 
Tracking Mack: Sept. 1
Sept. 1, 2010
Opening statement: Today is a really important day for recruits and for our staff in recruiting. Today is the first day by NCAA rule that you can write or email a junior in high school, so our coaches have been working really, really hard at preparing for Rice today, but also trying to make sure you get a good start and get off on the right foot for young juniors. It is also the first day that you can call a senior prospect. So it is a very, very important day in our lives for recruiting to make sure that that first impression is sent. The other thing is that all of our focus has been on Rice this week. It is the opening ball game, of course. We said on the road that we are 21-10. It is more complicated taking this many freshman on the road because of all the unknowns for them. They do not know what you do Friday night. They do not know about the pregame meal. They do not know what happens on Saturday. Most of them have never been to Reliant, so a lot of those things are happening right now, and what we are trying to do is make sure that they understand the only thing that is important is that we win the game. That’s it. Opening ballgames are determined so often by who plays poorly, and who loses the game based on turnovers and kicking game mistakes. That is what we trying to tell them. If we get home on Saturday night with a win, then we can start working on number two. That is the only thing that is important. The one loss that we have had in preseason [was when]we had three punts blocked in ’99 against NC State. [We]dominated the game but lost it because of our kicking game. The other thing that you try to do is talk to the guys about how many starters do you have on offense [and] how many do you have on defense? People talk a lot about the either-or. That just means that it really does not matter which guy is in the game. What we try to determine for our coordinators is that if he is considered a starter, and let’s say you have 15 on defense and 17 on offense or whatever the number is, those guys can be in the game, and it doesn’t matter whether the coordinator knows they are in or not because they can do everything another guy can do. Then you have guys that can go in who are limited in what they can do, and Will Muschamp and Greg Davis have to know when they are in the ballgame because if he is not a good man-cover guy, Will cannot call man coverage situations on defense. If he is a guy that cannot run the reverse or cannot get deep, and he is in at a wide receiver spot, then Greg does not need to be calling that play to him. Then our assistant coaches have to get permission from myself and the coordinators to put them in. All of those are things that you are working on this week, and you are trying to get as few distractions as you can. You try in your mind to get the situations where you would substitute in the ballgame - who and how often. At the same time, you try to get to this ballgame with as few distractions as you possibly can, understanding that there are a lot of new pieces. The other thing that is hard to understand is when a freshman is playing more than an older player, that player is disappointed. He has friends on the team. It affects team morale. It affects team chemistry. All of those things are important. People say that they are not, but they are important because you want your team to be a team that works together and fights together.
We will take a bus to Houston on Friday afternoon. We will get there and have a walk-through at Reliant. We will not work out. It will just be a walk-through for the guys to see the stadium, check their uniforms and equipment, and make sure everything is in place. The rest of the guys that will not be dressing out will get on a bus and come down Saturday morning at 8:30 am, and they will be on the sidelines in jersey and blue jeans. There will be some guys on the sideline that we will try to redshirt or look at redshirting, and those guys will be on the sideline. They will be dressed out in full gear. After pregame warm-ups, the equipment manager will actually take their helmets and hold them because we do not want them to be emotional and get excited or a coach to get excited and send a guy out on the field that we are potentially trying to redshirt. That is something that in a first ballgame can happen, and without the helmet they obviously cannot play in a play, so it makes it much easier to stop it. [DE] Tevin Mims did hurt his shoulder in preseason. He has asked us if we will put him in the same category with [S]Nolan Brewster and [RB]Jeremy Hills and if we would see - since the young freshman defensive ends are playing well - if he could take a year to try to get his shoulder well, get stronger and redshirt. Like the other two, we are going to see if that is possible. He hurt his shoulder and had an operation before his senior year in high school, and it has acted back up on him some. The knowns for this ballgame - I was told a few minutes ago that there are only 7,000 tickets left for this game. That is good. Thanks to Houston and those great Texas fans that are out there buying those tickets, and hopefully it will be a sellout. This will be the largest crowd that we have had against Rice in Houston since I have been coaching. The last one’s were in the 40,000s. That just shows the excitement about this team and should send a great message to the team. It should be a great atmosphere, especially for Texas. There are a lot of people excited about the new season. It is an ESPN national TV game. We have a talented team that will be fast. We know that Rice will be well coached. [Head Coach] David Bailiff is a terrific coach, and he has a great staff. They will be in the right place. They are going to play really hard. That is one thing that happens. They won 10 games two years ago, and they won two of their last three last year. They were not pleased with the way that they played in the last one, so their whole focus will be coming out and sending a message to everybody out there that watches college football that this team is more like the one that won 10 games than the one that they had last year. We have had a pretty smooth preseason and spring practice. A lot of that is staff continuity, since we have not lost a coach in two years. It has really helped us prepare. That makes usually what is such a difficult week, a little bit easier because all of our coaches are on the same page. The unknown for Saturday’s game is how we will play. We talked a lot about the defensive line. How will they play now that it is time to prove it? We talked a lot about the running game and the power game and still keeping the up tempo. We talked a lot about Garrett Gilbert. All of those things are question marks that the team has to answer. What about our toughness—this team has not proved anything yet. Will it be a tough football team? What about our effort? We keep saying that we want to lead the nation in effort - will that happen on Saturday? Will the guys that are playing have the effort that they have had in preseason? Will they be able to handle the adversity that pops up? You do not have adversity in practice, so in a game when things are going against you—a sudden change, a turnover—will they step up and do things right? The other big question is what will Rice do on their offense for our defense to prepare for? Who will be their quarterback? Running back Sam McGuffie is a really good player. He is fast. He is tough. How will be play in the ballgame? What will they do with him? So all of those things are question marks. As we said earlier, David Bailiff is a tremendous coach. He has a great staff. He has the two new coaches from Kansas that came in. How will that mix with the things that he did in 2008 that were so effective? Defensively, they are going to line up in the right place. They are smart and are not going to make mistakes. They are going to make you make a mistake. That is what they want to do. Keep it in front of you—bend not break. The other thing is that they have no pressure in this ballgame. All the expectations are on Texas, none for Rice, except what they are putting on themselves, and David and his staff will have those expectations. The last time that we played Alabama, we did not stop the run very well. When we played Ohio State we did not stop the run very well. Hopefully, by running the ball a lot more in practice, we will see ourselves play better against the run than we did in those two ballgames. On the opening game loss to NC State in 1999: It is the prototypical nightmare. You don’t have to bring it up for me to remember it. It is part of my gray hair and my stomach problems and everything else. I remembered today, we had 400-and-something yards offense and they had 173 yards, and we had three punts blocked. There is no way they can win the game unless we have those punts blocked. In fact, one of them was at our 10-yard line coming out, and I thought we should have faked it because we still would have won the game because they couldn’t have scored. That is what happens in preseason. We had two or three key injuries in our punt team. We had a snapper that was playing all the time, and it was really hot that night and he gave out. I remember we went for a 4th and 6 inches with Major [Applewhite] at quarterback and did not make an inch. All of those things come back that haunt you in first ballgames. I think NC State ended up having an average year, and we ended up having a good year, but in an opening ballgame, to me it is very similar to bowl games in that you have had so much time off that you are really not sure of the personality [of the team] that is going to show up for the game. On talk that the Big 12 will be top heavy with only a few winning teams: I never, ever think about that in preseason. None of us know. I do not even know if we are going to be good. I go back, not to embarrass them, but Georgia was ranked No. 1 two or three years ago and won eight games, so you just do not know. That is the great thing about college football. Talk is talk. It is all chatter. You have to prove it. On DT Tyrell Higgins: Tyrell was a defensive end that we felt like was quick and made some plays, but we also felt like he would be a down guy. He is very polite. He is very intelligent. His attitude was such that he did not work as hard in the weight room or the field. He made some poor decisions off the field and really and truly got himself in a bind and left our program, and since he has come back he has done everything right. He is still quiet, but he has worked really hard on the weights. He had some stomach issues last year that kept his weight down, and he is back up to about 285 now, so that has given him a better chance to play. The fact that we are thin at the position has helped him. The fact that Calvin [Howell] has been banged up some and some of the younger guys did not come in in great shape has helped him, and he has taken full advantage of it. I thought after he was awarded his scholarship on Tuesday that he had his best scrimmage since he has been here on Wednesday. Hopefully, that will give him confidence in everything he needs to do to be a good player for us. On DT Ashton Dorsey getting playing time: We’re planning on it. Right now there would be a question mark about whether Taylor Bible or Greg Daniels would play in the opener, but right now we’re looking at the possibility of Ashton going in the rotation on the normal downs. Calvin [Howell], Tyrell, Ashton, Alex Okafor and Kheeston Randall [is the rotation at defensive tackle]. On the second defensive tackle position being set: They’re all bracketed, really. You could look at it and today’s practice may change it. We want our depth chart to be fluid because that’s what we told the players and we want it to change for the player who practiced the best to move up. We said yesterday, when our coaches are looking at you practice, they’re seeing you play in the game Saturday. If a receiver drops the ball in practice and he says, ‘Aw, my bad,’ we said, ‘No, you dropped the ball in the first quarter at Rice and we punted because you dropped the ball - that’s what we see.’ The receivers know that if you drop balls, we’re not going to throw balls to you. If you can’t rush the passer, you’re not going to be on the field when we’re rushing the passer. If you can’t cover man coverage, you’re not going to be out there and you determine that, we do not. It’s our job to try and teach you and then evaluate you so we can put the right guys out there in the right situations and all the guys understand that. Now what happens is you can imagine, our receivers have been working against those great corners and safeties every practice for four weeks so they’re a little tired of that too. As we said, [DE}Sam Acho’s been taking on {OT} Kyle Hix every day for four weeks so they’re all ready to do something else. You still have to practice against each other this week, but you do it in a format where you’ve got more Rice stuff. On how many letters they sent out today to recruits: A bunch - but no - I really don’t [know how many]. One of the things we send out which is very important to us; to the coach, to the parents and to the prospect, is the fact that this is the first day that you can have contact because not everybody feels that way and we want to make sure they understand that we’re not behind. That’s just the rules and we’re going to go by the rules. It’s funny how sometimes high school juniors will say, ‘Why aren’t you recruiting me, you don’t send me letters, you don’t email me,’ and I say, ‘Well, you can’t.’ On watching high school games on TV: What I like is there is a presence of high school football period, on state-wide and national TV. I think it’s really good and healthy for those kids and for their exposure, and I like watching it. I like to watch games in Ohio or California and compare our high school games to theirs. I said Monday, I love the fact that we had a high school game in our stadium. I’d like to have one every week that we’re not playing here because it just gives kids opportunities to play in DKR - some of them may never have an opportunity to even get here and play. From the response that we’ve gotten from kid’s parents and fans, they had a great time. It was really a fun night for them. On DE Tevin Mims having a better shot of redshirting than some of the other players: They will redshirt either way. That would be a hardship I think is what we’re talking about. The only way - for instance, let’s look at it this way: Nolan Brewster is closer to playing than right now a Tevin Mims or a Jeremy Hills because there are more players at that position with experience. You get a safety that goes down in the first [quarter} of the Rice game - Nolan may have to play in that game. So he is still practicing with the experienced guys. He’s still in there looking at playing. We have to be lucky at safety for him not to play. We have enough backs that Jeremy will probably have a better chance to redshirt, and right now we have enough defensive ends when you count Alex Okafor, along with the other four that are playing, that there is a good chance that Tevin could redshirt. On those guys cross training while redshirting: It’s really hard to cross train offense and defense, it just takes so much of your time. We talked to Jeremy about corner [back] early in his career. We will be thinner there next year, and he had no interest. He wanted to play offense. People say, ‘Well move him anyway.’ If a guy doesn’t want to do it, he’ll usually sabotage himself in some weird way when he gets over there. It’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. The only way I’ve seen guys move - and especially change sides of the ball – [is] if they feel like they have a better chance to start or be successful. If they’re not sure then it’s really difficult for an older kid to change. On utilizing the H-back package: The H-back package will be extensive. It is a base and viable part of our offense now. What we’re trying to do is expand that position to a position to where he can be tight. He can be a wing and be off the ball as a tight end. He can be on the ball as a tight end. He can motion across and change formations. He can motion back in the backfield and be a fullback. At the same time, we want to get it to a point where you can be in an H-back look, and then spread out and go four wide [receivers] to make it more difficult to substitute. On H-back Chris Whaley: He’s doing well. We’re pleased with him. He’s behind because he hasn’t been there long, but he will play in that position behind Greg Smith on Saturday. He can catch and he’s big. He’s 260 pounds. He can run. He’s got good hands, so we’re pleased with him. On PK William Russ: We feel like we need to use him this year some. He might [redshirt] - we’ve got to make a decision with him like Jeremy Hills and like Nolan [Brewster]. Do you play him in the first game unless somebody gets injured or can’t play? Do you wait? Do you see if you get an injury? You just don’t know so we just have to make those decisions. Some of those decisions are made during the game but he’s planning on playing, and we’re planning on playing him. On good starts in the first game of the season: We played North Texas and handed the ball to Cedric Benson on the first play, and he went about 65 yards off tackle and scored on a running play and I thought, ‘Now that’s good.’ Then Colt McCoy’s first pass against North Texas two or three years later was to Limas Sweed for a touchdown, and I thought, ‘That’s good.’ Those were happy starts. On seeing highlights of players like Sam McGuffie online: Our video staff - Mike Arias - does such a tremendous job. He pulls those things for us all the time off YouTube. I’m not a YouTube guy, but it was a great play and one that the way modern electronics are, it spread fast. Our players will see it. On Rice opening up with four or five receivers on offense: We’re not sure. We figure some because we’re not sure of the combination of what they were in 2008 as compared to what the Kansas coaches brought to them and which quarterback is in there. It’s been a difficult week to prepare for our defense. We will have a game plan, but you have to be ready to change it immediately if it’s not what we think. Normally in situations like this, we’ll go in with a little more of a plain defense until we find out what they’re doing and then add our blitzes and aggressiveness to it after we see what the formations are. On playing opponents that are not as recognized nationally: We always give great respect to the other team. Our whole concept is based on learning to communicate with each other. Learning to trust each other and then having respect for our family name, our university name, our team, our teammates, our coaches and very explicitly, our opponents. A lot of our guys have relationships with guys on the Rice team so they played with them in high school. You just look around - Quinton Jammer’s got a cousin on the team, [Andy] Erickson from Lake Travis played with Garrett [Gilbert]. There’s a lot of the guys that they know and that they have respect for and they hang out with in the summers and they talk. Our guys feel like what we do in practice helps us so much because they know they’ll play against as good an athlete in practice every day as they probably will play against during the year. But beyond that, we expect everybody to play us their best game. On worrying about starting the season on the road with a young team: I guess it’s kind of foolish for us to say that going on the road in the first game scares you because if you go on the road in the third game, it’s still their first road trip. Maybe it’s better to get all the young ones out there and get it done immediately. That’s the other reason. We want everybody to be on the sideline and in the stadium because we want everybody to feel what the first game’s like. Houston’s a very important city to us so we want our players to be in Houston, and we want our fans to see the players there and next year we do not want the guys that do redshirt this year and play next year to have their first trip next year. We’d like for this to be an experience for some of the guys that won’t play that will aid their progress for next year. On Vince Young deserving the Heisman Trophy: Right now it’s not in a position to where it’s open. I’ve said numerous times that the Heisman Trust would have to make that decision - no one else. Until they do, Reggie Bush has won the Heisman. All I’ve said - with total respect to Reggie because he’s a great player - I’m a Vince guy, period. Coached him. Loved him. Went to the Heisman with him and I think our guys should win it every year. So that’s my job and my place, but with all due respect to Reggie, it is his. If at any time that changed, I do think - and they don’t care what I think - but you’ve asked my opinion. My opinion would be; I would love for the Heisman Trust to look at a re-vote or give it to the second guy, which therefore would be Vince.
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