by Bill Seals
On the season Trever Ryen has had:
“I know I raved about Trever a couple weeks ago and will continue to do so. He maximizes his potential and maximizes his ability. He is in-tuned to how he takes care of his body, to how he studies the game of football, to how he prepares. He’s a fanatic about it and you appreciate that. The results of what happens in terms of his success are a direct correlation to it.
“You wish he hadn’t gotten dinged up, because he was on pace to have a stellar year. It tells you everything you need to know about him too that he’s gotten himself back and having great production. I thought his production on Saturday was outstanding. You talk about another position where you’ve got two guys performing at a high level, which is great for us to have. Deshaunte (Jones) will be the first to tell you he’s not performing at that level if he doesn’t have Trever and his leadership in the room.”
On when the ‘not playing for next year’ speech took place and what he heard from players:
“I don’t know what kind of feedback that’s had. The reality of once we lost the opportunity to be bowl-eligible, the fact of the matter was, sometimes at least as a young coach I’ve watched guys maybe say they’re going to put all their attention into the future. To me, this team hadn’t stopped fighting and playing hard. They’ve had to overcome a lot in their own career. You talk about a loss of a bunch of guys before the year starts, a new staff, new schemes, and these kids deserve way more than that. They are laying a great foundation for the future of our football program by their want-to and want to get better consistently. I just wanted to make sure they knew from my end that this is all hands on deck to put ourselves in every position to go win these football games and continue to get better. We all need to get better.”
On what he’s seen of Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes:
“That’s the great challenge with him. You love his competitiveness number one, which is his best trait. He gets rid of the football. Do you blitz and bring an extra hat? He’s so crafty and so skilled, so he knows where his answers are before the play even develops. The reality of it is you’ve got to mix and match what you do, continue to do a great job. You can’t lose the fact that this Texas Tech team will still run the football. If you think you’re just going to sit there and drop nine guys into coverage, you’re probably going to get yourself embarrassed. It’s a great chess match for our defense and the ring leader of that is the quarterback.”
On what he’d say to a current player asking him about being recruited over and saying he should be the guy:
“Two words: prove it. For me, competition is what makes successful programs. The reality of, saying it and showing it are two completely different things. We try to do a really good job as a staff of practicing a lot and give our kids multiple opportunities. We do scrimmaging on Tuesdays with our guys that don’t play on games on Saturdays throughout the season. We make things really competitive. The weight room is really hard in the winter, it’s competitive, we keep score of everything and video tape everything. We do that because if I was a young man, I would want to have the opportunity to make sure that if I am doing good things that you’re able to see it as a coach and that’s somehow being reflected. It’s got to be all hands on deck. I want those young people seeing some tangible evidence of how they’re improving and what they’re doing. All those things become accountable factors.
“I used it with Allen (Lazard) – there is a point in time where you earn some credit in the bank with your coaches by what you repeatedly do and with your character and work ethic. And then it’s the same thing on the football field – can you consistently play at a high rate to give us the best chance to be successful. We’re always going to recruit really hard. It’s not always about the stars, but about the right fit. We know what fits us. Our program is hard and we’re going to ask you to be accountable to everything you do. If you don’t fit that, maybe we take the lesser player that’s going to do that and develop at a higher rate than the guy that’s maybe more talented. We feel better about today that our own kids in the program know what our program and the expectations are. And we know as we continue to go out and recruit.”
On what there’s left to accomplish in next two games, after team won first conference game:
“I think every day is important for these guys. We put winning and losing in such a (different light). That’s your job and I understand all those things. These kids don’t remember what happened two hours ago, let alone what happened a day ago. For us, it’s about instilling the habits that it takes to be successful. How do I approach practice, how do I study the game of football, how do I take care of my body and what’s a full season like? For our freshman, it’s been a long road since June 8th when they came into school here. Now all of a sudden we’re almost to Thanksgiving and a majority of them haven’t been home yet. That’s a long season for those guys. Learning how to weather that and continuing to get better are learned traits. We have to be great teachers of it. All of it is so critical, as well as game experience. Winning and losing still takes care of itself when you do the little things right.”
On what the next step is for the program in its turnaround under a new coaching staff:
“The next step is to win two in a row. We’ve handled negative, tough losses and close losses. Now we’ve got to learn to handle success. It’s the same thing. There’s no difference in winning and losing and how you handle it. It’s all the same. The only way to handle it is by sustainability of process day in and day out and the ability to play at our best. We still left a lot out there on Saturday, in terms of what we’re capable of playing and what our expectations are. There’s a lot left to chase.”
On the progress of injured offensive lineman Jake Campos:
“Jake is doing really well. He’s out of the boot and in normal shoes. He’s moving around a little bit right now, which is really great to see. I know I said this last spring when he couldn’t go through the spring, how valuable those months were for him to get bigger and stronger. I don’t know if you can ever say there’s a silver lining losing a guy like Jake Campos, but he looks really good right now. He’s as strong as he’s ever been. He has really used this time to coach those young offensive linemen and help himself get bigger and stronger than he’s ever been. We’re all really excited to get him back. I think he’ll have the ability to be there in the spring and with as much time as he’s missed it will be invaluable for him to get those reps.”
On the season Trever Ryen has had:
“I know I raved about Trever a couple weeks ago and will continue to do so. He maximizes his potential and maximizes his ability. He is in-tuned to how he takes care of his body, to how he studies the game of football, to how he prepares. He’s a fanatic about it and you appreciate that. The results of what happens in terms of his success are a direct correlation to it.
“You wish he hadn’t gotten dinged up, because he was on pace to have a stellar year. It tells you everything you need to know about him too that he’s gotten himself back and having great production. I thought his production on Saturday was outstanding. You talk about another position where you’ve got two guys performing at a high level, which is great for us to have. Deshaunte (Jones) will be the first to tell you he’s not performing at that level if he doesn’t have Trever and his leadership in the room.”
On when the ‘not playing for next year’ speech took place and what he heard from players:
“I don’t know what kind of feedback that’s had. The reality of once we lost the opportunity to be bowl-eligible, the fact of the matter was, sometimes at least as a young coach I’ve watched guys maybe say they’re going to put all their attention into the future. To me, this team hadn’t stopped fighting and playing hard. They’ve had to overcome a lot in their own career. You talk about a loss of a bunch of guys before the year starts, a new staff, new schemes, and these kids deserve way more than that. They are laying a great foundation for the future of our football program by their want-to and want to get better consistently. I just wanted to make sure they knew from my end that this is all hands on deck to put ourselves in every position to go win these football games and continue to get better. We all need to get better.”
On what he’s seen of Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes:
“That’s the great challenge with him. You love his competitiveness number one, which is his best trait. He gets rid of the football. Do you blitz and bring an extra hat? He’s so crafty and so skilled, so he knows where his answers are before the play even develops. The reality of it is you’ve got to mix and match what you do, continue to do a great job. You can’t lose the fact that this Texas Tech team will still run the football. If you think you’re just going to sit there and drop nine guys into coverage, you’re probably going to get yourself embarrassed. It’s a great chess match for our defense and the ring leader of that is the quarterback.”
On what he’d say to a current player asking him about being recruited over and saying he should be the guy:
“Two words: prove it. For me, competition is what makes successful programs. The reality of, saying it and showing it are two completely different things. We try to do a really good job as a staff of practicing a lot and give our kids multiple opportunities. We do scrimmaging on Tuesdays with our guys that don’t play on games on Saturdays throughout the season. We make things really competitive. The weight room is really hard in the winter, it’s competitive, we keep score of everything and video tape everything. We do that because if I was a young man, I would want to have the opportunity to make sure that if I am doing good things that you’re able to see it as a coach and that’s somehow being reflected. It’s got to be all hands on deck. I want those young people seeing some tangible evidence of how they’re improving and what they’re doing. All those things become accountable factors.
“I used it with Allen (Lazard) – there is a point in time where you earn some credit in the bank with your coaches by what you repeatedly do and with your character and work ethic. And then it’s the same thing on the football field – can you consistently play at a high rate to give us the best chance to be successful. We’re always going to recruit really hard. It’s not always about the stars, but about the right fit. We know what fits us. Our program is hard and we’re going to ask you to be accountable to everything you do. If you don’t fit that, maybe we take the lesser player that’s going to do that and develop at a higher rate than the guy that’s maybe more talented. We feel better about today that our own kids in the program know what our program and the expectations are. And we know as we continue to go out and recruit.”
On what there’s left to accomplish in next two games, after team won first conference game:
“I think every day is important for these guys. We put winning and losing in such a (different light). That’s your job and I understand all those things. These kids don’t remember what happened two hours ago, let alone what happened a day ago. For us, it’s about instilling the habits that it takes to be successful. How do I approach practice, how do I study the game of football, how do I take care of my body and what’s a full season like? For our freshman, it’s been a long road since June 8th when they came into school here. Now all of a sudden we’re almost to Thanksgiving and a majority of them haven’t been home yet. That’s a long season for those guys. Learning how to weather that and continuing to get better are learned traits. We have to be great teachers of it. All of it is so critical, as well as game experience. Winning and losing still takes care of itself when you do the little things right.”
On what the next step is for the program in its turnaround under a new coaching staff:
“The next step is to win two in a row. We’ve handled negative, tough losses and close losses. Now we’ve got to learn to handle success. It’s the same thing. There’s no difference in winning and losing and how you handle it. It’s all the same. The only way to handle it is by sustainability of process day in and day out and the ability to play at our best. We still left a lot out there on Saturday, in terms of what we’re capable of playing and what our expectations are. There’s a lot left to chase.”
On the progress of injured offensive lineman Jake Campos:
“Jake is doing really well. He’s out of the boot and in normal shoes. He’s moving around a little bit right now, which is really great to see. I know I said this last spring when he couldn’t go through the spring, how valuable those months were for him to get bigger and stronger. I don’t know if you can ever say there’s a silver lining losing a guy like Jake Campos, but he looks really good right now. He’s as strong as he’s ever been. He has really used this time to coach those young offensive linemen and help himself get bigger and stronger than he’s ever been. We’re all really excited to get him back. I think he’ll have the ability to be there in the spring and with as much time as he’s missed it will be invaluable for him to get those reps.”
