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UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 4, 2006

Mack Brown

COACH BROWN: It's probably the hottest game we've had since we've been here, just extreme heat. I thought both teams were in good shape. North Texas didn't have cramps, and we didn't as well. We had a lot of energy, we played hard, we were tough. Once again, our depth showed up.
We felt like all the questions that we had going into the game were answered. Colt and Javen both played well. Even in Javen's circumstance, the interception was a ball that could have possibly been caught. He did lead us to a score. In another situation where we had the delay of game, we really didn't snap the ball on time. He was asking for the ball with four seconds left. We waited too long to give him the ball.
Overall, we felt like the game was something that we couldn't have scripted any better.
Explosive plays, we had four to their two. Turnovers, we were disappointed. We were down 0-2 in turnovers and came back and got even with them 2-2. We won all three phases of the kicking game and felt like Aaron Ross' ability to return punts and get a short field early was the difference in the ballgame, especially early.
Then we want to make sure that we never, ever take a team for granted. If you look up, every year in an opener, somebody gets beat by someone they're not supposed to. Our guys have learned to play hard regardless of the opponent. We're really excited about that.
We thought that was the mark of a program that's growing instead of just a team that plays up one week and down the other. That's something we want to continue.
Ohio State is a special game. Our guys have been talking about it since we left the Horseshoe last year. They talked about it even in preparation for Oklahoma, going to Kyle Field for the national championship game.
It's so unique, too, that we're playing two No. 1 teams in a three-game stretch. I don't even know that that's ever happened before. But we were No. 2 going into the SC game with them No. 1. Here we are No. 2 or No. 3, depending on whether you trust the coaches or the writers and their pole in the early season pole.
But it's so unique for young people on a coaching staff to have the opportunity to play two No. 1 teams in three games. I don't know that it's ever happened. It is cool.
You look at the all-time winning list, Texas is No. 3 and Ohio State is No. 5. How many times do you match up to storied programs like this? The fact that we never played Michigan. We had played Southern Cal a number of times, but we had not played Ohio State. Now we're playing them twice. Last year they were No. 4 in the country, this year No. 1. Makes the game even more special.
Then you go back, I was told that we've never pitted No. 1 against No. 2 in this stadium, which is another reason this will be a classic if both teams play like they can play. We really hope we do.
This game will be a lot like a -- pregame will be a lot like Southern Cal. There will be a whole lot of really good football players standing around on the field that have won most of the games in their career and expect to win.
If both teams play well, it could end up like last year's game and be one of the best games in the history of college football. That's what both teams want to do.
You're proud that both teams did what was expected of them last week at a time where it would have been very, very easy to come out flat on an opening ballgame because people have talked about this game for a year. That did not happen.
Last year's game, the rushing yards were about even. We had 112, they had 111. It was hard to makes yards on the ground. You go back to turnovers. They lost the turnover ratio. They lost three turnovers and just gained one. Field position, I think we started at 19 and they started at the 44. So we did not do a good job handling field position because of the turnovers. And also it seemed like between Ted Ginn Jr. and Holmes, every time we'd kick it off, one of them caught it about midfield, seems like, because they were back in our face really fast. I know we tried to sky kick the first play of the game. Ted Ginn Jr. caught it about the 18, he ran by me, and I was way on the other end of the field, really fast. I thought that was a great way to start the game, so...
But we obviously have to figure out what to do to try to keep it out of his hands because he's one of the great players to ever play at the receiver position. We did win the explosives, but they were very, very close.
The Horseshoe was such a special experience for us. I can say that from a coaching staff standpoint and from our players' standpoint, we were treated wonderfully. Jim's staff treated us well. Their kids and our kids played a classy, tough, physical football game throughout. We did hear some reports of some fans having trouble outside the stands. That was not our experience at all, even to the fact that I went down and talked to their band on Friday before the game and they were all really nice.
I thought the Ohio State people that we were around treated us with great class and we would expect our place to do the same for them this weekend and make sure that it's a wonderful experience for everybody that's there. It should be loud, it should be aggressive, but not against the other team for us. That's the class that the University of Texas stands for.
Troy Smith to Ohio State is what Vince has been to us. He's a leader. He's a senior. He's a guy that can make plays with his feet, but he's got a great throwing motion and very, very accurate. He's got three or four tall receivers. We all talk about Ted Ginn Jr. because he can make so many plays, but all of them can make plays.
They're also a veteran offensive line. Antonio Pittman is a guy who can score on every play, a lot like Jamaal Charles for us. He's just a little bigger. Then they've got a young freshman named Chris Wells. They're comparing him to Jim Brown, which in my experience is a pretty good comparison for a rookie who's coming in. He ran over a lot of people with Northern Illinois last week.
They're well-coached, they're tough, they play hard. They play with a lot of confidence. They play with a lot of pride. We're excited about it.
Everybody was talking about the losses of their defensive guys. They've got six seniors starting on defense. They're a lot like we are. At Ohio State they don't lose people, they just replace people. They reload just like we do and they've got great players on defense.
It will be a huge challenge for us. We feel like they deserve to be the No. 1 team in the country 'cause they finished the season like we did, but they've got more returning starters in key positions than we do. It will be a huge challenge for us this weekend.
Questions.

Q. How do you keep the ball from Ginn?
COACH BROWN: Well, it's very difficult because Jim's a great coach and he'll put him in one-on-one situations. He had two huge plays Saturday against Northern Illinois. What we can do is try to keep him from touching it in punting situations and kick-off situations.
I'm not sure we didn't look him up last year to kick it to him, it seemed like. Every time I looked up, he had it about midfield, like I said. We've got to do a better job of trying to make sure when we have a chance to keep it out of his hands we can.

Q. Does it concern you at all?
COACH BROWN: Yes (smiling).

Q. North Texas had some opportunities. Last few games they have been lighting it up.
COACH BROWN: Yes. Troy hit the deep pass to Holmes last year against us and Cedric Griffin had him covered perfectly. He made a great throw. There's no question they will challenge us deep and we'll have to do a great job trying to match up with them.

Q. Are you going to put one defensive back on Ginn?
COACH BROWN: We haven't decided yet. That's something we'll have to look at. Because they play him in so many different places, it's difficult. They'll put him in the slot, use him on reverses and screens. It's not just like he's a wide-out. He's kind of a half halfback, runningback, wide receiver. They do a good job of trying to keep you from matching up with him.
I do think that all three of those guys could be Heisman candidates. Antonio may not get to be because he's a younger guy. But you start looking at Ted Ginn, the plays he's making are Heisman plays. You start looking at Troy Smith, there's no doubt you would have to think he and Brady Quinn are two of the front-runners when you start looking at quarterbacks across the country.

Q. (Indiscernible) rusty, last year not playing the first game. This year he has more experience under his belt.
COACH BROWN: Yeah, I don't know about rust. I didn't ask him. He looked pretty good to me when he was in there last year.
And Swick played good against us last year. He won a bowl game. He did well in our bowl game. Then Troy came in and did well, too. So I think Troy's really a good player.
The thing that he can do is he's so strong in his legs that you can have him sacked and he can still make plays. That's what you see him do time and time again. When you can take a bad play and turn it into a positive play like Vince did so many times, that just changes the flow of a game.

Q. How much better is he than last year?
COACH BROWN: I thought he was really good last year. You know, he threw the perfect strike. He made plays. I just thought it was a great ballgame last year.
The difference is we ended up -- we fumbled it and made 'em kick field goals. That was probably the difference in the ballgame. We made one play at the end. We were down 24-16 starting the fourth quarter and had a 10-0 lead. They shut is down completely from quarter one to the fourth quarter.
It wasn't a pretty game last year. It was just a hard-fought game and we happened to make one play at the end.

Q. That one play at the end, Limas, that was his coming out. Talk about his progress. He really has emerged.
COACH BROWN: Limas has made so much progress, as much as anybody we've probably ever seen from that play till now. He's in better shape. He's playing up to his height a lot better than he did last year. Then he made the play at Kansas, the play at Baylor, the Colorado game, caught a bunch of balls out at SC. So we feel like now that Limas is becoming one of the premiere receivers in the country.

Q. Back when this game was scheduled, you knew it would be big because of the program. Two years in a row maybe the biggest non-conference game in the entire schedule.
COACH BROWN: It's a credit to DeLoss and the athletic program at Ohio State because they did this because not many people are doing this any more. As we look around the country, you're seeing some mid-level games like this, but not No. 1 against No. 2. That doesn't happen very often. Thank goodness, if it was scheduled 12 years ago, it ended up matching up to be what both schools wanted it to be when they scheduled it.
It's obviously a risk/reward game. Last year we were rewarded for winning right in the end. It was tough for them because they had a good enough team maybe to win the national championship. This year both teams are sitting here in a similar position.

Q. You mentioned the class. What is your advice for Texas fans as well as Ohio State fans?
COACH BROWN: The most impressive outing I've been to as a football coach was Nebraska when we won and Ricky gained 150 yards. The stands were full at the end. It was a great game. It was a disappointing day for them. They gave Ricky a standing ovation leaving the stands because they appreciated a great football game, and two great football teams. Started a Heisman chant as he was leaving the field. I thought that set a standard for all of us in sports to start looking at it.
We should enjoy great players that Ohio State is bringing to Austin. We should enjoy having a game like this. I've never been one that thinks you have to fight with the opposition; you compete with them, but you do it with pride. I'd love for all the Ohio State people to walk out of here and say, What a wonderful place, they love their football, but they appreciate good football and they appreciate good teams. That's what I would hope that Ohio State fans would leave here with this weekend.
That's what I told our players. Don't get into saying they're not good, 'cause they are. Don't get into saying those guys around tough. They are. They're fast. They're really good. Who knows who deserves to be No. 1. They were picked No. 1 and they are deserving, in my estimation.
Let's enjoy the week. Let's have fun. Let's just enjoy the night and make it something that we'll all remember for the rest of our lives and compete as hard as we can and then say congratulations to the winner and go on to Rice.

Q. What do you tell your young quarterback going into this game?
COACH BROWN: Same thing: Have fun. You've worked your whole life to get in a game like this. You don't want to go out there and be miserable, uptight. They're going to put some pressure on you. They're going to make some plays. I showed our team the stats last night. Sometimes we forget that it wasn't a pretty game, that we did have three turnovers. A couple of those kickoff returns were really ugly because you go back, and after we win, it seems like there were no flaws. After we lose, it seems like there were no good plays. In reality, neither one are true.
We wanted our guys to understand, we were ugly some in the SC game. We were ugly in this game last year. It's a 60-minute contest that will not be pretty all the time because their guys are going to force us into some mistakes. The team that makes the fewest usually wins.
But it will not be the same as playing Northern Illinois and North Texas. We both know that.

Q. Can you talk about your two runningbacks.
COACH BROWN: I didn't realize they carried -- they played the exact same number of plays. I don't think we scripted it that way. It just happened. Then neither one played in the fourth quarter. I think they had 12, 14 carries, something like that, apiece.
We wanted them to be in shape. We wanted them to get hit some. We've had some scrimmages. We had a goal line scrimmage. You never get your backs enough contact, in our estimation, in pre-season because you're concerned about their conditioning, you're concerned about their health. How many times do you hit a good back? He gets -- Selvin has been hit a bunch over four, five years now. Jamaal, too. As many times as he carried it in high school, there's a certain limit of times you can get a guy hit.
We feel like right now we'll just play it by ear during the ballgame and see who's doing well. Last year Selvin hurt his ankle early in this game and didn't play. I think he played maybe part of the first quarter, then Jamaal had a big night. We'll just have to see how the game goes.
Same with quarterback. We'll obviously play Colt and we'll have to decide whether we feel like there's an opportunity to put Javen in or not to help us win.

Q. Is Colt easier after watching him look so comfortable Saturday or is that what you expected?
COACH BROWN: It was what we expected. He's looked that way every day since spring. Well thought he was a little more nervous in the spring. Then when he came back this fall, he just seemed to have flipped a switch over the summer and just had a different demeanor about him. The young players in the huddle said the same thing. Said it wasn't even the same guy. That's the way he played Saturday. So we expect him to play that way this kind.

Q. Without Hawk and Carpenter, do you scheme changes?
COACH BROWN: No, they're going to blitz 40 something percent of the time. Exactly the same in the Northern Illinois game as they were against us last year. They're all big and really fast. You'd think it's the same defense they had last year (smiling).

Q. There wasn't a lot of connection between QBs and your tight ends. Why not utilize them more?
COACH BROWN: Doesn't matter. Maybe we win 52-7. Want to save a few things. We really wanted to work on the running game. We have an instance, before you were here, where we played USL a couple years ago. They put a lot of guys on the line of scrimmage. We threw it all day. We had 27 yards rushing. We won 52-10 and left miserable 'cause we looked soft, we looked horrible.
Early in this game, North Texas was doing the same thing. I would have done the same. They had the blitz, they had the pressure, they were going to make Colt throw the ball. But we just made a conscious decision that we were not going to stand there and throw it every time. We had to work on our running game. We said we're going to line up, be physical, get over 200 yards rushing and make those things work. And thank goodness they did.

Q. Comments about being elected to the Hall of Honor?
COACH BROWN: For a guy that's not a letterman and not raised in this state, it's the ultimate show of respect from my standpoint. I felt like to be put in such an elite group. I'm overwhelmed and really honored.
Thanks, folks.

End of FastScripts...

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