Sept. 29, 2008
- OSU Media Luncheon Audio - Mike Sherman (mp3)
- Joe Kines (mp3)
- Matt Featherston (mp3)
- Mike Goodson (mp3)
- OSU Media Luncheon Audio - Trent Hunter (mp3)
- Jerrod Johnson (mp3)
Aggies Meet Media at Weekly Luncheon - Head coach Mike Sherman and selected players met with members of the press on Monday at the weekly football media luncheon on the Texas A&M campus.
Click the MP3 links above to listen to audio from the press conference. A transcript of Coach Sherman's comments is listed below.
Coach can you just give us some injury updates?
"As far as quarterback, Stephen McGee's injury wasn't quite as severe as it was after the New Mexico game, but it's still a recurring injury so there's some concern there. So we're just going to play it day by day with that. (DL Michael) Bennett is not as bad as we originally thought. He had a little cartilage that locked up in his knee there, in a pocket, and it locked on him. We were able to dislodge that and we're going to continue to look at that. We don't think there's anything surgical that needs to happen. It didn't swell a lot, so we anticipate him possibly making a speedy recovery. Now whether he's going to be available this week or not it's too early to say. (DB Jordan) Peterson should be available to practice tomorrow. (RB Keondra) Smith is still in rehab, working on that foot, and hopefully he'll be ready by the end of the week but there's no guarantee on that. (QB) Jerrod (Johnson) threw the ball well in Sunday's practice and seemed no worse for the wear. He seemed okay but a little sore. I think (OL Travis) Schneider should be available this week, if not on Tuesday than by Wednesday."
Talk about taking the redshirt off LB Ricky Cavanaugh...
"Well every week we talk about where players are, particularly those freshman players. And I'm very reluctant to do that just to do that. I want to make sure if we take it off he's going to play. He can contribute so much on special teams and also as a linebacker. We're very thin at that position right now. We're hoping to get him ready to play next season, so to hold him back would be a disservice to him and to us I think. We just decided at this point to just accelerate his learning. I don't care what you say, when you're being redshirted as opposed to not being redshirted, you learn a lot faster when you're not being redshirted. You pay a lot better attention. Your attention to detail is more intense. We're hopeful that will happen with him and we're just trying to get him ready to go. He has done some nice things in practice that warranted the fact that he could possibly contribute this year."
How did he do in the game?
"He wasn't challenged a whole lot necessarily but he didn't make any major mistakes. He did his assignment. He got caught up inside one time but overall I thought he did a good job. He still has a ways to go but he did a good job. He didn't have any major busts which is what you'd worry about in regard to playing in that game against that team."
In starting Big 12 play this week, the speed and the offenses get a lot better. Do you feel like you can keep up with them with what you've seen so far?
"The tough thing this week I think is that everything we did the last week and everything from the last ball game gets thrown out the window. Now it's a whole different offense, a different concept, in regard to defending Oklahoma State. They are averaging 51 points a game and over 500 yards on offense. They run it and throw it equally well, so it does present a lot of challenges. Certainly, this offensive and defensive scheme is very challenging for us. We've got to spend a lot of time this week getting back to basics. We'll probably practice against each other a little bit more this week, simply to go good versus good. We do that every week anyways but we'll probably do a little more this week so they can have a feeling hopefully of the speed of the game a little bit better."
You've had four games so far to get a feel for this team and how they are going to compete...where do you feel this team is at this point?
"As far as compete, I think they're competing. Now coming out of the Arkansas state game, I don't think we competed at a level that we should have when I went back and looked at the tape. I felt like that second half everyone was waiting for someone else to win the game, and didn't necessarily take their job and try to win the game. But I've felt in the last couple of weeks that the team is competing and doing everything they can to try and win the football game. Is it perfect, is it good enough? Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not. But I feel like from a competitive standpoint we are competing. Is the team where I want it to be? No, I'd rather be 4-0 right now and not have lost the two games we did. But I see us making progress and getting better. I like our guys. They are very compliant to what I've asked them to do. When you come in new, and I've said this before, it's a whole new culture-no matter who the coach is, no matter who was there before, everyone does things differently. From that standpoint, there's been some change and transition, which I think at this point they are doing a much better job with than they had done previously. I hope we continue to get better. We have to continue to improve week in and week out."
What about talent wise?
"Well I think every coach is looking to be more talented. But this is our football team. I told them the other day that I wouldn't trade them for anybody. We're going out there to win football games with the guys we have. We are measured collectively as a team. Some positions may be a little stronger than others, have a little more depth than others, but we're not measured individually. We're measured collectively. And we expect to win."
Does Jerrod's shoulder limit him in any way as far as throws?
"There was a time in the game when Jerrod got hit...it was on the pass to (Ryan) Tannehill when he went up and made a phenomenal catch. But he got hit on that play and then was kind of nursing that shoulder. We took him out the second play and put Cyrus (Gray) for a play and we lost yardage, and actually lost field position to kick a field goal. So his shoulder bothered him at that point in the game when we felt like he wasn't able to come back at that point and make the throw we needed to make. As the game got going it seemed like it loosened up a little bit. I would say in the game he was a little bit limited. In practice he didn't practice very much at quarterback. His shoulder was sore pretty much the entire week. Going forward, I don't think he's 100 percent, but he's going to be good enough. Obviously we're going to rest him today (off day), and rest him a little bit more tomorrow and not ask him to do any drive throws, any hard throws. But he's got a very strong arm and I think by the end of the week we'll have him ready to go."
How would you evaluate Mike Goodson's play through four games and your expectations for him going into conference play?
"There were times during this season, in the first half of the first game-as a team, blocking and running-I thought we did very well, and Mike responded well in that situation. We weren't as good in the second half against Arkansas State as I thought we should have been. That might be as much a reflection on us blocking for him as for him. I put an awful lot on him, to find yardage that's not there and not just yardage that is. I thought he competed extremely well against Miami. Obviously he got hurt in the New Mexico game and tried to come back, but he competed very well in the Miami game. I thought he was a difference in that game in as far as he had tremendous energy and charisma on the sideline. I thought the first touchdown he had so early kind of got him revved up and going. In this last ballgame, I think he touched the ball 16 times, and that's much less than I'd like him to. I'd like him to touch it a few more times than that. I don't know that we gave him a whole lot of opportunities. We talk a lot each week about opportunities we're giving him to do what he does best, and I don't know that we gave him enough. He's a guy that has a chance to break one open at any time. He did a great job of blocking on Cyrus Gray's long 60-yard run. But I think we need to create more opportunities for him."
Can you talk about Zac Robinson, the OSU quarterback, and how he's a guy that can run pretty well too?
"He sure does. That offense certainly starts with him and his ability to function in that offensive scheme. I think he is a dual threat in many ways. I think he likes to throw it but I don't think he has a problem pulling the ball down and running it either. He is a weapon with his arm and his feet, and I think his brain. He seems like a very smart quarterback. He makes very few mistakes. I think he has less than an interception a game, which I think for what they do is pretty good."
Did Jorvorskie (Lane) show you anything in those short-yardage plays that you hadn't seen from him this year?
"I've seen it on tape, obviously, from years past, but yeah. I thought he showed a very good presence out there. I thought he got his pads down and ran hard and with authority, and certainly was a difference at the end of the ballgame. He wasn't worn out and played like a fresh back would play. I thought he did a nice job. I thought he had good pad level. He moved the pile on that 4th-and-1, where I elected not to kick the field goal. I thought the only way they'd get the game is if they blocked the field goal and returned it for a touchdown. Going for it on 4th-and-1, you want to make it and if you don't they still have to drive the length of the field. But fortunately he made it and carried a bunch of people with him down the field. I thought he did a nice job. I thought Nick LaMantia did a nice job blocking for him as a lead back. He really laid some guys out for him."
Are you still emphasizing to Jorvorskie about losing weight?
"It's a major emphasis for both our lives right now, yes (laughter)."
Are you seeing an effort from him to lose the weight?
"Yeah, he's geared it down a little bit. We need to continue to head in that direction, and hopefully it will. He needs to and we need him to. He's a very talented young man. He's got great hands. I was just talking to somebody today, the pro scout from Green Bay was in here, and I was just talking about his phenomenal hands, and he's got great feet. In my conversation with him yesterday I told him he did a great job running but we still have to work on the blocking aspect of it, which is not something he's familiar with. He hasn't had to do that before. When you've got a big body in the hole, if you're not displacing people you might as well put another defensive lineman in there because you can get in the way. I need to get him to be more of a force, and he can be. So we're working towards that and we will continue to use him in the roles that can help us win."
How's his attitude been through all this?
"I talked to him yesterday on the field and just the way he responded I was appreciative of his response. He was very accountable from what I read when he talked to y'all after the game. I think that was indicative of his attitude. I think he's been fine. I have not seen any issue with him or heard anything. Anytime I talk to him about his blocking or ask him how he did, he says, 'I could do better. I've got to get better.' He's been very positive and very accountable. If I guy is accountable and honest about where he is and what he's doing, he'll get better."
Do you see his role expanding?
"Not necessarily. We've had him in short yardage and goal line packages, it just didn't show up in the Miami game enough where it would warrant that you'd see him out there that often, as you did the other day when we were trying to run out the clock. That was a little bit different. But no, going into this game I don't see it expanding any more than what we've done with him."
Can you evaluate your linebackers?
"Well, we have probably the best linebacking coach in the country working with them (Defensive Coordinator Joe Kines), so from that standpoint there's a comfort level there. I think Matt Featherston has really made a lot of progress. Joe and I watched the tape Sunday morning, and Matt has really come a long way as a linebacker. I'm excited about his prospects. Von Miller is growing. Here's a guy who has had his hand on the ground, and when you move yourself back it's just a different ballgame. You have a deeper vision of what's happening so there's more questions that you ask yourself. When he's sure of what he's doing, there's very few that are as dangerous because he can chase down just about anybody. He hasn't been that familiar with the position, so he's growing there, as well as Garrick Williams. It's a position that needs to keep getting better. It's much like our offensive line. We've got to keep working with them and pushing them. There's a lot of inexperience in that group but hopefully each week we can take another step."
Can you talk about Dez Bryant and is he a guy you're really going to have to keep an eye on?
"Oh there's no question. We'll need more than one eye on him, hopefully we'll have 22 eyes on him. He's a guy that is very, very dangerous."
Can you talk about their return game? Does speed make those guys so dangerous?
"Obviously they do have really good speed, but they have an excellent scheme as well. When you have guys like that back there, my experience has been that the blockers don't have to hold their blocks quite as much and there's more energy from that group, because they know if they go and do their jobs it can make a difference. They know they can be part of something special. Whenever you have a good returner you always have better blockers, and the good returner makes them better blockers for two reasons-they can make people miss that don't get blocked, but they also give a lot of encouragement to their blockers because they know this one can change the outcome of the game."
How aware were you early on that Trent Hunter was going to be a guy that could make some plays for you, and can he defend the pass?
"Well, that'll be a question. He's done a good job in practice defending the pass. We felt like Trent had something special, that's why we recruited him. He had originally committed to Kansas State and he's one of the seven or eight guys that we went out and got later after we came on board. Since he's been here, he's had a lot of energy and passion and he's a guy that asks all the right questions from a football perspective. His eyes are bright. He's from Katy, Texas, coached by Coach Joseph, and he's won championships. So it's always fun to have guys that come from that type of a program. But he's always been a guy that's studied and has natural instincts. In this game, he had a very specific role. In some ways, if he didn't make that tackle maybe nobody would have. He was very aggressive in what he was doing. There was no hesitation. He made a couple of mistakes, got caught inside once or twice when the ball got pitched, but otherwise he was pretty solid. There's a lot more going on this ballgame than last ballgame. They were very one-dimensional in the last ballgame. So this one will be more of a challenge."
Can you talk about your offense? Statistically it's been kind of sluggish...
"That's putting it mildly, I appreciate that (laughter)."
It couldn't have been what you expected. Is it a matter of play-calling, or the offensive line, or what would you attribute it to?
"Well you know I'm not going to say it's play-calling (laughter). There's things we can do better, there's no question about that. From everybody's perspective. At times we just don't seem to be finishing things the way we need to finish. I think we're getting on the right guys up front, but as I told them yesterday that's not enough. We need to displace people, create some space to be able to move the football. I agree with you, with a guy like Mike (Goodson) we ought to be better. That's very frustrating at this point. We'll continue to work and evolve as an offense-there's some things we can do and some we probably can't do. We're coming to learn a little more about each other as we go. Our offensive line works extremely hard, probably one of the hardest working groups we have, but we have to do better on gameday as far as moving people out and creating some better running lanes. And that's a point of emphasis this week."
Is it just inexperience with that line?
"It's inexperience, it's a new scheme-they have no familiarity with us and how we do things. Everything is brand new for them and there's a lack of experience in that group. We only had eight scholarship players here in the spring to work with, and then we brought in the freshmen. So it's a combination of both."
Are the quarterbacks noticing a little more the last few games the mismatches that maybe can be made in the middle with (tight end) Jamie McCoy?
"I think Jamie had a phenomenal spring. And then somehow in preseason camp, either our fault or his fault, he kind of got lost a little bit and he didn't seem the same. In the last two weeks, against Miami and this past week against Army, I thought he really has started to make some better strides. It's kind of like Jamie McCoy is concerned, he's even more and more familiar with the position and I think he's going to be a fine tight end for us eventually. He gives up something at the line of scrimmage obviously in the run game, not because of a lack of effort or toughness, he's just not the biggest tight end. He's at 225 pounds. He's going against guys that are 250, 260, sometimes a bit bigger. So you give something up right there which does have an effect on the run game, but he hangs in there, he battles, and he'll do what he has to do to make the block."
Can you list the top two or three things that concern you the most about Oklahoma State?
"I think just their explosiveness on offense, certainly, is one of them. I think they are equally adept at throwing and running the ball, so you can't say that you'll shut them down and make them throw the ball, or make them run the ball. You have to be able to defend everything with them. Also, their ability to score a lot of points may change how you play the game offensively. I think that's enough to keep me awake at night right there."
Kendall Hunter, their running back, he can certainly hurt you can't he?
"I'm very impressed with him. As much as you look at them and say, 'Wow, they do a great job throwing the ball,' but their running game is just as dangerous as their throwing game. There's no question about that."
What about defensively?
"I think defensively they have a good scheme. They play hard. They play a lot of middle safety zone and man. They'll also go into a two-safety look. They change it up enough so you really can't get a bead on them one way or the other. And they have a nice little pressure package out of their zone dogs. So I think they can present some problems and create some big plays. They want to get the ball back for their offense. They're going to try to create negative yardage plays or turnovers with some of their pressure package."
How do you get your offense more consistent, especially in the second half?
"Well, that second quarter we had two touches and one was a touchdown. Then we scored on our first possession of the second half. But after that...well, just keep popping away at it. What you have to understand, what we've been faced with a little bit-when McGee goes out, Jerrod comes out of a whole package for our receivers, and Tannehill was hurt most of the week and he didn't practice a heck of a lot. Hopefully we can have a complete week of continuity with our guys, and get them practicing together. I think that will make us a more efficient offense. The other thing too, no matter what you say, when you're changing quarterbacks as regularly as we have, you lack some consistency. Now what bothers me is the way we started the game. We had three three-and-outs if I'm not mistaken. That was all stuff we practiced. We had the same quarterback and we knew what we were going into. Now (OL Travis) Schneider wasn't in there obviously, and (Robbie) Frost was in there in his place, but we had our guys. The first three possessions were what really bothered me. First of all, we had good field position in regard to where the defense forced the punt. We didn't field it real well, the sun was high in the sky and we didn't see it on two occasions, so that pushed us back on two occasions. That was frustrating because we should have had good field position. I was disappointed more with the way we started the game. Before this game, two out of the first three games we scored on our first possession, against Arkansas State and Miami. But this game we were three three-and-outs and struggling to get a first down. That part frustrates me more than the other."
What's happened with (wide receivers) Howard Morrow and Pierre Brown, two guys who were very experienced who aren't getting very many opportunities anymore, and with the injuries to the QBs can you continue to afford to play those guys at receiver?
"Well they're not getting hurt at receiver. They're getting hurt as quarterbacks. That is something that we're talking about now in particular. But we're trying to get guys who will make plays and want to catch balls and want to be consistent. We've got to get off jam coverage, and that's something they're all working on and trying to do. Some are doing it better than others. I'm behind those guys, I want to see them do well, but they've got to do it in practice."
How much confidence does it build in the defense with the fumble recovery for a touchdown on Saturday?
"That's the second touchdown we've scored on defense. (Jordan) Peterson had one (INT against New Mexico), (Paul) Freeney had one (fumble return vs Army), and if (Michael) Bennett was a little faster he would have had one (laughter). But in the context of a game, I saw a stat a few years ago that if you return an interception or a fumble for a touchdown you almost have an 80 percent chance of winning the ballgame. It's very devastating because it's such a quick turnaround. It definitely gives you a lot of momentum. The only negative is your defense has to go back on the field again, particularly against a team like Army where they wear you down anyway. But yeah, it does generate a lot of juice for your team. There's no question about that."
With Stephen hurt again, how valuable was the experience that Jerrod got, particularly against New Mexico and Miami, going into conference play?
"It was invaluable. He's actually played more than Stephen has this year. So that's beneficial to an inexperienced quarterback."