TODD GRAHAM SEPT. 11 PRESS CONFERENCE PREVIEWING TEXAS TECH
Regarding special teams...
“No one is more disappointed than I am. We take ownership as coaches to have our guys prepared. It’s my responsibility. We need to prepare our guys better. What was disappointing is the two delayed penalties and a couple other mental things. Some of the kicks were not good, but all of that rests on us. As coaches, we need to get our players to perform better than that and we haven’t characteristically played like that; I think we have played pretty well on special teams. We just have to get better.”
On Sleep-Daltons injury...
"We got some information back yesterday that said it was getting a lot better, so were hoping he will be ready to go with his right foot. If not, we have to have a healthy guy in there. He has done pretty good; the first one he put on the one yard line. I think it’s important to have someone ready to go and I anticipate he will be.”
On the issues with protection…
"The whole thing is getting everybody on the same page. When you start of early, especially with newness, we need to keep grinding and getting better. We are working day and night. This program means an awful lot to me. We’re going to get it done, we just got to work and get better. It’s all about execution. I thought we did protect better than we had the week before. There is different factor involved in it that has to do with timing and execution. We have to work hard. It’s just getting everybody comfortable with what we’re doing. You start playing different people and you’re playing people on a lot of different things. Sometimes that’s a challenge to our execution. Now were on to Texas Tech. It’s a totally different thing this week. Every year there one of the best passing offenses in the country. Their very well coached on special teams and there playing a lot better defensively. I was very impressed with their first game.”
On Frank Darby’s play...
"I am excited about Frank (Darby). I love his spirit on the sideline. That is our whole focus this year, is our sideline. Being together and competitive, also honoring each other with attitude and effort. He is just a guy that I have been very impressed with. We have done some nice things down the field. We had a big play with John (Humphrey); we would of actually took the lead there. Our vertical passing game has been solid. The biggest thing is we just need to get the run game going and get to executing the way we know how to execute.”
On how to get the run game going this week…
"There a lot of things we can do. There were some things they were doing, where it was late in the game when we got down two scores, we obviously had to throw the ball more. They were also loading the box, making us have to throw the ball. We aren't going to run into bad numbers. There a lot of things we can do. Mostly fundamentally. Making sure we don’t have mental errors. We have good players, that’s not the issue, we just have to get them playing better fundamentally and make sure to eliminate the errors.”
On using a different scheme to better the protection…
"We just have to get better executing. We were playing most of that game with one tight end. When we got to throwing the ball, we went to four wides’ later. That’s where we have to improve the most. Over half of those sacks was with our tight ends blocks. We just have to do a better job executing.”
On John Humphreys injury…
"He won’t be out the season. He will be questionable this week.”
On Demario Richards injury and others…
"He should be back and ready to go. Ryan Newsome should be back and ready to go. Demonte King will be available. Evan Fields will be available. We’re getting some guys back. It hurts us losing a guy like Demario (Richard); he is such a fixture for us in protection and running the football in our run game. It’s going to be big to have him back.”
On the personal for nickel downs on defense…
"Against a power team like they were. Coach Bennet is making those decisions on what he wants to do, whether going nickel or stay in base. We have talked a lot about as we move into our league and the spread teams, we will do more sub packages. But we did sub and rotate in. I thought Renell Wren did some nice things. We were doing more of a rotation. We are being active up front; getting TFL’s (Tackle for Loss), we’re getting sacks, with minimal pressure. We gave up a 3rd and 21, where we came off our guy. We have looked at those situations and that’s 14 points on those two plays. We only gave up 20 points defensively. We had a kickoff return for a touchdown. We kicked one out of bounce and they kicked a field goal off of it. We obviously gave up too many rushing yards. I thought there was a lot of improvement, especially on how we played on the defensive line. Our secondary played better too, but they weren’t a passing team.”
On whether or not to use a different scheme on the defensive end against San Diego St...
"The whole idea is to have linebackers in their because that was the running back out of the back field. We had somebody assigned to it. We were actually playing a conservative call. He would come out scrambling, then threw it to him and then we needed to figure out how to get him down. We have looked at that stuff to try to get better at the extra-long situations.”
On addressing players about social media…
"My whole deal is if you don’t play well, nobody is more disappointed than I am. I don’t blame anybody for criticizing or any of that. It’s not productive. We try to talk to our guys about controlling the things we can control and that’s our attitude and our effort. All you have to do is go out and perform on the field and then you don’t have to worry about that kind of criticism. That is why I don’t spend much time on social media. On the same hand, there is no one more disappointed than I am. I have sunk my heart and soul into this place. It means a lot to me to get it right. I don’t have any negative feelings towards anything negative because you bring that upon yourself not performing. And that’s on us as coaches not our players.”
On how he managed the noise caused by social media earlier in his career…
"The only thing that is hard for me, is my kids and my wife. These players are like my kids. At the end day, we talked about our program competing for championships. We have done that. Were two games into the season. We have ways to go before this season is evaluated. You bring criticism on yourself by not performing well, and we did not perform well and I deserve the criticism when you have that.”
On the challenges of competing against different styles of teams…
"It’s just the way it is. Pac 12 is even more so that way. Seeing New Mexico St beating New Mexico. They were like a spread, read zone kind of team and then you play a team like how Stanford would line up and do things. This week were playing an air raid team that can do it better than anybody in the country. It’s pretty diverse; you then roll into the season where you’re going to have the same kind of deal. Starting off the conference with Oregon and then we have to go to Stanford, then we have Washington. The biggest thing, we need to stay focused on the goals at hand that we are trying to accomplish. The number one thing is not trying to give up cheap touchdowns. The other thing is the turnover ratio. Those are the two things that we want to continue to work hard on every day to get better at. We need to get better at running the football. That’s the bottom-line. We have been working really hard to get those things corrected to get it where it needs to be.”
On the new quarterback from Texas Tech…
"Very good quarterback. He came in last year and played some. Mahomes (Patrick) was pretty special. The guy they have is very capable and does a very good job extending plays. Big strong arm; makes all the throws. They have good receivers. They have a really good running back, #4 from last year. The key against them is they throw a lot of screens to their receivers; so, we need to tackle well in space. We need to make sure to line up and keep things in front. We need to get takeaways because they’re going to go fast and run a lot of plays. We're very familiar with playing this system, but it still isn’t going to make it any easier."
On whether the secondary is ready for Texas Tech…
"You’re never ready for anything, you just get in there and do it. I have been really proud. Taking two young corners that are very inexperienced coming in. They have steadily gotten better every week. There is no way around being in a one on one situation with people who are going to play four wides’. I think it is a big challenge. Our focus is going out there and figuring out how to get a win, then getting ready for conference play.”
On the message to the players for this week after a loss…
"What I say to the team; I am probably not going to come in here and tell you guys. The message is simple. We have to put behind us what’s behind us. We have to perform better as coaches and we need get our guys prepared better to play. That’s the message I told the team. After the game, our message going into this week will be all directed towards Texas Tech and our game plan.”
Regarding special teams...
“No one is more disappointed than I am. We take ownership as coaches to have our guys prepared. It’s my responsibility. We need to prepare our guys better. What was disappointing is the two delayed penalties and a couple other mental things. Some of the kicks were not good, but all of that rests on us. As coaches, we need to get our players to perform better than that and we haven’t characteristically played like that; I think we have played pretty well on special teams. We just have to get better.”
On Sleep-Daltons injury...
"We got some information back yesterday that said it was getting a lot better, so were hoping he will be ready to go with his right foot. If not, we have to have a healthy guy in there. He has done pretty good; the first one he put on the one yard line. I think it’s important to have someone ready to go and I anticipate he will be.”
On the issues with protection…
"The whole thing is getting everybody on the same page. When you start of early, especially with newness, we need to keep grinding and getting better. We are working day and night. This program means an awful lot to me. We’re going to get it done, we just got to work and get better. It’s all about execution. I thought we did protect better than we had the week before. There is different factor involved in it that has to do with timing and execution. We have to work hard. It’s just getting everybody comfortable with what we’re doing. You start playing different people and you’re playing people on a lot of different things. Sometimes that’s a challenge to our execution. Now were on to Texas Tech. It’s a totally different thing this week. Every year there one of the best passing offenses in the country. Their very well coached on special teams and there playing a lot better defensively. I was very impressed with their first game.”
On Frank Darby’s play...
"I am excited about Frank (Darby). I love his spirit on the sideline. That is our whole focus this year, is our sideline. Being together and competitive, also honoring each other with attitude and effort. He is just a guy that I have been very impressed with. We have done some nice things down the field. We had a big play with John (Humphrey); we would of actually took the lead there. Our vertical passing game has been solid. The biggest thing is we just need to get the run game going and get to executing the way we know how to execute.”
On how to get the run game going this week…
"There a lot of things we can do. There were some things they were doing, where it was late in the game when we got down two scores, we obviously had to throw the ball more. They were also loading the box, making us have to throw the ball. We aren't going to run into bad numbers. There a lot of things we can do. Mostly fundamentally. Making sure we don’t have mental errors. We have good players, that’s not the issue, we just have to get them playing better fundamentally and make sure to eliminate the errors.”
On using a different scheme to better the protection…
"We just have to get better executing. We were playing most of that game with one tight end. When we got to throwing the ball, we went to four wides’ later. That’s where we have to improve the most. Over half of those sacks was with our tight ends blocks. We just have to do a better job executing.”
On John Humphreys injury…
"He won’t be out the season. He will be questionable this week.”
On Demario Richards injury and others…
"He should be back and ready to go. Ryan Newsome should be back and ready to go. Demonte King will be available. Evan Fields will be available. We’re getting some guys back. It hurts us losing a guy like Demario (Richard); he is such a fixture for us in protection and running the football in our run game. It’s going to be big to have him back.”
On the personal for nickel downs on defense…
"Against a power team like they were. Coach Bennet is making those decisions on what he wants to do, whether going nickel or stay in base. We have talked a lot about as we move into our league and the spread teams, we will do more sub packages. But we did sub and rotate in. I thought Renell Wren did some nice things. We were doing more of a rotation. We are being active up front; getting TFL’s (Tackle for Loss), we’re getting sacks, with minimal pressure. We gave up a 3rd and 21, where we came off our guy. We have looked at those situations and that’s 14 points on those two plays. We only gave up 20 points defensively. We had a kickoff return for a touchdown. We kicked one out of bounce and they kicked a field goal off of it. We obviously gave up too many rushing yards. I thought there was a lot of improvement, especially on how we played on the defensive line. Our secondary played better too, but they weren’t a passing team.”
On whether or not to use a different scheme on the defensive end against San Diego St...
"The whole idea is to have linebackers in their because that was the running back out of the back field. We had somebody assigned to it. We were actually playing a conservative call. He would come out scrambling, then threw it to him and then we needed to figure out how to get him down. We have looked at that stuff to try to get better at the extra-long situations.”
On addressing players about social media…
"My whole deal is if you don’t play well, nobody is more disappointed than I am. I don’t blame anybody for criticizing or any of that. It’s not productive. We try to talk to our guys about controlling the things we can control and that’s our attitude and our effort. All you have to do is go out and perform on the field and then you don’t have to worry about that kind of criticism. That is why I don’t spend much time on social media. On the same hand, there is no one more disappointed than I am. I have sunk my heart and soul into this place. It means a lot to me to get it right. I don’t have any negative feelings towards anything negative because you bring that upon yourself not performing. And that’s on us as coaches not our players.”
On how he managed the noise caused by social media earlier in his career…
"The only thing that is hard for me, is my kids and my wife. These players are like my kids. At the end day, we talked about our program competing for championships. We have done that. Were two games into the season. We have ways to go before this season is evaluated. You bring criticism on yourself by not performing well, and we did not perform well and I deserve the criticism when you have that.”
On the challenges of competing against different styles of teams…
"It’s just the way it is. Pac 12 is even more so that way. Seeing New Mexico St beating New Mexico. They were like a spread, read zone kind of team and then you play a team like how Stanford would line up and do things. This week were playing an air raid team that can do it better than anybody in the country. It’s pretty diverse; you then roll into the season where you’re going to have the same kind of deal. Starting off the conference with Oregon and then we have to go to Stanford, then we have Washington. The biggest thing, we need to stay focused on the goals at hand that we are trying to accomplish. The number one thing is not trying to give up cheap touchdowns. The other thing is the turnover ratio. Those are the two things that we want to continue to work hard on every day to get better at. We need to get better at running the football. That’s the bottom-line. We have been working really hard to get those things corrected to get it where it needs to be.”
On the new quarterback from Texas Tech…
"Very good quarterback. He came in last year and played some. Mahomes (Patrick) was pretty special. The guy they have is very capable and does a very good job extending plays. Big strong arm; makes all the throws. They have good receivers. They have a really good running back, #4 from last year. The key against them is they throw a lot of screens to their receivers; so, we need to tackle well in space. We need to make sure to line up and keep things in front. We need to get takeaways because they’re going to go fast and run a lot of plays. We're very familiar with playing this system, but it still isn’t going to make it any easier."
On whether the secondary is ready for Texas Tech…
"You’re never ready for anything, you just get in there and do it. I have been really proud. Taking two young corners that are very inexperienced coming in. They have steadily gotten better every week. There is no way around being in a one on one situation with people who are going to play four wides’. I think it is a big challenge. Our focus is going out there and figuring out how to get a win, then getting ready for conference play.”
On the message to the players for this week after a loss…
"What I say to the team; I am probably not going to come in here and tell you guys. The message is simple. We have to put behind us what’s behind us. We have to perform better as coaches and we need get our guys prepared better to play. That’s the message I told the team. After the game, our message going into this week will be all directed towards Texas Tech and our game plan.”