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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 28, 2015

David Gibbs

Lubbock, Texas

An Interview With:

COACH DAVID GIBBS

Q. How is the squad feeling day afterwards? Any major lumps and bumps?
COACH GIBBS: I really don't know. Met with a few of the guys. You know, we're -- defensively, obviously, it's a work in progress. But we'll continue to do what we've done, and like I say, I'm a broken record. We'll keep getting better and better and working on the same fundamental technique. It's not going to show up against a team like that obviously how you would like it to. We would love to have batted the ball down on fourth down and win the game and learn a bunch of lessons while you're winning rather than learn lessons losing. But it is what it is. They made the play; we didn't make the play. Obviously gave up way too many big pass plays. But the kids fought hard and played hard. That's all you can ask from them.

Q. What do you think they learned from Saturday, your defense?
COACH GIBBS: I think they learned if they'll just keep fighting and keep playing we'll have a chance to win a whole bunch of football games. They don't have to be perfect. And I think sometimes when you're trying to rebuild a defense, you know, I think sometimes guys, they over react and they panic. You hear me use that word all the time. They want to let's go zero blitz and make a big play and stop them. But the truth is all you're going to do is speed up the process of the other team scoring faster, and also speed up the process of, you know, giving up more big plays. So you know, what did they learn, you know, I hope they learned, if they just do their job, which I've been saying since day one and take care of your business and trust the other ten guys to do their job, that we'll be okay.

Q. Have they gotten better in that area?
COACH GIBBS: I think so. I do. I think so. I mean I think, you know, there's obviously there's certain positions we're over matched when we go up against some of these teams. It's not rocket science to figure that out. At the same time, you know, there's certain calls that I made in the game where you can't give up a big play in those calls, and they know that. But for whatever reason we're at that stage where they did. But I don't see guys freelancing. I see guys being held accountable by their coaches, which, you know, it can't get here fast enough for me where sooner or later it will show out there on Saturday afternoons, or Saturday evenings.

Q. Is it sort of like you might not see even incremental improvement and then all of a sudden they jump to a different plateau in how well they play?
COACH GIBBS: Well, obviously you know, playing against Arkansas, TCU and now Baylor, it's probably not going to show up a whole lot. I pray it does, you know. But they have good -- you know, they got good work habits. They got good attitudes. Are they disappointed, yes. Discouraged -- you know, disappointed, not discouraged. That's my theme of the week, because we -- for whatever reason, we played better against the slow teams that line up and run power football than we played against the spread teams which we see every day. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but that's the truth. And we got a lot of work to do and we'll get back at it this afternoon.

Q. In the second half TCU kind of got their run game going and ran on the right side. What was kind of the difference between the first half and the second half?
COACH GIBBS: I don't know. I wish I could tell you. You know, I think toward the end there our guys got fatigued. Even though we rolled a bunch of guys in there. There's no excuse. We're gapped out, and we're in run defenses, and we didn't stop the run. So therefore, gotta do a better job coaching, and gotta do a better job executing the calls. But the calls didn't change, just like they hadn't changed the whole seen from the first half to the second half.

Q. Bethel suited up for TCU, didn't get in the game. Do you know if he's 100 percent healthy?
COACH GIBBS: He had a good week of practice last week. He actually had a better week in practice. We'll see how he practices this week.

Q. (No microphone)?
COACH GIBBS: We'll see how he practices this week and then we'll go from there.

Q. As a defensive coordinator across college sports right now, it seems like most defenders are trying to make a bigger hit than actually a wrap-up tackle. How frustrating is that to see that kind of mindset the players?
COACH GIBBS: Well, we didn't get close enough to anybody to make any big hits. So you know, we had a bunch of unblocked guys. We just didn't make tackles. Their running back's a really good player, too. You know, I think, to be honest with you, I think coaches now more than ever are teaching wrap and roll. And you know, the sea hawk tackle. And I know we've emphasized everywhere we went to visit in the off season emphasized it. I think there's a lot more teaching going on with getting away from the big hits. So you know, I really hadn't seen a whole lot of big hits, to be honest with you.

Q. What are some of the different nuances between an offense like TCU and Baylor? Probably for the fans it looks pretty similar as far as spread. What do they do?
COACH GIBBS: Baylor is a lot more power run game oriented, play action pass. TCU, in my opinion, TCU is more like our offense. You spread it out and your play action game is off of quick runs. But Baylor will line up and run it 60 times on you if you let them. And also scary because their wide receivers are so good. But that would be the difference to me. They play with a tight end a lot more than us and TCU does.

Q. (No microphone)?
COACH GIBBS: They're all fast. They have an Olympic, what do you call those, relay team out there playing wide receiver. I mean they are fast. I thought TCU's were fast. We're in trouble.

Q. Dawson had a big play Saturday. (No microphone)?
COACH GIBBS: Yeah. You know, he's an NFL football player. Whether he's a first round draft pick or whatever. The guy's -- he's really good. And the quarterback knows it. You know, we didn't -- we didn't play him very well obviously, but most people don't. You know, the truth is the last play of the game, if it wasn't for, you know, if it wasn't for his athleticism that ball would have gone out of the back of the end zone. He's that kind of guy, yeah. He finds his holes and they route read a lot which good offenses do. It's no excuse. We shouldn't let a guy catch that many balls, especially the deep passes where the coverage was designed to keep him from going deep, but it happened and we gotta fix it starting today.

Q. The last play, what was the (inaudible)?
COACH GIBBS: Yeah. We were man-to-man across the board. We actually doubled -- we doubled No. 9 and he beat our double team, which I've never seen happen, but it happened Saturday night. And then obviously the other kid didn't get covered. We assigned on him. Just didn't go with our coverage. Don't know why.

Q. What about the play before?
COACH GIBBS: We were actually in an option defense, and Dakota was responsible for the quarterback and he made a nice play, which got us to fourth down, which was a big play. Quarterback probably should have pitched it, but he likes -- we knew he liked to keep the ball in the red zone. He has a knack for pulling the ball or keeping it on option. But didn't finish.

Q. What's Dakota's overall play been like so far?
COACH GIBBS: He's getting better. He's getting better. He's playing like a freshman, makes two good plays and then makes -- you know, he was unblocked two of those stretches at the end of the game where they're running over our left side, their right side. Dakota, he's unblocked and just didn't make the tackle. Just can't quite get there. Whether he's fatigued or whether it's a slow reaction to the path of the back. But he's gotten better. He has. He just -- he's a young man playing in a big man's game right now. But he'll grow up.

Q. Was there ever a problem during the game Saturday?
COACH GIBBS: You know, I really didn't. Even that last play of the game D.J. and Pete who we've tried to sub and keep fresh, they both played almost 100 plays. And last play of the game, you didn't notice it, but D.J. ran over their left tackle. The guy stepped to the right and D.J. spun to the right and got in the guy's face, so even on the last play of the game they were playing hard.

Q. (No microphone).
COACH GIBBS: He's double covered. I mean we're playing cloud, we're jamming and sinking with him, and deep third player right over the top of him. Quarterback threw it blind, which he did a great job. Which if he throws it blind then the corners gotta intercept the pass. If the corner does what he's supposed to do, it's an interception, but there's a reason we got no turnovers.

Q. Is there any discussion of letting their offense get the ball back or are you opposed to that kind of philosophy?
COACH GIBBS: Until my boss tells me let them score, we'll keep fighting. And to be honest with you, the way they went down the field I'm shocked we got them to fourth down. I thought they would have run right over us. But our kids, at least they fought and got us to fourth down. Just gotta learn to finish.

Q. You mentioned the no turnovers. How surprising was it the amount of plays both teams ran there wasn't a turn over in the game?
COACH GIBBS: It's impossible. I call it karma. Somebody's not living right. It's not me. It's gotta be somebody else. But yeah. That will never happen again. And if justice just catches a ball it's floating in his face. But that's football.

Q. You played five corners, (No microphone).
COACH GIBBS: Yeah. We'll play them all. The truth is we tried to play them all. We played them all against Sam Houston because they're spread, and anytime you play against spread teams we try and keep them all in the game because the truth is there's not a big enough difference between our starter and our fifth string corner. So you know, the only reason they didn't play a whole lot against UTEP and Arkansas is because we put the better tacklers out there. Obviously it was more run emphasis. But yeah, they'll all play against this week and hopefully they play better.

Q. Who do you consider your best corner?
COACH GIBBS: We don't have a best corner. We don't have a best safety. And I helped coach T.B. so it's on me. I gotta get them better. I really do.

Q. What do you find more consistent with Baylor, their pass offense or their run offense?
COACH GIBBS: I think the average 380 yards rushing and 380 yards passing. So you tell me what you want me to stop and I'll try. Let me rephrase that. I'll call a defense that's supposed to stop it. And then they'll run it anyway. No, they're, shoot, they're phenomenal. We got our hands full again. Again, we gotta give our offense a chance to win the game at the end. That's our goal.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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