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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 12, 2011Eric StephensQ. How was the bye week, Eric? ERIC STEPHENS: It was all right. Q. What did you guys get done? ERIC STEPHENS: Excuse me? Q. What areas did you work on? ERIC STEPHENS: We got plenty of practices done. My major thing that comes to my mind is conditioning. We did a lot of running over the bye week, and I feel like it's going to help us get off to a better start. Q. You guys played week one, will it be a little like a preseason game? ERIC STEPHENS: It was very different in the sense that we had a bye week in the second week. It's the first time in many years that I've ever had a bye week that soon. So, yes, it did feel like a preseason game. Showed us a lot of areas that we need to improve on. So I guess it was kind of a good thing. Q. In that first week, Texas State and the preseason game, what's it like now that it's almost like the first game of the season for you guys? ERIC STEPHENS: We have to get off to a better start, like I said. The first half of the Texas State game was completely unacceptable to our standards. We're trying to get off to a much better start than we did in week one. Q. What was your initial reaction? ERIC STEPHENS: Why? Like, why? 11 weeks straight after, but I trust the coaches and their decisions. It's not that big of a deal, the bye week being week two. It gave us a chance to improve in a lot of areas from week one. Q. Are you guys anxious to get back on the field and play for four quarters, forget about last week? ERIC STEPHENS: The whole team is excited to get back on the field. New Mexico, we went there last year, I think it was. They came to us in '09. And Coach Brown reminded us of plenty of time. They got after us with four sacks, I think it was. So we'll go out against New Mexico, and we'll try to play a complete four quarters and show that we can put it all together. Q. You said that you wanted to get off to a better start. Is there something that you need to change in your pregame routine or is that just jitters now that you've got kind of everything going. Will it be a different mindset going into New Mexico? ERIC STEPHENS: Well one side of me wants to blame it on first game jitters, but all I have to do personally is try not to press. I told you after the game I felt like I pressed a lot and tried to make things happen instead of just letting it happen. So I think the whole team just needs to relax and take it easy. Q. What do you remember from last year's game? ERIC STEPHENS: I remember we had a lot of great plays on special teams and ultimately I think that helped us win the game. So like I said, we'll try to come out and put it all together and hopefully have a similar game as last year. Q. (Inaudible)? ERIC STEPHENS: I haven't gotten a chance to look at them yet. We start game planning for them tomorrow. I'm sure the coaches have already started. From what I know from last year and what Coach Brown has told me, they've got a lot of guys in on their defensive line, so that's their strength. As opposed to last year, I feel like we could run the ball fairly well. I think what's really going to help us is their secondary is not as strong as it was last year. So I feel like that's going to be a key point to this game. Q. Does it make you excited knowing that you've got a bigger challenge to get the yards that you want? ERIC STEPHENS: I don't worry about whether we're playing New Mexico or Oklahoma or Texas. It doesn't matter about what they have on their side of the ball. I think it all comes down to how we come out and play and execute. So I think regardless of their strength of their D-line, if we come out and do what we're supposed to do, we'll be fine. Q. (Inaudible)? ERIC STEPHENS: This game, being in New Mexico, it's really not that big, so it's not that big of a deal as if you were going to Oklahoma or to Texas. Just tell them to relax and just take it easy. It's not much different as far as preparation from a home game. The only difference is the fans are not going to be rooting for you, they'll be rooting against you, and personally, I like it that way. Q. Do you remember the kickoff? ERIC STEPHENS: All I remember is that I got caught. (Indiscernible) he won't get caught, so that's the bright side to it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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