's day-to-day, too.

Q. You mentioned since you've gotten here that a lot of guys will have to get used to your system, obviously playing in a whole new one. Just seemed from watching the game you guys were going more downfield than you had been. Was it just what West Virginia was giving you or is there a certain comfort that offense has reached?
MATT WELLS: Maybe a little combination of both. Jett is throwing a better deep ball. You know, our receivers are making plays down the field. There were a couple coverages that gave us those chances because they can certainly play certain coverages and certain things can take all that away from you. But again, he's gotten better. I think he just missed one deep throw, and that was on the offsides call early in the game, first series where the ball just -- it was a physical mistake, just ball got away from him a little bit. But he's certainly throwing the ball down the field, but what you've got to do is you've got to have guys making those plays, and Rigdon made a big play, and certainly those other guys that I mentioned.

Q. (Indiscernible) good to go for this week?
MATT WELLS: I'll know by game time. We'll see as the week goes, yeah.

Q. You said obviously it was Alan's decision to redshirt. He just didn't feel like the amount of games left possibly was worth losing the season?
MATT WELLS: I think so. Probably that's part of the factor in how many game can you really get in right now. Is he going to be really ready to go like mentally and physically this week. I mean, again, he's going to be lifting for the first time and really practicing, just because he's been limited, like I mentioned earlier, in terms of like just routes on air and even some of the very beginning warmup stuff had a David has done. Just in that, I think his mom and his dad and him came to that decision. I a hundred percent agree with it. If it was Wyatt, my son, I would have probably advised him to do the same thing, and I told him that last night, and I agree with him. I support him, and I think it's the right decision. I think it's a great rule to have. So I think you kind of factor all this in, especially this time of the year late in the year. So I agree with him.

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