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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 19, 2011

Seth Doege

Q. How does it feel, have you ever felt that much in the flow before?
SETH DOEGE: Couple times when we scrimmaged. It was kind of like that there in fall camp.
But the credit goes to the offensive line. There's no question, because I didn't feel pressured all day but one time, and that one time was because I made the wrong protection call. It's a lot easier to sit back there and throw and catch when there's no pressure.
We challenged those guys earlier on in the week because we knew that New Mexico had a really talented defensive front and they responded to the challenge very well.

Q. Do you expect things to go smoothly against Nevada, or what's your thinking?
SETH DOEGE: We want to execute every game as we did last Saturday. But the thing is we gotta get better every week, because every week everybody in the nation's getting better. And if we don't get better this week, then we're going to have a hard time executing our game plan.
So we want to concentrate on every day going to practice and learning their scheme and trying to execute a game plan.

Q. For playbook purposes, expanding as the season goes on here?
SETH DOEGE: We do a little something different every week, just depending on how they play, what their strengths and weaknesses are, compared to our strengths and weaknesses. Coach Brown and his offensive staff do a really good job on trying to put us in the best position to win game.

Q. (Question off microphone)?
SETH DOEGE: Coach Brown did a really good job of preparing us as quarterbacks and really harping on not forcing things.
The film we saw, when they played, they played soft coverage a lot and there were times when they came up and pressed you, and tried to put any pressure on you and most of the time they were very soft.
So he harped on just kind of taking what they gave us and not to force things down the field when the underneath was open. So he really did a good job and it stuck in my head all game. So I kind of stayed with the game plan, and we hit a lot of quick routes, a lot of quick underneath routes.

Q. Nevada, they gave up 69 points to Oregon, high-powered offense like you guys.
SETH DOEGE: I haven't watched them yet. I plan on watching them right after this. But I know they're a talented football team. And I watched a little bit of that game on the bye week when they did play Oregon.
I know that they finished 13th in the nation last year, and that's something to be looked at.
So I know they're going to be a talented team. I know they're going to be ready to play us. So I think we need to concentrate on improving this week and being ready to play.

Q. Seth, can you describe sensorially, what happens when you get into the zone? Does everything seem to be moving in slow motion? Does the ball feel really in control?
SETH DOEGE: Things do slow down a little bit for you just because you feel like you're in a rhythm. And I think everybody on the team kind of relaxes, not to the point where we're not focused on what we're supposed to be doing and not being physical up front or anything, but we relax to where we can just do our job and it becomes a lot more easier because it's a lot more funner. Fun. Funner. It's a lot more fun to play other than being uptight and trying to make a plan you just go do your job and let things happen for you.

Q. What has the reaction been like, friends and family, the game that you had?
SETH DOEGE: You know, everybody's very proud of me. I had a lot of family there. And it was good. I'm glad they all came. And I'm glad I could experience that with them.
But the best part was to experience it with my teammates, because I know we've been here. I guess we started once Coach Walker and Coach Tuberville got here and Coach Brown working really hard. It's good to see something special finally happen. Not just the record but how we executed on offense. It was really fun and that's how we need to kind of approach a game every week and kind of start fast and keep the pedal down throughout the game.

Q. How has life changed for you from backup quarterback or so to big man on campus whatever you want to call it?
SETH DOEGE: I don't go to campus a whole lot because I'm in grad school. A bunch of online classes. Just the fact that you prepare a lot different every week. I guess there's a lot of expectations for you. So other than that I'm the same guy with the same friends and same family. So not much has changed.

Q. How much more comfortable are you for the two games in terms of game plan preparation?
SETH DOEGE: Feels a lot better. After that first game it felt like it was kind of like a scrimmage or preseason game because it was a bye week, week two, and it felt like we hadn't really kicked off the season. So now that we're in a routine and we had a Sunday practice last night and everything feels like the way it's supposed to now and now we can kind of get in our game prep game week routine and go from there.

Q. How important is it -- how important is it to get out there and play a little bit and have your team in this conference?
SETH DOEGE: Like I said, Nevada is going to be tougher than the first two teams we faced, but I think it's good for us to have a team like that, prepare for a team like that, and I think it's going to, if we go out there and do what we're supposed to do and execute it will kind of boost us going into conference play and that way we'll be ready for -- when we go to conference play, everybody's good. So we definitely need to see a pretty good, pretty solid team before going into conference.

Q. Talk about the different looks all these different running backs give you guys. The different looks, you guys have so many different guys back there, talk about how troubling that is for an opposing defense.
SETH DOEGE: It's good to have a lot of guys to get involved in the offense because they can't key on one guy. I think Eric Ward did a really good job of coming out and showcasing his skills. Now they can't just worry about Darrin on the outside. They're going to have to worry about Eric. And then Eric Stephens did a really good job of catching the ball in the back field and making yards after the catch.
So we're very versatile on offense and we've got a lot of playmakers.

Q. What do you think the strongest point of the offense is?
SETH DOEGE: Just the offensive line just by Game 2, they showed what they can really do and now it's expected out of them every game, because New Mexico's defensive line is very talented. I think they had like three guys, NFL potential, and our offensive line really responded and kind of shut it down.
So I think if they play well then it's going to be hard for the skill guys not to play well because everything's going to be open, running lanes. We're going to have to have time to throw the football. So it's on those guys' shoulders. But at the same time we all need to do our job. But I think the strength of our team is our offensive line.

Q. Can you talk about how they have high expectations now, how difficult will that be?
SETH DOEGE: I think they're a strong group. I think they're mentally just as strong and I feel like they're a unit that wants to be the best in the country. So I don't think it's going to be a problem. It's just going to be a matter of focus and want to to get it done.

Q. You said you're focusing better, how do you get better?
SETH DOEGE: There's going to be different looks this game. I'm sure Nevada isn't going to play as soft. I'm sure we'll have to go down the field more than we did this week. I'm not too worried about the completion percentage as in trying to get better.
There's a couple of times in the game where I maybe completed a pass but it may not have been the perfect read or it may not have been thrown on time. So there's a lot of things I need to improve on too.

Q. How easy is it to replicate how you performed on Saturday?
SETH DOEGE: I don't know if you can replicate it. But you still execute a game plan. And that's my job is to do my job and that's make the right reads and throw the ball. I don't know if all of them are going to get caught, and I don't know if all of them are going to be accurate, but that's what I'm going to try to do and that's what I'm going to work on.

Q. Do you feel like you and Darrin have something special?
SETH DOEGE: Yeah. He's a great player. I think he can make a lot of plays on the ball. And I feel very confident going to him.

Q. At any point during the game does it come to you like, hey, I missed a pass, for your first 15, does that ever jog your memory, or just didn't want to do it?
SETH DOEGE: No, when I looked at -- after the game I really didn't think I threw 44 passes. It felt like I didn't throw that many at all. But during the game it just felt like we were in the rhythm offensively. Like I didn't necessarily think like, oh, I hadn't thrown an incompletion. I was thinking more, we've scored the first three drives -- I wasn't necessarily thinking, oh, I've got to complete a pass or I need to stay on this streak. I was thinking, oh, we're going to score again.

Q. When was the last time you felt that way in a game?
SETH DOEGE: Well, I haven't played in a while. So I don't remember. Maybe 2005 versus Van Horn or Anthony something like that.

Q. Were you concerned about the weather delays disrupting your timing?
SETH DOEGE: It was frustrating because we had to sit in the locker room so long. The frustrating thing about I think it was the first time, it was our third time on offense and we were in such a rhythm, and they called it off and I was just sitting there thinking, God, we're in such a good rhythm right now, I hope we can come out and do it again.
And I think we did a really good job as a team staying focused and being excited to play after the delays.

Q. Can you talk about your defense helping the offense so much, providing short fields, getting turnovers, how important is that to you?
SETH DOEGE: That's huge, because it's such a momentum swing once the defense turns the ball over. I remember one case we went for it on third down and I threw a ball to Darrin and we didn't connect. And the next play the defense turned the ball over and it was just -- when you turn the ball over on fourth down you're like we just turned the ball over and defense has to step up now. And them doing a good job of creating turnovers and giving us good field position turns the momentum swing gets the offense excited about going on the field taking advantage of a turnover.

Q. When Neal decided to go for it on fourth down, how much confidence did it give you guys, how bad did you want to make that conversion?
SETH DOEGE: It's huge. We want to just like any third and long, third and short, fourth and long, fourth and short we want to get a first down, we want to stay on the field. And unfortunately we missed the throw and the catch this last week. But it's good to know that Coach Tuberville and Coach Brown have confidence in us to go for it on fourth down.

Q. Seth, Texas Tech's quarterbacks have set so many NCAA records over the last decade. What does it mean for you to put your name in the books alongside them?
SETH DOEGE: First of all, I really want to give all the glory to my teammates because as I said, offensive line if they didn't protect like they did, there's no way that any quarterback could have thrown for that many completions.
And there was a couple of balls that were tough catches that receivers made. But for me being mentioned with Cliff Kingsbury is special to me just because he was one of my heroes growing up. He's one of the reasons that I wanted to be a text tech quarterback.

Q. Is it overwhelming for you?
SETH DOEGE: No, it can't be, because we have to get ready for the Nevada. And none of these completions or percentages or anything carry over to the next week.

Q. How do you temper all the expectations, your performance, how do you temper that to stay focused on the task at hand?
SETH DOEGE: We want to -- we want to execute a game plan every week just like we did against New Mexico. And it may not happen just like that. But now we know how it feels to where when we're in a rhythm and when everybody's doing their job and when everybody's focused and everybody's playing hard, now we know what it feels like and what can happen if we all do our job. So I think it was a good thing that we did field that so now we know what expectations are and how good we can be when all those things come together.

Q. Do you want to play in the Pac-12 next year or Big 12?
SETH DOEGE: I don't care. As long as we can play football. Doesn't matter to me.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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