The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Kansas State quotes
11.19.2011 | Football
Nov. 19, 2011
TEXAS
HEAD COACH Mack Brown
Opening Statement: It was a hard fought game. We've got to give Kansas State credit. It really came down to two turnovers. Other than that it was an even game. Two great defenses that played hard throughout. Kids all fought until the last play of the game. I really thought we had a chance to win until that last play was over. I'm proud of the way we fought. Give Kansas State credit. They didn't make any mistakes. And we didn't force any of theirs. Our defense played great. Our offense was sporadic. But we had a chance. You can't turn the ball over near the goal. In fact, if you told me we would hold [Kansas State QB] Collin Klein to four yards rushing and 83 yards passing, I would have known that we won the game.
On the Texas defense's performance: They played great.I don't think I've ever seen them play better. It was just an unbelievable performance. That's what is so sad. To see a performance like that and not win the game is just unheard of. They fought. They didn't get frustrated when we were struggling offensively. They kept their wits about them. They competed. They tried to strip balls. I thought they did everything we asked them to do and more. Even at the end of the game. That's why we could kick the field goal. We knew they were going to stop them. We just had to score. We had our opportunities. When you have the ball at the 49-yard line with enough time to score, and four downs. You need to go score.
On sophomore QB Case McCoy: I thought he did a good job. He jump started us and got us going.
On the punt interference call: It's just really deflating. I can't talk about the call. But we get the ball before the half and it ends up being a situation where we get three [or] seven points. And instead we give them seven. So it's a 14-point swing possibly.
On what he told the team after the loss: I told them that I'm really sad for them. That they lost their last home game. That's something you will remember for the rest of your life. But what you can remember is how hard you fought.
On if this was a deflating loss: Well, yes. I think it's always deflating when you lose. Just like the score with nine seconds left in the half. I thought it was amazing that the guys came back and played a better second half than they did a first half. After you give up points going in like that. That sequence of events. We don't have time to sit and feel sorry for ourselves. We've got to keep getting better on offense. And continue to play the same way we did on defense.
On the offense's performance: I think we'll have to study and see. That's a good defense we played. They're 117 yards a game against the run. They haven't given up yards against the pass. And we're not very consistent in that area.
On if the carries were spread out on purpose between freshmen RBs Joe Bergeron and Malcolm Brown: Yes. They're not 100 percent. We were trying to see what we could get out of each one of them.
On the progress at the QB position: I think you start with four. Two of them are gone. Your older guys are gone. You have younger guys who are continuing to work to develop.
On senior TE Blaine Irby's touchdown reception: I thought that was a fitting end to his last game here at the university because it's a miracle that he is playing. And for him to catch that ball and put us right back in the ball game. So it was a thrill for all of us.
On if anything with the run offense worked: Yes. A lot of things. We ran down field, and we didn't score like we should have. And the two turnovers will kill you. You can't turn the ball over. Our offense moved the ball a lot better than theirs. That's the sad part about it.
On if he is concerned about playing another game so quickly after this loss: You can't have concerns about getting them back everyday. They've got to go back and work. They've done what we've asked them to do this year. I'm sure they'll play hard Thursday night.
On Kansas State playing well despite pressure from the Texas defense: They've done a tremendous job. They've won more close games. That's the way they do it. They're plus-nine with the turnover ratio. We're now minus-two. That's why we lost the game.
CO-OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR Bryan Harsin
On the play of QB Case McCoy: I thought he came in and he provided a spark that we needed. With the turnovers early in a game like this, playing a team like this, we have to eliminate those and get something going. Case came in there and did that. He had a nice throw on the touchdown pass there and did a nice job with a guy in his face. He got us back with momentum on our side from that standpoint.
On the offense: I think there were some good things that we'll see when we go back on film. Obviously there weren't enough good things. I'm disappointed for the loss here. I thought our defense played great. You have to take advantage of field position like that, and you have to find a way to get it in. On offense it's always one or two things here and there. It's the details that we'll continue to work [on] and preach, and we'll continue to do that. I liked what Case said. I thought the guys fought. We came in here to fight and played a very good football team. Those guys were scratching and clawing at the end and that mentality is going to help us as we continue on.
On the turnovers: I think for any quarterback or anyone in positions carrying the ball, turnovers are always negative. For us, we have to eliminate those in the pass game. We have to go back and look at why they happened and try to eliminate those mistakes and move forward and help ourselves out and not put ourselves in a bad situation with turnovers. That's number one for us on offense.
On the quarterback situation going forward: We won't make any decisions right now. I liked what Case did when he came in. He provided a spark there in that position. Like I said all along, we're developing two quarterbacks for these types of situations right here to be able to come in and play and win a game.
On opting to kick the field goal instead of going for a touchdown: In that situation, is there a thought of it? We want to get points. It was going to come down to that. We wanted to make sure that when we got down there, we got points, and we did. We thought our defense was playing well and that they were going to have an opportunity to get a stop and that we would have decent field position in that case, which we did. At that point right there, you have to get points. You have to get points on the board.
On running on third and five: Two-down territory was our thinking there. Trying to get a little more than half at least and then finish it off there. [Kansas State] did a good job on that particular play. We have to find a way to at least get half of those yards there. We were in two-down territory, and that was our mentality. We wanted to make sure that we could get closer than we were right there and get at least half of that, if not within a yard, and try to continue to drive.
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR Manny Diaz
On the defensive linemen and their dominant performance: I thought they were terrific. We feel like they have been getting better and better week in, week out. They have really taken to their craft throughout the course of this season
On second teamers getting snaps: That's what we want to do. We play the kind of defense we want to play. It is very hard on the defensive linemen to be out there the whole game. It is very rewarding to see the guys act like a team, and they are unselfish. They let the other guys see play out there.
QB Case McCoy
On his mentality coming into the game: I just told them when I got in there that this is really why I came to this university. I came to play in big games like this. We do it every day in practice. We run through it every day in practice. There's no telling how many touchdowns we throw every day in practice, so it should be just as easy. I was proud of the way we fought, and I thought for our senior night we definitely fought hard.
On whether or not the loss is bittersweet: Like I said, I think we fought hard. I know none of us like to lose. We're all competitors, so I don't know how it would be bittersweet. But I do know that we fought hard, and I know if we can keep our eye on the game, we can go to College Station and play a good game and beat a good team.
On what he was seeing on the last drive: A lot of guys. That's a typical thing in a game like that. Obviously [Kansas State] is going to drop a lot of guys out. It's a game like that, and you just have to fight and you have to take advantage of the things they give you. We struggled on that a little bit, and that's something we can work on this week.
On the difficulty of coming in under the circumstances he did: This isn't my first year being backup, so I've learned. I've watched a lot of great quarterbacks. Coach Harsin does a good job preparing me week to week just like I'm going to start the game. There's no excuse for anything. I was prepared. I studied, and I've been preparing for that moment for a long time.
LB Keenan Robinson
On shaking off the loss quickly: We know we've got a game in a couple days so we need to get ready. We have a limited time to shake this off, and we need to focus and get ready for the next two games.
On stopping K-State's running attack: If they want to run against us, we have a great chance to stop them. We are definitely a running defense and the film shows it.
On his emotions after senior night: We would've loved to have that win as seniors for the last home game of the season. I think that things always happen for a reason. So we will just have to prepare and will do whatever we can to get to try and get another "W."
LB Emmanuel Acho
On the frustration of not getting the win: It's tough. It's real tough especially with it being senior night. Again, you can only control what you can contro,l and I feel like we played well in spurts. Defensively, we've got to get more turnovers.
On how to regroup with the short week: I'm already past it. I am going to go home and watch the Texas A&M film and get ready for Thursday.
On the defense's efforts: You never know how it's going to turn out. It's our job, and we didn't force enough turnovers defensively. It's on me as a leader. We've got to get more turnovers and get the ball out. We just didn't do enough.
DE Jackson Jeffcoat
On the seniors: We tried to give them our all. Those are our seniors. They have been there for us since day one. They have been an example for us, and we love them so much. It's sad that we couldn't win the last one at home for them.
On head coach Mack Brown's response to the team after the game: He said it was a tough loss and sorry to the seniors that we lost this one, but we still have two left.
OG David Snow
On change when Case McCoy came in: Sometimes with different quarterbacks different things start to happen. It was like a little mix up, and we got some stuff going.
On the loss at home: It's really hard, especially here in the stadium. We really wanted to win. It was a really tough game. You've got to give it to Kansas State, they played harder than we did but we never quit. We had our chances to win, and I guess that's why it's called football. You're not guaranteed to win.
On turnovers: In a game like this when it's really close turnovers are key. We gave up way too many.
TE Blaine Irby
On touchdown catch: It was really something I had been dreaming about for a while. We ran the play perfectly. I think the best thing about it was afterwards when all my teammates came up to me and just started hitting me and hitting me into the wall. It would have felt a lot better if we would have gotten the win.
On the momentum Case McCoy brought: I think with David Ash we just couldn't get things rolling and that's happened throughout the year. When you have two great quarterbacks and one isn't doing so well the other can come in, and that's what happened.
On what he told David Ash: Whenever he came to the sideline I just told him to calm down and that this is just football. He's been playing this game his whole life. I told him to try to slow the defense down and not think too much because he was getting a little excited out there. I thought he did well against the defense Kansas State brought, but I just told him to take it easy and calm down. The boys never gave up. We never gave up, and it's disappointing when it comes down to the wire like that.
S Blake Gideon
On the emotion of his last home game: It was definitely there. We talk about how it is an emotional game all of the time. It just adds to it. Thinking about four years, how it has flown by, there are so many memories in this stadium. And all of the work we have put in defending this stadium.
On the defense's performance: We played ok. There were a few plays that we are going to look at the tape of tomorrow, and be really disappointed. We had a couple of chances to put our offense in plus field position if we had executed. It is usually a small thing, but they are a good offensive football team, and they have been putting up numbers all year. They know what they are doing, and whenever you are out of position for one play, they are going to exploit it.
WR Marquise Goodwin
On the offense's performance: The defense played really well. Our offense had a tough time trying to get it going. We usually stick with the running game, and it wasn't working out too well for us today. So we tried to go to the pass game, and we kept fighting throughout the game. Coach told us it was going to be a fight for four quarters, and that is what it was. It came down to the last seconds.
On what Case McCoy brought when he came in during the second half: He is a good leader. You can see a little bit of his brother in him. He is an outstanding young man who is always ready to do what he needs to do to help the team win. As well as [David] Ash. They do their job very well. They are young guys trying to step up and assume their role.
K-STATE
HEAD COACH Bill Snyder
On the final defensive stand: It wasn't just the final stand, our defense had to stand up all day, because our offense didn't.
On why Texas' defense was so effective: They just beat the tar out of us. Texas is a tremendously talented defensive team, and they played extremely well. They created problems for us in terms of some of the things they did and the blitzes they ran. So it was a combination of them playing very well and scheming us very well, and us not scheming them very well or playing very well.
On how good his Kansas State defense was: Good enough to win.
On if Kansas State took a step forward today: No, we didn't. Well, not on offense. On defense we did.
On how big the two interceptions were for Kansas State: Tremendous. They made a big difference. The problem is when you get turnovers like that you need to score.
On Kansas State's kicking game: Kicking game was good until they got that last return.
LB Tre Walker
On preparing for tonight's game: I think we just came prepared to play. Our coaches, they did a great job and preparing us for new alignments and shifts because they shift a lot. Sometimes when you don't communicate that much, it's hard for your defenses, but Coach [Chris] Cosh did a great job, along with the other coaches in communicating and getting us lined up.
QB Collin Klein
On tonight's performances: They did a great job and had good a plan. Bottom line, it's going to be a little work with the wind. Our defense supported us, and they were behind us the entire game. They were able to get us some good field position. We just didn't execute.
On whether head coach Bill Snyder was frustrated with tonight's performance: I mean, he was very frustrated. I can speak for myself. I was very frustrated that we weren't able to get anything going and weren't able to support the kind of performance our defense gave. We're just going to come back to work and keep getting better.
On how he prepared for tonight's game: It's been all mental reps, really.
On his defense's performance: They played awesome for us, the whole way. We were able to get in barely enough points to win. We just have to get better.