Oct. 11, 2010
A full transcript of Coach Sherman's press conference, along with selected quotes from players, are available below. Audio clips are available in MP3 format to the right.
HEAD COACH Mike Sherman
On what caused all the 3rd-and-longs... “I thought we did okay in the first half. Our run game corresponded with us putting ourselves in manageable third downs. In the second half we had six procedure penalties. They had as many as we did. Those put us into 2nd-and-15 and 3rd-and-15 or whatever. That gets tough. That's a tough down and distance to win on. We weren't able to convert the way we wanted to in the second half. We also had two negative-yardage plays in the second half. What we didn't do on first and second down forced us into a disadvantage in third down.”
On the frustration of not being able to put a good offensive and good defensive game together... “I think you have to give the opponent some credit in relation to that. I thought we played a very good team Saturday on both sides of the ball. I was as worried about the defensive ends going into the game and I thought we did okay against them. Last year we were able to move the ball early based on some big plays. I felt like we functioned better this year in the game. In the first half in particular I thought we had moved the ball with our run game. In hindsight, when I look at it, because of the 2nd-and-longs I probably got away from the run game sooner than I should have. I probably should have run the ball more late in the third and early in the fourth. They are pretty salty against the run but I could have done a better job there.
“But yes, it would be nice if we could gel. We need to gel as a team. I think we're functioning better on special teams. Kenric (McNeal) did a great job of catching punts. I didn't think we blocked as well as we can and should in the return game. I thought Randy (Bullock) kicked the ball extremely well. I think we're better on offense than last year, but we have a couple of youngsters out there learning everything. It's just getting the whole thing to gel. It's just a matter of being persistent and staying the course and I think it will all come around. We have to make a move offensively and be more efficient.”
On the impact of turnovers... “You're taking away possessions. I thought our defense did a great job responding, and taking the field against a team like that that's so proficient on offense. For us to be able to turn the ball over and only give way three points, that's unheard of. At the same point, when you give the ball back you take away chances and opportunities.”
On the play of Jerrod Johnson to this point... “I think at this point last year he'd probably played a little more freely. We all know his resume. He works hard and gives us everything he has. He's a great competitor. My biggest concern starting this season was that he knew too much. He never stops looking at football. He probably needs to back away a little bit. That's not all on him either. We've been sacked a few times this season, and when he has to direct guys and tell guys what to do that can be disarming for a quarterback. I think Jerrod's best days are still in front of him.”
On sticking with Jerrod Johnson throughout the year... “He gives us a chance. I trust the person. I trust his character and his person. He's not a selfish quarterback. He could care less about his stats. He knows the game plan. He studies it. He does everything I ask him to do. I have a lot of trust in him. He's very accountable for the mistakes he makes. He doesn't make excuses. He's someone you can work with. He's very dependable that way. Like I said, his best days as a quarterback are still in front of him. He definitely in this game played it closer to the vest. I had a lot to do with that. We stress not turning the ball over. He probably took less risks than he had previously, and you can put that on me. He's going to have a very good season when it's all said and done.”
On Missouri... “They have played very good defensively and very good offensively, and are very good on special teams. We're extremely impressed with them. They are very well-coached in all phases. It will be a heck of a ballgame.”
On the importance of getting back on the winning track Saturday... “Well, you don't know a team until you're in a tough game and you lose the game, or two, and you know where they stand. After the game they were very disappointed, which is good. Very disappointed. It was a hard-fought battle and a great football game. We had a chance at end to tie it. We were extremely disappointed that we lost the ballgame. It's good to see that in their eyes at the end of the ballgame. I always look for that. At the same time, last year our confidence level was very mercurial. We didn't lose confidence in the ballgame (Saturday). As I told them, if you make a play at the end of the game against Oklahoma State, you win--or you tie it and go to overtime and win. Or if we make that catch at the end of the game, you tie and then go on to win. Making those plays doesn't make you a better team. It means you won the game. You are the same team, but just because you made one or two plays doesn't define what you are as a team. It defines your record, not what you are as a team. I try to tell them, your confidence level shouldn't be shaken just because we missed one or two plays here or there. Now, we've got to make those plays to win the game. I'm not disagreeing with that. But at the same time, it shouldn't define how we feel about ourselves as a team. It's important to me that they maintain confidence. This team hasn't wavered on its confidence level. Jerrod Johnson, even after throwing interceptions in the previous games, never wavered in who he was and what he was about. There was never a lack of confidence. Our team hasn't lost confidence. That's a good thing. There were times last year, like after we lost to K-State and were getting ready to play Texas Tech, it was a major massage job trying to get everyone to believe that we could win a football game. That's not the case with this group of guys. They believe in themselves and believe in what we're doing. They believe in who they are doing it with. That's a positive. As long as you have that as a coach, you just tell them to keep swinging. You're bound to hit a home run. We can't take a third strike, we have to swing. That's the mentality we have. It has something to do with our talent level is better. They believe we can do things. That doesn't discount the fact that we've lost two ballgames in a row. That's still out there. But I don't think those two games will affect the next ballgame. They believe in each other.”
ASSISTANT HEAD COACH/DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR Tim DeRuyter
On Arkansas' big plays early... “They came out and motioned and shifted. I'm not sure if our guys were overly excited about playing in Cowboys Stadium on that stage. (Arkansas) ran some plays we ran in practice. They make you communicate and adjust. On one, 10 guys got it but the 11th guy didn't, and we ended up giving up a big run play. On the big pass, we had (Mallett) for a sack and missed him, and we should have had a safety back. We missed an adjustment there to help Coryell (Judie). Coryell just went up on the wrong shoulder. He thought he'd be able to pick the ball. You know, he had shoulder surgery and he wasn't able to quite get his arm up. Then we just settled down. We had a couple of different pressures we hadn't shown. Guys knew what we wanted to do. They are a good team, they make plays, but we hurt ourselves on those two big plays.”
On better controlling Ryan Mallett in the second half... “In the second half we did a better job fitting up on him. We had four or five missed sack opportunities in the first half. He'd shown that (ability to escape) against a couple of teams, so we knew that going in. But when Von (Miller) got that sack, I think that energized our guys.”
On whether or not he's pleased with the overall state of the defense... “At times. We're not nearly consistent enough. I think guys are starting to play with the fanatical effort we wanted them to play with, and I've been real pleased with that. We're not turning the ball over enough. We had a couple of opportunities we missed (Saturday). Our charge every week is that we have to outplay the opposing defense and the last two weeks we haven't done that. We have to look at it that way, if we play better than the opposing defense we will win.”
On the play of Von Miller Saturday... “Von had by far his best game. He played with the kind of intensity we want him to play with all the time. I thought he was really a force in both the run game and the pass game. When he wasn't sacking the quarterback he was making him get rid of it early.”
On defensive attitude after a turnover... “We talk to our guys all the time about it. Anytime you get a turnover it's an opportunity for the offense. To me, a turnover can be an opportunity for an offense to have great momentum. But we (as a defense) talk about it in the reverse. if we stop them and make them kick it, it can demoralize the offense. We draw a line in the sand and try to make them kick. Our kids are buying in to that. It's about buying in to a mentality.”
On Missouri's Blaine Gabbert... “He's the third quarterback in a row who's excellent. He's athletic, long, probably a much better runner than we saw last week. He's got a very good arm. He's a really good combination guy. With what they do scheme-wise they really stretch you out. He's one of the preseason's top quarterbacks in the league and so far he's played up to it.”
JUNIOR DB Trent Hunter
On what the defense did differently after Arkansas scored several times early... “We just kind of settled down. We corrected the mistakes we needed to. We had trouble communicating at the beginning of the game and that all comes back to the safeties. We had a game plan and started slow, but we went to the sideline and got those things corrected.”
On the offense struggling lately and the defense playing well... “You can't put everything on the offense. We aren't winning the turnover margin on defense. We are down really bad this year. A lot of that goes back on us. When the offense turns the ball over and we go on defense and make stops, we need to create turnovers. We're going with what we have right now and we'll try to come out a better team next week.”
On Missouri... “They're a good football team. They have a big quarterback, good receivers, and a good running back. They're an all-around good college football team. I haven't watched a lot of film yet. It's going to feel good getting back to Kyle Field.”
On second-half defense against Arkansas... “I feel we just played more sound, technical football. We did what we said we'd do in practice. We communicated better and got lined up and we played with good effort. It's just a matter of going out and doing what we were coached to do.”
SENIOR QB Jerrod Johnson
On what's the biggest challenge for the team... “To just hold on to the ball. That's been the deciding factor in the last three games. Turnovers put the defense in a tough situation and reverse the field not in our favor. If we find a way not to turn the ball over we should be ok.”
On what could happen if the offense and defense both played well... “Our confidence is still high. I still think the sky's the limit for this team. We've had uncharacteristic turnovers and that's been the deciding factor. When you play good football teams you can't continue to hand them opportunities. Hats off to them, they are doing what they are supposed to do, but it's hard to win in any league with those turnovers.”
On what caused the rash of 3rd-and-longs on Saturday... “It was a combination of a couple of things. We had some procedure penalties, we had some missed assignments...if you name it, it happened. It's hard to beat any team working out of 3rd-and-long. We did kind of overcome some situations and had some big plays on 3rd-and-long. But we've got to find a way to get out of those situations.”
On the Arkansas defense... “What they did was play coverage that was man outside and zone inside. If you noticed, the safeties made plays on runs two and three yards up the field. People asked me why I kept throwing the deep ball and it was because they were man outside. That was one of our game plans.”
On the connection with Jeff Fuller... “It is huge. That's one thing, he poses problems for a defense. I definitely feel if anyone tries to match him up man-to-man I like my chances with Jeff. That's a great asset to have knowing they're playing single coverage against Jeff.”
On the importance of a victory Saturday... “I haven't thought too much about it. This football team is completely different than last year and our mindset is completely different. I know we're right there, we're just doing uncharacteristic things. We understand if we play good football we should win a lot of games. We know going back into conference play we can win all our games if we play good football. It's not a situation where we're getting beat into the ground and not having success. I think you lose confidence if you think you're overmatched. We have great players and a great system, we're just making unfortunate mistakes at unfortunate times.”
JUNIOR OL Evan Eike
On what caused the 3rd-and-longs... “I don't know if I can say it was something specific, but we have to be better on first down and keep us out of 3rd-and-long situations. Penalties hurt us some too. We've got to do better getting into manageable third downs and keep our offense moving down the field.”
On whether nerves caused the procedure penalties... “I don't know if nerves had anything to do with it, they could have. Matt (Allen) was trying to change up his snap count some to not be too predictable. That could have something to do with it. It was loud at times too.”
On Arkansas' defensive line... “They were good up front. They had big guys and guys with speed on the edge. They did some stunts inside and twisted and what not. They didn't rush four straight up the field a lot. Give them credit, they played well and had some good guys inside.”
On improvements from last week... “I thought we did better protection-wise this week. In terms of execution of plan, I think it was a little better. Some guys didn't grade out so well because of penalties. But collectively as a whole I think we improved from the week before.”
On the importance of a win Saturday... “It'd be really important. Obviously we're excited to be back at home playing at Kyle Field. I feel like we're really close, the last two weeks could have gone either way. You can coulda, shoulda, woulda all day long but it really comes down to just winning the game. We've got to get back to work this week, have a good week of preparation and get a win at home.”
JUNIOR WR Jeff Fuller
On the deep balls Saturday... “I'm a big wide receiver and Coach (Tom) Rossley is really in to running 'go' routes. I've never been challenged like that on the perimeter in an actual game setting. We did our best to try and take advantage of that.”
On staying positive... “I just feel like you can't really be sensitive playing this game. After a loss you can still bounce back and get a chance the next week. At the same time, it's definitely one we wanted to get. We're still in the running for a Big 12 championship, and that's our ultimate goal. You can't sit and dwell on a loss and let that take away from winning other games.”
On what could happen if the offense and defense could put everything together... “The defense has been playing phenomenally. That was a pretty high-powered offense that we played against, and they did an excellent job against them. Offensively, we're getting better but we just need to continue to improve. We can't turn the ball over. We have to make smart decisions, and I can't fumble the ball like (Saturday).”
SENIOR LB Michael Hodges
On the challenge of Missouri... “They spread us out. Their quarterback can play a little bit, obviously. He's definitely someone we have to focus on. It's early in the week and we're always able to come up with a great gameplan. I think we'll be able to compete.”
On the mentality defensively after a turnover... “Going on the field in those situations, we don't look at it as what the offense did or if it was a bad kickoff coverage. It's another opportunity for us to get another turnover. Unfortunately we got beat in turnover ratio. In the last two games that's happened and we've lost them. That's probably the most challenging thing is not allowing the adversity to get into our heads. We've done a pretty good job of dealing with it, no matter what situation we are put in.”
JUNIOR LB Garrick Williams
On the Arkansas loss... “We've had two tough losses. Arkansas was a big one for us, we thought we could beat them and I still think we can. But it was a tough game Saturday. The defense started slow. In the second half we held them to three points, but as a defense we can't do that. We've got to play well all four quarters.”
On getting back to Kyle Field... “It's always good to come back home. Missouri is a good team, but I think this week we'll be at our top level. We don't feel we can lose anymore. We've lost two games by 10 total points. We feel that's something we can fix. We all in the locker room know what we need to do to get back on pace. We'll practice hard so we can win Saturday.”