TAXACT TEXAS BOWL: OLE MISS VS TEXAS TECH

December 28, 2022

Adrian Frye

Marquis Waters

NRG Stadium

Texas Tech Red Raiders

Press Conference

Texas Tech - 42, Ole Miss - 25

Q. Both of you guys are playing in your final game here -- Adrian your final game before your hometown. And Mud, the (indiscernible) room was pulling for you (indiscernible). What does it mean for all of you guys?

ADRIAN FRYE: For me, having a long career here, this is my sixth season at Texas Tech has been very, very fulfilling. Just being able to have my last game be where I'm from and the exact same stadium, against the same opponent that I started my career at.

And just it all comes full circle and this time I'm on the good side of the game. It's a warm feeling in my heart that I can't replace. And it's an honor to play with the DBs like Mud here and guys like Shad (phonetic) and Rabbit (phonetic) and those guys is being able to end my career out with some great players who are going to have great futures. I just can't put it into words, honestly.

MARQUIS WATERS: Same, man, just means a lot, being able to overcome so much adversity as a unit, doing a lot of things over the summer and creating the brand and putting our trust, our support into Coach McGuire as he came in and talked to us as seniors and we were deciding whether we were going to come in or come out.

And putting a lot of trust in him, and he's showing us the way and showing us it's more than just football; it's about love, too. That's why we as a team could just come out and play as hard as we could for the whole season. And it was a great way to go out with a bang.

Q. What made it so easy for the d-back room to come so close knit together?

MARQUIS WATERS: I'd say experience, not only experience. Everybody in the d-back room either started or played a lot of snaps, so being able to come together as a unit and having chemistry from the previous season, and just like we said doing a program, things like the program where we did and we're in the water and feeling adversity, overcoming adversity as a team and showing teamwork just made us connected as a unit.

ADRIAN FRYE: To piggyback off of that, we did spend a lot of time together because we're one unit that needs to be cohesive for the defense to function right. If the boundary and the field corner aren't on the same page then the whole defense can be messed up. It's the same through and through.

Then we have an older group. We're one of the groups that has the oldest players. We played a lot of snaps so we use each other as coaches in our room to bounce ideas off of.

And there's times during games where you'll see us on the sideline as if we're going through a whole game plan. On the sidelines just talking things out about what we see, what we can do, how to change it up, and just making corrections on our own and taking that initiative because we've learned so much through the football that we played.

So that put a lot into how close we've gotten over the years and we just love each other. We know if it ain't us then who else is going to be here and do it for us? So we're all we've got. We might as well love who we've got.

Q. Marquis, how do you feel about what you accomplished this year in terms of (indiscernible) the future? (Indiscernible) not great about how last year ended, but seems like you made the most of it, making first-team all conference and making a lot of plays?

MARQUIS WATERS: I'm not going to lie, I feel great because not only was I trying to prove it to everyone, but I was trying to prove it to myself that I could recover from the injury and show up for the team. Because at the end of the day it's bigger than me.

And I always try to work as hard as I can in practice and outside of practice, that I don't try to fail my teammates when the spotlight is on us. It was a big accomplishment for me this season, and I just feel great.

I just want to thank Coach McGuire and his staff for believing in me, supporting me throughout all my adversity, through my injuries, taking care of me in the spring when I was fresh off surgery, and making sure that I was good recovering, just being able to play well. And played my best football this season.

Q. You all held Quinshon Judkins I think through three quarters, 20 carries, 47 yards. He's used to getting a hundred yards a game. What do you guys feel like was the success you had against him tonight for the most of the game?

COACH MCGUIRE: We knew coming into the game that Ole Miss had some great backs, him and Zach Evans coming out of TCU. We faced him last year so we had some experience with him.

We knew they were explosive backs. We knew we had to be on our (indiscernible) in the run game, and force them to try to throw the ball on us. That was pretty much the game plan.

We (inaudible) in football terms. On normal, like normal down and distance, like, first and second down and even on third down from now, on their side of the 50 that they were going to try to run the ball, they were going to try run the ball down our throats all game.

It was going to be a stop the run game. We call it the brain game where you've got to be the toughest, hardest working, most competitive team in that stadium.

Q. For both of you guys, can you talk about what you've seen from Tyler all season and the performance he had today?

MARQUIS WATERS: He's a dog. Tyler, the one thing I can say about him, he doesn't let the hype nor let the criticism get to him. He's going to stay the same, he's going to maintain his composure, and he just keeps playing. He comes to practice and works hard.

We talk a little smack back and forth, but Tyler comes to play. He comes to work and he tries to get you better. I know, like, I always tell him in practice don't throw my way. You don't want to throw my way. Might (indiscernible). Tyler doesn't care; he's going to throw it anyways, chuck it. Tyler his mentality is great. And great communicator, to me I think he's a beast.

ADRIAN FRYE: I had the same experiences with Tyler where I'm on an island and I'm looking at him looking at me while I'm in press coverage in practice. I already know from that look that he gave me that he's going to throw my way.

And he's a competitor in all aspects. Me and him was really literally just competing outside of here about who was going to get to do our press conference first. So we have our own "Rock, Paper, Scissors" match outside the room.

He's a competitor in all aspects of life. He's not the type to let anyone outwork him. He's going to be in the building first, leave last.

He's the guy that will do prehab, be in the training room to take care of his body so he can be at his best on Saturdays. And from what I've seen he's a complete professional; there's nobody like him on the team. And a lot of guys try to replicate that and he really is a leader on this team.

Q. Can you describe the interception, how the play unfolded?

MARQUIS WATERS: Yes, the previous drive, we were in man coverage a lot the previous drive. I was telling my coaches and teammates on the sidelines, man, I don't believe my technique was going to drive them forward. Me and Malik, the five of us was talking, listen, I'm going to change it up. I feel like they've been watching my techniques I've been using the previous pass, they're finding ways to get past. And I changed my technique up. And it worked. It just worked. I stayed in man coverage and seen the ball and attacked it.

Q. At the start of the year, you were preseason to finish ninth in the Big 12. Now you guys finish with eight wins, bowl victory, (inaudible). Extension. To beat a team from the SEC as well and to close up the year on the right note, what's that do to the program?

MARQUIS WATERS: Not a just hyper -- there's a lot of momentum going into next season. A lot of good recruits that came in and a lot of good players, transfers transferring here. And people that we already have returning back. It's going to be a very good squad, a lot of experience coming back next year in the secondary on the D line. A lot of people coming back on the team. We may have a lot of (inaudible) leave but also a lot of good replacements to make a great season. Just ultimate to keep going, Coach McGuire, I'm serious.

ADRIAN FRYE: What coach has been telling us all year is that it's all about us and us having eight wins, finishing with a bowl in three and finishing top 5 in the conference. It shows that if we all believe in each other and you go out there every Saturday fighting for the man to your left and right that's all that's going to matter at the end of the day and it's going to prove to be victorious.

And after this season, the conclusion of this season, going into spring, next fall, it shows that the brand is here and is here to stay. And we've got guys that's going to lead that way like Tyler. We've got guys like Malik Dunlap, guys like Tony Bradford all coming back, and they're now old guys, played a lot of football, know a lot of football.

It isn't just having the experience, the guy in the room is going to be able to teach the young guys coming in, this is how you do things and get the eight-win season. And to have Coach McGuire to kind of teach us how to build that camaraderie and be competitive and love each other at the same time, it's something that I've only seen in other places, man, and it's just something, it's like a dream come true, because at the beginning of the season it was like us versus everybody. Now everybody love us.

Q. What does it mean for you guys as a defense with a take three mentality to get that in your final game and exceed it with the guys on defense?

ADRIAN FRYE: It means a lot. It means all the hard work going into the season. We didn't attack the whole season like slow at all. We attacked from day one, as soon as our last game was over, we went and worked out, conditioned, we attacked the postseason seriously so we could be conditioned enough to play this game and stay in shape.

Coach Lance always said, the people who are most conditioned for this postseason is going to win. And it showed tonight.

That take the mentality. It proves to the young guys coming in, that the guy that didn't play much their true freshman year or the guy that got transferred in, this is a defensive coordinator that you can play for, that you want to play for and it's a pro-style defense. And he orchestrates with us being able to kind of do that in our last game together as a unit to kind of build that momentum just like us winning the game in general. It builds that momentum going into spring.

You can see what take three can do for a bowl win against an SEC component where the SEC considers the best football in college. That right there puts fuel to the fire, what they're going to be working on this spring.