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TRANSCRIPT: Matt Wells' Quotes on Tech Talk

B. Soliz

B. Vegas
Staff
Aug 7, 2017
12,475
59,245
113
Lubbock
Have you ever had this much off time before?

“Probably 2009 when I was in between jobs. We just got fired at Louisville and I was looking for a job. That's probably the last time I had this much downtime but I mean I say this much downtime – we're still pretty busy I mean we just moved everything remotely and we are going as hard as we can and as much as we can but obviously limited just because of the circumstances. You're correct but we're filling up the days. We’re working throughout you know all day and we're just doing it remotely through zoom apps and Skype calls and FaceTimes and all that kind of stuff which just makes it a little harder.”

How are you using the Zoom app?

“I learned about it a just week ago and actually talked to a guy and thought about buying stock in it and it's already gone up. So this is the wrong time to buy for those viewers out there that want a little financial tidbit but that’s as far as I'm gonna go because you got all or a lot of the NFL teams using it. I know for a fact minor league baseball is using it right now and a ton of college football teams and then you know we're talking with these recruits there's a lot of high school kids on this app called zoom and doing classes online and some of their assignments and stuff online. So there's a lot of our recruits very familiar with it already but yeah we in fact just this morning cohost and coach Patterson held two separate offensive and defensive staff meetings. I jumped in both meetings and just kind of a part of both from my house and so we are actively using it.”

How do things change assuming you can resume sooner rather than later?

“Yeah everything's ‘I'm not real sure’ right now Chris but not really talking about when we resume because I just think it's obviously I think everything's gonna keep getting pushed back and I think we're in this closer to a long haul. I mean hopefully it's just a few months or a couple months. But we’re not resuming next week and practice vibes coming up for us and not really in terms with that. We’re starting, like starting on Monday, we’re going to start game planning and doing our summer projects right now. So we’re just kinda trying to turn our calendar and flip-flop it. Things that we do normally in June and early July, we’re going to start doing right now because we can. We can do it. We got all the video on our laptops and our iPads. We can still recruit virtually over the phone, FaceTime, all kinds of good stuff and we’re trying to be really active with that. Then the relationship with our players and communicating with our players quite a bit and encouraging them and giving them some assurance that everything’s going to be okay. So our day is full from early in the morning until dinner time. We’re working hard.”

Do you expect the April 15 dead period to be extended?

“I do expect it. It's not that I'm not trying to you know predict it. We'll know here shortly. I think they're gonna start talking about that maybe in a week to 10 days but I'm expecting the Big 12 date of March 29th is going to get pushed back. It’s what we expect as well as the recruiting dead period. I do expect that to be extended. Not sure how much longer but I do expect it to be extended, yes.”

Does this delay bring maybe a rush for kids transferring and coming in during the summer? Does it possibly make things more rushed?

“Well I think you got a couple dynamics there since you brought it up. I think you have the high school dynamic, right, your junior evaluation sophomore evaluations 2021-2022 kids, which I do not believe that that's gonna happen. I don't know if the date does get pushback. We've also got high schools across the country that some are not opening so maybe getting college coaches on their campus well they don't have kids on their campus so I think that's one dynamic. The other dynamic is the grad transfer market you know. I don't know what number 10-12 I would guess that we had official visits scheduled starting this coming up weekend for the next three weeks. We had probably 10 to 12 guys scheduled on official visits now that's April 15 or past April 15 if that date gets extended. Let's just say I don’t know just for conversation sake let's say it gets extended a month to May 15. There's gonna be a two week window like you mentioned a mad dash to get kids on campus before summer school starts that first week in June. Strong probabilities of kids making decisions sight unseen. Grad transfers making decisions and coming in starting in summer school in our summer on campus, training. Hopefully, you know, given that we do start on time that first week in June.”

The chemistry at all positions is crucial. How does that hurt the program? I know practices are obviously important but that meshing together is as well.

“It’s so much of our program, Chris. I truly believe we’re a developmental program in the things that we do from a skill set, learning how to develop skill sets and make them better, the lifting part. That's so much of us. That’s what hurts right now for us in terms of missing time. It's the O line and their communication. They're working together. It's the secondary. Kind of rebuild that confidence. We’re trying to rebuild some of the ways that we coach the DBs with two new coaches back there with coach Patterson and coach Jones. Those were two of the components that I was anxious to look at as well as we needed to make some big progress right there replacing those two tackles. We got four good days in for both. I understand that there are a lot of programs in the same spot as us but I still think we’re building a foundation. Our foundation has not been set. I think that’s really the first two years in a program. You’re going to lose some of the stuff you built up in the first seven weeks in the offseason and the early parts of spring ball. We are going to lose some of that. How quickly are we going to get it back and how quickly can we make a lot of the gains that we needed to make in spring ball we’re going to have to make over the summer with limited access to the players like all summers are but before we get to training camp. How accountable are our players in all their different hometowns away from Lubbock? The accountability factors are huge. I said before spring ball, ‘we're not where we need to be’ but man we made a lot of strides in the last month just in this offseason. Really trying to implement everything we do in the weight room, the discipline, the accountability off the field. We've made a lot of strides. Now, will this whole the corona virus shutdown, now we’re all on our own and we’re all having to be self-accountable, self-disciplines. Can that hold up for an extended amount of time? We’ll see. I like our chances of this spring of this happening than it was a year ago. But you know those are some of the challenges that you know that I’m kinda peeling back the layers a little bit and those are some of the challenges we’re dealing with right now.”

Are kids enrolling this summer calling a ton to see if they're still good to go?

“Not really any. We've talked to them and our assistant coaches have talked to them so I think more than anything just assurance and hearing your voice. Everything is gonna be OK and they're still trying to finish up their senior year and they’re online trying to figure that out. They're dealing with senior graduation maybe getting cancelled, right, and proms maybe getting cancelled. Some of them are baseball players this spring, track, running track and that's got you know I know the UIL doesn't completely cancel it but it's been suspended right back into I think there's suspended maybe for the early week first week of May. They’re dealing with that. I think we all anticipate getting in here in June and we’re thinking positively about that.”

Was there a workout plan set for the guys before this all took place?

“When they left, Chris, for spring break we actually had a program that took them because we weren't sure exactly. We knew spring break it got extended by one week. We weren't sure exactly what was going to happen so he sent them home with a program for three weeks and so this is the middle of that third week. We got something new coming for them next week. Coach Scholz has done a nice job. You know just like all of us and them, some of them or just a few of them have access to a weight room or weights at their house. Most of them are at their house not able to work out so we’ve come up with some creative workouts that are applicable as we can to football. Not some silly stuff that’s not going relate to football. We’ve really tried to amp up the running, the movement, the stretching. Those kinds of things – their iPad, their investment mentally into football on their own a little bit. Then we’re going to hopefully maintain their strength. We all understand that it’s going to slip off just a little bit. To be really strong you have to lift really heavy weights and you have to lift them really, really often – to keep it real simple. We’re going to lose some strength because of the inability to have the right equipment, the right weight room and the right training. Trying to do our very best. Whenever this thing does open up and we get our guys back on campus that we can start as best we can from a starting point. We’re trying to focus more on our flexibility, our stretching and running. Like I told Vasher this morning, Vasher and I were FaceTiming this morning, I said, ‘ hey buddy, just so you know when we get back in May or whenever we get back at some point, coach Yost isn’t going to slow this offense down. We’re going to go as fast as we can go so you better be running.’”

Is there any ridiculous workouts like pushing a truck in the plan? There's been programs doing that across the country from the looks of it on Twitter.

“You know I'm not evaluating anybody else’s methods but we're trying, you know, there are some things they're trying that coach Scholz is integrating in their programs that are different and that would be maybe similar to pushing a truck. I won't say that that's on our list of things to do but I think there's some similar things that you kind of roll your eyes at. You know that's just coach Scholz and his mentors and people that he's kinda talking to in the NFL and a different way to maybe obtain the same thing and you're trying to do everything you can and understand the situation where some kids are in their limited you know resources to train.”

How did you handle the suddenness of COVID-19? Things really snowballed quickly there.

“Yeah I think it did. I mean, to say that it didn't, I don't think – you know the reality, Aaron, knew how fast it was coming, right? That's kind of what you said or how quick it was. You know I remember I guess that second week we were in practice four that was a Tuesday that Wednesday was the day before we played Texas in basketball. That afternoon you know when they made the decision that it was probably gonna be getting played in arenas with no people and a limited amount of fans and I thought, ‘OK that's interesting. We're still good. We’re on our campus. There’s nobody coming to watch practice except you know a handful of high school coaches or whatever.’ That’s all I kept thinking was our world. Our football world. Then that night I think it was Gobert testing positive and I could remember thinking, ‘oh no man. This thing’s about to hit the fan.’ And then just the next day we had our fifth practice scheduled in the afternoon. We were going to scrimmage in the stadium full pads and I had ESPN on in my office, we had just gotten out of staff meetings and was working through the lunch hour and going to watch the beginning of Tech and Texas and then boom here we are – players coming off the court. The Big 12 made that decision and I was on the phone with Kirby a couple of times and then things escalated from there. He called me right before they got on the plane before they headed to Lubbock and I ended up cancelling our scrimmage that afternoon and having an all head coach meeting with him after those guys got back from Kansas City. That was kind of a wild Thursday.”

How's your staff handling their day-to-day business?

“Yeah Chris we didn't really have a set plan. I don't think anybody does, right? I see all these restaurants, too. I'm on another subject already but like I said to Jenn last night – we pulled into Texas Roadhouse and just seeing how these restaurants here in Lubbock how they just adjust. 97.3, you guys adjust. Our staff just adjusted to it you know. We've done Skype, full staff meetings. You know what do we have whatever 25-30 people on with all the GA's, all the recruiting people and our awesome academic people and everything and we’ve done three or four straight. We started Sunday, that's four straight. That's interesting holding the staff meeting over a phone in a conference call. We started the zoom app so every morning offensive staff goes over different stuff. Coach Patterson – they're running those meetings and like I said this morning, I've jumped in both of those two different meetings. They both have afternoon staff meetings going on right now with our guys. A little bit more recruiting related and next week we're going to start game planning. In the morning recruiting and in the afternoon we had you know academic meetings with our academic staff and the offensive staff scheduled. We've got some position meetings coming up. Next week we will do a little bit of ball and a whole lot more about the workouts and about their well-being and how they're doing. We’ll use the zoom app so we can see their faces, where we're at. We're going to have some times designated times where the staff rotates calling kids and I'm calling every kid on the team. I will get to them once and in two weeks. That’s a lot per day – about 10 kids today. It’s just a chance to really check in on our kids and their well-being, continue to build those relationships. I think that sets a culture and we're going to try to use this time as best we can. If we can't workout as good as we want to, workout or practice, what can we do? We can establish relationships in our our connection a whole lot better. We can you know we can game plan, we can recruit as best we can those kind of things. So we'll just figure out what we can maximize and we're gonna try to win. What I'm gonna try to do as head coach is manipulate the time as best we can and find out how we’re gonna win the day and we have encouraged our guys to get a routine, a structure. Some of us are getting up early in the morning at our house or whatever and working out, showering and going right to the room that we have our iPads in. Our services are set up and we're starting today just like we would in the office and that's what I'm doing at my house and it's just a little different maybe having lunch with your kids or you know they're coming in middle in the morning and normally you wouldn't see them, right? So that's what a little different but trying to make it as good as we can, as productive as we can and I'm trying to trying to change this culture of this program. So how can we do this every day? We’re given different circumstances so one thing that we could do is always control our attitude and our effort. The attitude that we wake up with every day that we take to the new new or the new normal. The effort that we put in for our players, our relationships, game planning, recruiting then I think we also control our response you know to these circumstances and there's something bigger than football. There's something bigger than 97.3 and we've got to deal with this as a country and as you know a city of Lubbock and we all need to pull together and do our part but we also can control our response to it and try to do everything that we can to be a good citizen and hopefully control the spread of this virus.”

Is this a big culture test for programs around the country?

“Yes, absolutely. Academically, your accountability from an academic standpoint, a social standpoint. Living by our core values and doing things the right way. I talked to our players in a video I sent them two nights ago just about – we talk about player accountability but before you ever become accountable to your teammate and to the guy next to you, you have to be accountable to yourself and how are you going to do that from a self-discipline standpoint. How mentally strong one has to be in this time where you could sleep in forever. Well only you know you know what you're doing and to what degree and how hard you're going, how hard you’re running and how hard you’re trying to work out even if your resources are limited. So I think that's an inspiration and a motivation for our players from an everyday standpoint. There’s two things that I told our players. The two things they have in common with every player in the Big 1 right now: Number one, you have a coronavirus shutdown. Everybody has it. Every campus has it. Number two, you have the same amount of time and the same amount of minutes every day so what are you going to make of it? You’re competing against them, yes. But more than anything you’re competing against yourself on a daily basis.”

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