Sept. 21, 2009
 QB Johnson |
Coach Sherman |
Coach Kines |
COLLEGE STATION, Texas--Head Coach Mike Sherman and players of the team meet with members of the press to talk about the upcoming game against UAB.
A full transcript of Coach Sherman's press conference, along with selected quotes from players, is available below. Audio clips are available in MP3 format to the right.
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HEAD COACH Mike Sherman TRANSCRIPT
"As many of you guys probably already know, this week is Coach to Cure of Muscular Dystrophy. Lots of coaches across the country are wearing an armband in representation of our commitment to trying to help children with muscular dystrophy. Hopefully by making an awareness of this it'll expedite that process. But here with us today is a local family, James and Veronica Evans with their son Max (www.maxevans.org). They'll be our guests this weekend and we're really proud and honored to be a part of it. Max did tell me to clean up the penalty situation that we're faced with (laughter). He was a little upset about that the other night, so hopefully we'll work on that."
Does having someone like Max around make this more personal?
"Well, coaching is always personal. But it makes it more real in the sense that, you know, we're out here playing a game that we all love and are fortunate enough to coach or play in, and here's Max fighting for his life. The parents...we all have kids of our own, and the issues they have to deal with. Max just knows he's loved tremendously. But as parents, the struggles that you deal with on a daily basis, I just have the utmost respect for people that are faced with those types of challenges. The Evanses have handled it very well, and they're anxious to get Max well. I think to bring awareness to this certainly is very important, as would be if it were our own child."
A medical update?
"It looks like Jeff (Fuller) has a cracked fibula, which is the non weight-bearing bone. That usually will take anywhere from four to six weeks. My personal opinion is it takes one to three weeks, but the doctors don't agree with me and I don't think the bone does either. But we'll see. Everyone heals at a different speed. We're going to do everything we can in our power to get Jeff back as soon as possible. But as has been my attitude towards injuries, when one player gets hurt, all of a sudden, another pops up. In our case we're going to have some guys that are going to get an opportunity to step forward, as well at that position, but also at other positions. Other guys have to assume a greater responsibility and role in the offense, and on defense, and on special teams while we work through the issue of losing Jeff. I never dwell on injuries, they are part of the game and you just have to move on to the next player and get that player ready to go."
How is Lee Grimes?
"This morning, talking to him, he was very tender. The thing about Grimes...he's a true gladiator in the sense that he finds a way to get through pain and issues of that sort. So you never can rule Grimes out. He does have significant bruising of his ribs and cartilage. We'll have to wait and see on him. As is his history, when games you think he won't be able to play in, he usually steps up and plays. We'll have to wait and see with him."
Christine Michael and Coryell Judie as well?
"Christine Michael was limping around a little bit this morning. He seems to have responded very well to treatment and I think there's a chance he'll be back to practice by the middle of week. (Coryell) Judie has a subluxation of his shoulder, and it's been a continuous thing since he got back here. I'm going to sit him down. He's going to have surgery on his shoulder. He'll be redshirted this year."
Talk about the wide receivers and who might step and who might get more snaps now...
"Terrence McCoy being one of them...Terrence has to assume a greater responsibility and role in our offense, as well as two young guys. Brandal Jackson, who has really been working hard behind (Jeff) Fuller as his understudy. Jeff doesn't come out of the game very much, but Brandal has great hands and speed and a great knack for the football. I have very much confidence in him. (Kenric) McNeal, who's been playing inside receiver, is also going to share time at that 'X' position. He's already scored a touchdown for us a couple of weeks ago, and I have a lot of confidence in him as well. It's a lot to throw on these guys, but we've preparing for this by giving them a lot of reps in practice along the way."
What was it about Uzoma Nwachukwu that caught your eye when you were recruiting him?
"I think the first thing about him is his name. Nwachukwu (pronounced WATCH-a-coo), that caught my attention more than anything (laughing). I finally realized this weekend I probably need to learn to pronounce it and stop calling him 'EZ', and call him by his real name, because when you score four touchdowns on four touches you better know who he is. So Nwachukwu is now his name and not 'EZ'. But he certainly made some of those plays look easy, so it's appropriate he's called that. His explosiveness off the ball was one thing. He definitely showed that on tape. I thought he had the ability to pluck the ball. I like receivers who reach out. Body catches make me nervous. He plucks the ball with his hands. (Also) his leaping ability, and all the things you've seen him do. But I think more than anything when I met him in a one-on-one interview when he came down here, (it was) his character. I fell in love with this kid and the type of person and the type of player he's going to become. He's got a very bright future. He has a long way to go. He's just scratched the surface at the receiver position. He's so humble and willing...he's going to be a fine receiver for us. I would say watching the tape those things, and then when I met him it just kind of sealed the deal. He's a high-character young man. He comes from a great family."
When you reviewed the offensive line, how did they grade out, particularly (Evan) Eike and (Danny) Baker, since they moved around a bit on Saturday?
"Yeah, we're still trying to find our identity with that group. They both did some very positive things at times, and there were other things we struggled with at times as a group. Once we got out of that first quarter...it seems like once we get into the rhythm of the game our run game starts to take hold around the second and third quarter. We were running the ball fairly effectively. Those two guys did some good things. There's still some things we are going to work on. There's still some issues that we have to clear up as a group, not just those two guys."
Talk about the play in the first and fourth quarter compared to the second and third on Saturday...
"The first quarter, we were moving the ball on the first play and get a first down, then we sustain a penalty that took us out of position to move any further down field and put us in a long-yardage situation. They came back with a touchdown, with a 50-yard run by (Utah State running back) Robert Turbin. We responded with a touchdown. Then they had a touchdown. So 14-14 seemed like a very long quarter of football. I remember looking up there and thinking it couldn't still be the first quarter, but it was. I felt like our defense, along that time, gave up some big plays. We settled down and got a bead on what we were doing. The kids showed some maturity in the sense that it wasn't like 'Oh, here we go.' The offense responded well. To every touchdown they scored we responded back with a touchdown in the first quarter. Then we started to chip away and take a lead there as the offense continued to score points and go into halftime 24-14. So we felt we had a little breathing room there.
"Then we come out in the third quarter and we had a terrible kickoff return against us. It gave them great field position. I thought our defense did a good job of holding them to a field goal. We responded with a four-play drive for a touchdown and kind of had control of the game...until about eight minutes left in the game, I thought we had control of the football game. We substituted freely on defense. We wanted to get some guys some work at that time, and I think we eased up in the sense that we thought the game was in hand. Before the game I remember saying to the coaches in our pregame meeting that we have to make sure that we understand these kids are young kids, and they understand the situations we are in all the way throughout the course of the game. I think they thought we had the game in hand at that time. And (it was) partly my responsibility when we substituted. A lot of the starters came out, particularly on defense. They sat down, then the younger, 'younger' guys went in and we weren't functioning very well at that point, and I think we let our guard down. It's a great lesson. It's a great opportunity for us to teach from, in the sense that anybody can come back and do anything at anytime in college football today. It's a lot like basketball. The last couple of minutes in basketball, and the last eight minutes in football...and we practice the last eight minutes of the game just about every week of the season. We didn't function very well during that time frame, and allowed them to creep back into the ball game. I will say this though, the defense finished up on the field creating a turnover to win the football game. I was pleased with that. The kickoff return really upset me at the beginning of the second half, that was a problem. Us not recovering the onside kick...I thought we were a little reluctant to go get it. We addressed that this morning as well. That allowed them another opportunity to have the football. Then there was the penalty. We should have put the game away. (Ryan) Tannehill caught a vertical across the middle route that was negated by a penalty, which I fought like heck to find on tape. I really did. But I'm sure I just didn't see what was called there. We were forced to kick that field goal, and we allowed one to get blocked. If we had made that that field goal it's a different ball game.
"So there's a lot of lessons to be learned the last eight minutes of that game that we can really grow from. My son told me after the game-he's usually very critical. I was very upset and he kind of calmed me down a little bit. He said, 'Hey dad, the best thing about this is there's lot of teaching in the last eight minutes of the game.' Because it wasn't a runaway at all. We need to be able to maintain our poise at that point in the game. With a young football team, I think those are great lessons and they will definitely get the message when we meet again this afternoon."
Speaking of Tannehill, does his role change now with the Fuller injury?
"No. I'm counting on...we have some young guys that I want to see them step up this week in practice. I think Tannehill played about as much as I want to play him in this last ball game."
UAB comes in here off two straight losses. It will be a hungry team that comes in here...
"I agree with that. There's no question about that. Every week, when I talk to the kids, I have a newspaper, and I say, 'Look at all these games. Who has a big game this week?' And the accurate response is, 'We do, coach'. Every game is a big game for us. We're certainly not sitting here feeling all rosy that these guys aren't going to come in here trying to win at Kyle field. They are. They have a great coaching staff. They are guys I'm very familiar with. They'll be well-prepared and ready to play and they have some talented kids. I think every week is a battle. This will be a battle."
Talk about (quarterback Joe) Webb and the challenges he'll give your defense...
"Well, their whole offense is built around him for the most part, the running game and the passing game obviously. He's extremely fast. The quarterback we just played (Utah State's Diondre Borel) was a pretty dang good quarterback. He's so dang quick and I thought he threw the ball well. We tried to get him out of the pocket and do some things, and I thought he was very effective. We had difficulty corralling him. This young man is a bigger, stronger player and is probably faster. He may not have the initial quickness that we experienced this weekend, but everything around the offense is built around him."
Talk about the development of Sean Porter and what you've seen from him at linebacker...
"When I think of Sean Porter, I think he doesn't know how to go half-speed. He's got a full burst. He reminds me of players we've had in past...he's not the biggest or the strongest, but he has a quick burst and he can tackle. He's not 100 percent sure of what he's doing just yet but he goes fast, and I can live with that. He has a short burst and a long burst, which I love to have with linebackers."
With the type of offenses you play now, you'd just as soon want to substitute size with that type of speed?
"Pretty much. That outside linebacker position, you know in the old days you'd put a nickel in in those situations. The fact that we don't have to substitute, and we can play base, and we're not running people on and off the field...just like Von (Miller), who's kind of a hybrid linebacker/defensive end, this guy is a hybrid linebacker/safety. I don't think we're going to change his name or anything, or give him his own little "jack", but he is kind of a hybrid between those two positions. He can run with a tight end, he can blitz, he can chase down the screen, he can run and like I said he has great bursts, so having a bigger body like that at the outside linebacker position, I think it helps us. I'll also say this, I don't know if you've noticed, but Garrick Williams has really stepped into his own. He's a brand-new kid this year. His character, his effort, his toughness...he's really playing well. The two of those guys complement each other, and I think we're going to be pretty good at that position when it's all done."
Can you talk more about Jerrod's play? Do you think he still locks on to a receiver at times instead of taking looks elsewhere?
"He's done a much better job of that this year. Much better. There are two plays you're probably referring to. I thought he forced the ball in to Tannehill, and he had other options going on that he could have taken. We discussed that on the sideline and we're going to discuss that again this afternoon. He likes to throw the ball deep. A vertical route was run by Tannehill, and certainly there were collisions there of three defenders and we were fortunate that those two balls weren't picked off. That might have changed the outcome of the football game. That message was conveyed Saturday and it will be conveyed again. But no, I don't think he's locking on to guys as much as he has. I thought on those plays he did because he wanted to get the ball down the field. He had other throws he should have taken on those plays. Those were third down calls."
I know you discussed the reasons for some of the false start penalties on Saturday, but the penalties overall, how big of a concern?
"It's a big one. We're looking as a team, today we'll spend time and look at every single one, and why they happened and how it can't happen. (Justin) McQueen had a blatant one, where a guy pushed him and he pushed him back and he got thrown for a flag there. The procedural penalties we have to clean up as an offensive staff. There were some issues happening during the game from their standpoint, from a defensive perspective, that caused us to move, which we have to have accountability as an offensive staff. When you have seven of them, it's more than just having one guy screwing up. We have to answer to that and we'll get that worked out. The others are just functions moving your feet and not grabbing guys. I know (Michael) Shumard had one, he came back on a guy which is just an illegal block. He got his helmet in front, but you can't peel back on a guy and cut him. I think I have to take responsibility for that. We have talked about it but it hasn't come up in practice. He thought he was fully within his right, but you can't do that. That will come with the maturity of our team. I think we'll get better. I said it two weeks ago, and we certainly didn't get it worked out, but I certainly don't anticipate this being a problem that will hold on for the season. I sure hope not. It's not just the young guys. You easily could say it was the young guys that did it but it really wasn't. It was the older players that were doing it, not the younger guys. On very few occasions did a younger guy have a penalty."
Is that something that kind of gets in your head? Or are you worried about it getting in the players' heads, trying not to get penalized?
"Well, you want them to be aggressive. There's some penalties that just happen through the function of the game. And there are other penalties that are totally avoidable. Those are the ones we have to address. I don't want to take away their aggressiveness, but if we could avoid a penalty by having better discipline, that's my job to make sure that happens. I think in a couple cases...McQueen's situation, where he pushed a guy back, that's a matter of discipline. We can't do that. We just gave them 15 yards on a kickoff. That's ridiculous. So those will be addressed. Sometimes guys, if they're not bringing their feet or their feet aren't good enough, sometimes they reach out and grab guys and try to answer some liability with penalties. Sometimes that happens. Other times are because you're overly aggressive. I think you have to look at penalties in the sense...the procedural penalties should never happen. So you eliminate seven right there from the offense. Then the pushing after...if someone pushes you, you don't do that, and you eliminate that one. So now you're down to a manageable number of penalties right there. Some penalties are unavoidable and are a function of their position. Sometimes it's almost impossible to avoid a horse collar. When you're reaching out to grab somebody, I don't think anyone intends to jerk them back and hurt them. That's kind of a function of the game. We caution against that, but at the same time we want them to make that tackle."
Talk about getting (Michael) Hodges back...
"He was a little bit rusty. I thought for what we asked him to do, he did okay on his run fits. His pass drops need to have some improvement. It's good to have him back. He's like an extra coach out there. He's extremely smart. I thought he had a great spring and then he got injured right there at the end. He's trying to feel his way back a little bit. It's a little bit different when you're coming off that knee surgery. You're a little more protective of it. He's probably not quite as aggressive and flying around like he has been. He hasn't cut it loose just yet, but hopefully this week in practice he'll feel more in tune with that."
Talk about your offensive productivity. The team leads the country in total offense and the guys are putting up a lot of yards...
"You know, I kind of focus on the things we didn't do more so than what we did do. I'm very realistic when it comes to statistics. I don't spend a whole lot of time looking at the stats. The biggest stat we have is the turnover ratio. It goes without saying that if you don't turn the ball over you have an excellent chance to win the football game. We've been fortunate enough to do that, not turn the ball over and create turnovers in the last couple of ballgames. That's really the only stat I pay a whole lot of attention to. That is the most important one. As far as offensive productivity, I think we should be more productive. We missed some opportunities. We could be a little more accurate in our passing. We caught the ball pretty well. We made some nice catches. We've got to pass block better. Jerrod made a lot of big plays with his feet, but I'd rather not have him run around quite as much as he is. I'm grateful he converted some third downs for us with his feet, which we ask him to do, but at the same time I'd much rather have protection and throw the ball downfield. Productivity is really a measurement of wins and losses at the end of the season, and we'll see at that time."
With Christine Michael nursing his calf and his role at tailback, do you expect him to keep returning kicks for you?
"I do. If it's a problem, if he doesn't come out of this thing, then maybe we have to reevaluate that. But at this point I still see him doing that. The reps that he has doing that, it's like Cyrus (Gray) last year. Cyrus got better as the season went along because he kept doing it. Christine will also be along the same lines. He'll just keep getting better as he see things more clearly."
You were asked last week about no TV, but today it was announced that ESPN2 will air the Arkansas game. Can you talk about that?
"That's light years away for me right now. I can't even think that far ahead right now. I'm just kind of worried about this one. And again, it's like Jeff's injury, there are things out of my control and I don't put whole lot of thought into those things. But I'm grateful and it's good for our fans. When I get on that field, I don't even know if there's people in the stands. We just play the game. It's nice, I appreciate ESPN picking up the game and putting us on TV."
If Fuller's rehab takes longer than expected would you consider a medical hardship?
"I haven't thought that far ahead to be honest with you. If it does I guess that's a possibility. I guess it depends on where we are in the season and how the young guys are doing, and really how far out he's going to be. I'm hopeful he's back in four weeks, so we'll make that decision at a later date."
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR Joe Kines
"When you look at UAB's offense, Neil Callaway and his staff have really done a nice job of putting together a nice package featuring a really outstanding quarterback. Some people have this young man rated in the top five or six in the country. His stats are amazing in his first games. They have an offense that features a lot of tight ends, a lot of different formations. Their quarterback has carried the ball over 50 times. It's not pulling it down and running, it's quarterback powers, quarterback sweeps, quarterback lead draws. They do a nice job with their offense, and put a lot of pressure on you to be right up front. This week is a lot about gap control and being in the right place. This week is going to feel awfully short to the players. We had an opening game which we had all summer and all camp to work on. Then we had an open date, and now we played Saturday and we're going to turn around and play with three days' work so it's going to be challenge to get ready. We just have to buckle up and do what we got to do."
On missed tackles... "I think the difference first of all is the ability of the young man carrying the ball. If you remember, last week I stood here and told you it's going to be hard to hem that guy up, and it was hard to hem that guy up. He did that to Utah, and he did that to everyone he played last year. When you see it on tape that's what he did. He's a courageous young man and a lot of credit to him. We have to get that corrected this week. Tackling is a fundamental you work on everyday all year long."
On the first and fourth quarters... "The first quarter was exactly like we thought it was going to be. We knew something would be different. They really did a nice job in the open date. They took the option game and changed it up with a completely different look and completely different formations. It took two series to get our guys settled down and focused in on it. In the fourth quarter with eight minutes to go, it was 38-17 and we were playing really well. We're so young. Sometimes in high school when you take a guy out in the fourth quarter he'll go and take his pads off. We may have had some guys have that mentality, but the game was under control. The game wasn't near over, especially with the talent of that quarterback. He didn't know it was over. It wasn't over for him until the last play. The only thing that was good about the fourth quarter was the end of it. The last three plays we turned it back up and played like we had in the first half. Obviously we can't let that happen again."
JUNIOR QB Jerrod Johnson
On the Utah State game... "It was everything I thought it was going to be. They played really hard and they're coached really well. Defensively, they had some different schemes than we've seen, but we had two weeks to prefer for it. It was a hard fought game, I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but we played fairly well and I'm glad we got the win."
On the offense leading the nation in yards... "I think it's pretty cool. That's definitely one thing we strive for, total yards, passing and running the ball, just to be an effective offense, but I think we're worlds away from where we need to be. I think that's a good start for us, we have to take away some of those penalties and keep things going, just keep improving."
On the play of the o-line... "My hat's off to the offensive line, they are dealing with a lot of things. I think they played really well. They are starting to get a little banged up but we're a lot deeper this year so we can mix guys in and give guys breaks. I think our pace is starting to wear down on teams, that's definitely something we are going to strive to do. Just stay in shape, stay conditioned, keep pressing, and keep putting a lot of pressure on the defense."
On Uzoma Nwachukwu... "He's no surprise to me at all. He's made plays like that all spring. One thing about this offense you never know who's day it's going to be. The ball gets spread around a lot, that's not from me trying to get it to everybody, it's that we have tons of reads and tons of places to go with the ball. The ball went his way and he made the most of his opportunities. He's a great player and he's put in a lot of work. He's a young guy so it was exciting to see him get his first shot on Kyle Field. I'm happy for him and I don't expect anything less from him."
SOPHOMORE QB/WR Ryan Tannehill
On his role as backup quarterback and wide receiver... "I think it's what we said it's going to be, basically focusing on quarterback in practice and a few reps at receiver and then coming in and doing situational stuff in the games."
On Jeff Fuller's injury... "As a team we need to step up. It's hard to replace a guy like that. He's a great player and you can't really replace him, but I just hope as a unit we can step up and keep going without him. I think that I'll still just be doing situational stuff. We'll see how it goes. I foresee staying in the same role."
On Uzoma Nwachukwu... "That guy had a game didn't he? He went out there and surprised us all. We see him in practice every day and we know he a huge athlete and can make big plays for us, but for the first time we got to see him in a game step up and make big plays for us. That catch in the north end zone where he got his foot down as he was going out of bounds, that is just a great catch. Honestly, I didn't think he made the catch and I was standing right there when it happened, but he got the foot in bounds and it was a great play."
SENIOR OL Michael Shumard
On penalties... "That last game was a whole different thing. They threw something at us that hadn't happened to me since middle school. They were making a lot of noise for no reason. I got a clipping call, after watching the film I'd do it again. We don't think it was a penalty, I think 98 times out of 100 they don't call that. In college, you're allowed to cut people below the waist as long as your helmet and shoulders are in front of him. You can actually get them from behind as long as you are in the tackle box. I didn't get him in the tackle box but I was still in front. You know in your mind what you're going to do on the play, you're sitting in your stance itching to go, then you have a 310-pound guy moving and yelling out your snap count as he is shifting. There's a few offensive linemen, including me, that could have been called a few more times than we were. You can see butts flinch, you can see hamstrings tighten, there was a little bit more flinching than was actually called. I haven't had a defensive linemen yell out my snap count since I've been in middle school. We changed our snap count at halftime, and we had one more false start the rest of the game. If something like that happens again we've already figured out how we're going to figure that out."
On this year's offensive line compared to last year's... "We have a different mentality. We have different goals as an offensive line. I think we are playing better. We are accomplishing a lot more in the running game than we were last year. Jerrod's not running for his life as much. There wasn't as much pressure. There wasn't as many missed assignments. We're able to accomplish a lot in the running game, where at times last year we were pretty much Texas Tech's offense, where we just threw it every down."
SOPHOMORE DB Trent Hunter
On UAB's quarterback... "I feel he's one of those quarterbacks who's a true dual threat. He's one of those guys that can put the ball in the air. He may not be as shifty as the guy from Utah State but he can definitely run. He's a lot bigger than the guy from Utah State. From what I hear, he's a really good passer, and he'll be one of the top quarterbacks that we'll play this year. On ESPN, they were talking about how he is one of the top five dual threats in the nation, so I'm excited to see how he's going to test us this week."
On the first and fourth quarters... "In the first quarter, they did a good job of surprising us. They came out in that option offense, they only showed that a couple times against Utah, so we didn't practice it a whole lot. Then they came out in a couple formations that we hadn't practiced since last year against Army. Toward the end of the game, I guess they were playing a little harder than we were. They were executing a lot better than we were. We did have some younger guys in there but they knew what to do. It was really just the fact that they were executing a lot better than we were. We were in the right spots but we missed a few tackles here and there, and they got a lot of good breaks."