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UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 13, 2014Bret BielemaARKANSAS – 49 COACH BIELEMA: Shining example, you take that first quarter when the punt ricochets off one of our guys; you practice it, you talk about it. But it's loud; kid doesn't hear it, the ball bounces perfectly, they score. Our offense responds. And then right there before the end of the half we try to run a reverse with Keon, obviously misfires, ball is on the ground and our defense gets an interception. We just constantly picked each other up all over the place. And to be a part of that, that's created on game day, but it's cultivated during the year. It's the type of kids you recruit; it's the type of players you believe in. I'm not trying to be overly simplistic, but I think that's really true. Give a lot of credit to Texas Tech. They are a very, very good football team. Executed very well. When they had their rhythm going, they were tough to stop. But overall I thought our guys played a four‑quarter game, very excited. I thought for the old school Razorback fans, to come over here and play Texas Tech, I think it's just kind of awesome to have those kind of fans from that era and that nostalgia, to get that win today was pretty cool. Q. Is it fair to say this may be a turning point in kind of what you want to do? COACH BIELEMA: I think when I got that question earlier in the week‑‑ I'm just playing Texas Tech. I appreciate what you're saying. I think as a head coach, you look back after the season, you kind of see things, and you're like‑‑ I know like at my last job there was a game where we beat Miami in a Bowl game and everybody after me said that, hey, that's going to build something. And sure enough, the next three years we won championship. Now I'm not sayingthat. But I never thought about that going into that week. I think it's easy to sit on the outside world and look at, but it's definitely a big step. Q. Did you ever think you could run the ball like that? COACH BIELEMA: Absolutely, I really do think we can run the ball. I think we can throw the football. We just didn't have to do. I thought in the first half, J‑Will's catch, Keon's catch, they were dictating what we could run by how they were aligning; and obviously the throwing game. And then B.A., who knew we had an athletic quarterback that could scramble in on a broken play there on that third down. So a lot of really good things happened. Q. Can you talk about that third quarter and especially coming out of half‑time, scoring, and eating up 12:45 off the clock? COACH BIELEMA: I think we talked about it all week long‑‑ I actually backed off our guys on Wednesday. We went half‑pad when we are normally in full pads, just because I saw Tuesday they were ready to be physical. I didn't need to train them any more. A lot of credit today goes to Ben Herbert and the way we train our guys 24/7, 365 days a year. I'm pretty sure we were going to come out and score. Just the mentality those guys were coming out with; but to battle back and respond back after they matched the score was really, really big. Q. What do you think of the defense? COACH BIELEMA: Obviously I know the quarterback makes them go. Cliff, obviously, with his history, and he's instilled that same mentality. You have a sophomore who is a captain and all that. So we wanted to be able to take care of him mentally and physically and be able to give certain looks. So I thought our guys improved so much from the Auburn game; just getting lined up quicker, getting an understanding of where they need to be before the ball was snapped. Q. How important was the sequence where the toss on the reverse‑‑ you got the ball back, you scored and then you got it in the third quarter. Getting touchdowns at the end of both of those. COACH BIELEMA: That kind of lived them up ‑‑ I appreciate ‑‑ so you're saying on the flip, that kind of went over the guy's head. Martrell Spaight with a big pick there. Going to give him some heat. He should have got in the end zone on that one I think, but he was a little gassed, but then our guys responded, got it in. And then I think the third quarter, when we got that stop after the second time we went up by two, that was a big part. And then you know, I'm not‑‑ called for that one fourth down, I knew I was going to do it, and they went out and executed it. If we don't get that one, it's a different ballgame. Again, I'm going to call fourth down with the idea of having success. I told Jim on third down, you have got two downs here because I believe in what we are doing up front and I think they can get it. Q. Inaudible. COACH BIELEMA: Well, again, a good job by our offensive coach's design. There was a little lead draw that we had a lot of success on. We had some tosses around the edge and Ed did a nice job. I thought a counter-play we did in the red zone, I think J‑Will's first touchdown. I thought Jim just had a good fix on what they were going and kids really did a nice job. B.A. his presence out there in the huddle is just off the charts, and our kids' trust and faith in him is big time. Q. You talked about different looks you were trying to give Davis Webb. Can you talk a little more about that and what you were trying to do and how it worked or didn't work from time to time? COACH BIELEMA: Well, we do some things defensively‑‑ I think they are offense is a lot predicated on athletic check from the sidelines and why an up‑tempo team runs it; so we try to do different things that could do that. But I thought also at times, Rob and I both learned from a great defensive coordinator who is no longer with us, Norm Parker, and we kind of talk about, we are just going to "Norm" them, which means we are just going to kind of play what we do and we are going to play it well and we are going to line up and play physically and mentally tougher than our opponent, not get real fancy, just out‑execute. Q. Talk about coming in here, the power five conference and carryingthe banner for the SEC? COACH BIELEMA: I did say to our guys on Tuesday when we did a little bit of our preview of Texas Tech. I said, hey, we are not only going over there, we are representing Arkansas past, playing Texas Tech; but we are playing a conference that rivals us in many ways, the Big12. And obviously a lot's been said about it. Believe me I know we are not part of any National Championship or SEC Championship but that's what our goal is. It was a big thing today to kind of carry that SEC banner for sure. Q. You had some lineup changes, Toliver, talk about some of the changes? COACH BIELEMA: Not that Luke Charpentier wasn't doing anything great. Luke is playing great. I just thought Sebastian really played well and practiced well, and I think he gave us inside. We really wanted to mosh them inside and he's obviously a big body. I think average o‑lineman, whatever‑‑ I know we were really big, but he gave us another 30 pounds that we added to everybody. So we got gigantically bigger I guess. Henre' Toliver playing at nickel, I thought Tevin Mitchell gave us a nice change up playing him at the nickel position‑‑ I'm sorry what was the other one? Q. You started Cameron Jefferson. COACH BIELEMA: Cam started in our heavy package. We tried to fool everybody, we put him in 89, I'm sure nobody noticed; he switched from 79 to 89. We did it last week. We call that our heavy 12. Cam Jefferson, here is where we are in a nutshell. We have a guy that transfers in from UNLV and everybody is holding their breath, but he's been unbelievable. And what he brought to this team, his character, his demeanor, his attitude, we are trying to find a way to get him involved. He starts for us. That kid is absolutely awesome. If I had that kid for two or three years, he would be off the charts. We are going to get him good, but he could be so much better. Q. Speaking of the o‑line, how pleased are you to see the difference from Auburn, where the coaching staff said afterwards you felt like they got tired, and in this game they might have been stronger. COACH BIELEMA: Well, I think to rotate guys through, nothing wrongwith ‑‑ again, I know we rotated Frank Ragnow in there. It helped Mitch I think in the third and fourth quarter. We played those guys in the first half, which I think let us play stronger in the third and fourth quarter. We have to coach our guys. This isn't anything against you. This is going to help you, and right now we scored right away when he got in there and I think Charpie went in there and we scored right away. Those are big bodies. We are playing in a way that those guys are going to get tired. So the more numbers we are going to get involved there, and that's why we are recruiting right now, to be able to recruit offensive linemen, if you want to truly be a great offensive lineman, there ain't any place better than right here. Q. End of the first half you had ‑‑ COACH BIELEMA: No, it was a cramp. Q. End of the first half, you had a bad turnover but Spaight, how big was that play? COACH BIELEMA: I think that was huge, again, we talked‑‑ I talked to our guys last Thursday. On Thursday night I had a team meeting and I kind of, I didn't get all biblical on them but I talked about being your brother's keeper, taking care of one another. Last week, we obviously were against an inferior opponent. This week, I knew that we were going to get a shock from them, whether it be a big play, a big run, something that we had to withstand. And again there, were two great examples: The punt and they score right away after the ball got deflected off JT, our guys went out and scored right away offensively, so they are answering for our defense. And at the end of the half when the ball got flipped on the ground, Martrell coming up with a big play. When you get a team that can just kind of put their hand on their brother and say, hey, guy the you here, that's worth it's wait in god, man. You can't coach that stuff up. That's got to happen within our room. Q. Brandon Allen, you talked earlier, but how big of an impact do you think that had on the game, trying to make a busted play‑‑ COACH BIELEMA: Well, B.A., again, has just‑‑ for anybody that wanted to poll B.A., just watch this game. And it wasn't his stats on throwing or anything like that. It's the way he managed the game. And right there on that third and five, play kind of broke down. Credit them; they gave a great defense. All of the sudden, B.A. saw the opening and he took it. I mean, his maturity is beyond anything that I can imagine at this point that he's been able to grasp. Nobody is into this game more than him. I think the weapons around him: AJ Derby, Hunter Henry, Sprinkle, those three running backs. We really started riding Alex and J‑Will because they were great with ball security. Cody came in the fourth quarter there and ran it out. I think Brandon would be the first to tell you, he's playing well because of the guys around him. Q. Is there a sense that there defense was really getting tired? COACH BIELEMA: Absolutely. Yeah, we talk all the time about body language and different things. And if I could have a quarter for every time our defensive coach has yelled, "Get your hands off your hips." We always used to talk about it, I always used to talk about it, the d‑coordinator, I think I said it last week: Make them bleed. Even though they are not physically bleeding, but you want to see somebody show that they are weak, and I think our guys really captivated. They talked about it in the fourth quarter where the body language was huge. Q. How big was it to minimize Tech's time with the ball? COACH BIELEMA: Well, any time I think in my experience of playing an up‑tempo offense, the more you can monopolize the clock, it just keeps their offense on the sideline and gets very, very frustrating. I used to always enjoy watching games, and when you are playing a no‑huddle offense, you see that coach over there pacing around the sidelines, because he just wants that ball back. And if you kind of say, hey, hey, I got it, you can't have it, that's kind of ‑‑ it's frustrating and it's a lot of fun. Q. What did it feel like to run the ball so well when they knew you were going to run it? COACH BIELEMA: Well, I think I kind of said this last year. I know a lot of people said last year we were a running offense. Well, we didn't have a lot of options last year. We couldn't throw it real good and we weren't real good at running, so we took the lesser of two evils. Now we can throw the football. We can run the football. But when you can run the football, when you tell everybody, on the sideline, everybody in the stands, all their coaches know that we are going to run it, and he can still run it, that's saying something and that's what we have to cross. Q. What did you think of Jay Williams today? COACH BIELEMA: J‑Will was awesome. I think him and Alex really continued to roll. I think Korliss has got to be more of a factor for us. We have to be great with ball security and he's so explosive, we have to continue to get him in there. I thought our fullbacks did a really nice job and executed the plan. Q. Overall your defense, they gave up some stuff and they also got some‑‑ COACH BIELEMA: We just felt if we could get them down, even some of those first downs, second down, I was really frustrated, I thought two third down longs where we gave up scores, we have to definitely improve upon that and be able to have some variety and some change‑ups. But give credit to them they are a very, very good offense and executed on those plays to make that happen. I like the resiliency. I thought our defensive coaches in particular really did a nice job of talking and communicating during the week to get us a victory today. Q. You said real American football‑‑ would you say that real American football? COACH BIELEMA: Real American football? You want me to say that? Q. Is that what it was? COACH BIELEMA: I think this is Arkansas football, hog‑ball, hog‑strong, whatever you want to say it, this is what we are. I know at times it ain't that pretty, but it's a heck of a lot of fun. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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