Weis Meets with the Media to Discuss Texas Game
Kansas head coach Charlie Weis met with the media Tuesday to discuss the Jayhawks upcoming road contest against Texas at Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium Saturday at 2:30 p.m. Full video of the press conference is available to Jayhawk Digital Passport subscribers here, while a transcript of selected quotes can be found below.
Kansas Head Coach Charlie Weis
Opening Statement
“After a slow start, Texas has got it rolling. They’ve won the last four in a row, led by Mack Brown, one of the best coaches in college football who has been there for 16 years. The man can still coach, 150 wins verses 43 losses there at Texas, 16 years in one place. The return almost everyone, obviously they lost (Kenny) Vaccaro, a first round draft choice; they return almost everyone on both sides of the ball.
“I think Mack made a very bold move earlier in the season when he let their defensive coordinator go and brought in Greg Robinson who had been around some. He’s really settled their defense down. You go back to our game last year, they were moving all over the place- stunting and blitzing. He’s really settled it down and just let their athletes be athletes. Especially when you got guys like (Jackson) Jeffcoat and (Cedric) Reed playing those defensive ends, they’re both really good players. Outside you got (Malcolm) Brown and (Chris) Whaley, they’re both really good players. The linebackers when their playing 4-3, you got (Steve) Edmond over at the Will and (Dalton) Santos in the middle and (Peter) Jinkins over at the Sam and they’ll bring (Quandre) Diggs, who plays corner, down when they play the nickel. These guys are playing a lot of football. A lot of starts on that defense, a lot of talent on that defense. And what Greg has really done is just settle down the defense and let them settle in and just go out and play.
“Major Applewhite is their offensive coordinator. Funny Major anecdote, we signed Major- he was an undrafted player out of Texas- with the Patriots when I was with the Patriots. He had a nice May for us, went home, he was going to compete for our third quarterback. I had a cookout with my whole staff on Memorial day, and my phone rang and it was Major saying, ‘I’ve decided I’m retiring from football. ‘I still to this day remember that phone call from Major he decided he wanted to go into coaching and now he’s the offensive coordinator for the Texas Longhorns, his alma mater. 450 yards a game, 200 yards rushing, 250 yards passing and 32.5 yards a game.
“They use multiple personnel groups, but it’s interesting since (Case) McCoy took over for (David) Ash, the personality in the past two weeks has changed. Thinking back to the Kansas State game, he’d been maybe 11 and 10 all the time, with three or four wide receivers on the field. Since he took over they’ve gone a lot more 12 personnel, where they’ll put in two tight ends, and pound you. The one thing about Case when there’s the changing of the guard at quarterback, for whatever reason Case is obviously not considered as a backup quarterback. He’s well-respected by his peers, he’s very well liked. The players are playing hard for him, he’s got those two muchachos up front, he’s got two big tackles in (Donald) Hawkins and (Kennedy) Estelle, 6-foot-5, 310 and 6-foot-7, 320. (Dominic) Espinosa’s the center and (Trey) Hopkins is left guard and Walters is right guard and he seems like he’s been around there forever, the emotional or psychological leader of that group.
“The running backs, I was involved with recruiting both of these guys, both (Johnathan) Gray and (Malcolm) Brown, obviously from different places for both of them, I was involved with recruiting both of these guys. They play a bunch of receivers, but if you’re going to name two, you’d name Davis and (Jaxton) Shipley.(Gaston) Davis is their most athletic, most dynamic guy and Shipley is the go-to-guy. Seems like McCoy and Shipley, that combination must be part of longhorn history, I wonder if there is another two on the horizon, because this is the second time around already. Now they’ve been using both (Geoff) Swaim and Daniels at tight end, a lot of times together, they’re kind of clones, about 6-foot-4, 250 both really physical guys at tight end.
“(Anthony) Fera handles most of the kicking and Shipley was the returner but the guy you really have to worry yourself with is Johnson in the return game. Now he’s handling punt returns, he could be back there at kick returns as well. He’s a backup wide receiver but he’s a really fast guy who’s kind of dynamic and has to be a concern.”
On if it’s harder making changes in coaching than in the depth chart…
“No, it’s not hard doing it; it’s when you do it. It’s when you change. It’s very unusual to do it two or three games into your season. You just don’t see it happen very often, making a change is difficult. But after a season is over, you have a full body of evidence there, and you can reflect on pros and cons then sometimes it is what it is. Doing it during the season is very unusual. I think that Mack’s personality, he was looking for something that he wasn’t getting. He was looking for someone who would let their athletes be athletes and that’s not what they were doing and Greg had been around like somewhat of a consult to them, and he was familiar with their program and what was going on there so it wasn’t like he was coming in with no familiarity to what was happening. I think that Mack and him saw more eye to eye and it made it easier for Mack knowing that they were going to play defense the way they wanted to play defense.”
On what the team gained from the Texas game last year…
“The players should feel like they have a chance at winning. That’s the most important thing. Look, they just came off a butt kicking this past week, so you’re getting ready to go on the road to Texas, who’s got momentum going on their side. But just like I’m sure that Mack is showing them the game from last year saying ‘don’t overlook these guys.’ We’re also showing the game from last year, ‘It’s the same guys, fellas.’ Almost all the players are the same except for the first round draft choice that’s not there anymore. That’s who you’re going against. There they are- the same guys.”
On what he sees on Montell Cozart’s film…
“I thought that he had a lot of room for improvement. We kind of followed the plan we’ve had for the past couple of weeks. We practiced him about half the week, about half the reps in practice. And he played about half the game. We wanted both the guys to know this wasn’t going to be a quick trigger, like if you go three and out and the next guys in, where you’re looking over your shoulder the whole time because if you make one mistake you’re afraid you’ll be out on the sideline. I think there were a lot of things from that game where he did well, but tons of things that he saw that he will gain valuable experience from. The more he gets out there, the better and better it will be for Montell. And he’ll be out there a bunch again this week.”
On if it is enjoyable to see a young player see himself on tape…
“Well it would be a really difficult situation if it wasn’t- to be honest with you- the way Jake Heaps handles the situation. Because it could be very uncomfortable, to do the same thing you’re talking about. On the one hand yes, but yes at what price. Jake has made this a little bit easier to go, because Jake is probably one of the most unselfish people that we have. He doesn’t care- whatever we have to do that gives us the best chance that’s all he’s concerned with.”
On Heaps and Cozart’s friendship…
“That’s the best part. I don’t know if you noticed, but when Jake went back in he threw the touchdown pass, the first person to Jake was Montell. And that’s another thing we didn’t say. You could really see that they fed off of each other and that was a really good thing to see. Those are the things that if you set them, they wouldn’t mean as much. Them doing it on their own means a lot more.”
On what Cozart can learn from Heaps…
“Jake is so good with the team, and a lot of times when you’re a freshman, you’re kind of afraid to take that role, but one of the things that Jake said just last night, when we were talking was ‘Go ahead, be more authoritative in huddle, don’t just read the plays, call the plays. When you’re in there, it’s your huddle, it’s your team.’ People don’t say things like that. Jake’s been really good for Montell.”
On if it is natural for Cozart to take advice from Heaps…
“Oh he’ll run with that in a heartbeat. Knowing you have the support from the guy that’s really starting, who’s a runaway captain on the team, it takes the tension of what he has to deal with. He doesn’t have to deal with, ‘Here I’m trying to take your job.’ It’s what they’re supposed to be doing. They’re supposed to be trying to take their jobs. When they’re not trying to take their jobs, that’s when you’ve got a problem.”
On if he hopes one quarterback will emerge as the true frontrunner…
“I think that as the year goes on, you wouldn’t say ideally for them to play half and half. Let’s see where it goes. Like I told Jake last night, you go out there and score four touchdowns in a row; you’re still going to be out there in case you’re wondering. It isn’t like all of a sudden we think, well let’s be innovative. We just scored a bunch of touchdowns, let’s take him out now. We would never do that. Obviously we haven’t had much offensive production that would be rhetorical to even discuss at this point. But if one of them got a hot hand in the game, why would you take them out? You just wouldn’t. We’ll just have to wait and see how it goes.”
On if he is waiting for one of the quarterbacks to rise above the other…
“I’d say that if you divided the game into quarters, I’d say about half the stuff both guys can do, it really doesn’t make a difference who is in there. So that leaves you another 50%. 25% you gear towards one guy, and 25% you gear towards the other guy. So the combination is, when one guy’s in there he’s got 75% of the plan that you can work with. When the other guy is in there he has 75% that he can work with. But, that 25% is different because it’s geared towards them. We have things that are geared towards just when Montell is in and we have things that are geared towards just when Jake’s in. Then the rest of it is geared towards it doesn’t make a difference who is in. So, that’s how we practice it too. We practice it exactly how I just described it to you. It might sound confusing, but it really isn’t that confusing. But, really when you lay out reps it’s really not that confusing. I’ll tell you, there’s one period today that’s 20 plays that Jake has 12 and Montell has eight. But, there’s another period today where Jake has eight and Montell has 12. It’s a different part of practice, but it all depends on what we’re doing at the time. In gearing towards their package, that 25% that I was talking about as their package being emphasized over the other one, so that guy would be in at that time.”
On what the ideal body type is for Montell Cozart…
“Bob and I were talking about that just last night and I think I leave that to Holsopple because you want them to get as big as they can without losing their quickness. I don’t want to keep bringing up Tommy, but when Tommy came in he was 188 pounds. By the end of his rookie year he was 217 pounds. So he went from 188 to 217 in one year. Tommy was 6’5″ and he had the frame where he could carry that much weight. I don’t know, I’m not the expert on that. That’s what Scott’s here for. Scott’s the guy that can give me best hey here’s what this guy should be trying to get to. I’ll leave it to the experts on that.”
On if Montell Cozart is big enough…
“He’s plenty big enough. Would I like him to weight more than 180 pounds, if that’s what he weighs? I couldn’t tell you what he weighs right now. I’d have to put him on a scale, I couldn’t tell you. But, would I like him at 200 instead of 180? You bet I would. But, whatever Scott says that’s what I’m going with.”
On if he sees the bigger picture and not just the 2-5 record…
“No, I think the important thing is waiting for the season to play out. I think that that’s the most important thing, because sometimes you have to look at not just how things are going, but how they finish. I said all along, and I could be wrong, I don’t think I’m going to be wrong, that we will be playing our best football at the end of the year. We’ve got five games to go to find out if that’s the case or not. It isn’t exactly like we’ve been playing 1-AA teams every week here for the last bunch of weeks the last I checked. It’s just dial them up one after another. The Big 12 is a very good league and very good competition and they’re good football teams. Baylor just stomped us. The last I checked there’s a bunch of other teams that didn’t fair too well against them as well. That’s not an excuse, that’s reality. That’s just the way it is. Let’s see how it plays out at the end of the year. If we’re sitting here 2-10 at the end of the year, then it’s going to be tough for me to sit here and answer if there’s a lot of progress. I’d have a tough time saying it. But, that’s not where we intend on being.”
On the offensive changes…
“I thought the receivers actually played better last week. You actually saw more route definition. They weren’t just running routes, they were competing for balls. That isn’t a shot at the receivers or Coach Ianello, that’s the extra pressure of head coach being around you all the time. Now all of the sudden you’ve got another set of eyes in there and it happens to be the boss. It’s a lot different when you’re doing it on your own and when the guy who’s in charge is there. I thought that all of them played harder with more definition. If that’s the step we made last week and can continue to make a step like that each week then we’re headed in the right direction.”
On if he saw the wide receivers make progress in practice as well…
“The only thing is I saw it the week before too, but it didn’t carry over to the game. Now the coaching point is after that, now the next step is fellas, you can’t just do it in practice. In the game, all of the sudden, all of the discipline goes by the boards. I think that they actually looked improved last week. I’m not saying that we looked great, because we didn’t look great anywhere. But, they actually improved and I expect them to be better this week.”
On his coaching change made a few weeks ago…
“Well, it’s allowed me to coach a lot more. To be honest with you I get to see a lot more. If you think about it, if you’re calling the game and now the series is over, you’re not really watching the game. Your eyes might be out on the game, but your goal is going over what just happened in the last series good and bad. You’re predicting what’s going to happen in the next series, what they’re going to do. Then you’re coming up with a whole new set of openers. Now you’ve gone through openers, now what are the next half dozen plays that you’ve got dialed up and ready to go. Before you know it it’s third down and the punt teams going out. It happens in a hurry. Whereas in this time I’ll say tell me what happened in this series, hold on I’ll click back over to you, let me see what’s going on on defense. Now you have a chance to do this, you can see okay Ron, tell me what we got here now. Now you’re not the one having to do all that grunt work. Now those are coming back saying here’s what they did, here’s what we’re doing, here’s what we got dialed up next and that’s it. It allows you to see a lot more of the game. You actually miss a lot of the game when you’re calling the game. You miss a lot of the game because the majority of your emphasis is just on trying to get ready for the next series.”
On how fast he makes the decision on which quarterback is going out there…
“Usually after a drive is over I’ll say, okay where are we going here now? Where are we heading with this? I won’t just say, hey Ron, who do you want to put in next? I’ll say, another series here? What we don’t want either quarterback to feel when they’re in there is that they’re in there for three plays. We don’t want that happening. We want them when they are in there to be able to run some stuff. It isn’t like we’re going to go in and out every other play. We get a chance to talk about it, but usually it’s after they get to see what’s happened in the last drive so we don’t do it right away. But, I go over and talk to both of them, after the decision is made I usually look at one guy and tell the other guy he’s in. I’ll say okay Montell, you’re in. But, I’m looking at Jake when I’m saying it. Because they’re doing the same thing you’re doing, they’re waiting to see who’s dialed up next. They’re no different than anyone else. I’m dumb, but I’m not that dumb.”
On offensive linemen Damon Martin and Randall Dent…
“We haven’t been real pleased with the physicality that we’ve been getting at the tackle position. We’ve been fine with the assignments, not the physicality. By having two veteran guys in Riley and Randall backing up the two tackle positions, we know that if we need to put another guy in that needs to be settled into one position just to play physical. Once again, we’re going against another team, the defensive ends just like last week, the defensive ends are probably the strength of their team. 44 and 88, these two guys, they’re pretty good. We have some guys on deck that have some experience and have some girth on them that we’d be ready to go if that were to take place.”
On Tony Pierson…
“I wouldn’t say perplexed, I’m concerned. There’s nothing medically keeping him from playing. But, maybe I’m old fashioned. Maybe I’m not overly concerned, but when the kid’s been out there for three plays and he’s dizzy and he hasn’t gotten hit you’d be concerned. Especially when he’s got his head knocked around a couple of times in a calendar year. Isn’t that one of the biggest points in football today, the discussion on concussion? How hypocritical would you be if you tried to push a guy out there? You were sitting here saying you look out for your players and now you’re sticking a guy out there that is woozy without getting hit. When you’re woozy without getting hit, then it’s time to take a rest and make sure the next time you go out there you won’t be afraid. You know what happens? Then you go out there afraid. The one thing you can’t do, you can’t play this game that way. Because now you’re concerned that every time you get hit you’re going to get a concussion. I think that the next time Tony goes out there, he needs to be totally convinced that he’s going to be healthy, and he’s not going to get hurt. He will not see the field one second until we get to that time. For example, I could have put him day-to-day. He’s listed as questionable. There’s nothing on the medical report that keeps him from playing. But, the odds of me playing him are slim to none. He came off the field. I looked at him. That’s the one thing you do, I’ve kind of tweaked my role now, before I wouldn’t have even seen him. But, now he’s coming off the field and I’m watching him. I’m watching him the whole time. I’m watching him from when he went over by the bench first off all. He dropped the ball, which is unusual for him. Then he comes over and his heads down the whole time. So, I don’t know if his head’s down because he’s depressed the he dropped the ball or there’s something wrong. So, as soon as he came off the field I said talk to me. He goes I’m dizzy. I yelled for Murph and that was it. It didn’t take much. When you look into their faces and the kid looks at you and says he’s dizzy and he hasn’t gotten hit that pretty much told the story.”
On Ben Heeney…
“He wanted to play last week. Right until Friday he’s still getting ready to go and he wasn’t really ready to let it loose in a game like that that was going to be played in space. If you look at the, the guy wasn’t perfectly healthy and you were going to play him the whole game in space. A week later you’re going to play a team that is going to try to pound you. So which game do you want him playing in if you have a choice? You hold him for that game where he wasn’t going to be 100% and now you got him back for the game where the team is going to try to pound you. That’s his game. So the game they are playing, that’s his game. I think it matches up well, giving him the extra rest matches up well for a game plan that I think is going to need him.”
On if Brandon Bourbon is a bigger threat with Montell Cozart…
“I think the threat of plus one football, which is the quarterback keeping, the threat of plus one football makes all the runners more viable. Because Brandon has just as good of athleticism as anyone we have, and better speed than most people think he has, it makes him more dangerous. Montell brings plus one football that you don’t have with Jake. That’s the biggest advantage.”
