The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
09.23.2014 | Football
Head coach Charlie Strong and assistant head coach for offense Shawn Watson addressed the media
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Head coach Charlie Strong and assistant head coach for offense/quarterbacks coach Shawn Watson addressed the media Tuesday evening. Below are quotes.
Head coach Charlie Strong
Opening statement: The blue print of this program has been and always will be the change in helping direct the lives of young people. I'm sorry that another player had to be dismissed, but when you're told something over and over again, then you want to make sure that you're provided with the right resources so that you can change lives. We continue to develop young men. We will continue to ask them to follow our core values, which all of them have been brought up on. They understand what the core values are. When you are asked to do something and you are part of a team, and when you don't do it then you affect the whole team, and you affect the whole program. Not only are you affecting yourself, but you're affecting your teammates, and they want to see change.
Young people want discipline in their lives, and it's our job as a coaching staff to make sure that we provide him with discipline. I always look at it like this - right now, they are laying a foundation for 10 years from now. That foundation is the house they are going to live in, the wife they are going to pick to marry, their children and how they're going to provide for them and how they're going to raise them. If that foundation is provided for them now, 10 years from now they'll just be able to lean back on it and look back and say 'That's the life that I want to live. That's the life that I want provided for me.'
Any time a player is dismissed from this program it hurts me because we are here to help young men. We are not here to run young men off; that's not our job. We're here to help them, and it just bothers me. When you're given an opportunity, you want to make sure you have every resource and everything available to help them be successful.
On what core value Kennedy Estelle broke: I can't say exactly which one he broke because it's just within the team and with the player and his family.
On if he suspends a guy and he doesn't abide by the rules, how can you get to the guys if they're not going to listen: It's tough, but that's our job. That's our job to continue to try to reach them somehow. Our coaching staff is really involved. I tell our coaches all the time 'You're the head coach of your position, and when there's issues you need to attack that issue.' I get involved, also, but it's really tough. I always look at it - sometimes you see someone that has given so much and achieved so little and then someone that has given so little and achieved so much. If you ask these young men, they know. We say to them all the time that they're here for a reason. It is a privilege and an honor to represent this university, and we're not here to bring any type of shame and embarrassment to this university for the little things that we do. Which we should never do.
On if something happened in the last 24 hours to cause the dismissal: What happened was, we sat down and had a conversation and then something popped up, and that's when I had to do what I did.
On how do you gauge how much time you spend with rule breakers: What's tough is, like you said, you have a locker room. As a coach, if you continuously say 'don't do that again, don't do that again' and there are players that want you to do something, you lose your locker room when you tell someone to do something, and they keep on and don't do it, then you tell them again and they don't do it. The players look at you like you're not going to do anything. You have 95 percent that's doing it right, and then you just have that small faction of guys that feel like this is the way they're going to do it whether I like it or not. I just tell them that there's always other teams out there, but this isn't the school for them. You can think about it - The University of Texas - great academics, great athletics. What more could ask for?
On if is locker room is filled with guys who want to be here and are here for the right reasons: It is. We haven't had many issues with the other guys within the locker room. The two players that are suspended have done everything that we've asked them to do. I'd like to see when they're going to return. I don't know exactly the date, but they will be returning.
On if they're on a short leash at this point: Yes, they are on a short leash at this point.
On people saying he is too hard on players and if he feels he's being old school and too hard: I'm not hard at all. Those guys have more fun around me then they will ever have around any coach, and that's just the atmosphere that I provide for them. I give them a lot of chances to get it right because I want them to still be successful. When you suspend a player from your program, you'll pick up the paper in a few months and they've handed down their role, and you don't want that to happen. You feel like somehow you failed him because you weren't able to grab him, put him under your wing, and then provide that right road for him to go down. That's what's tough when you don't provide that road for them. That's why it's so disappointing when you dismiss them. It's disappointing when I've had to dismiss players. It's hurt me more because I sit there and say 'What did I not do? What could I have done better to help this young man and help him with his future?' That's why they're here in college - to provide a better living for themselves.
On if he knew when he took this job, this many people would cross him: It's not so much the job. There's nothing that's here that's nowhere else. Sometimes, when you take over a program, guys want to just try to find out who you are and try to find out what you're all about. When you say you're going to do something, it's just like your own child, they're going to challenge you. Now when they do challenge you, then what are you going to do about it? It's not so much the program, it's just that young men sometimes want to make a decision where they feel like it is their prerogative to do whatever they want to do. It just can't happen here.
On if this is impeding the chance to build something or is this his way of building something: You can build it. Whenever I have an issue with a player, you guys already know who the players are. At some point, we all need to step in and the players need to get involved because you know exactly who it is - that's the only way we're going to move this in the right direction. Whenever I suspend a player, it hurts us all. At some point, he can help contribute to something where he may be a starter or a back-up specialties player. There's some role he has on this team, so we all have to get involved.
On if he wishes some of the players, especially the older ones, would police the locker room so he doesn't have to: I think that they're trying to police it, but they'll tell you 'Coach, I'm not around him all the time. When we are around him, you're standing right there.' I remember one time we had a meeting and one of the guys just stood up and said 'Hey, are you guys doing what you're supposed to. I'm doing what I'm supposed to.' That's what we need to do and help them do it the right way, but this happens.
On if he's satisfied with the player leadership: I think what happened and what we saw earlier was that some of the players got more involved. They thought the only way we could win - we need everybody. We need everybody to be around here to help us.
Texas assistant head coach for offense/quarterbacks Shawn Watson
On if he feels like the guys heads are in the right place with the distractions: The way we manage things, we keep our focus on what we need to do to improve. We're trying to build a program and when you're growing a program, you've got to focus on the task at hand, which is, in our case, developing younger players and getting everybody up to speed with really understanding the culture and what it takes to be a championship program and what it takes to play at a championship level. We've got young guys that know what they're dealing with everyday. Day in, day out, it's a task at hand. We're teaching. Never stop teaching.
On if other coaches are involved with the player dismissals: No, we're always in the loop. Charlie's got core values that we follow. Everybody knows them. We all believe in them and know what we have to do. They're about the right things. One of the things I've always respected most about Charlie, why I'm with him, is because he believes in the things that it takes to be a successful human being. He takes a role unlike a lot of people I've been around in this profession that he's a father figure and that he really cares about what a person, a player in this case, becomes later in life. He is an outstanding role model.
On if he finds out after the fact that the player is dismissed: Depends on the situation, to be honest. It just depends. Things that are really family business, that's not really for public to know but we're in the loop when need be.
On how much it takes out of Strong to have to dismiss a kid: It kills him. I've seen this guy believe in so many people. I can remember times at Louisville, I knew there was something bad for the team and he saw something in some individuals. I can think of a couple of particular cases and he changed people's lives. But here's the key, they wanted their lives changed. Sometimes it doesn't work, that's the unfortunate thing about what we all do in life, when it's raising our kids. In our case, coaches, you want it to always work. He's the last guy to ever give up on a kid. The last. I can tell you that.
On Tyrone Swoopes starting to watch more film and recognize it: That's true. He's taken ownership in what it takes to be a great player. Ty's got a lot of development left. The number one thing I've tried to get him to understand is developing the character it takes, the work ethic it takes. My first question to him was, "At the end of your career, how do you want your career to look? And then, now what's your plan on getting there?" And then along the way, I've taught him things he needs to know to get there. It's a process with a quarterback. Especially he's coming from a background from a smaller high school, he needed a lot of football work, plus what we're doing. He's had to develop what all of them have to develop and that's the management aspect you hear me talk about a lot. He's putting in the work necessary. He's not a finished product, as you guys know, but what I love about Ty is I love his character. He's got outstanding character and that character is what's going to enable him to find his goal. I really believe that in the end, when his career ends here, he will have found something pretty special because he's got great character. And with that character comes a work ethic and he realizes what it takes to achieve a goal.
On if Malcolm Brown and Johnathan Gray are making big plays: Those two guys are great teammates, they're great examples for what we want as coaches. They always are guys who prepare and they've got a master coach in their room in T-Rob [Tommy Robinson]. He's been around the professional business and he teaches them like a pro, so those guys are always well prepared. And they're great teammates because they understand we're developing a line. We're developing younger players that have been pressed into action. They've been encouraging on the field. They keep a great work ethic on and off the field. They've got a lot of purpose in the work because they know they have to keep the ante up because like you said, there's guys who have made plays around here and been apart of a lot of good football.
On if he needs to find another quarterback in this class because of David Ash retiring: With this class, we've talked about it. We'll look into that market. We honestly have got to create all the positions. That can be said for quarterback, as well as all of them. Obviously on our side of the ball, we need to keep creating competition in that room and I want competition in a room. I like to have four or five guys in a room that are after each other every day. We just built a deal there at Lousiville. Teddy Bridgewater was chasing Will Stein when he first showed up and then Will Gardner started chasing Teddy Bridgewater. Then we kept bringing guys in and they started chasing people. So when that room gets competitive, that's when you start playing your best football because you have to compete everyday. You have to have competition in your classrooms.
On if he's going to have to compensate for the offensive line all year or if it will ever be a strength: We're going to be developing. We have to develop it into a strength. That's our job.
Can it happen during the year: That's our job. We can't worry about what it is. Our job is to coach. They call us Coach and we've got to be resourceful in how we develop them and have a plan for their development. I'm glad we have [offensive coordinator/offensive line coach] Joe [Wickline] because he's an excellent coach, a master coach. He's got a plan for their development and we've just got to stay true to it and keep developing and bring people in and help us.
On how many linemen does he trust to play in a game right now: I've got to trust those five guys that walk out there first. Those five kids have done everything we've asked them to do and they're working their tail ends off. We're getting some of the younger kids up and we're working with them now to be there in case, if nothing else, for our future. We've made a youth movement in the twos that's helping us develop our depth further for the future and we're working hard with those kids that we have. That's what we've got, we've got to work with it.
On how challenging has it been plugging in all the new guys at that position: It's been tough. No one coach is going to lie to you and tell you it isn't tough because one of the biggest things is continuity. Having a group that works together, that understands the same looks, that trigger the same calls, that play off of each other. That's the part with us to create the resourcefulness for them that we stay consistent what we do conceptually with them. We keep drilling the same things over and over until they get it. Now the good thing is, Jake's [Raulerson] learned fast. He's a fast learner so he's helped us and he had a great example in front of him in Dom[inic Espinosa] so he's ahead of his learning curve. We just have to keep developing the others around him too.
On if it's a different challenge going to Kansas: Right now, where we're at in our program, we're taking care of us. We have to take care of us. The bottom line is, we're not anywhere near happy where we're at and what we have to accomplish. So no disrespect intended, but it's about our team. We're trying to develop a program. My whole attention is on us. Obviously we're game planning and we have respect for their scheme and their players but really my attention's focused on us. We need to do a great job in developing our players and give them a chance to be successful.
On Tyrone's decision-making: He's been really good in his decision-making and one that shows on his chart, doesn't really belong to him. It was in an error on a blocking assignment. He's made really good decisions. He's made excellent decisions. It goes back to what we've talked about a few times, he's been an excellent student. After spring ball, I got his feet on the ground and I think he was unhappy with the way he played in the spring game, the way he started. He took that personal, which was really good. That was a really good sign for me that showed me had pride, he had character and he really aspired to do something. So he has put in a really good summer, had a good training camp and he was competitive with David [Ash]. Then when he had his opportunity, he was ready. So he's everything I've hoped he would become. When you see him walk into a room, you guys have all seen him, obviously. He's a good-looking dude. You're thinking about this, that's what they look like. Now the task is to get him to play up to that.
On if he's night and day from the spring game: Night and day. He's not even close. Where he's at right now. He's such a humble kid. He's got me to keep him that way because I know what a great one looks like. There's a lot out there for him to go achieve. So we keep his feet on the ground and that's who he is. He was raised in that home, so it's easy to keep him motivated and keep him moving forward.
On if defenses are going to start taking out the rollout bootleg: Shh. (laughs) We're always going to try to change up the launch points on people in several different ways. I've always done that in my career. People do try and take that away from us. Ty has become pretty proficient back there in the pocket too. We don't just run plays, we attack schemes and what they do defensively. We change up some of the route combinations that we work based on what kind of coverage they play. So Ty has been able to grasp all that conceptually and I think that's really helping him in the pocket aspect of it. So I like where he's headed as a pocket passer too.
On if he's expecting Greg Daniels to play on Saturday: That's a hope right now. We'll know more as we continue to get through this week. He's been back working with us and he's looking good right now. We'll see how he holds up as the week wears on.
On how many bells and whistles does this offense have: They've always been there. What we've done is a little bit different. We've moved forward in some aspects because of our situation. We've tried to create and get more touches for those two tailbacks and get them on the field at the same time, use the receivers in different ways, create other touches other than conventional football, which is "I hope it's smart" and we think it is. We're trying to get the ball distributed several different ways because that's just where we're at right now.
