The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Video: Tom Herman media teleconference
03.30.2020 | Football
The Texas Football head coach met with media over the phone on Monday.
AUSTIN, Texas –Texas Football head coach Tom Herman met with members of the media via teleconference on Monday. A look at some excerpts of what Herman had to say:
Opening Statement:
"Our hearts, thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by this virus. I'm sure you've seen my wife, Michelle (Herman), and I try to implore Longhorn Nation to do what they can – resources, time, effort. Now, more than ever, we need to help our community and ourselves to try and find a way through this. There's not anything too formal happening right now, I just wanted to thank you all for being here and really express what we're feeling in the Herman household at this juncture. Now, I'll answer some questions from you guys."
On his top priorities for the spring:
"Obviously the defensive installation, and the offense from a certain standpoint. (Texas offensive coordinator) Mike (Yurcich) brought in a ton of great ideas, and he's done a good job adapting his language to what our players already know. I'm thankful that the NCAA lightened their stance a few years ago. Back then, in the winter it was like the summer where you couldn't be around your players at all. They moved to having two hours of film sessions and it evolved into on-the-field position-specific drills and just recently moved to where they are permitting walkthroughs. We took advantage of that. Really all of the normal down-and-distance offense and defense is resolved. The kids have it all. They've walked through it all. The only thing we're missing is the actual physical reps. We're going to need some time to get those physical reps. From a position standpoint, the two positions that come to the forefront of my mind are linebacker and offensive line. We need to figure out who our starting five offensive linemen are going to be and who our two starting linebackers are going to be."
On the strengths of the team right now:
"Leadership and experience. We've got some experienced kids on our team. And we're coming off a year where we were extremely young, and now you go into the next year as a team that is very experienced. I'd say leadership and experience are our two strengths right now."
Noting that in the grand scheme of things some of these details are minor, could he comment on reports that Big 12 coaches felt they were at a disadvantage to some other leagues over the last two weeks before unified directives were put in place recently:
"I think you were right when you said that there's a lot of other things going on in the world that are much more important than who got to meet with their players for a specified period of time. When we look back on this in the fall, hopefully if we are able to play a season, a week or two in March is not going to be that big of a deal. I do wish that our conference had been in line with the other conferences that were allowing that, but at the end of the day, I'm not sure – the one thing with the unified guidelines that they announced last night, the one thing that has me and other coaches in the Big 12 a little bit upset and a little bit confused is the ability to send your players workout equipment and tracking devices and things of that nature, because they've really restricted that moving forward, but yet other conferences have had two weeks of shipping that stuff out to their players. So we've got to figure out how to level the playing field as far as that's concerned, but you get two hours a week of meetings, so if we're going to think that two hours in March that we missed compared to another team from another conference is going to matter in the fall compared to everything else that's going on, I don't think that's the case."
On injury updates:
"If we played a game tomorrow, those five guys would not be able to play (LB Ayodele Adeoye, RB Derrian Brown, DB B.J. Foster, DL Peter Mpagi, LB Marcus Tillman Jr.). Their rehab is great. They're having to do it from home, some of them virtually with a physical therapist. Marcus is pretty advanced in his, so he's able to do a prescribed workout with no supervision. Our training staff told me they're all on track and all doing what they're supposed to do."
On handing day-to-day activities virtually this spring:
"In the two hours that you do get face time with players, the communication tools now are to the point that it's got a whiteboard feature where you can show your screen or watch video together. I assume it will feel very similar to an in-person meeting. Obviously, there's no substitution for an in-person meeting. When I first envisioned our workout programs, I imagined we'd probably have three different programs for that. I can't thank Coach McKnight and his staff enough. They took it further than that. They called every player and built individual programs for every player based on what they had available. It's kind of status quo. We would've had unofficial visitors on our campus watching spring practices and such, but the level of communication has not diminished. We're still in constant communication with those guys. I think one of the things that has helped us old guys at least is that FaceTime and Zoom, and some of these different features that allow face-to-face contact, are pretty cool. You can get a lot done. The conversations seem to go a lot smoother when you can see a person's facial reactions and body language. We're using those a lot more than normal phone calls. But other than in-person visits on campus, our level of communication has been pretty much the same."
On planning to operate under the new Big 12 guidelines:
"Chris Del Conte has been great – phenomenal – in his communication with me and getting me things as he gets them. These decisions are being made by presidents and chancellors. They have the best interest of the University as a whole in mind, certainly from a health point, but from an economic point too. A lot of these decisions were made well above my level, but I was in communication with Chris Del Conte on things that were important to us as coaches. But at the end of the day, these decisions were made at president levels and conference commissioner levels.
On the importance of leadership from veteran players during the spring:
"It's extremely important. We're in a shelter-in-place order in Austin right now, but hopefully at some point that will be lifted. Then guys like Sam Ehlinger, Caden Sterns, Derek Kerstetter and Joseph Ossai can get other guys outside to do things. I'm sure they'll be itching to do that. The one thing that probably goes unnoticed, but I want to thank them tremendously, is our 10 assistant coaches. I can't talk to 105 kids every day. I try to break the team up and talk to 10-to-12 a day. But our assistant coaches are in constant communication with our team. Our leaders are going to really have to step up at this point."
On the challenges of having new staff members and a limited spring:
"It's certainly not ideal, but it kind of goes back to the time we had in February. We had meetings, we had position-specific drills and we had walkthroughs. These guys know their players really, really well, and I think their players know them. Again, the one thing that you miss is the establishment of those reps – those muscle memory reps – where you do it full speed and you go back and correct any mistakes to help the kid understand it better. Our coaches have done a great job getting to know their players though in the couple months they've been here."
On helping Texas' pro prospects without a Pro Day:
"I got a phone call from (New England Patriots) Coach (Bill) Belichick yesterday to talk about those guys. But, at the end of the day, especially with Austin under a shelter-in-place order, it's very difficult to help support those guys. It's my understanding that the NFL Draft is still going on as scheduled, so the best we can do as coaches is pick up the phone and give recommendations as best we can."
On his concern about the season being delayed:
"There are so many different scenarios – especially the last two weeks where stuff was changing hourly. The best plan of action right now is to be flexible. I'm glad the commissioner gave us a date of May 31. We know that it may move forward or backward, but at least we have something to set our sights on and plan. But to go beyond that since so much can happen between now and then, it's almost wasting brain power even thinking about it."
On how the current climate and state of the world has shaped his perspective:
"As humans, I think we sometimes feel like we're invincible. I think there are times in our society in America where we feel like we might be the only country out there. This has certainly made us realize that there are billions of people out there across the world dealing with things just like we are. I think it makes you realize how small we really are compared to the world's population. But I think the perspective has been a good thing. Obviously, the time with your family makes you stop and think. When life gets back to normal, how can I steal some of this time back? Because it's just so good and so precious. How can I figure out in normal day-to-day how can I get a few hours of this or one night of this when things go back to normal? I think you realize just how in-need certain parts of the population are. Michelle and I were very specific in the places we were going to donate to. One, because of my history with some of those issues, and hers, as well. And two, we really wanted to get something out there that's on the front lines. The food bank – that's 40,000 meals right there. There are many vulnerable populations out there with Meals on Wheels delivering food to the elderly and homebound, and then the homeless shelter. It makes you want to give so much more when you see your community and the people in it suffering."
On what it has been like working from home while trying to oversee a football program:
"It's really weird. It's different and new. Today is really the first day of the new normal for us. We were fortunate two weeks ago when all of this really started here, we were already scheduled to be on spring break. We got a chance to feel our way around for the first week, and then last week – because we couldn't meet with our players - it was very logistical. It was a lot of hustle and bustle. Today was really when we kind of started mapping our schedule from here on out, especially since we know what we're permitted to do. Tomorrow will be the first time that I've even gotten my face in front of the entire team. We'll have a (virtual) team meeting that hopefully goes off without too many hiccups. I'll tell them all how much I love them and implore them to find their way through this new normal. It's been a bit challenging for them to transition academically to online classes. Some will be on-demand where the professor records a lecture and they can watch it at their own pace, while others are doing live lectures where those guys still have to attend (online as it happens). That'll be the new normal here for what looks like at least the next two months."
On Sam Ehlinger's GoFundMe campaign:
"Does it surprise anybody that it was this player? It doesn't surprise me. Just knowing who he is and how he feels about this University, the city of Austin and the state of Texas. It's just his passion. Trust me, I'm not downplaying the significance of this. I just would've been more surprised had he not done something than if he did. I'm proud of a lot of the things he's done. He has used his celebrity and his sphere-of-influence to help so many people during the time I've known him. I'm glad he's one of ours."
On offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich and defensive coordinator Chris Ash:
"There are only a few guys on our staff that remember me as a coordinator. Two of those being Fernando Lovo, our Chief of Staff, and Coach McKnight. We were doing one of those position-specific drills in the bubble, and they both came up to me on separate occasions and said to me, "Do you know who Mike Yurcich reminds me of? You." Chris Ash has done a great job leading the defensive room with his knowledge and his attention to detail. As you guys know, I spend most of my time with the X's and O's on the offensive side of the ball. What I've found out is they're all really good. They're extreme self-starters. Mike has been a coordinator for I don't know how many years, but these guys are pros. They're doing anything they can during this time and I can't thank them enough."
