SATURDAY OFF
Not a lot going on in the bye week, of course, but I did find that infamous moustache photo of Colt McCoy on mackbrown-texasfootball.com. Not too bad, really, but he's said it'll never be back. We'll see.
Speaking of mackbrown-texasfootball.com, just in case you missed Colt's remarks in the Monday press conference, here they are:
On the off week: It's an opportunity, if you take advantage of it, to really sharpen up on some things. There's a lot of things we can work on and be better at. We've got some guys banged up. They have a chance to get healthy. If you use the off week the right way, it can really help.
On using the bye week correctly: It's real easy to slip off and not do that much in the off week, but we've taken advantage of it so far. We had a really good practice today, worked on the run game, worked on a few things that are really going to help us down the stretch. We're using it wisely and hopefully it will carry over. We ended the UTEP game on a good note, and we definitely want to use what we did in that game and carry it into Colorado.
On the focus of the off week: We're not getting away from game planning. We start back with conference soon. Colorado is going to come in here with a head of steam, so we definitely have to be ready. We're working on some things that we need to work on, getting some guys healthy; it'll be good for us.
On what he has learned about the team through four games: I've just learned that we have a lot of room for improvement. We're not as good as we can be. We're not as close to as good as we can be. We've got a long way to go. We're working really hard. The first four games we learned that we can be really explosive. We've got a lot of talent on our team. When we play together, like we did against UTEP, we've got a chance to be really good.
On the team coming together: It's coming together. To be able to play like that against UTEP, the defense gave us a lot of good field position and we were able to capitalize. We need to score more touchdowns in the red zone when we get down there. I think that was probably the biggest disappointment in that game.
On getting familiar with the wide receivers: We're starting to get used to the receivers, starting to get used to where they're lining up, where they're playing, what routes they're running, getting more comfortable versus man-to-man, finding little holes in zones. I knew as soon as the season started that it was going to be a work in progress until we really came together because if you look across the board, every receiver is playing a different position than what they did last year. I knew it was going to take time but to play like that and to have this open week to work, to be able to see that and head into conference play, I'm definitely pleased.
On how special teams returns energize a team: That's definitely a spark. Any time you have a guy like D.J. (Monroe), Jordan (Shipley) or Marquise (Goodwin) back there that can make plays, you feel like they can score at any point. We truly are a team, and when they can make plays like that, everybody gets energized. It's good.
On the team's playmakers: There are a lot of guys who can make plays. My job is just to get the ball in their hands. We're getting better and better at that. We've just got to keep working. I'm really pleased with where we are right now. The open date came at a good time. We have a chance to really work on some things that we need to work on. I'm just ready to get back on the field.