On Byrum Brown’s three interceptions vs. Baylor:
“The first one we are obviously trying to take a shot, and he was aggressive to throwing it down the field. It was a look that was a little bit of an unscouted look from the defense, but I take responsibility. We got to do a better job of just making sure all the things that can happen on those shot plays he's aware of. The backside corner made a great play. We threw it down the middle of the field. We got to learn from it but at the same point, you got to be able to call shot plays like that because when you get the right look, it should be a big play. And when they are not there, you’ve got to be willing to check the football down. We talk about that all the time, it just wasn't executed at that point. The one in the red zone, right before halftime, just trying to do too much. Just forced the ball. Got to stay in rhythm there and keep moving in a progression and probably check that ball down and it goes for 10 or 12 yards on the other side of the field, and it doesn't and you don't get points. So all of them are correctable without a doubt. We all take responsibility for it, but at the end of the day we’ve got to be better. You can't win that way. It is really hard to turn the football over three times and win a game against what I think is a pretty good football team in Baylor, so I give them credit. But at the end of the day we force the ball, that's what it turns into.”
On game experience vs. practice:
“It's what you were excited to start the season for. To see exactly what you have. We're walking out there, playing against a Baylor team with a bunch of different players, with a new defensive coordinator, not knowing exactly what you're going to get. So there were a lot of unknowns going into it. It's really exciting for us, we sat in here this morning as a unit. We got in our own way more than probably they forced us to make mistakes. It was a lack of execution more so on our side, self-imposed errors, the turnovers. There are so many things that we left out there. You are good enough if you make five or six more plays at the right moment, the score probably doesn't look that way, if you make them at the right time. But we didn't, and we were in a dogfight. And what you found out on the other side of it was you got a bunch of guys that didn't pack it in. They didn't panic. There were some times when we panicked and just made silly mistakes. The turnovers and a just a lack of execution at times, but what you saw was those guys, when they needed to put a drive together, they kind of stood together and they rose up and they had never been on a field together. Byrum probably played… the best drive that he had all game was that drive. There were three third-down conversions that we needed to have to move the sticks. That is what you take away from it - we got a group that is willing to walk away, have some mental toughness and physical toughness and finish, run the ball in like we did. There was a little bit of everything and everything in between. The good, the bad, the ugly and I think for our players, they see how many missed opportunities there were for explosive plays and touchdowns. I think they have got to take that as 'man, our lack of execution at one play here, two plays here, and then there is probably 12 of them in the game, the result should be much different.' But they see that they got humbled, too, at the same time. They see what it can be and they see what it was because we didn't execute.”
