The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Mack Brown Spring press conference: Feb. 22
02.22.2007 | Football
General comments:We are really excited about getting back to work and putting one recruiting class to bed and having all of those guys for the future, and six of those guys will be practicing on Friday.Your off-season program, and now the start of your spring practice, starts your new year and you start finding out more about the personality of your team and the chemistry and the leadership and the toughness. All of those things are so important and they are not just givens. They develop over time.We can say honestly we've worked every morning at 6:00 during our off-season program and not one person has been late or missed anything.The attitude of the off-season has been really good and tough and seemed to be refocused after finishing with the great win over Iowa. Hopefully some of that motivation is moving into the spring practice.The six guys who came in early have been participating in the off-season program and they've done most of it, and they've done very well. In fact, they look like they mix with the other guys really well.So we're excited about watching those guys come in. I'm sure they will have some anxiety tonight as they sit and try to sleep thinking about having their first college football practice even though they are still seniors in high school.So thank goodness it will be short for them, and we will look forward as we go.There are a number of things I will touch on, then I'll answer your questions. Like I've said, the off-season program has been great and the standard of success we've had over the last six years has been great and we've been talking to the guys about earning the right to be on the Texas football team through your academic and off-season work and the way they practice and play.You just don't get the right, you have to earn the right.So we've gone back to telling them that each coach will be coaching at a certain standard, and we expect the same thing of our players. We've asked them that everything they do has to be first-class as we go forward.
On leadership:Leaders on the team are always unique and you won't know who they are until after spring practice. You can always look at a Drew Kelson, Frank Okam, a Derek Lokey, (Rashad) Bobino. There are quite a few guys that have played.A lot of those guys have played up front, but a lot of them have not played in the back end.You figure you have to grow with some chemistry and leadership back there. Marcus (Griffin) is probably the only one back there with some experience.
On the offense:On offense you start looking at that offensive line and they are young, you've got Tony Hills and Dallas Griffin who have played some, so expect to them to step up as leaders.(Adam) Ulatoski did a good job last year so we expect the same as him. You hope that Jermichael Finley will be more confident after having such a great year.Quan (Cosby) is older now, and a lot of those receivers - Billy Pitman has been around, Nate Jones has been around and the receiving core should help us some.Colt (McCoy) should be in much better position.Jamaal (Charles) has decided not to run track for the indoor part of it, but he is going to consider running track after spring football is over.He wanted to get stronger and be around his teammates more, and he felt like we can run the ball better than we did last year, and he feels like he can get the ball in his hands more than he did last year. So to do that, he needs to get stronger and be able to fight through injuries that nagged him and kept him from doing the things he needed to do.But leaders will be interesting as we go back through.
On the offensive philosophy:What we've got to do first is to find a second and third-team quarterback, because when Colt got hurt, we put Jevan (Snead) in and we wished he had more playing time. He transferred and now we have to find a guy to help us there.The two we are looking at are John Chiles and you start looking at him and Sherrod Harris that will be working with the second unit. You figure Sherrod will be ahead because he has been with the offense with a summer and fall where John has just gotten here.That will be a huge thing along with who will be the other backs with Jamaal and who will continue to grow at fullback trying to get an established offensive line and group with five guys and work it to seven and hopefully to 10, because we're really talking about the ability to get two deep. The receiving core is in good shape, but we need to find a second team tight end. After that, we need to look at what Colt does best and are we going to go under center more with the I(-formation) or are we going to stay with what we did in the shotgun and keep people spread out? We'll make all of those decisions based on what we see in the progress of spring practice. Defensively, we are right now in the process with a lot of talking with coach Mac Duff and coach Akina and our defensive staff and the real positive thing that we've wanted is we kept a tremendous amount of continuity, because we are going to use the same numbers and same schemes, so there will be a lot of knowledge. It will be familiar to our players in the first time in three or four years starting out in the spring, which is good. Also, Larry and Duane are familiar with each other after coaching together for 10 years. Changes will come over spring, and if we ask ourselves right now what will we do differently, Duane and Larry are going to coach at least the eight days and then we'll sit down and discuss what they see and then have Larry's input as to what he sees from the outside in. Then we will do the same the last seven before we start deciding who we think we may be in the fall. Also, changes on the defense, we are talking about Drew Kelson and how he might play safety, but he may end up playing both this spring. He's played both enough to let Larry look at him a little bit and to also let Duane watch him and see how he does. Same thing on offense, James Henry will come over on the first day and play some tailback and fullback and see how that goes for the first few practice sessions.We will see what positions those guys can play.Cedric Dockery will not be in spring practice. He will be out there. He is working out, but they will not let him have contact. Derek Lokey can play this spring, and he's have had an amazing recovery. We'll just have to do a smart job making sure he doesn't do too much because he will want to.Muckelroy will be able to be back for spring practice. Jeremy Campbell and Myron Hardy are out of school for this semester and will not participate in spring drills and we'll move forward with them later on. We will start looking at the six early enrollees; we'll just have to figure out how they are in pads. The NCAA instituted the first two days in shorts so guys like these could have an opportunity to get some fundamentals in their shoulder pads and not be out there the first day and be hit in full pads. They will have the two days for the weekend, and hopefully get them a little bit more prepared for the pads when we move on Monday.
On any more players possibly switching positions: There might be, but not that many. Most of them I've got are significant. You've got Antwan Cobb trying to find his spot, and he'll play fullback/tailback the first eight, or he'll start that way and then may move back (to linebacker) because we wanted Larry to look at what he's got and then add Antwan back if Larry felt the need to do that. We just really feel like we need to stabilize our running back situation. What Bobino did last year at the end of the year for the bowl was he practiced down there for goal line and short yardage. We'd rather not move him to fullback or tailback, but if we did, it would probably only be goal line and short yardage. He and Lokey both, and Derek probably won't play fullback this spring just because we want to get him 100 percent before he gets back out there, but we would like for him to do it in the fall.
On the depth chart at running back behind Jamaal: We've got a number of guys who can play both fullback, one back, and tailback, so it's a little confusing, but what we have today is Jamaal and then a group of guys, Vondrell McGee being one, Chris Ogbonnaya playing both, Antwan Cobb playing both, and now you've added the possibility of James Henry and Fozzy Whittaker.
On Jamaal Charles' role expanding: I think we need him to touch the ball more and stay healthy doing it. In Iowa he came out with a hurt knee. We didn't think he was going to go back in, but he goes back in and catches a touchdown pass and came back out with the knee and it was sore. Getting a guy the ball or touches of some kind 25 touches in a game is not hard, but you want to be able to make sure if you're going to practice all of those things, that you're getting 25 touches in a game and you can't come out with a sore shoulder, sore elbow, or a sore foot. You have got to stay in there and make it. We have ways to get the ball to him more and we need him to get stronger and more confident and get him in a position where he feels he can be the every-down back. We just want him to get stronger in general.
On John Chiles: John as a junior was part time QB and WR and moved to QB his senior year. When we were recruiting him early, he wanted to look at QB but play WR. He was so talented. He wanted to get on the field immediately. Well, as good of an athlete as Vince Young was, he didn't get on the field immediately. He had to wait and even red-shirt and take his time and figure the quarterback position out. At the time, we told John that if he wanted on the field immediately, he'll have to play WR, so it might take a little longer to get on the field at quarterback because of the learning curve. And then after he played quarterback all yea,r he came back in December and said he would just like to try quarterback. It's my understanding after his conversations with Greg Davis and myself that right now he is a quarterback period and is going into spring to try and compete to get that second-team spot.
On John Chiles possibly as combo role: I don't know, it has to work. There was a time here with two quarterbacks where some people in the room didn't think it was smart. Then when a team wins a National Championship with it (as Florida did), they flip-flop and think it's the greatest. We had Quan prepared for four or five plays for the Alamo Bowl, but we didn't need to use them. We had them prepared with Colt in the game, we were just going to shift Colt out and have Quan run them. There's a possibility that if we play Chiles at some receiver that he could do that in that role or just substitute, but it's still too early. We haven't seen him throw a ball or be out on the field. Those are the most exciting things about college football - that every year is a different team. We've said this before, but you don't have Troy Aikman for 14 years. You can't have the same offense or defense, you have to change with what you have available, and that's the neatest thing about coaching college football. This should be a fun spring because we've been talking about the deficiencies of experience on offense. We have one secondary guy that's really started very much at all. He just started one year and that's Marcus (Griffin). The rest are all puppies. Then we have some new guys up front and some new linebackers that are exciting, so we have a lot of fun things to look at especially with competition and depth this spring. Then trying to figure out on both sides of the ball if these young guys can play man(-to-man defense). Will we blitz as much? Will we have to play more zone because of them or do you play man because they're more athletic? We have a lot of questions we have to answer, and then a lot of kicking game questions. We have a lot of things to get fixed that are really exciting right now. (Florida QB Tim) Tebow last year opened some eyes because he was able to make some plays. You know everyone griped about it until they saw they were going to win the National Championship, then it became the trend.
On the running game: When Colt got hurt, we quit running it with him, and that obviously let people squeeze down on everyone else and that hurt us without question. We didn't block downfield as well as we did a year before. We gave it to everybody, splits need to get bigger again and we've got to break some tackles. We've got to hang on to the ball and explosive plays and turnovers are the difference in the college football games. If you're a back that can't get an explosive play and fumbles, then you shouldn't be played. We have got to go back and be real direct, but it wasn't throwing out the whole scheme, it wasn't the I(-formation) or shotgun, it was really not people catching up with us without Vince, all the theories that are out there, but it's really not. The Indianapolis Colts ran the same offense we're running and won the Super Bowl. Execution is what it is and we didn't do it as well.We've got to go back and look at Colt running the ball and the part of the quarterback running game. That was a vital part with Vince, and it was interesting with Colt, we wanted to build on it, but we did not.
On scrimmages with young players during bowl practice: We scrimmaged (the experienced players against) each other more because we thought we had so much work to do. It's and exciting time to watch those three young linebackers with Sergio (Kindle), Jared Norton, and (Roddrick) Muckelroy, and you've got Dustin Earnest who red-shirted. There are really four young guys where three have played and one hasn't. They are big, fast and good aggressive type guys. We also have that Eddie Jones, Brian Ellis, Lamarr Houston group that you'd like to see them do better off the corner and see them grow up.The most fun may be the secondary. You've got a lot of guys who are talented, like Duane said when he had that Michael Huff and Cedric Griffin group (when they were young), he said they're really exciting because we don't know where they're going to go. We saw that some, and I think we're back to that. We have a lot of guys who can't wait to get out there, but there may be a lot of open guys tomorrow.
On Ryan Bailey being the main player for extra points and field goals: Bailey is the main guy because he was there when we finished. We're re-opening up every position. There will be some guys that get in line first and Ryan will be one of them because he hasn't missed a kick. We feel like with so many inexperienced guys, this a great time to go back and say everybody better get that position right because we didn't finish like we wanted to. We finished the season, but not the end of the season like we wanted to, so it's time for us to go back and compete and earn that right to play again.
On Drew (Kelson) and James (Henry) position switches: What we do is we always tell our guys they have the right to look at another position if they want to, but you have to get with us and we'll be honest with them. Right now, James has great film from his senior year of high school as running back until he broke his ankle. We didn't get to see much of anything from him last year, and we're not sure. We think he's 100 percent, but since there are more opportunities following Jamaal with question marks than at safety, he wanted to try it and it would be a good change for him. Drew was a safety and we moved him to tailback and linebacker, so if Drew wants to and can, and it fits with our scheme we think he's earned that right.
On if any position is safe: There's really not anyone safe anywhere, because you get in a position, if Vince had won the national player of the year and came back we could say that (he would have been safe), but he could get hurt or there are other things. So what we have tried to tell guys is let's get at least 22 guys on each side of the ball who can play and start and compete, so at any time you can put one of those two in. The good part is that it helps with competition, helps with moral and it helps with depth. The negative is it could cause complacency if a guy thinks I'm going to get to play just because I'm going to get to play. We tell them in that rotation of two-deep that if you're not playing your part, then you'll lose plays and if you're not doing it to the level that you should, then you could not play at all. But a guy can get too heavy from fall to spring and not be working as hard in the off-season programs, so you can lose the right to play. We do feel like we're in good shape right now we've got a lot of depth. We have fewer stars on this team than probably any we've had since we've been here. There are a lot of talented young guys, but fewer stars. We will not have a lot of seniors, I think there are 15, and it's not a senior class that jumps out like the eight that are the NFL (combine) this weekend.
On the young group being so exciting: It really is exciting. It is fun to go back and try to have your best team with maybe not your best personnel. That's what we've talked to this team about. Let's make it a great team, and so far they've bought into that, with no discipline problems, everyone on time, and everyone working hard being so positive. In fact, when you talk to Coach Mac Duff, he was really shocked at how hard they worked and what a positive attitude at 6:00 in the morning they've had. This has been a real fun team to coach in the off-season.
On Henry Melton buying into the change to defensive end from running back: He's practiced there some last spring, and he practiced there exclusively during bowl practice. He and Oscar (Giles) have a great relationship. Ray Crockett, his uncle, thought he should have been there since day one. Henry wanted to play running back, it was his goal, but Ray said if you're going to be in the NFL, you're going to need to be an end. So I really think this is kind of a new life for Henry, and he's starting over.
On Sergio Kindle staying on offense for a little while: What Sergio will do is take at least the first eight days with Coach Mac Duff, and not do any running back and let them get on the same page. Then I will take the possibility of looking to see where we are at running back, where we are with big backs, how we are in short-yard goal lines, and then we will look at it some in the second part of practice. We want to make sure that Coach Mac Duff and all the linebackers get to know each other well.
On having a secondary depth chart: We probably won't cross the board for a while.Duane is looking at possibly packaging groups and not having a first group and just putting four guys together. Erick Jackson has been around a little longer and if you look the guys who have been around longer. They are (Ryan) Palmer, (Brandon) Foster, Jackson, and Marcus Griffin, but then you've got a group of young guys who need to be out there and playing.We are worrying a little about who will be out there first for a while until we see through, and part of that is the reason we go eight days and then take a break. There's a part that lets guys get health if they sprain an ankle, but you also have a much better feel of who you are eight days into this thing than you do today just because of the young ones. You watch Chykie Brown last fall and he was one of the ones who was really good in bowl practice. We were excited about him running and breaking on the ball. Brandon Foster got well and made a huge jump during bowl practice, so you just don't know. It's funny how they can change with a sprained ankle or a bad day or so trying to get that consistent attitude that can play really well. Deon Beasley grew up a lot during the fall. Although he did not play a lot, the playing helped him we thought, so it will be fun to watch him some. Robert Joseph separated his shoulder and didn't get to play much last season so it will be fun to see him run around out there.Who knows what will happen with the two young ones.
On areas of questions he might have: I would definitely list the secondary and offensive line as the two biggest concerns because of the inexperience. We have good players but virtually no experience. We can say two starters are coming back to the offensive line, but Cedric Dockery won't be out there so you could have three, but Dockery and Ulatoski weren't starting at the same time. Then you could go to really one starter in the secondary, that's it. Now your linebackers have been around, and you've got some young exciting ones. Your defensive line and ends have been around. We're still searching at fullback, if we do run more I(-formation) and what to do and backup quarterback and backup tailback. Then you get into Aaron Ross returning virtually every punt and a lot of the same guys are returning kickoffs, we lost our snapper and you'd like to see the kickers get into a really good kicking competition now, you'd like to see Hunter get into that with Ryan and also we have a new punter.There is more new stuff on this squad than we've ever had, except our since the first year.
On the kick returners:Quan is the first punt returner, and Jordan Shipley, those two guys will be back there for sure. Deon (Beasley) and Chykie (Brown) those guys can all catch, Vondrell might be a really good kick off return guy.
On Larry Mac Duff:He brings a tremendous amount of confidence and he has a lot of personality traits like Dick told me, a lot of integrity. He's very tough and demanding and he might be the most organized human being I've ever seen. You ask him to do something and he goes and does it and comes back and asks what else and it's not one of those lack of time problems.He's always very happy and likes kids and after he met with the linebackers and said he knew why we win all the time those are really smart and nice kids and they're excited about being here. He's the same way he's excited about talking with everyone of them and talking to the parents. I think he will be a perfect fit for us.
On the defensive scheme: We are looking at that and the transition to something better than we were is a little more difficult at this time because we are so young in the secondary. So do you go zone to take some pressure off of them and maybe force more turnovers? But you can't get as much pressure upfront unless you're getting with the front four or you go zone read to do it. The trouble is that the young ones are really good man players. That's what we've been trying to do - is recruit corners that can play man. We're seeing so many teams in our league that have four and five wideouts at times that the old just a zone won't work you have to match us and play some man. We've felt like more than anything else, the first month Larry was here was learn the Texas defense, learn the names, learn the schemes. He and Duane will continue to work to grow on the philosophy changes that they want, and we'll do that probably more after the first eight days because Larry is a little overloaded and hasn't seen the players and hasn't been on the field; hasn't been on the college football field for four years. We're going over our goals tomorrow for the start of spring practice; I did see one for the defense, the second goal, was work on trick plays (smiling). The first goal was make sure we get the guys all in the right positions and make sure they're coached really well and are sound fundamentally, and then oh yeah, stop letting them throw it over your head. It's a tough thought because if you don't stop the run, you don't win and the ones that stop the run win. What we'd like to do is stop the run like we've done and not give up so many big plays, that's the key. We've gone back and looked at every one of our big plays and we could have done better than we did. It wasn't all just scheme. We put ourselves out there some, but we should probably do a better job in understanding and what (situation) we're in against someone who can blister you so easily and not put an Aaron Ross out there again Ted Ginn or put an Aaron Ross out there every game by himself; give him some relief some with a hard corner, do some things that will take the pressure off and still stop the run. Coming in, Curtis Brown and Ben Wells are here, so obviously they have the better chance early to be seen, and Curtis Brown will be corner and Ben Wells will most likely be a safety. He could be a corner, but we're probably going to look at him at safety first. With Drew Kelson, he's a 220-pound guy who has played linebacker for two years and you can't just flip him back to play a wide receiver man-to-man in a five wideout scheme and go all man. You have to figure out what Drew can do the best. So if you do move him to safety, you have to make sure it fits, and that limits some of the things you can do if it's four or five corners playing back. All of those things we are looking at.
On offensive line options:What you've got is a group of guys, and we are really excited about Dallas Griffin, he is in business honors class right now with a 3.9 GPA, he's just a brilliant young man, but if you take across the board today and just walk them out there, you would probably have Ulatoski (at tackle), Griffin at center, and Tony Hills at tackle, that would be your two tackles and your center. The inside guys will be Dockery in the fall if he comes back and gets well, and you'd back up a tackle with a J'Marcus Webb and Britt Mitchell needs to fit in there somewhere and Roy Watts. The inside guys would be Buck Brunette at center, then you have Chris Hall and Charlie Tanner at guard, and Michael Huey coming in at guard. Steven Moore would be a guard.