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UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 24, 2011

Blake Gideon

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Blake Gideon.

Q. Cancer week, hits home to you. For you to do this is obviously something very meaningful.
BLAKE GIDEON: It is. I think like Fozzy was saying, it's a chance to give back to the community. The hundred thousand people that come out here and show the support, the millions of people that watch on TV on Saturday, it's a chance for us to turn around and give back, show our support if they're going through that situation in their lives.

Q. Blake, when so much emphasis is on turnovers, at some point can it almost work against when you're trying to force turnovers and not letting them come. What's the balance there?
BLAKE GIDEON: I think you always have to be ball conscious as a defense, and offense as well. As a defense you always want to be ball conscious. There are certain situations when it's not smart to go for the pick. You need to go for the pass. You need to make a tackle first.
There is situations to where there's the best times to go for turnovers or whatever, try to get the ball out. I think that's part of having a feel for the game and practicing that every day on the practice field, which we do.
Whenever the turnovers do start coming, they're going to come in bunches, we know.

Q. Talk about what you have to do to make up for not having Adrian this week.
BLAKE GIDEON: I think one thing we've developed through spring ball, through camp is great depth. We've got Kenny, Scott, myself back there as kind of veterans at safety. A.P. was moving all around, playing whatever position. We still got two good corners out there that have played a lot.
We'll be fine. We're ready for him when he gets back, but at the same time we're fine.

Q. Mack was talking about learning a team's identity. You being at this for several years, you know what these teams have been like. How different is this team this year?
BLAKE GIDEON: I think this year, coming into this year, it was a matter of getting back on track, getting that confidence, that whole swagger back, compared to years before, we were coming off a 10-win year every season. In this case we all know what happened last year. We're trying to do everything we can to make sure it doesn't happen again.
I think you're seeing a lot more senior leadership this year from all the seniors. Even if they're not playing vital roles in games, they're not going to let stuff happen in practice or in the weight room or whatever that's not going to be what's best for the team.

Q. Is it good to have a chip on your shoulder?
BLAKE GIDEON: I think in football it's always good to have a chip on your shoulder. You always need to have an edge. You always need to be ready to snap at any moment. It's just the nature of the game, the physicality of the game.
You always need to have that edge to how you work. It needs to start on Monday, then going into practice on Tuesday. That's the hardest thing in the world to be coming off a very emotional game the Saturday before, to pick yourself back up, go back to work on Tuesday. You always need to have that edge. Great defenses, great teams have that edge every week.

Q. How do you avoid a letup after playing some of the best teams in the country?
BLAKE GIDEON: It's going to come back to that leadership, that senior leadership, how mature we are as a team. For these young guys to understand that this is college football. This is the Big 12. Every team comes to play every week. They also need to understand that more times than not, and I can attest to this over four years, the teams we play on Saturdays are not going to be the same teams we watch on film. There's something coming down to Austin to play Texas, teams bring a little extra. They need to be ready to play because Kansas is going to be ready to play.

Q. Different look than your last few weeks from an offensive standpoint of the opponent. Probably not going to be that fast-paced attack. Talk about what Kansas wants to do. Stuff it down your throat, I would imagine.
BLAKE GIDEON: They're a running football team. They're mainly out of the spread. Inside running team, divide zone, all that, two-back power. They want to control the clock. They want to take what they can get in the passing game. They're going to use the running game to open up the passing game. It's going to be a responsibility game for us, everybody in the right gap, not worrying about your buddy next to you being in his gap, taking care of your own responsibility. We'll be fine.

Q. Backwards game. Last few teams pass to set up the run. Old school.
BLAKE GIDEON: It is old school. Past few games we were really wanting to stress taking away the pass, force them to run. In this game, that's definitely their strength, to get behind the big boys up front, kind of road rage you out. We want to take that away, see if we can clog up the middle, force them to throw it outside.

Q. Mack says your team has better chemistry this year. Can you see that?
BLAKE GIDEON: I think so. A lot of that comes from guys that went through last year. I think your strongest bonds come whenever you go through the worst of times together, not only the highs of going to a national championship or whatever.
The large majority of the people on this team went through last year, so we went through a rough off-season, to say the least, and a rough spring ball, summer and camp. So all those trials and tribulations we went through, it only made us stronger as a team and as a family.
I think that's a fair assessment, to say that we are a lot closer than last year.

Q. Do you think that's why Fozzy says it's a peculiar mix?
BLAKE GIDEON: Yeah, it is strange. Those guys that watch it from the stands or at home weren't really there to experience it. But I think they can tell by the type of intensity we bring every day and the looks in all of our eyes from the guys that went through that last year, they can tell how passionate we are about it and we're going to do everything in our power to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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