The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
New Mexico quotes
09.09.2012 | Football
TEXAS COACHES
Head coach Mack Brown
Opening statement:I'm really excited about the way our guys played. We had a slow start and struggled with their option. They made a third-down-and-nine, or third-and-ten with the option. Had another situation where they came up and made a third-and-nine throwing it out. So they stayed on the field the first half. They had the ball about 20 minutes to our 10. We only had the ball six plays the first quarter. It really lulls you to sleep. Takes the crowd out of it. Your guys struggling a little bit. But I thought the score before half was key. Then we came back out and scored to start the third quarter. And then took the game over. But like last week, I think they've got a pretty good offense. Got some things going.
Defensively, we blocked a punt, returned a punt 35 yards. Forced a couple of turnovers which were key. Only lost one turnover I think, from our standpoint. We only punted once, and it was a 51-yard punt. So I thought we dominated the kicking game. We still did a great job covering kickoffs. And they're kicking them really, really well. Hate that we missed the field goal, but I thought both young kickers did better. The snappers did better tonight. That was headed in the right direction.
The best thing about tonight - it was a fun game for the whole team. Everybody got to play. When we didn't put our foot on the gas and finish the game at 31-9 last week, we dominated the second half [tonight]. And everybody got to play. It makes your football team better. Morale is better. Kids are happier. Mamas are happier. Everybody is happier. And you get better as a football team because you gain more depth. And I was glad that the second and the third team defense kept them out of the end zone and got a shut out.
On explosive plays by Texas: We still need more, but we're heading in the right direction. We're still working to get more speed on the field, and make sure we get speed in space, and get some explosive plays. That's our key right now. Tonight was a night where we had the best team, and it was never in question, and we were able to look at a lot of different guys and a lot of different things. Glad that [QB] Case [McCoy] got to play a quarter and some, glad that [TE]M.J. McFarland caught a touchdown pass, glad that [WR] Daje Johnson caught a touchdown pass. [RB] Johnathan Gray carried it more than [RB] Malcolm Brown. It was a night to work on things, and I thought we got a lot of guys looked at that needed to get a look.
On the offense:I think you're feeling your way early to see who can do this and who can do that, but we haven't shown everything for sure at this point because we haven't needed to.
On the offense being conservative early:It probably is a little bit. I think this week when we got the ball we scored. I think we've got to start better defensively, too. I think that the schedule sets up perfectly for us going to Ole Miss because you play against Wyoming and it's a four-and- five wide-out pass attack, and you play against New Mexico and it's an absolute triple option offense. Ole Miss is going to be a combination of both, so we've gotten enough option work tonight, we sure don't have to work on it again for the rest of the year. That'll be an exciting game for us.
On playing a night game in the SEC:I don't know that we're excited to go. I know all of our fans have bought every ticket that they can find, so they're excited about it. The best thing about college football is the unknown, that's what excites people. Louisiana Monroe beats Arkansas -
probably none of you picked that. So, that's why everybody comes, and when you ask a coach what he thinks he knows, he's got no clue. Neither coach thought that was going to happen before the game.
On the passing game:We wanted to throw it more. Like we said, we knew we were going to win the game. We know we can run the ball. We're trying to get more balance. We wanted to get the ball in receivers' hands and work on our protections and do things that we needed to do and not beat our backs up so much. We're not into stats, we're into winning the game, and everybody knew that. This has been a team that understands their role. They know what we're trying to do, and why we're trying to do it. It's been fun to watch them execute it.
On experimenting with the offense early in the game:I think you do it every game early in the year, because you're just trying to figure out who can do what the best. Now next week we won't be able to do that. We have to go into Ole Miss to win the game. And we won't be able to try this out and try that out. Like we said, we got some things in practice you hold. And if you need to use them in the Wyoming game or you need to use them in the New Mexico game, you use them. You just hope you don't need to. And so far we haven't needed to.
On the speed of the game:I told them I thought the whole thing was kind of slow at halftime. I wanted it picked up. I wanted more fun. I wanted more energy. I wanted the crowd picked up. And I wanted to get this thing over with and let everyone play.
On freshman RB Daje Johnson: He's fast and can catch. He can make you miss him. We don't time them here, but in the [ESPN] Opening he ran a 4.3 [second 40-yard dash]. He's 185 pounds, so he's got a chance every time he touches it to score.
Co-offensive coordinator/running backs coach Bryan Harsin
Opening statement: First of all, our goal as a team is always to get a win. I thought that was an impressive one as well. I thought in the second half we came out and played well with the opportunities. Defense obviously played great and got some turnovers and good field position for us to try to take advantage of that. Probably the biggest thing was there were nine drives, and I think we scored on seven of them. We had six touchdowns and a field goal in there. Probably the one thing we need to improve on was we had that turnover that--we talk about turnovers so much and we did a good job in that category but when our defense gives us a turnover, it's what we do with it. That's a big part of being a successful football team on offense. Probably that situation right there is one we will go back and address it. When we get the momentum change like that we got to go down there and put points on the board. That is key for us because when those situations come up, we got to take advantage of them.
On why it was a slower start tonight: The first half, we did some good things. We made some adjustments in the second half with just some of the things we were seeing and some of the personnel and things like that. That's what you do, you go in there and talk about it with the team, get your adjustments made, and come out in the second off ready to operate. It was good to get some of those guys in the game. I thought Case McCoy came in and did a nice job. He had two scores out of the three drives he had in the second half there. So it was good to have those guys in the game and watch them operate. Some of these guys were backups and to come in there and do what they did is encouraging because you got to have depth. You got to have depth at all those positions and have to be able to play as the season moves on. So to have that opportunity was good.
On distribution of carries tonight: That is a field thing. It is also by play calls and things like that as the game flows. One thing that all the guys did that touch the ball, we wanted to try and get it in the playmaker's hands so we tried to spread the ball around a little bit. I think we accomplished that, and we will go back and look at our explosive plays and those types of things. We're really proud at what David Ash did as far as just coming out there and operating. He had a couple touchdown throws, no turnovers, and those are the things we talk about and want to work on. We pitched the ball around a bit in the first quarter and first half. We wanted to throw a little bit and try to get it out there with some space and see what our guys could do. We had a couple runs, some sweeps, and things like that that got into the playmaker's hands. They made some things happen. It all comes down to field, the rhythm of the game, and how things are flowing. The backs can't control that by the play calls and everything. When they get in there and have their opportunity, they got to make it count.
On RB Joe Bergeron and RB Malcolm Brown: They both - in the first game and going into this game - they both were very productive. The way the flow of the game was and whose opportunity was to go in there and play was Joe's. That is nothing against Malcolm Brown or anything like that. It was just how the rotation was going. Malcolm had some more throws and more pass protection when he was out there. That is the nature of the game when you play with those two backs like that. One guy is going to have more carries because of rotations. Sometimes the other guy is going to have more pass protection and things like that. They are both equally important in those situations.
On being reminded to get certain people into the game: We try to do that throughout the week when putting our plan together on Thursday. We sit down and we got the plays in and looking at the personnel. For the most part we work them all throughout the week. There is a section on the game plan that has who you want to get the ball to. In a perfect world, you are flowing right down that chart and through the play list. Sometimes the situation changes and you are third and short or you got to get the yardage or whatever that is. That is why we use so many is that we are trying to maximize the people on the field at all times. Whoever gets the ball in their hands, whether it is a run or we throw it outside, we are getting it to somebody that is going to make something happen. We try to create that as much as we can throughout the week, and I think that will continue. Those guys that show that they can make plays will get more opportunities.
On RB Daje Johnson: Obviously you saw him on the flip play that we gave to him, and you can see the explosion that he has. I'd have to go back and see how many reps he had, but he was in a lot of different personnel packages playing receiver and motioning. He is a guy that when you have [him] on the field out there is very explosive. He does a great job with the ball in his hands, and I thought he played confident. He came into this game well prepared for what we asked him to do. He knew his role, he knew his assignments, he knew where to go, and he knew what to expect when he got the ball into his hands. It looked like there wasn't a whole lot of hesitation when he was playing out there when he did get the ball. Those things to me, when you look at it not just from the game standpoint, you look at how the player for you prepares. He looked like he was prepared for this game and was ready to go. That is really what you want in those three days of practices that your players are prepared, they know what you expect, and they go out there with confidence and they play like that.
Defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Manny Diaz
Opening statement: You have to give New Mexico a lot of credit. They present a lot of problems.
On adjustments to the option offense: We had, in essence, half of a game last week, and an entire season from Sam Houston last year (of game film) to try and guess what of all that we were going to see. And despite all of our information, they were still able to come out with new ways to run the option. They did a good job getting the quarterback involved in the run game, which you can tell by the numbers. After the play, that's where all the yards were coming from, the quarterback keeping the football. So, we had to make some adjustments at halftime. I was disappointed that we had to wait that long to get it done, but credit to New Mexico and all the varying looks they were sending to us. The credit really goes, with the adjustments, to the guys. I thought the guys came out in the second half with great energy, and really tried to get three-and-outs. You talk about the (Texas) offense; the offense got the ball more in the second half. They [New Mexico] were able to slow the game down in the first half, and we couldn't get our offense the ball back enough times to accomplish what they wanted to accomplish. I was excited about the way our kids responded in the third quarter to help make the game, keep it away [from New Mexico.]
On getting a shutout: I think it's a testament to what we talked about last week. If you don't give up long runs or passes for touchdowns, you always have a chance. Even though there was some plays we are disappointed about, there was some plays on third down, I thought, that we were really disappointed about, especially in the first half. It's like Jackson [Jeffcoat] mentioned, as patient as you have to be when they are getting yards, if they are not getting big chunks, if they're not getting long scores, you always have a chance to stop them. And that's where we showed against Wyoming and it came up again today, that this is a resilient bunch. They appear to do a good job of being able to fight against pressure. We were out there for more snaps at times then we wanted to be, but we never gave the big one away. They never got in our redzone. I don't know what their furthest penetration into our part of the field was, but that's a pretty strong testimony to their [Texas defense] ability to finally make a stand.
On injury to New Mexico senior quarterback B.R. Holbrook: It obviously limited them in their passing game, but if you watch the way that they run the option, it didn't change a thing. We knew that with both guys in there that they were going to go through, that they would run the option the same way regardless. I would imagine it handicapped them a little bit in the throw game, but they presented enough problems in the option. Again, the game is about possessing the football and high-percentage plays, and they did a good job of doing that there for a while.
TEXAS PLAYERS
QB David Ash
On his rushing touchdown: It's part of the read. I am just doing what I am coached to do, and I did that. Guys around me [blocked] their guys whenever I was going down field. That was some great down field blocking and it helped out. I was just going through my read there.
On explosive plays: I thought that we made more, but I think we still missed some opportunities.
On the passing game: I wanted to get some shots, and we started off the game with a shot. I wanted to get it to Mike [Davis], but it didn't work out, and that's okay. We went to work after that.
On what he liked and didn't like in tonight's game: I liked that we won. I was disappointed with a couple of plays there. I thought I was a little careless with the ball. I will have to clean that up but the main thing is that we won and I am happy about that.
On WR Mike Davis' second quarter TD: It was a great play by him and also the offensive line gave me plenty of time because I took too long to get through my progression there. Thankfully the offensive line was able to hold them out, and then Mike made a great play. We were in a tough situation there, backed up in the red zone.
DE Jackson Jeffcoat
On being patient against New Mexico's option offense: Definitely you have to be patient. Especially when you're playing a team that runs the triple option. You have to make sure you get your man. We came out and knew they were going to get some yards, but we were going to try and limit them to as little yards as we can and not let them get in the endzone. And that was our main goal, not letting them score.
On getting a shutout: Well, it's always a lot of fun. That's what you strive for, not allowing teams to get in the endzone. It's big for us, and it's great for us. It's good momentum for our next game.
DB Mykkele Thompson
On the punt block: Luckily, they just didn't touch me at all. All week we have been working on that because we knew they didn't have one [punt] against Southern. [Assistant head coach/defensive backs] Coach [Duane] Akina knew they were going to have some mishaps, so we just took advantage and tried to get me or [S] Kenny Vaccaro or anybody at the block point.
On a dominating defensive performance: It is a good feeling to know that we accomplished the shutout. We are going to take this and celebrate tonight and let it go by tomorrow so that we can get ready for Ole Miss.
On his comfort level with the defense: I am really comfortable. Me and [CB] Josh [Turner] are really comfortable back there because we do practice it a lot. My first year is over so we have no reason to be nervous. We know all the calls, we are confident and we just execute.
On what the defense has to work on after a shutout: Not getting bigheaded. We have to play to our standard and not go down and try to do it next week.
RB Daje Johnson
On getting on the field for the first time and making a difference: It was exciting. My blood was flowing from the end of the game last game to get on the field for this game. I was ready to get on the field. When I got on the field, I just made plays.
On how he felt when he saw the open space for a touchdown run: I saw the touchdown. I kept running until I got to the end zone and thanked my line.
On scoring a touchdown in his first game: When I scored, I was looking back and thinking it was a dream come true. I started to come to reality after, and now I can't wait for the next game.
On his role: Mainly, that is what I can bring. [I can do] explosive plays from the slot or from the backfield. Any chance they give me the ball, I feel like I can make something happen.
WR Mike Davis
On the long pass incompletion: That's the best opportunity [during the game]. We just have to go back to practice hopefully hit that in the next game. I wanted it bad though.
On the early slow pace: We did start slow, but we picked it up and that is the most important thing. It was just little things that we have to correct during practice, and we'll do that this week.
On his touchdown reception: It was a shallow route. I stayed available for the quarterback, caught it and made something happen then scored.
On what helped the offense turn it around in the second half: First of all, New Mexico did a good job of holding the ball. When we got on the field, we started off slow and we had to correct it. We were able to do that from the sidelines, executed some plays and we were able to score quick.
On his TD reception: It felt great. I just have to thank David Ash and that line for protecting him long enough to get it out. It felt really good. I hadn't been in the endzone for a minute.
CB Adrian Phillips
On having to prepare for a third different offensive style in three weeks for Ole Miss: Each week we are going to do our thing, so it doesn't really matter what the offense does. They [Ole Miss] are really just a mix of the last two teams, Wyoming and New Mexico, and we've heard that they have some playmakers out there. But each week we are going to put our stuff in [and] do what we need to do to come out with a win.
On going on the road for the first time: The biggest thing is that, for the young guys it is the first time traveling. They have to know that it is a different atmosphere out there. The fans are going to be crazy. When you are out there it can sometimes be overwhelming if you are not prepared like you should be. When you are out there and you are looking in the stands; we've heard that Ole Miss has some really good fans out there. The main thing I would tell them is that to stay in the playbook, don't worry about the fans, do what you went there to do and just play.
On where else the defense can get better after a shutout: There's always room for improvement. We had some plays where we had some communications, some plays where we could have done some things better. New Mexico had a couple plays that they broke on us a little bit, so there is always room for improvement. Just because we had a shutout today, that doesn't mean we don't have anything to improve on.
On watching the backups preserve the shutout: When they are in there they don't want to give up any points either. So we're down there on the sidelines, we're cheering them on, helping them get their calls and everything. So when they are out there and they give up some points, they are going to feel just as bad as we would have.
On the defensive improvement from last week: We might have been feeling ourselves a little bit. We had people out and about telling us how good we were. So last week we ate the cheese and Wyoming came out and got after us. This week we made sure we went back to the basics, no matter what anyone else says. Because at the end of the day this is our defense and we know what we need to do and we know what we have to do to come out with a win.
OT Trey Hopkins
On Texas' running game: I thought we got a great win today. We were able to run the ball, but we were focusing on getting our quarterbacks and receivers some looks by really spreading them out. We were trying to look outside the box because teams are going to continue to load the box on us. We're just going to continue running our power game and our zone game. When teams load up the box we have to be able to look other things like passing the ball, spreading out, and just getting a little room to breathe. That's what we were focusing on today.
On the offensive line: It's definitely coming together as a unit. We're doing a better job of protecting, but we still have a lot of work to do. I really think we're improving.
On the passing game: I think David Ash is doing a good job of knowing the situations, knowing what is available, and not forcing anything too far down the field. That's a big a thing to just come to maturity in that position - just knowing when to take the shot and when it's not available. I think he's doing a really good job with that.
CB Quandre Diggs
On stopping the option: With the option everyone has responsibilities. When we get in there we have to be ready to tackle. Being a part of Texas' secondary, you have to physical, and you have to be willing to tackle. I feel like last week I had a bad game with tackling so I came out trying to fix my mistakes this week.
On his punt return game: First of all, I have great blockers. Those guys bust their butts every time we return a punt. I want to thank them. We always have a great game plan, and that's thanks to the coaches. We just try to get what we can get, but we have to score. I feel like we could have gotten more than 35 yards and the return could've been a touchdown, but I'm just happy we got it going.
On getting frustrated when an offense doesn't come his way: I've just got to be patient. You can't rush plays and go out and try to make turnovers. You've got to take your opportunities that you get. You only get so many so you've got to take advantage of all of them. I like to tackle. I'm very physical. Any chance I get to tackle someone I'm going to take advantage of it every time.
RB Joe Bergeron
On the difference in running game from last week: We won't have what we had last week all the time. You're bound to have one of those games where it's not as good as it was the week before. We'll just look at film and get better from it and prepare for Ole Miss next week.
On finding rhythm in second half: We tend to do that at times. We just have to get out of that swing and just come out fast. In the second half we had that mindset that we just had to come out and put them away. That's what coach told us. He said to come out and finish the game and not to take our foot off of their throat. He wanted us to keep our foot on their throats and keep playing.
On playing hard all four quarters: Once you get up you start to ease up, and a lot of teams do that. That's why you have to have that mindset of not easing up because they can still come back. We started to a little bit, but we had that in the back of our heads so we kept playing.
NEW MEXICO COACHES
Head coach Bob Davie
Opening statement: Let's just look at what happened in this game. We received the opening kickoff and started from inside our own 10-yard line. That was a big disappointment to us. We had a punt blocked in the first half. That is so frustrating because we actually had a pooch punt called, but they didn't put safe return on and we were in pooch protection. So it was a total lack of communication that led to a punt block. They also had a punt return for a significant play. So the most disappointing thing was in our kicking game. We basically got nothing out of it. Offensively when [QB] B.R. Holbrook was in the game there was no question we had some things we could do. We moved the ball well in the first half, but again when we play against somebody this good you have to sustain it. The demons started to pop up because we just couldn't execute well enough to sustain those good plays. Defensively we gave up a 50-yard run on fourth-and-one to the quarterback who cut across the field, and we probably missed four or five tackles. We gave up a third-and-14. We gave up a touchdown at the end of the game. And then on offense in the second half, when [QB] B.R. Holbrook and [WR] Lamar Thomas went out with injuries we got exposed. We had a true freshman quarterback who doesn't throw the ball very well back there. We put a junior college quarterback in who wasn't here in the spring. So we got exposed. I know we can do better than this, and at times we went toe-to-toe with them. I am really proud about how hard we played, but right now we are a team that has to play perfect, and we just weren't capable of that tonight.
On WR Lamar Thomas' injury: Lamar got hit in the head on the opening kickoff in the second half. He had some tingling in his hands from what I understand.
On third down defense: I don't know what we were on third down defense, but they converted several third downs on us at times when we should have been able to get off the field. At times we got pressure on the quarterback and did some other goods things, but we also did some inexcusable things that cost us.
On his team's physicality: I feel like physically we competed well. At times we missed some tackles, and did some other just shocking things. But I thought we played hard, and I'm proud of our guys and the way they played. They played hard and physical, and nobody quit.
NEW MEXICO PLAYERS
LB Rashad Rainey
On his team's overall play in tonight's game: I definitely think that we played hard all the way through from the beginning of the game to the end of the game. There were just a couple of things that we've got to clean up. When we get back Monday, we're going to look at the tape, and we're going to clean it up for next week against Texas Tech.
On whether his team competed physically with Texas: Yes, definitely. It wasn't anything that I haven't seen before. They put their shoulder pads on just like we do. They're some big boys. We played hard, and they played hard. It's just that they got the best of us.
On his team's ability to cover the down-field pass in tonight's game: They came out and they tried to run a little bit. In the half, we were shutting it down. Then they started going to the air on us. We had a couple of self-inflicted mistakes in the coverage, and that is what went wrong. They got us in the coverage, but we're going to clean that up for next week.
On whether his team made coverage or tackling errors: It was more of a misalignment, if you ask me. Texas did a little bit of the quick-count. Some people weren't ready. If we were ready, we would capitalize on that. Mostly on the quick-count is when they scored.
QB Cole Gautsche
On his team's inability to score tonight: We couldn't capitalize. We did a great job driving the ball at first, but we just couldn't capitalize. We got down there a couple of times, but we just didn't finish it.
On the difference between alternating snaps with another QB and playing every offensive down: It definitely put a lot more weight on my shoulders. I've got to relax a little bit more and take it and go with it.
On his team's errors tonight: We had some self-inflicted mistakes. We had some penalties that were definitely unnecessary. But it's something that we work on all the time, and I don't think it will be happening much later on.
On the experience of playing as much game time as he played tonight: I feel beat up, but it was a good experience for me to have time out there. Splitting time with [senior QB] B.R. [Holbrook] is a totally different feel than going out there by yourself, down after down. It was a good experience.
On what his team takes away from tonight's game: I think that we hurt ourselves a lot tonight, but I think come Monday we'll look at the film, go over it, coaches will study it and we'll be able to correct the mistakes and go on from there.