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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 16, 2018

Jah'Shawn Johnson

Lubbock, Texas

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Jah'Shawn.

Q. What does 17-14 mean to you?
JAH'SHAWN JOHNSON: Means we playing pretty good defense, if you can hold any team in this conference to under 21 points. So we're taking steps in the right direction, but we got a lot to clean up. We were out of position a lot in this game. They just didn't hit us on it.

Lucky for us, but we can't have that going on forward.

Q. From your perspective, what does it mean to hold a team to 14 points, to know you can do this?
JAH'SHAWN JOHNSON: It feels good, man. Guys are just doing what they're supposed to do, doing their jobs. Still got to get some more turnovers. I mean, they're coming a little bit. But going on these next six games, we got to win the turnover battle each game in order to win.

Q. Since you returned, how much have you seen the defense improve?
JAH'SHAWN JOHNSON: I think we've improved week after week, honestly. I got things to clean up myself. Just everybody. Like I said, we didn't get lined up a lot this past week. We got to do that moving forward in order to keep winning.

Q. What have you noticed about this Kansas team? What has stuck out to you?
JAH'SHAWN JOHNSON: They're real good. They rotate a lot of quarterbacks. They have two great runningbacks. Receiver that can run by you. He's a very quick twitch. They protect the ball well. They turn it over on defense a lot, so our defense will have to find a way to get some balls out to give our offense a chance.

Q. If you had to give defensive game balls to two or three guys, who would you choose?
JAH'SHAWN JOHNSON: I'd start out with Coach Gibbs. He does a great job with putting us in the right positions. It's hard to single out Frye. He's been doing a great job all season. That's what we expected. He's done it throughout the spring, fall camp, done a great job of getting his hands on balls, making plays. Credit our D-line. They did a pretty good job of holding them up in the run game, forcing them to throw the ball a little bit.

Q. Where were you on the play that Jordyn got the interception in the end zone?
JAH'SHAWN JOHNSON: I was man on Turpin, I believe. Actually we weren't lined up properly on that play, as well. Just kind of something I just told -- Jordyn was actually supposed to be blitzing, J.P. covering, but we didn't get it done. I told Jordyn to take the tight end. He did a great job of doing that.

Q. Y'all kind of improvised that then?
JAH'SHAWN JOHNSON: Yeah, we did.

Q. Was it after the snap?
JAH'SHAWN JOHNSON: Right before the snap.

Q. Is that your kind of experience coming in to play there, to be able to recognize that?
JAH'SHAWN JOHNSON: Yeah, kind of.

Q. You mentioned the run game. What stands out about Pooka? He's doing stuff yards-wise that not many people have done in the Big 12?
JAH'SHAWN JOHNSON: He's not very big, but he runs really hard. He can make some nice cuts in and out the holes. He's very fast. One of our best players. We expect them to give him the ball, get him to make some plays for them.

We just have to do a great job of rallying to the ball, make sure we're wrapping up, tackle.

Q. What was the last defensive series when the offense gives you the lead, you have to hold it for two minutes? When you're in your position, how do you keep the guys focused?
JAH'SHAWN JOHNSON: Just kind of tell them, Next play. He's a great quarterback. We know he was elusive coming into it. We tried to get to him, put some pressure on him. He made some good throws. Made a great throw on that one.

Doug is one of our best DBs with hands, so, I mean, that was just uncharacteristic by him. Kind of down on himself about it because he felt like he could have had a couple more earlier in the game, as well.

I mean, he's done a great job for us. He'll continue to do the same. But as a secondary on that last play of the game, we got to make sure we stay on our guys. We turned a lot of guys loose, myself included. If he would have had a little time to be able to set his feet and throw the ball, we would have came in there on Sunday very sad.

Q. How did the celebration compare to the one at Stillwater and Austin?
JAH'SHAWN JOHNSON: They all mean a lot to us. Any time you can go on the road and get a win, it's huge, especially in this conference. But, yeah, I mean, it's over with now. We got a good Kansas team coming in here this weekend. We got to take care of business in front of our home fans, which we haven't been doing lately. I think we owe them a lot. We need to play good at home.

Q. The play where you got the horse collar tackle, how difficult is it in the heat of the moment to not do that?
JAH'SHAWN JOHNSON: It's difficult. I mean, you know they protect the quarterbacks very well. I should have pulled up anyway. I mean, he was close to the sidelines. I'll take it. It's part of the game. I mean, I got to be smarter in that situation, especially right before the half.

Q. Why have y'all been so good on the road, not at home? What's your theory?
JAH'SHAWN JOHNSON: We've been trying to figure it out, man. We've had plenty of leadership meetings with the leadership council, trying to figure out different things to do. We honestly don't know. It's been rough. It's very frustrating on our part.

We'll try to get it together. We got three more at home, I believe. We'll take them one by one and try to give our fans a good show.

Q. Any change to what y'all do leading up to home games or no?
JAH'SHAWN JOHNSON: No. I mean, we've kind of took the same approach since I've been here, I believe. Kind of tweaked a few things. Sometimes we'll walk in from the back of the field, sometimes we'll come just straight to the tunnel. I mean, it's nothing major. We just got to get the job done.

Q. How much can it help with Dom's kicking the way it was this past week?
JAH'SHAWN JOHNSON: Yeah, helps a lot, man. When you get to flip the field like, that pin 'em deep like that, it limits what they can do on offense. With our front seven playing as well as they're playing, it's hard to run the ball. That was pretty good. He's done a great job. He takes a lot of heat from Coach Scheier because he expects greatness out of him. He knows what he's capable of. I think the other specialists do a great job of getting onto him, as well, when they know he's not kicking as good as they know he can.

He did a great job. Pinned them deep a couple times we needed.

Q. You knew the defense would be better this year, but to lead the team to victory, you've seen it on the field, how does that change?
JAH'SHAWN JOHNSON: That's been our ultimate goal since Coach Gibbs got here. Give the offense a chance to win at the end. But we're all mature. We've all played enough snaps to where we have to be the ones to win the game. We've done a great job. Like I said, we got six more. We got to play great defense in each one of those in order for us to win the game.

Q. (No microphone.)
JAH'SHAWN JOHNSON: No. I mean, that's kind of outside of the field. I mean, like I said, we owe our fans a lot at home. We need to get the job done.

Q. What do you think the biggest reasons are that you've been good defensively in the second half in conference games?
JAH'SHAWN JOHNSON: Last year we all know we didn't finish well. I mean, they've put it on all the walls in the facility, Finish. That's all we've been emphasizing throughout spring and fall camp. We've done a great job so far.

I don't know why we decided to do it this year and not last year. I mean, it's over with. We'll just keep going forward from here.

Q. Is all the depth paying off? Are you feeling fresher at the end because of the number of people you're able to play?
JAH'SHAWN JOHNSON: Yeah, we do feel good. We do have a lot of depth. We rotate guys a lot. But, I mean, I think guys took the strength and conditioning part pretty serious this off-season, this summer. Credit Coach Whitt and his staff for that. I think everyone is in shape and they're playing like it. Guys are out there flying around. When the twos come in, they do their job, do the same.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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