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ACADEMY TEXAS BOWL: BAYLOR VS VANDERBILTDecember 27, 2018Charlie BrewerTrestan EbnerMatt RhuleHouston, Texas Baylor 45 - Vanderbilt 38 HEAD COACH MATT RHULE: Well, first off, I want to make sure we thank the Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl. I thought it's been an outstanding week. I'm happy we won but life, you know, not life-changing but life-altering, life-happy moments for our players, for their families and our kids and our family, it's been a great week and want to thank the Texans and people of Houston. It maybe means a little bit more to us doing it probably here in the state where our family and friends could be here. I thought our crowd today was awesome and we very much appreciate them for that. I thought today was a hard-fought game. Came down to the end. There are stories in there that you couldn't imagine. John Mayers kicking his first ever play and has to go kick a couple field goals. Issac Power, first of play and he has to kick it an inch from the goal line and he crushes it and that's just two guys. But that's, to me, emblematic of the grit of our team, the toughness of our team, and the never-say-die attitude from our senior class all the way down to the freshmen that just walked on to the program. Proud of our guys. Very grateful for the Bowl. A lot of respect to Villanova [sic] and Coach Mason. I saw the running back out there, unbelievable performance by him. That was a good football game, and hopefully our seniors leave feel like they left a legacy, and hopefully our young players build off it as we move into the future. I'm very proud to be here right now. Q. You guys showed a whole lot of resilience all night and it was needed in this game, as back and forth as it was. HEAD COACH MATT RHULE: Yeah, as I told our guys, would we have wanted it any other way; the way our season's gone, the way we battled back. We didn't want it to be easy and that was a great football game. And at the same time, who are we to think a team -- they lost to Notre Dame 21-17 and beat Tennessee for the third straight year and won three of their last four and they play in the SEC. Like that's a real football team. They are going to fight and battle till the end, and I was proud of our guys for fighting and battling till the end, even when we dropped that last interception on third down, to go out and get the stop on fourth down was huge. So many different guys stepping up, and that's what was fun about it for me was watching it, Charlie hits Trestan for a touchdown; hits Marques for a touchdown. Marques is a guy that does his job and plays hard and well and starts the year as a walk-on and finishes with the game-winning touchdown. To me that's really who our guys are. Q. Charlie, kind of a two-part question. How does that hat feel? CHARLIE BREWER: Feels good. Q. And Coach mentioned he felt like you were the difference in the game with the way you were able to both run and pass for first downs and big plays. You know, was that just you kind of playing your game or were there things that you saw on film that you guys took advantage of today? CHARLIE BREWER: I think it was really the other ten guys on offense. The offense was blocking outstanding. I threw a few passes that were probably six or seven yards down the field that went for 50. That's all the receivers right there. So I'm just proud of those guys that are making plays all night. Q. Coach had at least five fourth down conversions, some short yardage, but 4th and 13th, not short yardage. Can you talk about that for a second? HEAD COACH MATT RHULE: Yeah, you know, the fourth and one was a long one, and you know, we did that against Texas Tech. We went for a fourth and one on our own 25 and we did a fourth and one again. You're going to look back, I think Charlie has been one of the great quarterback sneak quarterbacks of all time this year. It might sound silly but it's been so good for us. The pass to Denzel was really -- I would say this was Charlie's football IQ because it was a high/low, where there's a guy at like six yards and a guy at 16, and he knew he really couldn't throw it to the guy at six yards, and he found a way to make that throw. I thought what Charlie said, I thought our offensive line did a really nice job. We were there to win. We weren't going to come out and be safe. We were going to push the ball down the field and go for it on fourth down and have some fun and we thought the best way to win the game was just keep possession of the ball, especially when they started moving it pretty well. Q. One year ago, you guys go 1-11. So from that point last year, after that last game ends, to now, how much has this program and team grown and how big is it to end the year with a Bowl victory? HEAD COACH MATT RHULE: You know, I asked them the other day and said it to them before the game, I asked them to think about where they were a year ago and I think there's two things. No. 1, they did it with hard work. Like you're always looking for a substitute, looking for this, looking for that. They just did it with hard work. And even the team that played Duke earlier in the year, I just told these guys the other day, I don't even remember that team. That team doesn't exist. Like they have continued to evolve, every week into a good team; battle through adversity. So you know, they did it by working hard and working together. And then the second thing is, you know, as I said to them, this game was a gift. It wasn't promised to us. We got a 13th game, and we're here because of all the gifts that we've been given, whether it's gifts that the Lord gave us or our family and our coaches and even the wins and loss this is year, some of the losses were, you know, if you look at them, we learned a lot from them. We learned a lot from the TCU game. I learned a lot from the TCU game. We learned a lot from the Duke game. They are miserable when they happen, but if you're smart and tough and loyal to each other, you'll grow from the adversity. I want our guys to go out and take this game like a gift and learn from it, and I thought we did. We battled through everything, no matter what happened. Even me with the officials, a couple times, some plays, I was like, what is that? I tried to flip back, which is really hard for me, but tried I to do that, because I learned that at the Texas game. Like don't complain. Just play the next play. I just think, you know, it's been just this slow process and the thing is that we want to be a program that's built on something and built on rock. So I feel like our senior class last year, the senior class this year, and then the guys that are sitting next to me and many more like them, they are building the program on the right things in terms of the right lessons and toughness and resiliency and battling back and celebrating together; that it will hopefully just continue from here. Q. Jalen Hurd was obviously not in the game tonight and he was very special in the flats for you guys during the season. Can you talk about the adjustment period you had to make to make sure your receiver is still getting open in the flat? HEAD COACH MATT RHULE: We have great receivers, and it's really just a matter of the quarterback doing a great job of getting the ball to the right guys, and, you know, fun to have Jalen here. I appreciate what he did for us at Texas Tech. Had a hurt knee and played through it and went and had surgery and look forward to him going off to the NFL and representing Baylor with tremendous dignity and class in the NFL but we have lots of good players. We knew that Josh Fleeks and R.J. Sneed and Stricklin and those guys would step up, and Denzel would step up, and you know, we had a lot of guys do that. The backs, all the running backs had big plays tonight. I thought it was an opportunity for a lot of our guys to maybe step in there and fill that role and build some momentum going into next season. Q. Before you guys came in here, you gathered all the seniors, took a picture with the Bowl trophy. Those seniors, the last four or five years that they have been through and for them to cap off their career with a win like this, what does that mean to those guys and for the guys going forward? HEAD COACH MATT RHULE: Well I think at the risk of sounding corny, I don't think they will ever -- they won't recognize for a long time really what they did from last year to this year. They have been so in-the-moment, just kind of one day at a time. But not many people do what they have done. Not many people go from where they were the last couple years and the changes and stuff. But they have done it. I'm just as proud of the fact that we had 24 college graduates out there tonight as I am that we won the game, and I said, you won't recognize it now, long after this game is over, but you will remember the lessons that you taught to our young guys and the humility and the loyalty. So I was just happy to see them have fun and smile and play and play one more game together, and they will wake up tomorrow and the next part of their life starts. For a lot of our young guys, they will hopefully build off it, but the lesson our seniors taught is keep battling, stick around. So often, guys quit, guys give up, guys transfer, they do all these things, instead of just hanging in there, man. And the guys that hung in there, the Iras, the Gregs, the Platts, all those guys, Morrison, Pat Lawrence, Josh, so many more, they have accomplished a lot now, and that's a key lesson for I think our whole team. Q. First half, they get a quick score and you put together a nice drive, 7-, 8-, 9-play drives; and 30 seconds later, they score, and now 7-, 8-, 9-play drive again; 30 seconds later, quick score -- was the thought process to lengthen it to 14, 15 plays? Two different styles with the big plays and you were doing what you needed to do on offense. HEAD COACH MATT RHULE: The thing I kept saying to the defense was sometimes when those games happen, you start wondering, what's happening. The running back was getting us. He hurt us on the screen and hurt us on two long runs. I said to them, got stop worrying about the quarterback and stop worrying about everybody else and let's worry about the running back and take him away. There was a sense of not panic, but just a little excited. That atmosphere was really, really loud and electric and dynamic and guys really wanted to play. I thought we had to get there at half-time and settle down. I think the guys just hung in there and played. What do you think, Trestan? TRESTAN EBNER: Coach does a good job of telling us to pick up our defense when they are down, so if they go and score fast, we know we just got to go in and do our job and try to score again, and match score to score. I feel like we did a good job of doing that all night. The defense finally came up with a good stop and we were able to put together another drive and run out the clock. So it's just our mindset. HEAD COACH MATT RHULE: That was well done. Q. After the game at the podium, looked like you were getting emotional and the players were getting emotional, excited, fired up. Why so much emotion? What brings about all that emotion from not only you, but your players that were obviously really excited about getting that win? HEAD COACH MATT RHULE: I think I'm in the concussion protocol right now because they hit me with the actual "Gatorade," Gatorade thing. They didn't hit me with the Gatorade. They literally hit me with the orange thing, hard. We'll see how tomorrow goes. I was happy for them, man. It's like I don't -- no one knows how hard we work, you know, and the coaches, players, everybody, like -- I didn't -- I had no part in that offensive game plan. That was, you know, that was Jeff Nixon called an unbelievable gable and Glenn put together a great third down plan and Fris had the receivers playing well and Shawn Bell, and George with the loss of Fran, George was able to go back on the field and coach again and Joey and Phil Snow, proud of our coaches and players. When you see them all smiling and laughing and having fun and celebrating, when you end the year with a win, it's a big deal, and so you know, I really wanted that for them, so I was happy to see that. I always go back to our families. Like my daughter is coming up there, my son, our coach's kids, they sacrifice a great deal. They get to do a great deal, too, though. It's not like "woe is me." They sacrifice a great deal and, I want them to celebrate it and I want all of Baylor and the fans, I want them all to have bragging rights tomorrow. I want them all to smile tonight and have fun. You sit back, thinking about how far you've come and everybody is happy, is a nice thing. Q. When they took the lead after the end zone interception, how big was that to strike right back? How did that play open up? TRESTAN EBNER: It's just a simple play where I read the backer, and if the middle is open, I take it and Charlie did a good job of throwing me away from the safety and it enabled me to make a play you know what I mean. I'm flat-footed so I know how to score. Just a good play opened up. Q. In the first half, we've been used to watching Baylor football being fast football and in the first half, Vanderbilt got with three scores, hardly using any time on the clock. What adjustments did you make in the locker room in the second half to slow them down and of course Charlie in the offense then picked it up? HEAD COACH MATT RHULE: I think the thing that we felt like, they were having fast drives and we were having 7-, 8-, 9-play drives and you could see some of their guys starting to get tired, starting to lay around. So we felt like, hey, we can continue to run it. Anytime we've run the ball like over 150 or over 160, we've won the game. So I think we finished with 250, 260, 270 or something at the end of the game. I just think we felt like, hey, we'll be able to -- because they are scoring so fast and we are having longer drives, maybe that will wear them down eventually because you know you don't win the game in the first, second, third; you win it in the fourth quarter and that's where we wanted to win it. I thought Phil went down to a 3-down front in the fourth quater in the end and turned the pass rushers loose and big key turnover. So I thought the defense was constantly searching trying to find some things to slow them down and eventually did. Q. It was about this time two years ago that bottom of you guys took a leap of faith and committed and ended up signing with this coaching staff, not really knowing what you were in store for but now to be here two years later, you know, how gratifying is this? It's not the end of your journey obviously, but how gratifying is this to see the progress you guys have made over the course of two years, and is this what you expected it to be like? CHARLIE BREWER: Obviously it feels a lot better to be in this position than kind of the position we were in last year. I think it just says a lot about our team, just the way we've bounced back every single week. I'm just really happy that I ended up here at Baylor. TRESTAN EBNER: Obviously I believe we made the right choice to play for Coach Rhule and to play with the brother hood we have, it's just amazing to do this together because we all have to come together and face the world and I just feel like we do a good job of playing together, so I believe we made a great choice. Q. You're looking at these two guys as they are talking with kind of this proud smile on your face. When you look at your players with who they have been, where they have been, and where they are tonight, what does that mean to you? HEAD COACH MATT RHULE: Well, you know, the key, core philosophy of our program, other than winning but the key purpose of our program -- the job is to win but the purpose for our program is to make sure that players leave here with a life that's better than if they wouldn't have come; that they leave here better. Just watching them grow in two years is fantastic. I can't tell you, I think I've gotten four or five e-mails from just random people in the community meeting Trestan, and helping; helping disabled people to their car, taking time after a loss to help people. And just random, not like -- they just kind of figure out who he is. And the way Charlie's handled stardom, I mean, fame. It's hard for Charlie to go places. People know who he is; and the humility that he shows and respect the respect he shows Jalan McClendon and Garrett and the guys at his position, guys on his team; that to me is far more important than anything else and they go out and play football really well. So they are good students, good people; and I say those two, but they are a representation of our whole team, and I was proud to watch our guys this week at the charity events. I was proud to watch our people, our guys all week the way they carried themselves, the way they handled themselves. I think some of the people from the Bowl said to me: Coach, I've been around a lot of teams and this is like the most respectful, polite, fun team to be around. They might not always be that way Tuesday at a practice, but they are fun to be around for a week. I'm proud of all of them and I hope they feel good about the decision they made and hope these two recognize that now we've got to start right back over in two weeks. Julie and I are going to México tomorrow and then we're coming back and in two weeks we're going right back to work because we have to take another step and that's what they will want to do. Thanks, everybody. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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