Baylor HC Dave Aranda
Opening Statement
First of all, just a great job by West Virginia and Coach (Neal) Brown. Their fight and their execution really showed up tonight. I thought at the start of the game, we came ready to play. I’m disappointed, and I think we’re all frustrated with just our execution really at critical points. There was a lot of good things, but we could not make that next play. Whether it was, we’re up and we’ve got to make a play to stop a drive to kind of halt the emerging momentum. We never could do that. And there’s a whole bunch of reasons for that, whether it was alignment or assignment. So, a fair amount to clean up there. And then, I think the other piece that plays with it is we’re still fighting the battle with special teams for improvement and for consistency and to really have that as a weapon for us. That, obviously, showed up tonight as well. But, in all of it, with the punches that we took, some of which were self-inflicted, I thought guys continued to fight. So, proud of that. That’s something to build off of.
(Update on Blake Shapen) No, both Blake and Sqwirl went out with head injuries. I think they’ll get looked at tomorrow, and we should have an idea then.
(How did Kyron handle it in that situation) I thought there was a calmness with him and there was a strong presence with him in the pocket when he was able to rear back and throw it. And I thought the offense really took to it. So, that was really good to see. That last two-minute drive kind of colors the opposite view. They were working their flush rush, and that was affecting us. But I think prior to that, he was able to stick his foot in the ground and really hammer some balls in with really impressive throws. So, there’s a lot to build off with his throw game. Impressed with him.
(What’s it going to take to turn it around) I think we’ve got to continue to teach everything. This is hard to say after a loss, but I thought we showed up wanting to be there. I thought we showed up wanting to fight. You could feel that in the locker room, you could feel it on the sidelines that guys wanted to be there, they wanted to fight. And we had to really teach that. There’s a whole bunch into that. I have to do a better job of teaching how to finish and how to close out drives, finish drives on offense. We’re missing the complementary football part where if an offense gets something going, defense shuts it down, offense adds on even more. Right now, we’re trading one score for another score, really two weeks in a row. So, we have to really finish that next play, that next drive. That’s what’s missing.
(Lot of missed tackles)
Secondary-wise, our MO has been to play real thick alignments up front and 2-gap, and then with our back end really bracket receivers and double receivers. And we were doing that tonight. They were completing passes into that, which a lot of folks up to this point have not. So, into the teeth of the coverage, they were completing things. There’s a whole lot in terms of just why that was occurring, whether it was misalignments and technique and/or lack of rush. But then, once that started to happen, then guys tried to push and stress and try to do too much. And then, that affected the run game. I think that it starts with, if we’re in pass coverage and you’re throwing a route into coverage, we have to execute so that doesn’t happen. And then, I think the other piece is once the run game kind of starts to go, having everybody trust in doing their job so that guys to the right and left of them can do theirs. That was wilted away tonight.
(Get enough done during the bye week) Well, you would love to have a win coming off of a bye, but I thought there was a lot of truth that was spoken, I feel, and there was a lot of work put into fundamentals and things that you’d like to say would equate to a win. And it’s awfully unfortunate that it didn’t, but it really shows that there’s much more work to do. So, I think for us to approach it from a teacher’s perspective and really meet guys where they’re at, and get them to be at their best in a real kind of tough and critical time is everything right now. So, we’re all about it.
Opening Statement
First of all, just a great job by West Virginia and Coach (Neal) Brown. Their fight and their execution really showed up tonight. I thought at the start of the game, we came ready to play. I’m disappointed, and I think we’re all frustrated with just our execution really at critical points. There was a lot of good things, but we could not make that next play. Whether it was, we’re up and we’ve got to make a play to stop a drive to kind of halt the emerging momentum. We never could do that. And there’s a whole bunch of reasons for that, whether it was alignment or assignment. So, a fair amount to clean up there. And then, I think the other piece that plays with it is we’re still fighting the battle with special teams for improvement and for consistency and to really have that as a weapon for us. That, obviously, showed up tonight as well. But, in all of it, with the punches that we took, some of which were self-inflicted, I thought guys continued to fight. So, proud of that. That’s something to build off of.
(Update on Blake Shapen) No, both Blake and Sqwirl went out with head injuries. I think they’ll get looked at tomorrow, and we should have an idea then.
(How did Kyron handle it in that situation) I thought there was a calmness with him and there was a strong presence with him in the pocket when he was able to rear back and throw it. And I thought the offense really took to it. So, that was really good to see. That last two-minute drive kind of colors the opposite view. They were working their flush rush, and that was affecting us. But I think prior to that, he was able to stick his foot in the ground and really hammer some balls in with really impressive throws. So, there’s a lot to build off with his throw game. Impressed with him.
(What’s it going to take to turn it around) I think we’ve got to continue to teach everything. This is hard to say after a loss, but I thought we showed up wanting to be there. I thought we showed up wanting to fight. You could feel that in the locker room, you could feel it on the sidelines that guys wanted to be there, they wanted to fight. And we had to really teach that. There’s a whole bunch into that. I have to do a better job of teaching how to finish and how to close out drives, finish drives on offense. We’re missing the complementary football part where if an offense gets something going, defense shuts it down, offense adds on even more. Right now, we’re trading one score for another score, really two weeks in a row. So, we have to really finish that next play, that next drive. That’s what’s missing.
(Lot of missed tackles)
Secondary-wise, our MO has been to play real thick alignments up front and 2-gap, and then with our back end really bracket receivers and double receivers. And we were doing that tonight. They were completing passes into that, which a lot of folks up to this point have not. So, into the teeth of the coverage, they were completing things. There’s a whole lot in terms of just why that was occurring, whether it was misalignments and technique and/or lack of rush. But then, once that started to happen, then guys tried to push and stress and try to do too much. And then, that affected the run game. I think that it starts with, if we’re in pass coverage and you’re throwing a route into coverage, we have to execute so that doesn’t happen. And then, I think the other piece is once the run game kind of starts to go, having everybody trust in doing their job so that guys to the right and left of them can do theirs. That was wilted away tonight.
(Get enough done during the bye week) Well, you would love to have a win coming off of a bye, but I thought there was a lot of truth that was spoken, I feel, and there was a lot of work put into fundamentals and things that you’d like to say would equate to a win. And it’s awfully unfortunate that it didn’t, but it really shows that there’s much more work to do. So, I think for us to approach it from a teacher’s perspective and really meet guys where they’re at, and get them to be at their best in a real kind of tough and critical time is everything right now. So, we’re all about it.
