Losses aren’t fun for anyone, but as fans sometimes we
forget that no one works harder or spends more time preparing to win than those
directly involved. Today’s media session was brutal, but necessary to help give
answers to the fan base. Doege answering questions about playcalling,
and frustration, D.J. Johnson very solemn, and Coach Tuberville answering
questions for over 30 minutes (most sessions with him last 15-20.) and getting
really in depth about the process of gameplans and
the process of play calling. It was very interesting, granular stuff if you
paid attention and really listened. I applaud all three for standing up at the
podium on a day when that couldn’t have been easy.
Seth Doege –
On the most
frustrating part of losing to Texas:
“The fact that we were so close to winning the game. I think
we had great opportunities to score touchdowns, and we didn't --had to settle
for field goals. I think if we were to convert those into touchdowns, I think
it would have been a different ballgame. I think that was hard, just because it
seemed like we were so close, we were on the goal line, we were on the 3-yard
line a couple times, and we couldn't punch it in, or a penalty happened and we
were set back 15, 20 yards. That
was hard -- it was hard to do it just because we had the opportunity to win the
game, and we just didn't finish, and that's something we had been preaching on
as a football team is finish drives, finish in the red zone, finish games,
finish quarters, and it just kind of came down to finishing and we didn't get
it done.
On how this team
responds:
“I think we have a really good football team, and I think
what's good about this football team is we really like each other. It's not just a bunch of guys that come
in this building and all of a sudden they're a football team. We're a football team out of this
building. I think everybody
understands that we still have an opportunity, like I said,
to go to a really good Bowl game.
Maybe we didn't win the Big 12, maybe that opportunity is kind of out
the door. But we still have a great
opportunity to do something special and a great opportunity to send the seniors
out on the right note, and we just need to prepare well like we've been doing. I think we've been doing a great job of
practicing and preparing for football games, and we just need to -- when the
lights come on, we just need to make plays.”
On how much freedom
he has checking at the line of scrimmage:
“I don't have the freedom to just check out of any
play. But we do have tags such as if
we have a run play called, we'll tag it with a pass play, and whether the
defense gives us a certain look then we'll go with it, whatever plays best. If
the run play is best, we'll run the ball, if the pass play is best we'll run
the pass. I can't ever check into a
pass.”
On what this team
could do differently to stay positive:
I think we do a really good job of preparing and a really
good job of practicing, so I don't think we need to change anything on that
end. I think we need to continue
doing what we're doing. I think
just on game days, the energy level could be a little
better. I think on the sidelines
guys can bring a little more energy for the guys that aren't playing, and I
think it's huge for us to know that -- and learn from these past three games when
a negative play happens to overcome it, and the next series of offense we need
to go score, the next series of the defense, knowing we're going to get a
three-and-out or create a turnover instead of if we don't do this it's going to
snowball on us. I think the past two games that's the biggest disappointment I
see in this football team is when a sudden change happens we need to either
weather the storm or take advantage of something that's been given to us.
DJ Johnson –
On how much losing to
Texas and if being from Austin makes it sting a little more:
“I don't know if it really affects me as much being from
Austin. That doesn't really play a
part of in it. It's just being a
senior and knowing what we wanted to accomplish this season, three losses was
never in our sight. We never
thought about having those three losses.
It's huge. It's a huge
impact on us, on me personally, because I know I wanted to get at least one win
away from those guys before I graduated. It's a difficult loss, but as we have
to do, we have to continue to just move on, go to the next game, continue to
play hard, continue to play as a team and play together.”
On how he thinks the
Red Raiders performed in their 5 games in a row against ranked teams:
Not like we liked.
We didn't want to come out this way. We wanted to make sure that we were
up. As I said, our goal was to come
out undefeated this season. That
was the most important thing for us, just to make sure we win each game and
play each game. We weren't able to
do that. We did fairly well. We did a lot better than anyone
anticipated of us, so with that, that's huge for us. We were able to overcome a lot of
adversity and a lot of doubts, and people not really giving us a chance. I mean, that's huge in that
perspective. But from our
perspective we didn't achieve what we wanted to achieve.”
On how important the
next game is to set the tone for the rest of the season:
“It's the next game. I mean, every game is like that. There's not one game that goes by where
we're not thinking that it's around a game or it's an important game or the
biggest game of the season. Like I
always say, if you lose one game, that affects the season. Every game we go into, we go into with
the mindset that this is the biggest game because it's the next game and it's
the most important game because it's the next game, and if we lose this game then we're
one step further away from what we're trying to accomplish. So yeah, we're going into this game and
we're going to make sure that we go in there and prove to ourselves that we're
still capable of doing what we wanted to do and prove it to the rest of the
world.”
Coach Tuberville:
On how not to let
Texas “beat you twice” :
“Well, there's not a whole lot you can do other than talk
about it and try to get a good game plan in and try to get everybody
focused. The seniors yesterday,
they were obviously down, and as we talked as a group and then as a team, it's
one of those things that we can -- if we can fix the problems, we can control
it. So we don't really worry about
who we've played. We haven't done
that all year long. We worry about
what we do and what we can do and where we can get better.” We know what we need to work on and the
things we need to get better at. This will be a different game also this week
playing at 11:00. That's a tough
game to play. The fans are usually
not usually as quite as into it as they were the game last week, so we've got
to do a lot of motivational things from the standpoint of coaches and players
and seniors and get everybody upbeat early in the week, forget about last week
and go to this game and try to play much better than what we've played.”
On how the playcalling from the previous game is evaluated:
“On Sundays we take every drive, whether it's nine drives,
10 drives, 11 drives, and we go pretty much through -- we don't go play by play
unless we feel like it was a point in the game where it was a deciding
factor. But we go runs, passes,
right, left, deep, how many screens we ran, how many draws, then what side did
we run, right or left. We do that
mainly for self-scouting, but we also do it for how we set other plays up, did
we do it the right way. We look at
formations, did we put enough formation into the boundary, personnel. So we do all of it; we go through every
bit of it in terms of trying to dissect what we called was right or not. Neal
calls the plays, but most plays are called two or three plays in advance of
what you do because you try to set things up -- any offensive coordinator worth
his salt is a guys that knows what he's going to call, he plans it for the next
drive, what formation he wants to run, what personnel, what has worked in the
past, do you want to go right or left, and we go back and look at that. Did we change enough, did we get in too
much of a pattern. So it's all
broken down scientifically, and then we put it all in a computer and we keep it
-- in other words, if we start from the 20, if we start from the 30, if we
start from the 40, we keep numbers in terms of field position of where we
started the first play from, and so a lot of it goes -- I mean, it's way over
my head in terms of just thinking about it. But I can understand it a lot more by
looking at it on paper, and that's the reason we put it on paper.”
“I know everybody complains. I complain about run-pass ratio
sometimes, and we do keep run-pass, right, left on the sideline where I can
look at it. I'll ask them when the
defense is on the field how many runs we've had, how many passes, how many deep
throws, have we thrown enough to Eric Ward, have we played enough tight end
sets, two backs, all those. Neal gets criticized more during the game than he
does afterwards because I give him my input. So do the other offensive coaches. So it's all looked at very thoroughly as
you go through a game as well as going into a game and after the game.”
On the process of
putting a gameplan together:
Well, we put the game plan together, and you have two of
them, you have run and pass, and then you break the pass down, whether it's
play action or drop back, and you do the run, whether it's a one back-run or a
power run. You break it down. And we watch film and put it all together,
and you have Chad Scott that's pretty much in charge of the running game along
with the offensive line coach during the week because you can't watch it all,
and then you get all together on Tuesday before you go to practice starting
tomorrow and then you kind of put the running game together, what are the best
plays, what the offensive line coach feels like the best play, what Chad Scott
feels like the running backs can do, whether it's short yardage or long
yardage. Same thing in the passing
game with Cumbie and Mainord,
and then Neal kind of -- he kind of goes back and forth and puts his two cents'
worth in, as well as I do, and then you get that in, you run it all week long,
practice it, then you get in the game, and I don't like anybody talking on the
phones with the coordinator calling plays.
Worst thing you can do is have a head coach and assistants hollering in
your ear because I've done that before, I've had to call in and you've got to
actually do it yourself. It's got
to be one guy, one thought, but the thoughts of other people come whether it's
time out or whether you're off the field.
And so what we do is the offense comes off the field, they sit down and
we go through every play and every defense that we saw against that formation,
what they ran. Defenses are called
versus formations and down and distance. So we go through that and we talk
about the -- why that worked or didn't work, and we critique it and break it
down, and okay, do we need to run the ball more, do we need to pass the ball,
do we need to play action more the next time we get the ball, do we need to go
after a corner, do we need to go after a linebacker. There's a lot that goes through it. Offensive coaches do not watch the game
when the defense is on the field nor does the defense watch when the offense is
on the field. All your work is done
between. But when the offense is on
the field, there's one guy that makes the decision.
Now, Neal will ask me, run or pass, Coach. If this play doesn't work, if it's 3rd
and 5, do you want to run it, do you want to pass it and I'll give him my
thought. But then he gets the last
call. He knows a lot more about it
than I do because I'm over on the defensive side and a lot of times I'm not
even watching the game, I'm listening to the defense and trying to help them. There's
a lot of thought that goes through it.
It's not just let's run this one this time. There's a lot of knowledge that goes
into every play that's called. And then again, he's got to try to set them
up. You've got to set up play
action, you've got to set up run, and you set it up with formations and you try
to get them lined up in a way that you can take advantage. Texas did a good job
of moving tight ends, formations, moving, and you saw us, we were running -- we
were just trying to get lined up. That's
their philosophy of offense is trying to get you lined up wrong and get
gaps. I don't care about getting
people lined up wrong. We want to know
where they're at and we want to be able to block them and make the play
work. it's
easier for me to sit back and -- after the offense comes off the field, Neal,
what did you call that play for.
It's easy for me to say that, but it's a lot harder I'm telling you when
you're there calling and you've got about 30, 40 seconds to make that
decision. That's the reason we go
freeze a lot of times. You'll see
us line up, we'll get down and we're all looking at the formation and we'll
have one guy in the press box giving Neal the front and one the coverage, and
Neal, they're going to be in zero coverage, they're going to bring five, and then
he'll call a play. We'll match a
play to that. That's what you look
on your call sheet. It's more than just run pass, it's a lot more complicated
than that.
On the thought
process of whether or not to kick a field goal or go for it on 4th
down:
Yeah, we kind of look and it's kind of like being out in the
middle of --for instance, there was one time we were around the 35 or 40 yard
line going in in the first half, and I decided not to go for it. You've got to look at the momentum of
the game and how you're playing, and do you need points, do you need
motivation, do you need the momentum.
So like the second half we went for 4th and 8, and in the first half we
didn't go for a 4th and 5. So there's
just -- you just have to kind of go by your feel of the players and do they
need a boost, do we need to get the fans more involved, do you need to get the
momentum back, is it getting away from you. I think a lot of those little things go
into it.
But kicking field goals is a little different. When you drive, for instance, 60, 70 yards
and you get down and you've got 4th and 3 or 4th and 4 you have to take points
most of the time because it's a huge blow to your offense to come out empty,
and it's also that for your defense.
It's more mental than it is anything else. That's kind of how I do
it. I've looked at how several
people do it, and it's just kind of a feel thing of when you want to kick an
onside kick or run a trick play.
There has to be a feel in terms of what the sideline is like and how the
momentum is going and do you need that extra shot of adrenaline.
On why Tech wasn’t
able to run the ball against Texas when other Big XII teams were successful:
“I don't know.
The other teams, of course we looked at all of it, and a lot of times
when people ran the football, they caught him at the right movement in terms of
they run a lot of twists and things, and for some reason we didn't catch them
in as many twists. They didn't
twist as much in this game as they had in the past. That's really what got them in trouble
against West Virginia. They were
trying to rush the passer and they were just handing off to 13 and he was just
running right by them. We didn't run it quite as well, but we're not as good a
running team as some people, either.
We don't live and die off our running game. If we get 150 yards a game that's pretty
much what we would have hoped at the beginning of the year. If you don't live off that, we're not an
offensive line that's going to get in a three-point stance and knock you off the ball, that's not
going to happen until we say we're a running team, we're going to be a passing
team second, but we don't want to do that.
We think that the players we've got, we can do better throwing the
football. And if you say we're going to go in that game and we're going to run
it 80 percent of the time because we hadn't stopped the run, I just --that
would have never worked. Just the
mentality of what we do and our running game is not much of a power running
game. And then when we lose our
fullback and tight end the two, three previous weeks before that, that's hurt
us, also. We do want to be a
running team. We want to run the
ball close to 50 percent of the time.
But our big plays and our winning is going to come from throwing the
ball and throwing it down the field.”