Opening statement: Morning, or good afternoon. Quick update. Really excited to get the season underway. It feels like we've been practicing against each other forever. With the extended training camp, it will be nice to finally test our mettle against someone not wearing burnt orange and white.
Injury updates: Chris Brown, ankle, will not play. Eric Cuffee, with a forearm fracture, will probably not play until the following week. Terrell Cuney slipped on the stairs and sprained his ankle. It's not too bad. We're expecting him. He would be probable, I guess. Then Andrew Fitzgerald and Garrett Thomas are still a couple weeks away.
With that, questions.
On the adversity and situation from Hurricane Harvey: Yeah, I mean, we've got 21 or so players from the Houston area whose families and homes have been affected. Nothing disastrous at this point in terms of our guys have checked in and everybody is safe.
I think the fact that we do have this bit of an escape to come to the facility and kind of get away from the real world for a few hours is welcome. But especially now that I know that our players' families are safe, I mean, what our guys are going through is nothing compared to what the residents of the city of Houston and the surrounding areas are going through.
On Shane Buechele being the starter: Shane is the starter today.
On the plan to play both quarterbacks Saturday: Myself and Coach Beck talked about it again today. If we played today, we would let Shane play the game. He's had a really, really good last few days of practice.
Again, around here, if the receiver goes out and has three really bad practices, the backup is going to probably play a little bit more.
We'll know more towards the end of the week. But if we were to play today, Shane would play the whole game as long as he's playing well.
On how the team knows how to win: I don't know. I know they've been trained. Now when the bullets fly, adversity hits, you know, that's the one thing I don't know right now. If we have a couple three-and-out drives to start the game, how are we going to respond? If we give up an early touchdown, how are we going to respond?
I know how they've been trained. I have a lot of confidence in the way that they're trained, in the way that they've responded to that training, taken it to heart. But, again, putting it in practice in front of 105,000 people with a formidable opponent such as Maryland, that's a whole 'nother ball of wax.
I think we will respond well to adversity. I think we will know how to win. But, again, that remains to be seen.
On caring about his former team and city through the devastation of Hurricane Harvey: Really difficult to watch. The city of Houston is very near and dear to mine and my family's hearts, not just from our time at UofH. I was at Rice for three years, Sienna Plantation where we lived. We have former neighbors that are being evacuated because of the levees down there. Even my time at Sam Houston State, four years in Huntsville, not too far from Houston. We considered Houston home as well then, too.
Really, really difficult. We're working on some plans right now with our team in terms of collecting items that we can send over there. I talked to J.J. Watt this morning via text. We're going to try to help him and his campaign both from a team standpoint, myself and Michelle.
It's hard to watch, especially when there's so many loved ones that are there, affected by it. But we're going to try to do our best, the Herman family as well as Texas football, to put action into place.
On how Major Applewhite is handling the situation: As good as can be. We talk a couple times a day through all of this. For a guy that's never been a head coach, has only been a head coach for eight, nine months, to be thrown this big of a curve ball in you are first season would be tough for anyone.
He's handling it as good as possible.
On the running back and tight end positions: The running back spot, had Kyle not missed the extended lengths of practice that he did with the shoulder injury, I think he would have been in that top spot by himself. That's a credit to Chris, too. When he was given the opportunity to go in there and take those reps, he seized that opportunity. He played really, really well.
I feel a lot better today than I did a week, 10 days ago about that position. It's nice to see Kirk Johnson in the fold there, as well.
Then the tight end position is one that, again, to do the things we want to do in the run game, we got to play with a tight end. When Andrew Beck went down, that was pretty devastating, devastating blow to us. Garrett Gray has gotten bigger and stronger. He's learning the position currently. He's only played the position a short amount of time.
Cade Brewer comes in. Comes from an extremely successful program at Lake Travis, one that he played in an offense very similar to what we expect out of our tight ends. So a lot of the things that we're asking him to do are not foreign to him. The foreign-ness has been the speed of the game and the strength and size of the people that he's blocking. But he's a really, really smooth route runner. He's got great ball skills. Right now he's serviceable in the run game.
On Poona Ford being named a captain: Well, I think it sends a message to anybody in this great game. I don't know. I've been here nine months. I'm not sure I've heard Poona Ford say more than 10 words. But he's the hardest practicing player on our team. It's not even close. We've got some hard-practicing dudes. When you see a guy that's 5'11", 310 pounds doing the things he do day after day after day after day, he was the second leading vote getter actually in that captain draw. It opened my eyes a little bit, too, that what we value in leadership as coaches is probably a little bit different than what the players value. It's very obvious that the players value guys that go out, practice as hard as he does, and only speaks when necessary, but when he does, the room stops and people listen.
On emotion now that game week is finally here: Not really. It's been a long nine months. We've had a lot of things happen to us over the span of those nine months. I'm actually relieved a little bit to be back in the offensive meeting room, to be back in the staff room, to be preparing for an opponent, to doing a lot less media things (smiling), and to get back to coaching football and preparing to win a game.
So I think relief and excitement are probably the two emotions.
On Maryland: Well, I know that they went to a bowl game last year, in D.J. Durkin's first year. I have a ton of respect for him. He was one of the best defensive coordinators in the country for a long time. For him to get his hands on a program like that, I think the sky is the limit for him and what he's able to accomplish there. A team that was a bowl team last year, a team that is very veteran on defense. I think seven seniors, or nine seniors, seven returning starters. There's a lot of experience on that defensive front, especially the middle linebacker, I think he's wearing No. 1 this year, wore No. 23 last year, Carter. It's a team that went last year in 13 games had 37 sacks, almost three a game. Their defensive end who moved from outside linebacker, I think their whole defense changed numbers, too, which is confusing. He's now wearing No. 6. Aniebonam is his name. Heck of a player.
On offense, the Pigrome kid is who they pen as their starter at quarterback, that's a pretty big added dimension on that side of the ball. They've already shown themselves to be a really good running offense in terms of Harrison and Johnson in the backfield. I think they averaged over 200 yards rushing a game last year. Now you add a dynamic runner at quarterback, and that is going to cause you fits.
I think if we can neutralize their front six or seven on offense, keep them away from our quarterback, move the line of scrimmage a little bit in the run game, then if we can stop the run, those are going to be our two biggest points of emphasis to win the game.
On the youth represented on the depth chart and potential growing pains: I hope there won't be any growing pains. I'm excited, you know, for the future certainly. I think it doesn't matter how old you are, how much experience you have. If you've been in our program for the last nine months, you're going to be ready to play a college football game if we jog you out there.
I am excited about the future knowing that there are a lot of guys that are going to play that are youthful.
On team goals and what a successful season looks like: Yeah, never wins and losses. I think especially in a first year like this where we're just trying to develop and instill our culture and our way of doing things.
But I think success would be if we play disciplined, if we protect the football on offense, and when people watch us, either opponents or when the casual fan watches us, if they can say, Wow, I've never seen Texas play that hard. Wow, I've never seen Texas play that physical. Wow, I've never seen Texas play with that much passion, energy, accountability to their teammates and coaches. Then we'll be on our road to success.
How many wins that translates into this year, if we can stay healthy, there's a lot of different things. But if we can say we're the hardest-playing, hardest-hitting, most accountable team on the football field each and every Saturday, we'll have a chance to win. That will be success.
On the team’s strengths and weaknesses: Excitingly I think our strength on both sides of the ball is the line, offensive and defensive lines. I think we still need to find a consistent, productive right tackle. Those other four guys may be the national championship year at Ohio State that I was a part of, that might be the only other offensive line that could compare with these guys. So I'm excited to see them play.
Then the defensive line has been a very welcome surprise, considering where I thought we were at this position in January. Charles Omenihu has exerted himself as kind of the fourth starter there. We're getting quality play from guys like Jamari Chisholm, Gerald Wilbon, Ta'Quon Graham. Obviously those guys aren't going to be 60-play-a-game guys. We'll rely on Poona and Chris Nelson, Charles and Malcolm for the 50 plays a game. It will be the other 20 that those guys can go in and hopefully make a difference when they're in.
Weakness, just depth. We're not good enough, our line, we're maybe three deep. We have three guys I would trust in a game for the two inside linebacker spots, two guys for the outside linebacker spot. Once you get past Davante Davis at corner, if he's our third, a true freshman is our fourth. Not to say that Josh Thompson and those guys aren't capable of it. We're very developmental once you get past our starters. We're going to need to stay healthy.
On the changes in the team since he arrived: Yeah, to say 180, I don't know if that would be too exaggerated. They're definitely in line with what we want and what we need. I have talked about the difference between compliant and committed. I do believe these guys, there's a lot of them now that are doing these things because they have conviction, that it's the right way to do things rather than, Hey, I don't want to get in trouble so let's do these things.
Again, bad habits rear their ugly head when you're dealing with 18-to 22-year-olds. You're dealing with many, many years, a lot of times, of some bad habits.
The good thing is when they come up now, it's not just coaches that are seeing them and squashing them, it's other players that are doing it. So that means they've bought in, that they know.
I'm excited to see them play on Saturday. Like I said, the biggest test is when we face some adversity, do we respond the way we're trained or do we respond by falling back into bad habits. That will be a big, big crossroads for us to go through.
On the growth of both Lil’Jordan Humphrey and Reggie Hemphill-Mapps: Yeah, really. I think both of them redshirted last year, if that's accurate. Two completely different slot receivers. Obviously Little Jordan is a big, fluid athlete that is going to pose some size matchups on safeties and linebackers, where Reggie is a lot more elusive and explosive.
So really excited for those two guys to go from where they were redshirted as freshmen, which obviously I think it's very clear as those two guys have proven that redshirting as a freshman is not a death sentence. Playing on the scout team for a year or two is not a death sentence, especially when you're deep and talented at a position like we are.
Yeah, the battles will continue. I mean, that Z receiver, it's whoever's having the better practice between Jerrod, Devin and John Burt. One of my favorite guys on this team right now is Dorian Leonard. Although Collin we feel like is special, we feel like you really don't lose a whole lot when you put Dorian in there. Dorian has been productive the last couple years in college. So excited to see what those two guys with do at that boundary receiver position.
On football and coming together in a time like this to help a school like Houston: It's the melting pot, right? We don't see color. We don't see wealth status. We don't see religion. We don't see anything in the locker room. All we see is, Do you got my back or not? Can I trust you? It doesn't matter black, white, brown, Asian, poor, rich, Christian, Muslim, none of it matters in the locker room.
It's really, really cool to see times like this, if there is a silver lining, I think it is that society can take a big lesson from what we do every day in sports. That's that we trust people, we accept them, we work really hard with them and for them to help them achieve their goals.
To see all of the different examples have some light shed on them in times of trouble, like we're going through in Houston, it's at least comforting to know we haven't lost that part of our society where sports is a giant melting pot of people with no agendas.
On his first game as a GA at Texas in 1999: Yeah, it's funny because I wasn't too nervous. As a GA, you chart plays. But I actually screwed something up in that game. I cost us a timeout. I don't know if I've told this story or not. My job was to be the two-point, whether we're going for two points or not on the extra point. What I would do is I would do the math before a series would start, then I would put a little two or a one in front of Greg Davis so he knew, This is a two-point drive or a one-point drive.
The score had been kind of weird, I think maybe because of a safety or something like that. They kick off to us, Victor takes it to the house. I haven't done the math yet on whether this was a two-point or one-point drive. It was some funky score.
Mack Brown is calling to Greg Davis saying, Is it two or one? He's looking at me. I just froze. We called timeout actually. So I cost us a timeout. This shows you what a great man Greg Davis was. He could have thrown me under the bus like nobody's business, because Mack Brown, I think we actually wound up going for two, can't remember if we got it or not, but Mack Brown kind of chastised Greg a little bit, saying, We can't use a timeout, that's unacceptable, so on and so forth. Greg Davis could have said, Yeah, this young GA here screwed it up. All he said was, Yes, sir, I'll make sure that doesn't happen again. I'll never forget that night because of that. I cost us a timeout.
On the physicality and preparedness of the team: They're close. They're light-years ahead of where they were. They embrace full pads. They embrace live contact. In the spring, this is real. Like, I mean, I heard people say, Oh, we have to be in full pads today.
What? You have to be? No, you get to be. You get to be in full pads. You get to tackle people. You get to hit people.
So there's been a marked shift in the way that they look at even just the act of having a full-padded, full live practice. That's the start. Do we need to wrap up more or defense? Yes. Do we need to finish blocks more on offense? Yes. But we're getting there. At least it's not a 'have to' any more like it was.
On this team being a Top 25 team: I think our starting 22 could play with anybody in the country. Would we win every game? I didn't say that. We can play if we play to our abilities with anybody in the country.
I've said this since the spring, so there's no changing of stances. I'm concerned about our depth, I am. Whether that means we have championship or top-25 talent, I think was the question, maybe in the starting 22. But certainly not top to bottom, as you would like.
We're getting there. We can't go on the waiver wire. We can't sign some free agents. They're ours. We got to develop them.
On Sam Ehlinger and how he will see playing time this week: I think it would take Shane not playing well, not practicing well. Like I said, I mean, you're only as good as your last practice. That's a big deal around here. If we're going to hold the rest of the team to that standard, we need to hold the quarterback to that, as well.
So I think Shane is in control of that. He goes out and he practices well every day, he'll continue to start and play the game. If he stumbles and opens the door a little bit in practice, stumbles and opens the door during a game, then we'll have to evaluate it at that point.
It would be Shane not having the types of practices that he's had the last few days, which have been really good.
On entering the stadium Saturday and showing the fans all the hard work: Yeah, you know, we talked Saturday that we're a week away from showing the world what we've been doing the last nine months, how hard we've been working. Peyton Manning said something to our team when he spoke to them. He was talking about one of the hardest working guys he's ever been around was Marvin Harrison. He said, They pay me to practice. The games I'd play for free. The games are fun.
That's the way it should be around here. The practices are really, really hard. Preparation is really, really hard. So much so that the games are fun. But let's make no mistake, the fun is in the winning, too. This game is inherently fun, but it's a lot more fun when you win. They understand that. They understand that we'll be able to cut it loose and play the way that we're trained to play and have a good time doing it, but in order to really have fun on Saturday, we got to win.
Injury updates: Chris Brown, ankle, will not play. Eric Cuffee, with a forearm fracture, will probably not play until the following week. Terrell Cuney slipped on the stairs and sprained his ankle. It's not too bad. We're expecting him. He would be probable, I guess. Then Andrew Fitzgerald and Garrett Thomas are still a couple weeks away.
With that, questions.
On the adversity and situation from Hurricane Harvey: Yeah, I mean, we've got 21 or so players from the Houston area whose families and homes have been affected. Nothing disastrous at this point in terms of our guys have checked in and everybody is safe.
I think the fact that we do have this bit of an escape to come to the facility and kind of get away from the real world for a few hours is welcome. But especially now that I know that our players' families are safe, I mean, what our guys are going through is nothing compared to what the residents of the city of Houston and the surrounding areas are going through.
On Shane Buechele being the starter: Shane is the starter today.
On the plan to play both quarterbacks Saturday: Myself and Coach Beck talked about it again today. If we played today, we would let Shane play the game. He's had a really, really good last few days of practice.
Again, around here, if the receiver goes out and has three really bad practices, the backup is going to probably play a little bit more.
We'll know more towards the end of the week. But if we were to play today, Shane would play the whole game as long as he's playing well.
On how the team knows how to win: I don't know. I know they've been trained. Now when the bullets fly, adversity hits, you know, that's the one thing I don't know right now. If we have a couple three-and-out drives to start the game, how are we going to respond? If we give up an early touchdown, how are we going to respond?
I know how they've been trained. I have a lot of confidence in the way that they're trained, in the way that they've responded to that training, taken it to heart. But, again, putting it in practice in front of 105,000 people with a formidable opponent such as Maryland, that's a whole 'nother ball of wax.
I think we will respond well to adversity. I think we will know how to win. But, again, that remains to be seen.
On caring about his former team and city through the devastation of Hurricane Harvey: Really difficult to watch. The city of Houston is very near and dear to mine and my family's hearts, not just from our time at UofH. I was at Rice for three years, Sienna Plantation where we lived. We have former neighbors that are being evacuated because of the levees down there. Even my time at Sam Houston State, four years in Huntsville, not too far from Houston. We considered Houston home as well then, too.
Really, really difficult. We're working on some plans right now with our team in terms of collecting items that we can send over there. I talked to J.J. Watt this morning via text. We're going to try to help him and his campaign both from a team standpoint, myself and Michelle.
It's hard to watch, especially when there's so many loved ones that are there, affected by it. But we're going to try to do our best, the Herman family as well as Texas football, to put action into place.
On how Major Applewhite is handling the situation: As good as can be. We talk a couple times a day through all of this. For a guy that's never been a head coach, has only been a head coach for eight, nine months, to be thrown this big of a curve ball in you are first season would be tough for anyone.
He's handling it as good as possible.
On the running back and tight end positions: The running back spot, had Kyle not missed the extended lengths of practice that he did with the shoulder injury, I think he would have been in that top spot by himself. That's a credit to Chris, too. When he was given the opportunity to go in there and take those reps, he seized that opportunity. He played really, really well.
I feel a lot better today than I did a week, 10 days ago about that position. It's nice to see Kirk Johnson in the fold there, as well.
Then the tight end position is one that, again, to do the things we want to do in the run game, we got to play with a tight end. When Andrew Beck went down, that was pretty devastating, devastating blow to us. Garrett Gray has gotten bigger and stronger. He's learning the position currently. He's only played the position a short amount of time.
Cade Brewer comes in. Comes from an extremely successful program at Lake Travis, one that he played in an offense very similar to what we expect out of our tight ends. So a lot of the things that we're asking him to do are not foreign to him. The foreign-ness has been the speed of the game and the strength and size of the people that he's blocking. But he's a really, really smooth route runner. He's got great ball skills. Right now he's serviceable in the run game.
On Poona Ford being named a captain: Well, I think it sends a message to anybody in this great game. I don't know. I've been here nine months. I'm not sure I've heard Poona Ford say more than 10 words. But he's the hardest practicing player on our team. It's not even close. We've got some hard-practicing dudes. When you see a guy that's 5'11", 310 pounds doing the things he do day after day after day after day, he was the second leading vote getter actually in that captain draw. It opened my eyes a little bit, too, that what we value in leadership as coaches is probably a little bit different than what the players value. It's very obvious that the players value guys that go out, practice as hard as he does, and only speaks when necessary, but when he does, the room stops and people listen.
On emotion now that game week is finally here: Not really. It's been a long nine months. We've had a lot of things happen to us over the span of those nine months. I'm actually relieved a little bit to be back in the offensive meeting room, to be back in the staff room, to be preparing for an opponent, to doing a lot less media things (smiling), and to get back to coaching football and preparing to win a game.
So I think relief and excitement are probably the two emotions.
On Maryland: Well, I know that they went to a bowl game last year, in D.J. Durkin's first year. I have a ton of respect for him. He was one of the best defensive coordinators in the country for a long time. For him to get his hands on a program like that, I think the sky is the limit for him and what he's able to accomplish there. A team that was a bowl team last year, a team that is very veteran on defense. I think seven seniors, or nine seniors, seven returning starters. There's a lot of experience on that defensive front, especially the middle linebacker, I think he's wearing No. 1 this year, wore No. 23 last year, Carter. It's a team that went last year in 13 games had 37 sacks, almost three a game. Their defensive end who moved from outside linebacker, I think their whole defense changed numbers, too, which is confusing. He's now wearing No. 6. Aniebonam is his name. Heck of a player.
On offense, the Pigrome kid is who they pen as their starter at quarterback, that's a pretty big added dimension on that side of the ball. They've already shown themselves to be a really good running offense in terms of Harrison and Johnson in the backfield. I think they averaged over 200 yards rushing a game last year. Now you add a dynamic runner at quarterback, and that is going to cause you fits.
I think if we can neutralize their front six or seven on offense, keep them away from our quarterback, move the line of scrimmage a little bit in the run game, then if we can stop the run, those are going to be our two biggest points of emphasis to win the game.
On the youth represented on the depth chart and potential growing pains: I hope there won't be any growing pains. I'm excited, you know, for the future certainly. I think it doesn't matter how old you are, how much experience you have. If you've been in our program for the last nine months, you're going to be ready to play a college football game if we jog you out there.
I am excited about the future knowing that there are a lot of guys that are going to play that are youthful.
On team goals and what a successful season looks like: Yeah, never wins and losses. I think especially in a first year like this where we're just trying to develop and instill our culture and our way of doing things.
But I think success would be if we play disciplined, if we protect the football on offense, and when people watch us, either opponents or when the casual fan watches us, if they can say, Wow, I've never seen Texas play that hard. Wow, I've never seen Texas play that physical. Wow, I've never seen Texas play with that much passion, energy, accountability to their teammates and coaches. Then we'll be on our road to success.
How many wins that translates into this year, if we can stay healthy, there's a lot of different things. But if we can say we're the hardest-playing, hardest-hitting, most accountable team on the football field each and every Saturday, we'll have a chance to win. That will be success.
On the team’s strengths and weaknesses: Excitingly I think our strength on both sides of the ball is the line, offensive and defensive lines. I think we still need to find a consistent, productive right tackle. Those other four guys may be the national championship year at Ohio State that I was a part of, that might be the only other offensive line that could compare with these guys. So I'm excited to see them play.
Then the defensive line has been a very welcome surprise, considering where I thought we were at this position in January. Charles Omenihu has exerted himself as kind of the fourth starter there. We're getting quality play from guys like Jamari Chisholm, Gerald Wilbon, Ta'Quon Graham. Obviously those guys aren't going to be 60-play-a-game guys. We'll rely on Poona and Chris Nelson, Charles and Malcolm for the 50 plays a game. It will be the other 20 that those guys can go in and hopefully make a difference when they're in.
Weakness, just depth. We're not good enough, our line, we're maybe three deep. We have three guys I would trust in a game for the two inside linebacker spots, two guys for the outside linebacker spot. Once you get past Davante Davis at corner, if he's our third, a true freshman is our fourth. Not to say that Josh Thompson and those guys aren't capable of it. We're very developmental once you get past our starters. We're going to need to stay healthy.
On the changes in the team since he arrived: Yeah, to say 180, I don't know if that would be too exaggerated. They're definitely in line with what we want and what we need. I have talked about the difference between compliant and committed. I do believe these guys, there's a lot of them now that are doing these things because they have conviction, that it's the right way to do things rather than, Hey, I don't want to get in trouble so let's do these things.
Again, bad habits rear their ugly head when you're dealing with 18-to 22-year-olds. You're dealing with many, many years, a lot of times, of some bad habits.
The good thing is when they come up now, it's not just coaches that are seeing them and squashing them, it's other players that are doing it. So that means they've bought in, that they know.
I'm excited to see them play on Saturday. Like I said, the biggest test is when we face some adversity, do we respond the way we're trained or do we respond by falling back into bad habits. That will be a big, big crossroads for us to go through.
On the growth of both Lil’Jordan Humphrey and Reggie Hemphill-Mapps: Yeah, really. I think both of them redshirted last year, if that's accurate. Two completely different slot receivers. Obviously Little Jordan is a big, fluid athlete that is going to pose some size matchups on safeties and linebackers, where Reggie is a lot more elusive and explosive.
So really excited for those two guys to go from where they were redshirted as freshmen, which obviously I think it's very clear as those two guys have proven that redshirting as a freshman is not a death sentence. Playing on the scout team for a year or two is not a death sentence, especially when you're deep and talented at a position like we are.
Yeah, the battles will continue. I mean, that Z receiver, it's whoever's having the better practice between Jerrod, Devin and John Burt. One of my favorite guys on this team right now is Dorian Leonard. Although Collin we feel like is special, we feel like you really don't lose a whole lot when you put Dorian in there. Dorian has been productive the last couple years in college. So excited to see what those two guys with do at that boundary receiver position.
On football and coming together in a time like this to help a school like Houston: It's the melting pot, right? We don't see color. We don't see wealth status. We don't see religion. We don't see anything in the locker room. All we see is, Do you got my back or not? Can I trust you? It doesn't matter black, white, brown, Asian, poor, rich, Christian, Muslim, none of it matters in the locker room.
It's really, really cool to see times like this, if there is a silver lining, I think it is that society can take a big lesson from what we do every day in sports. That's that we trust people, we accept them, we work really hard with them and for them to help them achieve their goals.
To see all of the different examples have some light shed on them in times of trouble, like we're going through in Houston, it's at least comforting to know we haven't lost that part of our society where sports is a giant melting pot of people with no agendas.
On his first game as a GA at Texas in 1999: Yeah, it's funny because I wasn't too nervous. As a GA, you chart plays. But I actually screwed something up in that game. I cost us a timeout. I don't know if I've told this story or not. My job was to be the two-point, whether we're going for two points or not on the extra point. What I would do is I would do the math before a series would start, then I would put a little two or a one in front of Greg Davis so he knew, This is a two-point drive or a one-point drive.
The score had been kind of weird, I think maybe because of a safety or something like that. They kick off to us, Victor takes it to the house. I haven't done the math yet on whether this was a two-point or one-point drive. It was some funky score.
Mack Brown is calling to Greg Davis saying, Is it two or one? He's looking at me. I just froze. We called timeout actually. So I cost us a timeout. This shows you what a great man Greg Davis was. He could have thrown me under the bus like nobody's business, because Mack Brown, I think we actually wound up going for two, can't remember if we got it or not, but Mack Brown kind of chastised Greg a little bit, saying, We can't use a timeout, that's unacceptable, so on and so forth. Greg Davis could have said, Yeah, this young GA here screwed it up. All he said was, Yes, sir, I'll make sure that doesn't happen again. I'll never forget that night because of that. I cost us a timeout.
On the physicality and preparedness of the team: They're close. They're light-years ahead of where they were. They embrace full pads. They embrace live contact. In the spring, this is real. Like, I mean, I heard people say, Oh, we have to be in full pads today.
What? You have to be? No, you get to be. You get to be in full pads. You get to tackle people. You get to hit people.
So there's been a marked shift in the way that they look at even just the act of having a full-padded, full live practice. That's the start. Do we need to wrap up more or defense? Yes. Do we need to finish blocks more on offense? Yes. But we're getting there. At least it's not a 'have to' any more like it was.
On this team being a Top 25 team: I think our starting 22 could play with anybody in the country. Would we win every game? I didn't say that. We can play if we play to our abilities with anybody in the country.
I've said this since the spring, so there's no changing of stances. I'm concerned about our depth, I am. Whether that means we have championship or top-25 talent, I think was the question, maybe in the starting 22. But certainly not top to bottom, as you would like.
We're getting there. We can't go on the waiver wire. We can't sign some free agents. They're ours. We got to develop them.
On Sam Ehlinger and how he will see playing time this week: I think it would take Shane not playing well, not practicing well. Like I said, I mean, you're only as good as your last practice. That's a big deal around here. If we're going to hold the rest of the team to that standard, we need to hold the quarterback to that, as well.
So I think Shane is in control of that. He goes out and he practices well every day, he'll continue to start and play the game. If he stumbles and opens the door a little bit in practice, stumbles and opens the door during a game, then we'll have to evaluate it at that point.
It would be Shane not having the types of practices that he's had the last few days, which have been really good.
On entering the stadium Saturday and showing the fans all the hard work: Yeah, you know, we talked Saturday that we're a week away from showing the world what we've been doing the last nine months, how hard we've been working. Peyton Manning said something to our team when he spoke to them. He was talking about one of the hardest working guys he's ever been around was Marvin Harrison. He said, They pay me to practice. The games I'd play for free. The games are fun.
That's the way it should be around here. The practices are really, really hard. Preparation is really, really hard. So much so that the games are fun. But let's make no mistake, the fun is in the winning, too. This game is inherently fun, but it's a lot more fun when you win. They understand that. They understand that we'll be able to cut it loose and play the way that we're trained to play and have a good time doing it, but in order to really have fun on Saturday, we got to win.
