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UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 26, 2011Emmanuel AchoQ. Coach told us about the speech. EMMANUEL ACHO: What about it? We have a lot of young guys playing this year. We have a lot of young guys traveling with us, and so I wanted to make sure they knew why we were in California. I wanted to make sure they knew we weren't there to take a stroll on the beach but rather we were there to take care of business, so it was a business trip. You can enjoy it afterwards, and that was my mentality going into it. I don't even know if I cracked a smile all week, but after I was probably the happiest person. I wanted to make sure they knew it was a business trip, how important it was to win that game, and hey, it worked. Q. Will you do the same thing going into Iowa State? EMMANUEL ACHO: You know, UCLA, I don't know why it was a big emotional one for me. Iowa State I think it'll be back to normal. That was the first big road game and everyone kind of knows. That kind of sets precedence for what we do on the road. It would be repetitive if it were something that happened every week, but rather the first away game let them know what this is all about, let the young guys know this is how you approach away games, and now just take it and run with it. Q. That said, how important was that performance at UCLA to play the way you did and get that win? EMMANUEL ACHO: That was huge. I think one, after they got us last year, that was something we needed to overcome. And also, we were 2 and 0, had to get to 3 and 0, and now we need to get to 4 and 0. Another win is huge. You learn not to take them for granted, especially after last year, so that was huge for us. Q. Can you talk about what you know about this Iowa State team? EMMANUEL ACHO: They're scrappy. One word to describe them. Even when you think you have them down, they're not out, so they just keep fighting, they keep swinging. They have a lot of playmakers, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Their quarterback is a good player; he knows how to keep the play alive, and they've got some receivers that can make plays even in tight coverage. So they're a very scrappy team; they're going to keep fighting, especially on their home field. It's going to be fun. Great atmosphere, it's going to be a good one. Q. Getting off to a fast start, is that a focus, that you want to get the turnovers early? EMMANUEL ACHO: Yeah, I mean, we need to start fast, and we know the turnovers will come, and so we've just got to -- we keep grinding, and thankfully they came in the UCLA game. So we know they'll come. We've got to keep playing up to our potential. Q. What did you take from the Iowa State game last year? EMMANUEL ACHO: Well, I didn't get to play in it. That was the one game I missed last year, so it was kind of surreal watching it from the sidelines not really knowing what was going on, and finally you look at the scoreboard and you're losing by 7 and that's how the game ends. I need to watch film on that. I need to go back and see what they did to us last year. That wasn't our standard, and I know that. We're really taking from all those losses last year that we've got to prepare well for every game. Now that up there, now that I'm a leader, one of the leaders of this team, I've got to make sure the young guys are well prepared and make sure the older guys are focused and leading well. Q. How big was this bye week? EMMANUEL ACHO: Bye week was huge, not only physically gets you recovered after three games, but now you get to work on yourself and you get to work on the conference, and this conference is composed of spread teams that are going to run the inside zone, the inside run and going to run the bubble. So we've got to prepare for that, so that not only helps us for Iowa State but helps us down the road. Q. Mack said that the team was a little full of itself on Wednesday and there were some things you had to straighten out. Why do you think that was and how did you straighten that out? EMMANUEL ACHO: I think it wasn't necessarily a team thing, I just think since we have so much youth some guys don't realize what it takes. Again, that falls on the leadership. We have to make sure every day they understand how crucial it is. Some guys had a letdown this week in practice. I don't think you can attribute that to anything other than just not coming in focused. As a leader, as an older guy, that's our job to make sure that everybody realizes what's at stake every day at practice. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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