HEAD COACH MACK BROWN
Opening statement: We played hard, but we didn't play well at times. I want to congratulate Texas Tech, I thought they played as well as I've ever seen them. Graham Harrell was as hot as could be. A lot of times we were covering them and they were sticking it in there, then we were hitting them, and they were hanging on to the ball. That first half was about as masterful as I've ever seen. When Texas Tech is moving the ball and they're hot, they're as good as anybody in the country on offense. Coming into this game, especially out here, you think you're going to have to match their scoring because they are going to score some points. Credit our coaches for hanging in there and being positive with the kids and credit the kids for believing and just keep on working.
On the play of quarterback Colt McCoy: I thought he played as well as I've ever seen him play. The plays he made with his feet, the one down to the one yard-line and the one he made at the end there on the sprint out. We told him to throw if they were wide open and run it if they're not, well they were wide open and he ran it anyways, but I didn't blame him. Then he was smart enough when he had a chance to score, to stay in bounds and take a knee and played like a coaches' son there at the end of the ballgame.
On the progress of McCoy and his performance in road games this season: It is amazing. You know sometimes that your neighborhood is more stressful when you're playing in it than when you're at Oklahoma or Nebraska. Everybody thought, `He won't handle the Oklahoma game well,' but he played great. Then they thought, `Well he sure won't go to Nebraska and play well,' and he played great. In some ways there was probably more pressure in this ballgame because he knows all of the Tech kids. This was more of a pressure game in some ways for him personally than the others and I thought he tried to hard to start the game.
On the adjustment of the defense in the second half: I thought the defensive staff did better than I did. I don't remember one being incomplete in the first half; I don't think we batted one down. But to their [defensive coaches] credit, they ignored me and stayed really positive. I went back in there and got the kids stirred up and said, `Hey, we're okay.' We all talked about it, he [Harrell] was just really hot. When a quarterback gets hot in this offense, you've got some trouble. If he's bad, they're in trouble. If he gets like he was tonight, you better grab and hang on and we did.
