Tom Herman post-practice quotes - 12/15/17

Opening statement: I know it’s been a while since we spoke last. A lot of energy right now out there at practice. I think it’s been good. The guys are enjoying playing football. It’s been a lot of developmental work in terms of we haven’t had a lot of assistant coaches at practices, it’s mainly been the coordinators and myself because of recruiting. There’s a lot of 11 on 11 going on out there, just playing the game and putting them in situations, whether it be two minute, red zone, third down. Just play football. We definitely need that on both sides. Energy’s been great. Guys are flying around. Excited. We’ll get more now that we’ll have the coaches back in off the road. We’ll get a lot more in-depth into preparation for Missouri next week. We’ve sprinkled a little bit of that in here throughout the last week or so. It’s been mostly about us getting better and playing.

On injuries and Elijah Rodriguez: Elijah’s doing great. He’s battling to get in there because we’re healthier there than we’ve been. Patrick’s been full pad practice, Patrick Vahe, and Elijah, Jake (McMillon) and Terrell (Cuney) in there. Those guys have been rotating around and Elijah’s been getting some reps at tackle as well. Malik (Jefferson) with the turf toe, first degree sprain of the turf toe, went and saw a specialist. I believe it was in Green Bay or something like that, and confirmed the diagnosis, first degree. He’s day-to-day right now. I think he’s been fighting through that for a while now. The more rest, the better for him. Like I said, he’s not missing a ton in terms of Missouri preparation because we haven’t thrown very much at them in terms of that. He was also sick today, yesterday and today. Upper respiratory deal. He had a fever, fever broke. He should be back out there tomorrow.

“So that being said, as of right now, you’re expecting Malik to try and play?”: We haven’t really talked about it. Those guys, we talked about it right after the final regular season game, and they all sent their paperwork into the NFL, the guys that wanted to and got that back. I know they’ve been talking about it with their families, but this is my first real day off the road, so a bunch of those guys will come in and talk to me here this weekend.

On balancing recruiting and practices: It’s really hard. I think this was one of the unintended consequences. You’ve got to suck it up and do it, there’s no complaints. It is difficult for head coaches. I’m not sure we all realized the percentage of kids that would sign on the early signing day. We’ll probably have at least 2/3, probably 3/4 of our class signed on signing day, which is great once it’s done. Now, in the eyes of the NCAA those guys turn into players at the University of Texas. We can call them whenever we want. We can go see them off-campus whenever we want. We can send them our playbooks. We can send them nutrition plans, workout plans, all that stuff. I think the benefits of signing early will be really, really good. These last three weeks have been a blur for me because as a head coach, you only get to see each kid one time off campus. If we’re going to sign 20 guys on signing day on Dec. 20, we’re recruiting probably 26 to 28 guys. To go try and see 26 guys, and have bowl practices, and host official visitors each weekend — 26 guys in three weeks plus practice — the math doesn’t really add up real well. It’s been a blur. Sunday, Los Angeles. Monday, Salt Lake City then back here in Austin late Monday night, early Tuesday morning. Practice Tuesday morning, Louisville, Kentucky then fly from Louisville Tuesday night to Bradenton, Florida. Bradenton, Florida Wednesday in the morning, then Houston, Texas in the afternoon, then the Touchdown Club in Houston Wednesday evening. Then fly home and get home real late Wednesday night. Wake up, Thursday morning practice, hop on a plane to Shreveport, Louisiana then to Dallas, Texas and then back here to be at practice Friday morning. And that’s just one week, and the other weeks have been very similar. It’s been a grind but I think it will be very worth it.

On how he approaches losing players to the NFL: I think it’s positive for a couple of reasons. One, we are developing NFL talent, and especially if you’re a mid-year guy coming out of high school, we’re going to get you on a plan to graduate in 3.5 years and if you’re good enough to come out early, we’re going to send you on your way and wish you the best and know that you’re prepared, and hopefully at that point, have your degree as well. It’s also positive because the guys that are going to fill in for them get all of this practice work as well. If a guy is good enough to be an early round draft pick and wants to leave early, we understand.

On if Elijah Rodriguez will play: He can’t redshirt. I think he’s already used his redshirt year. He’ll play.

On quarterback: It’s been even. If you’re asking who goes out there the first time the ones go out, it’s been Shane (Buechele), but then the second time the ones go, it’s been Sam (Ehlinger). Both have had good days, both have had not-so-good days. We’ve got a lot of time to worry about that in terms of who’s going to get the bulk of the reps in the game

On if he expects both guys to play: Yeah

On contact and relationship with Chris Del Conte: Really excited. Excited for a guy with his proven track record, with his leadership skills, his vision, as well as, like I said, the things that he did at Rice and at TCU are unprecedented. I’m really excited to start working with him. We met yesterday, briefly, face to face. We’ve been talking on the phone almost every day. Face to face, we met for about 30 minutes yesterday. Chris and I go way back, and we have stayed in touch throughout the years. We’re not taking family vacations together or anything like that but professionally have stayed in touch and I think it was home-run by President (Greg) Fenves and our administration to get him here.

On possible future projects: We’ve talked. He’s aware. What they have done from a facilities standpoint at TCU with their stadium and football facility is remarkable. He said he was just at Oklahoma a week or two ago and saw their brand new facility. He’s aware. He’s not just a football athletic director, too. He’s for all sports. I know getting a new basketball arena is a very big priority around here as well.

On Missouri and Drew Lock: I don’t know why he’s under the radar. He’s a guy, I believe he leads FBS in touchdown passes. He’s on a six game run that’s as good as there is in the country. I think the one thing that goes a bit un-talked about or unmentioned in this six game run that they’re on is their defense. Their front four especially, front six, are playing really, really hard. They’re really difficult to block. I think they’re in the top 10 in the country in TFLs. They’re getting in the backfield, so we will definitely have our hands full on both sides of the ball.

On if he’s heard from Michael Dickson, Kris Boyd, Chris Nelson, or Charles Omenihu on their advisory board grades: No. They just got them a couple of days ago. I’ve been on the road. Probably either later today or some point this weekend we’ll sit down and talk. I don’t know that they need to hurry up with any kind of decision. They’ve all been out there practicing. They can take their time with this. We’ll probably have some conversations here in the near future.

On if early signing will become the norm for recruits: I don’t know “the norm” but it will be more normal, for sure. We’re counting on seven mid-year enrollees this year, which is a lot for us, but probably not going to be seen as a lot in the future. That’s a personal decision for them. Does it help their development as freshman? Certainly. There’s no denying that. I certainly understand the guys that want to be a teenager and finish the final semester of high school.

On how parents view the early signing/enrollee: I don’t know that there’s a “most.” Everyone is different. If I had to categorize a majority of them, they’re probably torn a little bit because they want to see their sons succeed on the field as early as possible and I think they’re all very aware that the earlier you get that process started, the better. They’re also going to miss their kid whenever their kid leaves. I know as a parent I’d want to hold on to my kids as long as possible.

On what has been the sell for the recruiting class: Relationships. Our coaches handle recruiting the way they handle their position groups. We’re a very relationship based staff. When they’re here, we want to be like surrogate parents if you will. We want to make sure that those guys know that we love them, and we hold them to very high standards but we’ll give them the tools necessary to achieve those standards. I think our coaches have developed remarkable relationships with the guys in this class, and the record aside, the last few years, I guess I said this in one of my earlier press conferences and it became a hashtag, this is Texas. It’s still Texas, and everything that comes with it, with a degree from the University of Texas, one of the top 25 public institutions in the country, with the tradition and history here, with the tools and opportunities that we provide our student-athletes, and living in Austin, Texas. I’m not going to say it’s an easy sell because other places have a lot of really good things to sell as well, but when you’re talking about the product you’re selling, minus the relationships, our product is as good as there is in the country in terms of our education and athletic tradition and history. You couple that with the relationships these guys build and we’re doing a pretty good job.

On selling playing time or relationships: Everybody wants to play. There’s no real “sell” there. I get that “I want to look at the depth chart and see where I fit in.” You want guys that want to come in and compete. I know, talking to Michael Huff, that group of guys in that 04, 05, 06 era, it was a daily battle out there to keep your job or go take somebody’s job. The results of that talent-laden group was two Thorpe Awards, three first-rounders because there were so many good players in that DB group. I think playing time or depth chart analysis is a bit overrated when it comes to recruiting because if you’re recruiting the right guy, it doesn’t really matter. They don’t mind competition. They want to come in, compete, and keep getting better.

On replacing DeShon Elliott: I think right now, again, it’s been fly in, show up to practice, show up and go, me and Todd (Orlando) haven’t had a ton of conversations about that. I think right now when the one defense is out there it’s Antwuan (Davis) at nickel with P.J. (Locke) in DeShon’s spot because we are playing Jason Hall a lot closer to the box here in the last few weeks. He’s kind of found a home there.

On Todd Orlando being here next year and the 10th assistant: Yeah, I think all of our guys will be here next year. None of them have approached me with any jobs, despite reports. The 10th assistant is something I’ve done some preliminary backgrounds on some different guys but I haven’t even had time to shave half the time. I’m going to worry about that after signing day because you can’t bring a guy in anyways until January 1st. I’ll worry about it December 20th then really hit it the week after the bowl game, too.

On offense or defense for 10th assistant: I’ve thought about it. Initially, I thought about a defensive guy to even out the staff, but I think it’s kind of like recruiting a little bit. You almost want to go best available. I think you kick the tires on both sides of the ball. It’s just like in recruiting, you don’t take players just to take players. You want to take guys because they’re going to help you win. If a guy on defense, if you get down to the third or fourth guy, and maybe this guy on offense, the first guy, is gettable, and only the third or fourth on defense guy is gettable, maybe it’s the offensive guy you go after.

On recruiting ability of 10th assistant: That’s number one, and it’s the number one job description of all of our (coaches), is to bring in quality student-athletes, develop your unit is second, and then the scheme is a very distant third.