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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 28, 2013Jace AmaroQ. Can you talk about the mood in the locker room? JACE AMARO: Obviously, disappointed, I think a lot of our players felt like we should have won that game. But it was one of those things where I think it benefits us more in the future than hurts us. I know it's a loss and everything like that, but the morale, it really got kind of motivated us and kind of pissed a lot of guys off that we were so close to winning that game. I think it's just going to make us work a lot harder. Q. Turnovers were pretty key? JACE AMARO: Yeah. Coach Kingsbury harped on that from day one. As an offense, we've done a terrible job this season giving the ball away, And that's been a big part of our season of being in close games like that. You can't turn the ball over. That was a huge reason why we lost. A lot of that was because I turned the ball over once, and like I said, I never fumbled in my life. It's just one of those things where it's going to happen, and you've just got to make sure you move on from it. Q. Is there anything you can tangibly do to correct that? JACE AMARO: I just think you need to focus a little more and just ball security and stuff like that. It's just kind of one of those things. Q. Was it strange that the outside world reacted to that loss as a moral victory? JACE AMARO: Yeah, but we don't take it as that. I think that I know like last season maybe we would have let down or something like that, and in the years before that, but it just kind of showed that we fought till the end and we had a great chance of winning that game. Towards the end of the game, like I said during the press conference after the game, that we had a great chance to win. We just needed one more stop and maybe one less turnover and the game is totally different. Q. What do you do to correct and maybe, I mean, you got inside their territory frequently early in the game, but couldn't come away with any points. That's got to be disappointing. How do you rectify that issue? JACE AMARO: I think we were just‑‑ Davis is really young. It was a great crowd. It's one of the toughest places to play in the nation, And they did a great job of really making it hard for us to communicate out there. It just took us a couple drives to get settled in, and I think that it's just one of those things where it comes from games and it comes with the learning process and just keep on playing. I think if we do score a couple of those times, they played great in the first half, and they gave us a great chance to score almost every time in the first quarter we just kind of get it done. That is just one thing that we need to pick up on. Q. In the past Oklahoma State has been a tough game. Is that one of those games where things went wrong and just snow balled on you guys in the past? JACE AMARO: Yeah, I think that Oklahoma State is a great team. I just think that they've had our number the last couple of seasons. But this is a new year, a new season, and we're not playing as last year. I know we lost, and the year before that we lost pretty big too. We have no other mindset. Just we're going to prepare the same way. It's just as another team. Q. Just how did you guys feel when Kliff was calling all the trick plays and pulling out all the stops? JACE AMARO: We knew they were all coming in practice. He said he's got a lot of stuff. Game planning, it was going to be a fun game plan for us. You know, he left a couple out there for some more games. We had six or seven trick plays like that. One of them could have been big, but they covered it up really well. I think it was on the second drive it was supposed to be a reverse pass to Jakeem. But I think he just does a good job of mixing all the plays up and making new plays every single week. That's a big credit to him. He doesn't keep with the same game plan as he does in previous weeks, and he's always changing his plays up and it really helps us as an offense to keep on going. Q. It seems like you guys executed all the plays well during the game. Did they all work that smoothly in practice last week? JACE AMARO: I think that we had a couple of them we could have had a little more success on them. But, yeah, for the most part I think most of them were pretty smooth. We had a lot of them executed perfectly and it really changed the game for us. Q. Were all of those‑‑ where did those plays, the trick play stuff, were they introduced last Monday? JACE AMARO: No, we've been repping them the whole season. Some of them we've been repping for situations like against this game. It came in in the perfect time on some of the plays. He's done a great job, like I said, of making new plays up and stuff like that. Q. What is the grind like going on the road for two consecutive weeks and how refreshing is it to get back home for two games? JACE AMARO: I think it's huge. I think if we were in the same situation last week, if OU was playing here at Tech, I think it would have benefited us a lot better. I think we would have come out with the victory if we were playing here in Lubbock. Like I said, it was a really tough place to play in Norman, and probably one of the toughest places to play in the nation. For some of the new guys out there, they don't really understand how hard it is to play two road games like that in two hostile environments. I think we did a great job playing with pretty good success so far on the road. I think it's really good to be back home. Q. Have you or do you know of any players who have had experience with things getting nasty on Twitter or other social media platforms? Have you or they been drawn into so‑called Twitter wars and these sorts of interactions wear on you? JACE AMARO: For me personally I get stuff like that every day. It's just one of those things where if you're doing the right thing, if you're having a lot of success, there are going to be people out there that try to bring you down and stuff like that. I tend to just ignore it and not really let it bother me. But everyone's going to have their own opinion. It's just one of those things where you just have to learn there are going to be people who try to bring you back down. I think it's just one of those things where I don't think any of us on this team are having controversies with people outside trying to say that we're not a good team or whatever. Q. So you don't engage? JACE AMARO: No, absolutely not. Q. And you don't lose any sleep over it? JACE AMARO: Oh, no. Not at all. Q. (No microphone) for Twitter and the things that you tweet. How long have you been on Twitter? JACE AMARO: I think I've had one since high school. I don't know. I just like to tell them‑‑ I know a lot of people want to hear positive things about the team and stuff like that. I just try to keep everything positive throughout the media and stuff like that. I'm not going to blow it up or tweet all day or anything like that. I know a lot of fans like to hear how the team's doing. You want to hear that we're going to have success in the season, so I try to keep it down that road. Q. Were you surprised at all about all the positive feedback you guys got on Twitter after the loss? JACE AMARO: I wasn't surprised. I think that we have a great team and a lot of people had picked us to lose that game. We just went in there and we fought. I felt like a lot of people realize we have a great team. We're really young right now, and we just did a good job of not giving up, and I think people took that to heart. We kept on playing no matter what the score was. We kept on fighting. We had a lot of fourth down conversions. It just kind of showed the resilience that we have on our team and the fight that we have, and it's going to take us a long way. Q. The game coming up like Oklahoma State, what's it mean to see the students start to camp out early in the week and get ready for that game? JACE AMARO: I think it motivates us more than anything. Personally, I think we have the greatest student section in the nation. I've been to four other road games and none of them compare to the way that our students act and the way they cheer and stuff like that. Before pregame, it's probably one of the biggest things, OU has a big stadium, but their student section didn't compare to anything like ours did. Q. The rushing game, did it tire out the defense? What are they thinking now going into these next games? JACE AMARO: Yeah, like I said, they did a great job in the first half of really containing them. We had a couple injuries on the defensive line that could have helped us out big time with Dartwan being there and he wasn't able to make it. I suppose so. In the second half they did a great job of really not letting us get too many opportunities in the second half. I think we only had five possessions and we scored on three of them. So I think they did a good job of that, keeping the ball out of our hands. So we just had to make sure, like I said, we can't be turning the ball over and getting our defense in bad situations. So they put us in good situations and we capitalized on those. That's something we need to fix. We're a young offense too. It's a matter of fact that we need to make sure we really emphasize that in this next game. Q. That is the first loss of this season. How did the coaching staff respond? JACE AMARO: They told us we still control our own destiny. We went out, we went to every single game and we're right there in it being 11‑1. It put us in the perfect situation. I think it really motivated us, the loss. A lot of people were sad and disappointed, but I think we were more angry and mad than anything because we kind of gave that one away, I feel like, instead of them taking it from us. So I think that's one thing that the coaching staff really never missed a step. They didn't skip a beat or anything like that. They kept their mind on the goal, and we're going to keep it that way. Q. Do you anticipate that Oklahoma State games after that are going to try to do similarly to what OU did with chewing the clock up and giving you a lot fewer minutes for the offense? JACE AMARO: Yeah, I think our defense will be ready. I think that was kind of a game where no team had really done that yet on our defense. It was just one thing that I don't think we were ready for a hundred percent. I think the defensive coaching staff has done a great job so far. I know that I have 100% trust in them to make sure that's going to get fixed. Q. Looking back at film on Saturday, do you guys feel like you missed opportunities early on when OU kept giving the ball back to you guys? JACE AMARO: Absolutely. I think there were some questionable calls. I'm not sure why there was a PI on Jakeem. He was the smallest guy on the field. I don't see how he could ever have a pass interference called on him. I just think we missed a lot of chances in the first quarter. It took us a little while to get going. We just need to make sure to emphasize starting fast and making sure if we go up 14‑0, I don't think they're going to be able to run the clock like they had been. It would have put a lot more pressure on them. That was the game plan from the beginning and we just kind of get it done. Q. Oklahoma came in with the number one pass defense, and you guys tortured them at their place. What does that say about their offense that they can travel anywhere and go against anybody? JACE AMARO: Yeah, I think personally we have the best receiving corps in the nation across the board. I think that we're really tough to stop once we get going. We have a lot of one‑on‑one match‑ups in that game and we took advantage of them. It just shows how great of a receiving corps we have in the quarterbacks and the coaching staff. They put us in great position. We knew they were going to be a tough secondary, and I felt like we did a really good job with them. Good enough to win the game, it just didn't happen. Q. How do you approach Oklahoma State, a team that's really embarrassed Tech the past three years? JACE AMARO: You know, it's tough. They've already put up, I think the number is 98. I think the last two seasons they've beaten us by a total of 98 points. That's all over the locker room right now. That's kind of the approach we're having. We're going to have to take it from them. I feel like they have our number. They've had our number the last two seasons. Like I said, it's a new season, new coaching staff, new team, and we'll go in there like we have the whole season ready to play. Q. What differences have you noticed from the past three Oklahoma State teams? (No microphone)? JACE AMARO: I haven't watched them too much yet. I know my freshman year, they were one of the best teams I've seen play. One of the best offenses with Blackmon and Weeden. They did a good job. They have a great coaching staff. They run similar plays to us on offense, and their defense is always very sound. They have great special teams. So I think it's just going to be a tough game. We're going to need all the fans to come out, especially the students. I think the students bring the biggest impact on anything for our games and it's going to be a big deal if we can get as many students as we can to that game? Q.  Last time you guys had Oklahoma State it was like a kick in the jaw but you guys were able to come out successful. You talked about it. How important would it be to create that atmosphere again? JACE AMARO: Yeah, I think once it's a sold‑out crowd, and I think that we have the greatest fans out there, the loudest fans out there, I personally think they're just as loud as the 80,000 in Norman. For us, we've got on third down, I couldn't even hear anything in Norman. I think that when crowds do that to teams, that really stresses them out. It makes them a little rattled. I know it took us a while in the first quarter because they were so loud we couldn't communicate very well. The fans come out and they're as crazy as they've ever been, it will really benefit us. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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