From Inside the Red Raiders
Opening Statement
“What a ballgame. I’m proud of our guys. They fought. They’re resilient. What a college football game, and we’ve got to find a way to close it out. There were a few things that stand out right out of the gate for me. There are some things that we did well. I thought we played really well on third down. Third down defense was really good. We did not get enough turnovers. We lost the turnover margin. That was a key to their victory. I think we were minus-2 there on both sides because that’s a team stat. We didn’t finish in the red zone a couple of times. Special teams, there were big plays for us and there were big plays against us, so it was probably a wash. In a game that goes into overtime, at the end of the game, any of those can stand out. Recover an on-side kick. Don’t give up a blocked punt for a touchdown. Just a stop there late. But, our sidelines were into it, our players were into it. It was a great college football game, unfortunately we didn’t win. There is no moral victory at all in that for us. What we need to do is use that to springboard us in the coming weeks going on the road. I’m proud of our guys, and I’m proud to be their coach. We gotta keep digging in, dig deeper and find a way to close it out.”
Q: How are y’all able to have such a big improvement from the opener to this game against Texas?
“I think our guys, you know there’s a few things we did better. Jarret, I do believe there’s more room to grow, um constantly I would say better. There’re times where we still don’t challenge the receivers like we need to in certain areas of the field. Again, Alex Hogan, I think played well. It was good to have Frye back and Ja’marcus Ingram back. Those two guys, you know what they move Seth, moving Seth Collins to safety will help, still doesn’t have enough time back there for reps and everything but I thought he came in and played well, I was happy with him for what I saw before I watch it on tape. But yeah there’s still room to improve but definitely some improvement was made, it was noticeable a little bit.”
Q: What is the skill it takes to finish off those games when it’s one thing to battle back from, but you guys take the lead, what does it take for a team to finish that off whenever you have a lead and get that win?
“Well the two things that come to mind, we gotta get a stop, and we gotta recover outside kicks.”
Q: What can Alan learn from the mistakes he made were you get the outside kick, and then he threw the interception and after that a punt block that wasn’t capitalized on?
“Well I mean if you’re just asking about Alan, it was the interception, the throw to TJ, off just a little bit. Make a better throw. I mean we aren’t going to over-coach that. It’s exactly what happened. I’m not going to make anything up right here in the post-game news conference.”
Q: Seth Collins, how long has he worked on safety and when did you move him?
“Two weeks”
Q: Coach in your opinion, what was working for Texas’s offensive there to get two quick touchdowns in the end of the game and then overtime. What started clicking for them?
“We let some seem routes right smoking open that usually jump starts the two-minute drill and then Ehlinger, QB draw was hurting us most of the night. We gotta get off blocks and be able to defend that but that’s how that thing got started late.”
Q: Coach in terms of your wide receivers, how happy were you with their performance as the position? “Yeah, they played well, I thought Rigdon had some big catches, especially that last series on a couple deep out routes. Jaylynn Polk continues to play older than he is, he doesn’t look like a freshman and I think our young receivers, you saw Myles Price get in there today. Myles, he showed up, the moment wasn’t too big for Myles but Kesean, Eric, TJ, they have been very constant and I have been very pleased with them.”
