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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 3, 2011

Tommy Tuberville

TEXAS STATE Â– 10
TEXAS TECH - 50

COACH TUBERVILLE: Well, very good start to the season. It wasn't a great first half. Kind of a perfect storm for Texas State. They had the ball with the wind in both quarters with the way that wind was shifting around.
We didn't get our composure until about the middle of the third quarter. Plus first games are always tough when you've got a lot of young defensive guys and you really don't know what the other team is going to do, when they've got a new coach.
They came in and they did a good job of scheming us with the option. And taking advantage of the youth. Because we didn't play assignment football very well.
But at least we played hard. We ran to the ball. We played consistent and we didn't give up the big plays and we started creating turnovers and that's what you have to do.
Offensively, we just -- we didn't get in a rhythm the first half. We had the turnover. Gave them the ball back. And then we just turned into the wind that second quarter. And it got uglier from there. But I was proud of our team. They kept their composure. There wasn't any panic on the sideline or in the dressing room.
All we had to do was go out and play better on both sides of the ball, be more consistent, and we started hitting big plays. Big game obviously at our running back. Eric Stephens had a very good game. Darin Moore, unbelievable, 220 something yards. I don't think I've ever been around a receiver that caught that many balls for that many yards. But we knew he was going to be a big player for us. We knew that in camp.
And I thought that obviously he was, he and Eric tonight carried the offense on their backs.
We missed a few blitzes and gave some bad plays to Doege but he held his composure. Won't be his best game he's ever played, but we're just not turning the ball over, seeing things and being able to pull the ball down and run it at times gave us a little bit of help.
Our special teams were fairly good, had a lot of promise. I looked out there one time, we had seven or eight first-time players ever on the field in the first half on defense in that stadium.
So we do have a lot of young guys that are going to get better and better as we go. We've got to keep them healthy. We lost Aaron Crawford I think the first play, first time he ran the ball. Hopefully he'll be back, we're going to need him back.
We lost Leon Mackey, did something to his chest. They're still evaluating that. And who else did we lose? Cody Davis went out with -- they don't know whether it's a concussion or not, but they pulled him out just to look at him. I think he only played, coach, what a series or two? First quarter.
So didn't have any consistency there. But proud of Dewhurst coming in and playing and getting the job done defensively in his spot.
Questions?

Q. Can you talk about Dartwan Bush?
COACH TUBERVILLE: Yeah, caused some fumbles. The thing about Dartwan, he's quick. And he plays well with his eyes and his hands. He's always got his hands around the ball. That's the danger of playing option football. You're going to turn the ball over some. And he was at the mesh point a couple of times. Grabbing for the ball.
Coach Glasgow and his coaches do a good job of working them, causing turnovers. It didn't look good. They're going in the middle of the third quarter in their first drive and we caused a turnover and it just opened up the floodgates for us. We started playing and making plays on defense and getting the ball back to the offense.
But Dartwan, he's a veteran. He's been here a year. And he's probably one of the veterans on defense. But he played like that tonight. Played like he's been here two or three years.

Q. It's one thing to see it in practice, but do you feel like, after seeing it in a game, you have a good football team?
COACH TUBERVILLE: I don't know. I'll have to look at the film. We've got a chance to have one. We weren't for about two and a half quarters today. And we can't play that way against a lot of the teams, most of the teams that we're going to play the rest of the season.
I thought Texas State did a good job against scheming. It's their first game, running what they ran. They made some mistakes. Other teams aren't going to make those mistakes. So we've got a lot of work to do.
And we've got a lot of young guys. Again, very proud of being able to get -- I bet we played close to 30 guys on defense and the same thing on offense. That's unusual. But it's a good game to start.
Good confidence builder, knowing that, hey, we got behind. We were behind for, what, two and a half quarters and then came back and had won by 40. That goes to show you the patience and playing hard and the capabilities that we have.
But we're going to have to play much better when we go to New Mexico here in a couple of weeks.

Q. Would you talk about Seth, and did he look comfortable to you tonight and provide the leadership that you wanted?
COACH TUBERVILLE: Yeah, he did. You know, he was nervous. And we were all nervous for him. I didn't say one word to him today. Of course, we talked to him, and Neal's obviously coaching him. But I usually say something to the quarterbacks.
And I just saw in his eyes, he was a little bit nervous. But you would be, too. He hadn't played in five years. And the ball's in his hands and he gets to play with it. And we're going to go as he goes.
And I thought he kept his composure fine. Made some great, long throws, and thought he did a good job and pulled the ball down a couple times and ran it when he needed to.
So, again, he's a first-year player. Like about 70 percent of the other guys out there. So only we'll get better as we go. We just have to have some luck.

Q. What was the message at halftime? Anything in particular?
COACH TUBERVILLE: Nothing. The offense went and talked and defense -- I was more concerned defensively as far as offensively. I knew we'd get it going offensively. The weather cooperate a little bit. That second quarter was miserable on the field. Sand flying everywhere. Just one of those west Texas storms. Didn't bother them because they weren't going to throw it much.
But they put their different quarterback in there and we were able to get the ball back for our offense. But going in that wind, it was -- it's pretty tough. That's not our cup of tea. But just good adjustments at halftime. Defense had a lot of things they needed to do. We didn't look good early in the third quarter, but we started causing turnovers, and you get ahead of an option team like that, I mean, then their backs to the wall, but you have to get ahead of them. Finally we got ahead, ahead by 20 points and we forced them to throw the ball and it was all downhill then.

Q. Defensively, did you have a scheme or against the option or did you all --
COACH TUBERVILLE: No, I think the biggest thing you can ask Coach Glasgow this, the biggest thing was lining up. The first thing -- you have to remember we didn't have a clue what formation they would be in. Defense, you have to have defense formations. And we'll have some -- we'll have a few sessions right in this room here Monday and there will be a lot of mistakes, probably alignment mistakes that just got us in trouble. Couple times their three technique couldn't get to the ball possibly because he lined up too wide or something like that.
So it's little things that keep you from being a real good team. I think we got a chance to be a good team. But we just got a lot of work to do.
Again, these guys are -- that's probably a good way to start the year. You know, knowing that you got your back to the wall and you've got to press more than just a half. And we had to play for a good three quarters, and lucky to be able to play our backups and third-teamers as the fourth quarter got going.

Q. You mentioned Leon Mackey coming out?
COACH TUBERVILLE: He just got a chest bruise. They took him out and evaluated him. He should be fine. But watching more the inside. Your ends are pretty valuable against the option.
But I couldn't tell much about what Leon did. He's going to be a factor for us as we get into teams that don't run a lot of what we just saw, you know, that's going to be more conventional.
But I'll have to say that Texas State did a good job coming in controlling the ball against us and making us grow up pretty quick defensively, because that's about as difficult as your defense in a first game with a young defense that really is in a new scheme and you get behind and you're having trouble stopping them and making third down plays. But I think we grew up a lot tonight. It was fun to watch.

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