 
Player press conference quotes: Oct. 25
Oct. 25, 2010
QB Garrett Gilbert On consulting with his dad: I can always go and talk to my dad about it. He has had plenty of experience when it comes to football. That is definitely very helpful to be able to talk to him after the game on Saturday night or on Sunday morning. On why they lost on Saturday: It was not learning from our mistakes. Obviously, we made the same mistakes we made against UCLA. It came down to that. Offensively, it comes down to turning the ball over and again not giving ourselves a chance to finish drives and score. On the offense not being able to score: It is a bit frustrating, during the course of the game knowing that we have the chance to be right there and not being able to finish drives. It is something that we need to correct and have to fix. On what the offense did wrong against ISU: Turning the ball over had a lot to do with it, and I threw three interceptions and fumbled. So obviously, the proof is right there. As a team we have to do a better job of not making those mistakes and learning from those mistakes. On the pressure of being a UT quarterback: It is part of it, whether you like it or not. It is something you learn to accept and take it as it comes. On his disappointment for how the season has progressed: We’re not where we would like to be at this point of the season. We still feel like we can turn it. We feel like we can fix the things that we haven’t been able to do so far and get those things corrected and get them right.
On the team’s sense of entitlement: It was a false sense of entitlement. It is something that shouldn’t happen as a football team. You have to go out and earn it and prove every week. On what the team needs to do: I don’t know if it is a matter of going back to the basics, but I think what we need to do is correct what we’ve been doing and just execute better at it. It doesn’t look like on film that we simply can’t do it. We’re getting there, but we’re maybe having a little of a mental lapse. It’s all stuff that can be fixed. On the fourth quarter mentality versus in the other quarters: It was a sense of urgency that we needed to have the entire game. When you look up at the scoreboard and its 28-6, first off, it turned into a little bit of a hurry up game. We need to have that sense of urgency for all 60 minutes. Not just on Saturdays, but it needs to be all week in practice. On Baylor: They’re playing really well right now as a team. Obviously, they have a great quarterback, and their defense is going to be another challenge for us. We’re going to have to have a great game plan going into the game and be very well prepared. On what he thinks of when he hears about Baylor football: Right now you think of Robert Griffin. They’re doing a really good job. Their offense is scoring points at will and defensively they have been able to slow some people down. On Baylor being ranked: Again, they’re playing really well right now. They deserve it, so it is going to be a challenge for us. We’re going to have to do a great job. On hoping to talk to Colt McCoy when he gets his jersey number retired on Saturday: I hope I get to – they [Cleveland Browns] had a big win yesterday. Colt [McCoy] even caught a pass. We’re going to have to give him a hard time about his attempted juke move after he caught it. But he has got to be having a lot of fun right now, and I look forward to be able to see him and talk to him. On if he is making the same mistakes: Each game is different. You are going to have the interceptions when the ball bounces off someone. That happens to everyone. But when it comes to forcing the ball and that sort of thing, and not making the throws that need to be thrown and not turning the ball over in a bad position - that is something that needs to be corrected and that is something that can be corrected. I just need to make sure I am working on that and consciously thinking about protecting the ball and understanding how important that is. On WR DeSean Hales: DeSean is a guy who has really been working hard. It was really good to see him make some plays the other day. He has really been working hard. Last year during the fall, we were both working with the two’s, so I had the chance to work with him a bit. He worked hard all spring and summer, so it was good to see him go out and make some plays.
OL Michael Huey On if the offensive line took a step back: I don’t think so. Throughout every game, I think we have progressed. If you look at every player, you can tell from the first game to now that we have gotten better across the board. On how the team handles the talk this week before playing Baylor: They’re a great team. It’s a form of adversity for us that we have to face. We have to take this week in stride.
RB Tre’ Newton On the team’s mentality: There is definitely a sense of urgency that we need to get to work and look at ourselves in the mirror and figure out what we can do to figure out what we need to do to get better. On what the running backs need to do: We just have to make sure we’re prepared and take Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and work hard. Focus on our assignments. Listen to Coach Applewhite. Just so we’re able to help the team as much as we can. On why the practices are not carrying over to the game: I don’t know the exact reason, but we have to come with each game with intensity and passion and be ready. You can’t take a week off as we proved last week. Anybody can beat you at any time. That is why we have to come together as one and get excited about work and get excited about practice and have that passion. On if he ever thought they would lose three games this year: I don’t think anyone thinks about losing. I think everyone goes into the season thinking you are going to win them all. What happened has happened, but we just have to refocus and get back to work. On Baylor: It’s going to be tough. They’re a very good team, and they’ve worked hard and earned that ranking. We’re just going to have to do our work and look at film and be ready for them because it’s going to be a big challenge for us. On why Baylor is so good this year: We haven’t really started watching film on them yet, but they have been working hard and they have been doing good. We’re going to have to listen to the game plan that we get from Coach Davis and go from there and just try to execute it the best to our ability.
WR Malcolm Williams On if he feels the team has underachieved: I would not say that we have underachieved. I just feel like we haven’t played our best game yet, and we haven’t brought it all together as a team. On if the team is stunned by the losses: It always is a surprise. You just have to take it in stride because it is a long season and sometimes things like this happen. We just have to play better. Go out there and prepare better during the week and just have more passion and love the football game. We have to go out and act like we love the game. On not being able to score in the red zone: It all comes down to execution. Coach [Davis] is calling the right plays, so it is our job to be able to go out there and make it happen. On having a home game this weekend: It is just like a “protect the house mentality.” We have to go protect our house, because we have lost two straight here, and we have to go and play to our standard and make this one happen. On if he ever imagined losing three games this season: You can never imagine that. All teams go into the season thinking we expect to win all of them. It’s not unrealistic, but as a football player it’s that competitive nature. So for this to happen, it’s one of those things that you have to take it in and learn from it and get better. On the bad stretch of games recently: It is just tough right now. For Texas, we are trying to figure out who we are right now and get better as a team. It is hard right now for us, so we are just trying to get better and get back to the basics. On self-reflection: Sometimes we just have to look at ourselves and see what we are doing for the team - to help the team win. You get to the point where you have to make something happen now. You have to. We’re at the point in the season that if we don’t make something happen, that it could be a season no one wants to remember. On Baylor: I know they had a good team last year, and they were going to build on it. They have earned what they have so far, and they’re playing good football so we have to go out there and compete and play. That is all we can do. On WR DeSean Hales: He is coming along great. He is probably one of the most selfless people I know. He goes out there and works. He goes out there to play football. He loves the game, and that is one of the things I admire about him.
LB Keenan Robinson
On losing not setting in after UCLA: It did because we wanted to win, but there are other good teams out there. After UCLA, we had Oklahoma who is a good team, and we fought hard that game. A few bounces didn’t go our way, and we ended up losing that game. We came back the next week and end up beating Nebraska. We have to give a compliment to Iowa State, too. They have good players, and they have scholarship players, too. They have players from Texas that are good players and good high school athletes, and they came out and played hard. We played hard but we didn’t play well at times, and that’s the reason we lost. On pride changing the attitude of the team: It kicked in, like I said. Obviously, because we aren’t used to losing. Especially during regular season, we aren’t used to losing. It kicked in and players were hurt by it. You could see it in people’s faces all week at practice, and we practiced at a higher level. So the pride definitely kicked in, but it’s just now we have to find another way. Just playing hard isn’t going to get us a win. We have to play well. We have to play within the scheme. Everyone has to do their job in order for either side of the ball to function properly. On any players taking leadership roles: Yea, we’ve said things. We’ve held team meetings where everyone says things, but things like that don’t always get the job done because everyone has to take a look at themselves, look in the mirror, and say, “What we are going to do to help the team?” Just because one person says something in the team meeting doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone is going to be able to do their part. Everyone has to find something within them to help the team. On stopping the run against Baylor: It’s going to be a good challenge just because they have a good quarterback just like Nebraska did. Our scheme may be a little bit of the same just because they are going to try to run Robert Griffin or they’re going to use the run to develop the pass. So that’s something we’re going to have to work on this week - making them be one-sided. Once we stop the run, then we’ll focus on the pass, or once you stop the pass you can focus on the run. They threw for four hundred yards last week, and they rushed for another two hundred or whatever. We’re just going to have to focus on making them one-sided, and once they’re one-sided, killing their will and hopefully forcing them out of their game plan and making them do something that they aren’t used to doing. On Baylor being a different Baylor team this year: It’s definitely a different Baylor team. I feel like they were the same team last year, only Robert Griffin was hurt, so obviously they couldn’t do some of the things that they wanted to that they are doing this year. I feel like they are the same team that they were last year, but they have their quarterback back. We’re just going to have to focus on stopping Robert and making him stray from their game plan and making him force plays. That’s how we’re going to get turnovers on defense, is if we can make him force plays and make them do stuff they aren’t used to doing. On respecting Baylor more: I always respect opponents no matter where they are ranked. I respected UCLA. I respected OU, obviously, and I respected Iowa State. It was never that. I always go into a game never downplaying a team because I know every team, especially at this point in college football, every team is capable of beating any team. Everybody has good players. But, yea, them being ranked higher than us definitely makes our job a little bit easier. Usually we’re the top dog and this year they’re the top dog, and we are probably going to be the underdog in this game. On the difficulty of defending Baylor QB Robert Griffin: He’s a really good athlete, and the things that he does - he’s kind of like a magician back there. They might come out on the set looking like he’s going to pass it, but he might go back there and keep it on a draw and take it down the field for a 40-yard gain. So things like that are some of the things that we’re going to have to look into. Everyone this week is going to have to be fundamentally sound and be able to play whatever [Coach] Muschamp has us doing. We have to play well and execute, because if one person doesn’t execute, that’s a big play that we perhaps give up. On protecting the house: Yea, we haven’t played near as well as we would have liked to at home, and that’s something that any team’s pride should be hurting because of that. We’ve played better on the road this year than we have at home and usually it’s the other way around. We have to get that home field advantage feel back, and we have to make our fans at home have a reason for wanting to come back to the games. When you lose at home, it makes fans not want to come to home games because they feel we’re going to lose. But we’ve got to get the fans back into the game and get the crowd and emotion and everything back that home games should have. That’s what we’re going to do this week is beat Baylor, get the fans back into it and make everyone in orange happy. Because we’re four and three right now, and that’s not something that we’re used to. We need to get to five and three, focus on one game at a time, and hopefully beat Baylor. On his role as a leader right now: What I do every week is I come into practice. I practice really hard; flying around, running to the ball until the whistle is blown, making sure that if someone messes up in practice, it doesn’t happen again. Getting onto a guy for making mental errors - you know we can’t have mental errors for things that you can get rid of by studying your playbooks. My role is just to make sure that guys are buying in and doing things that Sam Acho’s doing, Kheeston Randall’s doing, Blake Gideon’s doing, AJ [ Aaron Williams] is doing. Because we set an example by the way we practice and the way we play, and we play and practice at a high level of intensity. We try to make sure that all eleven guys out there are doing what we’re doing. All I can do is set an example, and hopefully I try to make sure that guys are on the same page and are doing the same things as the leaders are doing to win. On losing the fans: I don’t feel like we lost the fans. I feel like the fans could be mad at us right now, which they have a good reason to be. We’ve lost three games this year and the last two years we’ve only lost two games. So, I mean, I feel like they should be mad. It’s okay though. We’re going to bounce back this week, make them happy, and get a good win against a good Baylor team who is already bowl eligible. We’re not even bowl eligible. That’s something we need to focus on getting to, and this week should be a good week and a great week for us just to bounce back and beat a team that’s not just the same old Baylor team- they’re a better Baylor team now. On imagining a losing streak like this: I never did. I came to Texas because I knew that’s something that I wouldn’t have to deal with. But I’m obviously dealing with it now, and that’s part of life. Sometimes things aren’t always going to go your way, and this is where you find out how tough everyone really is. To see how everyone’s going to respond when their backs are against the wall. We’re not in the top 25 anymore, and people aren’t going to see us as the same Texas team that we usually are. So now it’s just that the world is against us and we’re going to see how we respond - how my teammates respond. And that’s just going to make us stronger as a team. On being worried about how young the team is: I’m not worried about it. Everyone says our team is young, but it’s really not that young. We have Acho who’s a senior, Eddie’s [Jones] a senior, Chykie [Brwon], Curtis [Brown] is a senior. So we have a lot of seniors on both sides of the ball, and a couple of seniors on the O-Line. So the team’s really not that young. We have young players in the skill positions, but every team does, so I’m not worried about the team not bouncing back because everyone wants to win as much as I do. I’m not really worried about it from that standpoint. Winning is what we do here at Texas, and winning is something that we expect to do. If you don’t expect to win, then you shouldn’t be here and I feel like all of my teammates in the locker room are here and on the same page, and we’re going to get back on track this week. On Baylor leading the Big 12 South: Yea, I knew that, especially since OU went down this week, and they lost a Big 12 game. Baylor leading the Big 12 South just shows how college football is changing nowadays. The teams that used to not be so good are now good, and the teams that used to be good are the ones struggling. That’s just the way college football is changing. The dynamics are changing. Everyone has good players. Everyone recruits the same amount of players that we do. Everyone gets the same amount of scholarships that we do, so that’s just the way that college football is being played and that’s how it’s developing. Everyone is getting better, and there isn’t going to be that much diversity between good and bad teams as it used to be. So them leading the Big 12 South is good for them. Their coaches are obviously doing something right to get their players to be six and two. That’s just a complement to them and to the Big 12 South. Our division’s not an easy division- there’s good teams in both the north and south.
S Blake Gideon
On what he’s learned from the game against Iowa State: I would say that after looking at the film, what was disappointing the most was that some of the same mistakes we were making before the Nebraska game, that we thought after we left Lincoln we had ironed out. We got back to doing some of the basic things, which the past two years, that’s what has made us a good defense. We did the small things right. Just small mistakes that we were making early in the year that were costing us that we kind of went back to - they cost us again. On if he feels like he’s entitled to his position on the football team: I don’t think I’ve ever felt that way. I think I’m lucky to have been raised that way, though. That you have to go out and earn the stripes everyday. And I think that at a place like the University of Texas, where so many great football players and great athletes come and everybody is fighting for one of eleven spots on the field at one time, nothing is going to be handed out. I think coaches are right. There is a little bit of that sense on the team, and we’ve got to get away from that. What’s made us a good defense in the past couple of years was that blue-collar work ethic, and there was a competition everyday in practice as to who is going to try it out first on Saturday, who is going to be the starter. We’re fighting for jobs everyday. Even some guys that are in the NFL now that probably weren’t fighting for jobs, they were going out there and preparing like it. So that’s something we have to get back to - that urgency everyday in practice. On his pink wristband: I wear it for my Mom. She was diagnosed this summer with breast cancer, so it’s symbolic. It’s something for her. It reminds me of what she’s going through, and she’s come out clean on the other side. She’s never a person to talk about it, and she wouldn’t tell anyone about it unless someone directly asked her about it. She’s a fighter, and she doesn’t look for any kind of credit or anything for it, and so she’s definitely my hero for that. On if October being Breast Cancer Awareness month means more to him this year: I think so. I was always aware of breast cancer awareness and all that, but like you said, it never really hit home until my mom was going through it. That was tough this summer. It was great for me to be at a place like The University of Texas where I have so many brothers downstairs in the locker room with me, that rallied around me and so many guys that are close to my mom and dad and their families are close to my family. So I think that God put me in the right spot at the right time to have the right people around me. So it really turned out to be a blessing. On what he wants people to know about his pink wristband: For me, it’s just, like I said before, there are people out there that are fighting for something more than just a win at a football game. So for us to be able to go out and play a game to show our respect, and that we’re kind of honoring the commitment they have - that they’re going to fight and not going to give up. So, that’s really what it is for my mom and me. It’ll be a special weekend for sure. On how he feels about his mom being an honorary captain for the Baylor game: I can just say I’m probably going to try and be reserved, but it will probably be emotional for me. I never dreamed that my mom would be out there for the coin flip, so that’s going to be awesome. I don’t know how else to say it. On what he thinks about playing a ranked Baylor team: We’ve always known that Baylor has a lot of great players. Just like Oklahoma and A&M, they get a lot of their players from around the state of Texas. A lot of the same guys we played against in high school -and we take great pride in being a great football state - so there’s no reason why they couldn’t be a great team, which they are definitely developing into this year, as we can all see. So, we’ve always known the potential they have, and this year they’re really putting it together. It should be a blast to go out and compete against them this weekend. On what he’s seen of Baylor QB Robert Griffin this year: Every other ESPN highlight. You don’t really have to watch film to know the heartbeat of that offense. I know it was a big loss for them last year [when Griffin was hurt], so you can definitely tell this year the impact that he has on that team. Not only just with the yards they gain or the touchdowns, but also the overall personality he brings to the team and the leadership. I think he’s a natural leader and people gravitate towards him. On if it’s strange for him to hear that Baylor is leading the Big 12 South this season: It’s funny just because I haven’t been alive to where they are ranked like that, or I was very little. I’ve just never known, I guess you’d say, for Baylor to be the ranked team in Texas and Texas not to be. It’s a little weird, but at the same time, we’ve got to snap back to reality pretty quickly because they’ve got a good ball team up there, and they are going to come down here and expect to win. I think we need to come in with the confidence that I think we lost a little bit last week, and we need to go in expecting a win as well. On Baylor: Like I’ve said, we’ve always known what kind of athletes they’ve had, and we’ve been aware of what kind of athlete he is and the kind of impact he has, so it’s really no surprise the kind of numbers that they are able to put up. We’ve always known that it was just a matter of them putting everything together up there, so really there’s no surprise at all. The kind of ability he has, the kind of game breaking ability he has, along with some other guys on their offense. So, like I said, it should be fun for those guys to come down here. It’s going to be a little different feel with them being the ranked team, and we’re not. It should be a fun game. On Coach Mack Brown’s reaction to the team’s performance against Iowa State: He was disappointed, which I think we all were. We all expected that kind of reaction from him, which you don’t want your head coach to be happy about losing.You don’t want him to be relaxed, [or] be calm. That was expected. Coach Brown is a competitive guy. For the most part, I think he’s a laid back guy, but at the same time he wants to win. He’s a winner, and he prepares that way and expects to win. So whenever you put in all the work that we do year-round into winning, and you come up short like we did Saturday, that is disappointing. The type of reaction he had was expected, and we’re going to take that and go out this week and prepare to beat Baylor. On refocusing his goal for this season: The goal is to go out every week and get a win. We’ll let computers and all that and all the expert voters figure it out in the end - where we should end up. As long as there is still football to play, we’re going to go out there and prepare to win every week and compete to win. Nothing changes. I think we do it to get a little bit of that confidence back that we lost last week. I can’t wait to go out and prepare like every game is the most important game of the year, because in reality, it is.
CB Aaron Williams
On what is going on with the team: We’re trying to figure that out ourselves. Here at Texas, we have standards. One of those standards is you never lose at home, especially two weeks in a row. You just have to stick together in times like these. Texas has never been in this kind of situation. It brings family together, and [reveals] who is going to stick as one instead of being individual and pointing fingers, which we can’t do. If we start pointing fingers, we’re going to start separating and we’ll fall more. The record we have now, we’re not very happy with. But we have to finish strong. On if it is weird that Baylor is ranked and Texas is not: It’s not weird, it’s the truth. Baylor is doing what they’re supposed to be doing. They’re winning, and we’re not. We have a lot of respect for Baylor. They’re playing their butts off, and we’re playing our butts off. Sometimes things don’t go our way. It’s just one of those Nebraska weeks again. They’re ranked and we’re not. We just have to go out there and play no matter the ranks. On Baylor QB Robert Griffin: I’ve known Robert since a little before high school. We ran AAU track together. He’s a great athlete. We all know he’s fast. He’s a track champion in hurdles, and he can throw the ball. He’s almost like another Vince Young in his own personality. We need to stay outside and do the same thing we did with Taylor Martinez. We all know he can run, and we all know he can pass. You have to stop both. He’s a talented quarterback, and if you don’t stop him either way, you’re going to have a long day. On if he is the toughest quarterback they will have faced this season: Every quarterback we face is tough. Each quarterback has their own personality and their own way of playing the game. The fact that he is a better runner and a good passer is just another tough one we have this week. On how Baylor changed their offense as opposed to last year when Griffin was hurt: He’s the heart of their offense, and he sets the tempo, the pace. He’s the leader of that offense. Every one is going off his emotion, and his way of play. If we stop that, I feel like we have a good shot of winning. On if he has talked to his friends on the team at Baylor: Not yet. It’s only Monday. I started hearing stuff from Nebraska about Thursday, Friday. So I won’t hear from them in a couple days. But I’d rather hear it now, so I can let my teammates know what they are thinking and what they’re saying in Waco. On if it is easier to respect Baylor this week: You always have the respect. Since I’ve been here and Robert Griffin has played, you have to have that respect. You never know what they’re going to do. Their game plan is great. Robert Griffin does stuff that you never thought they could do. He throws off-balance and completes passes. He’ll throw across the field from the other side. Things like that. You have to stay aware and just have that eye control. He’s a playmaker. On how important it is to win: Any win for us is important. But the fact that we’re at home again gives us more. You can’t lose two weeks in a row at home. I’ve never seen it done since I was born. You better have that fire, because if you don’t, we’re going to get embarrassed for the third week. On the fans: The fans aren’t happy and we know that. Just like [the] fans, we’re upset too. We’re more upset than what you see. We’re going to be great. I’m going to get the team ready to play. On getting questions from classmates: I just came from class, and I got a ton of questions. I’m trying to study here, but you have to answer them. I reassure them we’ll get it fixed.
DE Sam Acho On losing the fans: It’s tough. It’s times like these that you really learn who you are as a person, and where your joy comes from, and where your faith is, and it reveals a lot about people. It’s definitely a learning experience. On if the fans being mad serves as motivation: A lot of the guys on this team are self motivators. So we don’t really let outside influences get us too high or too low, but at the same time, you know, we came to Texas to win, just like the fans come to watch us win. We have high standards, and we definitely want to live up to those standards and keep on fighting back. Like I said, you learn a lot about yourself and yourself as a team during a time like this, and we’re going to recover from this. Nobody’s head is down. Nobody’s giving up or quitting. As you all have seen in college football, it’s a crazy year. The number one team the past four weeks has lost. There are no more dominant teams in college football. So we realize that everyone has to fight. There’s no telling how this thing is going to turn out. On some players playing with entitlements: Just because you go to a big name school doesn’t mean you are automatically going to win. You still have to work hard and, obviously, work harder because a lot of teams that play you only want to beat you. A lot of the teams that we play, basically, if they beat us, that’s their entire season. That’s all they have to do to have a successful season. If they’re one and eleven, if they give their all and win, that’s a successful season. And that’s why we have to be on our A-game every game. We can’t have a down-week, which we had last week. We can’t have one of those. We have to be excited, pumped and ready to play every week, because we have a target on our backs. On how a motivational speech motivates a self-starter: The guys that are driven internally are already going to be ready to play. Those are the guys that are going to come ready to practice, ready for their schoolwork, and ready for the games. It’s reaching the other guys that’s the difficult part. So what we’re going to have to do now is come together as a team and make sure that everybody jumps on board and gets on the bus and is ready to go. On comments about the team being unprepared: I think it definitely translated over to the entire team. After a big week the week before, a lot of guys were sore and tired, but that’s never an excuse. You always have to come and play. I know that I could have done a much better job of preparing from Tuesday’s practice all the way throughout, and as a team we could have done a better job. Like [Coach] Muschamp said earlier, “You can learn from winning, you don’t have to learn from losing.” But in a game like that, you have to learn from it and you just can’t let it happen again. On that being hindsight: Well, hindsight’s always 20-20. If we had won the game, even if we would have played just as poorly and we came out on top by a touchdown, none of this would have been said. Everybody would have been like, “Oh, congratulations, you won.” So hindsight is 20-20. Looking back on it once again, we want to make sure that regardless of how you feel, it really comes down to mind over matter. You have to be mentally tough and mentally strong enough to prepare just as hard as you did for the biggest game of the season, which now for us is Baylor. On facing another running quarterback: Well UCLA didn’t have a running quarterback. Kevin Prince wasn’t really a runner. But like you said, Nebraska did have a running quarterback. So it’s going to come down to, once again, containing the guy. Griffin’s a great quarterback. I’ve watched him play a lot. I watched film on him yesterday. So he’s a great quarterback. He’s going to do well. He’s going to work hard, so we just have to come prepared. We all have to as a team grow together and just do our job. On Baylor being good this year: It’s a whole lot easier to respect a team like Baylor. They’re the 25th [ranked] team in the nation. I think they’re six and two, and so they’re doing well. They’re a great team, obviously, as you can see with the ranking. So we’re going to be excited to play and ready and focused, and we’re just going to come prepared. There aren’t going to be any more of these mental lapses.
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