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UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 14, 2011

Manny Diaz

Q. Your thoughts on Colin Klein and what he and the offense bring to the table at Kansas State?
COACH DIAZ: If you're really being honest, what the film says, you would not be stretching the imagination to say that Colin Klein is very similar to Tim Tebow. I mean, the guy has got 24 or something touchdowns. Call it like it is. This is not hyperbole. His body of work and what he's put on film, I think Kansas State obviously had a great football team this year and I think they've snuck up on the national scene. But when you run for as many yards as he has and the value he has to his offense, I don't see a whole lot of -- it's very similar to what Tim Tebow meant to Florida.
I mean, he's a tough guy. When it's short yardage, they run behind him. He's going to make it. He makes explosive runs go, and he can beat you throwing the football, too. That's what his film said. After watching their season, it's very impressive.

Q. You realize Gator fans are going to attack you now, right?
COACH DIAZ: Well, I understand anytime you say that word, it blows up. But that's just a recent example of a guy in terms of a quarterback at that position, downhill, running quarterback, power plays, moving the pile, and then still being able to be explosive, I mean, that's what I'm saying. Take all the sideshow out of it and just look at the film of just coaching football, and there's a lot of similarities.

Q. Coach Brown kept talking about his size. How much harder is it to stop a quarterback that big?
COACH DIAZ: Well, when you talk about the quarterback running game, it gives them an extra blocker so it reduces your ability to have an extra man to account for the run game, which means that everyone is going to be blocked. But what you can do is you can have everything leveraged. We have to make sure in between every two white shirts on Saturday there's an orange shirt. It goes white, orange, white, orange, white, orange. Well, okay, but the problem is that means that you have half of your body being blocked by one of their guys and half able to attack. When you're a big guy you can run through those tackles, so we're going to do a great job of not just fitting in our gaps but shedding blocks and then tackling a guy that's pretty physical, because he will run through arm tackles, and he has really good acceleration, and after he gets through the front line to turn them into big plays.

Q. How unique of a challenge are they? They seem so different than the majority of the offenses you're facing in the Big 12.
COACH DIAZ: Yeah, they are different because their identity is based behind running the football first. Formationally they're very diverse. They're going to line up in a multitude of ways. What they are doing is they are -- even if it appears to the naked eye that they're running the same type plays, let's say you see the quarterback running the football; by changing the formations, what they're doing is they're changing the way that you line up and therefore the way that you fit the run, so they're constantly asking you questions both with their blocking schemes and with their formation, and when you play a team like that, and I say this every week, you don't have to get the answer wrong very many times to get yourself beaten, and that's what they put on tape.
They've been explosive with plays, and he has, because they can find a formation where one guy doesn't adjust over or one guy thinks he's got the B gap, he says, yeah, I've got it, and boom, they're off and running and you've got a problem.

Q. Is it almost even scarier, I don't think he had thrown for more than 200 yards, and then he threw for 281, I think, and that started to develop for --
COACH DIAZ: Yeah, it's a problem, and the problem is when they're explosive, and that's the killer, and they hit a big one, which was a big point of that game.
What they do is all 11 got to come play, and then they've got to come play every snap because they do a great job of -- they're run, run, run, then they're going to take a shot. So if you get lulled to sleep, or again, if you get one play where you're not mentally locked in, they've got the potential, they run trick plays, they're really good at running trick plays.
They're constantly on the attack. It looks like they're methodical, but what they're doing, they're constantly on the attack.

Q. Emmanuel said that this is kind of a linebacker's game. Can you talk about the challenge for them and what he meant by that?
COACH DIAZ: Well, I hope -- if there's any such thing as old-school football left anymore, I hope if you're a linebacker you don't come to chase pass routes around every day. There was a time when playing linebacker meant you were backing the line and get the run in there and stop the run, so this in a way is more that type of challenge. So if you're a front seven guy, you should relish in that, you should want that, and then it's a mental game because like I said, they pose so many mental threats to you in terms of the different run fits that they provide.
But it should be a game that if you are a linebacker you have to take this as an immense challenge because they really, really put all the stress in stopping the run game on you.

Q. What was it like to watch Emmanuel have a game like he did?
COACH DIAZ: It was very rewarding. As a coach you always want your seniors -- you want your whole team to play well, of course, but you really want your seniors to play the best ball of their career. It's important for them personally but it's important for your team. Your best guys have to be your best guys for you to have a chance to be successful.
To watch Emmanuel play the way he played against Missouri, I thought -- in a position that he was a last-minute change when Keenan went out and he had to move over to Mike, practiced very little at that during the course of the week, but he was active, he was everything that we want a Texas linebacker to be, disruptive across the line of scrimmage, sideline to sideline. I was very happy for him and the way he played.

Q. When you go through a senior day, do you ever have to say anything to guys about turning emotion one way or the other for pregame going into the game?
COACH DIAZ: Yeah, it's tough, because as coaches, we see it every year, but you only go through it the one time that you're the senior. You can explain it to them, but the emotion I believe of going -- walking through that tunnel for the last time, it is what it is. You can prepare for it, but it's still -- it's like walking down the aisle. You know you're going to do it, but still, when you do it, it's still unique.
You always worry about the game because you've got to snap back in now. There's a football game is why we're here, and usually after the first drive or first lick of the game, it sort of becomes a football game again.

Q. Some questionable calls the other day, one of them Kenny's hit. Coach Brown came out today and said he's on the committee, rules, and maybe expanding instant replay for the booth to go and look and those calls. Would you be in favor of something like that?
COACH DIAZ: Well, I think -- I know this: Our heart is in the right place, because we're concerned about players' safety, and you can't ever be wrong if that's the case. But I do think that it's a work in progress, and as long as we continue to review the -- sort of the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law and how it's legislated, and to give the guys on defense a chance to play the game -- I think that's the key.
As long as every year it goes on we sort of fine tune it, I think we know what we want to avoid and what we want to stop, and it helps -- it'll help the players. I know it'll help the people that officiate the game, and I don't see any reason why we can't do that. It doesn't seem like -- I would imagine there's enough smart people that are influences in the football game that can kind of figure out where we're headed and get it done right, so I think that would be good.

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