	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 3, 2011

Manny Diaz

Q. You guys have been doing drills quite a while now to get ready for the up-tempo offense, can you talk about preparing for OU?
COACH DIAZ: When we had the bye week, we knew we were getting into league play and this was a week where we tried to crush envelope in terms of trying to snap the ball quick. We just do some drills that in between plays, we hurry back to get ourselves lined up.
Every defensive coach says -- and it's correct with Oklahoma and it's been a big part of their success through the years but we are going to try to make ourselves as difficult to play against as we possibly can.

Q. Special week for the players with the big rivalry; as a coach, do you look forward to it?
COACH DIAZ: Yeah, that's why you coach as Texas. These are the games you want to be in. You want to be in the rivalry games that everyone around the country is paying attention to.
But all of that being said, it's still going to be a football game. They still have the option to run or pass on every play and they can kick it if we make them. You know, we have to -- all of the things that have won us these first four games, we have to try hard to do well in this game.
That's how you came things back down again, because you're not wowed by the environment. We just have to, hey, let's go tackle and let's go beat blocks and let's go play a football game and do what we are supposed to do.

Q. Anything special about this offense that makes them so much better? Anything specific that makes them so much better at what they do?
COACH DIAZ: Well, you can tell they are obviously a very well-coached outfit. They just go as fast as humanly possible and they do it with really talented football players and they have the conductor back there at quarterback that's very experienced and just sort of navigates the whole offense and can put the ball anywhere he wants it.
He can throw the field out -- he can throw the ball so effortlessly down the field. And he's very comfortable, you can tell, playing at that tempo. He understands their pass concepts very well, knows where to go with the football.
What they have done in my opinion is they have gotten really good football players that go really fast and they give their playmakers the ball in situations to make things happen.

Q. What about Ryan?
COACH DIAZ: He's as good a receiver that's there been in receiver times. What I like about him, or what I don't like about him, depending, he can make the easy catches but the hard catches, too. He's a guy that you can tell sometimes the quarterback may not be open but the quarterback is going to throw it anyway, because he has got the confidence that he's going to come out with it; it's sort of like that one-on-one is one-on-none to them, mentality.

Q. When Coach brought you in, and five other coaches, besides your defensive expertise, did he bring you guys in to say, we want a new attitude, a fresh start; was there any of that talk?
COACH DIAZ: I don't know if that was in the forefront. I believe that might have just happened as a result. I think everybody knew. I think the one thing that Coach Brown has been very consistent about was it going to be a new year regardless. Just as '09 didn't carry into '10, '10should not have any bearing on '11.
I believe the new coaches allowed us to snip off the past a little bit easier because we had no history to us. The players had the burden of having to learn new schemes and had the burden of learning the new system in the weight room; but to their credit, they have embraced that, they have it embraced the change and they have really gotten heavy into the process of what wins football process, and that at the end of the day is all we are about. All we are trying to do every week is just find that extra point that we have that they don't have so we can go home winners.

Q. How big of a test for the young secondary?
COACH DIAZ: It's a great test. By far the best passing attack that we have seen so far this year. When the stakes get higher or when the opponent appears to be better, you have to go back to what you've been doing. If there's a tendency to do more or to do extra or to try -- usually that's when you get yourself in trouble, go back to the technique that is Coach Akina has worked on. My confidence is going to come from something, so it's going to come from what I've learned on tape through four weeks or my technique, we have to tackle well, I believe they are going to complete a pass, I don't think we are going to hold them to 0 for 30.
So that when they complete a pass, we have to tackle the catch. If they throw for 5, we have to tackle for 5. If they throw for 10, we have to tackle for 19. And here is the thing, if they throw for 30, we have to tackle for 30 and not make it 60. When one covers, prevent the big plays as we have done for the first four games. But we have done those things for four weeks.
So when you say, hey, is this a crazy environment or hey do they have really good players? Yeah. Just go beat OU. Don't try to beat anybody else. Just try go be who you've been for the first four weeks.

Q. Maybe the biggest thing this week, getting set on defense, are you able to think about the theory of getting your guys to do that?
COACH DIAZ: Offenses ask questions by nature, defenses have to come up with the answer. If there's one inherent advantage that offense has over defense, offense decides when the play begins. That's just the way it goes. And the defense, the difference between defense and offense, is that we all have to go chase the ball carrier where an offense doesn't. If they throw a screen to Broyles, all of the guys on our football team have to go try to tackle him because he's an outstanding player.
So all of a sudden that guy goes on the ground, they can go get lined up and we have all been trying to chase the ball down the field or maybe they threw the ball deep down the field incomplete. Our secondary just ran back there to try to defend the pass, and now their linemen are already getting set getting ready to go, and now we have to run back and get going quick.
So when they are asking the questions, it's like, math, what's two plus two, what's two plus three, what's two plus four (speaking in methodical tone). And also when they get asked in rapid succession fast what's four plus four, what's two plus three (repeating at extremely rapid, indiscernible pace ) and all of the sudden, you're like, that's four, that's three -- and you're like, wait, wait, what was it, and they are already asking you the next question. And that's what they want you to do, they want to you fall behind. And the second you fall behind mentally now you don't pay attention to the tight end running wide open, or now here comes the running back going around the edge to score.
It puts a lot of stress on the defense and that's why before you do anything against them you have to make sure you're lined up.

Q. Were you signaling in or just having a second to read a lot of things?
COACH DIAZ: No, because you still have to play the defense, because that's sort of the trick. If you just want to sit there and just play basic defense all day, now they have you playing basic defense all day. That is the whole game. That's what we have to decide: How dynamic can we be, how dynamic can they be, and ultimately, our job as coaches is to put the players in the best position to win. My job is to not mess it up for the players on Saturday. And that's easier said than done sometimes.

Q. In some ways is it easier to know that he is a pocket passer and you get to go after him and apply the pressure?
COACH DIAZ: You have to be careful what you wish for because as hard as it was to tackle the guy we played last Saturday, this guy, he's not going to run around and threaten 80 yards for a touchdown, but he can do things with his arm that the other guys can't do.
And he's got a quick release, he can get the ball out, so you know, like I said, maybe the D-Linemen say, hey, we don't have to chase this guy around like the guy we did last week. But he's got different strokes that causes problems, too. You have to be careful what you wish for sometimes.

Q. And the most important thing to disrupting and getting pressure, or are there other things you can do?
COACH DIAZ: Any quarterback, the most important thing is to disrupt him but there are different ways to disrupt a quarterback. You can disrupt him with pressure but sometimes they can it get into a rhythm against your pressure. You can try to change your coverages.
You can try to slow them down but that gets back to the tempo. The more you change your coverages the more you have a chance of messing up a coverage. That's a big cat-and-mouse game. But most quarterbacks when they know what they are getting and they know they have time to do it, they can beat you with it, and this quarterback for sure can.

Q. Inaudible.
COACH DIAZ: That's the whole deal. If we have the best blitz in the world but can't get it set by the time they snap the ball, then it's the worst defense in the world. That's the give and take and that's what I've got to decide. What we can handle.

Q. Will you take a minute when you walk in?
COACH DIAZ: I think before the game. You would be blind to not notice. And again, like I said why would you shy away from such an amazing setting and how great that we are both in the Top-10 and undefeated. That's what you want. No different than -- you want to revel in that environment. But the bottom line is when the ball hits the foot, we are playing football, and you're coaching and just focused in on what wins.

Q. Are you glad that you don't have to prepare for that game day --
COACH DIAZ: We told our offensive players throughout August that it's going to be fun for us on Saturdays in the fall to sit and watch other people chasing them around the park and trying to figure out who has the ball and who has the formations and trying to get lined up with everything they do.
And that's kind of one of the fun things we have in our locker room. Offensive guys like watching the other team trying to go against the defense. And I know our defense guys like watching the flipside. That's why we have a camaraderie between our O and D, because we have sort of been a pain to each other throughout the spring and fall camp, and now we are able to give someone else some grief.

Q. Because of how many things they do, how much more of a workload is it for a defensive staff in your opinion?
COACH DIAZ: The hardest part in college football is that you have to pick what you can practice against. We have a 20-hour week. You have the players only four hours a day, everybody usually on a Tuesday or Wednesday practice.
So when you talk about going against our offense, they have got this formation, that formation and this series with this guy and this series with that guy; and you've got to find a way, in a very short amount of time, you have to find a way to practice all that. And then you're practicing all of this stuff, that's less time to practice some of the meat and potatoes plays. That's a little bit of what you try to do. You try and sort of be everywhere and have a same time, nowhere.

Q. Brian Coker last year -- peanut butter and jelly --
COACH DIAZ: We are going to package it and put it in the Oklahoma locker room and see if we can slow their tempo down -- that may be the only thing to slow them down.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297