Texas sophomore quarterback Shane Buechele spoke with the media for the first time since Texas was defeated by West Virginia last season. Longhorn football coach Tom Herman allowed Buechele to talk after Tuesday’s practice, and here are the highlights from his media availability.
- Buechele was asked if he was the starting quarterback and responded by saying, “You guys know more than I do. I don’t know.”
- During spring practice, Buechele had to do up-downs in front of the team. When asked about it, Buechele said, “That’s just you make a mistake, you pay for it. That’s just taking accountability for what you do and taking the consequences for it.”
- Here is Buechele on the competition with Sam Ehlinger: “It’s been a good competition. I think a lot of people think it’s just straight competition all the time, which it is, but it’s been fun. It’s been competitively fun. We enjoy competing with each other every day. We make each other a lot better. We’re always competing, no matter what we do. Always hanging out outside of football as well. It’s a lot of fun being able to compete with him. We make each other a lot better.”
- Here is what has impressed Buechele about Ehlinger: “How young he is, but how much he knows about the game. He’s a smart guy on the field, and off the field. That is really good to see from him. He knows the game really well, and he prepares himself really well.”
- Buechele said his relationship with Herman is good. Herman works with the quarterbacks during meetings, and Buechele said if they have questions, the coach will answer them.
- Buechele on becoming a more vocal leader: “Last year, it was difficult. Just being a young guy, trying to be a vocal leader, getting guys behind me, that’s hard being a young guy. This year, I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable being a vocal leader, which I think is really important for our offense, and our team in general. When the quarterback is the leader of the offense, I feel like things start to go a little bit. It’s been good. It’s been a lot of fun being able to kind of rally guys and get them going.”
- The staff challenged Buechele to become more vocal by making him uncomfortable in different situations: “Being comfortable in the uncomfortable setting is what’s most important with this whole coaching staff. They put us in uncomfortable situations so in the future we’ll be comfortable with it.”
- Buechele said last year’s 5-7 season is in the past. However, he added nobody wants a repeat of last season, and the Longhorns are motivated.
- I asked Buechele if injuries last season affected his performance down the stretch. Buechele downplayed those injuries and said, “I had my good days and bad days. It’d be here and there, feel a little thing, but I was feeling somewhat good at the end of the season. It was just execution errors on my part.”
- As a follow-up, I asked if his hand injury was a problem last season. Buechele said, “Not too bad.”
- Buechele said he was a little banged up toward the end of last season, but believes quarterbacks have to fight through it.
- Buechele described Reggie Hemphill-Mapps as a "baller" who has a lot of fun playing football.
- In addition, Buechele said he is more comfortable after 12 starts because he knows what is going on.
- Buechele said offensive coordinator Tim Beck pushes the entire offensive unit very hard. He described it as a lot of hard work, but fun. Two things the new staff has focused on are ball security and effort.
- Buechele of working with strength and conditioning coach Yancy McKnight: “I think they’ve done a really good job with everybody. I feel a lot stronger. I feel faster. It’s all thanks to them. They’ve done a great job with us, working us out the right way. Just doing everything I believe will help us in the future.” Buechele said he is weighting between 205 and 207 pounds right now. He has gained 10 to 12 pounds this year.
- Buechele described receiver Collin Johnson as a playmaker. He said throwing to a player with Johnson’s size has been fun for him.
- Buechele on having a conversation with Peyton Manning: “That was really cool. Being able to just pick his brain on different things. A lot of it wasn’t just Xs and Os. It was how to be a leader, and how to be a pro. That’s what I thought was really, really cool about it.”
