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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 19, 2015

David Gibbs

Lubbock, Texas

Q. What kind of positive did you take away defensively?
COACH GIBBS: Found a way to finish the game. Getting a turnover at the end, regardless of whether you score or not, our goal, like I said, from day one is to give our offense the ball back with a chance to win the game at the end. We did that. I don't care who we play. I don't care what the score is. That's our job. I felt like we did that.

Got some turnovers, that was positive. Obviously, could have had a couple more and didn't quite come away with them. But they played hard. Didn't play very good, didn't play very smart, but played hard, which they do most of the time.

Q. What was your thoughts when Jah'Shawn had that pick six after a previous play with Jackson kind of going after it in the zone?
COACH GIBBS: As a football coach, when those crazy things happen like that, bad thoughts go through your brain, like this isn't meant to be. So for Jah'Shawn to make the play after we had a chance to score a touchdown on the play before is a big play for us.

Quarterback threw us the ball, and like we always talk about, you get a chance to make a play, you got to make it, and he made it. So happy for him.

Q. What did you see them doing kind of in the fourth quarter? It seemed like that was one of the only stretches where they were consistently scoring. What did you see there?
COACH GIBBS: You didn't like my second half adjustment that's we do so well? I'm just kidding. Calling the same things in the second half you call in the first half. Just doesn't always work out that way.

No, they did a good job executing. We got them to third down a few times. Didn't get off the field. Got them to fourth down on the one play, and J.J. got picked on the wheel route. We've just got to play smarter and obviously play better. Learn how to -- when things start rolling bad around here, there's a tendency for guys to start doing their own thing. That's human nature also.

So just keep working, keep grinding, go back to the basics like we always do. Got a great challenge again this week.

Q. What do you see when you look at the Oklahoma offense?
COACH GIBBS: I see Baylor. I see TCU. I see Oklahoma.

Q. Where does your game plan start? Is it Perine? Mayfield? The list goes on and on.
COACH GIBBS: You tell me. I'm all ears, baby. They've got a great quarterback. Their offensive line is humongous, physical. Two big time running backs, about six wide receivers that we probably can't cover any of them. We'll go fight and do the best we can. That got you all quiet, huh?

Q. It seems every time you face a prolific offense, you say exactly that --
COACH GIBBS: Have I lied to you yet?

Q. Is that a message to your team to step up?
COACH GIBBS: If they're listening to me, I don't know. That's irrelevant. We're going to play man coverage. We're going to play zone coverage. We're going to -- we got to go fight. We got to play better against, obviously, the better offenses, which starts with coaching, I always say that.

Kids got to continue to improve, and again at the end of the day, just got to give our offense a chance to win at the end.

Q. A couple of defensive players after the game said, when you kind of got to three and things kind of got nervous, they wanted to put the team on their back and make a play like Pete and Branden did. Does that frustrate you? Because obviously they waited that long to do that. Or is it maybe encouraging to see that leadership?
COACH GIBBS: If it's real leadership, I'm all for it. If it's talking to the press just to talk to the press, then it doesn't do any good.

I'm not a big tar heel. It's irrelevant to me. I'm glad they went out and made the play. They don't need to talk about it. Go out and do your job and make the plays when you're supposed to make them. They did that, and I'm happy for those guys.

Q. Is there anything you saw Texas was able to do against Oklahoma a couple weeks ago that slowed them down that you guys might be able to use?
COACH GIBBS: Texas is really good up front, and they've got some good young secondary guys you can cover. They got after the quarterback early in the game and kind of got him a little flustered, and he didn't play very good. Other than that, the guy's been phenomenal all year. I don't know why they didn't play good. I wish they would have saved it for this week.

Q. Has there been any problem taking the redshirts off of Jamile or Christian and letting those guys play this year?
COACH GIBBS: No.

Q. Coach, how was Paul Banks' effort?
COACH GIBBS: He was okay. I think he played 13 plays. He was going to play most of the game if he would have stayed healthy. So that's a setback. Hopefully, he's back this week.

Q. Is it because of a matchup, length, or just doing well in practice?
COACH GIBBS: Just length. He practiced better the last couple of weeks. He'll continue to get better just like these young guys will. So the more opportunities he gets to go out there and play, the better he's going to get.

Q. You kept Thierry out there pretty much looked like most of the way as well. How's he right now?
COACH GIBBS: Not very good.

Q. [No microphone]?
COACH GIBBS: Average. They played hard. Just they're young guys. They just need game experience. The problem is, when you need game experience, you're going to give up touchdowns, and you're going to make mistakes. Those kids, they're practicing hard. They're playing hard. They will get better. I know you're tired of hearing me say it. I'm tired of saying it.

Q. Is there a greater concern for Oklahoma's rushing or passing game?
COACH GIBBS: Both. They're legit. I don't see a weakness. So hopefully, we'll hold the ball for 45 minutes.

Q. Are you going to try and fluster them like Texas did?
COACH GIBBS: We can't fluster anybody. We fluster ourselves. We'll try. We'll come up with something.

Q. Coach, how did you keep the offense and the defense separate? Coach Kingsbury talked about lackluster, didn't want to play, didn't want to play hard, and it seemed your guys did. Was that something you kind of saw and made a conscious effort to make sure you were coaching your guys up to keep that from spreading over the defense?
COACH GIBBS: No, it really never came up. Kansas, they're playing with a true freshman quarterback, and they're struggling on offense. Just so happened we were struggling on defense. We happened to stop a few times. We missed some field goals, and they helped us out.

Our kids -- like I told you all before, our kids, they're the same way when they're giving up 60 points as they are when they got somebody shut out at halftime, which could be good, could be bad. I don't know.

I'm glad for the kids. They found a way to win the game.

Q. First series, big run, gave up 41 yards. Talk about that.
COACH GIBBS: D'Vonta Hinton made a heck of a play on that. He blitzed, turned around and chased the guy down for 41 yards.

Q. [No microphone]?
COACH GIBBS: Missed two tackles. Two block guys missed two tackles.

Q. What have you seen with D'Vonta now he's starting to play a little more?
COACH GIBBS: He's a really good player. He'll continue to get better, the more game reps he gets, the more practice he gets. Very excited. He's what we thought he was. He's a Big 12 linebacker.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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