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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 24, 2012Jakeem GrantDarrin MooreTommy TubervilleBaylor – 52 COACH TUBERVILLE: We had a good game plan on both sides. Running game got us. They've been able to run it on everybody. We weren't any different. We knew this would be a high‑scoring game. We felt we would have to score 45, that was our number, 45 to win the game. It wasn't enough. So I'm proud of the seniors. They did well. They kept this group together. Last week all we talked about was responding to adversity because of how we coached and played last week, which we didn't do very well. But we responded this week in practice, in the game. Our guys really played hard. That's all we can ask of them. Seth, a lot of people will say three interceptions. But I tell you what, I'll take that kid to battle every time. He has made a lot of plays. He's one of those kids that he'll take it harder than anybody. He told the group at the beginning of the week, he says, Just give me some help, we'll win this game, I'm going to do everything I can to win this game. We had some great performances. But again, our third overtime and we weren't able to pull it off. Questions. Q. How frustrating is it, just the self‑inflicted part of it all? COACH TUBERVILLE: Well, it's self‑inflicted, but there's turnovers usually in every game. They rolled the ball back, dropped it on the goal line, picked it up and scored. It's just one of those things. I don't know, you don't make excuses. We went in today to make enough plays and we didn't. 'Frustrating' is an understatement. I'd be remiss if I didn't say how good Darrin Moore and Eric Ward played. Both played hurt most of the week. Want to say something about Waddle. He wanted to play. He was out there on pins and needles, played his tail off. McDaniel went back in the game. Probably none of us would have done that. A lot of kids grew up. This is a game of maturing and understanding about life. Boy, we've had to do that in the last five, six weeks. Q. How difficult did it make play calling in the first overtime once you had the holding penalty? COACH TUBERVILLE: I mean, what can you say? Holding in overtime. That's one thing we talked about, no penalties in overtime. You can't win with penalties in overtime. That's one thing you have to stay away from. Had a play‑action pass called. They called our tackle. You can call that pretty much on both teams, but unfortunately we had it called on us. Went against us. It's hard to make up ground. Q. You mentioned all the games that y'all have played in the last month and a half with no turnovers. Do you consider that in some ways bad luck or is there a problem defensively? COACH TUBERVILLE: Well, I'd say when you give up 700 yards you got problems on both. Our guys played hard. We won some games on defense this year. Had a very good defense all year long. We're going to end up ranked somewhere in the top 30 or 40. That's much better than where we were last year. We're a little undersized on the run. I tell you, they get you in a tough spot, their quarterback, wide receivers, spread you out sideline to sideline. Put five in the box they run it, put six in the box they throw it. We were hoping to get one or two turnovers, but it just didn't happen. Q. What was the game plan for defending Terrance Williams? COACH TUBERVILLE: We doubled him most of the time. He still caught it, made some unbelievable catches. The one third‑down catch, their last drive, was just unbelievable. I think they missed the field goal on that drive. Nick Florence is a competitor. He put the ball on the money. Didn't get them in trouble. Made good plays all year long. We've watched him. I tell you what, he's a battler. I enjoyed watching him on film. Didn't enjoy playing against him today. But they've got some weapons. They've got a lot of good weapons on the outside and the quarterback really played well. Q. Baylor's touchdown at the end of the first half, what happened there? COACH TUBERVILLE: Wrong coverage. One guy didn't get the call, which is what happens sometimes. You don't communicate. It's going fast. We had the backup corner in there. We were supposed to be playing three deep and he jumped an out route. He gave up 14 points in the last minute of the half. That was a tough situation. Q. After you guys got bowl eligible with the TCU win, you said you obviously didn't want to stop there, you had higher goals than that. What does it do to you to have only won one game since then? COACH TUBERVILLE: We played hard. We'd like to have a couple of these games back. Some of the teams we played were on a roll by the time we played them. But we held our own with most of them. We gave ourselves a chance in most. A couple of them we didn't. But we played a lot of good teams in a row. It's hard to play without a tight end and a fullback. I've sat in offensive meetings, felt bad for the guys who had to try to run the football when you don't have a tight end. Then you lose your fullback. The difference in the overtime was they could run it, we couldn't. We knew we had to run it to win it. We couldn't get any consistency really after the West Virginia game of running the football. We beat TCU throwing it. Q. After this time last year, two years ago also, you said what the team needed was more speed, particularly on defense. After this rough last month and a half, what do you feel like you're lacking most right now? COACH TUBERVILLE: I mean, we're a lot better on defense. We've got to get more speed. This is not a conference you want to coach in if you're a defensive coach. This is a hard league, very hard. Each week you see different talent. I mean, there's some great athletes on offense in this league, so you've got to prepare, you've got to make plays. Just look at today, we had one group had 700 yards offense, we almost had 600. It's tough to play defense in this league. You got to tackle well, you got to stay healthy. Unfortunately we lost a couple of corners early, about a month ago. But they're back. We've gotten better on defense. This team today did the same thing to most people in scoring points. We just weren't able to out‑score them. Q. Late in the game after Darrin caught another fade pass touchdowns, did that influence anything from then on in terms of playing calling decisions? COACH TUBERVILLE: No, no. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Darrin Moore. Q. What is the feeling like in the locker room after the effort you put in to come up short? DARRIN MOORE: Sad. I feel sorry for the seniors that we had to go out this way, such a close game. It's not a fun way to go out. But we fought. We just came up short. Q. What did Coach Tuberville say to you guys in the overtime period? DARRIN MOORE: Basically the same thing I just said. He's sorry this had to happen to the seniors. We went out there and fought our hardest. We laid it out on the line. Q. How bittersweet is it for you, considering you lost the game, but you had an amazing game? DARRIN MOORE: I wouldn't say it's bittersweet. It's bitter that we took the L. All those stats don't mean anything when you still lose. Q. As much trouble as Baylor had defensively stopping the pass this year, did you feel like going into the week, this game, you would have the kind of game you did today? DARRIN MOORE: Yeah. I expected to have a good game against their defense. I expect to have a big game against any defense. But with the success other teams had against them, I definitely came in the game real confident, as well as the offense. Q. When they took out No.9, did that change anything for you? DARRIN MOORE: No, it didn't. Q. How does this team get back up now for a bowl game? DARRIN MOORE: You know, I feel like all the losses we took this year, the tough losses, we never got down. We came back the next day ready to work. We never held our heads low. We came back and we got right back at it. Q. There in the first half when you were down, at the 10 yard line, Seth comes out and gets hit from behind. It looked like you were coming open late on that play. What was going through your mind at that time? DARRIN MOORE: I had a slant route, you know. They jumped the route and I turned it up‑field. Seth seen me. As he was heading to the right, he was picking his hand up to throw the ball and somebody hit it out. Q. What will y'all say to him after three picks and a fumble? DARRIN MOORE: Basically, Keep your head up. It's a team game, it's not his fault. We all had our part in this loss. Just tell him to keep his head up. Q. You said it was a tough way for the seniors to go out. You still have a game left. How will you approach the bowl game? DARRIN MOORE: I definitely feel like the seniors, we definitely want to go out with a win. Taking this kind of loss in this kind of environment is definitely going to push us a lot harder to get the W. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Darin. Questions for Jakeem Grant. Q. Can you describe the mood and what players are feeling right now. JAKEEM GRANT: Especially the seniors, they're feeling pretty sad because last year they didn't win. We felt like this was one of the biggest games of the year. Yeah, they're pretty sad. Q. Is it frustrating for you because it seems like you were right there, but there was always some kind of mistake to push you backward? How frustrating was that? JAKEEM GRANT: It was very frustrating. I felt that even though we kept getting pushed back, we could overcome adversity. I just kept telling everybody on the sideline, Keep your head up because we can overcome this. Q. What did you see on the kick return? JAKEEM GRANT: I basically saw the open hole and I used my speed, just ran past everybody. Q. Is that the first kickoff return? JAKEEM GRANT: First kickoff return I ever returned. Q. Notice anything different about the team in the last five games as compared to the first seven games of the year? JAKEEM GRANT: Yeah, it's pretty much the same, but I felt when we took that first loss, we were undefeated, it got to us like we needed to come back to practice and work harder, keep our focus. Q. How important now is the bowl game for you guys so that you can still finish the season on a positive note? How do you approach going into that bowl game? JAKEEM GRANT: How I approach it? I'm going to approach it like any other practice. I'm going to practice as hard as I can and I'm going to sell out for the seniors because I know this is their last game. This is their last game. I'm going to do everything in my power to sell out for them. Also, I know that they want to go out with a bang, so they're going to try their best to get this W, too. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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