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UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 5, 2011Bryan HarsinQ. I marvel at everything on Saturday, but yet I feel like there's still a lot more left in store. How much more imagination and creativity can come? COACH HARSIN: Well, yeah. I think first of all, to start with, I thought our No. 1 goal got accomplished. That was to win the game. And that's what we talked about on both sides of the ball, offense and defense. That's always been our No. 1 goal throughout the season. I thought both sides of the ball did a great job. I thought our defense played very, very well, got a turnover in there, and on special teams. So I think we accomplished that. Obviously there are some things when you go back and watch tape, it's never as good as you think, it's never as bad as you think. Probably just from the start for us offensively we want to start faster in the game. You know, being the first time out and having the chance to get everybody into the game mode, you really get a chance to see where we are. I thought we made adjustments well after that third series and started getting things going and guys started to settle down a little bit and just started playing, and that's really our goal. We want to in practice try to recreate the game so when we get out there the game is hopefully easy from that standpoint of just going out there and executing and doing what we did all week long. So I thought we did some good things in there execution-wise on just some of our base stuff. I thought we executed some of our funk plays a little bit out there, as well, and did a good job of those. But overall our goal going into that was -- on offense was also not to turn the ball over. We had one there when the second group came in, and we want to eliminate those turnovers. We know if we can hang onto the football, we have a great opportunity to be successful in that game. Q. What did you think of Garrett? COACH HARSIN: I thought he did well. We had no turnovers at that position. I thought he threw the ball with authority, and there was a couple balls in there that got dropped that I thought were really good throws. I thought he threw the deep ball well. I thought he made great decisions on a short yardage play when he ran the ball. We got held up a little bit, and he just took off and went vertical and got 24 or 25 yards out of it. So those are some really good things. Was it perfect? No. There's a lot of things to still coach off of there, and our standards at that position are very, very high. So we'll go back and look at all those things that we can work on, and we'll go into practice this week and we'll emphasize that. Our goal going into next week is new mistakes. We'll eliminate the ones we made. There will be new ones that come up each and every game. We've just got to make sure they're new ones and we eliminate the ones that we've made. Q. Is consistency the biggest thing right now for Garrett, just getting in the flow of the offense? COACH HARSIN: I think consistency for our entire offense is the biggest thing, and yes, him included. You know, just doing it, being able to take what you've done in practice, apply it in the game, understand what you've learned as far as what you need to do decision-wise, make the right decisions, and that really goes for everybody, and that's what we talked about the offense was just the consistency. That's where we need to continue to build on and get better at this week in practice. Q. Some of the procedure penalties, are those a by-product of just how complicated your offense is in terms of the motion, or is it because they're learning something new, or all of that? COACH HARSIN: Yeah, I think that's one thing that is -- with the movement, all the movement, there's always a possibility of that. And we try to emphasize that and work on that and make a big point of it in practice. I think seeing that in a game, those guys that had some of those issues now are able to go back and go, this is exactly what we talked about in practice, and you practice like you play. So when those things happen in practice again, I think it'll be a more heightened awareness from the players of that can't happen because it is going to get called. So it takes a lot of communication between those players when you're moving guys around, guys are on and off the ball and motioning, we know we've got to be set. They tried to do it right, and we just -- we ran out of time and didn't get a guy moved in a certain situation. They understood what needed to get done, we just didn't get it done. Now this week in practice we'll correct that and make sure that doesn't happen again. Q. Players on the offense say you have a wild imagination. Do you consider yourself to have one? COACH HARSIN: You know, I think it comes down -- I would say this: It comes down to what we can do with the players we have. You know, John Harris, for example, he was a quarterback in high school, and John, we had run that play in practice, and he didn't throw it every time. He pulled it down. He threw it away. He made good decisions. It wasn't something we were going to just let him have the ball and just throw it regardless. So I think it's smart football players, I think it's the talent you have, and then when you've got that, I think there are some things in there you can do with those guys creatively and have a little bit of fun. I think that's what we want to do. We want to have fun, but it all comes down to can we execute it properly and do we have the players and the talent to do that, and I think we do. Q. Malcolm didn't play early and ended up with the most carries. Was that by design? COACH HARSIN: Yeah, it was. I think just coming out of camp, that was the pecking order going into the game. You know, Fozzy and Joe had done a great job in camp, and Malcolm has, as well. But that was the pecking order going into the game, and that was what we felt was fair and right and just to do that. And I thought Fozzy and Joe did a great job, Malcolm came in and obviously he kind of got hot there when we started in that second half. Were able to run the ball and he was a big reason why we were doing that. And so you know, now that first game is over, fall camp is done, leading into that, now it's wide open. Now we've got to get our guys in the right position and how we want to start the game so we get started fast. Q. Do you want to have a guy have a lot of -- do you want to end up with a guy that's -- instead of just when you find the hot hand just have one guy? COACH HARSIN: Yeah, you know, I've done it all ways. I've had three backs rotate through, I've had two backs, and I've had one guy that was the only guy that we had. You know, with the talent we've got, I don't think that you want to just sit there and let one guy just pound it the entire time because you've got some really good running backs sitting on the sideline waiting to go. So we have to manage them as far as here's a series for you, here's a couple of series for you, here's a couple of series for you, where are we, who's hot here, let's go ahead and give him the opportunity to get back in there, he's got a little bit better flow right now, and still spell on him as we go with bringing guys in in certain personnel groups, certain situations are going to give those guys enough break. But we've got some great backs and we've got to utilize them. We just have to do a great job of managing that. Q. What is it about BYU's defense? They had a great performance last week, kept their team in the game. COACH HARSIN: Absolutely. Yeah, when I was at Boise we played them in '03 and '04 and Bronco was the defensive coordinator at that time. They play relentless. That's the one thing about BYU; they go out there and they play hard. They've got a great D-line; they're physical up front. I think their front seven is as good as I've seen, D-line and linebackers. They do a good job in coverage of mixing up where they're helping with safeties, and they make it difficult from that standpoint. And that D-line, because of that, they're expecting those guys to get to you and expecting those backers to get to you. But they're very well coached on defense, and they play relentless. They just have a standard out there they play to, and so when you play BYU, you're playing four full quarters in that game, and you've got to expect that. Q. Do you have to remind the offense this week that things are going to speed up, the hits are going to be a little bit harder, or do they see that on tape? COACH HARSIN: They see that on tape. I thought the first game, coming out of fall camp, even though you're playing your defense over and over and over, it's still the speed of the game on both sides of the ball. To play another opponent, to play somebody that does a little bit different scheme, a little bit different moves, in that first game you've got to get used to that. So we're able to go into this game now and talk more about game speed now that we've been through a real game together. So they're going to know going into this one now, all right, they can see those guys up front. They move pretty good. Now, in practice we maybe don't have that same speed up front, but we've got to practice at the tempo we're expecting from BYU, so that's what we have to do this week in practice. Q. How do you manage the package week to week? Do you worry at all when you put him in there that it takes something away from Garrett? COACH HARSIN: No, because we talk about it. You know, and I think that's something that we discuss before the game is there will be certain plays that he's going to be in on and some of these will be in these situations, some of them is going to be random, just when it's called. But if everybody knows what the plan is, then that's just how we operate. David is a guy that we feel is a very good football player who's done a great job in camp ever since he's been here through spring and a guy that can go in there and do what he did. He provides a different element for us offensively. The game really determines -- the opponent really determines the type of package he's going to have and how much we can utilize him. You know, in a perfect world, yeah, it gets a little bit more, his experience each game is going to help him prepare and get ready for the next game, so we feel like he can handle a little bit more, and we'll do that. Q. How many true freshmen have you had that give you what Jaxon does? COACH HARSIN: Well, I think Jaxon is a special player, and not just because of what he does on the field. When he got here he instantly made an impact in practice just by the way he plays. You know, he just has one speed, and it's full, and so that to me when you're out there on the practice field and you're seeing that day after day, that's inspiring. And so I think that's where he really made his first impact. The second, he's very smart. He comes from a football background, and he came in understanding the game and knew a lot of little tricks of the trade, and so he's able to pick up on stuff very quickly, and that's how we were able to get him involved. He's doing some things for us and some different packages and we're moving him around and he can handle it. So for a young guy to have his type of work ethic, to have his knowledge of the game I think is pretty special. Q. Is that something you've dealt with before at Boise? COACH HARSIN: Yeah, there was a couple. Austin Pettis, Titus Young, both those guys played as true freshmen, and Titus was an explosive player, Austin was a very smart -- Austin really was a guy that had a very good grasp on the game and understanding, was a guy that we could utilize in a lot of different positions, so he's similar to that. Q. How much of the offense did we really see this week? Did you hold a lot back? COACH HARSIN: No. I mean, I don't think -- going into each game you have a plan of what you want to utilize, and as the game flows, that plan continues to change. And so there were some things that we didn't get to. We've got some overage left over from the game, and so those things that we didn't utilize we'll try to implement into this game plan or push back for another one. But we have all hands on deck. It's just a matter of how the flow of the game is going and what we need to do, or maybe some plays were successful that we want to come back to and repeat, and that takes away from utilizing some other plays. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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