Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
The effort that our guys played with. And you know, so many times
we talk about effort, we thinkabout, you know, maybe a guy
who has minimal reps or a guywho just is on special teams. But
when you watch that play and youthink it's Jordan Winnington who misses a tackle,
gets back up, comes all theway back forty yards later and makes
(00:20):
a tackle and punches it out.And Xavier Worthy, who was the intended
receiver, who guy's laying on topof him at the opposite twenty yard line
to sprint himself back to dive andrecover that fumble. I think it's just
indicative of the character of this team, the culture of this team. When
those two guys are playing that way, I think that that sends a pretty
(00:43):
easy message to everybody else of what'sthe standard in the way that we play
the game. And so I wasreally encouraged by that. Naturally, the
fourth quarter, we didn't play verygood football, and that starts with our
ability to continue to motivate the playersto have the right mental intensity. We
had really poor tackling on defense anddidn't leverage the ball very well when they
(01:07):
were gonna throw it. Naturally,I mean they throw an eight yard curl
route and it goes for forty twoyards. That should never happen. Those
are things that didn't happen in thefirst half of the game. Obviously Offensively,
you know, one of the goalsgoing into that game was to try
to stay out of third and long, an area where we were in a
ton of third longs the previous week. The goal was to stay out of
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third and long. And to gotwo for eight on third and one to
three in the game is unacceptable.So that those two things we couldn't sustain
drives. Offensively, we were givingup chunk plays. Defensively, they were
scoring quickly. And then we didn'toperate very good on special teams. We
didn't punt the ball like we've beenpunting all year. We didn't cover on
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our punt unit like like we've accustomedto covering. We get an uncharacteristic,
unsportsmanlike conduct penalty the play that finishesout of bounds. So we did things
out of character, and so wewe have to do a better job of
keeping our mental intensity, our focus, and continuing to play the brand and
style of football that got us thatlead. And so for a team that
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has been so good in the fourthquarter all year. For us to get
out scored twenty to three in thefourth quarter, A I would say is
out of character, and B Iwould say, is unacceptable. And so
you know, clearly we address thosethings today with the team, and I
think the team responded to it.They understood that. Naturally we were able
to, you know, sustain thatdrive at the end of the game and
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maintain the football. Tremendous play obviouslythere with with Quinn and and Ad making
an adjustment on the ball. Butthe protection was really good, really good
too, Cedric Baxter picking up theblitz, the interior offensive line picking up
the pressure to give Quinn a cleanpocket. Say from an offensive line perspective,
you know is two weeks in arow, no sacks, really clean
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game, you know that I thoughtthey protected the quarterback. Well, you
know, we ran the ball prettyeffectively. Really nice job on the screen
to Jonathan, But we we've gotto be better. All encompassing coaches included
offensive line, tight ends runners inour short yardage situations. You know,
we we pride ourselves around here onbeing able to run the football when the
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opponents know we're going to run thefootball and we just haven't been great at
it. But we'll continue to workon it. Like I said earlier,
you know, championship teams get betteras the season goes on, and there's
always room for improvement, and everybody'sgot room to improve on our team,
and that's clearly an area where we'vegot to we've got to drill down on
and and improve upon. You know, Naturally, losing Jonathan for the season
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is a is a tough blow forus. You know, I've said this
about a couple other backs that werehere before him, but I think the
one thing that that probably stings mostfor us as a team is the teammate
that Jonathan Brooks is. He's abetter person than he is football player,
and he is a heck of afootball player. He's a great runner,
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uh he can pass protect, he'sa weapon out of the backfield catching the
ball. So naturally that creates avoid, but that also creates opportunity,
and so he'll be missed. He'llbe with us, and we're going to
support the heck out of him likelike we have in his entire time here,
and I think he understands that,and I know those other backs are
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going to need his support and that'swhat where our culture has got to shine
through. But obviously it creates opportunitiesobviously for for CJ. Baxter, H
Jayden Blue, Keelan Robinson save youon Red. And those guys are more
than than capable of doing a greatjob. So systematically things will not will
not change for us on that front, and we've got a lot of faith
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in those guys that they're going toperform at a high level naturally, like
we've been saying all along. Asfar as this week's ball game, this
is another big twelve championship game forus. We've been you know, we
put ourselves in this position over amonth ago, and we've we've accepted the
challenge and I think our guys haveresponded to that. We understand we're gonna
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we're gonna go into another hostile environment, you know, Saturday night, and
it's gonna take. It's gonna takeall seventy players that we bring in coaches,
you know, to play as oneuh and to UH to go play
a good football team who has gottenbetter as the year has gone on.
Obviously a very well coached team.You know, these guys do a great
job of taking care of the ballon offense, creating turnovers on defense.
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I think they have fifteen interceptions onthe year, So the ball UH is
gonna play a big factor in thisgame. It's gotta we've got to find
a way to get it off ofthem. We've got to take care of
it on our end, UH,and then we need to be efficient offensively
with the number of possessions that couldcome out of this game. So a
lot of work to do on aMonday, But again, a lot of
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respect for Iowa State, and weknow it's gonna take It's gonna take a
great effort from us to to tryto come get a win. Right.
Hey, coach, you've talked alot about wanting to play a fourth quarter
game, and you've talked about thatkind of that desire. When is the
last time you think or you werehappy with, you know, saying you
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can say they played a fourth quartergame. And what does it take to
get back to that. I don'tknow, Uh, you know, I'm
more focused on how we're going toimprove and I don't know if I'm ever
satisfied, And I don't know,I've never met a coach who was satisfied
after a game. There's always roomto improve, and so you know,
to think we're gonna go play aperfect game Saturday night, probably not gonna
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happen. But I'm gonna keep pushingour guys and be demanding of them to
to to improve, and I'm gonnabe demanding of our coaches to improve.
You know, there's no time forus to sit back and accept it,
you know, And so I don'tknow when when exactly that last time was
that. There's never been a gamewhere I've gone in on a Monday morning
and didn't have corrections to make.And so that's the challenge, you know,
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every every every week, there's there'sdifferent things where areas for where we
can improve as a team, andthat this week that is of the utmost
importance for us. I'm Steve.We've obviously seen a lot of CJ this
season, but the other guys onthe depth chart at the Jadens, the
Savians and a running back role,even Trey Weisner, What have you seen
from those guys? It makes youthink that they can step up in this
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opportunity. No, I think that'sfair. You know, I think that
we have you know, a littlesample size on those guys from end game,
we've got a much bigger sample sizefrom them from a practice perspective.
You know, I think one thingwe're we're fortunate, you know, timing
is is pretty incredible in that CJis really one hundred percent healthy again,
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and you know, I'd feel reallyuncomfortable this would have happened a month ago
because Cedric was was really struggling withhis foot. For him to be healthy,
I'm very confident in that. Ithink we've naturally seen over the last
couple of weeks. You know,we've been you know, kind of injecting
j Blew a little bit more intothe offense. So I think his comfort
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level of playing and he's had somecarries, he had the long touchdown run
versus b YU, where I thinkhis comfort level will be there. Obviously,
he's playing a ton on special teams. I think obviously with Savion Red,
you know, we've we've incorporated himinto our short yardage offense and the
wildcat stuff. So he's carried theball at some critical moments of some games,
and we've asked a lot of him. So I don't think the moment
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will be too big for him,and naturally the experience of keeling of just
the player that that he's been overtime, and so, you know,
we feel comfortable that we have thosefour guys and that corps of guys.
You know, it's obviously it's Monday, and we're still working through the game
plan of exactly how it'll all rollout, but we're comfortable with those guys
going in the game of playing Stevethe pass defense last two weeks and also
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Houston as well. Do you justmake of that team's being down as a
byproduct of that teams are having tothrow or just what do you mean?
I think it's probably a combination ofthings, you know. You know,
I think in the first half theother night, we gave up ninety eight
yards passing. Okay, in thesecond half we give up two hundred and
something yards passing, you know,And and why is that is? You
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know, we we were looking atdid we call it as aggressively? You
know? And I think there's somethingto be said about that that maybe we
can stay a little bit more aggressive. Uh Two, you know, are
the players feeling like, well,they're behind, let's make sure I don't
give up a big play, andthey're looking at the scoreboard, they're watching
the clock. We we we've gotto maintain the mental intensity and focus of
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we're trying to be a dominant defense. It's not about what's on the scoreboard.
It's about playing that play in themost dominant manner. And I don't
think there's there's a better example ofa play, like I said, than
the eight yard curl route they throw. And we've got, you know,
three of our pretty good defenders thatare you know, all trying to leverage
the ball. We don't leverage theball, and we don't I don't know
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if we get him in flag footballand he runs down in the middle of
the field and jumps over the nextguy, and we look like a shell
of ourselves defensively of who we reallyare. And so one A, there's
there's calling it aggressively. Two there'splaying it aggressively and playing fast and physical
defense the way that that the standardis. And the standard is the standard,
and it's not what the scoreboard saysor how much times left on the
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clock. And so you know,I think in the end, when you
start to play not to not tomake a mistake, not to give up
plays, naturally you're going to startto give up plays and you're going to
start to drifting coverage and let peopleget open. And so we need to
stay aggressive in our play calls.We need to stay aggressive in our style
of play, and we need towe need to play a physical brand of
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football. And I think that that'ssomething that has starting and slowly had become
a trademark of ours that we tryto punish you. We try to punish
quarterbacks, we try to punish runners, We try to punish receivers when they
catch the ball. And we didnot do that in the fourth quarter.
And it looked like seven on sevenout there, and too many times even
when we got a pass rush andwe we were affecting the quarterback, it
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was too easy of a throw andcatch. And now we're trying to rally
and play in space we need tomake we need to make tight tight quarters
on people. We need to makecontested catches and challenge catches and get tips
and overthrows and get interceptions, andand we just didn't do that in that
that second half. So we've gotto get back to that. Coach,
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you mentioned a d what aspect ofa receivers game who's new to your scheme
kind of takes the longest to developand how has a D progressed over the
course of the season, you knowif at all of Yeah, no,
I think we're ads. You know, he came in ahead of the learning
curve. You know, he camefrom a very good system at Georgia where
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you know, there it's an NFLPro style type offense. You know a
lot of different you know, formations, motions, schemes, been in big
games, and he it was verycomfortable for him. You know, naturally,
it's all the nuances within a scheme, right it splits its depth of
routes and things of that nature.But he came in, like I said,
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ahead of the curve. You know, it's not like he came from
a completely different style of offense.The offense he came from was relatively similar
to us, you know, schemewise, you know, pattern wise,
and things of that nature. SoI just think he's grown quite frankly with
his rapport with his teammates. Youknow, I think he really you know,
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one thing about Ad, I've beenaround a lot of receivers. You
know, we have the third downin the red area there in the first
half, and he kind of runsa double move and Quinn just misses him
and it falls incomplete and we haveto kick a field goal, and we
kick the field goal, and Ialways try to go out and greet Burt,
and those guys are operation for that. Well, ads out there chest
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bumping Bert for making the field goal. And I've been around a lot of
receivers when they don't get a ballthrown to him the way, when they
feel like they were open and theycome to the sideline and they're upset,
and understandably so the receivers, theywant the ball. But that guy,
being the teammate that he is andbeing on a championship level team back to
back years, he knows that howmuch the team matters, and he's out
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there celebrating with the kickers. SoI think that in and of itself speaks
volumes to who's ad Mitchell and whathe's about, and so we're fortunate to
have him. He's got great playmakingability. He's the moment's never too big
for him. He showed that atGeorgia, you know, having caught a
touchdown pass in four straight you know, CFP playoff games and the other night
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three catches. But think about thethree catches fade for a touchdown, We're
backed up on our own two yardline. He makes a toe tap catch
on the sidelines to get us outout of our own end zone and then
the fade there on third and twelveto seal the victory. So you know,
I go. The week ago wasone hundred and something yards. This
week three catches, But man,they were all there, all big at
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critical moments. Steve, when youwent to Iowa State's first time, didn't
go real well for half it wasokay, Well, their defense is a
little bit unique and distinctive, andhave they changed any and what makes their
defense? So yeah, you know, I think you know, there's been
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a trend here probably over the lastseven eight years when Iowa State was really
the pioneers of the three to threestacked defense, and you know, when
they went to it, it waskind of an anomaly of what is this,
and naturally teams in the Big twelvegravitated towards that style of defense.
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And now in our conference, thisis going to be our third straight week
of facing that same structure of defense. Kansas State plays it, TCU plays
it, and now Iowa State playsit. So it's become a little bit
more of the norm. I thinkat the end, they all have their
own twists to it right and theirstyle of which they do it. Uh.
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I think. I think what whatIowa State does is they probably play
it it its most purest form thatthey really stick to it. They believe
in it. Now they've done anice job of disguising and tying together the
intricacies within the scheme, the disguisingof coverages, the pressures based on formations
and personnels. But they know itso well, and all of those players
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have grown up in it. They'vehad to they've had to go through some
of the growing pains when you putsomething new in. They did that years
ago. So you have to bevery detailed. You have to be very
deliberate in what you're trying to do. Our players need to understand it,
and then they need to understand thatthis isn't just what they do. They
have a variety of things that comeoff of what they do. And so,
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like I said, they do agreat job. I think they do
a great job of playing complimentary football. You know, they they believe in
running the ball, they believe ina ball control style offense, and so
because they make you earn it offensively, and then they possess the ball on
offense, they don't turn it over. They start to limit your possessions,
and so you have to be reallyefficient offensively and every possession you have to
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there's real value in those possessions.It's different than when you're playing at TCU,
who still runs that defense, buttheir offense is going as fast as
they can go. So you endup with seventy five plays like we have
the other night, and you canlive through some of that. These guys,
we may get fifty to fifty fiveplays Saturday night, and so we
need to make sure that we makethe most of those opportunities and make them
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count. Right. Your offense asksCJ to do a lot of different things
he didn't have to do in highschool. How have you seen him improve
in some of those aspects this year? And then also what can we expect
maybe with more opportunity from Keeling inthe coming weeks. Yeah, No,
I think one thing that CJ isthat you learn about a young man and
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recruiting, and then as you gethim on your campus and you get to
know him, he's a really matureyoung man. He sees the world in
today's society with young people who arethe five star recruits coming out that it's
all about me, me, me, and how can I get this and
how can I get that? Hewas never that way. He was about
opportunity. He was about style ofoffense and scheme, and I think that's
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where we fit. He was aboutdevelopment and coaching. And since he's gotten
here, his work ethic has beentremendous. You know, he's if he's
not unparalleled, I mean he's rightthere at the top, you know,
two or three percent on our teamfrom a work ethics standpoint, and really
wanting to learn and wanting to getbetter. Naturally, past protection is always
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probably the biggest thing for a youngman making the transition from high school to
college and then from college to theNFL. That picking up pressures and blitzes
and things of that nature. Andthat's what probably excited me the most.
On that last play on third andtwelve when we throw the ball to ad
Mitchell, Cedric Baxter is picking upa safety blitz off the weak side,
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and and not not on accident.I mean he went and met the safety
and kept a really clean pocket.So we're seeing the growth in him of
the overall player. You know naturallythat there's gonna be more opportunities for him.
For for Keelan, you know,it's it's the change of pace,
right. He plays the game sofast. That's why he's so effective on
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special teams. And you think abouthim as a gunner, you know,
you think about him at corner onpunt and and and taking away gunners,
you think about him as a kickreturner. There's a lot that he brings
to the game, and and andand quite frankly, that's what he brings
to us offensively, is that changeof pace, change of speed where he
can you know, he can createexplosive plays that way, Andy Steve,
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I was Quinn today physically in practiceafter his first action, and now that
JB's out, are you comfortable withgoing Eric Coriel if you have to,
Man, I haven't heard Eric Corielin a long time. That was back
in my neck of the woods manDon Coriel, Dan Fouts, Kellen Winslow.
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Anyhow, so for us with Quinn, you know, I think naturally
he was a little sore, buthe threw today and and and operated and
did fine. I think naturally,as the weeks go on, if we
can continue to protect like we didthe other night. He's only going to
continue to get better and get morehealthy. You know, we go into
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every game doing what we think weneed to do to win the game,
and then in game we make adjustmentspredicated on what we think we need to
do to win the game. Youknow, the other night, in the
fourth quarter, when they were scoringso fast and I felt like momentum had
really slipped out of our hands,I got the and basically said, we're
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gonna run it every down and ifwe get a field goal, we get
a field goal. If we score, we score, But we're going to
slow this game down. We're gonnaget momentum back on our side. And
I knew how big that field goalwas for us in that moment to make
that thing that you know, thetwo score game, that it that it
became, And so you know,you you go in with the plan and
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we're more than comfortable if the planneeds to be that we need to throw
it around. We're more than capable, our offensive lines more than Capablequin's more
than capable obviously receiving core tight ends, things of that nature. But every
every game is different, right ofof how people are going to try to
defend us and what we need todo, and then making those adjustments in
game to ensure that that we're puttingour team in the best position to win.
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And and that doesn't sometimes that's notalways the sexiest thing to do to
try to win the game. Butultimately, when the dust settles and stats
and everything, man, there's onestaff that matters the most. Is that
A W or an L. Andwe just keep trying to stack w's.
On Saturday night, you mentioned thatkiller instinct for your guys and your coaching
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staff and your self evaluation. Whatare you seeing in these second half leads
that you maybe want to change,you know, losing the second half?
Yeah, well I think they're different. You know, you go to the
Kansas State game. How did theyget back in the game. We gave
them the ball inside our own twentyyard line twice, right, I mean,
and we got a pump blocks andso we gave them a short field.
They were able to score quickly thisgame. They were getting play yards
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and chunks and they were able toget down the field and score. But
but how do you get back intoa game when you're behind by twenty points?
You get quick scores and so wehave to minimize their ability to score
quickly on defense, but yet stillremain aggressive. We can't let people get
comfortable, and I think that welet them get comfortable on the flip side
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offensively. A we have to possessthe ball, and how do you possess
it one? You don't turn itover to you extend drives on third down
and turnovers two weeks ago, notconverting third downs the other night third and
makeables third one, two, andthrees. I mean, that's what you
ask for as a coach, andto go two for eight in those scenarios,
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that's not good enough. We needto have a better plan and then
we need to execute the plan better. Hey, coach, on that same
note of closing at an eye afterthe game Saturday, was saying, it's
not something you learn on Saturday,it's something you learned throughout the week in
film and practice. Is that anythingdifferent now? And how do you kind
of go about focusing on closing gameshere in the last two years. Well,
I think that we try to havecompetitive practices. We try to put
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them in those scenarios, good ongood type scenarios of making those plays,
doing your job in competitive settings atcritical moments, and then two is having
a real understanding of the plan ofwhat we're doing and why we're trying to
do those specific things. But Ido think us having those competitive settings in
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practice, the sudden changes, thethird down competitions, the good on good
team runs, the good on goodseven on seven periods, allows our players
to feel comfortable in those moments whenwe have to make the play. And
like I said, two weeks ago, our defense was able to make those
plays on first and goal from thefive to stop them four straight downs.
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This week it was the offense thatthat had to make those plays to possess
the ball and not give it backto TCU. So I do think the
versatility of the team shines through,but I think a lot of that versatility
gets built in practice, right thosecompetitive settings and understanding that you know,
this is this is why we practicethe way we practice, so that we're
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comfortable in that setting. When whenthat when it presents itself. Coach he
you talked about Jordan Winston a littlebit after Saturdays. When can you just
talk about his leadership and passion stillremaining even though you guys the Adie Mischeff
come in and maybe see more productionthan him in previous years. It's it's
uh, it's hard to it's hardto quantify it. You know, he
you know, Jordan has been througha lot in his career here and from
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injuries to position changes to five andseven, through through a lot through through
last year of should I you know, I've already graduated from the University of
Texas. You know what do Ido next? Do I go to the
NFL? Do I come back?And I think he came back because he
wanted to be part of a championshipteam. You know, he wanted to
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walk out of here at champion andhe plays that way. Now. You
know, I don't think he isconcerned or consumed with catches, and so
many of his his plays do notshow up on a stat sheet. You
can go to the touchdown run thatJonathan Brooks has at the end of the
first half, Go watch him blockthe safety and the intent in which he
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blocks that safety to spring to springJonathan on that touchdown. And so,
you know, as much as I'msure he'd love to have fifty catches at
this point of the season, he'sdoing so many things for the team that
in all actuality, he's creating valuefor himself for his future because NFL organizations
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are watching this that we're getting aplayer that is going to do everything at
maximum effort on special teams, onoffense. He's got a high football IQ.
You, he's a great teammate,his work ethic. So in the
end, I get it. Theteam is benefiting from who Jordan Winnington is
right now, but he's benefiting fromit too. He just hasn't reaped all
(25:37):
of those rewards yet. So Ithink he does it the right way and
for the right reasons. And whata role model he is for so many
of our younger players on what ittakes and what you need to bring every
single day to be a great teammatecoach. Interesting on the field, but
very interesting off the field. Yesterday, the Aggies are given a big check
to Jimbo Mississippi State five their coachafter one season. What's going on with
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your profession and what would you dowith a seventy five million dollar buyout?
I don't have that in my contract, you know. I say this first
of all, I think what getslost in a lot of and a lot
of this is it's not just thehead coach, you know, there's assistant
coaches, there's staff members, there'sstrength and conditioning coaches, there's trainers,
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and all those people have families andall those people have kids too, and
so it's a great profession. Ilove what we get to do every day.
It's a great profession. But youknow, everybody wants to just point
to the head coach getting fired,when in actuality, a lot of people
are eventually out of jobs and needto go find jobs and are getting relocated
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and kids are changing schools. Andwhen you live that and you see the
effect it has on your kids,that's a lot. It takes its toll.
So hey, I'm I'm empathetic forsure for those guys. I'm sure
that everybody works hard. Everybody's tryinghard to do it the right way,
and sometimes it doesn't work, youknow, And I don't I don't know
exactly all all of that. WhatI do know is where is all this
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changed. This has changed because ofthe early signing period and in actuality,
because the majority of kids now aresigning with the schools that they're going to
go to in December. Universities aretrying to get in front of it to
remove their coach, try to findtheir replacement so that new coaching staff can
(27:30):
recruit for a few weeks in Decemberto sign the best class available for the
future of the program. Do Iagree with that? I don't, not
really, because essentially, when whenyou're when you're firing a coach at this
point in the season, you're tellingthat current team, we're giving up on
you, and all we're worried aboutis the future. And so I think
that the young men in our sportwork way too hard twelve months of the
(27:55):
year to be given up on.And the fact that they work so hard
and they're fighting for bowl games andthings and futures of their career to say,
hey, this season is a wash, We're moving on to next season.
That's unfortunate to me, But Iunderstand why it's happening. It's happening
because of the early signing period,and don't I don't know any other way
(28:17):
around it, and I understand it. My situation was very different. There
was an early signing period. Ididn't get hired until January. I inherited
eighteen kids that signed with the Universityof Texas with a completely different coaching staff
and head coach, and we didour best to build rapport with them quickly
to start that process, and alot of those kids have panned out and
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turned out for US. JT.Sanders, Baron Surrell, Byron Murphy,
you know, Jonathan Brooks. Imean, there's been a lot of guys
in that class that I'm really gladand fortunate that are on our team.
But I understand why it's happening.But I don't have to agree with it,
but it is what it is.I guess that's the best way to
say it. Yeah, Coach BertAuburn has connected on four nine yard field
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goals for two games in a rownow, has his consistency kind of impacted
your decision making on fourth down?You know, being that this is a
team that likes to go for ita lot on fourth down? You know,
I think it's always helpful to know, like I think Bert's hit eleven
in a row now from a fieldgoal standpoint and so there that that gives
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you a sense of comfort, youknow when when you think about like in
that in that fourth quarter, whenI you know, you want to make
it a two score game, andOkay, where's the line to gain?
What do we need to get to? Similar to the week before, uh
we had a third down and what'sthe line to gain and and you know,
we try to get a good gaugeof that in pregame warm ups,
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depending on the wind and different things. And you have confidence when you hit
that line to gain that Okay,now you can make the decision what's in
the best interest of the team.You know, where are we at,
what's our comfort level defensively, offensively, how does it affect the score of
the game and in moving forward?And so you know, again inside fifty
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we feel very comfortable with Bert,you know, all things, considering with
wind and whatnot, and he givesme that confidence. It's been it's been
two straight years now where that guyhas made really big kicks for us at
critical moments in the fourth quarter ofgames that have have given us opportunities.
You know, I can point tothe Alabama game last year here, uh,
I could point to the Texas Techgame at the end last year to
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send that game to overtime. Obviously, some big kicks this year. So
you know, I've I've got theutmost confidence in him and his ability to
make those kicks in those moments.About championship games, it's kind of literal
and figurative. Because of the waythe standings are here, it's pretty amazing.
With two to go, it seemslike everybody kind of has to win
out to feel good about getting toArlington. Yeah. No, I think
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then that's what an awesome time.You know, this is this is the
fun part, right to be into be in the middle of November and
being a championship race. I thinkthat our guys have have handled it well
up until this point. Like Isaid, we've been walking into you know,
road stadiums and understanding the environments arehostels as anything. And we still
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have this on our chest. It'sstill our last year in the Big twelve.
We understand all that, but nowthere's championship game implications, and I
think that our players have really respondedto it. We showed great poise,
great composure. But it's this isexciting, you know, this is why
we get to do what we do, to be chasing a chasing a championship.
And I know that our that ourplayers are looking forward to another opportunity Saturday night