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UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 31, 2011Manny DiazQ. You guys get a shutout. Are you still reveling in the moment? COACH DIAZ: No. That moment is gone. It was exciting when it happened, and it was fun to watch on film yesterday, but it is gone in the rear view. I always say, those games it's like taking a picture of yourself, and that's all when they're good or they're bad, that's all they are, and it goes in the scrapbook and you turn the page to the next day. Q. A quarterback like Seth Doege, I know you probably haven't watched a ton of him, but how do you prepare for him? COACH DIAZ: Well, I've seen enough to know that I don't like him. He can make -- the first thing that jumps out he can make all the throws in their offense, he can throw the ball to the wide side the field. They probably throw the ball deep more than anybody we've gone against this year, and his completion percentage and balls that are thrown more than 20 yards down the field is really high compared to what you see week in and week out. So the first thing you know is that they can stress you vertically down the field, and of course they'll have you spread out so they can stress you horizontally, as well. You know, the beauty of this offense is that they've got sort of a group of pass concepts that are just tried and tested and true, and they just run them over and over and over again, and they run them very fast, tempo is an issue, and he can master those concepts so there's nothing really that you can throw at him defensively that he hasn't already seen because he's seen it and then he knows where to go with the football. Again, it's quite a challenge. Q. Is it any more difficult to prepare for a team that's been schizophrenic the last two weeks? COACH DIAZ: Yeah, I don't know that it really does anything differently for us because we watch -- we'll watch the cut-ups, and I'm just watching all the times that they run a certain pass play or a run play. You study the games, but usually what happens -- we always say this: There's results and there's performances, and sometimes results and performances match, sometimes the results and performances don't match. A team can run the identical plays and have the same guy against the same coverage and one week it's a great catch and the next week the ball gets dropped or it gets batted away or the left guard false starts when they had it set up. The difference between winning and losing is such a fine line, and I know that's so cliché, but really, that's what you see week in and week out when you start to study -- when you take the end away and just watch the middle, usually you don't see a whole lot of difference. Q. How big was Jackson's performance, how encouraging to see him break through finally? COACH DIAZ: Well, I was really happy for Jackson and Alex. They were both on top of their game. But I was especially happy because it showed that they just -- they kept the faith. When everybody was asking, what's wrong, what's going on, and we kept telling him -- again, it gets back to the same thing, don't focus on the results, focus on your performance, focus on your technique. We all want sacks. We all want to make big plays. But if you just wish it, it's not going to come. So just keep improving, keep getting better at your craft, and when you do, generally it comes. Great example. But like we said, on Jackson's sack when we showed the defense yesterday, the coverage was outstanding. Jackson has a great pass rush going, but they've got a deep three-man pass route going to the wide side of the field and we've got six guys covering those three perfectly, which makes the quarterback hold that ball just that half a second to get the sack for Jackson. So we always talk about how we all work and live for each other, and the credit goes to Jackson on the play. He did everything right on the pass rush. But the coverage is what got him the sack. So if it hadn't been for those guys -- but what I'm happy for is the defense, that we keep pushing and understanding the concept of great team defense. Q. Jackson kind of mentioned there's maybe a little bit of frustration that he hadn't been having games like that. Did you sense a little bit of frustration, and did he need to have a game like that? COACH DIAZ: Well, I think that's what it does, and it always goes back to what I say because on defense, we usually equate stats with playing well, and so -- these guys don't live in cocoons. They hear it every day, why aren't you doing this and why aren't you doing that. That's why as a coach you're happy for them that they get the plays, but what you have to refocus them on is that doesn't mean that we've arrived, we just have to go back and -- there's all kinds of stuff yesterday when we popped the film on that we have to fix. Continue to focus on win, lose, get sacks, don't get sacks, just get better. Q. What did you think he needed to get better at or what has he gotten better at? COACH DIAZ: Well, what he's gotten better at is just his pad level, his get-off on the ball, and just -- and sometimes, and it sounds so crazy, but it's just going. And again, he's still a young guy. It's a new scheme, so whatever he learned in year one he had to relearn in year two, and I just equate it to at some point you stop counting dance steps and you just go and you just dance the dance, and to me that's just -- it's why we do it as a football team, we continue to get better, and if we stop now then we're in trouble. We have to continue to try and push and improve in all aspects. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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