The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Tracking the Longhorns: Charlie Strong media availability
06.22.2016 | Football
Comments from Charlie Strong during his summer update session with the media on Wednesday.
Head Coach Charlie Strong
Opening Statement: We're right in the middle of summer conditioning, and our guys are here. The good thing about it is they are in summer school, so they're taking some hours, and we really get a chance to work with them and see where we are as a team. Most of our freshmen are here, with the exception of [Marcel] Southall and [Erick] Fowler, which they have some work to do, and they will be here as soon as they get that work completed. You look at our freshman class. Last year, we signed two guys over 300 pounds. This class alone, there've been nine that we've signed that are 300 pounds or better. They're big guys who are really athletic. You look at us offensively, even with [Shane] Buechele being here, you've got a quarterback, you've got a running back in [Kyle] Porter, wide receiver in Collin [Johnson]. You get [Reggie] Hemphill, you get [Davion] Curtis, you get Lil'Jordan [Humphrey]. Then the line, [Zach] Shackelford was here in the spring, and we still have Tope [Imade], [Jean] Delance, and [Denzel] Okafor, and at tight end with Peyton [Aucoin]. Our biggest need we were able to address was our defensive line. We had to address that with [D'Andre] Christmas[-Giles], with [Chris] Daniels, [Jordan] Elliott, and [Gerald] Wilbon. Then you look outside with [Andrew] Fitzgerald and [Malcolm] Roach. Right now you're looking at six guys there, when we get Southall here, that's seven, and then you get Fowler here, that's eight. That's eight freshman defensive lineman we'll have a chance to work with. The linebacker [Jeffrey] McColloch was a good addition for us, and then in the secondary with [Brandon Jones], Chris Brown, and [Eric] Cuffee. It's exciting right now. Guys know how to work, and they're working. It's a totally different attitude with our team.
On if he sees Roach on the strong side or open side: Right now, he can play either position. He's got enough size and enough range where he can play to the strong side, and then he's athletic enough to play to the open side.
On what he gets out of satellite camps: They said we couldn't go out as a head coach and evaluate in May, but then you had a satellite camp so you have a chance to go out in June and evaluate. You look at Houston, and we didn't have a large amount of numbers because with the satellite camps, there are so many now, so many guys are going to so many, plus there were 7-on-7s going on. One of the guys, I asked if he was tired and he said, "Yeah, coach, this morning we had our morning workout, and then I came out here to camp in the evening." We go up to Dallas, and you run into the same thing. You have more numbers, but it's really a grind on a lot of the kids. Now they want to be seen so they're coming to all these camps and everyone is trying to showcase their program and be around it. I just think that we could do a better job with the satellite camps. Even if you just limit the number where only so many could be done, I don't know how you can do it, but really good ones who are being recruited aren't coming to the satellite camps anyway. You probably could go in and find one or two who are being recruited and has a really good day that day, but we just have to find a way where we can help the student-athletes and those who are participating where you can kind of limit the number so they don't get worn out.
On the exit interviews with last year's team: In dealing with the exit interviews and talking to the players, they know what their mindset is and what they want to get accomplished. So it's just totally different now, because now they've been around us for three years so they understand and know the sense of urgency and what they want to get accomplished.
On speaking about new additions to the team: I really cannot until we get the paper in our hand, but we have not gotten it, so we cannot speak on it.
On if he is optimistic about getting additions: I would like to see if we could get somebody. Recruiting is 24/7, 365 days a year. You just don't ever stop. You've got to go, go, go. That's the good thing about it. You get a chance to talk about your program and make sure that if we can add student-athletes, then that's what we're going to do.
On how the team's attitude is different: When you talk about the attitude, it's just overall how they're working right now. Even the players have a sense of knowing that this is what we have to get accomplished, knowing that, hey, in order for this to happen, we're going to have to work, we're going to have to build and come together as a team. When you talk about leaders, sometimes it may not always be a starter, but I get a guy like Tim Cole, who has the respect of his teammates, and Tim is an unbelievable leader. On the offensive side, [Kent] Perkins never says anything, but guys just watch how he works. I just think that now, when you end the season with that Baylor game, knowing that they didn't have another game, now it's like, "Hey, we know we're a better football team then what we've shown, so let's go work and prove it."
On if players can look to Shane Buechele as a leader: The quarterback position is always a position where you're going to see a leader emerge from that group. [Tyrone] Swoopes is doing a good job of working hard, and Jerrod [Heard]. This summer, those guys are out there and around one another, so they know who Shane is and how hard he works and what he brings to the team. All three of those guys are doing a good job, so it's just hard to say it's just one guy who is stepping forward.
On Buchele asking for practice facility keys at 10:30 at night: Buechele did. He gave me a call and wanted to go throw. He and Collin [Johnson] are always together, and they just wanted to get out and get some throws in. I just told him, "The lights are out, but tomorrow morning they will be on." He said, "No, coach. We can go now." I said, "Ok, I'll meet you guys over there."
On Tyrone Swoopes needing to play well as a senior: He's going into his senior year, so you expect more from guys and that guys will step up. It's still summer, but when a guy goes into his senior year, you're going to expect more from him.
On when he will choose a quarterback: I would like to think we would get it done earlier in camp, so we can get the guys with the ones and move on. When I look at it now, and just the way we're trying to build the team, I just like to say that we have enough bodies now where we can play with units on both sides of the ball. If you get the practice in, then you're able to get some snaps early, then if a guy was to get an injury, now you've played them enough where they can go in and play and you feel comfortable with them.
On Buechele being a competitor: The thing about Shane is he's been a quarterback, and that's what he's always worked as. A lot of times you see guys who are athletes playing as quarterback where he is a quarterback. Just because of his bloodlines and what he's been around, he's got that competitive spirit to win.
On Jason Hall and Dylan Haines being pushed at safety: You feel like you've got competition in every position, and that's what you want to see happen. I hope we get that, where we get guys who are going to be pushed.
On the opening game against Notre Dame: It's big. I know last year we didn't go out and play well at all. We're at home. It's the opener for us. We need it within our program to play well. I expect us to go play well.
On if he likes it being the only game on that Sunday: I do. I told our players that. It's really great, we're the only game on that Sunday, and now everyone across the country is going to have the chance to watch you play. Why else would you want it any other way? It's The University of Texas, and that's how it should be. Now we have a chance early to stamp our mark and see where we are.
On if he has heard more about Notre Dame this offseason than Oklahoma: The buildup right now is kind of just easing its way. As we get closer, it's really going to build up. I told our players, I really didn't think I did a good job last year with that game because I made too much about it early, but now we're just going to approach it like any other game. They're going to hear so much about it, not much needs to be said.
On how much attention he's expecting to be put on him this year: It will come. What we have to do is not so much put it on one person. It's still about building a team and making sure we prepare our team the right way and they're set to go play. Even if the focus gets on me, I will shift it and make sure our team understands how important this game is.
On if there could be a big jump this year: We're young and talented and you just don't know. It's all about how you come out and compete. You can't count the wins or say, "It's going to be this big of a jump." We know we have to improve and get better.
On being able to build a pass rush with just the front four with the additions on the defensive line: You would like to think so because now you have enough bodies to alternate in there and keep guys rested up. [Paul] Boyette, Poona [Ford], and Chris Nelson are really you're only three real vets coming back inside, so now the freshman group is going to have to play. Even outside, you have [Bryce] Cottrell and Naashon Hughes and [Charles] Omenihu, but still you have more bodies to help them and just get them rested, so when we get to a passing situation we have fresh bodies on the field.
On any new names competing at kicker: No, the guys that we ended up with the spring are our kickers, and that's who we're going to have to go into the fall with.
On the conference championship game next year: I think it's really exciting for the conference and for The University of Texas. You get more exposure, and you get a conference championship and now you have championship Saturday, so it's really good.
On the impact Charlie Williams has had on the receivers: When you talk about assistant coaches, it's all about building a relationship with you're players. The players have to trust you. Charlie's old school and has been around for a long time, and he knows how to communicate and how to push that button, whatever it may be. He knows how to get the players to go play and compete at their best. I think Charlie and Jeff Traylor have done that.
On offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert: Sterlin has a lot of confidence in what he is doing. He has a system and is going to go with it. The thing he's been able to do is get the offense where the players understand the system and feel good about it. The confidence he has, you can see that now with the players and have that belief.
On the depth of the team: We always talk about players getting worn down and we're talking about playing a lot of plays on offense, so you're going to have to play a lot of players just to keep them fresh. We go out in practice, and I was telling our coaches, "If we're in practice, we have to give them opportunities to play." Plus, it builds within your team, and now they start feeling good about themselves and they have confidence because they know they're going to play. The worst thing to do is have a bunch of players who are sitting on the sideline. If they're not playing, they're upset, and you don't want to start feeling that within the team. Now you have a chance to go out. I don't know how many plays a game it's going to be, but let them go out there and compete. Then we give our other guys a chance to rest and freshen up.
On Timothy Cole or Anthony Wheeler at middle linebacker so Malik Jefferson can be moved around: Right now, with the number of defensive linemen, we have ways of moving Malik if we need to. You have enough bodies there up front where you just have to get those guys coached up and ready to play. If you move Malik, you have Tim inside, you have Wheeler inside, you have [Edwin] Freeman inside, and [Cameron] Townsend. Then you have to bring McColloch along. It's just hard do say, "Now we've got to move [Malik]." You just don't want to make one position weaker when you have enough players for the other position.
On the relationship between D'Onta Foreman and Chris Warren: They have a really good relationship. I think they see it within themselves. I think they respect one another's ability. That's what you want to get to. If you keep recruiting well enough, then you want to get that at every position where guys feel like if they come out, they have a guy that goes in for them who can go do almost anything they can do. They know that they are two dynamic backs, and they're big guys who can get the ball down the field, and they're fast enough to outrun people. Even if you give a change up, you still have Kirk Johnson or Porter or Tristian Houston, but you have some speed guys also.
On Kris Boyd: Kris competed well last year. He's an unbelievable special teams player. He has enough that he can be a starter I think he's going to compete, and he wants to start. He's working right now where he goes out each and every day, and he's going to be given that opportunity.
On working on the 18-wheeler package with Swoopes: You have so much you can do now. You still have that package. Those quarterbacks can all do different things. If you want a specialty package for one of them, you can always get that worked out. I think Sterlin is smart enough to do that.
On not having to pass as much due to the quality of running backs: You're going to have to throw the ball. If you don't, people are going to load the box. If they load the box, you've got to take the pressure. When you have the good running backs, it helps the quarterback because he knows he has a run game. We're going to have to throw the ball because they're going to sit there on top of us. They know with those two big backs, we could turn and hand it off every time. I don't think we can do that. We have to make sure we can throw it and run it.
On Holton Hill and Davante Davis: They're going to get better. The thing they have is height. They have height and a good size on them and they can run. The only thing they're going to do is get better and improve. Now they're going into year two and they've gotten stronger in winter conditioning and summer conditioning, so those two are just going to improve and get better and better.
On an average summer conditioning day: It's broken down. On Mondays, they run and lift. Tuesdays is an agility day. Wednesdays are off. Thursdays are agility, and Fridays they run. It's upper body on Mondays and Thursdays, Tuesdays and Fridays are lower body. They have still have summer school, but they have a lot of time.
On Andrew Fitzgerald growing into a tackle position: He's at end right now. It just depends. I think he's probably sitting there at 250-255, which is a good size. He can carry it well, but we don't want to make him really big because what he really does well is he gets off and goes so hard. You don't want him to lose that edge about him.
On what needs to get done between now and fall practice: You have to come together and build as a team. When you talk about the speed training, it's going to be critical because you talk about getting them bigger, stronger, faster, it will come into how fast we practice. It will depend on the tempo and if that can translate to the football field. You want to watch guys continue, and some guys still need to take some weight off, some guys we need to put some weight one. When you get to the second session, then it's time to start cutting them down so they can transition right into fall camp.
On the difficulty stopping the run last year: When you give up big runs, it's about gap control and getting off of blocks and making sure you come down and when you put an extra guy in the box, the front is slanted one way. It's all about control and guys getting off of blocks. We didn't do a good job of stopping the run and making a team one-dimensional, we never did that last year. Usually when a team is able to run the ball on you, they're being more physical than you and tougher. That's what we can't allow. We have to improve our run defense.
On if that eats at him as a defensive coach: It eats at you because, I think we ended up giving up a lot of yards, but our guys on defense, from Coach [Vance] Bedford and all of them, they understand we need to improve there.
On the personal pressure: It really doesn't wear on me because when you're around the team and you see what you have and what you continue to build, it really doesn't wear on me. I know we just have to continue to improve as a team, do a better job of recruiting, get the right guys and just build it the right way.
On his confidence in this season: You're going into year three, and you just want to make sure you're making progress and that this season we make progress.
On if he's seeing a different quality of player on the field: You look at the last two classes, Malik's class and this class, and you're probably just a few guys off. The thing that's different is they're all still young, so now it's all about making sure you're comfortable with the young guys. It'll get there. You're still at a place where you can recruit and get at what you need.
On the academic progress of the team: Our team GPA was a 2.8, and our academic support group did a good job with our guys. We understand what our academic needs are and where we need to get to and you want to make sure academically you give the guys a chance to go be successful. They've done a good job. The 2.83 was good because at the end we made a big push. Our guys took care of their work in the classroom, which you want to see happen.
On athletes competing in both football and track: We always love to see those two-sport athletes, and I know we probably have some more guys who could go run track if they put their mind to it, but o see John Burt do it, it's really fun to watch him.
On the big guys who came in this class: Their body, when you're talking about 300 pounders, that's what you want to see. When you talk about big guys who can move and won't get pushed around and they have enough athletic ability where they can get off of blocks and go make plays.
On what Octavious Bishop brings to the staff: Big O was a great hire. Coaches get on players so much, and sometimes there just needs to be another voice telling them, "This is what [the coach] was saying to you and he may have meant it another way." That's what O can do. Just to hear his story and see him playing here and where it took him, getting his Ph.D and coming back. I was excited, even when I met him, I was like, "Wow. This is the guy I've been looking for." Just to get him hired was big. I congratulate Mike [Perrin] because Mike heard him speak also, and he told me, "I heard a guy talk, and I'd like for you to meet him." Then O and I sat down and talked, but it was a really good hire for us.
