@C. Level and @A. Dickens had the chance to speak to Texas Tech offensive coordinator Kevin Johns and discussed what Johns thought of Donta Thompson, the quarterback battle, and more.
Audio Link
The transcribed interview is below:
Kevin, I saw on your Twitter account, you took some of the players to play paintball last week. I’m curious, did anyone surprise you with their skills out there?
“You know what, the kids had a blast I know that. I guess a couple of guys maybe have done that maybe more than others, so, maybe they had a little bit of an advantage, but those kids, when I told them we were going to go paintballing their eyes just lit up. Obviously, something they love to do in their free time when they can, but just a team bonding activity and guys had a lot of fun with it.”
Was there anyone out there, player or coach, that was maybe just a bit too intense that you had to tell just tone it down a bit?
“You know what, coaches did not get involved so we were smart enough to stay on the sidelines and not get shot by our players, but I think probably Zach Austin, one of our receivers, did a really good job and was very intense and into it, and Travis Bruffy, the offensive lineman was kind of the guy that surprised a lot of people, but like I said the kids who you could tell have done that before, and I’m telling you some of our kids came just dressed in camouflage and dressed in their hunting outfits. So, they really had a lot of fun with it.”
Coach, you just mentioned Zach Austin’s name right there. I’m curious, because I talked to you in the spring and we were talking about Ja’Deion High and Zach Austin and you had said “I have heard so much about these guys”, and I think you’re going to count on both of these guys at inside receiver, but you haven’t seen a whole heck of a lot out of either one of them. Kind of take me through that from a coaching standpoint of probably getting to talk to them a lot but just not seeing them play much.
“That’s exactly right, and I tell you we’re really banking on two things. One is just their intelligence and their knowledge of the offense and just being in meetings with them, watching some film, things like that, both of those kids are extremely sharp. They know Coach (Kingsbury’s) system inside and out which makes us feel great and then the other thing we’re leaning on is just what our trainers and strength coaches are telling us, and they both say that both of those kids are right on track, right where they need to be. I think Ja’Deion High is a bit further ahead than Zach, but really both are doing great, we’re counting on both of them. So, we’ll see when we start practicing for real and the other thing that changes immensely is when we start practicing, is just the amount of reps that these kids take, and of course they’re running out there with the strength coaches but once we go practice it’s way more just a pounding and the routes day after day. So, we’ll see how their bodies hold up but have certainly heard great things and we’re expecting both of those guys to be out there for us.”
Kingsbury has said at different points this summer including last week in Frisco, Big 12 Media Day, is that the quarterback race is effectively even between Alan Bowman, McLane Carter and Jett Duffey. Bowman just got here in January and now he heads into the preseason kind of tied with the junior and sophomore. Curious, what’s been the key to his rapid progress?
“The first thing I’d say would be just his knowledge and understanding coming out of high school. The system that he ran in high school was very very similar to what we’re doing here now. Now, the words are different, and the signals are different, but just the mechanics of how he called plays in high school are very similar so that has helped him a lot, and he is a very intelligent kid. He was a 4.0 his first semester here in college. Didn’t make any B’s, so he’s obviously an intelligent kid. He’s been able to learn Coach Kingsbury’s system at a high level, and going through spring ball helped him a ton, taking those reps and he wasn’t perfect by any means but what kids do now, and what quarterbacks do now, they, after spring ball is over, those next couple of months they go back, and they watch spring ball and they learn from what they did. What they did well and what they didn’t do well, and so now when they go back out in August, they’re going to do it again. So, really, it’ll be about his second or third time going through this system once we start practicing for real these next couple of weeks.”
Coach, what did you learn about Donta Thompson in the spring that you liked so much about him because I think he’s kind of a bit of a difference-making type for the kind of positions that you coach.
“He is, and I’d say the number one thing that stood out to me is just how hard the young man works. He doesn’t say a word, and he goes 100 miles an hour on every single route, and I’m telling for a wide receiver in this offense, that’s a very special characteristic to have. So, he works as hard as anyone that we have, which I fell in love with right away, and then you find out the kids is 235/240 pounds, and can still run, I mean he runs like a receiver, but is big enough to be a tight end. So, we’re excited about Donta and just his development, how far that he as come since he got here. I think, and again this is my first spring, he had a tremendous spring and the other guys were telling me he caught the ball as well as he’s ever caught it this past spring. So, without putting too many expectations on him, we’re certainly going to find a way to use him, actually don’t know if it’ll be 80 plays a game, but we’re going to find a way to use his athleticism, his skill set, to help our offense.”
You said a while ago, you were talking about the paintball exercise and the coaches kind of sat it out. I’m curious, as a youth sports parent, because I think you’ve got a couple of kiddos in your household that play a lot of baseball, I’m curious as the dad and the coach, do you say anything to your baseball players, take me through the parenting here of a kid trying to figure out the sport of baseball which is very difficult.
“It is, you know what, where my kids are anyway, I just want to see them compete as best they can, right? I don’t really care what sport you’re playing, what you’re doing, just show me you can compete and whatever is that you do, show me that you’re going to listen to your coach and you’re going to follow directions. Show me you’re going to be a good teammate. I think those couple of things, regardless of which sport you play, if you can do those three things you’re going to be just fine. So, I’m not quite sure the translation between baseball and paintball, if you will, or even baseball and football, as long as you’re willing to compete, you’re willing to listen to your coach, do what you’re told and you’re a great teammate, I think you’ll be successful in whatever you do.”
You were Northwestern’s passing game coordinator in 2010 when the Wildcats played Texas Tech in the Ticket City Bowl, as I recall that was very cold that day. Y’all played two quarterbacks in that game, Evan Watkins and Kain Colter, I’m curious, is that a potential option at least early on this season for the Red Raiders?
“I think that it’s an option. I don’t know if that’s possible. I think any team would love to go into a season and really get going to settle on a guy, but it’s always good to have a changeup. It’s always good to have someone to go to, but I don’t know that you want to go into a game saying ‘you have the first two series, and you have the next two series’. I just think eventually that gets hard on a team to do that but to be able to have a couple of guys that you can throw in there as a changeup when someone’s not doing well, another option in your back pocket I think is good. So, I’m excited to watch out quarterbacks compete. I really just think once we start playing ball again, it’ll kind of sort itself out.”
What did you learn about this team in the spring now that you’ve had a chance to go back and look at it and figure out personnel, and I’m just talking big picture here, what did you learn about the team, or the offense, or whatever after you’ve had some time to reflect on the spring?
“One I’d say the talent is there, the personnel is there. Everything that I think we need is right in front of us. Now, we need a quarterback to step up for us and play at a high level, which will be important and as we all know Coach Kingsbury’s an expert at producing those guys, but man, I feel great about our running backs, I feel great about our o-line, our receivers are going to be a bit of an unknown, but what I really like about, I almost think that it’s more strength in numbers this year. That maybe we don’t have Keke anymore, and Dylan, but I think we can go pretty deep and rotate guys out there and still not miss a beat. So, I’m encouraged about that. Really, what I’ve learned most about these kids is that they’re very hungry and I think they have a great look in their eye. They’ve been receptive to me and what I’ve tried to bring here, and I think now is the time to connect all the dots. It’s time to connect the offense with the defense and the offense and the special teams and everything just needs to click and I think everything’s in place to do that.”
Audio Link
The transcribed interview is below:
Kevin, I saw on your Twitter account, you took some of the players to play paintball last week. I’m curious, did anyone surprise you with their skills out there?
“You know what, the kids had a blast I know that. I guess a couple of guys maybe have done that maybe more than others, so, maybe they had a little bit of an advantage, but those kids, when I told them we were going to go paintballing their eyes just lit up. Obviously, something they love to do in their free time when they can, but just a team bonding activity and guys had a lot of fun with it.”
Was there anyone out there, player or coach, that was maybe just a bit too intense that you had to tell just tone it down a bit?
“You know what, coaches did not get involved so we were smart enough to stay on the sidelines and not get shot by our players, but I think probably Zach Austin, one of our receivers, did a really good job and was very intense and into it, and Travis Bruffy, the offensive lineman was kind of the guy that surprised a lot of people, but like I said the kids who you could tell have done that before, and I’m telling you some of our kids came just dressed in camouflage and dressed in their hunting outfits. So, they really had a lot of fun with it.”
Coach, you just mentioned Zach Austin’s name right there. I’m curious, because I talked to you in the spring and we were talking about Ja’Deion High and Zach Austin and you had said “I have heard so much about these guys”, and I think you’re going to count on both of these guys at inside receiver, but you haven’t seen a whole heck of a lot out of either one of them. Kind of take me through that from a coaching standpoint of probably getting to talk to them a lot but just not seeing them play much.
“That’s exactly right, and I tell you we’re really banking on two things. One is just their intelligence and their knowledge of the offense and just being in meetings with them, watching some film, things like that, both of those kids are extremely sharp. They know Coach (Kingsbury’s) system inside and out which makes us feel great and then the other thing we’re leaning on is just what our trainers and strength coaches are telling us, and they both say that both of those kids are right on track, right where they need to be. I think Ja’Deion High is a bit further ahead than Zach, but really both are doing great, we’re counting on both of them. So, we’ll see when we start practicing for real and the other thing that changes immensely is when we start practicing, is just the amount of reps that these kids take, and of course they’re running out there with the strength coaches but once we go practice it’s way more just a pounding and the routes day after day. So, we’ll see how their bodies hold up but have certainly heard great things and we’re expecting both of those guys to be out there for us.”
Kingsbury has said at different points this summer including last week in Frisco, Big 12 Media Day, is that the quarterback race is effectively even between Alan Bowman, McLane Carter and Jett Duffey. Bowman just got here in January and now he heads into the preseason kind of tied with the junior and sophomore. Curious, what’s been the key to his rapid progress?
“The first thing I’d say would be just his knowledge and understanding coming out of high school. The system that he ran in high school was very very similar to what we’re doing here now. Now, the words are different, and the signals are different, but just the mechanics of how he called plays in high school are very similar so that has helped him a lot, and he is a very intelligent kid. He was a 4.0 his first semester here in college. Didn’t make any B’s, so he’s obviously an intelligent kid. He’s been able to learn Coach Kingsbury’s system at a high level, and going through spring ball helped him a ton, taking those reps and he wasn’t perfect by any means but what kids do now, and what quarterbacks do now, they, after spring ball is over, those next couple of months they go back, and they watch spring ball and they learn from what they did. What they did well and what they didn’t do well, and so now when they go back out in August, they’re going to do it again. So, really, it’ll be about his second or third time going through this system once we start practicing for real these next couple of weeks.”
Coach, what did you learn about Donta Thompson in the spring that you liked so much about him because I think he’s kind of a bit of a difference-making type for the kind of positions that you coach.
“He is, and I’d say the number one thing that stood out to me is just how hard the young man works. He doesn’t say a word, and he goes 100 miles an hour on every single route, and I’m telling for a wide receiver in this offense, that’s a very special characteristic to have. So, he works as hard as anyone that we have, which I fell in love with right away, and then you find out the kids is 235/240 pounds, and can still run, I mean he runs like a receiver, but is big enough to be a tight end. So, we’re excited about Donta and just his development, how far that he as come since he got here. I think, and again this is my first spring, he had a tremendous spring and the other guys were telling me he caught the ball as well as he’s ever caught it this past spring. So, without putting too many expectations on him, we’re certainly going to find a way to use him, actually don’t know if it’ll be 80 plays a game, but we’re going to find a way to use his athleticism, his skill set, to help our offense.”
You said a while ago, you were talking about the paintball exercise and the coaches kind of sat it out. I’m curious, as a youth sports parent, because I think you’ve got a couple of kiddos in your household that play a lot of baseball, I’m curious as the dad and the coach, do you say anything to your baseball players, take me through the parenting here of a kid trying to figure out the sport of baseball which is very difficult.
“It is, you know what, where my kids are anyway, I just want to see them compete as best they can, right? I don’t really care what sport you’re playing, what you’re doing, just show me you can compete and whatever is that you do, show me that you’re going to listen to your coach and you’re going to follow directions. Show me you’re going to be a good teammate. I think those couple of things, regardless of which sport you play, if you can do those three things you’re going to be just fine. So, I’m not quite sure the translation between baseball and paintball, if you will, or even baseball and football, as long as you’re willing to compete, you’re willing to listen to your coach, do what you’re told and you’re a great teammate, I think you’ll be successful in whatever you do.”
You were Northwestern’s passing game coordinator in 2010 when the Wildcats played Texas Tech in the Ticket City Bowl, as I recall that was very cold that day. Y’all played two quarterbacks in that game, Evan Watkins and Kain Colter, I’m curious, is that a potential option at least early on this season for the Red Raiders?
“I think that it’s an option. I don’t know if that’s possible. I think any team would love to go into a season and really get going to settle on a guy, but it’s always good to have a changeup. It’s always good to have someone to go to, but I don’t know that you want to go into a game saying ‘you have the first two series, and you have the next two series’. I just think eventually that gets hard on a team to do that but to be able to have a couple of guys that you can throw in there as a changeup when someone’s not doing well, another option in your back pocket I think is good. So, I’m excited to watch out quarterbacks compete. I really just think once we start playing ball again, it’ll kind of sort itself out.”
What did you learn about this team in the spring now that you’ve had a chance to go back and look at it and figure out personnel, and I’m just talking big picture here, what did you learn about the team, or the offense, or whatever after you’ve had some time to reflect on the spring?
“One I’d say the talent is there, the personnel is there. Everything that I think we need is right in front of us. Now, we need a quarterback to step up for us and play at a high level, which will be important and as we all know Coach Kingsbury’s an expert at producing those guys, but man, I feel great about our running backs, I feel great about our o-line, our receivers are going to be a bit of an unknown, but what I really like about, I almost think that it’s more strength in numbers this year. That maybe we don’t have Keke anymore, and Dylan, but I think we can go pretty deep and rotate guys out there and still not miss a beat. So, I’m encouraged about that. Really, what I’ve learned most about these kids is that they’re very hungry and I think they have a great look in their eye. They’ve been receptive to me and what I’ve tried to bring here, and I think now is the time to connect all the dots. It’s time to connect the offense with the defense and the offense and the special teams and everything just needs to click and I think everything’s in place to do that.”
