Texas Football 2012: Mack Brown Spring Practice Press Conference Preview

Opening Statement:
Conditioning is taking a jump in offseason and strength program.
Different drills when coaches come off the road and each player is given a grade and discuss with position coach.
Effort does not equal accomplishment.
GRADING IS A NEW THING.

Start over with team chemistry. That is number 1. We lost significant leadership last season. Trust has to develop.

Depth must be established. In the past we were able to overcome injuries and exhaustion.

New ideas will be reviewed as coaches have visited other teams (college and pro) and determination will be made of what can be

Out due to injury: Daniels, Phillips, Jeffcoat

Miles Onyebule getting good chatter from coach. Looks to move to H back because of his size.

Whaley will play defensive end and defensive tackle.

Moss will play fullback.

Need to get 2 qb’s ready. Like to see Ash and Case improve. Try to get Brewer reps.

Have to get settled, and better, at wide receiver. Need to get better on depth.

Go back and get 2 deep on lines of scrimmage. It has hurt us for sure. Garrett Porter has one of the highest grades in offseason work. Smart guy and hopefully we get him in the mix.

Have to replace LB’s and Safeties on defense. Lost two leaders at LB and up front with Randall.

Have to force more turnovers. Asking defense to give us minimum of 3 turnovers each practice. Rewarded if they do…reminders given if they don’t.

We have to improve the offensive passing game /obvious statement/

We have to protect the ball. One turnover per practice, get the doggie bone. Over that and they will get the reminder.

QB will be graded on who scores touchdowns (passing) and who protects the ball.

Will Russ will get the nod as punter in practice. Ben Pruitt will work on kickoffs and field goals until Nick Jordan arrives summer. Ash will work on punting. Some packages will be implemented with pooch punts.

Make sure we find the right return guys to help us score points in the kicking game.

Glad coaches are all back because they turned down opportunities to stay with us.

Open practice March 2-3, during coaches clinic. We want everybody coming out and we want everybody’s opinion on depth chart, scheme, etc. Really important. (tongue in cheek comment)

15 Spring practices. 8 before the week long break and 7 afterward. 3 are required in shorts, first 2 days are required and then another one right before the spring game.

Goodwin, Monroe, Evans involved in track and not part of opening weekend practice sessions due to Big12 indoor track meet.

We are thin at some positions so we can move some guys around to look at upside.

Hopkins and Moore (JUCO xfers) will have their first practice today. They have really worked hard along with the true frosh enrollees. Duke Thomas is named after John Wayne because of bow legs.

Ricky Williams statue will be unveiled at the Spring Game and will be mounted next to Earl’s.

Responses to Questions:
Luke Poehlman will work at Tackle, guard, and Tight end. We are very impressed with McFarland as he redshirted. He graded high in the offseason program. He’s at 260 but we’re hoping he gives us what we’re looking for in the blocking area. This is what was holding him back last year.

The grading is designed to tell the players how they compared to one another. The exceptional s will be acknowledged in front of the team.

We don’t care who the 2 deep are. We just want the 2 that are the best. And by end of spring we’ll know who that is. The grading involves both athletic performance as well as student performance.

We’ve got more on defense to improve than people are giving us credit for. But we have to improve the passing game. Need to get back to the balance that scored us 50 points a ball game.

(Ash) The big thing for him in the bowl game was gaining confidence and experience. We would like to see both qb’s take over the team and lead them. Let’s have people talking about playing and not who is going to be "the guy". Time to move on. <TXs: Good luck with that, coach.>

I would not have thought we would have started freshmen last year (qb’s). The lack of reps hurt us.

Some of the hardest working players on the team are defensive backs. We need to get some of the other positions playing to that level.

The diversity of the running game is what I wanted 2 years ago. We’ve got the rb’s but have to stay healthy. And now we add the passing game so we can add play action.

Our guys are test randomly (36 at a time) and told "right then". The Big12 have a policy where they can come in at 6:00 a.m. NCAA has a mandatory 1 year suspension.

Texas has a public "1-2-3 strikes you’re out" policy in regard to drug use.

We’ve got more numbers at offensive tackle now so we can play guys at true position.

You can get too many quarterbacks. We feel like the guys we’ve got and the guys coming in are good enough. One of the problems you get into is the unknown player is better than what you know. That’s not just true.

We are excited about the staff returning and now we will be able to progress in the areas where last year we spent so much time just getting guys into position. Ask and Case should be able to run practice. The whole team will be further along. Mike Davis has had a great off season. He’s doing everything right in spite of his discouragement last fall.

We like the fact that none of the players have a job. I have asked a guy not to demote during practice but we’ll handle that off the field.

Stars are tough, practice every day, strongest on the team. Sometimes we put stars on guys without them having to pay for it.

Expectation is now that everybody knows everybody we need to go back and win every game.

We are looking at qb’s that can be great at something. The thing that impresses me about Boise is they can do whatever their qb does best.

John Harris has had a setback in his rehabilitation. He will be back during spring but not ready to join the team from day 1.

Honored to be inducted in the Texas Sports Hall of Fame on behalf of all players and coaches. I’m humbled and honored, and embarrassed, to be joining. It’s overwhelming.

Time to take care of the student athlete with the $2K stipend. Partial scholly offers should get a % accordingly.