The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
10.01.2014 | Football
Defensive coordinator/secondary coach Vance Bedford visited with the media.
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Defensive coordinator/secondary coach Vance Bedford met with the media Wednesday afternoon. Bedford talked last week's Kansas game and preparations for Baylor (2:30 p.m. Central, Saturday) and it's high-powered offense. Below are quotes from Bedford's availability.
On if defending the Baylor offense scares or fires him up: Both. [There have been] sleepless nights and restless days trying to figure out how to slow them down. I've looked at every video from last year and the year before that and no one has really slowed them down. You look at the bowl game they played in, they still put up 40+ points and they went up and down the football field. It's a challenge and that's what you look for as a defensive player and as a defensive coach, great challenges and this is going to be one of them.
On quarterback comparison for Baylor QB Bryce Petty: Blake Bortles of Central Florida who was the [third] player taken in the [2014 NFL] draft. Not as tall but athletically runs like him, can buy time with his feet; physically a good runner. Last year, I think he had 14 touchdowns. He led this conference in touchdowns in the run game last season, so he's a major, major concern. He can make all the throws – deep throws, intermediate throws. He has nice touch on the ball from the backside of the backfield. I think that kid is a special player I really do.
On Coach Charlie Strong's comparison of Bryce Petty to former Florida QB Danny Wuerffel: I had a chance to be on the same coaching staff when Danny Wuerffel was a player at the end of his career. This kid, here again for me, is Blake Bortles, who I saw last year and had a great season and is now playing for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Athletically, that's what [Petty] is.
On looking for weaknesses when reviewing Baylor's losses last season: Well, I wish I could bring the cold weather in, that's what I saw against Oklahoma State. Oklahoma State did a tremendous job but the cold weather bothered those guys against Oklahoma State. There were a lot of dropped balls; not a few, but a lot. Even last year against us, it was cold that day. We played great for three quarters on defense, but the cold weather helped drop a lot of balls. One thing I finally figured out, it's not going to be cold. The dropped balls aren't going to happen. What we need to do is have a great pass rush. We need to rush four, we need to rush three, to be honest we may have to rush two and drop nine. It's trying to take away passes. I haven't really seen anyone stop them. Baylor stops themselves. Somebody says we're a 14-point underdog, I'll give them 21 points right now. If it was up to me, I might not even show up for the game. I'll waive a white flag; I surrender. I have to be honest. You talk about not sleeping, not eating. Trying to defend these guys, it does it all to you.
On keys to defending Baylor's offense: First thing you must be able to do is get aligned. I've seen a lot of guys this season not be able to line up. All of a sudden it's a 50-yard touchdown, a 60-yard touchdown. Next thing is you must be able to tackle in space and that's going to be key because what they are going to do is spread you out and it's all one-on-one tackling. In defense, you teach gang tackling. Against the Baylor's of the world, there is no gang tackling. They got you so spread out so that it's one on one. They go so fast, sometimes you can't get aligned and all of a sudden you have a guy in position to miss a play and that's a really big play, so that's a major, major concern of ours. I wish I had an answer. [Alabama coach] Nick Saban came out saying this is unfair to college football, but this is what college football is all about. It's about change and for us as defensive coaches we need to learn how to change and adjust with it. It's a learning curve for all of us to defend these kinds of things.
On planning for the speed of the Baylor WR KD Cannon: How do you game plan for that? There's not answer for that because they move him around and he's in different spots. When you are going fast, sometimes the guys forget to see who's aligned where so that's a concern. You hope you get some pass rush and some batted balls, hopefully the quarterback misreads the coverage and that gives you an opportunity to make a play. [Bryce Petty] hasn't been sacked this year. The ball is out that fast just like a three-step drop. I don't know how you get to the guy. We were looking at video this morning and all I can do is shake my head. We might as well not rush anybody and just drop everybody because hopefully he gets tired of holding the football and takes a knee.
On turnaround of the Baylor program: [Head] Coach [Art] Briles, you have to go back to what he did in high school with back-to-back-to-back state championships. Then he goes to Houston and wins there. What he has brought to Baylor is a winning attitude. This is a different era right now and Coach Briles is up with the new era and that's what he's brought there. He's brought attitude there that they haven't had since Mike Singletary was there to be honest. He brought a championship mentality to them and it hadn't been like that for a long time. This is a new Baylor, this is a Baylor of the new era of college football across this country – spread offense, let's get 90 plays a game, athletic quarterback that can throw the football. That's what it's all about, it's about Art Briles and what he brings to the table. He brought a championship attitude just like he had in high school.
On fearing the Baylor offense: Well [someone] just brought up a question about back in the day. Back in the day I had Johnnie Johnson first-round pick, Derrick Hatchett first -round pick, Glenn Blackwood started eight years from the Miami Dolphins, Steve McMichael got a Super Bowl ring, Kenneth Sims was the first player taken in the draft – the list goes on and on and on. I could have all the swag I could want with those guys, I'm not playing and I don't have those guys on my side right now. If I had those guys, I'd say let's go play. We were playing TCU one time, years and years ago when Leon Fuller was the defensive coordinator, and they were throwing the ball 50 times a game. We go into halftime and the game is close and Leon Fuller yells, 'Next time we go out and they go after it, we're going to have a guy go blitz. Johnnie Johnson hits the A-gap, knocks the quarterback out of the game, game over. You can't do that anymore; offensive lines are better, receivers are better. You better keep inside and front and tackle and that's what Baylor presents to you. They spread you out, it's a lot of one on ones. Boy my swagger is down right now. After watching that video I was thinking my goodness, my stomach is in knots right now.
On defensive line play against Kansas without Desmond Jackson: Hassan [Ridgeway] and [Paul] Boyette did a tremendous job last week. They stepped to the plate, kept guys off the linebackers. We were more stout in the middle. We expect those guys to continue to play that way. It's very important that up in the middle, if you're strong up the middle the defense has a chance to be successful. If it isn't, it could be a long day.
On if he feels like they are making strides in the right direction: We are making strides. Remember the first time I sat up here? When have you ever seen a coach to be excited about anything? And we are heading in the right direction, we are taking baby steps and the only thing about the baby steps we are taking—we're about to run into a buzzsaw. That's the only thing about it. You wish you were playing Podunk U, but we're not; we're playing Baylor University who right now is leading the entire country in offense. They are averaging somewhere between about 96 plays a game. And you don't want to take baby steps towards that opponent. The only concern about it is that - I keep coming back to this - in order to ever win a championship, to have success as a team, you win as a team—that's offense, defense and special teams. It takes a team to beat Baylor. You talk about Central Florida's Blake Bortles, first-round pick, offensively, they outscored them, their defense was physical for three quarters and the special teams were out-of-sight. You know at Oklahoma State, you take a 99-yard drive in five minutes, so you keep the offense on the sideline. So in order to have success against that team, it's going to take a team to beat them. Last year, Oklahoma, for a half, played great. They had great talent who beat Alabama in the bowl game. They just were worn out from the amount of plays they had to defend against. That is always a concern. If you have to go play 100 plays defensively, you are going to have a hard time winning ball games.
On he has to get a lot of more guys ready to play in rotation: You do. And part of our issue right now is a lack of depth. We got into the game last week, we have some depth with the d-line, secondary, I might as well put my uniform back on, but I can't take a step without something about to break. So that's our concern right now. We don't have the depth that we need and we are trying to get some young guys to step up right now. We are telling the guys right now, 'I don't need scout team defensive backs here, I need guys who if I put you out there, it's not let down.' I told our entire defense, 'If you look at the history here at The University of Texas, the expectation is for the position.' So whoever steps in there, the expectation is for greatness. Right now, we don't have that. So right now we are working on those things, trying to get better, and that's why you have to go out and recruit. That's part of where we are right now with our program.
On if redshirts are going to be pulled: You know what? You never know about that. You are an injury away from a guy stepping into the play and going out there. Last week we played some guys because of special teams. We are trying to get more depth and more speed in our special teams. That's all strictly up to Coach [Charlie] Strong and how he wants to deal with those, but these are things we talk about as a defensive staff. Poona Ford played last week. We pulled his redshirt. Roderick Bernard played because of special teams, so we pulled his redshirt just because of a need, a need of speed, a need of athleticism and it could happen again this week based on how the game is going.
On DT Poona Ford: He was like Jason Hall the first time out there. He made some freshman mistakes, which is going to happen, but he did some good things. He shows a lot of ability and a guy who can play with great leverage, a guy who can move well, a guy who can move the team. So he is a perfect guy for what we are doing right now. I expect for him to play even better this week.
On DE Caleb Bluiett: He did a good job. He is a guy that can be disruptive. When you think about a defensive lineman, you want a guy who can cause havoc. You've got to chip them, if you're a back, because he is going to tackle one-on-one, if you rush him from the side, he can beat a guard one-on-one, get penetration and make a quarterback move his feet. We need more disruptive players from the defense end spot.
On if they can play man against Baylor this year like last year: We have pretty much the same guys back and we can't do that. We really can't. We are going to have to play some zone and we need more depth right now. When you play that much man, it's like going outside and chasing a rabbit. If I chase a rabbit for 60 minutes, I'm going to get tired before he gets tired; because on defense, you're chasing all of the time. In man-to-man, you expend a lot of energy, because of that we can't play that much man. We're going to have to play zone, keep it in front so we can cut the ball. What happens when you play man-to-man and it breaks? There is one guy in the middle of the field and everyone has their back to the ball, then big plays occur. If I was on offense coaching a running back and you're going to tell me I have 53 yards width wise and one guy in the middle of the field, if my guy can't beat your guy, then I'll let him know; son next week, you are going to be drinking Gatorade on the sideline with me because you can't beat that one guy. You aren't good enough. I've got to find somebody else. That's the one concern about playing man-to-man, when the ball breaks the line of scrimmage, there is just one guy back there.
On liking cat coverage: Many, many moons ago, I liked cat coverage. When you have those kinds of guys and people go back to that year we played Oklahoma when I was at Florida, we played a bunch of man-to-man and averaged 50 points a game, I had five defensive backs that played in the NFL. One is Joe Haden who went to the Pro Bowl, Janoris Jenkins was an alternate to the pro-bowl, Major Wright who started as a rookie for the Chicago Bears, Ahmad Black, who made it, Will Hill who was a the nickel back for the New York Giants. I had a pretty good secondary to go against [Sam] Bradford and the receivers they had. Right now, we aren't to that point. We have to go out and recruit to get back to that point one day.
On eye discipline for the defensive backs: A total focus at your task at hand. If you are playing man-to-man, your eyes can't be in that backfield. Your eyes have to be focused on your receiver. Its two things when you talk about it: when you're in the zone, use your peripheral vision—quarterback and back to receivers and when you're playing man-to-man--receiver then back to quarterback. You see, your focus starts there. What could happen if you're playing man-to-man in the backfield and the receiver is running around then the quarterback scrambles, you call that a touchdown. When they talk about eye-discipline, it's about reading your keys and being focused on one thing at a time.
On if he foresaw the success Jordan Hicks is having: When we first got here, going back and looking at the video when he played, yes we did. He's a guy who is another coach on the field. He has great awareness, understanding of the game and that's why he is playing so well right now. We need to recruit more guys like Jordan Hicks. Guys like Jordan Hicks can get us back to where we need to be as a defense at The University of Texas.
