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ACADEMY TEXAS BOWL: TEXAS VS MISSOURI

December 26, 2017

Tom Herman

Houston, Texas

COACH HERMAN: Merry Christmas. Hope everybody enjoyed their couple days with friends and family. Nothing really in terms of an opening statement other than we are excited to be here.

Excited to be back in the City of Houston. Excited to be able to practice at U of H. If you haven't been to that new indoor facility, it is as good, if not better than anywhere the in country. That thing is off the charts, amazing, and hats off to Hunter Yurachek and Major Applewhite for finishing that thing really, really well. I mean, it is impressive.

We've had a lot of friendly faces, a lot of familiarity. We've got a lot of guys on our team from the Houston area, so it was nice for them to get done with practice yesterday and get to spend the afternoon and evenings with their families and we are excited about the game tomorrow. Excited to be representing the University of Texas in a Bowl game once again and we're going to have our hands full, though, with a really, really good Missouri team.

Q. Can you talk about, you've got seven of the Top-10 recruits, usually if coaches go to a Bowl game, this is part of the recruiting process, and you've got a lot of that done; how much of a jump start does this give the program?
COACH HERMAN: Yeah, we needed to. This class had to be good and it's not just good; it's great. You know, not only did we sign that many of the top players in the State of Texas, but a lot of these guys are coming in in January.

We'll have nine early enrollees in whatever, two and a half weeks, and so to be able to have that extra six months on the rest of the freshmen class, really gets them hopefully prepared to play for us because we're going to need a bunch of these guys to do that.

Again it was monumentally important that we keep the best players in the State of Texas at the University of Texas and we feel like we did that. Unprecedented rate, depending on which rankings you look at.

But the thing I'm most proud of with that class is the -- again, I keep stealing the line from Chris Petersen, "Our kind of guys." These are -- I didn't have to worry about talking about depth charts and playing time and you know, any of the superfluous things that sometimes can get in the way of recruiting and really tarnish a kid's competitive spirit.

These are kids that all want to come in and compete, and that's exciting.

Q. A lot of this, the Bowl games, are which team really wants to be there. What indicators were you looking for from your team as the team that really wants to be there and what step do you want this team to take in this game heading into the spring?
COACH HERMAN: I mean, haven't been in a Bowl game in three years, so if that doesn't excite you as a player, then you probably need to quit football and go do something else. Go join a club or something like that.

But our guys, we have had some really, really spirited practices and that's been really fun to watch, especially some of these young guys. We've gotten better and I think we've had 17 practices, something like that. You know, will it manifest itself in the game tomorrow? I hope.

But if it doesn't, it doesn't mean we didn't get better because we did. This is a team, if you're an older guy on this team, you've had somewhere around 35 less practices than your opponents. Your opponents in Norman Oklahoma or Stillwater or Lubbock or whatever, you know, you've missed that, and that is crucial for the development of the student athlete. I'm just excited that we had that opportunity.

And then, you know, I think winning this game will be important for us in terms of momentum. It's not -- you know, it's not life or death, but we sure as heck could use this to springboard us into the off-season for 2018.

Q. Do you expect Malik to play?
COACH HERMAN: No. But I'm hoping for a miracle.

Q. Big picture. Here you are, here at Houston, sitting at 6-6 in the Texas Bowl. If I could give you a few mulligans, as many as you wanted, what are some of the things you would have done differently this year?
COACH HERMAN: I don't know. You know, I don't think -- obviously I thought about it there for a good few seconds but I think the timing for evaluation is after the season. You know, we've still got a game to play. You're always evaluating schematically, you know, what can you do, what can't you do. You know, how do you put your players in the best position to win. So that is ongoing.

But I don't know that you -- I don't know that I could give you a concrete answer without really diving into, you know, that kind of self-evaluation that goes on in an off-season.

Q. Since the Texas Tech game, you've been dealt a lot of blows: Injuries, suspensions, going pro. How do you think the team has handled that and kind of responded to the challenge of getting through each time something like that's happened?
COACH HERMAN: Great. We don't -- we don't blink. These are guys that are still here and still playing. They are tough dudes, you know, and they just -- you know, it's just another day at the office, so to speak.

But you know, I mean, it's real. I mean, I feel for Timm Beck and our offensive staff. We have one tight end, one scholarship tight end that's not being red-shirted. We have, you know, two running backs that have played in a game.

So you're really limited in terms of what you can do from a personnel standpoint and then the plays that you can call and then God forbid, a guy gets hurt and it's like, okay, now we go to Plan B here real quick.

But our team has responded at every turn and I'm proud of them for that.

Q. You've been with these guys for nearly a year now. What can you say you've learned about this team, some of the makeup, just the players; what different things have you been able to glean in about a year's time?
COACH HERMAN: That three straight losing seasons takes its toll on kids, really does. It's difficult for them, especially when you've dealt with -- when you deal with adversity, it can be a Here We Go Again Syndrome.

So that has been an ongoing challenge of, you know, reestablishing the right way to handle adversity and the right way to compete and the right way to go about our daily business. But for the most part, I've learned, also, that these guys are hungry for that and that they want to be great and that they want to compete.

And so -- but it's been a challenge to reprogram a lot of these guys.

Q. The decision to start Shane Buechele tomorrow, was there one main factor in that, and does that give him a leg up on starting position for next year or will it be a clean slate for all four?
COACH HERMAN: Definitely a clean slate. Neither of these quarterbacks have done anything so egregious that you would say that a guy is behind the other one, but neither of them have done anything really to take the bull by the horns.

I think the decision to start Shane is just, you know, we didn't play well at that position in the last game and probably, to answer your question, maybe one of the things to do different, probably should have played Shane a little bit more in that game.

And so, you know, he hasn't done a whole lot to lose our trust, nor has Sam. So I don't know that it's -- I guess it is externally, when you guys look, I mean, who takes the first snap. Great. It's who takes the last snap and who is -- because Sam's going to play.

So we'll figure out who is playing better and who is in a rhythm and who is seeing the defense better and playing the game better and you know, ride that guy for as long as we can.

Q. You said that this team has gotten better during Bowl practices. What do you want to see on the field, because you said even if you don't win, it doesn't mean you haven't gotten better. What do you want to see tomorrow in the game? Are you going to be playing more guys that haven't gotten as many reps during the season?
COACH HERMAN: No, I don't think you'll see any new faces out there. I think again, as long as we're playing hard, and playing physical; we had a reaffirmation of -- we got re-acquainted with a quote that's around our building in a bunch

of different spots, which is, "The pride and winning tradition of the Texas Longhorns will not be entrusted to the weak nor the timid."

You can't play timid. If we go out and we play with our hair on fire, figuratively, of course; if we play with our hair on fire and we're flying around and we're hitting people and we're playing aggressively, then I think, one, hopefully the result will bare that -- will be positive based on that level of play.

But you know, that will be key for me in how we handle adversity. I mean, this is a really good Missouri team; one that they are averaging 52 points a game in the last six games, on a six-game win streak. They finished 13th in the country in tackles for loss and Top-25 in sacks on defense, too.

So there's going to be some adversity in this game and how we respond to it, I think will be a big key for, you know, to judge our development.

Q. How do some of the absences affect matchups for this game?
COACH HERMAN: Not good. You know, when you lose your starting safety and starting corner for a team and a quarterback that led the country in touchdown passes, you know, that's -- we're going to have our hands full on defense and then offensively, the strength of their team is their front defensively, and we've got to grow up in a hurry there.

I feel good about where we're at from a personnel standpoint. I mean, Derek Kerstetter is still a true freshman, but he got better over the Bowl preparation.

Elijah RodrÃguez will start at left tackle and he's had a really good set of practices.

I feel as good about this group as I have all season. Now we've got to go do it.

Q. Specifically with Missouri quarterback Drew Lock, when you watch film, what do you see?
COACH HERMAN: Touchdowns (Laughter). I see a guy that is comfortable in the offense. He's playing with a lot of confidence. He's getting the ball out of his hands quickly and accurately.

But I also see guys, supporting cast, that are making plays for him, too. That is a very, very talented receiving core that they have and obviously you've got to get the ball to him and he does a great job of that but they are also helping him out quite a bit, too.

Q. Is the plan still to run P.J. in DeShon's safety spot, and how has he looked in practices?
COACH HERMAN: Correct. P.J. will play the boundary safety and Antwuan will stay at nickel.

P.J.'s looked great especially as we started to install the game plan, if you will, for Missouri early. Early in Bowl prep, it's a whole lot of just scrimmaging and not worrying about who you're playing, because you get worn down if you are running the same thing over and over and over again.

But P.J.'s looked great. I'm excited to see -- I mean, he's a captain. We have been -- you think about just from a leadership standpoint, we've had one captain playing every game and that's proved forward, I believe and we've got five of them.

Andrew Beck hasn't played all year. P.J. was out significant time. Connor obviously missed a ton of time. Naashon's actually, probably I think he's played in every game. But that's been a leadership void, too, that it's been nice to have him back.

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