Texas play-caller Jay Norvell held his final weekday press conference of the season on Tuesday as his team prepares to play against Baylor. Here are the highlights of Norvell’s media availability:
- One offensive dilemma Texas faces this weekend is figuring out who will backup Tyrone Swoopes if Jerrod Heard does not play against Baylor. Norvell said the biggest concern is making sure Heard is healthy and ready to play. As a result, Kai Locksley and Matthew Merrick have seen their workload increase during practice this week. The staff will figure out a backup quarterback plan later this week.
- When asked about the possibility of pulling a redshirt off Locksley or Merrick, Norvel said, “It’s not ideal. It’s not ideal. That’s something that we’ll look at, but they are here on scholarship. If it comes to that, that’s the decision we’ll have to make when we do it. It’s not something you’d like to do in this situation at this point of the season. Those are some of the decisions that we’re going to have to make.”
- Norvell was asked if this system was the right one for Texas to run in the future. He said this is the right system for their current quarterbacks. When they add new players next year, Norvell said they will formulate a system based on their strengths and weaknesses.
- Charlie Strong’s staff spent Sunday and Monday on the road recruiting, but Norvell said nobody asked if he would call plays next season: “We just tell them the truth. Things are going to get worked out here. There’s certain things you can control, and certain things you can’t control. We’ll just continue to do our job and just keep pressing forward. It wasn’t difficult.”
- Norvell said he was very proud of Chris Warren’s performance against Texas Tech on Thanksgiving Day. He said, “He’s a kid who hasn’t had a lot of chances. Been tentative in practice. He didn’t start the game real strong either, but as he got more opportunities to play, and gained his confidence in the second half. Really ran with his pads, great pad level, and finished runs. You can see he’s a big kid. He’s got athletic ability and speed in the open field. Played with more confidence as the game went on. I’m very proud of him and his performance.”
- When asked about how to get Swoopes into a rhythm, Norvell said, “I think Tyrone has done a fabulous job with his role. We’ve tried to make it bigger almost every week, and his confidence has grown. I think I’ve said this the last couple of weeks, I don’t think there is anybody on our team having more fun that Swoopes. In practice, he’s bouncing around. Confidence comes from just execution and hitting open receivers, and we have to do a better job of that as a team. That’s something that we haven’t done a good job of. Whether it’s our play-action passing, whether hitting deep balls. We didn’t do it in this game, and that hurt us. We scored 45 points, and we didn’t hit many plays down the field. That’s an area we have to continue to push for. We need to Jerrod and Tyrone to be confident in that area, and the only way you can do that is to get into the game and start hitting open receivers … I think with him coming in and playing in these short yardage situations, he gets a chance to be in the game, get into the flow of the game, so when he does get an opportunity to complete passes, he is into the game already.”
- Norvell said he is not happy with the team’s passing game. He is not happy with how the receivers have played or the accuracy of his quarterbacks.
- The play-caller believes Heard will benefit from the upcoming offseason and take another step in 2016. Norvell believes Heard will mature because of the playing time he received this season and will be a better quarterback next season.
- One offensive dilemma Texas faces this weekend is figuring out who will backup Tyrone Swoopes if Jerrod Heard does not play against Baylor. Norvell said the biggest concern is making sure Heard is healthy and ready to play. As a result, Kai Locksley and Matthew Merrick have seen their workload increase during practice this week. The staff will figure out a backup quarterback plan later this week.
- When asked about the possibility of pulling a redshirt off Locksley or Merrick, Norvel said, “It’s not ideal. It’s not ideal. That’s something that we’ll look at, but they are here on scholarship. If it comes to that, that’s the decision we’ll have to make when we do it. It’s not something you’d like to do in this situation at this point of the season. Those are some of the decisions that we’re going to have to make.”
- Norvell was asked if this system was the right one for Texas to run in the future. He said this is the right system for their current quarterbacks. When they add new players next year, Norvell said they will formulate a system based on their strengths and weaknesses.
- Charlie Strong’s staff spent Sunday and Monday on the road recruiting, but Norvell said nobody asked if he would call plays next season: “We just tell them the truth. Things are going to get worked out here. There’s certain things you can control, and certain things you can’t control. We’ll just continue to do our job and just keep pressing forward. It wasn’t difficult.”
- Norvell said he was very proud of Chris Warren’s performance against Texas Tech on Thanksgiving Day. He said, “He’s a kid who hasn’t had a lot of chances. Been tentative in practice. He didn’t start the game real strong either, but as he got more opportunities to play, and gained his confidence in the second half. Really ran with his pads, great pad level, and finished runs. You can see he’s a big kid. He’s got athletic ability and speed in the open field. Played with more confidence as the game went on. I’m very proud of him and his performance.”
- When asked about how to get Swoopes into a rhythm, Norvell said, “I think Tyrone has done a fabulous job with his role. We’ve tried to make it bigger almost every week, and his confidence has grown. I think I’ve said this the last couple of weeks, I don’t think there is anybody on our team having more fun that Swoopes. In practice, he’s bouncing around. Confidence comes from just execution and hitting open receivers, and we have to do a better job of that as a team. That’s something that we haven’t done a good job of. Whether it’s our play-action passing, whether hitting deep balls. We didn’t do it in this game, and that hurt us. We scored 45 points, and we didn’t hit many plays down the field. That’s an area we have to continue to push for. We need to Jerrod and Tyrone to be confident in that area, and the only way you can do that is to get into the game and start hitting open receivers … I think with him coming in and playing in these short yardage situations, he gets a chance to be in the game, get into the flow of the game, so when he does get an opportunity to complete passes, he is into the game already.”
- Norvell said he is not happy with the team’s passing game. He is not happy with how the receivers have played or the accuracy of his quarterbacks.
- The play-caller believes Heard will benefit from the upcoming offseason and take another step in 2016. Norvell believes Heard will mature because of the playing time he received this season and will be a better quarterback next season.
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