Texas defensive back Kris Boyd addressed media members for the first time during preseason camp on Friday. As expected, Boyd was outgoing, engaging, and hilarious during his interview session.
Here are the highlights from Boyd’s conversation:
- Texas receiver Collin Johnson recently said Boyd was normally matched up against him in practice. Johnson said they battle back and forth on the field, which benefits both players. Here is what Boyd said about playing against Johnson: “I love him. Collin’s like one of the greatest receivers. Size, all of that. He’s going to go hard. That’s what I need. Me, I’m not going to cheat him out of his reps. I’m going to give him the best out of me. Battling on the field, we love it. Off the field, we’re just like best friends. Like brothers. We’re going to work to get each other better every day. In the weight room, whatever. Me and him talking to each other. Hey, you watching film? What do you look at as a DB for tips to help you on a release route? He’ll ask me questions [such as] when I lineup, what do you notice wrong? I’ll tell him. That’s when we’re eating, in the weight room, anything. I just love to battle. We’re going to make each other better.”
- Boyd has been working on his technique, watching film, taking notes and listening to become a lock down cornerback. In addition, Boyd said he’s been working the boundary, but can work the field position.
- One of the messages from Tom Herman’s staff to players has been if a teammate is making an error, correct that person. Boyd took their advice and has tried to help his teammates improve during the offseason.
- Since Boyd has stepped on campus, the first thing players and coaches say about him is the defensive back talks nonstop. When I pointed that out to Boyd, he laughed. Here is Boyd on his history of chatter: “Yeah, I think so. When I was a child, I had too much juice. As I got older, I learned to control it. There’s a certain place and time for everything. In the locker room, that’s the time for it.”
- When asked if the team needs a little more “dog," Boyd said, “We’re going to have it, and I can’t wait to show it.”
- Boyd had nothing but positive things to say about the strength and conditioning staff: “They make us love to workout. We look forward to working out because it’s bettering us. We can feel it, we see it in the defense, our performance. We love it. We embrace it. Instead of saying, ‘Ah, we got to go to practice. We got to do this.’ We get to. We get to go to practice. We get to lift weights. We get to go to camp and get better. That’s how we see things.”
- Here is a quote from strength and conditioning coach Yancy McKnight that resonated with Boyd: “Coach McKnight told us strong legs, strong heart, strong mind.”
- When asked if Texas is still DBU, Boyd said, “We will be.”
- Boyd on Holton Hill: “He’s good. All of us in that room, we stay on each other. If we see a mistake, we learn to each other and say, ‘This is what you got to do about this.’ If we’re watching film and coach mentions something, and we know what he needs to do, we’ll give him input on it. He does that to me. He does that to Davantae [Davis], and everybody else.”
- Freshman defensive back Josh Thompson is a player Boyd loves. Boyd said Thompson needs to correct his errors, but believes the young player will be great one day. In fact, Boyd said he wants Thompson to be better than him.
