Here are the transcripts from Tuesday interviews featuring Clancy Pendergast, Chris Hawkins, Cam Smith, Uchenna Nwosu, John Houston and Christian Rector with the national media:
DC CLANCY PENDERGAST
Q. Obviously the big thing is: How do you stop a quarterback like they have, a guy that can do -- I mean, he can do anything. He can run. What he's going to go do?
COACH PENDERGAST: He's obviously very talented. Look at how many starts he's had in his career. He's got a lot of experience. He's thrown for 35 touchdowns, run for ten touchdowns. So very much a dual-threat quarterback. We just have to play with really good discipline and eyes. And a lot of times when you play a running quarterback, it's 11 on 11. So you have to have somebody accounted for him at all times.
Q. I notice you didn't play in college but coached your fraternity team. I don't know if that's accurate, but that seems like you wanted to be a coach from the very start.
PENDERGAST: I wasn't talented enough to play at the Division I level so I missed playing. I started coaching high school while I was going to college.
Q. Their offensive line has had some injuries. Have you been able to tell?
PENDERGAST: They work well together. They're very cohesive. They've got a lot of experience. And I think they do a really nice job, and they have multiple schemes in their running game.
Q. Does this offense remind you of any offense that you've prepared for this season?
PENDERGAST: Last year they actually reminded me of Penn State a lot that we played in the Rose Bowl and probably a lot like Texas that we played earlier in the year. Very similar in their concepts and the running game and passing game. I would say those two teams since I've been coordinator here jump out at me as being similar. And then Arizona State I would say would be another team within the Pac-12 that is similar to what they do.
Q. How does that help you?
PENDERGAST: I just think when you play teams that play with 11-on-11 offense, the more those kind of teams that you play, the more your guys are going to be familiar with how to defend them. So playing with very good eye control is going to be important.
Q. I'm assuming the last time you were here was not the most positive experience, the opener from last season. But, obviously, when you took over, there was things that you wanted to accomplish from then to now. What do you see in this team defensively that has been adjusted and gotten better?
PENDERGAST: I think the first-year guys just getting acclimated with the scheme. They were more of a single two-gap-type defense up front and 3-4 concept. And I wanted to get more to a single-gap responsibility and being more disruptive. And I think we glued as a group last year, made strides in a lot of areas. And then we lost some guys, and so we had to plug guys in different spaces. This year I feel like the crew that we had coming back with the type offense we had, we needed to improve in three areas, most importantly to get our offense the ball back. We felt they could be explosive. We needed to do a better job of pressuring the quarterback, and we led the conference in sacks, and I think we're top ten in the country.
Q. Is there any motivation playing in the first game and coming back to the [AT&T] Stadium?
PENDERGAST: I'm sure there is. There's some familiarity there obviously because we have played a game there. So the guys that do have experience have a feel for coming back to it. We practiced there yesterday for the first time. So that's going to help us, that we get to work there for three days before the game.
Q. What's it look like with [Tee] Martin? And do you see him becoming a head coach down the road?
PENDERGAST: Tee is a talented coach. He and I work one-on-one a lot together because he's the coordinator in terms of scheduling practice and I've known Tee a long time. We coached in 2013 when he was the receiver coach so there's familiarity. I think he's a very good communicator. I think he knows how to get players to respond. And more than anything, which I think is important in a coordinator role, is he knows how to put his player in the position to make plays.
Q. How have you seen him grow from that 2013 year to now being coordinator?
PENDERGAST: I just see him being more involved with the whole offense. And I've seen him take the skill set that he had as a coach when he just coached the receivers and use that with the tight ends, the running backs, running game, quarterback. And I've seen him evolve that way as a coordinator.
Q. You mentioned Penn State. You look back at that game, you shut them out the first and fourth quarters. And they got 49 points in the second and third. Have you ever had a game that was that crazy?
PENDERGAST: No. It was a lot of ups and downs in that game. I think the biggest turning point in that game were the two touchdowns. In the third quarter where on the very first play of the second half, we missed six tackles. We had guys on the block that should have made the play. The back made a great run, cut back against the grain and obviously scored. And then I believe the very next series, they threw a ball up and Iman Marshall tips it and catches it and runs it for a touchdown. So it was a quick strike, scores. And there was a turnover. So there was a lot of ups and downs in that game. And I think as a spectator, I remember that there always seems like a lot of points scored in bowl games. And I think a lot of that is because defensively teams take a three-, four-, five-week break from not seeing the speed of the game weekly, not like practice. And my personal opinion, you can go out there and run your plays at a certain speed and run your plays, run your pass plays, but when you have to defend against that speed, it's never quite the same in practice. So sometimes in a bowl game, I think it takes time for the defense to kind of get caught up because you haven't played for so long. This year, we played in the Pac-12 championship game, which there wasn't quite as long of a lull between the last game and the bowl game as there was for us last year. So I hope that's going to pay dividends for us.
Q. Talk about your NFL days. 2002 was your last year against the (Dallas) Cowboys?
PENDERGAST: Yes.
Q. How much do you see things have changed, not only the stadium but –
PENDERGAST: It's weird driving down 114 and seeing the old (Texas) Stadium gone. But it's changed a lot. I have a lot of fond memories. I still have a lot of friends here. Mr. Jones gave me my first opportunity to be a full-time position coach. So I thank him for that and the opportunities that I had through my whole time here. But it's a very special place. In coaching you're able to spend seven years somewhere and with three head coaches, you're very thankful.
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DC CLANCY PENDERGAST
Q. Obviously the big thing is: How do you stop a quarterback like they have, a guy that can do -- I mean, he can do anything. He can run. What he's going to go do?
COACH PENDERGAST: He's obviously very talented. Look at how many starts he's had in his career. He's got a lot of experience. He's thrown for 35 touchdowns, run for ten touchdowns. So very much a dual-threat quarterback. We just have to play with really good discipline and eyes. And a lot of times when you play a running quarterback, it's 11 on 11. So you have to have somebody accounted for him at all times.
Q. I notice you didn't play in college but coached your fraternity team. I don't know if that's accurate, but that seems like you wanted to be a coach from the very start.
PENDERGAST: I wasn't talented enough to play at the Division I level so I missed playing. I started coaching high school while I was going to college.
Q. Their offensive line has had some injuries. Have you been able to tell?
PENDERGAST: They work well together. They're very cohesive. They've got a lot of experience. And I think they do a really nice job, and they have multiple schemes in their running game.
Q. Does this offense remind you of any offense that you've prepared for this season?
PENDERGAST: Last year they actually reminded me of Penn State a lot that we played in the Rose Bowl and probably a lot like Texas that we played earlier in the year. Very similar in their concepts and the running game and passing game. I would say those two teams since I've been coordinator here jump out at me as being similar. And then Arizona State I would say would be another team within the Pac-12 that is similar to what they do.
Q. How does that help you?
PENDERGAST: I just think when you play teams that play with 11-on-11 offense, the more those kind of teams that you play, the more your guys are going to be familiar with how to defend them. So playing with very good eye control is going to be important.
Q. I'm assuming the last time you were here was not the most positive experience, the opener from last season. But, obviously, when you took over, there was things that you wanted to accomplish from then to now. What do you see in this team defensively that has been adjusted and gotten better?
PENDERGAST: I think the first-year guys just getting acclimated with the scheme. They were more of a single two-gap-type defense up front and 3-4 concept. And I wanted to get more to a single-gap responsibility and being more disruptive. And I think we glued as a group last year, made strides in a lot of areas. And then we lost some guys, and so we had to plug guys in different spaces. This year I feel like the crew that we had coming back with the type offense we had, we needed to improve in three areas, most importantly to get our offense the ball back. We felt they could be explosive. We needed to do a better job of pressuring the quarterback, and we led the conference in sacks, and I think we're top ten in the country.
Q. Is there any motivation playing in the first game and coming back to the [AT&T] Stadium?
PENDERGAST: I'm sure there is. There's some familiarity there obviously because we have played a game there. So the guys that do have experience have a feel for coming back to it. We practiced there yesterday for the first time. So that's going to help us, that we get to work there for three days before the game.
Q. What's it look like with [Tee] Martin? And do you see him becoming a head coach down the road?
PENDERGAST: Tee is a talented coach. He and I work one-on-one a lot together because he's the coordinator in terms of scheduling practice and I've known Tee a long time. We coached in 2013 when he was the receiver coach so there's familiarity. I think he's a very good communicator. I think he knows how to get players to respond. And more than anything, which I think is important in a coordinator role, is he knows how to put his player in the position to make plays.
Q. How have you seen him grow from that 2013 year to now being coordinator?
PENDERGAST: I just see him being more involved with the whole offense. And I've seen him take the skill set that he had as a coach when he just coached the receivers and use that with the tight ends, the running backs, running game, quarterback. And I've seen him evolve that way as a coordinator.
Q. You mentioned Penn State. You look back at that game, you shut them out the first and fourth quarters. And they got 49 points in the second and third. Have you ever had a game that was that crazy?
PENDERGAST: No. It was a lot of ups and downs in that game. I think the biggest turning point in that game were the two touchdowns. In the third quarter where on the very first play of the second half, we missed six tackles. We had guys on the block that should have made the play. The back made a great run, cut back against the grain and obviously scored. And then I believe the very next series, they threw a ball up and Iman Marshall tips it and catches it and runs it for a touchdown. So it was a quick strike, scores. And there was a turnover. So there was a lot of ups and downs in that game. And I think as a spectator, I remember that there always seems like a lot of points scored in bowl games. And I think a lot of that is because defensively teams take a three-, four-, five-week break from not seeing the speed of the game weekly, not like practice. And my personal opinion, you can go out there and run your plays at a certain speed and run your plays, run your pass plays, but when you have to defend against that speed, it's never quite the same in practice. So sometimes in a bowl game, I think it takes time for the defense to kind of get caught up because you haven't played for so long. This year, we played in the Pac-12 championship game, which there wasn't quite as long of a lull between the last game and the bowl game as there was for us last year. So I hope that's going to pay dividends for us.
Q. Talk about your NFL days. 2002 was your last year against the (Dallas) Cowboys?
PENDERGAST: Yes.
Q. How much do you see things have changed, not only the stadium but –
PENDERGAST: It's weird driving down 114 and seeing the old (Texas) Stadium gone. But it's changed a lot. I have a lot of fond memories. I still have a lot of friends here. Mr. Jones gave me my first opportunity to be a full-time position coach. So I thank him for that and the opportunities that I had through my whole time here. But it's a very special place. In coaching you're able to spend seven years somewhere and with three head coaches, you're very thankful.
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