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UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 28, 2011Keenan RobinsonQ.  What do you think makes Robert Griffin different this year than what you guys saw out of him last year? KEENAN ROBINSON: He's pretty much the same guy to me from last year. He's more polished, but obviously he's always been a great athlete since the first time I played him, and that was two years ago when we went to the Fiesta Bowl. He was a great player then and is a great player now. He's got better over the years, really polished his game as far as throwing goes. He's always been a great runner, so he's a dual‑threat quarterback and does a great job with that. Q. How is the thumb? Obviously you've been able to play through it all. Is that something you have to block out? KEENAN ROBINSON: No, I mean, it's good now. The wound is all closed. Two weeks ago it was open and now it's closed and everything is fine. It's really been a blessing for it to heal as fast as it did. Once it kind of popped back into place, popped right back in, and the pain really went away and there wasn't that much pain. It's still a little bit swollen, but other than that everything feels pretty much back to normal, and I really don't have to worry about it. I wear a little pad, but I can still play with the pad if I need to, but the pad is precaution. Q. Was it a concern when you could see the bone for a while? KEENAN ROBINSON: For me, I'm a big guy, so I was tough about it. It didn't really hurt. I really wanted to go back in, but they wouldn't let me. Once they put it back in, I was trying to get back out there, but they held me out and they tried not to let me play against K‑State, I said that's not going to happen. Got a cast on it, played that week. A couple days later I got the stitches out and played against A&M. Q. Mack said he saw you play as hard as you have ever played. What was it about that game? Were you playing harder than ever? KEENAN ROBINSON: No, I've been doing the same thing I've been doing since freshman year, doing what I do and controlling what I can control. I think the passion that you seen out of me might have been increased just because the nature of the two games we just played, K‑State and A&M, obviously K‑State was senior night, A&M was the last game playing against them for a long time. So the passion probably stepped up a little, just had more energy. Being around my teammates is always fun, so whenever they play at a higher level, I play at a higher level, and we feed off each other, so I guess that was the passion and the energy that you seen come out Thursday and the previous Saturday. Q. How important is it that Griffin doesn't have his Heisman moment against your defense? KEENAN ROBINSON: Yeah, that definitely won't happen against us. Coach Diaz said, don't let him win the Heisman against us, and that's not going to happen because where our defense is at, he hasn't faced us. He's played other defenses, but Texas defense, we have a name for ourselves and we have to protect that name, so we've got to go out there, play another great game like we did Thursday night and make sure we just execute our game plan, and I think everything will fall into place. Force turnovers like we did last week, continue to make plays on 3rd down to get off the field, stop the run, and a combination of all those will help us win the game. Q. Blake Gideon has had 50 starts now. How hard is that to do, especially as a defensive guy on this team? KEENAN ROBINSON: It's very hard just because of the fact of injuries nowadays. It's a physical game, so you need to be very tough. He's a guy that pushed through little small nicks and bruises here and there. You know, he's had shoulder problems in the past, but obviously that doesn't bother him at all. He's out there playing, giving his all, 100 percent every play. He's a guy that just makes sure that when he is injured he gets in the training room. When he's not, he's out there watching film making sure that he plays the best he can play at the highest level he can play, and that really helps on the field because, I mean, he's a guy that he's been trusted since his freshman year, first day he stepped on campus, so he's a guy that's been around here for a long time, and he's a guy that the coaches trust, the players trust, and he's obviously a leader of the defense. Q. You went through an off‑season of learning a new defense through the fall. When do you feel like you clicked with the defense, what Manny Diaz wanted and how you guys are playing now? KEENAN ROBINSON: It clicked early on, but it just clicked to different levels. We have a level that I guess goes through some stages, beginner, intermediate, advanced, all that. So early in the season we're obviously beginners in this defense. Obviously we practiced in the spring and obviously practiced in two‑a‑days, but it's a difference when you get to play games, getting to see it in a game setting. So it's kind of hard for us to gauge how good a team we'll be on defense because through practices and all that, but once you start playing games you can see how the scheme works, how everything goes hand in hand, and when you start playing better opponents your defense gets tested. So we got tested early on in the season, midway in the season, and now we're getting tested again late in the season. So we're still putting new stuff in. Every day there's something new for every team, and I feel like right now, though, we have definitely exceeded Coach Diaz' expectations. Q. Do you feel like the last four games have really been kind of where you want to be defensively? KEENAN ROBINSON: Yeah, for me I think it has because we've definitely played well. The thing is turnovers and points you give up is obviously something that we really want to focus on and be better. The last game we had turnovers, but as far as points goes, we would like to hold teams to obviously less than two touchdowns, 14 points, and we haven't been able to do that. It's really hard in the Big 12 league, but it's still something we have to strive to because at the end of the day that's our goal, that's our expectations. If the offense scores 21 points and we only give up 14, then we've got a better chance of winning. It just comes down to numbers. It's not necessarily who's the best team but who scores the amount of points that day, and if we can hold a team to less amount of points as possible, then it gives our offense and special teams a better chance to help us win the game. Q. Why is it so important to get this eighth win? KEENAN ROBINSON: I mean, it's just the point, just because of the fact that, one, it's Baylor, and at Texas we don't lose to Baylor. We did last year, but we can't let that happen again. Two, it's our last regular season game, on the road at a place that's pretty much rocking. They have a great quarterback and a great team, so it's going to be a good opponent to play. And as far as the eighth win goes, we really wanted a ten‑win season. That's not possible, but we can do the best we can, get nine wins and put Texas back on the map. Q. You get to face a running back that's bigger than probably any running back you've faced this year. Do you like that as a linebacker? KEENAN ROBINSON: Actually me and Ganaway played in the all‑star game together in high school. He was on my team. I remember him from about five years ago. He was a great back then and a great back now. Their O‑line is pretty good and they block pretty well. Their running game is going to be something that we'll really focus on stopping this week and make sure that we take care of that we first worry about the pass and worry about Robert Griffin. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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