The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
11.11.2014 | Football
Assistant head coach for offense/QB coach Shawn Watson and players met with the media
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Following Tuesday's practice assistant head coach for offense/quarterbacks coach Shawn Watson, senior running back Malcolm Brown, junior defensive tackle Malcom Brown and senior linebacker Jordan Hicks met with the media. The Longhorns (5-5, 4-3 Big 12) are coming off a 33-16 win over then-No. 24/25 West Virginia and are preparing to face Oklahoma State Saturday in Stillwater. Below are quotes from the availability.
Assistant head coach for Offense/Quarterbacks Shawn Watson
On preparing for the possibility of playing in bad weather in Stillwater: I've been in games where weather can be a factor, in terms of wind and it being wet. I remember playing in a game when I was in Colorado, we played at Iowa State, and a tornado came through there right before the game. You honestly could not throw it going into their facility, it was such a strong wind. Weather can play a factor. We started talking about today how it may affect us and what the plan may be. Honestly, you've got to get to game time. You've got to get there and see what the weather is like. Is wind a factor? In terms of wetness, is there rain or is there snow? That type of thing.
On Joe Wickline knowing Oklahoma State's personnel: Obviously, he's got a lot of knowledge about their players. He'd be the first one to tell you that they've made some changes. He's seen that defense, obviously every day, but they've made some changes like all good coaches do. He's got a good knowledge of their players. He's got a real knowledge of what they like to do in their program and how they like to set up their game thoughts, in terms of the entire football team. You've been at a place nine years, you probably know a little bit.
On the decision to move Andrew Beck from defense to offense: We take all of the freshmen, and we typically do this when we have a freshman practice, and we put them through a gauntlet of drills that lets us evaluate them as players and on what their skillset is. At the NFL combine, there's a catch drill that they do that's a cross-field catch drill, and you'll fire about six balls at them and they have to rapid fire catch them. They have to move because they're flying across the field. He had the best hand-eye coordination of the whole group. I started politicking right away. I ran up to Charlie and say 'Hey, 47 has got unbelievable hands, and he can run.' At that time, we were good at back, but we needed some depth at tight end. He had been a high school tight end, played the position, and he was really a perfect fit for what we'd like to do with our moving tight end. We've grown him, we've given him more significant time. The Texas Tech game was where he got his most time. That's the first time we felt like he had an intimate knowledge of what we were trying to do, and you could see him executing it during the week on film. He's been really good since. His confidence level has skyrocketed since that game.
On if Daje Johnson is touching the ball enough: We always go in with packages for him. Back at the Texas Tech game when he rolled back off the shelf, giving him a package, we didn't know how far we could go with him in that game. Each week we're giving him more and more. This week, he's gotten more. We'll continue to push him. We need to grow him. We develop packages for him, different ways for him to touch the football, and we use him as chum too. We'll put him out there, and those things that people see on film, they're going to know they do these type of things with him. For example, the last touchdown run, he really created it because the West Virginia people believed he was carrying the football. He did a really nice job of faking it, and Tyrone [Swoopes] did too, so it just opened up large inside seems. We use him not only to carry the ball, but also to set up other things off of those things we give him the football in. We've got to grow him in his base offense too. He's been away from us for a while, so he's getting more assignments now. I met with him today. We're going to have another package for him this week and keep putting him in it more and more.
On expectations being placed on Swoopes through the negativity: He's still seeing things for the first time. The defenses week in and week out will change, there's differences. You guys know better about this than I do, about the young man that is having such a great year up there at TCU. Somebody made the analogy to me about how he has grown in his career. I've been through this with a bunch of kids, and they've kind of all went down a similar path. To different degrees? Absolutely. But what's similar is the inconsistency early and what becomes consistent later. That's when they get it. Teddy [Bridgewater], the last one I went through before Tyrone, Teddy had the same learning curves as a freshman. How fast they get through it goes back to maybe what their background was in football. Teddy had a little bit more of a football past, probably, than what Tyrone had, so he went through it a little bit quicker. I've had guys that haven't had that kind of background – they've gone through it slower. You've just got to work your way through the process.
On how proud he is of Johnathan Gray and Malcolm Brown: They've been awesome. I'm sure for them they would never say this, they would never admit to this, but early they were frustrated guys. They both are such high caliber players and competitors, and I'm really pleased and happy with what's happening with them. They've got a real thing going right now with the offensive line. They're playing really well, both of them. They're feeding off of each other – that's what's truly cool, they're both feeding off of each other. Johnathan didn't want to let Malcolm get a leg up on him. I've mentioned that in their world, I know how competitive those two are. It's really cool to see that happen for those guys because they've been great teammates in that locker room and are truly leaders on our side of the ball.
On if the West Virginia game was the best he has seen in Gray: For Johnathan, yes, the last two games in particular. He made some jump cuts and then exploded. We talked after the game briefly about it, but I feel like he's very confident about where he's at coming off of his injury. He's playing like he played last year. When I saw him on film last year, he made jump cuts that were explosive. He put a foot in the dirt, he could cut through a weak shoulder of a defender, and he was gone. It really happened for him on the touchdown run at Texas Tech because he made a move that was like wow, that's pretty cool.
Senior RB Malcolm Brown
On Oklahoma State being in the same boat as Texas in terms of being one win away from bowl eligibility: We're all aware of that, but at the same time, we're just worried about us. We need to come out here and have a tremendous week of practice, keep practicing like we've been practicing and just prepare for them. Like I said, it's all about us. We need to focus on what we're doing and go in that environment and try to get the 'W' out of there.
On if he's worried about complacency: Oh no that's something Coach Strong and the staff has been stressing. That's definitely something that I feel like this team is not thinking about. We're not satisfied with the two-game winning streak. I was thinking about it all along and Coach Strong really said it today after practice: the two-game winning streak shouldn't be the standard here, so that's definitely not something we're going to be complacent about or anything.
On how they're preparing for the crowd noise to avoid pre-snap penalties like they've had in the past: When you have a rowdy crowd like that, you definitely have to go with some silent counts here and there. That's really all you can do. When it gets too loud, you just can't hear stuff, so you got to do different silent counts, not just the same ones. You definitely have to throw those out there.
On if he's confident the pre-snap penalties won't be an issue: Oh yeah for sure. These guys have a whole lot more experience and some games under their belt, some big games under their belt. You just really got to focus in. You can't do anything about the crowd. Those guys up at Oklahoma State, they're real crazy, real rowdy up there, so you can't do nothing about it but just work your way through it.
On what they learned about the run game the last two games: That we can be consistent. If we just focus and do our assignments and really just do what we know how to do and guys are confident in themselves, then we can run the ball and we can be great at it.
Junior DT Malcom Brown
On how much fun this team is having: Having a lot of fun, just really focusing on Oklahoma State. Got to win, trying to win out.
On how good the defense is when Cedric Reed is doing good: Yeah you got people coming from everywhere. You got Quandre [Diggs] on the outside, you got everybody on the outside, you got us all in the middle, so there's not really one space that you really can hit where we're weak at.
On considering the NFL and what he takes out of his discussions with the coaches about it: I could do it but at the end of that talk [with the coaches], I just forget about it and play football. That's all I'm going to do. Like I told y'all before, when I was in high school, they were like, "You're going to Texas," but when we got on the field, that thought doesn't even come to my mind. The thought in my head is don't let down my teammates, you've got to be here at this time to do this right here so somebody else can fill their gap. If you're not there, that messes up the whole defense. That's one thing I think about during the game and just going through everything, that's all I think about, is not letting down my teammates.
On if the team is coming together: We showed a good little peak of it during West Virginia but we just got to bring that every week. You can't just try to step up one week, then next week one of the special teams, offense or defense isn't stepping up to their standards. You got to bring it every week. You can't just have one week you're standing out, then the next week you're standing back. We try to emphasize on bringing it every week and having the same mentality every week that we have when we have a good week.
On what he's improved most: When the ball's away, I try to keep my motor high every play and just run to the ball and always be around the ball and be in the picture. Also when I first got here and last year, I used to always drop my head and when I was coming off the ball, I used to always duck my head. I feel like during the spring and summer, I was just always working on keeping my head up when I made contact and I feel like I made a very big stride of that. That's where I really think I made a big stride in, though.
On how much Assistant head coach for defense/defensive line coach Chris Rumph has helped him: It's different having a coach that doesn't yell, but you know when he's mad at you. Like he has that tone in his voice when you know he's mad. He just tries to emphasize on the little things. Yeah you can do the big things, but the little things are what matter. Every coaches emphasizes on that. On days with no pads, he's like, "it's a hands day. Use your hands on everything. Get off blocks. Punch the blocks." When he does all that, it's really just getting you ready to use your hands, instead of using your shoulders or using your arms. You're just using your hands on those days all day. He's just a fun coach to be around, also. He keeps high energy around us. We're always talking smack to other positions, really, trying to compete with them. Then when you walk up in the coaches office, they're in there talking smack to each other about what we were doing in practice and talking about giving us too many points in practice because we did something good. This whole coaching staff is just really fun and they keep high energy.
Senior LB Jordan Hicks
On making open field tackles: It's the name of the game now. Everybody's trying to get linebackers in space and create that mismatch, especially with wide outs, but I'm confident in my ability. I just play. I try to take good angles, really on my pursuit. It's a team game.
On how much the defense is putting a bowl on its shoulders: Forget the bowl, it's about Oklahoma State right now. If we can get this, obviously we'll be bowl eligible, but we want to win this game. We don't want to lose again. Like always, we hold ourselves to a very high standard. Last week we weren't able to get turnovers really but we were able to score. Like I said, every time we've gotten turnovers, we've won the game. We've gotten takeaways for our offense and put them in good field position, we've won. That's got to be this week, as well.
On if he recognized Mykkele Thompson with the way he played vs. West Virginia: Man it was awesome. I was happy for him. It was really exciting to see, especially for Mykkele. He's really focused on being a more physical player and a playmaker and a ball hawk and getting after the ball. He showed a different side about him, it's exciting.
On Cedric Reed breaking out of his slump: It's good for Ced, as well. It's always nice to see somebody take that next step and everybody knew it was there. It's one of those things that everybody knew it was there, we were just waiting for it to happen and when it does, he explodes. I think the coaching staff was saying he had the most production points they had ever seen. He had an incredible night. Hats off to him because it really didn't surprise anybody.
On if he feels like he's the best player on the field again: Back on the field, first off. That's a big deal. I don't know, man, I've always been confident in my ability. There wasn't really one time where I didn't think that if I was able to stay on the field that I'd be very productive. I'm not perfect. Nobody on that field is. I haven't had a perfect game out there, never will, but I feel like I'm playing my best ball and obviously I have a lot of confidence right now and a lot of credit to the guys in front of me. Having Hassan Ridgeway and Malcom Brown ahead of me is kind of nice.
On the vibe around the facility: It's a good vibe around here. Even though it's not the standard, we kind of feel like we've taken a step. Special teams is coming along and that's huge for us. When special teams is playing well, it can change the game. The offense is rolling and we're rolling. There's a lot of confidence in a lot of different places.
On if he feels like he's a smarter player: I believe so. This coaching staff, they teach. They do a really good job of teaching. They're really involved. Everybody is really involved with everybody. Coach Bedford sits in on every single meeting, whether it's linebackers, DBs or D-line, he's in every room. Coach Strong is the same way, walking in and out, constantly teaching, constantly making comments. It's nice to have three different heads that you can kind of pick and learn things from. I believe that my IQ is higher this year than it's been in a while.
On if his overall improvement is due to the coaches: I believe so. We can relate to these coaches. They do a good job of letting everybody know that they truly care about you, that they want to relate to you. They do a really good job of that and being personable. I think that plays a big part in it, as well.
