The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
09.04.2013 | Football
Head coach Mack Brown met with the media Wednesday afternoon
Opening statement
Going on the road for the first time is always different. The guys did want to dedicate this game to our soldiers overseas that are fighting the war against terrorism. There's a group that Nate Boyer is a part of that was founded by Alan Dukor called Caring For Camo. They get a box of goodies that they would like and send it to a soldier and write a letter to the soldier. They don't know who the soldier is but they do feel like a care package from a University of Texas football player would be something the guys would enjoy.
After studying Brigham Young since the first of the week, you are so impressed with their defense. They play so hard, they are very well coached, they've got 100 percent effort and senior pro-prospects on the defense. I think (BYU LB) Kyle Van Noy is as good of a player as there is in the country. He's one of those guys that once you start watching film, you have to know where he is on every play. You have to have a plan for him because he's that good. He was all over the Virginia quarterback throughout the game. These guys were very, very impressive.
As far as the offense, the conditions were not good for offense in Charlottesville. I'm sure the Brigham Young team is so disappointed because they have a chance to have a great team, it looks like, but there was a snap over the quarterback's head for a safety, there was a blocked punt that ended up down close to the goal line and there was an interception that went right through the tailbacks hands in the heavy rain that Virginia brought back. That led to 16 of the 19 points. I know these guys are excited about playing on Saturday and disappointed in their first outing because they have a chance to be really, really good.
On a sad note, this morning we got a call from West Virginia that Curtis Jones, who was a very, very popular academic counselor for us for a number of years that left a year and a half ago to run the program at West Virginia, died last night. Our players are very disturbed about that because he is very, very popular with our players. His brother Corby was a quarterback at Missouri and his dad died of a heart attack while he was coaching at Missouri. Our thoughts and prayers are with Curtis' family because he was 40 years old. It was a devastating call for us.
On training for playing in elevation
The only thing we've done this week is have our nutritionist and our trainer talk about hydration because that is so key for any game, but especially one like this. And then tried to get them some sleep and get in bed; we've had a tight curfew all week. We practiced really hard yesterday and it was really hot and we spent the guys so we'll need to have a good practice today. The main things are fluids, watch what you eat and make sure that you get your sleep.
On difficulties coaching in Provo, Utah
I've only been there one time as a coach and it was back in the 1970's with Southern Miss, and we did not play well. It was one of (former BYU coach) LaVell Edwards' better teams. I think it's a unique place. You look at (BYU head coach) Bronco Mendenhall's record at home and he's won 88.9 percent of the games. They play really well at home. It's a great atmosphere. We think it will be very much like the Ole Miss crowd last year. A full house, that's what you get on the road, because people are excited about Texas coming to town. I think they've been talking about this for two years.
On WR Kendall Sanders
I think he'll be ready to go. Again, we've got practice today and tomorrow. We feel like because of the altitude and the long fight -- it's about a 2-hour and 45-minute flight -- that we'll be able to work out there some, too, on Friday when we get there. Sometimes we do that, sometimes we don't, but for a night game we probably will. We thought he looked good yesterday and expect him to play.
On WR Kendall Sanders' conditioning
Those kids are in such great shape. In fact, he probably has fresher legs if you really think about it. A guy that takes a week to 10 days off, he's more ready to come back. Josh Turner did practice some last week but he's practiced full speed this week and he should be ready to play.
On conditioning with up-tempo offense
I thought the conditioning held up really well but it was hard to tell because we played so many people. New Mexico State is not as talented as we are or Brigham Young, so the challenge we gave our team is, the guys that went in and played well to help with the depth against New Mexico State, how are you going to fare when you're playing against a better player at Brigham Young? We'll know more Saturday night about our ability to play with depth than we do right now.
New Mexico State had the ball 47 plays in the first half and if we could not have substituted last week, we would've been tired at halftime. That's where a lot of the teams get in trouble and get beat in early games. If they had the ball for 47 plays and 21 minutes to our nine minutes, that could've been devastating to a team that is worn out at halftime and then having trouble tackling in the second half. We were really fresh at halftime.
On substituting in Provo, Utah, with thin air
We're still going to do it the same way we did it last week. That's what we've told our kids. We're going to substitute. We're going to put them out there. The other thing that makes it tougher is BYU is running tempo faster than we are. They had 97 plays last week. We watched the TV copy because it's hard to tell on the video copy, but they're snapping the ball 10-to-15 seconds every time and they're not substituting at all. The bunch that you put out there is probably going to have to stay, unless you use one of your timeouts. In fact, we said we're not calling anyone 'back-ups' anymore. If you're going to play, you've got to play and you've got to play good.
BYU did that in that weather -- 97 plays in that weather. It's amazing that they could get that many and Virginia didn't get nearly that many. They dominated time-of-possession as well. I mean, they're just snapping it. It's unbelievable how fast they are going. That will help us for next week against Ole Miss and help us for our league because that's what's happening in this league. But that's not who BYU was two years ago when they came in here.
On the number of players he'll be allowed to take
You can take as many as you want to a game like this. We'll be in the seventies. For a conference game, you can only take 70 but you have unlimited numbers for nonconference games or home games.
On Florida State QB Jameis Winston's recruitment
I answered that yesterday. I'm worried about Brigham Young. In fact I answered that eight times yesterday. What you do is worry about what's important around here and what's important is beating Brigham Young. The rest of the stuff, I ain't got time for. He seems to be a great player and a great young man and what the talk should be is about how great he played and what kind of future he's got instead of who didn't recruit him. Are we beating up everybody else that didn't get him? Or just us? We didn't have contact with him until (former offensive coordinator) Bryan Harsin got here in January and it was one phone call. So there, I ended up answering it for you again. I was told by very close people that we 'had no chance and he may go No. 1 in baseball but if not he's going to Florida State because he's been committed to them since summer. If not then Alabama might slip in late, but you're out.' I trusted my source.
On complications of recruiting and why he decided to address this topic publicly
The good thing is that a whole lot of kids are interested in Texas. We get calls all of the time. You have to figure out who wants to visit and who might want to come. Secondly, my job is to keep distractions away from our team and get the focus back on Brigham Young. So, if there are people talking inaccurately about things that happen in a certain situation, I think it's better to go public in a two-minute interview and say what happened and move on. That's what I did. There's a lot more talk out there than there used to be. John Bianco and Bill Little are my barometer on whether I should say something or not. I was working on Brigham Young and they said people are still talking about this and asked if I wanted to answer and I said, 'Sure, give me somewhere to answer and I'll answer.' That's what we do and we move on.
On how important it is that the team is feeling and believing that QB David Ash is an elite QB
It's very important and this is the first time that it's really been his team. This week last year we were still trying to decide who to start at quarterback. I think that's what we should be talking about: how well Winston played at Florida State and how well David Ash played at our place because our quarterback situation in the future looks really, really good. We're very excited about it. David has won 11 out of his last 14 games. The only two questions about David in peoples' minds is: can he run and does he run enough and secondly, can he overcome adversity early in a game because he has had some games where he didn't do that. I thought he answered both of those last Saturday night and did really well. He'll play a defense that will play as good as we'll play Saturday night. It should be fun to watch him.
On Greg Robinson's role as an advanced scout
It's working well. He watches video at home and then he gives us ideas. He tells us about the team we are playing the upcoming game. Greg was an offensive coordinator at UCLA and then a defensive coordinator in the NFL, plus a head coach. He has vast knowledge and we are really, really lucky to have him working with us. The coaches aren't resenting him at all. Our coaches want to win and what I've told them is the more eyes we can have on our program the better. What a great advantage for us.
On his mentality in practice and any change in that mentality since 2008-09
I don't think you change much because I don't think the perceptions are so much reality. You guys don't see what I do. You have opinions and I have opinions of what you all do. I do think the fact that I feel better and I've lost more weight is probably why I have more energy. I'm really having fun right now and am excited about coaching this team, but I think I've always had input and been aggressive with them. I'm just not one who has to do it on camera.
On BYU linebacker Kyle Van Noy comparability
We've talked about that all week. I don't think he is comparable because he is 6-foot-3 and 245 pounds. He can run like a deer and he is very aggressive. He's a guy that is so hard to block because he can slip blocks so easily and if start trying to move your feet to get where you can block him he will slip you, but if you get soft trying to catch him he will run right over you. I think he is great player, I don't think he is a good player. No question number one pick.
On distractions being less of a factor this season
I think around here you have one about every three days and they last about two days. I haven't really thought about it but it's an older team and they are getting along well and their grades are better. That's usually an indicator that you don't have as much trouble off the field when it's an older bunch, and we really challenged them in the offseason to discipline from within. We're not around (the players) all the time, and if one of the guys isn't acting right and you don't know how to handle it, then bring it to us and we will take care of it, but I think this team is doing a good job of that.
On Patrick Suddes' first year on the recruiting staff
It's going really well. Patrick has helped us so much and I think his role gets more important during the season because just like Saturday night, 2:01 Sunday morning, was the first night we could reach out to (high school) juniors and he and I are all over it until about three in the morning with me tweeting all those kids. So that stuff we probably wouldn't have done as readily in the past. He is really good at what he does and I'm glad he is here. Really has helped out a lot.
On how many recruits he tweeted at Sunday morning
I don't know; there is a whole list of them. I don't want to guess but there are a whole bunch of 2015 kids that we are recruiting. I've got the twitter list for 2014, the twitter list for 2015. I'm all over social media.
On former BYU coach LaVell Edwards
LaVell is one of the best ever, one of the joys for this weekend. Spike Dykes is going with us because they are such good friends, two of the greatest coaches in the country. I know LaVell is in the Hall of Fame and to me Dykes is as well regardless of how many games he has won. He meant that much to college football and it's one of the exciting things to be going out there and playing in LaVell Edwards Stadium because I just have so much respect for him and all he did. He was one of the older guys that I looked up to from a very early age and he's taken care of me for years.
On starting quicker as a team
I've been asked that a few times this week. Our defense started fast, so we didn't start slow; we started slow on offense. We really played at a fast pace, but we turned the ball over. I wouldn't say we started at a slow pace, I would say it was poor ball security with three turnovers, because everything we tried to do was good. We scored the ball so fast; we were either scoring the ball or turning it over. [What we need to do is] protect the ball better. We are going to tell ours to start fast and we have a fast-start period every day in practice. They are going to tell theirs to start fast too. Something's going to have to give and that's one of the great things about sports. They used to beat us up at North Carolina about not starting fast and we'd win the game about 56-7 and I'll take that every time. I'd rather take that every time. Games are hard to start fast against a really good defense and they are coming after you. We are going to run into a very spirited team and ours is going to be spirited too, so I think it sets up for a great game.
On stressing ball security
In fact what we did is we showed them that we were moving the ball when we had it, we just dropped it or threw it to them. We probably would have scored on all three of those drives where we turned it over and then the score would have been 35-0 at halftime, or 35-7, instead of 14-7. So we constantly talk about ball security, but it's hard to simulate game speed and game reaction. I thought one of the great things for David [Ash] is one of the balls he threw for the interception, he came back and hit John Harris with exactly the same pass and he ripped it to him instead of laying it to him, so he learned quickly and didn't make the same mistake twice.
On the offense/defense goals
I might have said this the other day but I asked Major [Applewhite] and Manny [Diaz] what they wanted to get accomplished in the opener other than the obvious things. Both of them basically said to get some identity. I want see the things we are stressing; I want to see us get 100 percent to the ball; I want to see us tackle better on defense and I want to see us strip the ball or get some interceptions. Majors' was interesting in that he said, 'I want us to do well enough with this offense that these guys buy in.' Kids are hard enough to get to buy in and we have really sold them all on all this stuff. They haven't seen it against anyone yet, because it really isn't what we did at all in the fourth quarter of the bowl game. That was a one-minute offense with five plays and we just got hot and made it work. We have prepared this thing since the bowl game to work and he wanted to see it work. Still after you get through the game you still don't have an identity because the other night was so easy. Everyone got to play; everyone got the ball. Jalen Overstreet gets 90-something yards; Joe Bergeron gets what he wants. It was one of those happy nights where everyone leaves happy. Saturday we are going to have to have an identity. We will know who we are and we won't be able to have the wasted plays that we had the other night.
On Curtis Jones' death
I haven't told the kids yet. I am going to tell them at practice, but I'm sure they have heard it or read it with modern technology, but this guy was upbeat, he was positive, he was an athlete and into academics which is so cool. He played in the Ivy League and was a wonderful human being. It is just a real loss for all of us. In fact, West Virginia wanted him so badly to run their whole program and his wife is in compliance at West Virginia. It is a huge loss for people in general but in sports and kids (especially). He worked with our offensive line so when we talk to those kids today they are going to be really affected. You don't ever want to see anybody go in our lives but 40 year olds aren't supposed to go. And that's a very difficult [phone] call and I could tell when Arthur (Johnson) walked in this morning it was something really bad.
On the backups' performance
The way we played them is the way we will play Saturday night. Just about everybody on the team played to win Saturday night. I did think there was very little drop off when we put the other guys in the game. Even in the first half you didn't notice it. That's who you want to be as a team because that constitutes what a team stands for. So I think the big question is, Sunday morning when we are watching this [BYU] video will it be the same thing.
On Desmond Harrison playing more snaps
We have had one practice since the game, so (offensive line coach) Stacy Searels keeps working with him every day to get him more ready.
