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UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDIA CONFERENCEAugust 29, 2011Bryan HarsinQ. I know there's been a competition at the quarterback position. Do you feel you've achieved enough separation? COACH HARSIN: Yeah, I think we did. I think Garrett did a good job, and really the whole -- this whole battle at quarterback has been very difficult because everybody has gotten better, and that's really what you want, and that's what we said from this position is we don't want to have a huge separation. That means we're really close. We want it to be a difficult decision, and it was. And Garrett did a nice job from spring through summer into fall camp, and he's earned it. Q. (No microphone.) COACH HARSIN: Garrett is a real smart football player, number one, and he's got a very good grasp on what we're doing offensively, how we're calling things, adjustments we want to make. Very good in the film room, and then out there at practice I thought made some really good decisions and really started to understand on the field what we wanted to get done, and it showed just from his practice habits, making the right decisions, getting us in the right play. All those things just factored into him being smarter. Q. (No microphone.) COACH HARSIN: I do. I think coming out of spring when you go into summer and you're still competing, there's a lot on the line there, for that position especially, and I thought all those guys took advantage of it because when I got -- when they came back in fall camp, I could tell that they had put a lot of time in and work, just mechanically, fundamentally, the understanding of our offense. Everybody had improved tremendously from spring, and that was good. And that's what made it that much more difficult is we got in there and everybody had gotten better, and going back through that same scenario of giving each guy equal reps and trying to figure out -- let them have opportunities with the ones, the twos and those type of things, we had to do that to see where they are, and everybody did that when they had a chance. Q. (No microphone.) COACH HARSIN: Yeah, we've got to kind of figure that out. I think we have a plan right now at quarterback, and that's really what our focus is. All the other factors now that start to come into play is who do we use in these certain situations. We'll look at that game plan wise, but our focus right now is to get our lineup, get the guys that are going to go out there and play and focus on that. Q. Garrett talked last year about wanting to be a better leader. COACH HARSIN: Yeah, I think he's -- again, coming into spring, to be fair, not knowing what you're supposed to say or do on the offensive side, it's very hard to show your leadership qualities. As the summer went on, I thought that through the summer and into fall camp that he had developed a bond with the players. He had gotten guys to watch film, had organized stuff throughout the summer that they needed to get done, and it really showed coming into fall camp, and I think the players could really see the benefits of that organization through the summer and really him doing that. And so I think that really helped his leadership abilities with the team, and it just showed through fall camp, again, just with drills, team periods and things like that of just kind of rallying the guys in certain situations when there's ups and downs in practice, I thought he did a good job of that. Q. (No microphone.) COACH HARSIN: Absolutely. Yeah, I think we're tired of playing against our defense. You know, you kind of felt that about seven days ago. It's just time to go play somebody else. It's going to be a learning process these first few games for everybody, just coaches, players, game plan wise. Now we shrink the package now where we can simplify that for the players, which they'll like. But as coaches we still have to kind of go through our process, as well, of a game week and how I operate, how the other coaches operate, and that's really the fun part and it's making sure we're really on the same page, and that's going to continue through this first, second, third game to get everybody really dialed in. Q. (No microphone.) COACH HARSIN: Yeah, I think there's quite a few things in there. I mean, more to go over -- too much to cover right now I'd say. You know, we want to be able to run the ball effectively. We've talked about that. We want to eliminate turnovers, and those two factors right there are very key for us. And then we get into the red zone, we want to take advantage of our opportunities. Those three things have really been the topics we talked about each practice is do well in the red zone, take care of the football, run the football, be physical doing that, and if we do those three things, then we've got a chance. Q. Talk about the young wide receivers or ones that haven't had experience. COACH HARSIN: Well, they're young and talented. I mean, the one thing you can't give those guys right now is experience, and they're going to have to go do that September 3rd. And so I think those guys are talented players, I think they're smart players. They've done everything we've asked them to do through fall camp, and now it's just a matter of those guys getting a chance to go do that now against another opponent and in front of people out there basically. So that's all really left to do for those guys is see how they operate in a game situation. There will be mistakes and things we've got to correct, and we'll come back the next week and do that. Q. (No microphone.) COACH HARSIN: Yeah, you know, I think Joe had a very good camp. Just from the running back standpoint of him being a big, physical guy, I thought he showed that through camp. He's difficult now to bring down. He's a strong, powerful guy, and from just the knowledge standpoint of protections and all the different things we do with our backs, I thought he did a great job of handling those things. Malcolm the same. Malcolm has got some special qualities now of getting out and finding us some small holes that only he can fit through. So we've just got to see, again, just like those wide receivers. We've got to put them in game situations and see how they're going to handle when we play on September 3rd and see what issues come up and how we're going to correct those things. But they know how to play football. All those guys are smart, tough, physical guys. We've got to put them in situations where they can be successful and go out there and play and learn from that. Q. (No microphone.) COACH HARSIN: Not as hot as this, I'll tell you that. Q. (No microphone.) COACH HARSIN: Yeah, I think it can be. You get out there, and I'm not exactly sure what the weather is game time, but it's been hot out here at practice. That's been one thing, guys not just playing on O & D, but the special teams factor comes into play, as well, so you've got to monitor how many reps they're getting and there's got to be some guys that spell them in certain situations because it's going to be hard for a guy to go out there and play 60, 70 snaps in a row and give everything he's got. That's tough to do. So we have to make sure that those guys that are replacing them and coming in to spell them are ready, as well. Q. (No microphone.) COACH HARSIN: Fozzy has been tremendous. I mean, just as far as a leader on this team, as an effort guy in practice, kind of everything you'd hope for in a player. I think he's done that. He does his job, he leads guys out there, he's inspiring out there at practice, and he's explosive and electric. I mean, he can make things happen, and I've been very, very pleased with what he's done for us, his progress through camp, and I'm excited to see him play. Q. (No microphone.) COACH HARSIN: You know, I think the main thing is I want to make sure just from the offensive standpoint that we go out there and operate the way we've done doing it in practice, and that's really what our goal is in practice is try to recreate the game. Obviously we can't do that with the people and the environment and things like that, but we're trying to recreate the game and make it more difficult in practice so come game time they've already been there, they've done it. And not to get too overhyped being out there on the field. Just go play your game. Do what you've done in practice, do what you've done to get yourself in this position and go play, and if those guys can do those things, then I think our operations on the offensive side will be good, and that's really what our focus is, to make sure we just handle that and do what we've been doing and go out there and play. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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