Sept. 7, 2009
COLLEGE STATION, Texas--Head Coach Mike Sherman and players meet with members of the press to talk about the past game against New Mexico and the upcoming battle against Utah State.
A full transcript of Coach Sherman's press conference, along with selected quotes from players, are will be available soon. Audio clips are available in MP3 format to the right.
HEAD COACH Mike Sherman TRANSCRIPT
When you got a chance to look back at the tape, did anything stick out to you?
"I was very impressed coming off the field, and then reconfirming what happened watching the tape, the fact that we tacked pretty well. I didn't think we'd tackle as efficiently as we did, since coming out of the preseason we do a lot of 'thud' work. We don't like to beat up our backs too much and get someone hurt, so we don't take them to the ground. The defense is at a little bit of a disadvantage. But I thought collectively as a group we tackled very well, and that surprised me and impressed me at same time."
Were the missed tackle numbers lower than at any point last year?
"I'd say we were fairly efficient in our tackling, more so than maybe last year."
Is that because you maybe have a smarter group of players on the field?
"No, not necessarily. I thought we ran well to the ball. We gang tackled. We didn't give the runner a whole lot of options to break tackles because there were a number of people around him. Even on the bubble screens outside, where our corners were coming up and making solo tackles, that was just them wrapping up and being physical. There was a good physical, toughness attitude in the way we tackled."
Could you see a lot more quickness in your defense?
"It's hard when you're on the inside, and you look at these guys every single day. I felt like in certain positions we definitely showed more speed than we did last year...I would say at the linebacker position, and I would say Von Miller is playing a lot faster this year than he did a year ago. So I'd say those two positions stood out for me the most."
Talk about your decision to use Ryan Tannehill at receiver...
"That's a difficult one, but it's hard to keep him on the sidelines. He wants to be a part of it, so it's very difficult. At the same time, I have to be smart and protect him as best I can, so if we need to go with him he's ready to go. It's a fine line I'm walking."
Was that part of the thought process in inserting Tommy Dorman late in the game?
"Pretty much, and Tommy ended up spraining his ankle a little bit in the process. I just didn't see any need. He had been playing in the game and we had exposed him to some risk. I didn't want to do that any further in the ballgame, to put a starter-and I consider Ryan (Tannehill) a starter-in that late in the ballgame. That was the reason to go with Tommy."
And then when you see a guy like Tannehill at receiver, it is hard to keep him off the field isn't it?
"It is difficult, but along the same lines we have a good corps of receivers that have worked hard and deserve that same opportunity. Like I said, there is a risk factor. Ryan is special. To think he made those catches with limited practice time, really, that would be another element of surprise for me...that he would be effective as he was. He made two great catches. He's the type of guy that wants to play. There's a balancing act there that I have to be careful of."
Was he pestering you on the sidelines to go in?
"No, he understands the situation. I know he wants to play, and he will play, and he'll have a long career. But no, he wasn't that way on the sidelines at all."
Getting back to your receivers, how many drops did you credit them with?
"I don't think we had a drop in the ballgame. Jerrod made some great decisions, but there were about eight balls that were questionable that could have been put on the body a little bit better, and our guys made those catches. I thought it was one of best games as a group that our receivers have played as group since I've been here, as far as not having any drops."
How do you assess Kyle Mangan now that he's gone out and played a game?
"He's a first-year player. He made some mistakes at times that will get corrected this week hopefully. It's when Kyle tries to do too much when he gets in trouble. He's not very patient sometimes, and will jump out of his gap maybe when he wants to make the tackle. When he played within the system he played very well. He's a young kid, and has a long ways to go, but I thought his effort and toughness were exemplary. He'll just keep getting better."
You mentioned coming off the field there were a few things you wanted to work on with the offense before the next game. What were some of those things?
"Well, we struggled running the football. I really wanted to establish the run early in the game and was not able to do that. Give New Mexico credit, they were running some stunts we weren't necessarily picking up, and slanting their front, and we were a little bit too quick to climb with our offensive line up to the linebackers, and not press the line of scrimmage with our line and our backs. From a running-game standpoint, there were those issues. There were a couple of things that we could have done better in the passing game as well, taking advantage of a couple of things...get out of a run and go to a pass...just little things like that. I also didn't think our protection was all that great. The quarterback had to run a little bit. The protection was okay, the assignments were fine, but we had a couple of technical errors in our protection. We need to shore that up."
Talk about the effort of a true freshman (Dustin Harris) in running back punts and the job he did...
"He dropped one in pregame, and the two running backs fumbled in pregame. I wasn't in my best spirits going onto the field. I thought that might carry over, but fortunately they got the message and it didn't. This was a good game for him (Harris). He did one thing special, had one return that he was corralled pretty good and he took it up the middle. He missed one that he bounced and could have taken it up the middle. But the fact he had ball security and made the catches in his first ball game, I was very impressed with that. He's very confident. He trusts himself. And I think he'll be a legitimate punt returner. We're going to work Coryell Judie back there as well at some point. His legs haven't come back yet necessarily from when we first started working with him. He still has two-a-day legs. So we'll work both those guys back there."
One guy that kind of gets overlooked sometimes is Matt Featherston. Can you talk about having him as a backup at the "Jack" position?
"I think it's more of a natural position for Matt than at linebacker, where we played him last year. He went into (last week's) game early. Von (Miller) got sick very early in the game, whether it was nerves or whatever. Matt went in there and did a nice job. It's so important to have two guys because when you play that position, it's a position where you expect to get some pass rush, and those guys have to be well-rested to be able to do that. To have Matt Featherston as a viable backup to Von is a critical component we have to have."
Overall did the freshmen as a group do better as a whole than maybe you expected?
"They did about what I expected them to do. The thing that impressed me the most was that the game wasn't too big for them. It didn't change them. The plays they made in the game they've been making in practice. I'm familiar with seeing them making the plays, but in front of 75,000 people, they kept true to their character that they've demonstrated in practice. I guess it shows the sense of maturity they have."
How would you evaluate Christine Michael's debut?
"I thought he did well. I'm not quite as big on the spinning of the backs as I am of getting downhill right away. But I thought he showed some explosiveness. You know, we probably had more runs of over 12 yards in this game than we did ever last year, All of the backs, Bradley Stephens, Cyrus Gray and Christine, all contributed to that. I thought it was a good start for him. He still has a lot of things he has to work on."
But the crowd loves those spins...
"Yeah (laughing)...but the coach doesn't...a lot of times those spins cause fumbles, because you're coming around. But I just like them going north and south."
You talked about your conditioning...did this team come in to fall camp in shape or did you get them in shape in fall camp?
"Well, it all started back in January. We've run this team like you'd run a basketball team. We ran every day. We started it when they came back in January, and we'd run them, and they'd run, and run, and run, and run. We ran 90 offensive plays (on Saturday) and I didn't sense much fatigue. There was a little bit with the offensive line, but I didn't sense a lot of fatigue out there. With the tempo that we had going, it really pressed us as well as our opponent, but I thought we fared pretty well out there. I think a lot of it has to do with their summer conditioning too. That went very well. Everyone was a part of it. (Head strength coach) Dave Kennedy and his staff did a great job, because we obviously can't work with them in the summer, of keeping them going, coming out of spring ball and into the summer."
You've stressed the fact of how you wanted the older guys to receive the younger guys better. Was that a concern a year ago?
"It was more something that is a part of my history. I think in the NFL, where you draft guys and I'd give that speech every year, 'Hey, we're bringing in some draft picks, and we have to get these guys ready if we want to win. Y'all need to help them along.' And the great competitors, they want to win. If they think this guy will help you win, they help the younger players. I know in college football sometimes, there's a rite of passage, a hierarchy in the locker room, which I don't believe in. So with us bringing in all these freshmen, it was important that the older guys understood that these guys are going to be your teammates and you better embrace them now, because we need them to help us win. I can't say enough about the unselfishness that a lot of the upperclassmen have demonstrated in relationship to tutoring and helping the younger guys. Terrence McCoy or Jeff Fuller. They've all contributed to the development of those young guys."
How much time will you spend on correcting things this week, or will you start game-planning for Utah State?
"We practiced this morning, and it was basically a 'core' practice, where we work on our core fundamentals in the passing game and running game. This afternoon we'll watch the game tape. I give them off on Sundays, so they were here early this morning at six and we had about an hour and five minute workout and then we conditioned them as well. That's today. Tomorrow will be fundamentals, going against each other. We really need to bring some younger players along this week, guys that didn't play in the game, to see if they will contribute this season. In the next two weeks I really want to push the envelope on some more of the younger guys to see where they're at. As coaches, we've already started game-planning for our next opponent, and that will take Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday and Friday we'll look ahead to a couple of other opponents down the road. As I told the coaches, this game plan will be done by Wednesday, so next week we're not going to be pressed. (Utah State) have a bye week, as do we, so there's no more new information. Sometimes if you have too much time as a coach you end up overanalyzing, and end up doing too much stuff. I've always been of the philosophy that we'll look at them and put a game plan together and that's what we'll use. This is kind of a continuation of the preseason for me, because of where the bye week has come, and it's been beneficial to an extent. We have a game, and we can look at ourselves as a baseline in that game, and then work through this week. This is kind of a continuation of preseason, and a much needed week, because we have a lot of things that we need to work on."
Talk about the play of Danny Baker after watching the tape...
"Well, Danny is really a center that we moved to tackle. He was probably going against one of their better defensive players. We had some pressure from that position during the course of the game, and that was an issue."
The offensive line needs to cut down on their penalties. Matt Allen seemed to have a couple of holding calls and there were some discipline issues, is that something you guys are going to address?
"I wouldn't say it's as much discipline. He's about as disciplined as they come. It was just a fundamental issue more so than a discipline issue. I think we'll be able to clean that up real quick. I really didn't anticipate us to have that many penalties in the course of the game, and I really think in a tighter ball game it would have been the deciding factor in a ball game, when you consider the yardage that was lost on those penalties. It's not something you can write off, you've got to fix that. But from a management or game-situation, there weren't the procedural penalties. One time (Lee) Grimes was lined up a little too deep, and they usually give you a warning on that, and they threw a flag on that. But the pre-snap penalties weren't really as much a factor as the post-snap penalties. The holding (was) just keeping your hands in the right place. I think we can fix most of what happened."
The offense protected the football really well (zero turnovers)...
"Yeah, and again that's another thing in the first ball game that you always worry about, just like I worry about tackling, where we haven't done any live tackling on a regular basis to protect the backs, they haven't been tackled on a regular basis either. I was very concerned about that going into the first ballgame, their first hits. Like I said, in pregame we put the ball on the ground twice at the running back position, so I was even extra nervous about that. On the other side of the coin, Jerrod (Johnson) made good decisions and didn't force the ball down the field. He likes to take his shots. As I told him, 'Let the system work for you, don't you work the system. If they're there, you take them, and if they're not, you don't take them.' He took his check-downs when he had to, and took the deep throws when they were there. I told him, 'If you take the ones that are there and don't force them, we'll give you another opportunity to take those shots. If you force them, we'll limit those opportunities.' He did a good job of managing himself in the context of game I thought. He made good decisions."
How good is he at throwing back across his body? Is he better at that now than he was a year ago?
"I don't know if he's better at that. He did a nice job of it in the game. He's a good out-of-pocket quarterback, I think, because he's so big and he sees the field. His eyes never come off, even though he ran quite a few times, he made some great decisions. One time we called a play that was designed for 'quarters' coverage, and they ended up in 'two', and there was nowhere to go with the ball, and the minute he saw it he took off and ran. He knew he had nothing and he saved the play. That's a good quarterback. He made some great decisions running with the ball. There were some times when he was out of the pocket, and he's always looking when there are opportunities downfield for a free play. I thought he did a good job with that."
What is the status of Ryan Swope?
"We held him back for this ball game. He had an injury and we held him back, but he will be ready to go this week and we should be good to go with him."
Last year when you walked off the field you said you were disappointed for the fans. What were your thoughts walking off the field on Saturday?
"It was important. We talked about how important it was to establish Kyle Field and how important it was to play this game passionately for our school and for our fans, and for themselves and each other. I thought they did that. It was important to come off with a win at home. We have to temper that a little bit, we have a long way to go to get to where we want to get and to do what we need to do as a football team. But this was important for us from a confidence standpoint. Hopefully it will just make us a little bit better down the road."
You didn't seem like you had a lot of issues tackling on Saturday...
"Not in this ballgame we didn't. That doesn't mean we won't if we don't stress it. This ballgame, it seems like we tackled pretty effectively, hopefully it will continue. It hasn't always been the case in practice though, in practice sometimes we've missed a few tackles. But in this ballgame we did tackle well."
Does Von get an extra pat on the back this week for leading the nation in sacks?
"Well, he also had himself a penalty and a little celebration issue we needed to talk about, so there's plenty of things to bring him down to earth with."
ASSISTANT HEAD COACH/DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR Joe Kines
On Utah State...
"Brilliant, imaginative. That's the best two words to describe Utah State's offense. The quarterback, running back and wide receiver, those three young men will be as fine a players as we'll face all year. The quarterback, I don't know how you hem him up. His quickness, the way he can elude a tackler, he does a really good job with the option. He's one of the quicker players we'll play all year. Not many times will you see a running back take it 98 yards, but (running back Robert) Turban, he split the seam and out ran a Utah defense that really kept Alabama in check. On the second play of the game they catch one and run it down to about the 8-yard line. They'll give you indigestion, heartburn, all that stuff just watching them on tape. We really have our work cut out for us. I'm glad we have a couple days to work on them."
On the freshmen...
"It was hard to tell they were freshmen, wasn't it? Sometimes you have to grow up quick. I think necessity had something to do with it. We didn't treat them like freshmen. They were what we had, so we had to get them ready. A lot of times in life, folks will do what they have to do. We had to get them ready and they responded. We didn't spend a lot of time worrying about what class they were in. We were looking for someone who could run fast and hit hard."
On the play of Von Miller...
"I was proud of Von, not only for that game, but how he's handled the situation since last fall. We moved him from linebacker to the jack position, and that's been a good move for him. It kind of fit. You move a player sometimes, and the first couple of days may be a pretty good indicator. If you move him in there and he does really well right off, then you probably made a good move. If you move him and he's awkward and he struggles with it, then you don't know how good that thing's going to go. Since the day we moved Von to jack he's done really well. He's a different person than he was last year. He takes care of business better, he works harder, he's matured and he's on his way to being a pretty good player."
On keeping the defense "level"...
"We were in good shape for the game and we conditioned well. The thing we can't do is get tired this week patting ourselves on the back. If we wear ourselves out patting ourselves on the back we'll go backwards. We have a whole bunch of work to do. We aren't nowhere near ready to be a 'good' defensive football team yet. We made one step, but we have to keep working. As long as we're willing to work, we have a chance to be decent. We (aren't) nowhere near ready...it's a long year now, and that's a great stepping stone. If we'll use it as that...it was good, it was solid, everyone was in to what they had to do. Now the thing about it is you have to erase all that and start over. If we keep it simple and let them play, we ought to be alright."
JUNIOR QB Jerrod Johnson
On the freshman receivers...
"They did well, and I expected them to do well. They were new to it, for them experiencing Kyle Field for the first time, but I expected them to do well. They are all headstrong, smart guys."
On running the ball...
"It was huge. I think our biggest success on Saturday was the fact that we were able to run the ball. Us running the ball helped us do everything else. We could mix thing up and keep the off balance. Christine ran the ball really well. He was another one of those freshmen that I expect to do really well. All our running backs run the ball well."
On the increased tempo...
"I like it a lot. I feel like I have more control over things. Because we're moving so fast, I feel like I have more control over the game, similar to pitching in a baseball game. I love the up tempo stuff. You get to catch them off guard."
REDSHIRT FRESHMAN LB Kyle Mangan
Grade yourself...
"I'd give myself a C. I had a few weak points, and missed a few assignments. I definitely need this week to work on what I missed, and come back and get it fixed for this weekend."
On the other linebackers...
"Sean (Porter) and Jonathan (Stewart), they did a great job, especially for their first college game. Ricky (Cavanaugh) and Garrick (Williams) both did an awesome job as well."
On being redshirted...
Last year, honestly, I think I needed to be redshirted. I needed the year to develop. I never was on a weight program in high school, so I needed to put on some weight and gain some speed. So I think redshirting last year really benefitted me a lot, whether it was at linebacker or fullback I think is irrelevant.
JUNIOR JACK Von Miller
On Matt Featherston...
"Matt Featherston was the man. He does all the dirty work. You don't always see it, but he had more plays than I did in the game. I'm glad I have him on my side right behind me. He's a lot more in shape than I am, and he can take a lot of weight off my back."
On Christine Michael...
"He's very elusive, like a rabbit back there. Like a rabbit on steroids, first you have to catch up to him, then you have to pray that you can tackle him. It's a rare talent that he has. When you see him play you can just tell what type of back he is. He's like a 210-pound rabbit on steroids with the speed of a cheetah. He's like a hybrid mutant running back back there."
FRESHMAN RB Christine Michael
On first college game...
"It was fun following behind Cyrus (Gray) and those guys blocking for us up front. We did well. We've been working hard all summer and that's why it ended the way it did. The speed of the guys was different. In high school, you can be faster than some people and outrun them, but in college everyone is just as good on both sides of the ball."
On Cyrus Gray...
"Since day one, he took me under his arms. He calls me his little brother. He taught me the plays when I was having trouble with the plays the first week. He's not a selfish guy, he doesn't show jealousy or envy towards me in any way. He's a straight-forward humble guy, and I like running behind Cyrus."