Texas football coach Tom Herman addressed the media after Tuesday’s practice prior to his team’s contest against Iowa State on Thursday. Before we get into any details, Herman asked everyone to pray for receiver Lorenzo Joe and his family. Joe’s brother, Brayden, recently died. No details were available, but Brayden was 21-years-old. Herman said he expects Joe to play on Thursday.
Here are the highlights of Herman’s media availability:
- Herman said his team had a good week of practice. He gave the players Friday and Saturday off, and said Sunday’s practice was similar to a Tuesday and Wednesday, while today’s practice resembled a Thursday. Herman said the players are well rested.
- When asked how quarterback Shane Buechele looked in practice this week, Herman said, “Good. I think other than taking him a little bit longer to warm up, [that is] the only real complaint I’ve heard from him.” When I asked Herman if he knew if Buechele would play on Thursday, the coach said he did, but was not going to let Iowa State know.
- Herman does not appear worried about his team giving the same effort, energy and togetherness against Iowa State as we witnessed against USC.
- Here is Herman on trying to win the Big 12: “We really don’t focus a lot on the macro. We’re so concerned with the micro and going 1-0 every day in practice to set ourselves up to be prepared to go 1-0 on the week. I think I watched one football game from start to finish on Saturday, and that was TD’s flag football game at West Ridge Middle School. Really tried to use the time to spend with family, unwind a little bit, and decompress for a day and get back on Sunday morning at 8 a.m., getting ready to go and play a game.”
- Herman on not accepting moral victories after USC: “I think it was something we addressed right when we got back. I’ve said before, I can’t tell you how many times I heard the word congratulations, and it made my skin crawl. Congratulations for what? For showing up and playing hard? We really talked to them about compartmentalizing the two things. One, we lost the game that we needed to finish in order to get where we’re going. We need to be hurt and to be upset about that. We need to work tirelessly to correct the things that caused us to lose that game. However, in this box, compartmentalized, is wow, look at what we’re capable of when we play really hard, when we play for each other, when we play really physical. Now, if we can correct some of the mistakes that led to the loss, we've got a chance to be pretty good. I think that’s a moral victory. That’s learning from the positives of what happened in a loss. We know there’s not asterisk in the ledger by the 'L.' It’s just 'L.' We’ve got to work tirelessly to make sure in games like that we’re prepared enough to finish.”
- Herman said improving the run game was addressed by his staff during the bye week: “It has been a lot of idea sharing. A lot of self-reflection. A lot of critiquing of who we are, what we can be, what we need to be, what our personnel will allow us to be. We lost three of our best run blockers in Andrew Beck, Elijah Rodriguez and Connor Williams, and we’re three games in the season. Does that mean we’re going to stop running the football? No, but we have to figure out ways to get in formations and call runs that allow the guys that are playing to be successful running the football. No great team [pause] … There’s been great offenses that hadn’t run the football very well, or haven’t attempted to run the football very well, but no great team has won big prizes at the end of the season without a really strong run game. That’s our job. It’s one of the most challenging things as an offensive coach I’ve been through, kind of figuring out how do we stay true to what we want to be, but put our players that we have to play, put them in position to run the football successfully. We feel like we’ve addressed it. I think you’ll see a few wrinkles. Obviously, it helps that we had the off week. With this week being a short week, that accelerated the process a little bit, but we’ve been definitely at the drawing board in that offensive staff room for the better part of a week-and-a-half.”
- Terrell Cuney could play against Iowa State in an emergency, while Derek Kerstetter could play, too, according to Herman. However, Herman does not expect a rotation at offensive line against Iowa State.
- In addition, Herman does not anticipate slowing down the offense because he lacks depth on his offensive line. In fact, Herman said playing with tempo helps the offensive line because it prevents defensive lineman from getting set up, and creates a little panic on the other side.
- Herman was asked about the UT student government pushing to bring back the rivalry against Texas A&M. Herman said he thinks the rivalry will be eventually be renewed, but does not know when.
- Herman on teaching his players how to win: “Any time you’re dealing with a recent history that we’re dealing with, winning consistently is a learned trait and is something that is habit forming. I think Vince Lombardi said it, winning is a habit, and so is losing. We’ve got to create those winning habits, and we’ve got to finish ball games in ways that winning teams finish games.”
Here are the highlights of Herman’s media availability:
- Herman said his team had a good week of practice. He gave the players Friday and Saturday off, and said Sunday’s practice was similar to a Tuesday and Wednesday, while today’s practice resembled a Thursday. Herman said the players are well rested.
- When asked how quarterback Shane Buechele looked in practice this week, Herman said, “Good. I think other than taking him a little bit longer to warm up, [that is] the only real complaint I’ve heard from him.” When I asked Herman if he knew if Buechele would play on Thursday, the coach said he did, but was not going to let Iowa State know.
- Herman does not appear worried about his team giving the same effort, energy and togetherness against Iowa State as we witnessed against USC.
- Here is Herman on trying to win the Big 12: “We really don’t focus a lot on the macro. We’re so concerned with the micro and going 1-0 every day in practice to set ourselves up to be prepared to go 1-0 on the week. I think I watched one football game from start to finish on Saturday, and that was TD’s flag football game at West Ridge Middle School. Really tried to use the time to spend with family, unwind a little bit, and decompress for a day and get back on Sunday morning at 8 a.m., getting ready to go and play a game.”
- Herman on not accepting moral victories after USC: “I think it was something we addressed right when we got back. I’ve said before, I can’t tell you how many times I heard the word congratulations, and it made my skin crawl. Congratulations for what? For showing up and playing hard? We really talked to them about compartmentalizing the two things. One, we lost the game that we needed to finish in order to get where we’re going. We need to be hurt and to be upset about that. We need to work tirelessly to correct the things that caused us to lose that game. However, in this box, compartmentalized, is wow, look at what we’re capable of when we play really hard, when we play for each other, when we play really physical. Now, if we can correct some of the mistakes that led to the loss, we've got a chance to be pretty good. I think that’s a moral victory. That’s learning from the positives of what happened in a loss. We know there’s not asterisk in the ledger by the 'L.' It’s just 'L.' We’ve got to work tirelessly to make sure in games like that we’re prepared enough to finish.”
- Herman said improving the run game was addressed by his staff during the bye week: “It has been a lot of idea sharing. A lot of self-reflection. A lot of critiquing of who we are, what we can be, what we need to be, what our personnel will allow us to be. We lost three of our best run blockers in Andrew Beck, Elijah Rodriguez and Connor Williams, and we’re three games in the season. Does that mean we’re going to stop running the football? No, but we have to figure out ways to get in formations and call runs that allow the guys that are playing to be successful running the football. No great team [pause] … There’s been great offenses that hadn’t run the football very well, or haven’t attempted to run the football very well, but no great team has won big prizes at the end of the season without a really strong run game. That’s our job. It’s one of the most challenging things as an offensive coach I’ve been through, kind of figuring out how do we stay true to what we want to be, but put our players that we have to play, put them in position to run the football successfully. We feel like we’ve addressed it. I think you’ll see a few wrinkles. Obviously, it helps that we had the off week. With this week being a short week, that accelerated the process a little bit, but we’ve been definitely at the drawing board in that offensive staff room for the better part of a week-and-a-half.”
- Terrell Cuney could play against Iowa State in an emergency, while Derek Kerstetter could play, too, according to Herman. However, Herman does not expect a rotation at offensive line against Iowa State.
- In addition, Herman does not anticipate slowing down the offense because he lacks depth on his offensive line. In fact, Herman said playing with tempo helps the offensive line because it prevents defensive lineman from getting set up, and creates a little panic on the other side.
- Herman was asked about the UT student government pushing to bring back the rivalry against Texas A&M. Herman said he thinks the rivalry will be eventually be renewed, but does not know when.
- Herman on teaching his players how to win: “Any time you’re dealing with a recent history that we’re dealing with, winning consistently is a learned trait and is something that is habit forming. I think Vince Lombardi said it, winning is a habit, and so is losing. We’ve got to create those winning habits, and we’ve got to finish ball games in ways that winning teams finish games.”
