 
Tracking Mack: Sept. 24
Sept. 24, 2008
Opening statement: We're trying to look at what's important and continue to evaluate this team after three weeks. The things that we like, we've scored 146 points in three weeks, and that's the most we've scored in the 11 years that we've been here in the first three games. It is the most any Texas team has scored since 1977 (in the first three games). Our scoring offense is 48-plus points per game and we're very pleased with it. Red-zone offense is very important, and we've scored 14 touchdowns in 16 trips to the red zone; that's 93 percent. And we've only had one turnover. That was the interception in El Paso. Third-down efficiency is critical because you have to stay on the field. We're 50 percent on third downs, and it's really better than that because two of the third downs we didn't convert, we converted on fourth down, so it didn't really hurt us on those drives. Turnovers, offensively at this time last year, we had seven of them. Right now we're sitting with only three, so we've made great progress since this time last year. Explosive plays is an area that we've talked a lot about. Our goal is to get nine per game; we're averaging 11 per game. You go back to the first three games last year, we had 10 explosive plays, nine of those were by Jamaal Charles in the running game and the other one was Colt [McCoy]. You look at our explosives now in the running game after three games, and we've had 15 explosives. Colt has had nine of those, John Chiles has had one and the running backs have the other five. So just looking at, we feel like we've made significant progress. We have to start looking at even more than rushing yards by running backs because they're catching more balls than ever before. It's not the old I-formation stuff. In 2007 after three games, we had 95 plays for 492 yards and five touchdowns, an average of 5.2 yards per play and we had lost two fumbles. This year, when you look at the entire package that the running backs feature, rushing and catching, we have 91 plays, 473 yards, six touchdowns and they're averaging 5.2 yards per play with no fumbles. If you just look at the running game, last year the running backs were averaging 4.9 yards per play, and this year, they're averaging 4.2 yards per play. So other than losing Jamaal's explosive plays and catching those up with receivers, Colt and John Chiles, we haven't dropped off offensively. In fact, we've been much more productive.
You compare Colt's numbers to last year, and he had thrown 118 times at this time last year with five interceptions, four touchdowns and 721 total yards. This year, he's thrown 81 times, only one interception, 11 touchdowns and 833 yards. So we're throwing the ball downfield and getting bigger plays. We've had a 60-yard touchdown pass this year; last year, a 38-yarder was our longest at that time. In the rushing game and passing game for Vince in 2005 - understanding that one of his first three games was Ohio State - Vince carried the ball 35 times in the first three games with a net of 202 yards and one touchdown. Colt, so far this year, has carried the ball 25 times - 10 less - with a net of 194 yards and he's scored two touchdowns. In the passing game, Vince had thrown the ball 60 times for 544 yards, four interceptions and five touchdowns at that time. Of course, Ohio State makes a huge difference, but at the same time, Colt is off to a fantastic start and one that puts him not only in the record books as the all-time touchdown leader but also by moving the ball and scoring points at this early stage of the season. At tight end, we feel like we're going to continue with what we've got. Ian Harris is back. He had a good practice yesterday considering he's missed four or five weeks as we've gotten started; he's gotten behind. But we feel like he has a better chance to catch up because he played the position in high school and he's played it since he's been here, as opposed to moving somebody over. We'll probably just feature some different things in the passing game with the tight ends than what we were with Blaine [Irby]. Looking at the defense briefly, scoring defense is at 11 points per game. That's 33 for the year that we've given up and that's the second fewest in our 11 years after three games at The University of Texas. Third-down efficiency, 15-of-47 conversions; they're only converting 31.9 percent, which is really good. In the running game, we're only giving up 66 yards per game. But we have to look at the fact that the first three teams that we've played have been throwing teams. They haven't run the ball very often. They've run the ball 59 times for a 196 yards and they're averaging 3.32 yards per attempt; our goal is 3.3, so they're just over that. We do think that Arkansas will watch the (UTEP) film and see that they made some yards early in the game off tackle. They've got a big offensive line and we feel like Arkansas will come in and really exploit that. We think those numbers look better than they actually are because we haven't been tested against the run. Passing game efficiency, it's important that we say the passing game efficiency is based on every called pass. So if they scramble, in our formula it counts against the pass instead of the run, whether they throw the pass or not. There have been 156 attempts in our first three games for 764 yards, that's per call. They are averaging 4.89 yards per attempt based on that formula and our goal is to keep them under five. So actually we probably haven't been tested against the run so we think our numbers may be skewed. But we feel like the numbers against the pass per attempt are pretty good. We've been seeing teams throwing the ball a whole lot. Things that we need to improve offensively - we feel like we need to continue to protect the ball and we have to continue to create explosive plays. We look at what we need to improve defensively - we've got to force more turnovers. Last year at this time, we had forced eight. Right now, we've only forced three, so we've got to continue to improve in that area. We've forced goal line stops, we had the super goal line stand the other night, but we aren't forcing turnovers. We like what we're doing with the quarterback. Arkansas will have a better offensive line than the three previous teams we've played, so we need see if we can continue to put that some type of pressure on them this weekend. We've handled the explosive plays better in each of the three games, but we still are concerned with our explosive plays because there will be more talent on the Arkansas team than the other three. I do think our defensive staff is doing a very good job in practice of looking at every pressure, every turnover. They're charting it and making sure the young guys feel the importance at each point. On the performance in practice of the tight ends: What happens when you lose a young guy that is important to your team that everybody likes is somebody else steps up. Those tight ends are really working to make sure that our team doesn't lose some of its explosiveness and some of its power, not only in the running game, but the passing game, as well, because their strength has been in the running game. So they've really stepped it up and are trying really hard. On TE Peter Ullman's receiving ability: I think he's caught three touchdowns, so he can catch. It's just that with Blaine and the guys that we've had in that position, normally what you do is work it out to throw it to the fastest guy, and Blaine was that guy. But Peter can catch. Greg Smith was an outstanding tight end at Montgomery [High School] and he's a young man that was 225 pounds when we signed him. He was more of a catcher than a blocker. We were concerned about his blocking. We moved him inside to the offensive line position, and now he's at 295 [pounds] but he can still catch and run. Then you look at Ian. He's been (at the position) for a long time, so we feel like he can play. He was very good down in San Antonio and Ahmard Howard was a really good tight end over at Brenham. At Texas, when you lose a guy, it's not like you don't have a guy to replace him, you just don't have a guy with the same experience. On TE Ian Harris: After watching Ian practice yesterday, he did really well. His legs are fresh because he's been with the trainers in rehabilitation for the last month. We will grade the film again today - because we'll have a very physical practice today - and see if he could get some snaps on Saturday. You're just not really sure yet because he hasn't done it before. On maintaining intensity with preparation for Arkansas the second time around: This team has been fun. We thought that they would slow down last week with Rice because they were disappointed over not being able to play Arkansas two weeks ago, but they played hard and practiced well. They've done the same this week. They're really excited about this game. We've tried to tell them you can't go back to the Southwest Conference. You can't get excited about this game just because a lot of our older boosters that played in this game many years ago are excited. But you can get excited because it's a team from the SEC, it's a team that's 2-1, it's a team that's trying to knock you out of your national ranking. At the same time, we're going to have nearly 100,000 people watching you and having fun. It's time to play. So far they've answered every bell. This has been a really fun team to coach. We're not where we need to be and we've got all these things that we talk about fixing, but they are really trying. On expecting Arkansas to play better after their loss last week to Alabama: Really good teams play good each week. Our National Championship team didn't need to be motivated by anything else. They were motivated by the standard set by USC. But a lot of teams that are struggling play better because people are questioning them so much and kids are really competitive. Athletes have a tremendous amount of pride, and I would have rather seen Arkansas win last week than get beat. There is no doubt about that. They will come in here and play by far their best game, and everything that didn't work for them last week, such as giving up big plays, they have stressed and worked on this week. There has been a real emphasis put on all the things that didn't work well last week ,so that they do better this week. On the pressure of winning decisively for ranking purposes: It really doesn't put more pressure on us to see Alabama win because we're not even talking about the polls yet. We're still trying to figure out who we are. We've got enough games down the road, regardless of what happens. If we keep winning, the polls will take care of themselves. It's more important that we win than look pretty. On K Hunter Lawrence: We watched Hunter in high school down at Boerne. He was such a good player. He had one of the strongest legs I had ever seen. In fact, he broke a national record for field goals. When he got here, he kicked off really well, but we thought he pressed too much with the field goals. He started over-kicking and kicking them really well. It's interesting, after two years, he's matured enough and gotten his confidence up to a point now where he's not missing anything in practice. When you've got Ryan Bailey, who is 24-of-28, right on his heels, that competition is really healthy. On Lawrence's adjustment to not having a tee when arriving at Texas: A lot of the young guys are starting to go to camps in the summer, taking the tee away so they can practice that. But he was conscientious, he wanted to do what was best for his high school and he continued to work with the tee. I really wish at one point we would have everybody take the tee away so it can be more consistent for all the guys. On getting Ryan Bailey opportunities to kick: We are, but what we want to do is win, and as long as Hunter is kicking well, [we'll stay with him]. We've put Ryan in the end of two of the three games where there was a kicking situation. We're proud of Ryan, he's already earned his scholarship here, but we also want to be fair. When you say competition is out there every day, you can't say that and not do it. Each day, everybody has to compete to win their spot. |
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