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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 16, 2010

Tommy Tuberville

COACH TUBERVILLE: We got beat by a good football team today. As I told our team, we had no answer early. Probably started playing defense the second quarter. They had us confused.
They started running the ball and throwing it in play-action, good offense, and well-executed. Then we couldn't make a play on offense to make a first down. We just dug ourselves a hole.
That is about the fourth week that we hadn't started. I told our team we've got a lot to work on. But the main thing we've got to work on is coming out and playing the first seven or eight minutes.
It's been a while since we've done that. It's been a while since we've made any plays early. It's been a while since we made anything happen.
We just dug ourselves a hole. We fought back, which we always do, and seems like we run up against a wall. Second half, played better in some areas defensively, but when you can run the ball and throw it at will and get you confused and get you off balance, you're going to have problems. We couldn't stop the run nor could we rush the passer most of the game.
But we'll go back to work tomorrow and try to improve. Questions?

Q. Your guys punted five times in the first quarter. What were they doing in particular that they were stopping you?
COACH TUBERVILLE: Well, the pass-rush. We came out and we were going to try to set the tempo with throwing the ball down the field, mixing the run in. They took away our screen passes. Forced us to throw the ball into the wind early in the first quarter, and we just didn't execute.
They played tight. We probably should have thrown the ball down the field a little bit more early, but in throwing into the wind, the ball hangs up and your big chance of getting interceptions.
But I look at more of what they did than what we did. They got after us. They stopped a run early. They stopped a pass early, rushed the passer. Got the ball back for their offense. Set up good field position. Made us punt into the wind, as you said, a lot in the first quarter. We had no answer for their running game.
They threw it pretty good. But when you can run and run inside and outside, you're going to have a long day, and we had a long day.

Q. Why was Taylor Potts taken to the hospital?
COACH TUBERVILLE: I'm sure they're checking him for a concussion. They X-rayed him first at halftime for a shot to the jaw. It came out negative, but I'm sure they took him to the hospital just to check him out and see if everything was 100% fine, which we always do.

Q. Any thoughts of bringing Steven Sheffield in as he was warming up right before the third quarter?
COACH TUBERVILLE: We talked about it, but the thing about it is we felt like we needed to stay in the pocket to get the ball deep down the field. You know, we'll look at that tomorrow. Of course, depending on how Potts is, how much he can practice this week, it could be a change. But hopefully Taylor's fine.
Right now he's had some good weeks and he's brought us back. One thing about it, I thought he competed hard. Thought he competed all four quarters. We just didn't make any plays.

Q. With a lot of the injuries and what not you've had on defense and given up I guess 34-plus points for the third week in a row. How concerned are you about the state of the defense right now?
COACH TUBERVILLE: We're in bad shape. Physically we lost Kerry Hyder in the first series. He'll be out for probably about a month. We're down to playing a lot of guys that haven't played much. That's the bottom line.
That is a tough situation that we're in, but that's the hand we're dealt, so we've got to keep playing. Young guys got to step up.
I thought they scored between 25 and maybe low 30's, which they did. I thought maybe we'd score the same thing. That is the type of team we are.
Everybody's noticed we're going to give up some plays and probably some points if we don't get a lot of turnovers, but we've got to play better than that on offense.
We're pretty healthy on offense. We lost Zouzalik on the second drive. He'll be out for a while, so we'll have to move some guys around there. But we've got to play better. We've got to coach better. There is no excuses. We got beat by a good team today, bottom line.
Our guys didn't give it away, they pretty much beat us at the game they do best. That's the best team we've played all year.

Q. What did Hyder have, and what did Zouzalik have?
COACH TUBERVILLE: Hyder has a hamstring, and Zouzalik's leg, they're X-raying him.

Q. Did you all game plan to run as much as you did, or did you run more simply because the passing --
COACH TUBERVILLE: We had to slow down the pass-rush. And Taylor was getting knocked around early. We couldn't slow him down. They were getting pushed up the middle. And they were going to give us the run a little bit the way they're lined up. They were playing tight on the receivers. We couldn't get them open. Taylor was having to hold the ball longer than he needed to.
The running game is your best defense against stopping the pass-rush if you're having a tough time. I thought it worked pretty good, but, again, we came back though in the second half and mixed it up pretty good. Had them confused, made some plays, we just didn't make enough of them.
We got inside the 10 twice, scored three points. Turned bought ball over down around the 11th. We were our own worst enemy there in the second half. We played much better; we just didn't execute and finish as much as we should have.

Q. How much did this game remind you of the Ohio State game?
COACH TUBERVILLE: They all do. If you go back and look at it, it's just mind boggling how things get going against us early. We play a high-percentage type of offense in terms of how you've got to go out and you've got to get things done early.
It looked like we played a little tight. We're not a running team. We're not a team that we're going to lineup and make first downs running the ball early, control the ball. That's not us.
So we've got to learn to be able to execute on offense by throwing it down the field as we do in the second and third quarter in most games. We've looked at everything, every scenario. We've practiced different this week. We're going to keep trying things, because we could be a much better team.
I don't know how much better we can be if we keep getting beat up on defense. We're going to have to score a lot of points, we all know that.
These kids are disappointed. We're 3-3 after the midway point. We could have won another game or two. I think we're a little bit better than what we were when we started.
But now we're getting to the point where we've got two road games and we've got a lot of guys hurt. We're going to have to scramble to make ends meet in terms of getting our defense going, because our guys on defense are struggling. They're struggling.
When you can't stop either run or pass, it gets you in a tough situation. So coaches are working hard, players are working hard, so, hopefully, we can get some guys back healthy and get going in the second half of the season.

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