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TEXAS FARM BUREAU INSURANCE SHOOTOUT: TEXAS TECH vs BAYLORNovember 16, 2013Jakeem GrantWill SmithARLINGTON, TEXAS Baylor – 63 THE MODERATOR: Questions for Will Smith or Jakeem Grant. Q. Can you talk about the 16 tackles, how you feel about your personal performance? WILL SMITH: I mean, I'm not too excited about it. I know I left a lot of tackles out there, the ones that could have been key to stops, getting us off the field, getting the ball back to the offense. It's nice to have that, but it's doesn't really matter since we lost anyway. I have to finish on the tackles that I missed. That's a big thing that's been happening a lot with the defense and I just have to capitalize on those opportunities. Q. Will, it looked like you guys were able to hold them down at times, but they would break loose for a big play. Were you able to see anything in those plays? WILL SMITH: No, not that I think about it. It just goes back to what's been happening these past few weeks. We did a great job early. Early in the second half, fitting our gaps, we have to get off blocks and secure tackles. That's the main thing, we're not finishing our tackles, not running our feet, a lot of things like that. Q. Jakeem, you know Baylor's offense is going to score. How much pressure did that put on you? JAKEEM GRANT: We was just trying to match them. If they score, we score. We knew if we left them going and scoring and scoring that the game was going to get out of hand. The biggest thing was when Baylor scores or if we score before them, we got to continue to score. With their offense, it's a possible thing they might score, so... Q. Will, just talk about the defense, last couple weeks struggled with missed tackles, what you see as the main reason for that. WILL SMITH: Honestly, it's just we're getting there, getting to the ball. It's physical. We're like just not running our feet, tackling them all the time way to the ground. We are thinking this one‑hit‑wonder is going to bring a guy down. But against this type of competition, you have to tackle a guy all the way to the ground. Q. I know you want to go into a bye week on a good note. Is this coming at a good time? JAKEEM GRANT: Yeah, it's a good time. Coming off of a four‑game losing streak, we want to get back and find out who we really are and do we want to go back out like we did last year as 8‑5 and go to a bowl game like we did last year. We want to go to a better bowl game. We're just going to go on and take this bye week and look at ourselves and ask ourselves if we want to go out 8‑5 this year. WILL SMITH: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. It's just like these past couple weeks, all been self‑inflicted wounds. We have to go into the bye week, look at the film, break it down, work on everything that we need to. We can't keep beating ourselves. Especially good teams we play in this conference, we can't keep beating ourselves. They're going to take advantage of their opportunities. Q. Can you talk about seeing Tre' Porter back on the field, Terrance Bullitt, playing with one hand, one shoulder. WILL SMITH: Yeah, I mean, it's definitely inspiring that they're senior leaders. It's a tough deal to come out there, even if you only got one arm. Just the physical presence out there reassures guys, even young guys that we got playing. They're trying hard. That's all we can ask them to do. Whoever comes in behind them, we expect the same thing, even better. Guys just got to be ready, even though they're young. Q. (Question regarding Baylor's defense.) WILL SMITH: They made a moderate adjustment. But it's nothing we haven't seen before. It's just guys trying to do too much. Guys get tired, sometimes we get lazy with our hands, our feet, proper hand placement. We have to come out with the same energy as in the first half and finish games off. Q. Having this bye week after players have talked about pressing a little bit, does this give you a chance to catch your breath and wipe the slate clean. JAKEEM GRANT: Yes, it does. Like I said before, coming off a four‑game losing streak, we really want to find out like who we are, do we really want to go out again with an 8‑5 record or do we want to show people that Texas Tech is not just a regular old Texas Tech from last year and all, they just going to lose five games again, basic Texas Tech. We want to go out with this win. Also we want to take this bye week, you know, to gather and play as a unit and, you know, focus on the little things because if we focus on the little things, it will all come together. I mean, there's no doubt that we can beat teams. WILL SMITH: Yeah, I mean, back to what Jakeem say. It's just about us focusing on the little things. These past four games we lost, it's a play or two that lost us the ball game. It's very frustrating losing games like that when you know you could win. It's about us, working on everything we need to work on so we can be successful in the future. Q. Jakeem, what is it about Baker that makes him be able to come in and spark the team like he has the past couple weeks? JAKEEM GRANT: He's a young guy. He comes with a lot of positive energy. We know that one for one he's a mobile quarterback. You never know if he's tackled in the backfield or not. Like, for instance, on the scramble route, when I caught the deep pass, I thought he was tackled, but again he wasn't. He brings a lot of energy to the team, being a young guy as he is. So, I mean, he tries his best to keep us into it no matter just being the quarterback, because the quarterback is the head of the whole team. So he tries his best to keep us focused and keep us up and telling us that we got this, we can go down and score anytime we want. All we have to do is stop killing ourselves. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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