	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDIA CONFERENCE

February 4, 2009

Mack Brown

COACH MACK BROWN: We felt like we had another outstanding recruiting class. It's our 12th one. And as you continue to look at what our staff has done, it seems to have a pretty strong pattern each year. We go back, and because we do not bring in the 56 available each year, we can bank visits from the year before. So we had the ability to bring in 62 people this year for official visits.
We brought in 25. Four of those 25 were out of state. We were able to sign 20 today. 19 in-state, and one out-of-state, Derek Johnson from Hoxie, Arkansas, was out of state, and he has lived in El Paso, Texas before.
But we felt like it was a class that pretty much covered the span of all positions. And that's something that's hard to do. We could lineup and probably play this as a freshman team. You've got a quarterback, a tailback, a wide receiver, you've got a couple of tight ends, you've got offensive linemen, the defensive line, linebackers and secondary. And it's unusual to be able to get somebody at every position.
So we feel like some of the guys meet the immediate needs. At the same time we feel like some other guys will be able to fill in for say when some of these offensive linemen that we've got the next two years that we think are so good and have played for two years now, we'll have some guys more ready to fill in when those guys go ahead and graduate.
We also have learned on signing date that the thing that's most important is how they do play over the four years and not what they look like today. They've competed against 14, 15, 16, 17-year-old guys for the last four years. And what's important to us is how much better will they get next year and the next year and the next year.
Some of the guys that signed today across the country won't get in schools. They'll never play college football. Some will flunk out, some will get hurt, some will transfer. So what you really need is you need to bring in guys today that get better and continue to play better, and are four-year guys or ready to go to the NFL after three years and play really, really well for you.
So I really believe that our evaluation of our recruiting class is four years from now, and not today.
I continually get amazed when people say this is the first class a second class and a third class, that it's based on numbers of players you sign. And somebody signs 31 guys, they're going to have some good numbers. It's going to work. That won't be Texas.
What we look at is if the recruiting service does have a good feel of the players, we feel like if their evaluation is good, it's based on the stock for that one player and how many good players you have, not what your overall looks like because you signed 31, you signed 20, you signed 29 knowing that the most anyone could bring in is 25.
So I do think our system is skewed a little bit when we start looking at recruiting classes from that standpoint. Because I do think the teams that have the best recruiting classes are the ones that have the best weight per kid, if the recruiting service or the recruiting ratings have been done properly.
Also, in addition to the group, there's a young man named Marquise Goodwin who is walking on, and he signed with trek track this morning. He does want to play on our football team, and we will allow him to do that.
That will be under the direction of Marquise and Coach Thornton because he's an outstanding trackster, and he will have the ability to come out under the rules set by Bubba and his staff. Any questions that I could answer before we watch the film?

Q. (Asking about the difference in the signing of Marquise Goodwin compared to Trevor Gerland).
COACH MACK BROWN: No.

Q. How did that work?
COACH MACK BROWN: We signed Trevor ourself. We put him on football scholarship and he ran track. What Marquise is doing, he's on track scholarship, and if he practices with football, he does not count. If he plays in a game, he would count as a scholarship football player, even though he's on track scholarship.

Q. How many out of these do you think have a chance to play next year?
COACH MACK BROWN: I don't know. More than in our past because eight of them are already here. We had our ceremony downstairs with the eight. That's always really good. Most of their parents came. It's a fun time to watch them.
They actually get in their jersey and they sign before the team and all of their parents are there with them. They take pictures and the team applauds them. Then we show their highlight films.
The team pretty much makes fun of their highlights and we threaten the team we're going to show your highlights if you don't shut up, because yours didn't look that good either.
Then there are a few that when they put the highlights on, like Mason Walters knocked down everybody on every play, and they're all going oh, oh. And they start hitting the guys at that position saying look out, big boy, you've got some competition coming.
But you go back to Blake Gideon, nobody knew who he was this time last year because of spring training. He starts in the first game, and starts every game for us. So it's different, it's changed.
At the same time, even the fact that the guys that the 12 that do not come in now in January, they come in the first of summer. So they will be here all summer, so they have more of a chance to play than the kids that would have come in in the past in August.
So I do think that the NCAA has given the young kids an avenue to play faster than ever before, and gives them a chance to get on the field before.
What we've done with the early enrollees, that's basically an early signing date. Because we were concerned about the 12 last night, maybe we weren't concerned about the eight, we were concerned about them getting up for the off-season program this morning class. But they're already here. So that's why we feel like there should be a strong push for an early signing date, because those young guys really don't get to sign today.
Alex Okafor went back to Pflugerville and was involved in their signing this morning, and that's unfortunate that some of the other kids could not do that, just because Alex was close enough.
But they missed this day and this is a special day. That's why we do not offer juniors before today, because we want all the recognition to go to the seniors.

Q. You signed 20 guys, how many could you have signed? What was the maximum amount of players you could have?
COACH MACK BROWN: We probably, it changed because you never know who is going to get hurt, who is going to transfer. It's a really hard thing to figure out as you look at it.
But I think I would have felt comfortable going 23. Then if you go 23 this year, it takes three off next year's numbers. So you just have to balance it. And looking at our 12 years, I think most of the time we're 18 to 22. So we're about that number, and that's where we'll stay. I'm sorry, it will already be that for next year, probably.

Q. That means you have 82 on scholarship in the 2010 season?
COACH MACK BROWN: You know, I don't know. I haven't even looked. But I look at numbers every day, and what I know is what I can sign. I can't even go back and tell you. I'd have to go back and look at every one of them today.
One of the hardest things for a young, new head coach, is balancing the numbers because we're -- we had to project these numbers a year and a half ago, and we're having to project. We have the 18 juniors coming in on Sunday, and we'll start offering scholarships. We have to project next year's numbers today, and they change. And you're talking to people as you have a set number right now, and that number can change tomorrow if a young man quits or if somebody gets hurt in spring or becomes a medical.
So you just have to basically stay in that realm of numbers. It can fluctuate on the year. Thank goodness we've never been over, so that's really important. You don't want to be over, you can be under.

Q. Do you have any juniors coming next week?
COACH MACK BROWN: We have a junior day set for the 28th. And that one we're still working on.
The ones that are coming in earlier they have been to campus enough that we know them. We've been able to see them play.
Some young guys that would be invited to the one on Sunday want to come in on the 27th or the 28th because that is the second day of spring practice, and they want to see players and watch a practice. So that's why some just opt to come in that second time.

Q. For the guys who aren't here, like Derek Gilbert, I asked him this this morning, can you give him playbooks now?
COACH MACK BROWN: We can start giving him stuff after he signs. Like they will be sent -- the 12 will be sent a weight program immediately, because now they are Texas football players. We can actually start texting them now because they're committed to and now signed to the University of Texas. You could only email before they sign.
So tonight we can text message them if we want to because the numbers are cut down. And they can actually come to every practice and they sit in meetings and watch. So there are some advantages about being local.

Q. Two of the kids that got recruited are both from Austin. It's a unique situation for us, but what's that like for you having to go pretty close to get guys?
COACH MACK BROWN: You always want to win at home. If you can't get the kids from Austin that you want, then how in the world can you go to Dallas, Houston and San Antonio? Go to West Texas, how do you go out of state and ever talk a young guy into coming if someone who lives here doesn't think it's special enough not to stay?
So when we were talking to Alex, he was looking at a lot of different places. We felt like he was the key to this recruiting class, not only because he's really good, and big and fast and quick and a great pass rusher and smart, but if you lose a guy from Pflugerville High School that's got everything you want in a position of need, then how in the world can you go somewhere else and tell somebody that they should come if he left?
Garrett was different. Garrett's wanted to come here since he was in the 10th grade. He's been to camp every year. He's been around us. Garrett is just a guy that wanted to come to Texas. He did not want to be involved in the recruiting process. Didn't want to talk to anybody else. Didn't want to be around anybody else.
I think you have to give him a lot of credit for this recruiting class, because it all happened so quickly last year. And he was kind of the lead dog in the class. When he decided he wanted to come, a lot of the kids in the state wanted to jump on and be around him because they think he's got a chance to be a special quarterback and do here what he did at lake Travis.

Q. Are there any trends, anything different about this year in recruiting that you've seen from years past?
COACH MACK BROWN: No, not really. I did think, for whatever reason, we had more really good players commit immediately at junior days last year, and that surprised us.
We didn't think we finished as well as we needed to. And all of a sudden we have a good bowl game. But we come in here and just about the best at every position started committing to us, and it just kind of steam rolled. And I think, again, some of that credit needs to go to Garrett for getting it started and making it okay to come and the future looks bright because every young person wants to play with a great quarterback for the future.
Secondly, I've talked to Terry Donahue probably 25 years ago, 20 years ago whether he quit at UCLA, and they recruited nationally a lot. And Terry said you get about 20% of the national kids. We usually offer 4 or 5 of them, we hope to get one, maybe we can get two. And that's something that probably won't change, because we have five kids on our team now from out of state and that's counting Derek Johnson today. And most of our out of state kids have ties.
So we understand that we'll take a shot out of state every now and then. If there's a tie, the two young men from Georgia and Alabama Major and Will had ties with. The young man in Phoenix, his dad played for the Cowboys, so we felt we had a tie with him. And Derek Johnson had lived in El Paso at one time.
So you just throw out the opportunity for them to come. You bring them in. If you like them, you hope it works. But again, if we're encouraging every kid to stay in the state of Texas, it's really hard unless the young man wants to leave his state for us to convince him that's the best thing to do. Because if it's in state or out of state, we want to make sure that we do really well at home.

Q. Why limit that to four or five when schools that are similar to you, Florida, same recruiting as Texas and Tennessee, same recruiting, he'll offer 30 to 40 out of state guys and take their chances with that?
COACH MACK BROWN: I do think our state is a state that commits early. And we want to make sure that we do our job in state. And if we do not, then we're not going to make it in my estimation, and with the passion of the high school football coaches in the state of Texas, if we don't give them proper attention and recruit the guys properly in this state, and if we're late coming back on them, there are so many other people recruiting them in this state, most of the kids that will be in here on Sunday already have 18 offers.
So they're going to ask me, Sunday, are you going to offer me? If not, I'm going to commit to somebody else when I leave. I don't think that's the way everywhere.
So for us to properly evaluate 30 guys out of state it's going to take a whole lot more money, it's going to take a whole lot more time, and we're going to have to slow down on our early recruiting. And we'll lose some really key players in state in our estimation, if we start doing that.
And this isn't, I don't think a rude thing to say, but we're doing okay with in-state guys. Very honestly, it's working. So we don't want to change what we're doing because we could have won the national championship last year with what we have. We were .023 away from it.
So if we'll continue to do what we're doing in-state and keep our foothold here, and we would like to get the four guys we offered. We'd like to do that. Maybe we'd need to offer eight to get four, but we do not want to take the emphasis away from our state. That's really, really important to me and to our staff.

Q. Building off the local ties -- in 12 years have you seen the caliber of player that comes out of this region improve? It seems like there might be a higher quality?
COACH MACK BROWN: There's absolutely no doubt. It gets better every year. That's kind of what we're talking about. We've got to continue to do a better job recruiting Central Texas. Because I really feel like and their staff has discussed this a lot, as Austin continues to grow, more people come in, our coaches are coaching better, we've got more people, we've got better players. And if we can sign five or six in Central Texas every year, that really helps us. We do not want to play against players from the city if we feel like they're good enough. We want them to have a chance to stay at home.

Q. Is Garrett Gilbert like the most recruiting process you've had?
COACH MACK BROWN: No doubt. Garrett he basically said when we were recruiting him, if you all want to offer, I want to come. And tell me when you're going to offer, tell me what you're going to do and I'll come. And Greg and I kind of looked at each other, like, really?
And we didn't know if he would continue to do that. So we don't offer until now. We sent him the letter. I think we sent the letter out today a year ago, and he got it tomorrow. And he either committed right after he got it, or committed Friday morning, and has never wavered.
He's not playing baseball this spring. He's a really good baseball player, because he wants to get ready to play. He's a young guy that even with Greg Davis last night, Greg said I was going to call him last night and check in on when they were going to sign and what their process was. He said I'm sitting there eating dinner, Garrett calls and gives him an itinerary of what he's going to do in the morning.
He's one of the first scholarships in here this morning. He's just done everything that he said he was going to do exactly.
I've got it written down in are there, I'm not sure. I'd have to go back and look. I think it was testify in. From stoney point. And that was about 7:02, I think. It was early.

Q. Last year you talked about the need for speed and versatility in the class, is there any specific need like that? Is it the same?
COACH MACK BROWN: We feel like this is even an upgrade over last year's class because of the ability to run. If you look at what happened to us on defense this year, we had 600-plus snaps of either nickel or dime defense. And we had less than 100 snaps of regular defense with three linebackers, because nobody was running the football in this league. The term spread meant spread offense. And everybody was throwing the ball.
We had fewer runs against us than anybody in Division I-A football last year. So we can't get away from that. But at the same time we've got to make sure that we have enough defensive backs now if we're going to have to play five or six.
We've got to make sure that we have linebackers that can run and cover because they're going to be spread out on the field. Because people are playing a lot more one-back and even a lot of empty now with no backs in the back field. And you have to be able to rush the passer.
The day of the big defensive linemen that is a run stopper is gone. So everybody we sign up front in the front four positions, needs to be a guy that has a chance to beat somebody one-on-one and get to the passer.
That was so obvious by looking at the effects Brian Orakpo had on quarterbacks this year. And our second improved, and that's one of the reasons they were on the quarterbacks a lot, and that helps . But the game's just changing, so for us to do that, we've got to do it.
Because people are throwing the ball so much more now you need a running back in a bubble screen or quick screen like Quan and Jordan can make eight yards or make six yards and that becomes a running play. And all of that has changed now.
So you've always needed the ability to run, but you better be able to run, and the same thing with Garrett. He can throw all the passes, but he's big and strong enough that he can run the ball as well.

Q. You said that you paved the way for the other guys, did you do much actual recruiting of the other guys? Talking to them?
COACH MACK BROWN: No, that's not his personality. Garrett's a 4.0 student. He's a guy that's done everything right as far as I can tell in his life. But when he walks in a room, he has a certain presence about him that the other kids are going to follow. I think that's what happened in this class. It was just knowing who he was, and the fact that they won two state championships did not hurt either.

Q. Have you given much thought to perhaps having junior days earlier than signing day? Last year you said you might think about that. Where are you with that?
COACH MACK BROWN: We did. It's kind of like sportsmanship for us. We feel like this day should be for all the juniors now you guys in the recruiting business are talking about sophomores and juniors, and this day becomes more obsolete. All you do is talk about the ten that didn't sign until today. That's not fair in our estimation to Garrett Gilbert or Alex Okafor or the kids that are here.
So what we're trying to do which is tougher, we are trying to wait until right after today before we go public and start offering juniors, simply because we think it's the right thing to do. Now we may have to change, and we're constantly looking at that.
We said we're looking at scoring more points if the need is there, and what's that mean to sportsmanship? In the same way everybody's having a junior day before we do so they can tell them we're not interested. You know, that just happens.
But so far it hasn't hurt us. I think everybody understands we don't offer until we meet them, and we don't offer until we see a transcript, and we don't offer until they're on our campus. And I think the high school coaches and recruits are understanding that. So-so far we've been able to hang in there with it.

Q. One running back that we assume you would like, or would you like to get another back in this class?
COACH MACK BROWN: No, we like what we have. It's hard to get two great backs. When we signed Chris, we told him he would be the only one. There were some other great backs. But if we had signed one of them, backs are like quarterbacks. They don't want a crowd. You usually play only one in each class.
So if we can get a great tailback in each class, then we feel very fortunate. And we're really excited about Chris. He's a big back. He's 225. You'll be impressed by his film here in a minute. It's like we talked about when we played Kansas and when we played Missouri, if you take Colt you're going to lose Chase and you're going to lose Todd Reesing, and you're going to have to play against them. So our evaluation process is key.
If Chris Whaley doesn't continue to improve and if he's not better than the other running backs in this class, then that's the mistake you make in recruiting. But here evaluation is more important than even the recruiting process, because a lot of the kids are going to want to come, we've got to make sure we offer the right ones.

Q. You mentioned the early signing period, how much of that is because of the flip-flopping and the recruiting that continues even after a young man says he's committed?
COACH MACK BROWN: I don't think that would change, because most of the kids that will flip-flop would not sign early. What we feel like the early signing date would do is would give the eight young men on our campus now as early enrollees the ability to sign in December and enjoy that process, and have a signed scholarship before they come. They can sign a national letter and be like junior college players or be like other signees in February.
We also feel like it would show other schools who is signed and they're off the market, and you can't continue to recruit them. Because right now there are a lot of people that waist a lot of time and money in the last month and a half recruiting a guy that has no interest. He just wants another trip.
It would also tell us if one wasn't serious, because if one of our 20 had not signed in December this year we would have thought there's something wrong. He's want to go date somebody else. So we'd go back and continue to try to wonder why he didn't want to sign early, and was that a sign that he might not?
And I do think at a time where cost containment is really important to all of us, we spent a whole lot of money recruiting 20, when if 19 had signed for us in December, we wouldn't have spent near as much money outgoing by each school. And you could continue the process. Even if to a point that if somebody signed, if a certain number signed early, then you might could take some of your coaches off the road and bring them back because you really concern yourself.
We've got eight new guys on campus, and our coaches haven't even been able to be around them because we haven't seen them. Then they get home sick, and they don't get the attention. They got more attention in recruiting than they get when they get here the first three weeks. That's why our coaches will be at 6:00 workouts in the morning to make sure they give these young guys some attention, too.

Q. Hands on recruiting is usually your coordinators, so they can stay closer to home?
COACH MACK BROWN: Yes, but Greg Davis always recruits quarterbacks, and he's usually involved in receivers. He does his in the spring more. I think because people didn't know will. Will did more recruiting with the out of state four guys -- three guys. Two of them because he knew, and the other one because Devon Kennard wanted to know the defensive coordinator. So he probably spent more time with those three guys than the in-state guys.

Q. It seems like he is one of the better kept secrets of recruiting. Do you feel you were able to get a good handle on him and had a good time because you were so close?
COACH MACK BROWN: We do. We knew who he was in the spring, but he had a shoulder operation, and he was 225 pounds. So all of a sudden he got well. He didn't practice in the spring. That's one of the real dangers with early recruiting, and we think he might be one of the best catches in the recruiting class.
He can run, he's big, strong, he's fast. Here's a guy that was 30 minutes away and we could have missed him. So we're really excited about his ability to rush the passer for sure.

Q. When you're talking about Whaley, some of us got to see that All American Bowl with his speed and size. Does he remind you of anybody?
COACH MACK BROWN: It's hard to tell just because of Madisonville and watching him some. Until he gets here, you can really not compare the guys to guys on on our campus until you see him against our competition, because sometimes high school guys don't make that transition very easily.
You know, Colt did from a very small school to Texas. And he had a red-shirt year. And all of the young guys that are on this list will try to see if they can come in and play immediately now because we have a summer to get them ready. And Chris like the other freshmen will have time to do two-a-days and scrimmage, and full-speed contact to see how quickly they can adjust to the speed of the game. We can give you a better evaluation.

Q. What do you think of kids these days doing their skits and what not when they're deciding? And doing things like that? What is your thought on the theatrics of it now?
COACH MACK BROWN: It's not my personality. And it's not the personality of our team obviously. But I think it's to each his own. If that's what they want to do, then do it.
No, we had none. I don't like to sit around and see who takes their hat off and put it on and take it off. That's kind of the way I eat. So it's kind of important to us that our guys are really serious about coming to Texas. I would rather our guys not be choosing from five schools. I'd like for them to like us.
The best players we've had are the ones that chose Texas and didn't mess with anybody else and got excited about it. And made this really serious. That's what we like.

Q. Coach, no kickers, no punters, will you have walk ons?
COACH MACK BROWN: Each year we try to get snappers and kickers and punters to walk on. But we also feel like everybody's back, so we feel we're in great shape for the next couple of years in that area.
Justin Tucker being able to do both, kickoffs, kick field goals and punt has really, really helped us in that area.
The coaches were 75%. The head coaches, the assistant coaches were 80%, and I think the commissioners threw it out.

Q. Were you surprised by that?
COACH MACK BROWN: Yes. By the coaches wanting to do it? I think all the coaches.

Q. They voted for it?
COACH MACK BROWN: Yes, yes. I think all head coaches now think it would be an advantage, even if you're not a school who can sign a lot of guys early to know who has signed. Who is off the market? Who is out of the way? Who are we wasting our time with? And what everybody would do is reevaluate their recruiting after the third week in December.
So I hope that whoever votes on these things, I hope that they'll go back and study it, and look at it. I think it makes so much sense.
There were a couple of proposals thrown out that if a young man's still playing, the high school coaches did not want him to sign. That's fair. If he's playing in a state championship and it overlaps whatever the signing date would be. And if there's an option for a young man to get out if a coach left in January to go pro or something like that, then there would be an option that he could at least look at some other schools.
So there were some options, I thought, that helped the young people, too. But I think it would be a plus for college football if we did it.

Q. Those recruiting services like that, and mason, how does he jump up for you guys in?
COACH MACK BROWN: You'll see in a minute.

Q. I just wanted to ask, it's been 12 years, but do you still embrace everyone out there says you're as good of a recruiter as there is. What's that mean to you? And kind of talk about that?
COACH MACK BROWN: It's a compliment to our staff, because we're at Texas, and kids should want to come to Texas. If you're doing things right here, it's a great school academically. We've got one of the best cities and fastest growing cities in the country and we're winning.
The guys are playing before 100-plus thousand every Saturday. Most of their games are on TV and people can see them across the country, and most of them are graduating.
So I think what we've done is been able to take the losses allowed us by letting me hire the best staff in the country, allowed us to take a great place and really push it forward. So, young guys have an opportunity to come here.
What we thought early and what Coach Royal told us and Coach McWilliams told us and Coach Akers told us when we first got here is becoming so much more true now. And it's just like if there are five great running backs in the state and we have a chance to sign all five, but we can only take one, our job goes back to evaluation. And then not second guessing yourself, because you could kill yourself here talking about those that go everywhere else. And making sure that he's a young guy that's going to be better four years from now, and making sure you do a good job coaching. That's what we have to do.
We're going to turn down a lot of good players, and there will be some that don't want to come. We can't worry about them, we've got to make sure we get the ones that want to be here. And my experience is if we do a good job recruiting, and I think we do, and a young man doesn't want to come, then he probably knew he didn't fit here.
He probably made that decision based on what he saw and what he saw on our campus. Anything else before we watch the film? Okay.
All right, Tariq Allen is in school. He can play all three linebackers. We feel like Tariq's a big hitter, it will be a great advantage that he's in school. And we also feel like he's a guy that will be a great mic player. But you can see his ability to run.
Running backs in high school carry the ball so much they usually have to try to work on pass protection. Linebackers attack the line of scrimmage so much in high school, their biggest thing is usually dropping and pass protection.
You can see Tariq can run, he's really physical. Guys have been impressed with him so far in his ability at his size to move his feet in the off-season program. And if anybody wants to run something back, please ask me. Very physical, very tough.
Of the eight young guys here's another one, Thomas Ashcraft. The eight young guys that came in early came in because most of them want to have a better chance to play early. Thomas has great feet. He knocks down about six guys in a row here in this film.
The players were hooping and hollering about him down stairs. Thomas is from Cedar Hill. They won the state championship there in his earlier years. We think all four of these linemen can move their feet, but they're big guys.

Q. Is he tackle?
COACH MACK BROWN: He can play any of the four places, guard or tackle we feel like up front. He will not be a center. This is the other thing about the diversity of this class. We hope there is enough flexibility that he can play any of the four.
Eryon Barnett is not in school. He's a corner, he's got the long arms and ability to cover. We think he can be a great man-to-man guy because he's tall but still can run. He has excellent hands. In fact, he's caught the ball some for them as well, and he's very physical, as you see here.
Coming up and the corners now, especially the boundary type corners, need to be good enough and quick enough to cover man-to-man, but physical enough to come up on the run and take on the receiver, especially with alt flair screens that people are throwing out of the back field.
Marcus Davis is in school. We feel like the three defensive backs that we've signed have the ability to play corner or safety. Marcus has been very impressive again in the off-season program. Just talking to Coach Madden and the people that have been here. He has the ability to play one-on-one, and play corner. But he's got the toughness to come up and really hit you as a safety.
And as we said, with so many teams playing spread offense against the nickel and dime offenses make it where you need to have as many good defensive backs that can go in and play any time and stay as healthy as possible.

Q. Would he start off at safety?
COACH MACK BROWN: We're not sure yet. We haven't even discussed it. What we'd like to do is have two or three more weeks in the off-season program, and we'll be able to watch the guys move, and your coaches in the off-season program now can actually work them in drills as long as they don't have a ball, and they don't lineup in a formation.

Q. What's he weigh?
COACH MACK BROWN: He's probably 190, 195.
Garrett, you all have watched, Garrett's big and he's strong. He's not had any repercussions with his shoulder at all. You can see here, moving to your left. He's so well taught because of his dad. The camps he went to at a young age.
Here he is, he gets flushed out of the pocket. He has ability to move to his left. As he's running toward the line of scrimmage, two people are coming up, and he lifts and throws the ball on the mark.
That's one thing that Colt and Vince both have been so good about, is going toward the line of scrimmage. Drawing people from the secondary, and throwing the ball down field. He still has the arm strength to get the ball deep.

Q. He's in the shotgun?
COACH MACK BROWN: He's always in the shotgun. In fact, he's running the offense that Jevan Sneed ran, because Chad Morris was Jevan's coach at Stevenville.

Q. In a perfect world, do you want to red shirt him?
COACH MACK BROWN: That's a question that we've got to get answered. We've talked to the Gilberts and to Garrett when he came in on his official visit a couple of weeks ago. He really doesn't care. He wants to do whatever helps our team.
And obviously, we'll have John and Sherrod this spring competing, and see where they are. Then we'll have Garrett come in and compete with them in the fall before we make that decision.

Q. What is his best pass?
COACH MACK BROWN: I don't know. He's got the whole game. He can run, too. You can see here, and he's big. I mean, he's maybe 6'4". He's big and strong. Colt was probably 175 at this same age.

Q. He's 20?
COACH MACK BROWN: Yeah, I'd say 205, 207, and very strong. He's not going to play baseball this spring, so he can really work on just his football.
Garrett was a four point student as I said. Trey Graham, a 4.0 student. Wants to be a doctor. He's out of Midway. He's a tight end. Their fullbacks got hurt, and he played fullback a lot of the year. He's probably about 235 now, and we feel like he can be a 250 H-back tight end.
You can see here he's got the ability to run after the catch. And we also like the fact that Midway played him at fullback some because he had to work on his toughness and blocking out of the back field.
But we've had so many injuries at tight end, and we've been so good at tight end here, it's been a go-to position for us that we've got to continue to work to get that position back to its strength.

Q. He play defense?
COACH MACK BROWN: No, he did play fullback in the back field, and he's played H-back with his motion, and he was a tight end to start the season. But he's also very unselfish. When they needed to move him to fullback, he just said yes, and he didn't catch any walls there for a while.

Q. So he's a tight end right now in high school he can catch as well?
COACH MACK BROWN: Yes. People are not playing with tight ends much anymore. We feel like we're fortunate to get two of them in that position. Because the spread offense is you're not seeing -- you can see here his ability to split the secondary. But you're not seeing fullbacks much anymore. With one-back offenses, and you're not seeing as many tight ends with four and five wide receivers and it's harder for the pros to find them.
Calvin Howell, we feel can be an impact player in the defensive line. He and trey are not in school. Calvin's really quick. He's got a great first step. He's 275, 280 pounds. He's in great shape. He can really run. And again, the defensive linemen in this class we'd like to see come in and play next year. He is not in school.
I go to each high school after they commit, and walk through the halls and talk to their teachers and counselors and principles. It just gives me a better feel of who these young people are and all of these young guys were really impressive when their teachers were talking about them. You see here the ability to run. And this is what the spread offenses are doing to defenses.
Calvin has the ability when there is a flair pass, a screen, a ball that bounces like this to run it down. And that's hard to do at defensive tackle. So we're wanting our guys to run.
Derek Johnson is not in school. I did not get to his school because of the ice storms. I couldn't get up there. I tried to go last week, and their town was shut down, their school was shut down. They just started school back today.

Q. Where's that?
COACH MACK BROWN: It's outside of Jonesboro, Arkansas.

Q. Is it Hoxie?
COACH MACK BROWN: It's Hoxie. And when we called Derek last week, he was out trying to help people -- he is really big and strong. He was out there trying to help people get limbs out of their yards and get some sense back into it. Try to make some sense of the community.
Derek's another one now. He had his coach call us back in the spring and say I'm from Texas, and I want to come to Texas.

Q. He been out of El Paso for a long time?
COACH MACK BROWN: I don't know. I really don't.

Q. Second grade through ninth grade?
COACH MACK BROWN: Was it second through ninth? But you can see he's big, and he can run, and he's a nice young man.

Q. Is that a big high school?
COACH MACK BROWN: No. But we're really excited about he and Calvin. Their ability to run. The whole point on the run, but their ability to run.

Q. Would he be a short yardage fullback?
COACH MACK BROWN: Well, we think so. We're trying to take our tackles. Now they're fighting to be that guy. LaMarr Houston has come in and made bids. And he said he can catch better than Roy. And I said, well, yes. I think. Who is this?
This is Dominique Jones. He had a shoulder operation. He hurt his shoulder in high school. He is in school. He can play defensive end or tight end. He's really a good pass-rusher. He should be ready for summer.
But you can see his quickness off the corner here. Dominique's also a really good student. We've been fortunate to get four good players from Kilgore High School. But you'll see him here. He's very impressive at tight end as well. He can stretch the middle of the field, and you'll see the next four, five, six plays here, he can really block.

Q. Do you all know where you want to play him?
COACH MACK BROWN: We do not. And we won't be able to watch him in the off-season or spring practice. So he'll be slowed a little bit.

Q. When did he have the operation?
COACH MACK BROWN: Two weeks ago, a week ago. Since he's been here right now he wants to play defensive end, and that's where we're planning on playing him. But as you watch this film, watch this block on the goal line. He could definitely be a tight end prospect if he wants to be.
Again, a lot of these guys can play two or three different positions and we really like that. But he is tough enough to block and can really run.
Paden Kelley grew up being a Texas football fan. He's not in school. He's from lake Travis. His mom and dad went to school here. He's got great feet. He's really tall. You can just watch him here the first couple of plays.
He will be a young guy who will want to red shirt as most offensive linemen do, because he wants to get stronger. But we liked his ability to run. He's another 4.0 student. There are five, six, seven of them in this group. But for a 6' 6" guy, he can move his feet really, really well.
And as people start getting quicker defensive tackles because of the spread, they're going to start -- we're going to have to have better athletes in the offensive line continually to block them.

Q. He'll start at tackle?
COACH MACK BROWN: He will play tackle for us, that's what he wants to do.
Kyle Kriegel is in school. He played defensive end, and defensive tackle in high school. He'll do the same for us. He would be in the Aaron Lewis type position where he plays a power end and plays tackle.
He's 255, 262 maybe is what he weighed in at the other day. He's about 6' 5", and he can really run. So, again, he's a guy that we feel like can hold up against the run, but can also rush the passer.

Q. He's going to fill out more?
COACH MACK BROWN: At 6' 4 or 6' 5", 255. He's not skinny standing next to you, but he looks it on the film. He can be at 285 we think, 275, 285-pound guy. And we really liked how hard he played. He plays really, really hard every play.
You see there, the guy was smaller than him, but he still plays with good pad level. He took him on, got up under his pads. Knocked the center down and made the play.
Barrett Matthews is the same hybrid at tight end, H-back, fullback that Trey Graham would be. You can see here, Barrett can really run. In fact, I think he's run the 100 meters and he's involved with the track team at North Shore.
Another really good student, but he has the ability to stretch the field and catch. But as you will see, he's also a very good blocker. Very tough. In fact, he ran over the coach over here. You can see him knock him out of bounds.
Since fullbacks are so hard to find, we're really looking at finding the person that can play both. You see his speed here. He can really run. So we think he gives us a lot of flexibility out of the back field as an H-back or as a tight end. Great hands.

Q. What's he run in track?
COACH MACK BROWN: He told me he runs the 100? It was like 10.5, maybe he's a little bigger now, so it's 10.7, but he's really fast. And he's another one now. He walked in my office a year ago on Sunday, and this coming Sunday and said you ought to go home and think about this. He said no, I want to come. I've wanted to come to Texas my whole life and that's what I want to.
Trey Graham was different. He called me when he got home that night and told me. He had some real concerns.
Tevin Mimms was the young guy who was 225 in the spring. He's 242 now, 245. Watch the quickness that he has up front. Has the ability and this was Will Muschamp's school, and Will found him.
And he and Bruce chambers went to watch him play. And in a playoff game. He can really run, and is explosive up front. So we're excited about some of the guy that's will play around the line of scrimmage for us.

Q. What is the difference between he and Okafor?
COACH MACK BROWN: Probably not much, height. This one's probably 6' 3, and Alex is 6' 5, 6' 6", but they can really run. And they were good friends after we found that out in recruiting.

Q. How do you say that?
COACH MACK BROWN: Nkwopara. We were told it was Nkwopara, and that's what I've called him for a year. Nkwopara. He is a young man that lost his mother to cancer right after he committed to us last year in the spring. And he's an excellent student again. He's got a very strong family, Nigerian family.
He's a young guy that can really run. If you watch him, people have not said a lot about him because he's short. He's not the prototype to some of the other linebackers, but he's so quick, and he will really hit you.

Q. Is he taller than Bob know?
COACH MACK BROWN: He's probably a little taller than Bobino. But you see his quickness here. He just has great instincts. He's another one that will saw on film and saw him workout, and was really excited about him after he first got here. Another 3.5 student or something. He's an excellent student.
Likes to play. Alex has the ability to rush the passer. Likes, in fact, better than Brian Orakpo did at the same age. When we signed Brian, Brian was about 6' 3", 211 pounds. And he ended up 260.
Alex is probably 242 now, 245. So we think he can be a 265, 270 pass rusher. You can see him run right here.

Q. Could he be like the first freshman defensive player to see action?
COACH MACK BROWN: I don't know. I think, again, the good thing about him is he's here. So we'll have 15 days this spring to have a real good evaluation. Most of these guys can rush the passer. The young defensive guys problem is taking on Alex or Adam Ulatoski at 330 pounds on the run block. I mean, do they have the strength to do it?
Garrett Porter, another 4.0 student from Odessa. They went deep in the playoffs. He's another guy that's really physical.
Very impressed with these four offensive linemen, and we have found that by and large, the better the student, the more most of them have played. Especially in the offensive line.
Garrett moves his feet. And stays after them.

Q. Can he play everything?
COACH MACK BROWN: Yes. He's another one. We would not think that we would put Garrett or Paden or Thomas Ashcraft at center right now because they haven't played it. We would play mason at all five places, because mason was a center in high school.
Greg Timmons is the single receiver that we signed. Greg can really run. He's probably 6' 3", has excellent hands. And Greg's another one.
We were really surprised when he walked in the office and he and his mom sat there a year ago and he was one of the ones that committed on the first day, he and Marcus Davis. We didn't have any idea that either one of them would want to commit when they walked in here.
We like his height. He has really big hands, and he's a good ball catcher. Has the ability to use his body because he's so big.

Q. Did you all just want one wide receiver?
COACH MACK BROWN: We did. We feel like it's a great class next year we feel like it's a great class next year, and there are more we're excited about.
It's one of the advantages of being here 12 years. You can usually see down the road and is say this class has this, and more of these, so you just try to figure out where it fits. Look at that catch.
We can teach him to catch.
Kenny Vaccaro, Kenny had a knee operation about after his fourth game. He's another good student. This is at Brownwood, this would be junior film. He transferred over to Elie, and we do not have senior film on him.
He can play all four positions in the secondary. He was in our camp last year. We thought he had the ability to play receiver if he wanted to. He's got really good hands. And last year, the real emphasis for next year will obviously be forcing more turnovers on defense. We did that as poorly as we've done it since we've been here. We've got to do a better job at catching the ball at linebacker and in the secondary.
But Kenny is a big hitter. He is in school. He is working out, but he will not go through spring practice and will not be full speed because of the knee: There are a couple of big hits coming up here for Kenny.
This is Mason Walters. This is friendship high school where David Thomas played for us. Mason is every bit of that. He's probably 310. You can see now, if you watch this, for a guy this big to be able to run like this.

Q. That's big for a center?
COACH MACK BROWN: It's really unusual, especially in high school. But just watch him. Anybody can that can play center can play anything else if he's 6' 6" and 310, to have the ability to bend inside like that against smaller players is just really amazing. I've never seen a center that big that will play. And we really have talked about him playing all five positions. So we think he can play either tackle, either guard or center.

Q. Is he advanced enough that he could see action enough next year? I know you normally red shirt offensive linemen as a matter of course. But is he that special guy that might be able to step in?
COACH MACK BROWN: We think so, and, again, because he's here that will really, really help him.

Q. Will it be at guard?
COACH MACK BROWN: Those are things we'll have to wait to see at spring. What we've tried to do at spring practice is we have the first seven or eight days and we try to evaluate the guy and look more at schemes the last part after spring break.
We'll have a much better feel of these young guys when they start spring. This is Chris Whaley. Chris is the big back, obviously, at 225 pounds, 224. In fact, he may be 230 now.

Q. How tall is he?
COACH MACK BROWN: He's probably 6' 2.5", 6' 3", he's big.

Q. We were hearing 10.8, 100, is that right?
COACH MACK BROWN: He's really fast, you'll see it here in a second. And he showed that on the screen in the All-Star Game.
They lost all of their seniors last year. They had a really good team two years ago. And last year they were a really, really young team. He was one of the few seniors on the team, so they did not have a good year. Chris did not have the publicity.

Q. Are you worried about his weight?
COACH MACK BROWN: No, he looks really good. He is not big, he is built. He's strong. He's, in fact, he's in great shape. He's not heavy at all. What you see here, the ability to move his feet and change direction.

Q. Who does he remind you of, coach?
COACH MACK BROWN: I don't know. You know, we were asked that earlier. I'd like to see him against us, and wait a while and see. We've had some great backs, but I just don't know yet.
When you ask about every down back, the problem he's got is he was an every down carrier. So he did not pass protect in high school. Now with our backs being around him this summer, we have a little better chance for him to understand what we do before we start. And that's not something that Cedric Benson or Mitchell or some of those guys had the ability to do because they weren't around.

Q. Well, you've had a 6' 3" back, haven't you?
COACH MACK BROWN: No, I don't think so.

Q. What do you think about him making the transition to the spread?
COACH MACK BROWN: I think it's something y'all talk about. I don't think it's that big a deal, very honestly. Not at all, that will be the question. But the question was what about his ability to change from the eye to the spread? I think we're -- good backs are good. And they just need to keep practicing and playing we had him in camp, and that's one thing we can do in camp.
When you don't see a young guy like that catch the ball at all it was funny. Vondrell didn't play in the bowl game because they were blitzing every time. And he's still because Longview ran it every time, he still needs work in protection Chris played more because people blitzed us so much. Fozzy got better in protection, but Cody again would be limited on his protections because he didn't catch passes.
So the biggest problem for transition for young backs is their ability not only who to block in pass protection because you can simplify it. But the technique is so hard if they've never done it. And linebackers and ends at this level just run over them and that's a problem that they have.
We only had three sacks this year to be attributed to the backs. I think we had five to the tight ends. We've got to block at tight end better, and our pass protection with blitz. But a lot of that was attributed to the fact that Chris Ogbonnaya and I stayed in a lot.

Q. What do you attribute that to?
COACH MACK BROWN: Oh, gosh, right now I would say it's a big hole to fill, because we were impressed with Trey Newton in our bowl practices, because at South Lake Carol, that's what he did. He ran the spread offense. He caught the ball out of the back field. He had the ability to pick up blitzes because that's all he did. And he would take screens and draws and had really good hands out of the back field.
So it will be interesting to see him in the mix with the other four guys this spring to see if he can step into that role.
Fozzy probably handled it better, but Fozzy's got to get stronger. Because if you get a guy like Tariq Allen at 240 running at him with a five or seven yard start, it's hard for Fozzy right now to take him on. So that would be his question.
We were really excited about the progress Vondrell made. We want him just to continue to get better out of the back field.

Q. Is Blaine Irby running or doing activity right now?
COACH MACK BROWN: No, he's not. But his knee is coming well. And he will not be in spring practice.

Q. Collectively, would you say is this your best local recruiting class in terms of kids?
COACH MACK BROWN: We signed a bunch of them last year, too, didn't we? Didn't we get five, six, seven last year? So I would think these two years tell me this area's getting much more productive with football players, and we've got to make sure we do a great job at home and not miss anybody.
In fact, our staff is going to speak Monday night to the Central Texas Coaches' Association just to make sure we get started back immediately in this area in recruiting. And the coaches want to help us now. The coaches are calling us and saying watch this guy. He may not be there yet, but he's a guy that may come around. So continue to watch him.

Q. (Indiscernible).
COACH MACK BROWN: I don't think they'll know until they go through and watch him with his rehab. It usually takes a year. And that was the third game. And normally knee operations take a year regardless. So I think it's more of a wait and see how fast he progresses.
Jordan progressed so quickly, but he probably went too fast. Then overworked some muscles and then pulled a hamstring really badly and didn't get to play there.

Q. Do you see Josh Marshall in the spring?
COACH MACK BROWN: We think he'll be limited some the first part of spring. That's why we like our ten-day break. We think he'll be able to play the last eight days for sure.

Q. Did d j work at tight end some?
COACH MACK BROWN: We did. And we want to work d j at both. Let him still flex and play some wide receiver. But we do want to get him involved in the tight end play, because that's another position where he's -- it's funny. We've laughed about it, but you have to be an offensive lineman on one play and a wide receiver on the next play.
So it really takes a special guy to be able to run in there and play. So we may look at some of those big offensive linemen again in certain situations like Greg Smith, and Brett Mitchell played tight end in it high school. But we do want to get -- we've got to get our tight end position settled again, because it's so important to us, and right now we're not settled there.

Q. Is Mark somebody that could return?
COACH MACK BROWN: Kenny Viccaro was, he won't be out there this spring, and Aaron Barnett was. I don't think Greg Timmons did.

Q. How different is it in terms of, and I know the decision has been made on whether or not who red shirts and things like that. But development-wise, what is the difference between a guy red shirting and a guy being out there?
COACH MACK BROWN: It's a great question that we're studying right now. Our red shirts by and large have not done as well in school. And they haven't been as interested, because they're not getting the attention, and they've had attention their whole lives.
The guys that play have been guys that stay excited and get to dress and play and so we've really got to look at it, is it worth red shirting? If he's great, he leaves in three years anyway. So what is a red shirt worth to us?
Or should you play a young guy as a freshman because he's so highly recruited and touted that he needs that attention so badly, then maybe red shirt him as a sophomore to make sure you give him his year back so he can get off to a good start in school.

Q. From a football standpoint, is Garrett Gilbert more progressed than Colt was when he came here? I know physically they're very different?
COACH MACK BROWN: I would think the only, physically, he is further along because he's bigger and stronger. And the fact that he played against better competition would be the two things that I think would say that Garrett would be ahead of Colt at the same age.

Q. Is he more prepared than any quarterback you've had coming in?
COACH MACK BROWN: Well, we haven't coached him. So I don't know.

Q. Just seen him on film?
COACH MACK BROWN: Yeah, he's done really well. We've had some good players. That position ease been really good for us. You know what, Vince scored 59 points against west lake and got beaten or something, or North Shore or whatever it was in the semifinal game.
He's obviously very well taught. But so was Colt, so was Chris Simms, you know, Major had been to 97 camps. He knew what to do. So Chance was a guy that had been a camper. So a lot of those guys have been really well taught.

Q. Does that make it more ask more difficult? You talk about against better competition, to judge players from smaller classification schools because of that? Even though you've obviously gone with a guy like Colt or somebody?
COACH MACK BROWN: I would think from Colt's standpoint it would be the attention that he didn't get and would get here. Garrett has had so much attention that he will not be fazed when you all meet him for the first time and talk to him. Where Colt didn't have near the attention at Tuscola High School as he did when he first got here.
I think it was really good for him to stand and watch and be around Vince. And see you all interview him and the reaction from people. Greg, and I and Major have talked about the Texas quarterback a lot, and it's more than playing. It's handling the press. It's handling the media. It's handling the autographs. It's handling being seen out in town and stopping and taking pictures, and everybody wanting you to come and speak.
So we do think with Major back and with Colt having his success so far, that both of them will be able to talk to Garrett and try to help him get more ready for this process, plus he's been able to see it. He's seen it up close here for six to eight years now.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
COACH MACK BROWN: He didn't, and I think it was probably because he had the shoulder operation. He was so focused on the season, he had a new coach. We didn't mention it, he didn't mention it. And it was just something he didn't want to do.
I didn't realize he's a really good baseball player that's decided not to play. So I'm sure if last summer he would have said if my shoulder's well, I'm going to play baseball.

Q. Do you feel you've met all your needs?
COACH MACK BROWN: Yes, yes, we did. And it's our job now to make sure they play.
If you watch this film, they all have the ability to play and to win all the games, because there's not a miss in that group on film. What we have to do is make sure we coach them up to their abilities and make sure they get better.

Q. You didn't seem to have an effect, but just curious did you promise him you'd be here all five years?
COACH MACK BROWN: No, but we were able to sell stability. I told him I thought I would be here. But at the same time if something happened to me, then nothing changed.
Will steps in, they get a new defensive coordinator and we move forward. So your coaching staff will be here, your staff will be here. Everything that our program is built on will still be here. I'm planning on being here.
But really, any coach that tells them they promise they can be there five years with the environment like it is in college football, is really being objective (laughing). Because they're getting fired real fast out there.

Q. Have you looked at the numbers? I've heard something like 50% of college coaches don't stay four years anymore?
COACH MACK BROWN: Is that right? I'd love to see if you've got it.

Q. Not just head coaches, but overall.
COACH MACK BROWN: I think we're like the NFL. I mean, when you see offensive and defensive coordinators being fired during the season, and more coaches this year being fired during the season than ever before, I think that's what's happening. If it's not worked, A.D.'s and presidents are want to go make a change so they make sure they get first start on the guys that are out there and make sure they get a recruiting class, because you can get behind so quickly.
That was one of the things that Bill Powers and myself did not want to have happen here. We wanted to make sure that the transition was smooth when that time comes.

Q. What is the most difficult to evaluate? Has that changed in 12 years?
COACH MACK BROWN: You have to see them, if you can. So the ability to watch them play, play basketball. The ability to have them in camp is so important. We feel like you have to meet them. If we don't like him, he's probably not going to fit here. We want a happy guy, a guy that can work and visit and communicate and be confident. It's still very hard.
I mean, if you look at the two quarterbacks in the Super Bowl the other night, one of them is offered a MAC scholarship, and one a 1AA scholarship, And Kurt Warner was not even drafted.
Those people spend a lot more money and time and interest trying to evaluate than we do. Those two guys have been involved in five Super Bowls or something.
So the evaluation process is really, really hard. Trying to take the four offensive linemen we've got blocking those little bitty guys and see who can bend their knees and who will be able to handle it? The guys that can handle the pressure, the school. It's a really interesting thing.
I told the coaches this morning, this list is not worth anything unless they make it. I mean, it all sounds good, and it's really pretty. But if these kids aren't in school three years from now, if one flunks out, one gets in trouble, then it's no good. So our ability to make sure all of the factors fit is more important than him just being able to play.
I do think one thing that's happened here, and it's not just because I think we've had good coaches, I do think that we've brought in good enough kids by and large that they get better. And that some guys that weren't as highly recruited that people thought were good players, end up getting better because they want to, and they improve and they want to prove to people that they're better than people thought they were.

Q. You told all of them that they come in with the expectation that they might play?
COACH MACK BROWN: Yes.

Q. That includes the offensive line?
COACH MACK BROWN: Yes, we've told them we have enough depth. If can you get in the two-deep, we'll play you if you want to play. So get ready, come on in and do it. And two of them are in school and two of them are not. Obviously the two in school at that position have a better chance to play than the two that are not because we will see them for 15 practices.
The other thing it seems to us that's happened is with the ability for guys to come in early, if you're here like Blake Gideon, for example, and you have 15 days of spring practice, your summer gets more important because you've been coached.
Duane can't coach the guys that show up in the summer. He can coach the guys all spring and they know what to do in the summer so they get more out of the seven on seven and the drill work than the young men that come in in June.

Q. So are they all going to come in at least for the summer?
COACH MACK BROWN: Yes. Unless one may want to run track or something. But if they don't have something that keeps them from doing it, we've encouraged them all to come in, and they want to come in because it's a slower time for them.
Our first two spring practices will be open the two short days. The weekend scrimmage of our coaches clinic will be open, and then the spring game. So we'll have four games open.
This year's spring game is on Sunday because of the Texas relays. I think it's Sunday at 2:30.

Q. Even though Goodwin's a walk-on and has played football, is he in training just because of the speed factor?
COACH MACK BROWN: He is. His jumping ability, and his straight out speed. He came to visit in track this spring, and came and spent time with us. I was very impressed. He's an outstanding young guy, and he can fly.
He's just short, he's not very tall, but he's got everything else. And he was offered a number of football scholarships. But he's definitely a good player and a guy that we're really interested in looking at if he can handle the pressure of two sports. That's a very difficult thing to do anymore.
But track and football are two that you can probably handle because they fit together, and they're in opposite seasons.

Q. Anyone who had a great red shirt year?
COACH MACK BROWN: You asked me that at the bowl game. I didn't have that in front of me.

Q. Hills, DeSean Hales?
COACH MACK BROWN: You think DeSean is a guy who was really a running back. And the transition is tougher. When you walk out there and you've got Quan and Jordan, and Colt's throwing passes, and they're a quick-pace offense, but he really improved during the fall and got more comfortable, so we're really, he's a guy that we're interested in watching this spring.
I mentioned Trey Newton. I thought he was another guy that we scrimmaged every day we were here scrimmaged 10 or 15 plays with those guys, and we were impressed with his patience.

Q. What is the status of the freshmen who weren't able to make the bowl trip because of academics?
COACH MACK BROWN: They're all fine. Just have to do well.

Q. Do you anticipate any offensively sticking with what you've done, do you plan on going more into the center?
COACH MACK BROWN: I felt our offensive staff did a great job of changing tempos in the bowl game. We thought that was a factor in our win, and we needed to find an edge somehow. And we didn't have it going in. We thought that was fine for the kids, and it was a change of pace that hurt Ohio State some.
So we want to continue to evaluate that. We want to continue to evaluate Colt under the center more. And we -- when you study it, if I asked you all what percentage of plays we ran compared to the percentage of plays we passed, what would you think? What percentage would you say? Because we threw it a whole lot last year.

Q. 35, 60-40?
COACH MACK BROWN: We ran it 53% and we threw it 47.

Q. I mean the other way.
COACH MACK BROWN: You meant the other way, but I'm going to let you off the hook. That's all right. I'm going to let you off. But we ran it a lot. We ran it well on short yardage and goal line.
But what we didn't like, and I think our staff feels the same way. We didn't run it consistently well when we needed to to finish the game. So four-minute runs were not as good for us. And the second part of that was we had too many first down runs that were no yards or negative yards.
So we need to take those negative plays away. And we need to be able to finish a game and dominate at the end of the game like we have in our past those are things we need to do. Now how we do it, one of the problems we've got is a really good problem when you throw it as well as Colt threw it.
And you run as well as Jordan and Quan do after they catch a short pass Quan averaged nine to ten yards a carry. Those are like runs. So you throw them so much, it's hard to get rhythm and knock the ball and beating people down. So those are things that we've really got to look at.
We'd like to be more aggressive with our running attack, but, again, we had a chance to win the national championship. So what we're doing is not that far off. We want to get rid of the negative plays and be able to run it.
We're better in one minute right now than we are four. So we'd like to get better at four minutes at the end of the game.

Q. Can you talk about switching to artificial turf?
COACH MACK BROWN: We are switching to something that is artificial. And DeLoss is working with Jim Baker. They haven't finalized it. Here was our dilemma. DeLoss asked us really before the A & M game, would we like to go to some form of turf, and we all said no, we wanted to stay with grass.
And then the slippage that we had at the A & M game was not good everybody was slipping. It was rye grass, and the grass was dying. And we're on it a lot. We practice every Thursday on our field and most people don't do that. We like being in the stadium. We like being in the stadium. We're on it some Sundays because we don't want to take the time to go over to the practice fields for an hour and come back. Then we're having an increasing number of high school coaches that want to play in the stadium. And that's really important to us that we're available to high school coaches.
So basically the word that we got back is if we're going to stay on it as much as we are and we're going to have playoff games, the grass will not stand up, and we're going to have more games like we did for the A & M game, And that's not good. So, we have agreed that we will go with whatever the department feels is the best in the country.
I did see an article that John could get for you the other day where a large majority of the NFL players like the turf better than they like grass. And I think we're going to see a trend in the future to see a lot more turf. I just think we're headed that way.
I'm not sure what they're going to get. They'll have to go through bids and all that stuff. It's gotten so much better than Astroturf. It's changed so much more now.
I believe, you all help me here, but I tried to figure it out. Oklahoma's got grass, but we'll play Oklahoma on grass in a Cotton Bowl. A & M's got grass, and I think Iowa State's the only other team in our league that has grass. Maybe Colorado. Colorado's got it. Is Missouri, too? We haven't been up there in so long. Are they grass? So there's five. Five out of 12.

Q. Will it be in in September the new turf?
COACH MACK BROWN: I think so. It will not be for spring practice. But the plan is to start after spring practice and have it ready for fall.

Q. Has the grass ever died like it did this year?
COACH MACK BROWN: Our first year.

Q. You had a dormant growing season where it just won't grow.
COACH MACK BROWN: And I think the other thing that happened and I was asking the same questions you all were. I could tell the day before the game we weren't standing up very good. So I thought it would be a problem. At night the rye grass seems to sweat more, and it gets damp and becomes more slick than it does during the day. So all of a sudden, we just couldn't stand up, and that was not good for that game.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
COACH MACK BROWN: It's been so long since I've been there. Tennessee, Vanderbilt, they're turf, I know. Florida's turf. LSU is grass. Is Florida grass? Because it was turf when I was in the SEC.

Q. You're seeing that a lot more?
COACH MACK BROWN: Oh, yeah. It's safe, it's really good, and they're telling us the stuff that's out there now is really, really good. Different than what we all remember as Astro Turf.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297