|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 7, 2013Jace AmaroTre' PorterSTEPHEN F. AUSTIN – 13 Q. Glad to get the rest? JACE AMARO: Oh, yeah, it's always a good thing when the starters are pulled out and it prevents injuries. It's a quick turnaround, so we have to be especially ready for those guys first conference game. It's always the biggest one, because you want to be 1‑0 coming into the conference. That's going to be a huge game for us, so I think coming out in the second half is really good for us. Q. I know it's only the second game, but your impressions of Baker Mayfield on the offense? JACE AMARO: He's great. He controls the huddle really well. He makes plays, and he throws as hard as anyone I've ever seen. For example, it was probably a wide open end zone, and he probably put a hundred miles per hour on that ball. It's just one thing that's good. And sometimes he needs maybe a little bit more touch, but I'd rather have it coming fast to me just because it gets us open and gets us quick, the ball quickly, and we can make plays right when we catch the ball a little faster than some of the other quarterbacks here. Q. Could you talk about your catches tonight? Are you on the roll you want to be on going into the third week of the season? JACE AMARO: Definitely, they rolled coverage for me in this game, and I was kind of surprised the way I caught 150 yards or something like that, just because I know that backside safety was picking me. And that led to a lot of touchdowns for Bradley, and a lot of things opened up for the outside guys. I think just having all four of us out there really kind of messes with the defense. It's kind of hard to guard all four of us at the same time. I feel like I'm starting to roll, and I feel better than I ever have. I just feel like I'm starting to spin my wheels and it's just going to be kind of a typical thing for me. Q. Are you surprised you got caught from behind there at the end with that one catch? Looked like you were roll to go a touchdown? JACE AMARO: Yeah, probably should have looked at that new screen a little bit more. Maybe I could have taken another step back or something. Q. How much are you looking forward to the day when you actually get to play a full game again? JACE AMARO: Yeah, I played the second half of the SMU game and first half of this game. Really only one full game. That was kind of the story line last year. I only played the first half of the first three games last year. I'm expecting to play the full game this next game. But if it takes just one half, I'll be perfectly happy with that. Q. Do you feel like this was a good outing for the team overall with the quick turnaround and the big opponent coming up Thursday night? JACE AMARO: Definitely. I think we have a lot of momentum going into this game. We finally got the run going a little bit. And I know we have a lot of improvement to do not just in the run game but in the passing game as well. I know we made a lot of mistakes. It wasn't a perfect game by any means, and I think that the quick turnaround is really going to keep this momentum alive. Because the student section was amazing and the fans were great today, and, hopefully, we can get a solid crowd and just make it that much more better. Q. How did you spend your delay time before the game? JACE AMARO: Of the SMU game? Q. No, here tonight? JACE AMARO: Oh, I just kind of like paced myself a little bit. It's a little agitating because it hasn't rained in Lubbock in about four weeks and then 6:00 o'clock comes and once you get a little cloud out there. Maybe we can get some of those for practice this week. You know, it's always a little frustrating getting rain delays, and that is just one thing you have to deal with. But I felt like we dealt with it really well this game. Q. What did you do during that time? Did you just listen to music? Listen to Kliff? JACE AMARO: Yeah, just listened to music, get stretched out a little more, and get a little more prepared for the game. Q. What do you feel like you need to work on this week? I mean, TCU will be a big step‑up in competition. JACE AMARO: What was the question? Q. What do you feel like you need to work on this week? JACE AMARO: I think team‑wise, we need to have a better turnover margin. I think that's going to be huge for us this season. I think that's going to push us to one or two wins. They're going to come down to the wire sometimes. You don't have to have a great defense, but if you provide turnovers, that helps us out a lot. I think‑‑ I felt like we scored over drive besides the ones we got penalties with, and penalties really hurt us this game. I think we need to cut that down. Other than that, I think we're on a really good track right now. Q. Does the fact that Baker can make things happen with his feet when things kind of get covered up down field, does that give you guys confidence that you're not just a single dimension quarterback team? JACE AMARO: Definitely. One guy's going to have to keep an eye on him eventually. It's just going to open up things later down the road. It definitely helps our team instead of having just a typical pocket passer back there. I feel like he's kind of got that attitude that I'm just going to go out here and have fun and play football. That's really good for us, because he's really relaxed and he's always having fun. It helps us out a lot because we know that we can trust him. We have full respect for him, and he's a great guy, and a great quarterback. Q. Tre', how do you feel about the turnovers? TRE' PORTER: I think we feel pretty good. Last week we had a few fumbles on the ground, but we didn't get ‑‑ it didn't bounce our way. So I felt like today it really bounced our way. But I think we still work hard and play hard. Q. Were you agonizing over the ball coming your way? TRE' PORTER: Yeah, yeah, you know? I'm always trying to make plays when the opportunity comes at hand. So I was pretty upset about it. Q. Do you feel like this gives you good momentum going into a short week with a much tougher opponent? TRE' PORTER: Yeah, you know, it's always good to get a win. Just how we did it tonight is really good. I think we did well as a unit just having our eyes in the right places besides the winning win over our head for the long touchdown. But other than that, I think we really did good. We focused on our techniques and assignments. Q. Does the second turnover just kind of give everybody a great feeling on how the defense played tonight, even though it wasn't necessarily the starters on the field at that point in time? TRE' PORTER: Yeah, I felt like we played hard, but the opportunity came our way, and I mean, it happened. So we were pretty happy about it. Not just the team, but it's a defensive type thing. It doesn't matter who is out there, we're just happy to have a turnover to go on the board. Q. How did you feel like you executed your game plan? You guys scored 40 points last week. TRE' PORTER: I feel pretty good. We executed what we had to do. We didn't let many balls get over our head. We only had one or two, but it was pretty good. We were locked in this whole week about it. We seen what they did against Weber State, and we were just really buckled down on the passing. Q. Were you surprised at the different quarterbacks they brought at you? Talk a little bit about Attaway and Minden? What did you see from them that made you more confident or made you worry? TRE' PORTER: Nothing, really, all I saw was a white jersey on the next side. I just stayed with my technique and my focus, that's all I really did. I didn't even notice they switched quarterbacks, honestly. Q. Obviously, you're getting ready for your game earlier today. But did you watch any of TCU at all? TRE' PORTER: No, I didn't. I couldn't. But I was watching it, and I seen the scores. I wasn't really watching the game, but I was just like I got the secondary together. I was like they almost lost to a team like that, and I just didn't want it to happen to us. Q. Looks like y'all will see Trevone Boykin again. TRE' PORTER: I really don't know, you know. I just think it's going to be the same type of offense last year that we faced. But I think we just have a nice game plan going into it, just play hard, and focus on our technique. Q. Tre', second game, talk about just are you guys still confident in the play calling, the coaches play back book? TRE' PORTER: Yeah, we're more confident about it, because we're finally seeing the turnover margin go up, and just seeing how our execution just goes into success, you know? Q. How big was the fumble in the first half? How big of a fumble was that? TRE' PORTER: It was really good because we had a fumble in the first half of the SMU game that bounced out of bounds, but just to see us get on the ball, you know, we seen the tables turn this game from last game, so it was pretty good. It gave us a little boost. Q. Do you like sitting out the first half, considering you have a short week coming up? TRE' PORTER: No, I really don't, honestly. Everybody's like we've got a game Thursday. But I just picture it as a game that I want to play in. No matter what the score is, I'm so aggressive, and the defense is so aggressive that we want to stay out there and create more turnovers than plays. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|