 
Tracking Mack: Aug. 15
Aug. 15, 2008
On analyzing film from Wednesday's scrimmage: You're looking at changes offensively with the new clock, so we're definitely looking at what tempo we're going to have with the 40-second clock because it does change things. And we continue to work at trying to get two teams ready to play, not one, because we know that you can have a season devastated by injuries, and at Texas we can't afford that. So we've got to continue to get depth on both sides of the ball. But tempo of the offense is something we're really working on right now. Defense is obvious. It's a new defense, it's multiple, and you've got some inexperienced players playing, so we're constantly looking at how much they can handle, and then you go back and see who you feature. We still haven't separated at tailback, and we'd like to separate there some. Chris Ogbonnaya would be the third-down back today, but the other two guys are still competing. We're cross-training a lot. We've got Britt Mitchell playing guard and tackle. We've got Buck Burnette playing center and guard. We've got Greg Smith playing tackle, guard and tight end. Defensively, you've got guys like Aaron Lewis playing power end and tackle. So we're really working at developing depth, not just two-deep, but with performances at different positions by a lot of guys. Safety is still not cleared up at all. There's good competition there, a lot of youth, but we would not know who to play today if we started. We've still got some decisions to make there. Receiver, the young ones are competing, they're doing really well, they're growing up. Quan (Cosby) and Jordan (Shipley) are the only two again that would stand out right now with the other guys competing to get there. And then corner's been good. (We're) really impressed with some of the younger corners fighting to get some attention. Still we would not be able to separate kickers and punters. So we've still got a lot of work to do, and guys are competing. It's as good a competition as we've had in a long time. Guys are working really hard. We'll have another really good scrimmage to get some answers in the morning.
On the defensive line: They're doing really well. The biggest difference from spring is Lamarr Houston. He has played really well, and doing a good job. He looks comfortable. When we put him in there in the spring, it was up and down. But now he's bought into it, he wants to do it, he's 285 pounds and can run. He and Roy Miller up front are doing a great job. On having a featured running back versus a committee system: All you want to do in our position is win. Discussing whether it's three or one, we don't care if we get 1,000 yards and each one of them get two or three hundred yards. It doesn't make any difference to us at all. The good thing about playing more than one is if you have someone get a sprained ankle, you don't have to shut it down and go to an inexperienced player. The bad thing is you want to have the rhythm. But if we don't separate, and usually you would like to have a little separation, if we don't separate, what we'll do is keep the one in the game that's playing the best at the time. We've done that in the past, too. But we think all three players are good. On competition making players more game ready: We do feel like that it puts more pressure on them day-to-day to compete because all of us need competition. All of us have to be pushed, and right now if a guy's not working, somebody's going to pass him because this team is working really hard. On the lack of separation among kickers and punters: Right now, we've said that everything is open. Justin Tucker is doing a great job. Hunter Lawrence is doing a great job and Ryan (Bailey) is doing a great job. But if we say everything is open, everything is open. They're all three really good, that's the problem. We're having to really chart our kickers on every kick right now to try to get some separation, because all three of them are good enough to start at most places. On the focus in the coming weeks: We've got to continue to look at what we feature, who we are, and more defensively than offensively, because it's new. And we've got to see how much we can do on both sides of the ball. Continue to build the John Chiles, Colt McCoy package, and not let it be a distraction, but make sure that it's something we will use. And really look at personnel. One of the hardest decisions coaches make - how much do you hit, when do you pull off, how much do you run them, when do you rest them in two-a-days because there is no book? And each team is different. Then you try to figure out how many plays a guy can play. Who's out there first and then how long can a guy play where the guy that's going to come in his place is not as good? Then there's that point that because he's tired or been out there a little bit longer, fresh legs with the next guy are better. It's one of the more difficult decisions you have in coaching. On John Chiles' development as a quarterback: He's doing really well. He's throwing the ball so much better, and that's one of the real bright spots of camp so far. John obviously struggled last year in the passing game, and that was one of our goals for him. But he's really working hard, he's maturing, he's focusing more on quarterback. And I think the fact that he's on the field more now in different packages has helped him as a quarterback because he's getting more confidence and he stays in tune with the game. So we're excited about his play and seeing him play quarterback some and throw the ball. On having question marks heading into the season: There are so many young ones that may play. Whether it's a redshirted freshman, a sophomore that hasn't played very much or a true freshman, there will be some guys on the field that have not been out there before in this setting. That's unusual at Texas. We haven't had that a lot in our 10 years. The good thing is if they're really good young ones, they'll be around for a while. Bad thing is if they're bad ones, they'll be around for a while. On CBs Curtis Brown and Chykie Brown and the depth at the position: Curtis and Chykie have come a long way and they're doing really well, and Aaron Williams is doing a good job. So that's really helping our competition with Deon (Beasley) and Ryan (Palmer). Right now, those five guys, all of them have a chance to play. Again, with Duane (Akina), we have to figure out how we play them, how we substitute, and what does that mean. If a guy is good enough to play, then it's our job to make sure that we don't disrupt our starting team and don't disrupt the chemistry of guys playing together. But at the same time, try to keep the best, fresh players on the field, and that's a hard job for coaches. On running scrimmages at the end of practice with young players: We did not last night for the first time. But we've been scrimmaging the young ones, and again we felt like when you go back and look, sometimes the young ones get timid because they don't know what to do. So what we've done is tried to get a very basic scrimmage at the end of practice where they can turn it loose and play and use their ability, then we can see their ability and then learn to bring them on. It may be mid-season before some of them play. But in college football right now, because of the injuries and the lack of depth, we felt like some that mid-season, we wish we'd played a guy that we redshirted, and he wasn't ready for the first week or two or three, and we just said, 'Okay, redshirt him.' And then by the sixth game, we're saying, 'Boy that was a mistake.' So what we're trying to do now is if we think one might even play in the sixth, seventh, eighth game when you've got 14, then you'd like to make sure that he plays even if it's a limited amount early. On how much Major Applewhite has changed from player to coach: I really feel like Major has done a great job. He is much better as a coach right now than when he left us three years ago. He is very mature. He's got a toughness about him that is really good in that position. You'd better have a tough offensive line coach and you'd better have a tough running backs coach because that's the toughness of your offensive team. And he's very bright. He obviously knows all the schemes. He's already been a coordinator at 30 years old. And at the same time, he understands that he is the running back coach and he knows that Greg Davis will have input on the running backs and that I'll have input into the running backs. So Major is a guy who is very loyal and believes in making sure that he does his job and doesn't overstep those boundaries. He's done a great job with that. On Aaron Lewis' transition from defensive end to tackle: Aaron's doing great. He wants to graduate in December, so he's really got a load academically. So some of the guys, we had five or six guys leave for finals this morning. We're playing Aaron more at tackle right now because he knows power end, but he will go back and play power end, too. He's one of the guys we're cross-training, and we feel like that way we get more speed on the field. We've got to have better pass-rushers on the field, and that's our biggest focus up front, is continue to stop the run, but we have got to put more pressure on the passer with our four-man front, and putting more Lamarr Houstons and Aaron Lewises at tackle can have the ability to beat a guard and get there quicker. On QB Colt McCoy's running abilities: Colt probably runs 4.5. He's so much faster than perceived, and one of the problems is he followed Vince (Young) who was faster than anybody chasing him. It's just one of those deals. We never knew how fast Vince was, but nobody caught him. He was fast in uniform, and Colt's the same way. Colt was in an offense in high school where he didn't run at all, and we saw him starting to gain more confidence last year, especially with broken plays and making plays. This spring, he was more excited about the running game because we've asked him to be, and he understands that it helps us win. John's ability to run the zone read play and quarterback runs makes it where we're going to run those plays, so we want Colt to get more involved with those plays, and he has. He had a long touchdown run on Wednesday, and it was a real good run. It wasn't one of those where I blew the whistle after he took four steps. He would have scored on a 70-yard run, which isn't good for our defense, but it's good for Colt. That's the reason head coaches are all tired this time of year. They can't sleep. The offense makes a great play, you're mad about the defense. The defense has a great play, you're jumping on the offense. You're mad at somebody every play, you can't be happy. On Fan Appreciation Day: It's a chance to give back to the fans. We actually had a lady go down at practice and had to go to the hospital because of heat last week. We can't get under the west side of the stadium or the north end right now with construction, so all the fans would have to stand outside the stadium on (the east) side. So we decided to move it to Gregory Gym. We thought it was safer for the fans. They've been standing out in those lines, some of them get here at two, three in the morning. They stand out for seven, eight hours, and that's really dangerous. So it'll be air-conditioned at Gregory Gym. They'll be inside, obviously, and the volleyball team, who is one of the top ranked teams we've ever had will be practicing, so they'll have something to do. We're going to go over and take only the seniors and quarterbacks, because we felt like so many guys were there and some people didn't want everybody's autograph, so that was embarrassing to the kids, too, that nobody asked. Everybody will want these seniors' autographs, and it gives them a chance. Jordan (Shipley) will be in that group because he is a senior, and Quan and (Rashad) Bobino and (Brian) Orakpo, (etc.). And then we'll take John Chiles and Colt and Sherrod because they like the quarterbacks too. But we feel like by cutting it to 16, hopefully we can take eight hours and cut it down to two or three, and be more fair to the kids and be more fair to the fans and still get what everybody wants. |
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