On playing in Austin
It is always a good time to get back to your home state. You have family members there and a lot of players who are from Texas. It is easier for their family members to get to some of those locales. It is always a good deal for my family. My mother is a little bit older so her being able to get to games in Texas makes it a little easier. She is excited to get to see us play this year.
On what it will take to have success against Texas
It really hasn’t changed for us. The focus has to be on us and that means controlling the controlables and that is being the smartest team in our conference. Being a team to not commit penalties by not giving our opponents anything. We have to do a good job of being smart. We have to take care of the ball and value possessions. Texas has done a good job of that and we have to do a better job. We have turned the ball over at least two times a game in the last four.
We have to really do a good job on special teams. They have a terrific returner in Daje Johnson and we have a huge challenge in front of us with him.
On what it is has been like with a young team:
The biggest thing I have been proud of is the resiliency of our team. If you come out to a practice the thing I am encouraged by is you would not realize our situation. Our guys have an unbelievable energy when they go out there and focus on trying to get better each week. Obviously there are a lot of young guys playing. We started seven true freshmen on Saturday. There are some bright things in the future. We had two starting tackles that were true freshman that played against some really good football players. That’s something we can give them that is valuable, valuable experience. That will only help them moving forward.
Rough numbers of players on scholarship:
It is going to take us probably three-plus years to get back to a full 85. Very few teams are ever completely at 85 which is how you are able to award scholarships to walk-ons. But getting close is something you strive to be at because of attrition or players getting hurt.
For us it is going to take us a little while. When we got here there were 40 true players that were brought here on scholarship. Some of the others had been awarded scholarships because they were here and they were lying around or they earned them. We signed an extra 27 as we move forward in this next class as well.
We have more that are on scholarship but 67 of these true players were literally recruited as scholarship players. We have a little ways to go and it will be and numbers game in terms of how you catch up. We have another big class next year which will make it a little bit harder for us. But the year after that we will finally be able to sign an excess of players over what we have graduating that will allow us to catch up a little bit. Up
It is always a good time to get back to your home state. You have family members there and a lot of players who are from Texas. It is easier for their family members to get to some of those locales. It is always a good deal for my family. My mother is a little bit older so her being able to get to games in Texas makes it a little easier. She is excited to get to see us play this year.
On what it will take to have success against Texas
It really hasn’t changed for us. The focus has to be on us and that means controlling the controlables and that is being the smartest team in our conference. Being a team to not commit penalties by not giving our opponents anything. We have to do a good job of being smart. We have to take care of the ball and value possessions. Texas has done a good job of that and we have to do a better job. We have turned the ball over at least two times a game in the last four.
We have to really do a good job on special teams. They have a terrific returner in Daje Johnson and we have a huge challenge in front of us with him.
On what it is has been like with a young team:
The biggest thing I have been proud of is the resiliency of our team. If you come out to a practice the thing I am encouraged by is you would not realize our situation. Our guys have an unbelievable energy when they go out there and focus on trying to get better each week. Obviously there are a lot of young guys playing. We started seven true freshmen on Saturday. There are some bright things in the future. We had two starting tackles that were true freshman that played against some really good football players. That’s something we can give them that is valuable, valuable experience. That will only help them moving forward.
Rough numbers of players on scholarship:
It is going to take us probably three-plus years to get back to a full 85. Very few teams are ever completely at 85 which is how you are able to award scholarships to walk-ons. But getting close is something you strive to be at because of attrition or players getting hurt.
For us it is going to take us a little while. When we got here there were 40 true players that were brought here on scholarship. Some of the others had been awarded scholarships because they were here and they were lying around or they earned them. We signed an extra 27 as we move forward in this next class as well.
We have more that are on scholarship but 67 of these true players were literally recruited as scholarship players. We have a little ways to go and it will be and numbers game in terms of how you catch up. We have another big class next year which will make it a little bit harder for us. But the year after that we will finally be able to sign an excess of players over what we have graduating that will allow us to catch up a little bit. Up
