Oct. 12, 2009
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 Kansas 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
What is the status of Michael Shumard and who do you think will start on the offensive line this week?
"I wish we were further along with the line than we are right now. When you're talking about the offensive line, I go back to the spring where a lot of the starters weren't out there, and obviously the freshmen weren't out there with us. In coaching, I hate when a coach continues to say the same thing over and over again, and say that something is something, and it continues to be that way. But it is a work in progress there. Shumard will be back this week. I anticipate him to be in the fold and that experience alone should help us tremendously."
Do you know yet or do you see him maybe moving back to that left tackle spot when he returns?
"It's a possibility that he could do that. I want to continue to develop the young guys and see where we are with them and go from there. But there's a possibility that could happen."
Did something happen to Stephen Barrera in this past game?
"No. We were at a point in the game where a couple of things happened in the game and I just wanted to give him a break. When we gave him a break, (Danny) Baker was doing okay so we just left Baker in there. But no, I have confidence in Stephen. I understand he's probably the only true freshman left tackle that's starting out there in the country. If there's another I don't know about it. That's a hard job. I have confidence in Stephen and he's going to develop into a fine tackle. It's a lot to throw at a freshman who wasn't here in the spring and also missed about 10 days of fall camp. We feel like he has a great future and I feel like he's going to be a good player. It's just that he lacks experience right now, and he's getting plenty of it."
Has Jeff Fuller healed fast enough to get into this ballgame or do you think he's a week or so away?
"He's going to practice with us this week, so we'll have to wait and see on that. Even with practice, and Jeff's always been a guy who likes his reps in practice, it may take a little bit to get him going. We're going to see where he is this week, and we'll know more about it towards the end of the week. Right now it's a little bit early to tell. It's healed up real nicely, according to the doctors and the MRI. We'll just have to wait and see how the week plays out."
Is Christine Michael 100 percent? He had nine carries last week which seemed a little low...
"Yeah, he's 100 percent. Like any freshman, he's learning his position. I thought when he ran the ball he did some pretty good things. But yeah, he's 100 percent."
Has Jeff Fuller been cleared by the doctors?
"He's been cleared to practice. There's a lot of issues on the weight bearing and pushing off and how he feels, but I think there's a lot of confidence he would have in what we're going to ask him to do. That'll play out with what he does in practice I guess. He's been cleared to practice, not necessarily play just yet."
Talk about Kansas State this weekend...
"I remember watching Coach Snyder's teams when I was in Green Bay. When we would go through draft meetings and what not, and throw his teams on, you'd see hard-nosed, tough players. The same is true right now. They run the ball about as effectively as you can. They have a big back and offensive line. They're a power running team. Coach Snyder takes a lot of pride in the special teams aspect of the game, and spends a lot of time there. They've had a couple of returns for touchdowns. That's an area we really have to shore up. We've had some good moments on special teams and some not so good moments. This is not the week to not have good moments because they can bring it back to the house on you in a minute. Defensively, they are fairly multiple in their coverages. They play a four-man front. They will get into a little bit of a 30-front, but primarily a 4-man front, overs and unders and different types of coverages to challenge you in regard to what they are going to give you."
Speaking of special teams, talk about your kick coverage and where it's lacking and what you can do about it...
"Well, there are moments that our kick coverage is pretty good. We do a good job. And there are other moments where it's not. There's a lot to kickoff coverage than just running down and making a tackle. It's reading the block that's in front of you, and how they turn to defend it one side or another, and how we have to cross face and fit up in our lanes. There's a lot of technique involved in kickoff coverage, more so than the average fan probably thinks. Some of our guys just haven't been exposed to that. It's kind of like in the NFL, you take kids out of college, and you bring them up there and they have to play special teams, and they've never played because they're the starting linebacker or the starting safety. They may not have played special teams based on what their philosophy was in college. It's kind of the same thing from high school to college. A lot of kids really don't know how to defeat a blocker. If a guy swings his butt one way and he's defending this way, how you have to cross face, fit up in your lane, and so forth and so on. They're learning that. I think we can be an excellent coverage unit. We're certainly not right now. We've given up too much big yardage in the return game. But I think we can be with discipline."
Were you using a different formation this past game for kickoffs?
"We did one time. We wanted to get them to move around a little bit and showed them a surprise onside kick. Then we moved back in, and they didn't adjust. We actually probably could have kicked it because they didn't move with us, and we could have onsided it. You were probably saying kick it, and we kicked it deep. We fully expected them to move their guys over. I didn't want an onside kick at that point, but we probably should have alerted and kicked it because they didn't adjust to what we presented to them. We just went back to the regular kickoff."
You really haven't had a true road game yet. What special challenges if any are there to taking a team with a lot of young guys who haven't been into "enemy" territory yet?
"You're probably right about that, as far as a true road game in relationship to the crowd. But as far as the stadium, the hotel, the travel, and all that stuff, we kind of did that up in Dallas. Now going into a stadium filled with Harley-Davidsons raring up and ready to go, because I guess that's going to be a big part of it, that'll be different for our guys. As against Arkansas, in our preparation we had crowd noise going all the time. The first time you put crowd noise on the kids are looking around and they get distracted. All the young players, almost to a T, were distracted with the crowd noise. After a while they got used to it. We'll continue to do that to make it as unfriendly for them. We won't do it today or tomorrow but we'll do it Wednesday and Thursday. I like to show them pictures of the hotel we're staying in, and I like to show them pictures of the stadium, just so they know ahead of time. I don't know if it does any good but it's just so everything is not brand-spanking new. A lot of kids, obviously in recruiting, have flown on a plane, but I wouldn't say many of our young players have actually been on a lot of flights before. So that'll be a part of it and another distraction we have to deal with. We're just trying to keep them focused and engaged with what we're trying to get done, and hopefully that will work."
How did Ben Bredthauer do, the kid you put in at deep snapper the other night?
"He did a good job, and we'll more than likely continue to use him."
Was Kevin Matthews just having a tough time?
"He had the first bad one which was high. The next one, which we converted, I like to say was a called fake. I told my wife it was because she's been after me to fake something once in a while (laughing). It was a great play by (holder Ryan) Tannehill to just catch it and do something with it. That's typical of Tannehill, he's going to make something happen. But we had two that weren't real good so we made the change. He was struggling with it, and sometimes you just don't have it. He just didn't have it right then."
What was it you saw in Jamie McCoy that he would get four carries on Saturday...not just one but four?
"You know, it's typical...if a guy practices well, and starts doing more, and shows an inclination to be a playmaker, you want to get the ball in their hands as much as possible. As we've gone through this process, from when we first started, I think Jamie McCoy. He's really elevated his game. He's practicing much better and at a higher level. The more they demonstrate the inclination to be great competitors and to be someone who can do something with the ball in their hands, we're going to find ways to get it to them. There was one simple way. Out of that formation, we've run a lot of toss with him as the lead blocker and try to get him running. So when he takes an open step to get him running, then we hand him the ball. He had a couple of nice runs. I was real pleased with him."
Is he the best fullback on your team as well?
"I would say Jamie McCoy wouldn't call himself a fullback. He's still a tight end playing in the backfield right now. But for all intents and purposes, I would have to agree."
What do you tell Jamie after a dropped pass in the end zone? Do you pull him aside and talk to him a bit just to get him past it?
"Well, it's just like some of the other plays. I try to grab everybody, I don't know if I talked to Jamie or not. Jamie McCoy had great ballgame. It wasn't that one play that beat us. We had a play with Howard (Morrow) running straight down the field. We had a play fake, and he ran a corner post and was wide open, but we had miscue in our protection and the quarterback got sacked. That play could have won the ball game. There were other plays that could have won the ball game. It just so happened that play was down there in a critical time. There were a number of other plays. I told him this morning, 'I thought you had a great game. You can't wallow in despair over one play.' I think the really good players don't. (Ryan) Tannehill missed that touchdown pass a week ago. I mentioned it to the team, and it was a key play in the game we should have had, but I guarantee you Tannehill's on to the next play. He doesn't hang on to those things. The real good players, the confident players, they can let it go and move on, because they know they're going to make another play. Some of the younger, more insecure players may have a hard time overcoming that. I wouldn't put Jamie McCoy in that category."
Is Ricky Cavanaugh injured?
"He's coming off an injury. I would still say he's not 100 percent."
How has Jamie's blocking improved since he's put some weight on?
"He's one of our best blockers. He's really done a great job with his hands. We do that board drill before practice on Tuesdays and for the most part he wins those. In the games he's done a nice job. He's very good with his hands, he has excellent feet and balance. I always say he's become a very proficient blocker."
What makes K-State's Daniel Thomas such a good running back?
"He has good size...has great feet...vision...he's powerful. I think they run plays that highlight him."
Is Jordan Pugh ready to go?
"I don't know. He wasn't ready on Saturday. So we're going to just have to play it by ear this week. We'll still work Steven Campbell in there and just see where Jordan is. I don't want to get caught short at the end of the week if he gets dinged and has a repeat occurrence with headaches or what not. We're going to be really careful with him."
Is it hard for a young team to put back-to-back losses behind them?
"I liken it to Arkansas, where they had lost to two pretty good teams previous to playing us and now they've won two pretty good games. As I did after the game with the kids, I told them I was proud of how we'd played and that we were a better team today than we were a week ago. We made progress even though it didn't show up on the scoreboard. One play makes a difference in the ballgame, and if we'd made that one play are we going to feel that much different about ourselves? We have made progress and I want them to believe in that. I think a lot of that comes in how you react as a head coach to the disappointment and adversity. We went over every mistake today, and will go over it again this afternoon, and we'll walk through it again so we don't repeat it. We're not going to beat them up emotionally over this football game. If this team didn't respond way they did in locker room...there were tears in their eyes. They were disappointed they didn't win the game. If you could have heard some of the conversations of some of these kids after the game, and even at halftime, about how much they wanted to win the ballgame...you can tell it's important to them. I don't need to pile on and neither do the coaches. They get it. I'm pleased with that aspect of it. As far as recovering from these two losses, as long as we continue to grow as a football team I can maintain my balance. When we start taking steps backwards that's when I'll probably lose it with them. But that hasn't happened just yet. I'm hopeful that they recognize the things that I point out, the positives in the game, the things we need to fix, and they'll move forward. They're fairly resilient that way and I think they will move forward."
You talked about kickoff coverage...what about Brandon Banks makes him dangerous or allows him to have the success he's had?
"A lot of it is him individually. He's very talented obviously. They've always seemed to have somebody over the years at that position. They've done a great job of evaluating that position and going out and getting somebody. But they also have a very good scheme. It's not real complicated. Much like their offense, they come at you, they challenge you and they're tough kids. When you have a guy like Banks that can return one, the guys really block hard for that guy knowing he can take it the distance every single time. It's so important. I think Cyrus (Gray) is that way. Dustin Harris has chance to be that way. Dustin Harris grew in this ballgame. You saw the first punt return he had, he kind of wiggled and then after that we told him to get it upfield. He took it upfield and did a great job with it. That's what this kid can do. His talent, plus the scheme, and the emphasis they put on it, is the reason why they've have such great success."
Did you like Dustin's demeanor after the game and then today as far as getting over the missed interception?
"You're talking about a kid who less than a year ago was in high school, and was playing for his high school in football and was the star player on his team and hasn't had a whole lot of adversity. He was always the guy making the plays. He was never the one on the losing end of those plays. It's just part of being able to continue on with his career. I didn't recognize his demeanor after the game to be honest with you. I think he bounced back pretty good this morning and he'll be fine this afternoon."
The offense continues to roll...seeing that Texas Tech put up over 700 yards on Kansas State, does that leave you optimistic about the passing game this weekend?
"My history has been they have good coaches over there. They have good players. They're going to work real hard to fix what needs to be fixed in relationship to Tech. That's a whole different ball game from our game. It's no different than playing Oklahoma State. They had two weeks to get ready for us and they changed some things up. You don't know what to expect. I guarantee you Kansas State will fix or change what needs to be fixed or changed. It won't quite be like that. It'd be nice if it would be but I wouldn't bet on that one."
Is Michael Hodges challenging for a starting position at linebacker?
"He and (Kyle) Mangan I'd consider both starters at this point. They have both played quite a bit of snaps. Hodges is probably a little bit stronger in the run game and Mangan is a little more proficient in pass defense. Between the two of them we've kind of had a balancing act with them. I look at us having two starters there."
Do you see Matt Moss starting to come on?
"Matt has had a couple of good games. He's showing more discipline. Even if you take away his big play I think he had a pretty good game. He made a lot of plays, not just that one. I think he's coming on and doing a nice job."
How much does Von Miller need Matt Featherston to play well to take some of the pressure off of him?
"Matt Featherston has been one of the surprises for me this season. He and I had a lot of conversations last year. He was pretty much playing out of position. This season he's really worked hard to be the best he can be. He's really done a nice job of that. Obviously, when they're both in there at the same time rushing the quarterback, for him to be a force on one side certainly...if they are doubling Von, then he sheds a single and we expect him to win those."
How has Jerrod Johnson looked the last two weeks compared to the first three?
"I think you have to understand, you know, how does our team look? The first three weeks were a different part of our season, and I think we're very aware of that. Arkansas week, I mentioned numerous times to the team that the speed of the game would change as it has the last two weeks. With the speed of the game comes a lot more pressure, a lot more quarterback sacks, and what not. When we met this morning and watched tape...Jerrod can only function so much in so far as he's allowed to within the offense, with receivers running the right routes and getting open, with the linemen protecting for him. Under the circumstances he's been put into, there's times he has had to run and make plays and he has, I think he's done well. He's kept us alive so to speak. I thought in the game he had some great throws. I don't think he had a great game but he had some great throws in the game. He continues to make progress."
When you're determining who your personnel is going to be on special teams, especially coverage teams, is it dictated at all by who may be playing defense or offense, or starting?
"There are some starters, obviously on our special teams and there always will be, if they are the best person. But if we feel like we have an equal candidate, a fresh candidate, that can do the job equally as well we will insert them. Like Kyle Mangan, he's our personal protector, and we really believe in him as a personal protector. So he assumes that role. And that goes across the board. If we can replace that guy with an equal talent at that position, based on the guy having fresh legs and that's his only job, you give him the bomb and you let him go. It's a balancing act between the starter and the backup, who fresh can be equal to the starter at that position."
Five games in, are you comfortable with how much Ryan Tannehill has been playing receiver?
"It's funny. As little as he's played, and I just noticed this on Friday, and I think the statistics are accurate...as great (Oklahoma State's) Dez Bryant is--he's a great receiver and he'll be playing in the NFL for a long time, if not at Oklahoma State--Tannehill's stats are very much equal to his in relation to catches and yards. I think Dez had a few more obviously but Tannehill is only playing so many plays. What we're getting out of him is about what we're going to get out of him. The exposure to injury still concerns me. He does take some shots out there. As I said before I'm walking a very tight rope there. The first story on Sunday morning, once he gets hurt, will be why did Sherman play Tannehill at receiver? Not that I'm worried about that as much as our team having a talented quarterback if Jerrod Johnson gets hurt. I think we're getting about what we're going to get in relationship to Tannehill. He has been very productive for the plays we have had him in game."
How is Tommy Dorman coming along in practice?
"I thought at the end of spring, the last week, he really made a jump. Once you get into camp and once you get into the season, like right now, it's hard to make that evaluation. On Monday mornings we work with all the developmental kids and the younger kids. We have two groups going, we have the 'ones' and the 'threes', and the 'twos' and the 'fours' going back to back, offense versus defense on both sides. So he's getting some work and he's done a nice job with that, but it's been a very limited exposure to the offense so it's hard to tell. Tommy's a tough kid. He works hard and I think Tommy's going to be fine. As I said, I thought at the end of spring he made a lot of progress."
ADDITIONAL QUOTES
ASST HEAD COACH/DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR Joe Kines
On Kansas State... "K-State on offense...it's power football. It's big linemen, doing a great job technique blocking. Sometimes zone blocking teams, you can just kind of get in the way and if you miss a little bit then the back will cut and make up for it. But in a power game you really have to do a great job with technique and K-State really certainly does that. They give you a lot of different problems formation wise."
On the state of the defense... "Where we are right now, we're getting better. I think defensively we're certainly a better football team than we were when we started. How much can we grow up between now and Saturday and be able to face this power team is the challenge in front of us this week. Pretty soon enough of it is going to stick and we'll have that wall plastered up and be a good football team. The greatest thing about it is that they're not reluctant to do that. They're not reluctant to line up and go try again. We've just got to be patient, and patient is a word that's left the vocabulary of this country."
SENIOR OL Michael Shumard
On not being able to play last Saturday... "It sucked. Me and Jordan Pugh just kept looking at each other and shaking our heads, especially in your senior year. It didn't help that the offensive line struggled a little bit. I just wish I could have been out there to help them. It felt like they were out there fighting and I felt like I stranded them a little bit. It felt like they were getting shot at and I wasn't out there to shoot back with them. It hurt a little bit."
On bouncing back after two losses... "Last year we kind of sputtered a lot and (this year) we've got the mentality that every week is independent of its own. This game isn't any more important than last game was, but at the same time, two losses in a row--especially where we expected to be and all the hard work we've done--we deserve to cash in on a win this week. We're going to go after them and we're going to practice this week like it's the Super Bowl. We're going to play our best and do a good job and hopefully come away with a victory."
JUNIOR QB Jerrod Johnson
On bouncing back after two losses... "It's important just because it's another Big 12 game. I don't think our team's morale is down too much. It definitely hurt in the locker room on Saturday after our loss because we felt like we played good enough to win. Coming off two losses it definitely is important for us to get back on track and get our momentum going. I'm excited about it. I think we have a really good chance and it should be a good ball game."
On freshmen playing in their first hostile environment... "It's just one of those things that comes with playing in the Big 12. Everyone has a nice home-field advantage. Football's a big thing in our conference and no matter where we go we're going to have a hostile environment. We're just going to try to simulate that the best we can in practice. I think our freshmen aren't really freshmen anymore. They've got a couple games under their belt. Nothing is going to be more of a spectacle than Cowboys Stadium. I think it was good for us to play there. I have a lot of confidence in the way our guys will react to playing in our first 'on the road' Big 12 game."
JUNIOR 'JACK' Von Miller
On the play of the freshmen... "Our true freshmen are taking on the veterans. When the freshmen are out there playing football, you can't really tell they're freshmen. I don't really look at them as freshmen. I think they'll be really prepared and ready to go for this game."
SOPHOMORE DB Trent Hunter
On back-to-back losses... "Coming off two losses last year, we were just kind of down. At Monday practices we didn't want to be out there, and no one had any kind of fun. Coming off this week, we're all motivated. We don't want to be 3-3. We want to be 4-2. We're motivated this Monday as opposed to where we were last year."
On third-down success for OSU... "Third down is one of those things when real football play starts. You're either going to get off the field or you're going to stay on. This weekend we did not do a good job of getting off. Up front, we had great pressure. Oklahoma State did a really good job executing on us. They picked out who they wanted to throw at and they threw at them and it didn't matter what we did. They did a really good job with match-ups. It's disappointing. I'm sure it's a sprit breaker for the guys up front. There's not a whole lot you can say about it other than the fact that we've just got to execute better."
SENIOR TE Jamie McCoy
On getting to run the ball... "Yeah, I thought it was just going to be a play that we were just going to run to throw something out there and give them a look. But it actually worked out for us. We might be trying to implement some more stuff, we'll see how it goes."
On the coaches approaching him about running the ball... "They told me they had a running play for me and everyone was kind of laughing about it and they thought it was a joke. We actually got out there and the first time we ran through it I just kind of joked around, I didn't think they were serious. They told me that they needed me to carry the ball on that play and make sure I didn't drop it. It was fun."