Episode Transcript
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First of all, I'd just liketo acknowledge the atmosphere DKR Saturday night.
You know, I got a chance, having the day off Saturday, to
watch kind of the TV copy ofour game, and sometimes when you're in
the moment coaching, you don't geta full appreciation and perspective on the atmosphere
that it was, and it wasawesome, and you know, we we
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can't thank our fans enough for theirsupport all season long at DKR as well
as on the road. But thatwas that was a great night, and
in a very cool sendoff for ourseniors. I thought it was a great
moment for them to get acknowledged inpregame and to have that moment in front
of that crowd something that will bewith them for a lifetime. So again,
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I can't thank all of our supportersenough. Looking forward to seeing everybody
in Arlington here Saturday for a greatshowing and a great turnout of burn Orange
in the stands. I think theother thing I'd like to hit on is
a congratulate but also wish the bestof luck to the teams in the in
the high school state playoffs and coachesthat are still that are still going right.
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Now, I know we're we gota couple weeks ago to the state
championship, but what a what ajourney for those teams to to make it
to this point. And uh,I've got to know a lot of the
coaches in state, and uh Iknow a lot of the great coaches and
the hard work that gets put inby them and their team. So just
want to continue to wish you allluck and congratulate you on the journey so
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far. And UH, we'll bewatching. We always try to watch every
chance we get, so that thatthat's pretty cool as just far as the
ball game, And a little bitof a review from uh from from the
Tech game man are I thought ourour defense and special teams were really just
terrific. Uh friday night. Youknow, we really controlled the field position
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in the game. You know,anytime you can you know, create three
turnovers, have a turnover, ondowns, UH, block a punt return,
a kickoff for a touchdown, andcreate explosive returns and punt return game
as well as when you punt theball to pin them down deep in their
own end twice. That's that's controllingthe field position in the game. And
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quite frankly, the one drive thatthey did have for the touchdown was when
they got the one kick return thatgot out across the fifty. They got
the short field and scored, sowe see the value in field position that
way. So I though that washuge. I thought the run game was
fantastic the other night. Having ourthird rusher this year go for over one
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hundred yards in Jaden Blue, Ithink just continues to show the depth in
that running back room. And Ithought we saw again more glimpses of Savi
on Red as well as you knowyoung Trey Wisner. He's been doing great
things for us on special teams,but to see him run the ball was
huge. And so again I thinkour versatility showed up as a team Friday
night. You know, we canwin games a lot of different ways,
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and we're very complimentary of each sideof the ball and special teams of working
well together. And I think that'sone thing about our team that I'm excited
about that I continue to praise usfor, is the fact that we can
win games a lot of different ways, and our style of play can travel
because whatever's needed for that game,we're more than capable of playing that style
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of game and being effective. Ithink it was also great that a lot
of young guys got to play.Like I said that that two offensive line
that was in there for a heckof a drive. You know, we
get the ball at our own nineyard line, we go ninety one yards
in eight minutes, cap it offwith a touchdown run by Trey Wisner.
But to think that that was allyoung players in there. It was John
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ta Cook, it was DeAndre Moore's, Trey Wisner, you know, Juan
Davis, you know a lot ofall of our young offensive lineman, Jaden
Chapman, all those guys are inthere. Obviously Arch was in there.
A couple of really good third downconversions. So that was a heck of
a drive for those guys, thirteenplays to cap it off with a touchdown.
So encouraged by that as well,that our younger players are developing and
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that people got a chance to seethem because you don't you know, we
don't always get to see them itlive in game, but we see them
a lot in practice in their development. So a lot of good came out
of Friday night. We know,uh, you know, we're headed,
We're headed to Arlington Saturday. Youknow, eleven am competing for a Big
twelve championship, and you know,quite frankly, that's been our mission,
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and that's been our focus all year, was to be champions this year.
Uh and we've earned that right whenwe've got ourselves in position to do that.
To think, in the last twentyseven years here at Texas, there's
only been three conference championships. Uh, And so we we don't take this
lightly. We know the challenge thatit is to a make it to the
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game and then b to ultimately winthat game. So to be the fourth
team to do it here in twentyseven years would would be a heck of
a deal if we could get itdone. But we also know it's a
great challenge. You know, OklahomaState's a very good football team. Got
a ton of respect for coach Gundyand what he's been able to do this
year. You know, after akind of getting out to a two and
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two start, making kind of aphilosophical change, especially offensively, to go
seven and one in their last eightgames. You know, a very a
very good team and making adjustments.They're a great second half team when things
aren't going their way, most notablythe last couple of weeks. Their their
ability to adapt to the game,and so we know it's going to be
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a four quarter game. We knowit's going to be a heck of a
challenge for us, but I thinkour guys are are up for the challenge.
You know. The one thing withthis group that I'm coming to find
out is it's kind of business asusual. You know, I was you
walk in. You don't feel somethingdifferent in the air and the sense of
you know, the guys are focusedand they want to be dialed into the
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plan, but it's kind of businessas usual. So that's that's how the
week will go. And it won'tbe any different from a travel perspective and
things of that nature. So lookingforward to it. Just a little bit
of an injury update. You know, Watts and Austin Jordan will be questionable
here for Saturday, Xavier will bewill be good to go, and Malik
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Murphy practice today as well, Sofeel good about those two guys. Your
favorite question, We'll start with Joeon Saturday, were you wanting to get
Oklahoma again or did you want tosee a new opponent in Oklahoma State?
And then what do you see fromOklahoma State's run game with Ollie Gordon.
Yeah, No, it didn't matter, you know. I mean, at
this point, at this stage,we've and we've been on this kick all
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year. We've been focused on whatwe need to do and being enamored with
what we need to do. Ithink, in a in an in a
unique way, it's it's kind offitting that we're playing Oklahoma State in the
Big Twelve Championship game, knowing wedidn't get an opportunity to play each other
in the regular season with us leavingthe Big Twelve and some of the great
games and the matchups that have beenthat have gone on kind of over the
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years and historically, so for usto be able to play in the Big
Twelve championship game, it's kind offitting knowing, hey, we're gonna be
playing ou every year moving forward,so that part's kind of fitting. Olli
Gord is a heck of a playerand they have done a great job offensively
of leaning into him, and hereally signifies who their team is. I
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feel like he gets stronger as thegame goes on, like a lot of
big physical backs do. A lotof his best runs come in the second
half when teams wear down. Hehas you know, the hard yards,
the tough yards in between the tackles. But yet he has the big play,
explosive playability to create those long runs. And they've got a variety of
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run schemes with him, and theydo a heck of a job out of
the pistol formation where they can getto all their runs and a lot of
them look the same, and soyour defensive line, your linebackers have to
do a great job of fitting thosethings, and then you've got to tackle,
and generally with a guy like him, one guy's not enough, and
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so our ability to populate the ballSaturday and making sure we're fitting these runs
right is going to be really critical. Steve, what do you think Quinn
learned in the Oklahoma Stake game lastyear and how much growth have you seen
from him since Still Water? Well, you know, that's part of the
games like that are part of thegrowing pains of playing the position. You
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know, when you get on theroad and you get in a hostile environment
and early on things are going yourway, and then things start not going
your way for a variety of reasons. You know, in that game,
we had a couple opportunities for somebig plays and we didn't pass protect very
well for him. Then we hada couple opportunities for some big plays,
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we didn't catch the ball very wellfor him, and then all of a
sudden he misses a couple throws andthose types of things can snowball on you.
And I think the biggest thing thatI've learned I think Quinn has learned
and then I've learned about him ishis demeanor when things at times this year
haven't gone great. For example,you know the innerception Friday night when he
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was trying to hit the fade toa d Mitchell. I thought his his
poise, his composure really showed throughUH and he was able to come right
back and still execute at a highlevel. A year ago, it might
have been more of a challenge torebound from that type of a play,
but Uh, I think that thathe's learning how to respond to those things,
to learn from him and then puthim to the side and then focus
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on the next task, the nextplay and what's asked of him. So
I think there's a mental maturity sidefrom him that You've seen a lot of
growth, a lot of maturity.Coach Muhammad had to step into the game
early with Ryan going out how hashe developed over the course of the season,
and what kind of style of cornerbackdoes he play best? You know
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what I mean pressing well, youknow, I think Manny, you know,
Manny Muhammad has played a good amountof football for us this year.
You know, I think we've we'vedone a good job of trying to rot
tate that secondary, whether it's thesafeties or the corners, and making sure
a lot of guys are playing andgetting their opportunities to play. I think
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the one thing that Manny has isa I think he's got a really high
football like you so his recognition ofthings and formations and motions and and and
and whatnot is pretty high. Ithink Two, he's a highly competitive guy.
Uh And I think three, hehe provides a lot of competitive spirit.
You know, he plays the gamewith with some emotion. And you
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know, I think inevitably for him, you know, when he can play
at the line of scrimmage and hecan play a physical brand of football,
I think that's best suited to him. But he can play off, he
can he can play zone, hecan do all that. But but what
I've liked about it is just hisgrowth. And I know We've talked a
lot of times about some other truefreshmen on defense, you know, Anthony
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Hill, Derek Williams. But MannyMuhammad has steadily improved as the season's gone
on, and we're seeing a prettygood version of him right now. Stay
over here, Jack, DJ Campbell, whether it's as a player, as
a person, what have you learnedabout him since he's been here on campus.
Yeah? I love DJ Campbell.He's uh, you know, as
a coach, naturally you have connectionswith different players, and some a little
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better than others. I have aI have a really cool relationship with DJ.
I. I really love that kid. You know, he for as
big and as burly and as nastyas he is when he plays, he
has got this this kid like humorabout him off the field where he really
has a lot of fun in inand around the building. Even on the
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field. You know, he's theone lineman we we joke with him all
the time. He dresses like awide receiver when he comes to practice.
He's got tights and wristbands and allthe stuff on. And when the music
plays, he's the one dancing ofthe lineman. So he's got a very
playful nature about him and then turnhe's got a great can with his teammates.
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You know, I think that hereally relates well with just about everybody.
But to his credit, man,he's improved a ton, you know,
from which is difficult. I talkabout this a lot like these guys
come in that are the five starsand they're not starting as true freshmen,
and that the first question, what'swrong with him? There's nothing wrong with
him. Every everybody's got at adifferent stage of their development. To his
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credit of really buying into Coach Floodand the work that he's put in,
he's earned himself an opportunity to bea starter for us this year. He's
played some really good football for us. He's had some learning moments, uh
to learn fromm to get better.But the one thing that he possesses is
a physical mentality and a physical naturein which he plays the position, which
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I think plays into the hand inour style of play. I think he
fits beautifully in that. But I'mreally proud of him and the work that
he's put in, not only becomingthe player that he's become, but I've
really seen the maturity and still keepingthat playful side that he has off the
field as well. So I'm justhappy for the kind of his growth and
where he's at. Coach, yousaid you watched some football like usual Saturday
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or like you were able to.How did you experience all these CFP contenders
getting so close to being upset butnot and and do you still consider yourself
a true CFP contender? Why wouldn'tI? Okay, that's a better answer,
and I'll move on to the nextone. Okay, So I was
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exhausted by the end of Saturday.I don't I don't, you know,
Yeah, I really was a fan, you know. I came in early
Saturday morning to you know, towatch the tape and to get a lot
of the kind of the paperwork stuffdone coming out of our ball game.
And then I just started to becomea college football fan, like like I
am. I didn't have to change. I mean, I loved watching some
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great games, and there was fantasticgame Saturday. But by the end of
it, when it was a Pactwelve after dark, you know that little
bit of the Pac twelve in megrowing up in California. I tuned into
the to the u c l Acol game that night. I was thinking
myself, man, I'm exhausted.I don't know how you guys do it
every Saturday. I only have toworry about one game. You all have
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to worry about a ton of games. But great games, great teams.
You could see the grit and perseveranceand some teams that got kind of pushed
to the brink, and and alot of teams found a way to win
games. A couple of teams didn't. And now here we go into the
next weekend, and and what isthis all gonna look like? So I
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don't I don't know why I wouldn'tthink we're a college football playoff contender.
We'll talk more about that, I'msure after the game Saturday. But we're
in great position. But what Ialso know is we have to take care
of our business. Like I touchedon Friday, We've got a huge game
in front of us here Saturday,and and there's there is no college football
playoff talk if we don't play reallygood Saturday and try to find a way
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to win that game. And ifif that hap happens, then then there's
another discussion to be had. Buta lot of people got to play a
lot of good teams got to playone another and you know, well the
dust, like I say all thetime of the team, that the dust's
gonna settle where it's supposed to.So we'll see what happens. Before the
year started, obviously, the runningback room was a little bit of the
question mark on offense to see whatJonathan Brooks did and then he goes down
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and then you're you know, Fridaynight, your fifth and six string running
backs have one hundred and thirty twoyards in a touchdown. How far has
that room come in just such ashort amount of time. Yeah, you
know, we anytime you lose twoNFL players at one position in the same
year, and the experience that thatbejon and Rochean had, you know,
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I mean, quite frankly, ithad been almost a three full years of
those guys really carrying the load anddefinitely the two years since that I was
here with them where they they reallycarried the load and Jonathan kind of got
his his runs sparingly in there,there's gonna be some question marks, you
know, and because you don't reallyknow until you know, until there's live
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bullets, and it's it's been aunique year at that position for us,
and that you know, CJ.Started the year. Jonathan comes in when
CJ gets injured and has a fantasticseason and arguably was gonna go down as
one of the great seasons ever hereand unfortunately he gets injured. CJ gets
healthy enough, he comes back andhas a fantastic game, uh you know,
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at at Iowa State, and lastweek it was Jaden Blue. And
then here comes Saveon Red and here'sTrey Wisner and Keithan Robinson oh along the
way has two touchdowns, And soI think it just points to we try
to recruit players that fit us systematically. I think there's a culture in that
room that Coach Choice and Bijon andRochean kind of have started that. All
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those other guys have boughten into that. I think there's a real work ethic
that those guys have and belief thatthat when their numbers call, they can
play at a high level. Ithink there's a physical brand of football that
those guys play with. You know, when they watch them run, I
mean you go all the way toTrey Wisener at the end of that game.
The way he was running that ballwas not much different than Savion Red
or Jaden Blue or said Baxter JonathanBrooks. I mean, I think there's
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a mentality in which of those guysrun the ball, and so again it's
it's a credit to all parties involvedof the development of all the players in
that room. And we've got aton of confidence in those guys and so
you know, we're in good shapetoday. I think our future is very
bright moving forward in that room.But as everybody knows here, that room
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is really important to me because ofyou know, we're we're at our best
as a team when we can runthe ball well. We can control the
game. We can go fast,we can slow it down, we can
help the defense, we can helpthe play action pass and the quarterback.
We force people to deploy people tostop the run. That helps the passing
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game. So all of all,like that is a huge component to what
we do. And knowing that we'vegot multiple guys in that room that we
can lean on uh is big forus. Steve Tavandre and Byron Murphy are
the two highest rated interior defensive linemenand fbs according to Pro Football Focus.
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Is Tovandre the Big twelve defensive playerof the Year. I mean, who
do you make the case for forthe awards. Yeah, No, I
think that's that's that's a fair question. You know, they're both have had
fantastic seasons, you know. II believe they're the best tandem in the
country from what I can watch andthe teams we've played against. And I
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mean, they work so well withone another. They're different styles of players,
you know. Sweat is got suchathleticism for a bit man and can
impact the game in a variety ofways. He can rush the passer,
he can defend the run and makecritical plays on a lot of these fourth
down stops and third down stops.He gets his hands on the ball when
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he isn't able to get into thebackfield, and he has got a lot
of tips and batted balls, whereMurphy is such a penetrator, you know,
and he's such a bulldog. He'shis effort is through the roof.
And so I think they play reallywell off of one another, you know
that quite frankly, you know,I'm hopeful one of them is the Big
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twelve defensive player in the year andthe other one is the Big twelve defensive
lineman of the year, and Ithink they're more than deserving of that.
They have impacted our team in away that you know, when you think
about we lead the nation on thirddown defense, we lead the nation in
red zone defense. And those arethose are two you know, really cool
numbers to have when you talk about, you know, defensive football, that
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nobody's better than us on third down, nobody's better better than us at stopping
people in the red area. Andand sometimes total defense can get a little
skewed because yards are just yards.But are you stopping people on third down
and getting them off the field,are you stopping people from scoring touchdowns when
they're written when they're in the redarea? Uh? Those are those are
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big numbers. So I'm fired upfor our defense, but I think a
lot of that starts, uh andends with what we do up front on
the interior defensive line, and that'sthat's Sweat and Murphy. So just fired
up for those guys for the yearthat they've had so far. Steve.
Obviously the season's far from over.You got at least two more ballgames left,
but you've talked about this team's abilityto grow throughout the year and them
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having room to grow. Just wantto ask, Steve, how do you
feel you've grown as a coach throughoutthis year. Abso your first time you
know, double digit win season androom to grow if any Yeah, No,
I mean it's probably a fair question. I haven't quite frankly, taken
a lot of time to reflect onthat. You know, I always,
I always kind of do a selfaudit at the end of every year.
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We kind of audit the entire organization, and that I always start with me
first, and then the coaches,and then our staff, and then kind
of our operations, and then theplayers and the scheme, and you go
through the whole thing. And so, you know, I've enjoyed this season.
I'll say that, you know,I really feel connected to this team.
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I feel like that, you know, at at as much as I've
been connected to the offense, there'sa natural connection there, but just being
the play caller and things. Ifeel like my connection with our defensive players,
my connection with our specialists, uh, has been one that's probably as
good as it's been in my timeas a head coach. I don't know
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that exactly, and there I probablyhave players from my old teams thinking,
no way, i'd agree, youknow, I don't know, but I
do feel like there's a real connectionwith the players. We put a lot
of time and effort into our cultureand and with that, when you when
you dig into your culture and whenyou dig into being vulnerable and transparent and
having that connection with your with yourplayers, there's probably a little more self
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reflection along the way, because youwant to make sure that you're conveying the
things and acting in a way thatis one that hopefully is emulating what you're
talking about. And so you know, whether schematically I've been better or worse,
or or or game management better orworse. I don't know that that
stuff all all addit at the endof the year. But from a connection
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standpoint, you know, I've Ifeel very good about where I'm at with
our team. But I'll say probablythe most important thing is how much I've
enjoyed this season and enjoyed being withour players every day. Like there's there's
there's uh, you know's it?Coach. When you get up and talk
to your team, sometimes that canfeel almost you never I never wanted to
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feel mundane or team. I neverwant to get up there and sound like
Charlie Brown's teacher. You know,the want want while where they don't hear
me and so I always want tomake sure that I'm trying to provide a
message to them that is that istangible for us as a team playing on
Saturday, but also somewhere in therethat there's a lesson learned and a life
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lesson for growth. And I stillevery time I get up and to talk
in front of our team, Istill get these just natural little butterflies like
that, What a what an unbelievableopportunity I have to stand up in front
of a group of men that I'mI'm trying to help influence them in their
lives. And so I don't takethat stuff lightly. And I've probably appreciated
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that more this year than ever consistentlythroughout a year. You know, it's
easy the first speech of the season, But I'm talking about this morning right
at you know, at eight o'clockin the morning. How am I talking
to those guys? What's the messageam I capturing those guys in the room
to where we're connected and we're cohesiveand what we need to do. Hey,
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Steve, you've passionately advocated for yourteam all year when it comes to
the CFP stuff, And you werewatching football this weekend and you're in the
fight. I mean, you're pullingagainst these teams in front of you.
Obviously, how great is it tobe in the position to be doing this
and to be so close, maybeone win from actually getting there. I
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mean, it's it's awesome. Youknow. One thing I I talked to
the team about today actually on thatpoint was we didn't come this far just
to come this far, and andyou know, there's more out there for
us to accomplish. And that wasa great celebration Friday night, but that
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that wasn't the end, right,that was just another checkpoint in the journey.
And so you know, it's awesome. And to think about the rare
air, you know, I mean, I will I'm in DKR every day.
My office looks right into DKR.And to think in the last twenty
seven years, there's only been threeconference championships and we're playing for one on
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Saturday, where we can put ouryear up on the in that stadium forever.
That means a lot. You know, that that's that's something that we
don't take lightly, like that's abig deal. And so we're fortunate that
that we've stayed healthy enough to getourselves to this point. We're fortunate that
we have the depth to withstand aninjury when it comes up. But in
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the end, like to be inthis discussion and to be playing for a
conference championship. That's that's why Icame here. You know, not every
school do you really get these opportunities, you know, and I feel like
these are one of the places whereyou can. But it also, this
doesn't have to be a one timething. This isn't Hey, this year,
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we did it, and I don'tknow what's going to happen in the
next five or ten years. Ifwe can do it right. You know,
I don't want to say it's routine, but hopefully it's a little bit
more consistent where we are in thesediscussions where we are competing for conference championships,
that that we have the pieces inplace not only from a roster management
standpoint, but also a facility standpoint, a coaching staff standpoint, a support
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standpoint from administration to where this iswhat Texas football is. And so it
took a lot of hard work toget to this point. And so I
try not to forget my first seasonhere. I try not to forget some
of the tough, tough games,the tough locker room speeches, the tough
press conferences, because that's a friendlyreminder of how far we've come, and
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we should be proud of that.We should be proud of the work that
we've put in to get ourselves tothis point. There here there, Coach,
we talked to your players last weekand about building that culture, and
they were saying, y'all had cultureWednesdays. I think during the summer.
I'm just wondering where the idea tohave those came from, and if you've
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had those every year here at Texasand your previous stops. No, So
we started culture Wednesdays not this pastsummer, but the summer before, so
going into season two. So mymy thing is, you know the old
adage, you know, trust equalstime plus consistency, and so I think
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one of the things you're always tryingto do as a coach is build trust
from coach to player, player tocoach, and then player to player.
But it's hard to build trust whenyou don't really know each other yet.
And so I've always tried to doculture activities after year one because then you
start to really get to know peopleand personalities and things, and you start
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to get an idea of who's reallyinvested in what you're trying to accomplish and
maybe who's not totally on board,which that's okay, I totally understand all
that. So we started that ayear ago and I thought that the guys
really responded well to it and theyenjoyed it. And then we started doing
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those culture activities on you know,Fridays before games, and I was a
little bit more sporadic a year agowith that. I just did it kind
of the weeks. I felt likewe needed it. But coming out of
the season last year and in myexit meetings with the players, they all
referenced those culture Wednesdays. They allreferenced those activities that we did about you
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know, what was something that youreally enjoyed this year and what would you
like to see more of? Theyall wanted more of that. And so
back to the drawing board doing myselfaudit, Okay, how can we incorporate
more of that and what different activitiescan I do? And so we've all
got coaches in the profession that we'vegot different relationships with, and so I
leaned into a couple of those guyson different things and sharing ideas that we
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do and that they do, andso we really try to take it to
another level this summer, and we'vetaken it to another level this fall.
There's never a game when I don'tdo a culture activity Friday night, you
know, before we go to thehotel or go get on a plane to
go to a road game. Andinevitably it's forged a real connection because guys
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are really starting to know one anotherand guys are sharing things with one another
that takes courage, right, butalso sharing things with one another that maybe
they normally wouldn't like. How simpleit is to write a note to somebody
in the room that inspires you andwhy, and you write them a handwritten
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card and you hand it to thatperson. Well, that's really powerful for
you to write as a person,but imagine the feeling it is when somebody
hands you a card and you readwhy. You inspire somebody else because you
of your work ethic or the typeof teammate that you are, or your
ability to persevere through an injury,or your ability to be a Scout team
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player knowing you're not playing on Saturday, but you know that you have an
impact on us winning a game andso all those types of exercises I think
have grown us to be tighter together, and sounds like from the sounds of
what the players say we'll be we'llbe doing more of them as we continue
to grow, So that that's prettycool. Ones roder sark the difference between
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having speed on defense and playing fast, how much of that is because I
think the last two games and howfast this defense plays is preparation, pre
snap Jalen Jody, getting guys wherethey need to be, and knowing what
they're doing. Yeah. No,I think there's a combination of things in
that. You know, I thinkyou have the ability to play fast when
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you know what to do right.I think anytime you have doubt, or
you're wondering, or you're uncertain youryour tendencies to play slower. Your reaction
time is a little bit slower becauseyou want to make sure am I right?
And when when you when you're playingthat way, you're always going to
be a step behind. So Ithink a I credit the coaches of preparing
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our players. I think two,you play fast when you're all on the
same accord, right, when thereis that great communication between your you know
your linebacker, your d line,your your safety R Nickel, and everybody's
you know, kind of working inunison, and so you can trust that
guy next to you that he's goingto do his job, so you can
go cut it loose to go makeyour play. And then the third piece
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to it is I think you know, as a coach, you just try
to manage your practice habits as theseason goes on, and you're you're always
as fresh as you can be atthe start of a season and fast and
physical, but as the season goeson, there's the wear and tear of
it. And so you know,I've always been one to kind of trust
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my gut on different things, andso one thing that was unique life last
week. We didn't put pads onone time going into that game against Texas
Tech. You know, we literallyjust wore helmets or walked through and we
probably played as fast and as physicalof a game as we've had all year
from a defensive perspective and at theline of scrimmage on offense. But that's
because the players earned my trust,right, and I think they knew how
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to practice without pads on. Theyknew how to walk through and still be
mentally focused. And then that wouldallow them to play as fast as they
could come Friday night on a shortweek, and so every week is a
little bit different for us on notnecessarily the structure of practice, but what
we wear for that day. AndI felt like that's what was needed for
us to be at our best thatFriday night, and it played paid dividends
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for us. You're under left,Kirk Steve ocome to stage had some a
couple of strange losses this year toSouth Alabama at home, and then you
see, ye, how do youassess that quirkiness? And is there a
strength in Oklahoma State besides Oli Gordonthat has your respect? Yes, it
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is unique, But then you turnaround and you think they beat I know,
I can rattle off three really goodteams in Kansas, Kansas State and
Oklahoma Bang Bang bang right in arow. And we played all three of
those teams and and didn't win allthree of those games. And so I
know the quality of opponents that theyare. Uh And so again I don't
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know the exact answer why, butI know what they're capable of, and
they're they're capable of being a verydangerous team and one that can play at
a very high level and match theopponent and the quality of the opponent.
And so those those wins were veryimpressive to me. I think the one
area that that jumps out to meis their linebacking corps, I think is
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probably the best one we faced allyear. They've got three very very good
linebackers who impact the game. Uh. They rushed the quarterback extremely well.
Uh, they tackle really well,they force turnovers really well, they fly
around the field. Those three guys, you know, Oliver Benson, Martin,
they're big time players and everything theydo defensively kind of is structured around
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those three guys impacting the game.So very impressed by them. That's right,
Coach, are kind of in atough situation where you're preparing for the
Big twelve Championship, but the portalopens up next Monday. You guys have
done a really good job of obviouslyfinding key pieces into portal like an add
an eye, you know, Keeleyand Ryan Watts. So how do you
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approach that knowing that there's guys whowho might be able to help your team
next next year, but you stillhave guys that you've got to figure out
their futures right now. Yeah,No, I think I think first of
all, our focus is on Saturday. I can't. I love the idea
that I can compartmentalize some stuff,but that this is, you know,
this needs all of our undivided attentionhere going into the ball game Saturday.
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You know, we have a personneldepartment that, uh, you know,
we'll be monitoring the portal as asguys enter. I think we have a
pretty good idea of understanding of wherewe were going to potentially have some depth
concerns at a couple positions that thatwill monitor, and if a player goes
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in, then we'll start the evaluationprocess. And that's that's the physical ability
that they have scheme fit to whatwe do, and then the character fit
to our culture. And those arethose are three key components to evaluating players
in the portal, because it's it'syou always got to remember they're all whoever
is in the portals in the portalfor a reason, and we've got to
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figure out why they're in the portal. Right, it's not they're not all
good fits for the University of Texas. So we got to make sure that
they fit who we are schematically,that they fit kind of physically in the
physical dature at each position of whatwe're looking for, and then probably most
importantly, that they fit culturally,and because the last thing I want to
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do is bring in anybody that thatdoesn't fit what we do and how we
do and why we do it