Oct. 4, 2010
A full transcript of Coach Sherman's press conference, along with selected quotes from players, will be available soon. Audio clips are available in MP3 format to the right.
HEAD COACH Mike Sherman
On the 3rd quarter defensive effort... “I think the fact that OSU came out rubbed up, and hit a couple of plays, and the fans got into it, and the tempo changed may have contributed to our inability to just settle down and play football.”
On whether he was pleased with the Friday practice... “Yeah I was, actually. I've had a couple of players and coaches tell me they were glad we practiced on Friday. We had great intensity, they worked real hard and we were able to put the game behind us. Once you have that practice, you officially file (the game) away. After that practice is over you file it away and get ready for Arkansas.”
On having played already in Cowboys Stadium helping this year... “I think so. We were so young last year, with 18 freshmen playing, it was a little bit maybe intimidating and there was a distraction maybe with the stadium and the whole event. I'm not saying that's why we didn't play well, but they did have some big eyes in that ballgame. So having played there already before, I think that does help us.”
On what went wrong with the interceptions... “Trust me, I look at it really, really hard. The big thing with me is if he's making good decisions. In the last ballgame he threw ball about 65 times. Of those times maybe three times he made a bad decision. Of those 65 passes I probably could have called better passes too. The first interception was a play-action pass, and he had Jeff Fuller open down the field. He was getting ready to throw and our freshman tight end gets beat on the backside and Jerrod was hit blind. On the next one the ball was tipped. We had a 3rd-and-5 call going in and we wanted to cut those end guys.. The young man backed up and tipped the ball. Both of those balls usually hit the ground, they just happened to fall into hands. On the other interception, it was a key pass to the left. Then he saw our Z-receiver wide open down the field, which never happens. He tried to turn his hips and he underthrew that one. On the fumble, it was a key pass, probably not a great call on my part. They had pressure on him and he had his hand out to stiff-arm the guy, and the ball hit his hip and fell out. We're all accountable (for the turnovers). Having set the Big 12 record last year in consecutive plays without an interception, he's proven he can do it. He's pretty strong and is making good decisions in practice. He's a very smart QB. I think he can work through this.”
On trying to keep Jerrod focused after the turnovers... “The turnovers hurt, but I think he did a great job of focusing on the next play. You want your quarterback to have amnesia. Quarterbacks will make mistakes. Every play they touch the ball and they have to make split-second decisions. They're involved in so many things that they'll make more mistakes than someone else on the field. The key thing with him was getting his mind right and making sure he focused on the next series. I thought he gave us our best opportunity to do that. Unfortunately the play ended with an interception which didn't allow us to finalize the deal.”
On the play of the offensive line... “We're still working on things on the offensive line. We're not where we want to be, but we are better than we were a year ago at this time. I still don't know if we're totally cohesive just yet and gelling just yet. Each week we get a little bit better at it. Hopefully this week will be better than last week. That's usually going to take a little bit.”
On the run game Thursday... “When I first came away from the game, I didn't think we ran the ball really well. A lot of that had to do with the fact that they were defending the run really well. They did a lot of things to take away the run game. But when I looked at it on tape, it wasn't bad. I wish we had more explosive runs. But I thought for the most part it wasn't what I thought it was. It was much, much better than I thought. I think we're getting better as the offensive line gets better.”
On the 3-4 defensive scheme... “I can speak very specifically from a practice standpoint, going against it. I know calling against the defense is a challenge, because what you see isn't what you get all the time.”
On emphasizing turnovers more in practice... “Well, we have addressed it. We've been doing it all preseason and into the first few games. There are a lot of issues and areas that we've addressed, obviously not well enough because we're still turning the ball over. Decision-making is a big one, not forcing balls. We spend lot of time on that with our quarterbacks.”
On the importance of playing in Dallas... “When I first got here, I said there were two areas we wanted to recruit hard--Louisiana and the Metroplex. We've got a lot of kids from the Metroplex on our team, there are great kids and great coaches up there. It's an important area for us. Playing up there does help in regard to that, but more important is just staying in touch with the high school coaches on a regular basis and developing relationships. From a player's perspective, the ability for the parents to come over and watch the game is neat. And obviously the stadium is a state-of-the-art facility. We are the home team, so we are allowed to bring recruits. We can't talk to them, but they are coming to the game.”
On rebounding... “It was big of us to rebound in the fourth quarter. I'm happy we did, but unfortunately we didn't win the ballgame. In relation to this week, I think it's very important we come back and play a good game against a very good team in Arkansas. Like I told the players Friday, you want to be able to play a team like Arkansas on national TV and be able to give it your best and go out there and do what you can do.”
ASSISTANT HEAD COACH/DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR Tim DeRuyter
On the third quarter... “Well, they increased their tempo and we didn't adjust as well as we needed to. When they adjusted their tempo, our guys panicked a little bit--which surprised me. We practice against our offense which is up tempo all the time. We ended up busting a coverage. I really thought we started the half pretty well. We got them into a 3rd-and-long. We were in a coverage we thought we should have been in and we didn't execute well enough. They have some good players and they will make some plays. But once that momentum stacked up we got on our heels a bit and they hit a big play on us. Part of that is game experience with the younger players, lining up quickly and so forth, in that environment. We've got to put our players in that situation.”
On Arkansas... “I think Arkansas is probably a bit better at the skill positions (than Oklahoma State). Their quarterback has played a ton of snaps and is a heck of a football player. He's a big guy with a cannon arm, and he really knows the offense well. He's got a bunch of weapons. It's a heck of a challenge this week. Arkansas does a great job game-planning. They will make you communicate on defense. They will give you unbalanced sets. They do a lot of things that make you stress mentally. But the biggest thing is they have tremendous football players. They have the whole package. They are really a heck of a challenge for us this week. They will catch some balls and we need to get them down. They do a great job with yards after the catch.”
SENIOR QB Jerrod Johnson
On his performance Thursday... “It was not good enough. We didn't win the game. We didn't play well enough for us to win, so I wasn't happy with it. Anytime you turn the ball over that much you will put your team in an unfortunate situation and a deficit. The key to that game was that I didn't play well enough for us to win.”
On the turnovers... “Football is a funny game. I can't really put my finger on exactly what happened for all the turnovers. On the last one I probably should have checked down. I saw a hole and anticipated that he'd be there and overshot him a little bit, and that happens. That's part of the game and part of football. Teams go through this, and we're going through it right now. We just have to try and overcome it.”
On whether he feels snake-bit... “Kind of, but like I said I don't think we're doing anything differently than last year. There isn't too much we can change. We're executing fairly well, but catastrophic turnovers are hurting us. I wish I could tell you something that would change it. But in the whole game, we had very few negatives as an offense save those five or six plays.”
On why he thinks the turnovers have piled up the last few games... “I wish I could tell you. I'm not doing anything differently. It's not like they're out there confusing me. I know what coverage they're in I and know what our guys are doing. It's just some unfortunate situations I guess you can say. You play the hand you are dealt and I take compete blame for all the interceptions. I'm the quarterback. Whenever the ball leaves my hand and goes to the other team, it's my fault. I will go back to drawing board and try to figure out a way to not let that happen. I think I've been playing pretty well, I just have to find a way to keep us out of those desperate situations as far as giving the other team the ball.”
On whether he was surprised on the team going up and playing well Thursday at OSU... “I was not surprised at all. One thing about our team is that we're confident in our abilities and coaches and confident as a group. We understand what we have here and we feel it's fairly special. We feel we have a good football team. Going in there, we expected success and we expected to win. I feel if we hadn't turned the ball over I think we would have gotten the win. But hats off to OSU, they got the turnovers and they got the win. But we weren't surprised by any means with how well we played. We feel when we go in we have a good shot to win, both home and away. But that didn't happen.”
On how hard it is to not let the turnovers affect confidence... “It's difficult sometimes to not think back on them. You've got to come back out there and lead your guys. It's not hard to stay confident because I know how good we are and I know how good I feel I am. There's never a blink of an eye about how I should have done this or that, you can't do anything about it. As soon as you get that ball back you have to clear everything out of your memory. We are a confident group and I think it showed. We put 14 points on the board there at the end just like that. We just have to find a way to not to turn the ball over.”
On having taken 14 sacks in four games so far... “You never want to get sacked. That puts you in 2nd-and-long, 3rd and long situations. But we have to find a way to get out of those as well. A lot of people are making a big deal about the offensive line. They're young, and those guys are doing what they can. It's not all their fault. On some of those I could have gotten the ball off more. On the ones where I was hit and the ball fluttered in the air, I probably could have avoided the guy. There's something I could have done to help the situation. As far as the sacks you never look at it as all being the offensive line's fault. There are some things I can do to help their cause as well. Through it all, it's a team game, it always involves more than one person. You judge a team as a unit, and we have to tighten up if we want to win more games.”
On whether Saturday's game may show if the Aggies have closed the gap against Arkansas from last season... “You know, I'm not looking at it as a barometer at all. I think we're a good football team regardless of what happens. I understand we have good players on our team. We have a good scheme. And like I said we have tons of confidence. We're going to go in there with tons of confidence, and whatever happens Saturday is what happens Saturday. We understand that our focus is the Big 12 and the Big 12 Championship, but at the same time playing an SEC team of their caliber is exciting. It's fun for us and we want to play teams like that. We'll go in there and give it all we've got. I like our chances. Arkansas is a good team, but I think we're a good offense as well. We're not going in there to kind of see where we're at, we're going in there to win the game. We feel we can win the game. We have a lot of respect for them, but at the same time we feel if we play well we can beat anybody.”
JUNIOR OL Evan Eike
On the play of the offensive line... “We felt we had a pretty good game. We have some things to work on obviously. We felt we got into a good rhythm on a couple of drives. The protection is getting better but there are still things to work on. We're going to get those fixed early this week and get ready to play a good game on Saturday.”
On the Arkansas defense... “It's a good, solid defense with a lot of speed and size. We have to play a really good game offensively up front to be able to get the win.”
JUNIOR DB Trent Hunter
On the third quarter... “I think they just came out of the half more fired up than we were. We got a little complacent I think. We said it was 0-0 and all that in the locker room, but we didn't exactly do what we said we wanted to do. As a learn experience I think it's good to know that even though they scored on three straight drives, in the fourth quarter when things got tough and we needed to get it done we stopped them. That's a good thing. But that's also a bad thing, because that means we didn't stop them in the third quarter.”
On the state of the defense after four games... “I feel we're at a good point right now. We've shown a lot of good spurts. We've got to be more consistent. Every game we have had three good quarters of defensive football and one bad.”
On the team's mindset the last few days... “The bus and plane trip back were really silent. Everyone was quiet. We had practice Friday after a night to sleep on it, and we've put it behind us. We're ready for Arkansas now.”
On what can be learned from last year's game... “We had a lot of mental busts. They played really good, sound football and made plays when they needed to. Turnovers will be a big key for us this week.”
On the Arkansas offense... “It's a complete offense in regards to the passing game. They have a big quarterback who can throw the ball and receivers that can catch and run. It will be a big challenge for us this week.”
JUNIOR WR Jeff Fuller
On the importance of rebounding... “This game is definitely huge for us. Huge. Falling to OSU was rough, but we got put in a pretty good situation where we get another chance to come out and fight and redeem ourselves.”
On what a win Saturday would mean... “It'd be huge. We need every win really. Losing to OSU hurt real bad and hit a lot of us hard. If we can come back and get a W this week it would definitely put us back on the right track.”
On talking to Jerrod after the game... “Jerrod and I do talk about a lot of stuff. We definitely did talk. It was a rough game but Jerrod is capable of bouncing back. As a quarterback you go through a lot of adversity and you face a lot of things. It's not easy. He knows what he has to do to improve and we know we all need to improve. There's a lot of stuff we all can work on.”
JUNIOR LB Garrick Williams
On getting back on the practice field Friday... “The plane ride was quiet. Friday we realized the third quarter is what got us. In college football you have to play four quarters of complete football. We have moved on and are looking forward to the next game.”
On playing four complete quarters... “It's just focus. We kind of came out in the second half and I don't think we attacked the third quarter like we did the first and second quarters. That's just something we can build together as a defense. We feel that's something we can get fixed.”
On the importance of stopping the run and making Kendall Hunter earn his yards... “Stopping the run is huge for me. That's the first thing I will look for after the game is how many rushing yards they got. Containing Kendall Hunter came with effort and the game plan. We knew if we could make them one-dimensional we had a chance to shut down their offense. But it all goes back to that third quarter where we didn't play well.”
On the Arkansas game... “This is a big game for us. This is a statement game. If our defense can go out and hold our composure, and play like we're supposed to play, I think we can limit their offense. Every game is a chance to show people what we're about this year.”