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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 11, 2013Jace AmaroQ. Can you take us through the sequence where you were taken off the field and you come back, kind of what the injury was and what was going on? JACE AMARO: I landed awkwardly on my shoulder, and I felt like I broke something in there. I continued to play through it, and I just kind of‑‑ it was one of those things where I just started hurting more and more throughout the game. It was tough for me to breathe, so I had to go up here and get X‑rayed and they said I was fine. So I just came back and played. Q. What did they say it was? JACE AMARO: Just a deep bone bruise. Q. What's the mood in the locker room? JACE AMARO: Yeah, I think it's really good. We're having a tough time executing plays and going out there and just having fun. I think we're just stressing too much to try to win a game. I think we just need to go out there and do what we were doing the first seven games. Just playing relaxed and having fun out there. Q. So instead of looking at the bowl game and winning the bowl game, just take it one game at a time? JACE AMARO: Yeah, just going up to the games that we're telling ourselves we have to win, we have to win. When things go bad, everyone gets down on ourselves. That's just one thing we're‑‑ we just are young and need to learn that losing is going to happen. We just need to make sure to have fun out there. Q. After you came back you caught three passes pretty quickly. How did it feel after being back? JACE AMARO: It hurt pretty bad. I just continued to play regardless what the score was. I just felt like I had to be out there and do it for my teammates and for my coaches. That's just the mindset I had. Q. How do you relate that pressure of feeling like you have to win this game? JACE AMARO: I don't know. We were 7‑0, and we just haven't been able to win since then. I just feel like we've just put a lot of pressure on ourselves right now. I think that's what people are trying to do too much, and sometimes it just comes and hurts us. I feel like we're a great team. These three games really haven't dictated how well we've played this season. It's just one of those things that we can get back on the road this game and pull off an upset. So I think that's where our mindset's going to be. Q. Couple years ago Baylor kept you from going to a bowl game. What would it mean to keep them from going undefeated this season? JACE AMARO: I don't think two years ago matters anymore. But I think that knocking them off from being undefeated will be a great accomplishment this season. Q. The last couple years you guys have struggled the second half of the season. Do you see why that may be and do you think this team is maybe better equipped to break out something like that? JACE AMARO: Yeah. I couldn't tell you. I just think that we have some bad luck with injuries. We're missing almost four guys and four starters on defense. We're throwing true freshmen out there that have never played a college game in their life. I know if I was out there I wouldn't be doing much either if I was a true freshman. It's hard. It's hard to translate from high school to being out there and trying to make plays on defense. I just think that offensively we're not giving the defense great positions to start out with. You can't be just going three‑and‑out on any drive we have in the game. That kind of kills the mood of our whole team. When we get down there, it's hard to come back. I know it's only the second quarter, but when we're down 28‑10, it's just tough. Q. It seemed like early on, the three‑and‑outs were in large measure as a result of passing that didn't look very accurate. They were high. They weren't run on target. Do you attribute that to the pressure Kansas State was bringing or inexperience? JACE AMARO: I just think that Davis or Baker were just out there trying to make the perfect throw, when they could just make a routine practice throw. That just goes back to what I was saying. We're just putting a lot of pressure on ourselves right now, and it's making us make simple mistakes. Q. That Lone Survivor Game was a great event for Texas Tech. How did you feel being able to participate in something like that? JACE AMARO: I think it shows who the real heros are and who gets the recognition out there. You have to think about how thankful you have to be for those guys out there. They do a great job. They don't get the recognition like some people may see it as. I'm sure grateful for what they do. So I think it's a great thing that we've done. Q. Knowing that there is extra pressure on Baker or Mayfield or whoever plays quarterback, this coming week, is that something you or somebody else on the team might talk to him about? JACE AMARO: I don't think it's just Baker or Davis. We're out there, playing hard, we're just getting too many penalties. I think just putting too much pressure on it. It's hard when we had such big expectations at the beginning of the season. Then you lose a couple games and it's like, man, everyone's down. We felt like we should have won the game in OU. We felt like we had a good chance of coming back against Oklahoma State. I think it was more of a heartbreaking thing where we kind of just didn't know how to come back to it, and react to it. It's just one thing where we have to make sure we do a better job and making a good point that we're playing hard and we're a great team, and we're doing things well this season. Just keep on playing and don't put so much pressure on ourselves. Q. Is there some self‑doubt on how good the team really is after starting 7‑0, and then you go up against tougher teams. Do you doubt that you're as good as you were? JACE AMARO: No. Like I said, we had a great chance of winning both those games. Oklahoma State put it to a four‑point game in the third quarter. We had a great chance of taking the lead in the third quarter. OU, we were just one stop away from making it into maybe even winning that game. I think Kansas State was one of those things where the two games just kind of put it on us. We just didn't have the energy anymore. It's just been kind of rough these last few weeks. Q. They got out pretty quick. JACE AMARO: Yeah, they did a great job of really executing on their offensive side and stopping us and Keying on the key players on our offense and not letting us get going. Q. Going up against a team like Baylor that can score easily and quickly, does that put more pressure on you guys to try to score and try to get the ball? JACE AMARO: Yeah, I think we need to take every drive as a precious drive. It's not necessarily getting points every single drive, but getting the ball moving and making sure that we have positive yardage on every single drive. I think that's just one thing that we really haven't execute as well. When we go three and out, it's a bad mood swing for the defense. We have put them in bad positions this whole year. They've really bailed us out a lot this season, and the offense hasn't done their job lately. In the past three games we've started so slow, and I feel like when we get behind, we really try to make a comeback and use everything we've got. I think it's just too little too late right there. Q. Last week you alluded to Saturday maybe being your last game at the Jones. Do you know in your head right now if it was or if it wasn't? JACE AMARO: Yeah, I do. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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