The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Tracking the Longhorns: Offensive Coordinator Sterlin Gilbert [Aug. 30, 2016]
08.30.2016 | Football
Offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert met with the local media in advance of Sunday night's game against Notre Dame.
Offensive Coordinator Sterlin Gilbert
On Swoopes and Buechele and their progression: Well really with both of them this whole time it's been about steady progression and just understanding and knowing and learning the offense and being better with it every time they took a rep. With every throw, with every huddle call, and making sure those guys have been better. And that's what's both of those guys been, have the availability and capability, of doing and both of those guys have done it and they done it from the time we've been on campus until you talk about right now. So those guys have just had steady progression. With us that's what it's been about. Always progress and never regress. So we've just tried to be progressive with everything we've done, from every rep, from everything we've put on the board, from every video that we've watched. Making sure those guys are sharp and understanding.
On what the quarterback has done to be the starter: You know Ill just go back to the first question. It's just about being consistent and being progressive and be able to know and execute. I mean it's like any offense. If you execute it at a high level, if you do your job at a high level, then the majority of the time you're the guy, you're the person that's going to be able to do it at the end of that day. So you know we look for the same at every position, just as we do the quarterback position.
On Jerrod's and Kai's transition: I'll start with Jerrod. I think the guy is just dedicated, unselfish. A guy that has really embraced the role and has done a great job with it, and with his athletic ability and what he's able to do, it's been fun to watch this transition with him and with Kai as well. So yeah I don't know to what level and what percentage those guys will, but they absolutely will contribute to what we're doing this fall.
On Tyrone's confidence and his growth: He's a guy that walks around here with his chin up and his head high. I mean he's a big strong confident guy - he's a great young man. And that's what he is every day. When he comes in that meeting room, that's what we expect him to be. I just told him a while ago be what you are everyday when you get up which is big, which is strong, which is confident, which is a great football player. So when he wakes up in the morning that's what he is. When he shows up over here, that's what he is. When he goes in a classroom, that's what he is. So our expectations of him are high and his leadership, his experience, and what his value to this football team is is huge.
On what has impressed him most about Connor Williams and Patrick Vahe: You know with Conner, just athletics. You know he's, big, he's athletic, he's rangy, he moves well, he's a highly intelligent kid. He grasps what we've done in a hurry. He's been able to carry it from board to field and being able to execute it. And his leadership is something that's really came on, as the spring went on, especially the summer and into the camp. So he's a guy we're going to lean on. Obviously Patrick with his experience - those are the things that are invaluable. Is having game experience. And both of those guys carry that. Having them play last year as two true freshmen. But both of those guys are determined. Both of those guys are mean so we like that up front. And that's what they carry for us.
On the process leading up to his first game as offensive coordinator at Texas: It's been on my shoulders since I got here. You just show up and you work. And that's the thing, we've been counting those days down since we got here. Some people just started counting in the last week; we've been counting since we've been here. It's been about work since our feet hit the ground here. It's been about installing this offense. It's been about changing an attitude, getting our alignment with Coach Strong and his core values, which is in equal alignment, and then just getting these guys headed in the right direction and that's what we've got. So here we stand, five days before the game, and it's just steady progression with practice this week. Continue to learn and get better. That's one thing, as the season goes on in a first-year deal, you're always going to learn. Even in year three, year four, you're still learning and adapting and adjusting and changing. And again, trying to get the win on Saturday, that's the biggest ultimate goal.
On whether he has target numbers for the pace of his offense: It's nothing really off the clock. I've said it before, it's a field deal. We're just going to go fast until we don't need to go fast, and that's really it.
On the role that senior tight end Caleb Bluiett will play: Bluiett and [Andrew] Beck, both of those guys are our tight ends, both of those guys will be involved in our running game and our passing game as well. Both of those guys are athletic. They can do multiple things for us, with their attitude and especially with their ability and what they can do.
On the problems that the Notre Dame defense poses: Those guys are really good up front. They're really talented, they're coming off a highly successful season, so they're going to carry some confidence. They lean up on those guys up front. Number 17 [James Onwualu] is a kid that's got a lot of playing experience as a back. They've got some athletic guys on the back end. Cole Luke's one of those guys that's a really good player and they obviously present some problems. They're a good football team.
On whether he expects the quarterback to be a playmaker or a game manager, given the strong supporting cast on offense: I think you always want that guy to make plays. But we do, we've got some guys that can run, we've got some guys that can spread the field vertically, and then you can't forget about those backs as well. So we've got some guys that you can spread the wealth around and make people cover us the width of the field and the length of the field.
On the freshmen on offense: You take those guys in with open arms and those guys jumped right into what had already been going on. So they were a tad bit behind when they got on campus, but they got right in the mix, and those guys have really done a great job. They've really caught up, and I think the learning curve was cut down a little bit because our older guys, at that point in time, went through spring ball, now they're going through the summer, so they know what's going on from an X's and O's schematics standpoint. So they're able to help those young guys and coach those guys when weren't able to be around. So they helped minimize the learning curve for those young guys, and those guys have done a great job. They're really good kids, they're really athletic and they're all really intelligent.
On what he expects his emotions to be at the start of the game: Just being excited and just being in the moment. Everywhere I've been, at all levels, that's what you do as a coach: you're focused, you're in the moment. You're obviously excited and anxious about what's about to happen. We'll roll out there with our guys, a prepared football team, an excited football team that'll be highly, highly motivated. We'll come out there and those guys will go execute and those guys' jobs are to go play. From the sideline, we'll just call it and they'll ball it.
