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UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 21, 2011Mack BrownCOACH BROWN: We want to first wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving week because this is always a special week when we have a short week and things are changed and there's so many things for all of us to be thankful for that we want to wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving. And at the same time our thoughts go out to the young tight end that died at Arkansas on Sunday morning. What a tragic event. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and his friends and that team and coaching staff. I just can't even imagine what they're going through today. And at the same time the awful tragedy up at Oklahoma State, losing two great coaches and husband and wife pilots. It's a somber weekend, and as much as we care about sports and our game, these things are real‑life tragedies and something that we all need to reach out and try to help other people with and be thankful for our many blessings. I want to secondly thank the fans on Saturday night. I thought it was probably the best atmosphere I've ever seen. It was very similar to the Missouri game when they came in for a night game and we jumped on them 35 to 3 and the fans were such a factor. But the fans came early. It was full when we went in. They were so appropriate with our seniors, especially for Fozzy. I thought what a tribute to him, and it wasn't just about what he's done here in football. I think they were saying thank you for being the young man you are and graduating in three years and being such a great role model for so many others, and I thought they were a big factor in the game. The game came down to the last play of the game, and our fans were all here, and it was a night where they were a factor, and they kept helping our team come back and back and fight against some tough odds as we continued to play. It was also a big hit for recruits. We had a lot of recruits here, for unofficial, some for official visits, and all of them talked about the atmosphere and what a difference it makes when you walk in there with 101,000, most of them with orange, cheering for their team. So thank you again, a big thank you. And we were better at home this year. We lost to Oklahoma State in a tough game that we could have won in the fourth quarter and we lost to Kansas State and we won the other four, so we felt like we turned it around some at home and got back on track for making it a tough place to play. Very proud of the toughness and effort of our team on Saturday night. To hold their offense to the low numbers that we did was unbelievable. For us to rush for 191 yards and hold them to 38, having 16 tackles for loss compared to two for them against our offense, I would have thought we would have won the game if you'd have told me that before the game. You've got to give Colin Klein a tremendous amount of credit. He got hit so many times out in the field, also five sacks, and protected the ball all the time. Our guys were trying to strip the ball, they were trying to knock it loose. They were some of the hardest hits I've seen by defense at the University of Texas in our 14 years here, and then he makes the play on 3rd and 14. We couldn't beat him down, he makes the play on 3rd and 10 in the end zone and runs on a 3rd and 3 for the 1st down. Give him credit for pulling them through and making the plays to win the game even on a night where statistically it did not look good for them. Our defense played really well. You go back to the sudden change with the first interception, they get the ball around the 15‑yard line and our guys had another great goal‑line stand, and they're taking tremendous pride there and forcing them to kick the field goal early. They were four of 16 on 3rd downs. Again, we can't give up the 3rd and 14. That was the one that just absolutely killed us. We had eight three‑and‑outs, five sacks, they got the ball back. The defense got the ball back for the offense after we decided to kick the field goal because we didn't think Kansas State could move the ball, and they got it back for us twice offensively, so we had our chance to go ahead and win the game. And we're playing a lot of guys now on defense, especially up front, when we're rushing the passer and keeping some fresh guys out there and getting to play two deep. The 3rd and 14 before the half was critical. I've been asked by a lot of fans why we didn't ask for the call to be to be reviewed. We did. We called time out, official came over, and he said, they've basically already reviewed it and they said it was a catch, and they said you can make me walk over there if you want to, but they've already reviewed it. So we ended up wasting a time‑out because we were wanting it reviewed. But instead of looking at it from upstairs, which would probably save us a lot of time, too, they just decided it was a catch, so that's why we went ahead and didn't want to waste any more time. There was also a 3rd and 10 with about 12 minutes left to go in the ballgame where they hit Hubert on a screen, and he makes just an outstanding run, which we could have stopped him, and I thought that was the only time where they probably out‑toughed our defense because he kept moving forward and got the 1st down, and then they had another big run right after that with Klein, and that flipped the field on us and made the offense start about the 10‑yard line, and right now we're struggling enough on offense that it's hard for us to drive it 90 yards against a good defense. We didn't force a turnover for the second week in a row, and as we said, we tried. We're trying to strip it. We're trying to knock it loose. But right now our offense needs our defense to force some turnovers. And two of their three trips into the red zone were touchdowns, so we needed to have them kick all three times, and that would have helped us. Defensive hit big awards, there were quite a few of them. Keenan Robinson, Blake Gideon, Kenny Vaccaro and Quandre Diggs all had huge hits during the ballgame, and most of those hits would be hits that would knock balls loose. Most valuable players, and only fitting, were two seniors, Keenan Robinson and Emmanuel Acho. I'm amazed that Keenan played with the thumb injury that he had from the week before. He really didn't practice. In fact, he didn't have one play of contact all week, so I'm just absolutely amazed. It shows you the passion that so many of these guys are playing with right now and they're banged up. We've held nine of the ten opponents we've played so for under their rushing average, eight of the ten opponents under their passing average, and all ten under their total yardage average. Our defense held K‑State, UCLA, Kansas, and Texas Tech more than 100 yards under their total yardage for the season. 53 tackles for losses over the last three games. So we're playing really, really good defense, and we all know that that's what you have to do to get started back to the top. Offense, got to score more points and protect the ball. We had two turnovers in this ballgame and both of them led to points, and in a ballgame like this where four or five plays are going to make the difference in the ballgame, they made the four of five and we didn't, and that's how close this game was. We rushed for nearly 200 yards, we averaged 4.5 yards per carry, so we ran the ball well against a defense that was only giving up 117 yards. But we've got to improve in the areas of turnovers. We only had four explosive plays. We've got to get more plays down the field offensively. That's three runs and only one pass that was down the field for an explosive play, and that was the touchdown to Blaine. And we've got to quit stopping ourselves. You go back to two low snaps, you go back to a 4th and 1, we're going for it at our own 40 and we jump offsides. You go back to a quarterback and the running back going the wrong way, missed assignments, too many things like that happening on offense, and we've got to figure it out here quickly with only two games left. The offensive line was physical. They protected pretty well, ran the ball well. The Bevo Beast award goes to another senior, David Snow, so you can see the seniors wanted to play so well in their last game at home. And the offensive most valuable player, which is fitting, is Blaine Irby. Had three catches, great way to finish and close out his senior game at home, and he's a miracle to be back out there, but it was fun to see him do so well in his last home game. We'll know more about the health of our offense this afternoon because we really haven't practiced. We'll practice for the first time at 5:30 today. We've met with the trainers, we ran them yesterday, but really and truly we won't know until we get out there in pads and see how they do. We will also go back and look at both quarterbacks playing during the ballgame. We're not sure which one we'll start. It'll depend on the packages that we start with during the game, but we will go back and look at both of those and determine who will start based on the sequence of plays that we start with. Special teams, kickoff coverage, Justin Tucker kicked it really well, and three of the four we covered really well. They had one, a 39‑yard return, and that hurts you when you're in a fight for field position. That also put them in a position to flip the field. Kickoff returns, we had two. We had one good one and then one poor one, the last one when we needed it was not good. They held us to 19 yards. Punting, Justin Tucker did a good job. We had two punts inside the 20. One of them was down on the 1‑yard line and it led to points, and that's what you do in a field position fight like we had. We had three punt returns, an average of 16.3 yards per punt, and then you look at Quandre Diggs taking over for Jaxon Shipley, who's done an outstanding job, and at the same time we were so close on two punts that we missed. We were there, just inches away from getting it, and we've got to go ahead, and we've blocked two punts this year, one for a safety and one for a touchdown. We've got to continue to do the same thing here in the next two weeks and try to get scores on defense. Extra point and field goals, our extra point was good, Justin hit on 26‑ and 48‑yard field goals, so he is one of the more accurate kickers in the country as well as being one of the most accurate we've ever had. A&M has got a great team. You look at Mike Sherman and the job that he's done. They're very talented, one of the best offenses in the country. They're sixth in total offense averaging 512 yards per game. They're fifth in red zone offense, they're third in fewest number of sacks given up in the country, they're tenth in scoring at 41 points a game, they're 15 in pass offense at nearly 300 yards per game. Run defense, they're No.15 in run defense, giving up only 107 yards a game so they've been really stingy against the run, which is what we do best. They're No.1 in the country in creating sacks. They've had 41 sacks and about 3.7 per game, so they've done an outstanding job of getting to the quarterback, disguising coverages, moving people around up front. They blitz about 50 percent of the time, and they put a lot of pressure on opposing quarterbacks, and they're really good in punt returns. They've had one for a touchdown, averaging over 13 yards per punt return. We're the only team in the top 15 in both rushing yardage on offense and rush defense, which is something that we can build on. A&M is 18th in rushing offense and 15th in rushing defense, and Alabama is 16th in rushing offense and No.1 in rushing defense. So those two join us being the only three teams in the top 20 in the country in those two categories. Ryan Tannehill is an outstanding pro prospect. He's completing 63.5 percent of his passes, 26 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Cyrus Gray has rushed for over 1,000 yards. Ryan Swope has 78 catches for over 1,000 yards and 11 touchdowns, and they've got Fuller, who's probably a No.1 pick. So they've got a lot of great players on their offense that can hurt you and an outstanding young offensive line. Their defense is a 3‑4 defense, blitzing about 50 percent of the time. They mix up their coverages well. You've got Sean Porter, who leads the Aggies with 8.5 sacks, and Damontre Moore has also been very, very impressive, and I think he's 6.5 sacks. So they're really getting after quarterbacks. Their nose tackle is Eddie Brown, who is a really good football player, and he's Cody Johnson's cousin, so I'd say they're picking at each other a little bit this week like a lot of the Aggie and Texas fans are. This is a very short week for us. Today would be like a Wednesday normally, so things are speeded up. They're accelerated to a point. We had to meet with our players this morning at 6:00. We will practice them from 5:30 to 7:30 this afternoon, and we'll have the hex rally at 8:30 so they've got a very full Monday where it's normally a day for them to relax and take a little time off, and the hex rally tonight may be the last one. Obviously for a long time it will be. So it'll be something‑‑ this week will be something that the players can remember. I really feel good about the progress of our football team where our defense is ahead of our offense, and that's obvious, they're older, they're more experienced, they're playing better, and our offense needs to catch up. They're competing. I didn't think they competed as well at Missouri as they did Saturday night but they put themselves in a position to win late in the ballgame. Those are games that we won around here, so we've got to go back, and the three‑point, four‑point games are the ones we won most of the time, and I felt like we'd win that one. We're getting closer. We're back in the ballpark. This year's game with Kansas State was a whole lot better than last year's, and it was basically the same personnel. So I'm pleased with a lot of things we're doing. I'm pleased with the way the kids keep competing and the way our coaches are working to get this thing worked out, and obviously we're not there yet. Questions? Q. What are the challenges, emotional loss, short week, everyone knows what goes into this final schedule, A&M game, getting everybody ready to go? COACH BROWN: I think it's a great life lesson. We all have things that happen that we don't like, and we were so close to winning on Saturday night, it's more deflating sometimes when you play well and lose in the end. But I do feel like that it's a great lesson for me and for our coaches and our players that we've got to go right back to work so you can't sit around and fool yourself. We talk about the 24‑hour rule. It's really something for all of us in our lives. When something happens bad you've got to take a negative and turn it into a positive. When you lose a football game, it's a negative, so you take all the things that you need to correct and try to work on them and figure out a different way to do those things this week or how can we improve them, but likewise you take the things that you did well, and there were a lot of great things. Kansas State is one of the best teams in the country. Three of our four losses this year to three teams in the top 11 in the BCS, two of them could have played for the National Championship, still might. You just don't know with this crazy BCS here in the end. So we've made a lot of progress from last year and we've just got to try to finish strong. Q. How do you handle a game like this where it's kind of one of those games that's about more than just this one particular game being the final game with A&M? COACH BROWN: I think it'll be more than a game to y'all. It'll be the rival game for our players. That's all they know. They know at Thanksgiving, they know that people have said, will the A&M crowd be different. No, it's the same way every year when you go over there. They can only loud as loud as they can yell, so I don't think they can yell more than as loud as they can yell, and we've been over there six times, so I think we understand that. I've got great respect for Mike Sherman and the job he's doing. He's nice, he's smart, he's a tremendous football coach, he always handles himself with grace and with class and professionalism, and I've really enjoyed coaching against Mike the last three or four years. I do really appreciate the way he runs his business. We've had absolutely no problems in our time, and at the same time, you look at a time where realignment is so big, I said this the Missouri week, you need to do what's best for your school, and A&M felt like it was best to go to the SEC. These kids and I aren't involved with that, and the coaches. That's bigger than us. That's about administrators and that's about fans. The game is very important for both groups to win. The thing I told our players is you'll be part of history because this may be the last one that's played, so you can tell your kids and your grandkids, and you want to make it a good one. Q. Is there anything about the atmosphere at Kyle Field that sticks with you or just your impressions of it other than obviously the fans? COACH BROWN: No, everybody said the atmosphere at Lincoln last year would be unbelievable, and you couldn't hear. We play in a lot of loud places. I think give the Aggies, their crowd, a lot of credit for being a great crowd. I think it's fun. I think it's why you come to schools like this, so you can play in environments like this. Our environment was so good on Saturday night, it's fun. That's the way college football is supposed to be. I'd say 85 percent of the young people that play college football never get that environment at their home, and we're lucky at Texas that we have 101,000 that can come and follow us. A&M is lucky that they've got full houses that can follow them, and I think it's been a unique setting going back and forth. We've had some great games with them. It's been fun. Q. You get 14 years out of 118 they'll play this game. Are you going to miss it? Is this one of those games that you'll miss? COACH BROWN: I will. I think it's been‑‑ I had some interviews this morning, and somebody said, what are the best and the worst memories that you've had, and it's easy: The best one is Ricky Williams out here the first year. I saw some clips of that game the other day, and what a memory. He probably won the Heisman that day, and everybody in the stadium was watching every play, and R.C. is a friend of mine and we go back and talk about those things. You've got Earl Campbell, John David Crow and Tony Dorsett. It's just a really special moment in the history of college football, and it was fun to be a part of that. And then the next year ‑‑ I've got vivid memories of the bonfire and how I felt that week and how awful that week was, and I still worry as a parent about those 12 sets of parents every year that this comes up. They've lost their child, and that's a very, very difficult thing. And I remember the game and I remember the night before and I remember Major having a stomach virus and not being able to play and being up 16 to 7 and coming back and losing and seeing R.C. after the game and he was so relieved but whipped because of what he had to put up with all week. So we've had some great memories, but some of my best friends just happened to have gone to A&M or played at A&M. You talk about John David Crow and R.C. Slocum, I've got no better friends than those two guys and they're wonderful guys that I'll talk to this week and that‑‑ those are the things that you'll miss. But again, it's bigger than a football game. These are universities that choose what they feel like is best for their university, and obviously the decision overrode whether we would continue to play this game or not. Q. Cyrus Gray as a running back really carried the Aggies last year here in Austin. What are your thoughts on him, his performance and how special he is in the backfield for A&M? COACH BROWN: Well, he's a nice young man, he's a smart young man and a great player. I thought he was the difference in our game last year. We had two turnovers in the red zone, and he makes the long run that just absolutely kills us. We've got fast guys, and he outran them all right up the gut. You're seeing him do that the other day. He didn't get touched hardly that first half against Kansas. He just ran through them. He's a great football player and a credit to them. Q. You mentioned the A&M rushing defense. Because of that, how important is it for you to have a good passing offense? COACH BROWN: Just better. We're improving in practice. I thought‑‑ I really thought we'd throw the ball well against Kansas State. It's funny, both quarterbacks had a great week. I thought the plan was good, and sitting there watching it, they completed so many passes in practice, I thought they'd take great confidence into the game, and it just didn't carry through. Case gave us a burst of energy, of momentum when he came in with the big 3rd down slow to Mike on the slant and then the touchdown to Blaine, so hopefully we can build on some of the positive things in the second half. But after you run for 440 yards for two weeks in a row, I mean, our coaches are not stupid and the ones we coach against are not. They're going to put more guys around the line of scrimmage and say you have to throw the ball to beat us. Then people say, well, you only rushed for 200 yards against Kansas State. They had 14 on the line of scrimmage, so it's kind of hard to run that way. You've got to get some of them to back up a little bit. So we've got to improve our passing game. Mike has been banged up some, Marquise is banged up some, we lose Jaxon. So the whole thing has kind of snowballed, and now in some ways our offense is trying too hard, and that's where they'll have the motion penalty, that's where they'll go the wrong way. So they need to relax and play because they know the defense is playing so well, they know our kicking game is doing great, and I know they feel the pressure of not winning here in the last two weeks. Q. The fact that K‑State gave him the spark this week that didn't happen at Missouri, does that make you feel better about if and when he gets out there against A&M? COACH BROWN: I think so, but David has been doing really well, too. I thought David probably tried too hard, and that's a good trait for a freshman. I thought Vince played unbelievably well last night. I was able to TiVo® it and get home late and watch it. We cussed him around here for a year and a half. We said Colt wasn't experienced enough and couldn't make it. So we've been hard on some‑‑ Chris Simms beat the Aggies three out of four and we were mad at him. So playing quarterback and calling plays around here is a tough deal. So I'm not down on our quarterbacks. They're going to keep fighting and keep developing, and Bryan will bring them on, and we're just playing two of the best quarterbacks in the country the next two weeks. And like I said, what Colin Klein did was not flashy, but he just beat you kind of anonymously on Saturday night. You have to go back and study what happened for him to make a 3rd and 14 and we're all over him. We're hitting him on the 3rd and 14, but he's just winning games, so we've got to get our confidence in offense so we can finish strong. Q. Did you notice any confidence dip in Case when he didn't play for that stretch? COACH BROWN: No, Case has been unbelievable. He's been so positive and upbeat. I've been so proud of him. He's wanting to win, and he and David are great friends, and we have had absolutely no tension, and he has been super positive the whole time. Q. You talked about Klein not getting a lot of love and attention. Does the same go for Swope? He seems to be lighting the world on fire, too. COACH BROWN: He does. To have 78 catches and over 1,000 yards, he may be the most unheralded receiver in the country because not enough people talk about him. He's caught so many passes the last three weeks that he's been the difference in their offense. That's what happens. You can't budge the line of scrimmage, they're protecting very well. I think they may be fourth in the country in giving up sacks, and he's an experienced quarterback, it's a coach's son that gets the ball out of his hands fast and he can run, and he's 6'3" or 6'4", he's a big tall guy that's a great athlete. They've really got it going on offense, and they're fun to watch. Mike has got an offense very similar with what he had with Favre at Green Bay. Q. A&M's second‑half struggles are pretty well known and publicized. How do you deal with that with the team? Do you use it as a teaching tool? I know it can be deceiving especially from a fan standpoint. COACH BROWN: Yes. We've had some whole‑game struggles so I'd like to get it down to half. That wouldn't be a problem for us. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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