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UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 31, 2011

Bryan Harsin

Q. Is there a disadvantage using two quarterbacks?
COACH HARSIN: I don't think so, not where we're at right now. We're developing two guys, and if you have four or five quarterbacks on your roster, it's probably a little bit different. But where we are right now, both those guys are practicing well, deserve to play, and we're developing both of them.

Q. It doesn't take anything away from them confidence wise?
COACH HARSIN: Not the way we're preparing. You know, what happens in practice and what happens in the game, those guys understand the situation. You know, we talk about that. We discuss it, so we have those things figured out in our room. And they know what's going to happen come game time and how we're going to work both those guys in, so I don't think that's a problem at all.

Q. How do you get the vertical passing game going?
COACH HARSIN: Yeah, you've got to hit a few of them down there, number one. You know, there were some opportunities in there. We've got to hit those. You're going to get some one-on-one match-ups outside with the way we run the football. They're going to have to bring some guys down there. So it's just a matter of those guys connecting on some of those plays. And also us setting them up schematically in order to do that. It's not just one or two guys. It's scheme and making sure we're helping those guys out with who we've got in. It's repetition and getting those guys on the same page.
But that's something that is part of what we do. We've got to continue to keep working on it, and eventually that's going to come.

Q. How did you feel about the way David played?
COACH HARSIN: I thought he managed the game well. You know, the negative was the interception down there in the red zone, and I think that was disappointing but a great learning experience, a teachable moment from that standpoint. And he got us out of some bad plays in the run game and into a pass situation and vice versa in that game, so I feel like he's getting more comfortable with what we're doing. He's getting more comfortable communicating the plays, seeing what the defense is giving him, and that's part of being out there and having more experience, and I think the more he plays, the better he's going to get.

Q. Does he have that freedom, I guess, to audible or --
COACH HARSIN: He does. We have certain plays we go into the game with that we're going to have checks and things like that based off what they give us, and it's not a tremendous amount, but it's just enough where a guy has got to be sharp on what he's seeing out there and has got to prepare that way, and he saw everything we needed to see from that standpoint and got us out of those plays.

Q. Is it tough to put too much into what Joe did because he was playing against some tired legs?
COACH HARSIN: No, I wouldn't take that away from Joe, and I'd say this, because Joe practiced like that. After that game I remember talking to Joe and just saying, you looked like that in practice, in those two weeks preparing for that game. I thought he practiced really hard, and I thought it showed up in the game. Exactly what he was doing out there was what he did in practice, so to me that just give him more confidence in how he prepares and how we all prepare. You can see that he was doing that in practice. It showed up in the game, and I think that's just a great sign of what we need to do in our preparation to go out there and play like that.

Q. Is that almost a good problem to have now with Malcolm, Fozzy and then you add in Marquise, DJ Jackson --
COACH HARSIN: It is. There's a lot of ways now in this run game that we can attack people. You've got guys in there, Fozzy has got his role, Malcolm has got his role, Joe has got his role. They can all in come in there, be a little bit different, provide a little bit different dimension to what we're doing, then you've got your perimeter run game with DJ and 'Quise out there. So now we've got ways to kind of distribute the ball and get it inside and outside and guys that have produced doing all those things.

Q. Have you been kind of anxious to get Marquise going in that sense?
COACH HARSIN: Yeah, just 'Quise is a guy we want to get the ball to, and we've tried to get the ball down the field, we've tried to do some things to get the ball in his hands, and that was one way to guarantee we get that done, and it didn't disappoint. He did a nice job getting around the edge there. I think his abilities, there's going to be more opportunities like that where he's going to pull through some of those tackles and it's going to be a home run when he gets out there and gets free.

Q. Talk about preparing for Texas Tech, just what do they bring defensively for you?
COACH HARSIN: Yeah, I know this: I know they're very well coached. I know that their front seven just watching them, I really like their interior guys, their D-ends and their D-line. I think those guys play very hard. They're big guys, and those guys pose problems. The ends are real tall on the edges there, so they can get their hands up and get in your face in a hurry. The linebackers play very well, and they do enough in their secondary, just disguising coverages, and mix it up a little bit that the quarterbacks have to be dialed in because they'll drop a guy into a lane that you may not see, so you just have to be sharp on what you're seeing secondary wise.
Overall scheme, it's a good scheme. It poses problems. We've got to be smart with what we've doing and try to eliminate getting confused out there in the secondary.

Q. One of the things that Mack Brown talked about as far as progress was concerned was your coaching staff also kind of getting together and becoming more comfortable in game situations. How does that translate? What's the difference?
COACH HARSIN: Yeah, well, I think it's just a matter of when you get into different scenarios and what's going to happen. There at the end of the game we're going to go for the field goal there and spike it, we're going to run a play and try not to give them any time left and spike it. We haven't been in that scenario there, so as we're calling it we're kind of figuring out next time we get there this is what will happen. It's just a matter of us having to go through the scenarios, too. Everybody has had different experiences on this staff, and everybody has been burned by one thing or another, so everybody is like, I've done this, I've done that. Well, we have to do that all together and just get comfortable from the standpoint of what we're calling, when we call it, how we call it, who we want in personnel wise, and I think over the course of time that's gotten better and better and we're more on the same page from that standpoint of getting people in and knowing what we're doing to do in certain situations.

Q. So it is a little bit about being less conservative maybe?
COACH HARSIN: Less conservative for what?

Q. Just anything, if you've been burned by stuff, I guess.
COACH HARSIN: No, that doesn't mean you're conservative, that just means people have been in different situations and as you go through it you talk about it the next day, we did this, we did that. We had a good answer for this, and you start to go, okay, that's probably -- you look back at it and go, next time we did the right thing, or next time we need to do this, and when that does happen, let's remind each other and get in that type of situation.

Q. Considering new coach, young players, is there one area of development you think has improved faster than you thought and is there one area that you wish could catch up with the rest of it?
COACH HARSIN: Well, I think after this last game, and I think what we've done in the last two games, I think we've ran the ball well. I think the O-line is doing a good job of blocking the schemes that we have, getting more comfortable with the schemes we have, communicating out there. I think Coach Searels has done a good job with those guys. The running backs are working off the O-line. It's a combination of that along with the tight ends. So I feel like run game wise we're making strides from that standpoint.
We again need to be more consistent in the pass game. And that doesn't always mean just taking shots and getting the big chunks, but just being consistent and moving the ball down the field, being able to throw the ball as well, and some ball control, and then have an opportunity to get some deep throws and hit a home run in there. That's the area that we've got to continue to keep working on in practice and just get more comfortable with it with the quarterbacks and wide outs. If we bring that part of our game along and the run game continues to grow, then we have a balance we want.

Q. Can you talk about Kellen? He's likely to break Colt's record this weekend. Talk about an accomplishment like that.
COACH HARSIN: Yeah, Kellen, that's going to be a huge accomplishment because that's a great deal to have an opportunity to do that. You know, and I think Kellen is the type of guy that, like Colt, deserves it because I hear about Colt and you know that his type of preparation habits, how he was in practice, the type of leader he was. Kellen is really all those same qualities.
You know, it's not just Kellen. As you know, it's the entire team at Boise State, the coaching staff and all of that, those guys have all done a great job, and I think Kellen is just a product of that. From what Coach Peterson has done there, and then you have Kellen in there that really just kind of has at that same mentality as Coach Peterson and continues each week to try to get better and better, and that's always been his mission. I think that's going to be a huge accomplishment for him.
But I also know this: I know that that team and Kellen is not going to worry about that until the season is over. He's going to keep moving on. They're onto the next game, they respect their opponents they're going to prepare their best and try to win this thing out.

Q. Do you take some personal pride in his accomplishment?
COACH HARSIN: I'm proud of it. I'm proud of being a part of having a chance to coach him. And he's one of those type of players that are very special just to coach, and not just from what he's accomplished on the field but off the field, the relationship you have with him. When you're in those meetings and things like that, the way you work together is a special connection, and I'm real happy that he's in that position now.

Q. On a slightly different note, as a kid growing up did you participate in Halloween?
COACH HARSIN: Absolutely. I forgot my mask today. But oh, you bet. I think I was one of the older kids. I think I was like a freshman in high school or something and still going out until finally somebody said that was enough. Now I just hang out and take the candy at home.

Q. Did you have a favorite costume?
COACH HARSIN: Yeah, I was a football player about every year. I mean, go figure. It was the easiest thing. But it was that or something like Dracula, either one of those two things. But I always remember being a football player and running around and trying to get as much candy as possible.

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