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BAYLOR UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 23, 2019

Tom Herman

Waco, Texas

Baylor 24, Texas 10

TOM HERMAN: Hats off to Baylor. That was a pretty stellar defensive performance. We knew how fast and physical that defense was going into the game. Obviously we didn't respond on that side of the football.

I thought in the first half we certainly played good enough defense to be in the game. Then obviously there in the fourth quarter, to lose our composure is ridiculous, unacceptable. It will be dealt with punitively. I can assure everyone of that.

We wish Baylor the best in the conference championship game. They've got a special season going. You can tell there's a lot of chemistry on that team.

But I told our team that we've got one game left in DKR for these seniors. I'll be damned if any of us throw in the towel because those guys deserve much more. For everything they've done for this program since we've gotten here, they deserve and have earned the right to have a very memorable Senior Day.

Injury update. Keoantay Ingram will have an MRI tomorrow on his ankle. DeMarvion Overshown will have an MRI on his ankle.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. What about Baylor's defense, how do you explain the offensive struggles?
TOM HERMAN: We made what we thought were some really good adjustments in the run game. Actually less complex defense than what we faced last week. We didn't execute. We knew we had hats on hats at least.

Last week because of the complexity, they had some free hitters pretty close to the line of scrimmage. This week we had guys assigned to them. We just didn't develop our guys enough throughout the week in terms of finishing those blocks. When you can't run the football...

I think what makes their defense so difficult, they held Oklahoma to 10 points in the first half, what makes it so difficult is you say, Okay, we're not running the ball real well, let's start throwing it around, got good wideouts, a good quarterback.

They're dropping eight in coverage and can get a really good pass-rush with those three defensive linemen, which makes it difficult for the quarterback back there. He stuck to the game plan, threw a bunch of check-downs because of how deep they were dropping. He took off and tried to run at times.

If you can't get the run game going, that's really difficult against a defense like that.

Q. Did you have any issues with anyone's competitiveness today? Gave you 100% effort?
TOM HERMAN: From what I saw, yeah. Obviously I'll watch film and I'm sure maybe a play or two here I might feel differently.

That was the theme all week. I would hope to God that we wouldn't see a lack of effort. We talked about straining. The definition to strain is to force oneself to make an unusually great effort. A couple key words in that definition: force, meaning it's not natural, you have to make an intentional choice every time the ball is snapped. Then usually great, you know, it can't be average, it's got to be unusually great. We'll see.

Coach Rhule has those guys playing really hard right now. They're playing with a lot of confidence. We knew what we were going to be up against.

Q. Did Keoantay get injured at the end of his run?
TOM HERMAN: From what I understand, it was at the end of the run. When he got tackled, he got his ankle rolled up on.

Q. The second half, Parker wasn't ejected, was he?
TOM HERMAN: No, it was really weird. Obviously he'll be dealt with from a punitive standpoint. Nobody talks to the refs except for me. That's been made very clear throughout our time here.

We thought he was. What the referee then told us when I had a chance to talk to him, he said, No, I just wanted him out for one play. I'd never really seen that before, to be honest with you.

But he cleared it up with me. Obviously we're going to put him back after doing what he did.

Q. Did it feel like no matter what you guys were trying to go on offense, you couldn't break through offensively?
TOM HERMAN: I did. We started the game fast. I know our guys feel comfortable doing that. We had a lot of tempo early in the game plan. But I think it all goes back to the run game. If you can't run the ball against a defense like this...

Again, we called some quarterback draws. You're going to have to use the quarterback as Oklahoma, I think their quarterback had 38 carries or something like that against these guys a week ago.

Yeah, I think that was the biggest culprit because, I mean, we've got ways to get guys open and all of that. When the quarterback's being pressured, then eight guys are dropping 10, 12, 15, 30 yards deep, with minimal seams in there, it's damn near impossible to do anything but check the ball down or scramble.

Q. I'm not asking you to throw anyone under the bus, but do you feel your staff lived up to your expectations of making sure the players are ready for these games?
TOM HERMAN: I've done a poor job. The buck stops with me. We'll evaluate everything. We got a game in six days. I'm not going to comment about anything like that until after the season.

Q. The fourth quarter, all the penalties, did you get a sense that was frustration for the past two weeks? Have you sensed frustration for them?
TOM HERMAN: Absolutely, yeah. When you're not playing to the standard that we have set, you're going to be frustrated. It's fine. I mean, everybody in the building is frustrated. But the manifestation of that frustration can never be detrimental to the team. To have that happen is, like I said, unacceptable.

Q. Any concern at all that you will lose the kids? Anything that would tell you these guys aren't following what you want from them?
TOM HERMAN: I think the last two drives on both sides of the football, to stop a quarterback run on fourth down on defense, knowing that you're not going to win the game, but for the offense to go execute the way that it did...

They're not quitters. Will there be some? Probably. We talk about the 10-80-10 principle. Every organization has 10% guys in the organization that are elite, 80% that are in the middle, and 10% that are defiant and disinterested. Maybe a few of those guys will throw in the towel. I can't imagine.

These guys, they're embarrassed. They want to play to their standard. There's no way that they're going to check it in, if you will.

Q. How surprising is this performance for you guys?
TOM HERMAN: I don't know. I mean, you go into every game thinking you're going to win, thinking you got a great plan. Any time that doesn't happen, that's surprising.

None or more surprising than others.

Q. Jordan can't go?
TOM HERMAN: That's correct.

Q. Is he done for the year?
TOM HERMAN: Honestly I don't know. It's week by week. We're trying to push him through. I think he got another injection to help with the swelling. But the surgery, all of the follow-up MRIs, the surgery itself was very successful. Now it's a matter of just getting the swelling, the internal swelling, down to the point where he feels like he's fully functional.

Q. We saw you head butting I think it was Malcolm pregame. Was that incumbent upon you to do that to make sure these guys were ready to go or was it just you being pumped up?
TOM HERMAN: A little bit of both. I used to do that as a coordinator at Ohio State, as a head coach at Houston. In my old age, I'd kind of stopped doing it a little bit.

I just felt it inside of me in this game because I knew that we had to play physical, we had to play with strain. Just felt like the young Coach Herman, I guess.

Q. When you face as much drop eight and rush three as you do in this conference, is check-down basically the only solution, or are there other possible options?
TOM HERMAN: We caught them in quarters coverage a couple of times. We missed a D ball to Brennan. We hit Devin on a long corner route. That was against cover three.

You've got to catch them at the right time with the right call. If it's not there, then, yeah, you got to check the ball down, run the quarterback, you got to throw some screens.

We caught them in a blitz on the screen. We just were out of sync just a hair with the quarterback and the runningback. I think pushing the ball down the field is really, really difficult, as it was the last couple weeks. We caught them twice, hit them once on the corner route, barely missed Brennan on the post route.

Q. When you're there on the sideline watching this, is there something that has gotten through to them that maybe hasn't gotten through? What is the reason for the disparity?
TOM HERMAN: I hadn't thought about comparing us to them. I know they're really fast. I know their front three, they don't need to bring a lot of pressure with other guys. But it would be foolish of me to try to figure out what has sunk in with them. I don't know his team.

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