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ACADEMY TEXAS BOWL: OKLAHOMA STATE VS TEXAS A&MDecember 26, 2019Jimbo FisherHouston, Texas JIMBO FISHER: Very happy to be here. I thought the guys have done a great job. The Bowl here has been very much a good time. Houston's a great town. The guys enjoy being here. I have a lot of guys from here, but a lot of guys that aren't. Had a good time, a lot of good festivities and things that are going on and practiced very well. They've had great venues and a great Bowl game. The Academy Sports Texas Bowl has done a great job with our kids. They've enjoyed every minute of it. We're getting ready to play this game tomorrow. Looking forward to it. We've got a great opponent. Oklahoma State is a heck of a football team. Top 25 team in the country. They've played some great games, very spectacular games, very dynamic on offense. The tailback in Hubbard is phenomenal, and they've got others. They can throw it. Quarterback's back, offensive line, there's no huddle. Defense presents a lot of problems, different blitzes and three-three schemes and four down schemes and stuff like that. Mike's done a great job. We'll have our hands full. Got to play a great game. I'm looking forward to playing. It's been almost a month, so ready to go. Q. (No microphone)? JIMBO FISHER: Well, listen, there's some really good offensive players. There's some really good offensive players on those teams too. When they go outside the conference, they're still scoring and moving, but yes, they do play defense. Very physical. Safeties tackle very well, can rush. The inside corners -- against corner going to the Senior Bowl. They're big. They're long on the edges and can play. They're a good defensive football team, and their scheme causes you different problems. Q. (No microphone)? JIMBO FISHER: Oh, no doubt. Just the ability, not only on designed runs when they want to do that, but just the ability to make a guy miss and extend the play, ad lib a play, pull a zone read and those kinds of things, I mean, it makes a big, big difference. When that quarterback can run and make plays -- and I mean run for long distances -- you have to account for that, and even in your rush game, even say you're rushing and it's a pass and you're mixed up in your coverages and how you make your coverages and all those things, it makes a big difference. Q. (No microphone)? JIMBO FISHER: Oh, yes. Q. (No microphone)? JIMBO FISHER: Oh, yes, there's a lot of them that ask. We played quite a few of them during the year. Mississippi State. Mississippi State runs their quarterback. They can run and throw. All they do. Ole Miss can throw it and run it. You don't think about that, Joe Burrow is a great runner too now. You don't think about all the athleticism he has. And Tua, you don't think about Tua, but Tua, they'll have designed runs for him occasionally, but he scrambles and make plays. Auburn, with Nix, that whole thing. That's just become football today. Q. (No microphone)? JIMBO FISHER: Oh, yeah, we've got quite a few of those. We've had quite a few of those, unfortunately. Q. (No microphone)? JIMBO FISHER: They're going at it pretty good too, yeah. That is funny how everybody stereotypes. Listen, there's good players across. Look at the draft, where they all come from, where they all go. There's good players on offense, defense, and all the way across the board and everything. Q. (No microphone)? JIMBO FISHER: Well, I mean, I think you appreciate each other more because you're always together. I always say in this business, if you're not on the road on holidays, you're in trouble because that's just the way it is. Think about the basketball games and what we all do on Thanksgiving. Everybody, you sit there, and you eat, and you want to go watch football. So somebody's got to go play, college and pro. You had basketball games yesterday and Bowl games in college. That's just part of the dynamic of athletics and sports in our culture, of our country. But it is great. I think it even brings our kids closer together. Like I said, make sure they reach out to all the loved ones and everybody there and tell them they love them on Christmas, but also you've got teammates and some of the best friends you ever have and lifetime friends you meet in college. Some of the best friends to this day are ex-college teammates. You have high school guys, but your ex-college teammates, you don't realize how close you grow to each other, especially at this age where you're really defining who you are and what you are and the interests that you have. It's just another bonding experience. Q. (No microphone)? JIMBO FISHER: Some, not a ton. Not a ton. I know of it. I know the history. I'm a history buff of college football. I know all the inner conference rivalries and things it meant to players, and I respect that. I think it's great for college football. That's one of the unique things about Bowl games now is all your realignments across the board where, for instance, Nebraska and Oklahoma don't play anymore, things like that. That happens because, when you're realigning, people move all the time, but to be able to get back in a Bowl game and play that, I think that's awesome. Q. If you look at the history of the top ten of all time, (no microphone). Games like that -- JIMBO FISHER: Oh, it's a phenomenal game. Tyreek Hill was running kickoffs all over the place. He was running, and they were playing, and we were scoring on our side, and Jameis and them were making plays. It was a heck of a football game, went down to the end. They had a very good team. They had a good thing, and their quarterback Walsh ended up getting hurt later in the year and that hurt them. They won 10 games the year before, 10 or 11 games, something like that. They had a great season. I remember preparing for that team. That was a very good football team. They did a really good job. Q. (No microphone)? JIMBO FISHER: Here's what I would say about that. It's a great feeling because it sends you off in the off-season with a positive note, and you want to win the Bowl game, and you want to play well, but it's still two different football teams. That group, this is the last time this group of guys will ever play on a football field together. When you put that in perspective, you don't think about that. This is the exact group of guys. This is the last time they'll ever play together. That dynamic on that team is right now. You want to end it great for them. It's a great, positive experience for your guys learning how to prepare for your Bowl game, how to mentally get ready, how to have the preparations because that's an art. Listen, we're the only sport in America that ends its season and waits a month to play, nothing. Basketball rolls into it, football, baseball. We always say this in pro baseball, remember the teams that win the divisional series, they'll go 4-0, and the other team will go seven games. Well, they're setting for five days, and they come back and look like they can't hit a ball or pitch a ball or throw a ball. That's the dynamic. I think there's an art to that. So for your young guys, the ability to understand how to prepare for a Bowl game, I think that's very good. It carries on, and it's a great feeling going into the off-season that you had success in the games. It's great for your program. There's no doubt, you want to win the game, but as far as going into the next season, that team has to develop its own identity and its own culture because the guys on the team previously aren't there anymore. There's some guys that are going to change. You bring in a whole new group of guys that you guys have all spoiled and told them how great they are and they're all superstars in the recruiting world and they're all going to start at freshmen. So I've got to deal with that when they get back. No, I joke about that, but it is. It's a great feeling, but it's still two different teams. Q. (No microphone)? JIMBO FISHER: No, no. Our turf -- a turf is the field you play on. You've got to defend that. That's going to be 100-yard field that two good teams are going to be on, and you've got to go play your tail off. At least in our perspective, it didn't matter if we played in Oklahoma or here, you've still got to go play that game well. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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