Interesting convo with a coach who's unit was a detriment on Saturday. Highlights follow.
Opening Statement:
"We've played pretty good around here the last two years, special teams wise. And I thought, you know, Saturday was a definite step back for us, because we've been playing really good. But I thought that game turned because of the way we played on special teams. We didn't punt real well. We let some turnovers happen that have not happened. And it changed the whole momentum of the game. I'm sick but I think you guys know, I ain't sitting there crying about, I'm moving on. It was hard to take because that was probably the worst we've done. We're going to move on, we're going to be alright but that game's totally on me. I'm not going to sit here and blame anyone but myself because I didn't get our guys ready to play and they did."
Coach McGuire mentioned that there was a bit of weird energy around the program last week, did you feel the same?
"We've been playing really well. I thought that one thing this team has been doing is playing physical. And I thought that that didn't happen Saturday. They took it to us. That was what was disappointing, because I keep preaching for us to be one of those teams, you gotta play physical. And you know, my unit, the special teams unit, did not, and like I said, I take that personal. That's my job to get those guys ready to play and I didn't, for whatever reason anyone wants to say, I'm just gonna blame myself, I'm not going to put it on anybody."
McCray's return decsions...
"I think Drae right now is just pressing...As good as Drae is, they're not all going to be big returns or touchdowns, that's where we've had to go back to the basics, and it's my fault. We're trying to drum everything up and scheme everything up on every kick. And people are kicking the ball away from him, they're doing things. So we've just got to be smart. I got to be smart and just get the ball on the 25 yard line. Let's go play because our offense is good enough to do that. But we can't put ourselves in so many bad situations, put our defense in bad situations, and it's on me."
What led to so many issues on punt?
"I mean, there's two styles of it, you know, there's one where it does run, and then there's one where you just need to hang it up. And he didn't hang it. And then we had a guy miss a tackle that was unblocked. So that was the two biggest issues...you can't hit the ball low. I think it was like a 2.9 or a 3.0 hang, and that's just never going to end good. We've got to work on that. Jack, he's frustrated, he's going to work on that, but again, that's us. We've got to get him better, that's why we're here."
What'd you think of J'Koby in the passing game?
"It's J'Koby. J'Koby in space is unbelievable. I think he's going to be as good as there is doing that. The most impressive thing with him is that he's also pretty physical when it comes to blocking and things like that. (Kittley) does things that he uses our players, he's done it all year and I think getting J'Koby more comfortable with our scheme and being able to do things like that helps us and J'Koby in the long run."
What led to Baylor being able to tackle in space so well?
"I thought Baylor did a great job of tackling this space, to be honest with you. As running backs, you can't block everybody, so you've got to make people miss. That's one thing that we focus on week-to-week. Tahj has made a lot of guys miss, those younger guys like I said, J'Koby, and Cam's (Dickey) is getting better. I thought Cam came in and had some really good runs there in the fourth quarter. That's what he's got to do, he's got to come in and run hard to give Tahj a spell."
Prosper Energy Management is a mineral management company based in Dallas/Fort Worth with a Red Raider as a founding member. With over 35 years of experience in oil and gas management, Prosper provides full start-to-finish management, as well as tailored service, with the mission of serving their clients above all else. Prosper specializes in petroleum engineering, giving their clients that competitive edge when tackling the complexities of leasing, land & title, division orders, accounting, forecasting, etc
www.prosperenergymgmt.com
@Zacbash10
Opening Statement:
"We've played pretty good around here the last two years, special teams wise. And I thought, you know, Saturday was a definite step back for us, because we've been playing really good. But I thought that game turned because of the way we played on special teams. We didn't punt real well. We let some turnovers happen that have not happened. And it changed the whole momentum of the game. I'm sick but I think you guys know, I ain't sitting there crying about, I'm moving on. It was hard to take because that was probably the worst we've done. We're going to move on, we're going to be alright but that game's totally on me. I'm not going to sit here and blame anyone but myself because I didn't get our guys ready to play and they did."
Coach McGuire mentioned that there was a bit of weird energy around the program last week, did you feel the same?
"We've been playing really well. I thought that one thing this team has been doing is playing physical. And I thought that that didn't happen Saturday. They took it to us. That was what was disappointing, because I keep preaching for us to be one of those teams, you gotta play physical. And you know, my unit, the special teams unit, did not, and like I said, I take that personal. That's my job to get those guys ready to play and I didn't, for whatever reason anyone wants to say, I'm just gonna blame myself, I'm not going to put it on anybody."
McCray's return decsions...
"I think Drae right now is just pressing...As good as Drae is, they're not all going to be big returns or touchdowns, that's where we've had to go back to the basics, and it's my fault. We're trying to drum everything up and scheme everything up on every kick. And people are kicking the ball away from him, they're doing things. So we've just got to be smart. I got to be smart and just get the ball on the 25 yard line. Let's go play because our offense is good enough to do that. But we can't put ourselves in so many bad situations, put our defense in bad situations, and it's on me."
What led to so many issues on punt?
"I mean, there's two styles of it, you know, there's one where it does run, and then there's one where you just need to hang it up. And he didn't hang it. And then we had a guy miss a tackle that was unblocked. So that was the two biggest issues...you can't hit the ball low. I think it was like a 2.9 or a 3.0 hang, and that's just never going to end good. We've got to work on that. Jack, he's frustrated, he's going to work on that, but again, that's us. We've got to get him better, that's why we're here."
What'd you think of J'Koby in the passing game?
"It's J'Koby. J'Koby in space is unbelievable. I think he's going to be as good as there is doing that. The most impressive thing with him is that he's also pretty physical when it comes to blocking and things like that. (Kittley) does things that he uses our players, he's done it all year and I think getting J'Koby more comfortable with our scheme and being able to do things like that helps us and J'Koby in the long run."
What led to Baylor being able to tackle in space so well?
"I thought Baylor did a great job of tackling this space, to be honest with you. As running backs, you can't block everybody, so you've got to make people miss. That's one thing that we focus on week-to-week. Tahj has made a lot of guys miss, those younger guys like I said, J'Koby, and Cam's (Dickey) is getting better. I thought Cam came in and had some really good runs there in the fourth quarter. That's what he's got to do, he's got to come in and run hard to give Tahj a spell."
Prosper Energy Management is a mineral management company based in Dallas/Fort Worth with a Red Raider as a founding member. With over 35 years of experience in oil and gas management, Prosper provides full start-to-finish management, as well as tailored service, with the mission of serving their clients above all else. Prosper specializes in petroleum engineering, giving their clients that competitive edge when tackling the complexities of leasing, land & title, division orders, accounting, forecasting, etc
www.prosperenergymgmt.com
@Zacbash10
