Texas Tech Football: Week 2 Press Conference | Sept. 2, 2024

e e e e question all right it's good to see everybody um first man I'm just thankful uh that KP and his team's okay after uh situation after the game and got to talk to him got to talk to a couple of guys talked to their OC today and just glad that ACU is okay U man I want to start by thanking our fans um being there from the beginning to the end I thought it was a great atmosphere and it definitely helped us at the end of the game you know we uh chose to go into the North End Zone towards our band and and towards our student section I thought that was huge and man I can't thank them enough for staying the whole time throughout the game uh scout team players of the week for us last week were jacobe Williams and Oliver miles um they did a really good job for us man I'm excited about going to Washington State you know they're fixed to honor Mike Leech uh what better uh way to do that and having us there and um you know it's going to be a great atmosphere talking to Clay you know they do such a good job on game day uh I don't know their head coach very well coach Dicker but I do know um I do know the OC really well um Ben was actually my quarterback in the very last thsca allstar game and so I've known him since he was in high school and he has done a great job we're facing a really good offense uh their quarterback threw for 352 yards and five touchdowns last week had two receivers uh Hudson and Williams both went over a 100 yards one for 141 and one for 101 defensively they're really aggressive they got a linebacker that's played number 52 that's played a lot of football you know and so um one thing that they've done well is and they play the run really well and so uh that's going to be a tough for us um but you know it's a great opportunity you know the we've talked about this before that we've got an opportunity to go on the road it's something that we have not done well well played well on the road uh at the beginning of the year and so this is going to be a big road test for us and a great environment and man can't think of anything better than being able to be a part of a a celebration of Mike Leech so it's going to be it's going to be a great game and we're excited with that I'll open up for questions as you said coach you haven't been as successful three and eight on the road what do you have to do to in previous games after games you said you haven't prepared this team what do you have to do in preparation for this week for Washington State well you know it started with some of the stuff we're doing in that we did in Camp you know to create some chaos um you know we've got to start the one thing I think if you go back uh we we've gotten behind uh early on the road like K State two years ago um you know at different times so we got to play well early uh we we've got to I mean it's I'm going to be Captain Obvious here but we got to play a lot better defense you know and especially against the offense that we're about to play that are really going to attack you especially attack you vertical you know they've got two or three players that if you look at U uh numbers as far as they've got two guys the two receivers that have ran in the top 15 in like 20 m per hour games as anybody in the country and so um we're going to have to play a lot better defense and you know I know we will I mean it's extremely frustrating Saturday for uh you know a lot of people and and our fans and definitely uh for me and coach darer and the defensive staff but we we're going to have to play better on defense but the biggest thing is no matter how the game goes the one thing we can't do is get down two or three scores um in that kind of environment we're going to have to play well um early in the game to give us a chance late in the game another injury to another outside linebacker who has to step up for you from the linebacker room for for you to be successful on Saturday you know the guys that played in the game uh you know Isaac Smith and and Harvey Dyson um Amir Washington uh Sam Carroll you know we're still probably I mean he's out we're still another uh at least another week to two weeks away from getting Charles Esters back which is huge in that room um but those guys you know got to play better I mean we had a chance a couple times to to hit the quarterback and we're not good enough in coverage to where the ball's not coming out it's coming out too fast uh there's a couple big plays where air probably has two sacks but it's just the lack of uh coverage you know to where we don't get home with the quarterback we hit the quarterback but we don't get the ball's already out and so um those guys have got to of course that those guys have got to step for us step up for us outside linebacker coach I'm curious about just looking at snap counts with the depth on in the defense as you talked about all Camp seemed like at corner you had a those two that played a lot and I I know that's not helped with Lux being out but I guess was that kind of what you guys expected or was that just in the moment which you looking back at it no I mean it changes a lot whenever you have Lux and the snap count probably would have been the exact same it was just been Lux getting the majority of them after the game that we were in um you know uh without a doubt there would have been a little bit more rotation with having him but whenever we had we didn't have him um you know we just felt like that uh we had to ride with what we had that made a huge difference and everybody could say you know that one guy doesn't make a difference uh one guy does make a difference whenever I mean that'd be like saying whenever the Cowboys had Deion Sanders I mean I hate to compare Lux Deion Sanders but when you have your best corner out of the game then it changes a lot you know um we are really good friends with the ACU staff and just talking to their OC this morning I mean you look at the first play he has his outside receiver inside and he has his tight end outside that was a reason he wanted to get matchups well he felt once that lux was not playing then he could uh not have to create those matchups like that and so uh he looked Lux looked good this morning you know we're hoping uh that we can have him on Saturday if not then we'll have to have some other people step up because they're going to throw the ball I mean you know we're facing going three weeks in a row that we're facing coordinators that originates from the great Mike Leech you know and the one thing that we all know coach leech likes to throw the football Ben's going to throw the football and Eric Morris is going to throw the football next week so our secondary we're going to have to put them in better positions um we're going to have to put more pressure on the quarterback uh there's times that we're going to have to do a couple different things defensively to help those guys out if he's not in there looking at Washington State really popped their wide receiver room just seemed like they were like you mentioned they were really fast and they got them the ball in different ways I guess what kind of challenge is it for you to have a secondary that I guess performed the way they did the other night going up there on the road with likely a pretty good test yeah it's going to be tough you know if you go back and you look at on Saturday uh I had Blanchard do this I had uh on Saturday the quarterback was getting the ball out of his hands 2.45 seconds so your numbers say that you may have a sack every 90 plays with the ball coming out that fast the guy that we're fixed to face so give you an example Bo Nicks got the ball out at 2.6 seconds whenever we played them last year so this kid m i mean MacGyver was at 2.45 the kid we're about to play for Washington state was 2.25 against Portland State so it's even coming out even faster so you know one we've got to cover down on some receivers to where we don't give some clear pitchers and easy access throws and um you know we've got to get in the windows with our linebackers to even have a chance to get home against some of the stuff that they're doing um and then we're probably going to get some more vertical shots uh one we didn't play some vertical routes well but some vertical shots because these guys can really run um so it's going to be we're going to have to mix it up on defense give them a bunch of different looks and uh and play better Coach and it's the only one game into the season but there's been a trend of kind of slow starts to the season then really strong finishes in November is there anything coming out of fall camp that could point to the to the slow starts or are you re-evaluating how yall approach the start of Seasons man I'm going to tell you you know I know everybody's frustrated I mean there's no person more frustrated than me and and I I've you know I the defense side of the ball is kind of really tough because I think everybody saw I mean I can't I don't think you can question our offensive skill after Saturday night and you're going to see it again we have great offensive skill and if you've come to our first two scrimmages our defense dominated our offense I I would I was shocked of how we played um I do think and I I coach Buie is the OC at at abin Christian and after the game I thought thought that he did a great job of putting us in some situations you know uh We've on the on the secondary we've got to communicate a lot better we've got to do a lot better uh job of being on the same page um some of those big plays we weren't on the same page there's no excuse for it um but I I did not think that uh we would come out with a slow start the way we did the well we came out and it's 22 to7 and then all of a sudden we can't uh you know we can't get off the field my message to the team yesterday was you know there's there's a thing you talk about complimentary football well complimentary football is getting a stop when the other team you know maybe has scored or if you're reallying on defense you got to go score There's an opportunity in that game after Dre McCrae has that long return and we get stopped on the one yard line you know that now all of a sudden instead of it being 3221 it's 3921 you know so there there separation where the game changes we never did that playing complimentary football what we did was just the opposite we went from them stopping us to letting them Drive 96 yards for a touchdown you know it's that's ridiculous and you know there there's no excuse for it and so to come in and win and go two and 0 uh which would be a better start than I think our first two years then we've got to get that stuff corrected and um you know it's it's not I do know this it's not for the lack of our players not wanting to get it corrected I mean I think they came in with a a good attitude yesterday they were frustrated but they also you know I ask them man you never can apologize for winning I mean this time last year after we get beat by Wyoming and we can't make a play at the end of the game as bad as I feel right now trust me I feel 10 times worse losing that game and so at least we could come out and say we're 1 and0 going into Washington State I don't know if you can give it all away but but how do you teach that complimentary football like that sequence you just talked about getting stopped on the one and then giving up a 96 yard Drive how do you correct that from week to week well man that's a that's a great question there's one thing yesterday what I did so what we do on Sunday is we come out and we put our plan to win you know if who won what we won the game against ACU because we caused a turnover and we scored off of that turnover and then our special teams were they were Elite I mean it wasn't for Dre McCrae and our kickoff turn team we don't win that game right and so we put that in but then I cut up all the complimentary football of like the sense of urgency in games whether they're close or any point like those drives I know every single Drive matters but whenever you get a big return you can't kick a field goal you know or when you have a situation where you get stopped on fourth down your best defense has to come out and play right then um you know you go back to Year One uh everybody thought I was crazy for going for it on fourth down but you go back to the numbers of the difference of how many points we gained versus how much we gave up right now we're not at that point where we're we're giving up too much yardage and off of one game we're giving up too much yardage too many points off of like that defensive stop you go back to complimentary football we come out and we get a fourth down stop and then we turn around and they get a fourth down stop you know that you can't win games or uh increase the the margin uh of points in a game if that's how you're going to play to where it's now you're just going back and forth in the same situation and so what we did we cut it up yesterday and just talk through like here are the points we're trying to make that you know here's the complimentary football if you get stopped on the one yard line now it should be that they're backed up you don't give up a whole shot and cover two and freaking let them out you may you know you stop them right there and now they've got a punt now we've got a short field to go score instead they go 96 you know and that's really frustrating Cole in the back then caller what impressed you the most about Josh Kelly I think he had a career high with 10 catches and now going against his former school yeah he is man I'm going to tell you what man he is special uh you look at another thing of just the whole offense the yards after catch versus any point in my first two years you know the the the skill players um you know they I thought they did a good job after they got the ball in their hand of of creating more yards after catch and he had some big plays like that um you know I've said it I said it to Baron in the spring whenever he was watching I say it to kitley all the time you know good things happen whenever whenever Josh Kelly touches the ball early you know he really can get this offense moving and um you know he's uh he is uh such a a tough competitor um man he's uh he wants the ball in his hand at any point in the game you know he's he's a big play guy and man I was really proud of him I thought he did a really good job of of uh not only catching the ball but he did a really good job of yards after catch how much do you think it helps you know just finding a way to win the game you know versus last year you start at Wyoming you you know you let that one slip away having this you know up in the air situation finding a way to win and then going on the road do you think that helps versus just starting off on the road like last year I think it helps I mean our first two games last year we couldn't find a way to win you know we should have won the Oregon game too and we find a way to lose that game you know turning the ball over um you know pathetic checks you know that we block a punt and then we check a check something that shouldn't have been checked and we throw it right back to them stuff like that um you learn from that stuff but you always want to learn stuff where you're winning the game and finding a way to win the game you know um I I'll never forget and and we get it's 2018 and and uh we're just getting destroyed by West Virginia we're coming into the um into halftime and you know I I coach rule I know he wanted to go in there and just rip them and I said coach we're going to learn something from this like every situation we're in we have to learned from and you know that was my point to the guy Saturday night we're in the game we're in see if you go back we talked about this whenever we met in February we're going to be in games to where we didn't expect to be in this type of game find a way to win the game you know that was said over the headset multiple times this is where we're at we can't change where we're at right now all we can do is find a way to win the game and the guys found a way to win the game you know I thought it was a really good call by darer um you know to mix up the front you know uh we felt uh with what they were going to do is they had a single receiver you know so you're going there we had really that to where we could double cover that we gave them numbers out here um so they couldn't throw the screen we gave them the box to run the draw in and we mixed up the front to try to stop the draw and we were able to do it and win the game and so it's just find a way to win a game um you know and and that's that's the key there's been schools over the past uh clay Maguire reminded me in 2015 they won nine games at Washington State they opened up the season with a loss to Portland State you know it's it's he goes I would rather be on this end than that end you know and so at the end of the day uh no matter how I feel and how frustrated I am I'm going to honor the victory I I probably got 10 texts from my ex- coaches because we used to talk about that all the time you know I told them the guys that at the end of the game in the locker room look get your heads up because we found a way to win the game and I remember walking out of was Wyoming last year and being just sick to my stomach and probably one one of the worst losses I've been a part of and still being sick to my stomach after the abalene Christian win but being really appreciative that we won the game with Taj questionable this weekend and the backups only getting two reps how do you envision using those guys if they're needed for the full game would it would you go more cam Dicky since he's kind of kind of a Taj clone body typewise yeah I think there's going to be a good split I mean I think we'll add I if if we get to you know that'll be a game time all the way up game time situation um Taj might fight us um to get on the field just the type of person he is uh but we'll add in you know it it won't probably won't be a heavy role but we'll also add in jacobe Williams so you know we'll travel all four of our backs we'll travel Taj and the three guys to you know go in the game and um you know cam dicki does you know he's a heavier back uh Valdez you know if it happens he'll start it just because if he's more experienced and has played in some games this year um you know I wish that we could have got some more reps out of those guys uh but once it became the game that it was man you had to ride with what you had I mean uh there's there's a lot of things that you wished on Saturday some other guys would have gotten the game but you know again just try to you had to ride 28 man and I think Coach Patterson made a joke this morning in his press conference that he felt like he got hit by Taj Brooks without pads on after the accident you know and Taj is a Taj is just such a competitor uh but those guys I mean we'll we'll ride with those guys I mean they they've all had good camps it's good to have those guys and have the depth in that room not a lot of experience but at least you have guys that can go in there and play and it was it's really big that cam Dicky was here in the spring to have a good grasp of the offense after after the game kicking wise I mean it doesn't seem like anything's decided are you going to switch between the two again uh this weekend yeah that's the plan man I was really proud of both of those guys they made some big kicks um you know reys made some big kicks if you go back again we go to you know the plan to win I mean that that game was one won because the Special Teams uh because of our kicking game um you know we were three for three on field goals that was huge and um then on the Special Teams we got a two-point conversion out of uh Jaylen Conor um which by the way what a freaking catch that he made in the end zone and you know every time he touches the ball it seems like something really good happens and so we'll see more of that um you know but that I we'll just ride with those kickers and rotate them hey coach with as fast as this offense likes to run especially in the first half we saw maybe a little more time of possession in favor obviously of ACU despite the success on offense it seem like y'all were getting a lot quicker than than they were um but then with the lack of the defensive stops on you guys is in do you think that there will potentially be a reality here soon until this defense changes that not only does this offense want to score but they may need to score nearly on every Drive yeah you know if you just if you just looked at uh I mean you're not going to go away from from Taj but if you look at at just kind of the personnel and everything I mean we might be more personnell uh to throw the ball more and and you know be more of a I wouldn't say we have a lot of air rid Concepts and everything but me more of an air raid type team to where we're going to have to you know really double down on our Tempo and really push the uh ball down the field because we do have those kind of threats um I mean we'll see you know I I definitely think the defense settles down and we play better this week but uh again once we get in the game and you know it could be a back and forth game that we're just going to have to go down and score um you know and put our guys in a good situation to do that and finally you touched on it just a second ago but with Jaylen Conor in his first game me we saw him to be how ver style he is from the two-point conversion run to the obviously the the great catch in the end zone just what do you see from him there in game one yeah I was really proud of him it was a big game for him you know he grew up a Red Raider fan you know and and um he was uh he was pretty emotional going into the game from the standpoint of kind of a it was a dream come true for him to play in this uniform and play in Jones AT&T um you know and you just continue uh with those guys that play and those kind of situations and come up big that you just got to increase their role and uh definitely he's going to will continue to increase his role and and uh that could be you know splitting him out it could be putting him anywhere and everywhere I mean he's definitely a really tough match up up for guys to handle Joy when did Joseph uh suffer his knee injury is that something that's a surgery then yeah he's out for the year surgery yep he's out for the year did he do that practice yep and what exactly did Tosh do to his arm and when what point I guess in the game did that happen I'm going to tell you guys we're putting out an injury report every single week I think we're more trans arent than anybody else in the country I'm not going to sit here and answer questions about an injury report that we're putting out it it defeats the purpose of putting it out if we come in here and we ask ask questions about the injury report so I apologize but I'm going to let Mike and Grant answer any of those questions we can add them into the press conference what you seriously bring into the press conference I probably not because we keep putting out a injury report I don't know what else to do because I'm tired of sitting in a press conference and talk about injuries every single week so we're putting them out we need to add more stuff to it then we will here's another question this is not for me this is something that someone asked me on Twitter was there a belief that uh ACU somehow had Texas TCH defenses signals I don't know you know uh I I think Rick after the might have told me um but you know you look at you've got six guys that played for us uh you've got he's not there anymore and I'm really proud of him coides the new defensive coordinator at Coffeeville but he was on that staff for the last two years I mean that's not why we played that bad guys that's not why we miscommunicated and gave up freaking uh pump and gos because we got terrible eye discipline we got guys looking in the back field when we're running out routes uh we've got a miscommunication we've got a a dead set to where the tight end is dead and they have communicated that he is dead and neither one of the re the two DBS do not take the over route to Nehemiah Martinez on a huge play I mean that that that has nothing to do if they had the signals or not that wasn't why they did that they had a really good they had a good game plan and we played like dog crap back coach could you talk about the matchup with Washington State and how your offense matches up with their defense and what's your kind of expectation is there man it's you know it's going to be it's like you're looking in the mirror a lot you know I mean we feel like with what Arbuckle is going to do is a lot what kitley does you know and then I know turning around um they're going to present a lot of four down they're they're mainly a four down team they close the middle of the field um you're going to get a mixture of cover three manfree um that the one thing that they've done really really well it's one of our best run plays so it's going to be interesting of you know who can uh do what can we run our Gap scheme our counter scheme uh they do a really good job of stopping the counter and so um that's going to be that's going to be a big key of the game um you know it's one of those deals of uh do you run more inside Zone and outside Zone uh but but I do think we're one of the best teams in the country running you know counter and so we're not going to go away from it even people that have played um you know that play it really well Iowa State defends it really well and we still had success on it so we'll continue that but it's it's going to be a good matchup man and it it helps uh without a doubt that clay knows that defense also knows that offensive line it helps um you know that Josh Kelly knows these DBS but you turn around I mean Ben knows Zack kitley really well I mean he's his mentor uh I don't know how much they'll talk this week but they talk constantly you know and so it's uh it's going to be it's going to be somewhat uh of two teams looking in the mirror and who can you know outplay each other and who can make more plays all right thank you appreciate it guys e I s hold a I'm sorry another p for could sorry having elevator issues coach talk to us about the changes that you intend to make especially with the the um changes with with no Joseph and the injuries that you are uh you have preparing for Washington State uh well you know we're going to play the play guys that are available to play um you know I I think we have some depth we have some young depth that made a lot of mistakes on Saturday we've got to do a better job coaching those guys up to make sure that they're detailed in their preparation uh so that we don't play like we did on Saturday night obviously it wasn't acceptable and we're planning this week to go out and fix it after looking at the film who are the players that did may may not have been seen U making the plays you know if you were spec specifically looking at them but did show up in in uh in film um you know I thought Amir Washington put some pressure on the quarterback had some good pass rushes wasn't consistent enough their quarterback got the ball out of his hands an average of 2.4 seconds uh when you do that uh doesn't give you a whole lot of opportunities to get to the quarterback but he but he got some uh uh situation where he pressured the quarterback by put you know putting that tight end if that was him or the T tackle back into the quarterback's face um you know I thought we started the ball game early uh doing some good things uh once we got on our heels a little bit I think some of our newer guys in particular got a little bit rattled um and we've got to do a better job as coaches to get them back in Justin and Jared coach I guess with your Corners I know that you guys have been really excited about the depth and I know coach talked about you know kind kind of be the same if Brin was playing but just was the lack of rotation it especially in the secondary just something that you expected or you know because I know previously you guys have kind of rotated them well I think a little bit you know losing brillan before the game um changed our our rotation thoughts um you know we've got guys that I think through Camp through last spring competed really really well against our receivers and I think we have a major upgrade in Our receiver room on offense uh it's different when there's 60,000 people at the Jones and we had a lot of guys who performed against our guys in practice that when they went to the Jones uh it was a little you know different for them uh we've got to get them through that we've got to you know continue to to play those guys to get confidence so that they don't worry about the environment the you know the adrenaline rush that they just go play to their capability and uh too many times we had you know bad vision and and those things happen to young players sometimes um they get outside of their training they start taking everything else in and they they you know fall back into bad habits like looking at the quarterback when I should be looking at my manto man coverage U those are correctable things we we feel obviously it hurt on Saturday uh we were blessed our offense uh did a great job and and we intend to correct it this week and with the offense that you're facing this week seems like they have some pretty Dynamic players on the perimeter and they get get the ball out really really quick as well on offense I guess what's the challenge of having a similar offense that you kind of face but with some more talented receivers this week uh you know it's it's it's college football every week you're going to have challenges and certainly uh they've got some very explosive receivers uh you know Williams and and Hudson in particular guys that uh last week I think they both went over a 100 yards um they've got a dynamic attack where they're going to spread you out vertically they're going to use Tempo uh they're going to try to get you to show your hand and then you know dial in the best plays against a particular coverage zone so uh it's it's things that we've been working on that that we get another week to to improve and see how we we uh do improving coach seem like ACU hit a number of wheel routes during the game what adjustments need like needed to be made and uh who's responsible for covering uh the running back in in that situation uh I mean there's multiple coverages that we ran so it's hard to say you know a couple of times we got picked uh when we were in man coverage on him and we've got to do a better job of recognizing the formation Co coaching our players up on that um and so that they can get over the top of those routes um when you're playing multiple guys some guys strengths are more uh in certain areas than others um and and sometimes they caught us in situations where we're in man uh that that we probably you know would have been better served being in zone coverages it seemed like there was a lot of miscommunication in the secondary is there a thought to simplify some things moving forward or not uh after a game like that you have to look at everything and so uh you know we thought going into the game or guys in practice and in scrimmages handled the multiplicity of what we did uh obviously they did it on Saturday so we're we're going to go and examine everything that we did to see are we doing the right things to give our players the best chance to play if that's simplifying things that's what we'll do I don't want to tip our hand but but we're obviously looking at everything coach you know you talked about last week the biggest Improvement is from week one to week two um and obviously after this last week there's a lot of room for improvement especially in the secondary but how does it change from what you saw last week to what you saw from the scrimmages and everything else you know we've heard lots of times that the off that the defense was dominating the scrimmages and then get to this what we saw last week and it did 1 plus one doesn't equal two from what you guys have kind of seen how does that change your approach for Washington State this week um again I think we got to get to the core uh route of of why our players didn't perform um I think a little bit it had to do as as I mentioned with the adrenaline rush that players get when they're they're out there in the Jones for the first time um if you ask our players immediately after you know what happened they'll tell you exactly you know I had bad eyes or you know I didn't make the right check and it's like why didn't you at that time well as coaches we've got we've got to make sure they're not doing that obviously that's our jobs and so it's it's a uh Team approach to we've got to coach better players got to take the coaching and and you know when they're in those environments be able to focus on what they need to focus on and you know we'll just keep repping them to where that's it's it's not something they have to ever think about that they just do things naturally and that's where we got to get our players to in a hurry we still feel we've got talented players we've just got to get them over that hump of the adrenaline rush and uh coach McGuire talked about how you're kind of looking in a mirror when you look at Washington State's offense uh we've heard a little bit about their receivers what else have you seen from their style of playing what you expect to see for Saturday well you know they're going to use Tempo uh they're going to do a lot of those types of Concepts that that are our offense does uh they're multiple in their personnel they'll probably lead with 10 Personnel one back you zero tight ends and four wides they do some 11 they'll do some 12 with one or two tight ends they'll go some no backs so you've got to have packages for everything to to match up um I think they're committed to run they ran for over a couple hundred yards last week uh they've got a couple of really physical backs uh if you give them a light box they're going to take advantage of you um I think much more so at least in the game that they showed on Saturday than they did in the past where you know they had light boxes and they were still throwing uh they're seeing light box and they're and they're you know taking advantage of the the Run game num so uh the other thing that you have with this year's quarterback uh other than number one that they had last year's he's a much better in my opinion designated run uh game for the quarterback where planned runs where the the quarterback a year ago did a great job of AD liing and putting stress on the defense this year's quarterback uh can do that but he you know he can take the off of runs you I mean he took one to the house the other day against Portland State coach uh how did take some of your more season veteran guys like jrod and Bryce respond to a game like Saturdays whereas you're seeing some of those younger guys maybe got a little bit scared by the lights kind of um you know I think those guys are always great leaders for our guys um you know they were encouraging on the sideline but but again sometimes you get spooked a little bit and especially if you don't have success those doubts start to creep in your mind uh they've got to get over those um you know I reminded our guys on Sunday I have no doubt that that we can be a great defense I I I don't doubt that that we have the potential to be the best defense since we've been here in the last three years but we've got to make a major jump we've got to play to our capability and as coaches we've got to draw that out of our players and I think that's been our message to the players I think you know our leadership guys like Bryce and and J Roder guys who who will Echo that anything else for Coach right all right guys thanks oh all right continue Sean coach what did you see in the film that gives you hope for what the offense can do this year yeah you know I mean I thought we were better you know early on at creating explosive plays you know yards after catch was uh way better than anything we had last year uh I think our skill players just in general are were better there you know and and Taj Brooks is still Taj Brooks and did a good job and um you know still have a lot of areas to improve but right there it was a good start for us as far as the you know making some plays downfield one our one-on-one matchups and some of those things as you started to work with the tight ends and getting them helping with the Run game how do you feel that they did uh you know for this game yeah they did a good job I mean you know we were able to mix them in in some different scenarios uh you know I think Mason had a catch uh JC had a catch then you know Conor had five I believe plus the the two-point catch there so just you know mixing those guys in you know where where we feel like we have some some advantages you know we kept kind of SL slipping those guys out to the flats we we caught that you know kind of halfway through the game uh something that we thought we could take advantage of and we did that four or five times there so uh you know just making those in-game adjustments and then of course you know we're always going to use those guys in the Run game as well coach kind of on that vein I was really impressed with what Conor was able to do with the ball in his hand and that kind of spread triple world that you guys got into I guess how much of a weapon is he with the ball in his hand like that yeah you know we kind of talked about it you know so far with him you know he's he's a special athlete does a lot of good things and uh you know I was excited for him man he uh he was excited I mean I can't tell you how many times he walked up to me before the game started just said man how awesome is this look at this place man this is something I dreamed of my whole life type deal and uh so that was fun you know just fun even just having that conversation with him and then for him to come out and have that kind of game uh out of the gate was was really good so excited to continue to to build off of that with him and seeing what else new for us this year overall it seemed like the offensive line had a really good day in pass protection I guess how what was your assessment that was my assessment yeah we did a good job in pass Pro uh you know we got to we got a strain a little bit longer at times to finish some blocks um uh you know in our in the Run game I thought we miss targeted a couple times uh and you know there's there are some times where Tosh Brooks is able to to make something out of nothing a little bit which that's Taj Brooks that's who he is so uh you know love having that by him but again man you're talking about some guys that really haven't got got to jail jail quite yet together and um I think we'll just keep improving you know I think coach klay's doing a really good job with those guys so I'm hoping as the year goes on they start to gel more and and the chemistry starts to go and um I think we'll get better there you know I mean Sheridan Wilson you know told said at the end of the game man I was nervous you know I haven't played really hadn't played like a whole lot of football in three years you know and so uh that was good you know I think just some of those S situations we had a lot of guys out there that were playing for the first time and uh I think we'll get better as we go I haven't personally got the Washington State Defense yet but what are you expecting from them this weekend yeah I mean I got a lot of respect for for coach dickert and and and those guys over there you know he's a defensive head coach uh aggressive um physical uh play really tough you know kind of what we try to preach here you know just being uh you know flying to the ball and and toughness and physicality uh but you know they're they're a four down structure uh you know not 100% but but pretty close uh they'll play a little bit of open uh you know Middlefield open and stuff some too high but majority they're they're cover one team cover three team they like to add that hat to the box and try to take away the Run game so you know when you're uh going into it you know schematically there's not just a whole lot of runs you love uh so you got to try to scheme up some stuff to to get them to move some gaps and some things like that but they do a really good job coach really well I mean they fly around the field I mean they were making all kinds of plays you know had 102 yard pick six in the game um we're causing a lot of Havoc for for Portland State there so um again he he's well respected as a defensive coach and and everything I've seen from him he does a really good job jar on the right fa coach can you take us through the Flea Flicker call and just what you saw and all that yeah you know uh just liked it against that three High structure that they were playing a little bit and and you know we called it's one of those deals where you caught and you got The Perfect Defense type deal and uh it just felt like it was kind of that moment in the game where we needed to you know we had kind of gotten a little bit of a lull offensively a little bit and and we were in kind of the the the spot of the field SL the hash that we liked it on and so we we went for it and uh worked out well had a bunch of had all three guys on that play wide open so he he threw the he threw the Deep one which is the best one to get in the end zone so last week we talked about being adaptable and just all the things you know you went through with all the quarterback injuries last year and now Taj is at least listed as questionable on the injury report how without giving everything away how does this offense change without Taj Brooks yeah I mean well first off you know I mean you can't ever replace Aaj Brooks uh but with you know if for some reason he's unable to play you know we got full faith in in both cams and and jacobe you know the young freshman as well has done some really good stuff but uh we we'll kind of see how that goes I mean it's kind of funny you know ACU came out uh early against us and and didn't play as much three high as we expected early and we adapted uh in game and then we kind of started doing some of our stuff well early and they kind of reverted back to what they were doing defensively so we were able to get back into some of our stuff so at the end of the day you're going to kind of have your adjustments as the game goes and so uh you know we're planning to to have 28 out there Saturday and and if we don't have him then we'll adjust from there but again man I think y all saw the skill players that we have at the receiver and tight end position and so um we feel good with those guys if we got to adjust in that manner by uh all accounts Baron had a great game but as his OC and quarterback coach what was your assessment yeah he did you know I mean as you know we can always pick through the the fine details and you know there was prob three plays that that uh that him and I discussed that he's he was even frustrated with as well that you know we we there's there's one where he end he didn't get all the way through its progression and get to a backside curl to to K Aken who was wide open on a on a on a important third down for us and there's another one there in the Red Zone where he really missed his first read to Jordan Brown and then kind of got uh discombobulated in the pocket there and again he missed Jaylen Conor's wide open on the other side on the a similar type concept uh and then early in the game he got a little bit greedy and and should have handed a ball off the Taj and he pulled it and that's whenever he had to go run and he shouldn't have had to go run uh so those three plays right there were were three off top of my head that you know we're frustrating for both of us but you know the biggest thing is you know quarterback hitwise he took three hits uh which isn't too bad you know when when you look at a game like that uh no turnovers got out of the pocket a few times and threw the ball away um so ultimately you know I'm proud of him and the thing that I love the most man is is being around him out there on the sideline and watching his leadership ability uh that was impressive to see you know I mean he was trying to encourage the defense you know the whole game and and keep our guys going and um you know I called the offense up early you know after we we got up two touchdowns early and I said hey guys this two years ago against Wyoming this exact same thing happened right here and we let him come back we took the foot off the gas pedal and and uh again we we we caught some lows there at a couple times but ultimately I thought we fought through it we did a good job so proud of him and his performance and you know he's he's got to keep climbing and he knows that and and I again I expect him to keep getting better coach I uh talked to Ben and Lauren over this summer in Canyon and um you know they were just so excited to play Texas Tech and especially for Ben just because he looks up to you so much so what's it going to be like to play against someone who uh you know is you're his mentor in a way yeah I mean it's it's it's fun you know uh again you know Lauren uh Ben and Lauren are two of my you know best friends with my wife em and uh you know my my middle boy they're the god parents of my middle son uh so you know a best friend of mine you know there his offensive line coach Jared Caster who we all know very well here a dear friend of mine you know who's my offensive line coach at Houston Baptist for me um they got two young coaches over there as well that were uh you know Colt Garrett who played quarterback here who I think's a young rising star in this profession and then a young another young oine GA for them up there named Carter web who worked with me at Western Kentucky uh so there's a lot of ties there um but you know the the fun part for me is you know with Ben man I mean he we're best friends he calls we we talk on the phone multiple times a week haven't talked to him this week which that'll probably be the the case but um yeah it's fun you know and I think for him too growing up a West Texas kid and and you know being right up the road you know just Texas Tech was always something for them too they came down to games and stuff so I'm sure it's exciting for him and uh excited for us to come up to Pullman coach obviously I know you're more of a cliff guy but that comes from Mike Leech how this happens a lot now but given the fact they're going to honor Mike and everything like that what's it mean to have two offenses that are basically grown from him competing on satday yeah I mean I just think that It ultimately goes back to show you really what coach leech did for the game of football I mean when you go look at you know a lot of the top offenses in the country right now I mean if you guys that watched the the USC game last night I mean what Coach Riley was doing over there at USC I mean that stems for Mike Leech and you got Eric Morris over at North Texas threw up 52 points the other week and you know it it continues to grow and it's it's fun to see how it's evolved uh you know because um I like to say we're more we're more multiple offense with some air raid principles but um I mean again I think the biggest thing is just um it's really cool you know they're honoring him and and putting him in the Hall of Fame when the Red Raiders are coming to town and um you know unfortunately he's not with us anymore but really cool just to see like I said I mean it's it'll be fun to to go out there and you know we'll see how many uh passing yards can be put up in this football game any further questions all right Z did you H been aru Arbuckle once or more than once because he went from HBU to simol to Western Kentucky yeah so we had a uh we had a volunteer uh Quality Control job at Houston Baptist and we had probably 30 resumés sent in and so I'm just kind of funneling through these resumés again this is an unpaid job so I'm funneling through the resumes just looking I don't know anybody at the top right corner on his resume I just see an 806 phone number so I was like you know messing around with Coach caster and and Coach scen who is running backs coach fell teams coordinator I said well this guy's probably the one man he's a West Texas guy and as thing I started looking at I see Canadian high school and I'm like all right well my you know my cousin coached that Canadian so I called my cousin before I even called Ben and said hey what's up with this Ben Arbuckle guy and he's like you're going to love him he said he's super sharp works hard great family etc etc so I called Ben and uh kind of trying to do the interview process he's like no coach I'll I'll quit my job right now and I'll be there tomorrow and I was like no man like you know put two put your two weeks notice in type deal and his bosson was cool with him and I mean he quit and he was at Houston Baptist with me the next day so uh that's kind of how that happened and then you know Co hit and again he was in an unpaid role for us uh for about a year and a half there and so Co hit and he you know it was time for him to go to go get a job and I want to say it was old superintendent maybe at Canadian High School took over at seol maybe and and hired him uh to come be the OC at simol and uh you know he enjoyed that for one year um and then I you know fortunately for me I got hired at Western Kentucky and kind of part of my deal was you don't get to bring any of your current staff but you can bring one quality control and so he was my first phone call and he accepted the job immediately and we flew up there together so yeah I was able to hire him twice um again just a a really really good young Coach man great human being can't speak highly enough of him okay all right thank you than yeah thank you