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UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 26, 2012Mason WaltersTHE MODERATOR: Questions for Mason Walters. Q. Superstition thing after a loss? MASON WALTERS: No, it was Thanksgiving, taking pictures, so it had to go. I didn't fight it too much. Q. We want the scouting report on your new third-string quarterback. MASON WALTERS: Alex is an athlete. We have faith in him. Saw him throw the ball around a little bit yesterday. I was impressed. It's been a while. Hopefully it doesn't come to that. If it does, he's our best bet, so... Q. Kickers on a lot of teams aren't the most high-profile athletes. How is he handling his new star status as a quarterback? MASON WALTERS: He's taking it in stride, not letting it get too overwhelming. I think really just having fun with it. He's going to have to love the game, go out and be a competitor. I know he is that. Getting to know Alex, I didn't really have a tight relationship with any of the kickers. Just seeing how much of a competition that it is every time he goes on the field, he's got a competitive attitude. Q. Now he's hanging out with you guys. Is he in the popular group now? MASON WALTERS: Come on, Alex is a great guy. Since he got in from Duke, we've welcomed him with open arms. Great person to be around. Great competitor. Q. What was your reaction when you heard that Case was going to be the starter instead of David? MASON WALTERS: I heard that this morning. I'm going to have to talk to David, see what's going on. Before the season, everybody on this team, all the quarterbacks we have are capable of playing well. Nothing we stress out a whole lot about. Everybody outside of the program wants to know who is going to play this week. Inside, we have extreme confidence in whoever steps up as a signal caller. Q. Even Alex? MASON WALTERS: Even Alex. Q. Tough loss last week. Does it seem like you might be in a spoiler role? MASON WALTERS: We're going in as underdogs. Kansas State has played good ball almost all year long. They're a talented team. They're an experienced team. Great quarterback, really solid defense. I really think this week is more about accepting the challenge and going out and putting everything you have on the line. Your pride is put out there. They are a team that can blow you out or you can go out and give yourself a chance to win. Last time I went to Manhattan, it wasn't a fun experience. Last year we had a close game here where we fought hard. I expect more something like that. We're going to give everything we have for this regular-season game. It will be a better performance than what we put on last week. Q. How much do you worry about, keep up with the bowl scenarios? MASON WALTERS: Myself personally, I don't even look at it. A lot of people talk to me about it on the team, outside the team. I don't care. I want to play week by week. I can't even think of a bowl game. I don't know where it's going to be, who it's going to be against. For the most part a lot of the guys on the team are focused on this week only. Whatever happens after that will sort itself out. Q. (Question regarding OU scenario.) MASON WALTERS: If some of that support comes from Norman, we'll take it. We're going to play as hard as we can against K State. Q. Coach Brown says he has confidence in Case to the point where the game plan wouldn't change regardless of the fact that it's going to be him as opposed to David. MASON WALTERS: You always notice Case in practice being keyed in. Not getting as many reps as David during the week. He hasn't been the starter. He's always keyed in every day. You feel like he's ready. When he comes out on the field, he's going to let everybody know, I'm going to give you everything I can, just as good as what David can. We don't miss a beat when he comes in the game. Maybe that's because we had to roll with him past spring, past training camp. I don't think there's a drop-off as how the team comes together and gels. Q. You break the season into conference season, then regular season. Would you say it's been a tough regular season? MASON WALTERS: No, just because the standards we have around here is you win every game. You don't lower that because you play a really good team or because you have an off week. That's the standard that this place holds. We didn't meet that this year. What we can do is focus on the rest of it. When you break down the season like that, I think it's done a lot of the times because it's so long. You look at it at the beginning. How are we going to get through this? You break it down, take it in smaller chunks. We got one game left in this thing. You go out and fight with everything you have. Don't have to worry about holding anything back. Q. K State going to be the best defense you played? MASON WALTERS: What they put on film, definitely be up there in the top one or two. They're very experienced. They have great athletes. After playing TCU, I think it will be similar to what we saw on Thursday, maybe a little bit more refined. They have a lot of great athletes. It's a great challenge for us, another chance to go out on a big stage, prove we can play ball with anybody. Q. (No microphone.) MASON WALTERS: I think if we execute a few things better, it changes the game a little bit and their scheme. I think execution is going to be key this week. Q. They used to love to blitz their linebackers. Does that affect you? MASON WALTERS: Definitely pass protection, being keyed into all that, offensive line in the back has to work together.  Just really being keyed into what they're doing, getting a good read on a presnap. Haven't seen that as much this year. They will blitz really not any more than any other team we've seen this year. When they do, they disguise it well. That's going to be the challenge. Q. (Question regarding the Baylor game.) MASON WALTERS: As far as film, haven't really gotten into the film room too much this week. Watched the Kansas/Kansas State game. I'm sure the coaches are looking at it. When it comes down to it, when you're playing what you know is a good defense, playing assignment football, it comes down to a fight, who wants it more. We're going to have to fight for four quarters. To give yourself a chance to beat a good team like Kansas State, you have to do that first. Q. Is their physical nature as good as anybody that you've played? MASON WALTERS: I think so. Up front, they've got a couple of big run stoppers, another good set of defensive ends. They do play physically. When you see a team that plays well with them, the Iowa State game I got to watch when it was going on, Kansas fought them hard, Baylor, saw glimpses of that. They're matching that every play. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Mason. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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