Building Champions
 Texas A&M Football Weekly Press Conference

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Nov. 16, 2009

COLLEGE STATION, Texas--Head Coach Mike Sherman and players of the team meet with members of the press to talk about the upcoming game against Baylor.

A full transcript of Coach Sherman's press conference, along with selected quotes from players, will be available soon. Audio clips are available in MP3 format to the right.

HEAD COACH Mike Sherman TRANSCRIPT

Last week you were talking about third downs, and over the last six quarters your offense has scored two touchdowns. What are you seeing when you look at the tape?

"Going into Colorado game, they have very good secondary, but I do think there were a number of opportunities that we had in that game to convert third down calls. In this last ball game (Oklahoma) did a good job of defending us, plus the fact of the pressure (that was) generated. It wasn't all the linemen's fault. It was guys not getting open...they covered us pretty well on third down. When they cover you there's no place to go with the ball, and then protection starts to break down. So it was a combination of things."

Are you going to have auditions this week for punt returner?

"Well, the errors that we've had the last couple of weeks, which have certainly been monstrous in how they've played out in the ball game, we've got to make sure that those are solved. We definitely will put extra emphasis, more than we already have--which we have--but extra emphasis on that part of the game. That is very important."

Do you have any other candidates?

"Last week we practiced with Kenric McNeal, who has not done it in high school, but looked pretty proficient at it. So we'll give him an opportunity to practice there. I look at punt returning as one of the toughest jobs in football. You have to want to do it. And you have to be somewhat crazy to want to do it. And you have to be very courageous, make great decisions. I think a fumbled punt, other than an interception returned for a touchdown--or any turnover returned for a touchdown--is probably one of more deciding factors in football games, because field position changes so dramatically."

Is Ryan Swope a candidate?

"We see him more as a kickoff return guy, but he has practiced some at punt returner. It's somewhat difficult, unless someone's done a lot of it, to put him in there as a true freshman. But certainly we have to solve that dilemma. Hopefully we'll solve that dilemma early in the week so we don't go up to game time on that."

Is Bradley Stephens in a position to see more playing time?

"I wanted to play Bradley. I thought he deserved a look based upon what was happening with our turnover situation. That's been a nemesis of Bradley's as well, but fortunately he hung on to the football. I thought he did a nice job. The first run he had, they kind of grabbed him high up on the shoulder pad and jerked him back, he almost broke through on that one. He had a nice screen pass for good yardage and a first down. There's a chance if he continues to grow and produce, then yeah. He practices well every week. He deserves an opportunity to play more."

You started Christine Michael the other night, was that just based on practice during the week?

"We pretty much based it on practice, and how we viewed practice. We consider both he and Cyrus (Gray) as starters. Cyrus returns kickoffs as well, and not knowing how the game is going to evolve when we make the decision on who starts...we know Cyrus is going to be out there on a kickoff, so that plays into it as well."

With the trouble Cyrus had on kicks the other night, do you consider that a one-time blip or how do you look at that?

"I look at it very seriously. It's something that changes the outcome of a football game. Along the same lines, kickoff returns for touchdowns do as well. He's been a good returner, a steady guy back there. We'll just continue to work with him and hopefully get this problem solved."

What's the injury status of Lee Grimes?

"He sprained his MCL and won't be practicing today or tomorrow probably, but we'll see how he is later in week."

What is Baylor doing offensively without Robert Griffin?

"Obviously there's no one like Robert that can run football (like he does) I think in college football. They don't run the quarterback quite as much. They'll spread you out in some empty and they'll probably do a little more of that. They're throwing the ball very well. The quarterback (Nick Florence) has really matured and grown up in system, and is getting the ball out quick."

If Lee Grimes is not ready to go, what would you do there (at right tackle)?

"We're going to see how practice plays out this week. Danny Baker would have a shot there. We'll take a look at him and see what happens."

Any other injuries?

"No, nothing significant."

Is Stephen Barrera still an option at tackle?

"Well, he's been playing left tackle, and to move him over to right can be somewhat of a challenge for some guys. But yes, he is an option. We did have him at right, and we moved him to left, so to move him back to right, if we felt like that was a necessity, we definitely would indeed do that."

Your team came back from the Kansas State game, a bad loss, and played really well the next week (win over Texas Tech). What do you draw on this week and what do you want your guys to draw on from that experience?

"Certainly our backs were against the wall coming back from the K-State game, as it pretty much is right now. I want them to draw on their character, as men and as football players, and do the necessary things that would put us in position to play a great game here on Kyle Field. So we'll talk about that today. It seems to me this season has been a little bit of a management of their personalities during the course of the game, when things seem to have gone wrong. A great example is this game I think. As the game transpired I thought about Arkansas. The second quarter we had against Arkansas was much like the second quarter we had here, and a combination of K-State in the sense that we fumbled early in the game and gave them an easy touchdown--as we did an even easier touchdown against the Sooners. The maturity level and being able to handle those negatives is something that we are constantly trying to manage in the context of the game. We spend a lot of time talking about it, but as a coach I didn't do a very good job of managing it during the game, keeping them focused. We went in at halftime, and I was pretty upset with how we played. It's hard to be very encouraging in that situation for the short time you have them. I probably could have handled myself a little better there to try to get them back on track. But I was very upset with where we were in the ballgame. And I expressed that. I think trying to get this team to believe in themselves, even when things aren't going as planned, has been a big challenge. We talked about these situations in the spring, and being in these types of games when things don't go well, and trying to keep them engaged. All of a sudden things are happening fast and things aren't going as we planned them to go. It's our reaction to that that really causes you to either put your finger in the dike and solidify it, or just let the floodwaters come. That's kind of what's happened to us a couple of times. We couldn't dig ourselves out of that hole. That's something I think a mature team would be able to do and something that we have to be able to do. And we haven't done a great job of that."

Is there any way besides winning a lot of games over a period of time to get over that kind of fragile mentality?

"Yeah. We talk about the psychology of the game. There's different zones you're in as an athlete. The green zone, you believe in everything. The red zone, the ghosts are in your head. And there's a yellow zone, somewhere in the middle. These are things you talk about, you preach about, trying to stay focused. Coach (Dave) Kennedy goes around to guys during the course of the game and lets me know who's engaged and who's not engaged. Who's drifting on us. It's something that we're very aware of, particularly with our youth. Three years from now, this team won't have that issue. But with a younger group of guys...you go play in Norman, Oklahoma in front of that crowd, and that crowd gets pretty excited when something happens for the Sooners. I don't think we necessarily handled it real well. At Texas Tech, they were a totally different group. At Texas Tech, we had turnover early, almost exactly the same scenario, but we handled it a little bit better. Maybe because of the circumstances that we were able to drive the ball down the field...Oklahoma's defense is about as good as there is, so maybe that played a part in it. Coming out of the first quarter, it was 14-10, and they had touchdown off a fumble recovery. I felt confident, we were moving the ball, and I felt good about our team and where we were. We were very much engaged in the game. We had great field position--OU had a short punt--then we went three-and-out. Then we have the muff, and then they take the muff and drive for the touchdown. We have a sack that turns into a personal foul, and now they go up 21-10. Then we go three-and-out again, and we had two personal fouls. That's somewhat uncharacteristic of us, to have personal fouls like that, whether they were accidental (or not). I think there was nothing intentional--there was one time where Von (Miller) and the offensive linemen were pushing each other and his hand was up in his face. I think that could have been avoided. Then with a combination of a couple of personal fouls, it's 28-10 and things just started to snowball."

With two games left, what are you most pleased with and what are you most disappointed in?

"To answer the last first, it's what we just talked about. I'm disappointed that we don't handle the adversity...I think we have handled the adversity of season fairly well, when it's hit us and we are able to talk our way through it and practice our way through it. This is a good practice team. They practice pretty well. But the adversity in the context of the game we didn't always handle well. Now whether we would have beaten Oklahoma or not is irrelevant. To have that type of score is relevant. That would be the most frustrating thing to me, how we handle things in the context of the game.

"The most pleasing thing is that these guys will come back today and we'll talk about this again. We watched the tape this morning. We have a team meeting at 3:15, and they'll basically do what I ask them to do. They get it. Sometimes with a group of kids, they don't get it. This group gets it. They are accountable. I'll say, `Okay, who could have played better? Raise your hand. Who could have coached better? Raise your hand.' So they're honest and accountable. They don't make excuses. I'm proud of them for that. You can't go anywhere unless you say, `Hey, listen. We screwed this up. This wasn't our best effort. We can do this better. I can do this better.' And so forth and so on. I think that's the most pleasing part, the character of the team and how they handle things from week to week. We can be better on game day, but from week to week I think they've done a good job getting themselves ready."

When you looked at the tape what's your take on Eddie Brown's hit on the quarterback?

"I thought it was too late. I thought he could have pulled off of it. It was a definite shove, and a legitimate penalty. And Von's was a legitimate penalty, too. What happened with the hands to the face, they kind of slid up there, and they will call that. I think there was a little shove by both of them at the end of the thing. Both of them were legitimate penalties."

How challenging has this group been for you in terms of knowing what buttons to push? You mentioned you weren't pleased with your halftime reaction. Has that been challenging for you?

"Well, I say that, but I don't know what else I would have said. I'm not going to go in there and pass out candy bars (laughter). Or sno-cones. It's been challenging, but as long as I'm dealing with good kids that get it, I can come back the next day and say, `Okay, we'll be better. We'll get better.' And they're good kids. They work hard. If I thought we had character issues, or I thought we had guys pointing fingers and blaming others and not being accountable, then yeah. It would be a lot more challenging. But we're in a position this far into the program where guys are accountable and they'll look you in the eye and tell you, `I can do better.' From that standpoint, I look forward to coming to work and getting things fixed."

When you say they are accountable, last year you met with us after the season and told us in your player meetings you were surprised with how many players had a higher opinion of their performance than you did. Are you saying that you don't see maybe having that kind of a problem this year when the season's over?

"I think players will always, at every level...everybody has that defense mechanism that they think they are little better than they are. Now, they know that I'm going to deal with them pretty straight up--(maybe) they're trying to say things that they know they maybe have to say to me. But in talking to guys about how they perform this year, they've been very honest and very critical when they haven't performed to the level they need to perform. That wasn't always the case last year. Heck, I had the guys grade themselves this morning, and I haven't gotten through all the grades yet. But last year we played Iowa State--we won the game, but they must have had 600 yards of offense against us. There was one guy on defense who said he didn't play well enough. That was a little discerning to me. `Wait a minute now, 600 yards of offense against our defense and everybody played well except one guy?' That wouldn't happen this year. They get it. Last year they didn't quite get it."

Can you comment on what you guys hope to be able to do to keep Baylor's quarterback rattled? He seems to play really well when he's on and struggle when he's rattled...

"I don't know that part of his psyche to be honest with you. I haven't studied that part of it. I've looked at a couple of the games and he looks pretty good to me. He's really grown into that position. It's a credit to Baylor, to lose a great player like Robert (Griffin) and put someone in there, and he's doing a nice job. He's done a real good job."

When you look at your defense, are you seeing progress?

"You know, it's funny. There were times in that game, watching it and then watching the tape, where we're wrapping guys up, we're more physical, we're reacting quicker. We'll have two good plays and then we'll give up a big play. Two good plays, then give up a big play. So do I see at times us playing great defense? Yeah, there's times I do see that. There's also times I see us not. The consistency is more what is lacking. There are times I see great improvement. We're tackling with more passion. We're trying to bring a demeanor when we go tackle for the most part. But then we missed tackles on that screen for a touchdown. Numerous ones, right there at the beginning of the second half. That's very frustrating when you see something real positive which I have, in that game. In most of our games, you'll go through and you'll say, `Boy, that's good stuff. What a great tackle. Boy, that's a good read. Great interception. Good job knocking the ball down. Good pass rush.' But then you could also see the counter side of that, where it's not so good. The consistency is what we're lacking. I do see signs of us playing good defense at times. We need to continue to be consistent. To go to Tech and hold Tech to the points we did, I think we did a heck of a job. Back home against Iowa State, I thought we did a heck of a job. Colorado, I thought we could have kept them under what they had. They played well, we allowed them to hang around a little bit offensively. I think we could have played a lot better on offense. But we didn't. So we lost that ballgame."

Normally this would have been a weekend off for both you and Texas. Given what happened last week, is this kind of a blessing in disguise to get back on the field so quickly?

"You know, I don't mean to avoid the question. I'm just kind of one of those pragmatic guys where I don't think about would I rather have it other way. This is what we got. The fact that we need to get back on the field and play another game pretty quickly to flush this out and hopefully play well, it's probably just as well to get back out there and on the horse again."

Do you talk with your players about if you beat Baylor then you're bowl eligible and probably going to a bowl game?

"They all know that. I usually don't make a big deal about the obvious. I usually talk about the not so obvious. They all know that, and they talk about it. I think they know how important these games are. I usually don't make a big deal about the things they know. They usually talk about that stuff amongst themselves in the locker room."

You focus on things one game at a time but do you have to look ahead at all to Texas because you don't have as long to get ready with the game being next Thursday night?

"We laid the schedule out well in advance before the season starts in knowledge that we had this type of game coming up. It's not whole a lot different from when I was in Green Bay and we'd play Thanksgiving against Detroit, except it was a shorter week that week. That was always a difficult week particularly if you were traveling. So the schedule has been laid out ahead of time so we still can just focus on this game right here, which is what we need to do."

Do you remember where you were and what your reaction was at the time of the Bonfire collapse, having been to it seven or eight years when you were an assistant coach here?

"I remember hearing it on the radio. I was driving in car, and I'm not sure where I was at the time, but I remember hearing it on the radio and pulling over on the side of the road and trying to assimilate all the information. It shook me, kind of like when 9/11 happened, a similar type of thing (for me). Obviously there were a lot less families involved in this, but certainly enough families, enough people to warrant you to stop and take a deep breath and pause and reflect a little bit."

Is it something the current students have kind of missed out on since it hasn't been around in 10 years?

"Certainly it was a great tradition at A&M. I can see both sides of the spectrum in relationship for and against it. I can certainly understand both sides and am sympathetic to both sides. When we had it, like a lot of things at AM, it was very unique."

Baylor comes in here with two games left, needing to win two. They're coming off a similar type game that you are. Certainly you expect them to come in with their chin straps buttoned up pretty tight...

"I would believe so. They'll come in here, particularly based off of last year's game, feeling they have a legitimate chance to win this football game. It's important for us to take control of the game and do all we can to dissuade them from wanting to win this game. But I think they have plans of their own."

ADDITIONAL QUOTES

ASST HEAD COACH/DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR Joe Kines

On Baylor... "This week we face an offense from Baylor that's a combination of three or four things that we've seen throughout the year. Baylor does a great job with their formations. They'll empty the backfield on you probably more than most teams will. They do a good job of throwing screens and get the ball to their wideouts exceptionally well. They are a good offensive football team. The most important thing is we go to practice every day this week and get better. I think our challenge this week is not to worry about who we're facing but to worry about how we're doing."

On Baylor only passing...  "They actually do run the ball fairly well, especially on early downs. They do a nice job with the counter. Last year we had a hard time getting the counter under control until after the half. Any time you play football if you jump right to the pass you're in a mess. We have to stop the run first then work our way to the pass."

SENIOR DB Jordan Pugh

On the loss...  "It was a tough loss. It's hard losing period, no matter what the score is. I think as a team we're fine. We just have to fix it. We're in the same situation as after the Kansas State game. We looked at it, and we moved on. There's nothing you can do to change the past, and we have to look forward to these next two games. "

On Baylor's offense...  "I know they want to throw it. Right now they've had some success throwing the ball. They're coming off a tough game against Texas, but I know they want to spread the ball around and get it to their athletes."

JUNIOR QB JERROD JOHNSON

On Baylor's defense last year...  "I remember they schemed us pretty well. They always tried to disguise what they were doing by moving around right before the ball snapped."

Is there a sense of urgency to become bowl eligible?  "We feel a sense of urgency just by the fact that the season is ending. We have two more `for sure' games left and we want to win those games. I came in with a lot of guys who are seniors now. We only have a couple more games left with each other so you want to make that experience the best you can. Of course bowl eligibility is on our minds, but at the same time we just want to when every game we play, and everything that comes with that is icing on the cake."

How's the morale of the team?  "The thing about us is the games we've lost haven't been because we were overmatched. Not to take anything away from those that beat us but it's been more because of what we've done. It's frustrating at times, but we're right there. Our morale is fine. We just have to execute better."

SENIOR OL MICHAEL SHUMARD

On the Oklahoma loss... "I thought we were still in it most of the way through the first half. In college football anything can happen. They could muff a punt just as easily as we could. They could have a fumble, or our defense could take one to the house. You never know how fast a game can turn around. I never thought of us as out of it. Later in the game they made a lot of adjustments. There were a few times their linebackers had a feeling of what was going on. When we got behind we had to abandon the run game even though we were moving the ball when we were running it. We were getting great movement on their defensive line. When we abandon the run, that let them dial up `meet you at the quarterback' blitzes."

SOPHOMORE DB TRENT HUNTER

On moving on...  "We just have to come out Monday ready for the next game. We can't dwell on the past. We can't do anything about it now. We have to come out and have a better week this week."

What is Baylor doing different offensively without Griffin?  "More of the zone reads are going to the running back. They are throwing a lot more short routes. They aren't throwing the deep balls quite like they did last year. They might throw some fade, because they have so much speed at wideout. But for the most part, they aren't running the quarterback as much now."

On problems against Oklahoma...  "The biggest problem with the defense right now is consistency. We'll go four plays making great plays. Everybody is getting to the ball; everybody is doing their job. Then one play, we'll have a busted assignment, one little thing, and it spits up the field for 10 yards or a touchdown. It's not that we're consistently bad, we're just not consistently good. We're on and off, here and there, you can't do that as a defense. We have to be able to put plays back to back, and be consistent."
 

 

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