Texas quarterback Shane Buechele and safety Dylan Haines were among the players who addressed the media during separate interview sessions on Monday. Here are the highlights from their off-camera interviews:
- Buechele admitted he missed some deep throws against Oklahoma, but did not let those mistakes affect him. His goal is to look forward to the next play.
- Texas’ defense might be struggling, but Buechele does not feel any pressure to put up points: “We should have scored more than 40. It shouldn’t come down to how many we gave up. We should score more. However many they score, we need to score one more, and that’s our mentality.”
- With Texas currently on a three-game losing streak, freshman quarterback Shane Buechele believes it is time for him to step up and lead: “Just being more of a vocal leader, and just letting my voice be heard. Letting these guys know that I trust them, and that they need to trust me. Just going forward, it’s going to be a lot of fun, I think. Just the rest of the season, I think we’re going to get things moving, and I think it will be a great rest of the season.”
- When asked if Buechele could be that vocal leader, he said, “It’s something I need to work on for sure. Just being a young guy, it’s hard, but it’s definitely something I’m getting more comfortable with and need to get better at.”
- Haines had two first half interceptions, and Texas trailed 14-13 at halftime. “It’s weird. In the first half, our defense finally looked like we were coming together from the previous games. We’ve kind of gone out there and gotten off to a bad start. It looked like we were having a good start. It looked like we had some momentum. We looked real fluid out there, getting some three-and-outs, getting some turnovers. Second half, didn’t go out, didn’t execute, didn’t play well. Things kind of fell apart. It was frustrating, definitely.”
- When asked about the difference between Charlie Strong and Vance Bedford, Haines said the scheme and game-planning was slightly different. Strong had some different coverages he implemented that the team practiced last week: “Just kind of changing the scheme a little bit, changing, basically, who’s rushing, where we are rushing from, who’s dropping where. Just kind of stuff like that. That was definitely the biggest difference.”
- Haines said they played more man-to-man against Oklahoma than in previous games. At first, they were doing well. However, Haines said they had blown coverages in that scheme. Haines said there were routes that looked like they were covered at first, but the players eventually lost those battles.
- Here is Haines on the play of the team’s cornerbacks: “Playing corner is probably the hardest position to play in football, in my opinion. You have to have such a short memory at corner because if you mess up play at d-tackle, or linebacker, it’s five, 10-yards, maybe. Maybe it goes unnoticed. If you mess up playing that position, it’s 80 yards, it’s a touchdown and the band starts playing. That is definitely something I try to tell those guys on Sunday, you've got to forget about that. Even on Saturday after the game, I said, 'Vantae (Davante Davis), you've got to forget about that. If you keep that in your head, you’re never going to play good. You’re going to go out there and do the same thing.' That’s something I’ve been stressing, and the coaches have been stressing. Try to have a short memory.”
- Buechele admitted he missed some deep throws against Oklahoma, but did not let those mistakes affect him. His goal is to look forward to the next play.
- Texas’ defense might be struggling, but Buechele does not feel any pressure to put up points: “We should have scored more than 40. It shouldn’t come down to how many we gave up. We should score more. However many they score, we need to score one more, and that’s our mentality.”
- With Texas currently on a three-game losing streak, freshman quarterback Shane Buechele believes it is time for him to step up and lead: “Just being more of a vocal leader, and just letting my voice be heard. Letting these guys know that I trust them, and that they need to trust me. Just going forward, it’s going to be a lot of fun, I think. Just the rest of the season, I think we’re going to get things moving, and I think it will be a great rest of the season.”
- When asked if Buechele could be that vocal leader, he said, “It’s something I need to work on for sure. Just being a young guy, it’s hard, but it’s definitely something I’m getting more comfortable with and need to get better at.”
- Haines had two first half interceptions, and Texas trailed 14-13 at halftime. “It’s weird. In the first half, our defense finally looked like we were coming together from the previous games. We’ve kind of gone out there and gotten off to a bad start. It looked like we were having a good start. It looked like we had some momentum. We looked real fluid out there, getting some three-and-outs, getting some turnovers. Second half, didn’t go out, didn’t execute, didn’t play well. Things kind of fell apart. It was frustrating, definitely.”
- When asked about the difference between Charlie Strong and Vance Bedford, Haines said the scheme and game-planning was slightly different. Strong had some different coverages he implemented that the team practiced last week: “Just kind of changing the scheme a little bit, changing, basically, who’s rushing, where we are rushing from, who’s dropping where. Just kind of stuff like that. That was definitely the biggest difference.”
- Haines said they played more man-to-man against Oklahoma than in previous games. At first, they were doing well. However, Haines said they had blown coverages in that scheme. Haines said there were routes that looked like they were covered at first, but the players eventually lost those battles.
- Here is Haines on the play of the team’s cornerbacks: “Playing corner is probably the hardest position to play in football, in my opinion. You have to have such a short memory at corner because if you mess up play at d-tackle, or linebacker, it’s five, 10-yards, maybe. Maybe it goes unnoticed. If you mess up playing that position, it’s 80 yards, it’s a touchdown and the band starts playing. That is definitely something I try to tell those guys on Sunday, you've got to forget about that. Even on Saturday after the game, I said, 'Vantae (Davante Davis), you've got to forget about that. If you keep that in your head, you’re never going to play good. You’re going to go out there and do the same thing.' That’s something I’ve been stressing, and the coaches have been stressing. Try to have a short memory.”
