Jordan Lesley Texas Tech Preview
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00:00 - Okay, questions for Coach.
00:02 - Jordan, to start with you, defensive line,
00:03 obviously you lost pieces from last year
00:05 and you had to bring in a bunch of new guys,
00:07 but you've been really complimentary
00:09 of how they played and it's showed up.
00:11 So, are they above your expectations
00:15 of where they're playing right now up front?
00:17 - No, I wouldn't say above.
00:21 I've been very complimentary of them
00:23 because I think we've done a really nice job
00:26 of evaluating exactly what we need
00:28 in making the scheme fit those guys.
00:31 How they play is what I'm way more proud of that
00:35 than I am the statistics.
00:37 Guys are playing hard, playing with a lot of energy,
00:40 and they're playing together.
00:42 You know, they feed off each other.
00:43 And that is, as top to bottom unit,
00:47 when you're playing eight to 10 guys,
00:49 that's probably something that we haven't,
00:51 we've been lacking a little bit.
00:53 But they are, they're fun to coach,
00:54 they're exciting to watch.
00:56 - Transfers could be hit or miss,
00:57 but it looks like most of those transfers up front
01:00 have been pretty big hits.
01:02 - Yeah, I mean, again, I think it's part of the evaluation.
01:07 And when you're going out
01:08 and specifically evaluating things
01:10 that fit what you do and what you need.
01:13 And then, you know, understanding, you know,
01:17 the people focus on the big, you know,
01:22 whether, whatever you want to call it,
01:23 big fish or in the portal,
01:26 is when you can go out and really create,
01:29 based on, again, need and fit,
01:32 you can go out and find some really, really good players
01:36 that create a quality room, a quality depth.
01:41 And I think that's what you're seeing.
01:43 - What gave your defense,
01:45 what was the cause for the success that you,
01:47 there were times when you were pretty dominant on Saturday.
01:51 What was different from Saturday, the other two weeks?
01:54 - You know, I think, and you guys have heard me talk about
01:58 a little bit of a different mentality and approach
02:01 that this group has developed
02:05 with what do you want to consider leadership?
02:09 You know, I've always said that, you know,
02:10 leadership is very simply action.
02:13 And inherently guys follow your best players.
02:16 Well, those are the guys that really, really,
02:19 that in those games, they stand out and they show up
02:22 and they make plays, whether it's Aubrey,
02:25 whether it's Lee, whether it's Sean, whether it's Mike,
02:28 and it's been on all three levels.
02:30 So that's one thing.
02:32 And then, you know, how do you know that?
02:34 It's not really the win.
02:36 You know, they're probably,
02:39 I think it was maybe toward the end of the first quarter.
02:42 And, you know, as a coach, you sometimes try to say
02:46 they need to know what they need to know.
02:49 And that's it, go play.
02:51 And Coach Brown walks in the huddle and goes,
02:53 "Guys, Garrett's done for the night."
02:57 And they never blinked.
02:58 And that's, you know, that's how you know.
03:04 You know, they never batted an eye.
03:06 - We usually talk about not letting
03:10 a bad performance snowball,
03:12 but you would want a good performance to carry on.
03:15 So how do you kind of approach that to keep that going?
03:19 - I mean, you just keep building.
03:21 You know, our season goals are never just to be pit
03:23 or to play well against whatever it is.
03:26 That's not what we're striving to do.
03:29 It's good that we did it, obviously,
03:31 but that's not, we've got things,
03:33 bigger things to take care of.
03:35 And our whole theme, the entire off season,
03:39 into the summer, into the season,
03:42 has simply been to get better.
03:43 And we just continue to do that.
03:47 That's all we want to do.
03:49 And all we want to do is tomorrow.
03:50 And then this week,
03:51 and then we'll worry about the rest of it later.
03:54 - You made no bones since your secondary struggle
03:56 the first two games.
03:58 Difference this week, why was it better?
04:01 - Yeah, I mean, I think it's a combination.
04:05 I think that, number one,
04:10 I think Penn State going into the game
04:12 was probably a little undervalued at receiver.
04:16 And we didn't, and that's not,
04:17 we didn't play as, we didn't do some things as well,
04:20 fundamentally, as we could.
04:21 And then, quite honestly,
04:22 I had a couple of bonehead mistakes in game two,
04:27 but there's a lot of things,
04:28 and you heard me say this last week,
04:29 that a lot of adjustments that I held out.
04:32 And I did that by design.
04:34 And so, I think it was a combination of personnel
04:38 and then getting those adjustments in the game.
04:40 And I expected some of the things
04:45 that Pitt presented us with, with their overall plan.
04:47 I didn't expect it to be the volume of run game
04:52 that it would be, but it did.
04:56 But I think it was a little bit of a combination of both.
04:59 - What defines Trey Latham as a defensive?
05:04 - What defines him?
05:06 Growth, his growth over the last,
05:08 he's still a really young player.
05:10 He's athletic, he's aggressive,
05:13 and his best football is still ahead of him.
05:17 But we went into this season,
05:20 and quite honestly, probably putting a little more pressure
05:22 than somebody of that age is ready for,
05:25 because that was our hole.
05:26 And everybody, it's been, you guys have asked,
05:29 and we've talked about it the whole offseason,
05:30 that's been our hole.
05:32 And he's really, really stepped up.
05:33 And that growth continues week by week.
05:36 And so, Trey's best football's ahead of him,
05:39 but he's really taken a big step into a role
05:41 that we needed a big step.
05:43 I would say growth.
05:45 - How did you identify him as a linebacker?
05:48 Because he told us he played for Seahawks.
05:51 - Yeah, he played a little bit of both.
05:52 I mean, you just go through the evaluation
05:54 of a player as an athlete, number one.
05:56 Can they athletically do what you need them to do?
05:59 And then at some point,
06:00 they've shown you something at the position
06:03 that you need to see,
06:04 whether it's in a camp setting or video
06:06 or in person, in game, a live game scenario.
06:11 He played a little bit, but he is.
06:13 He's a good athlete, he's fast, he's aggressive.
06:16 - First tempo team, obviously getting lined up
06:19 is going to be the message this week.
06:22 - Yeah, I mean, that's what it's all about.
06:26 We talk about it all the time,
06:29 it's about you can disguise yourself out of plays.
06:33 And so, that's obviously something,
06:35 and that's the reason people do it,
06:37 so that you can't hide some things.
06:39 But at the end of the day,
06:42 I mean, it's all about getting lined up,
06:43 getting your cleats in the ground
06:44 and playing key in your key and doing your job.
06:47 - Getting back to Trey,
06:49 is there an advantage of him,
06:51 that he made his first start at Penn State,
06:54 kind of throwing it to the fire there?
06:56 - Yeah, I mean, it never hurts.
07:00 You know, you're not going to,
07:01 I say you're not going to play,
07:05 he may not play in a bigger environment,
07:07 but this environment Saturday night was better, I thought,
07:11 overall, just the environment, maybe not as big,
07:13 but our crowd was phenomenal.
07:15 So, you know, the only difference is home crowd
07:20 versus an away crowd, but it was good.
07:21 It was good for him to,
07:23 he made a couple of plays in that game,
07:25 I thought the game really started to slow down to him.
07:28 And so, you know, does it help?
07:30 I'm sure it does, but it definitely never hurts.
07:33 - Jordan, you may not want to get this secret away,
07:37 I don't know, but the evaluation you're talking about,
07:40 for some of these guys,
07:41 there's not a lot of tape that was available,
07:43 and different schemes, I'm guessing, too,
07:45 but how do you find people with such limited footage
07:49 and then find out that it is a hit,
07:51 and then you do feel comfortable going forward with it?
07:53 - You just trust your evaluation.
07:55 You know, there's certain things,
07:57 athletically, that you look for.
07:59 You know, just an example is,
08:04 I think a lot of people use this no secret,
08:06 is your foot speed.
08:09 You know, which directly relates,
08:11 in my opinion, to your athleticism.
08:13 So, once you see it,
08:15 you know, you see it, I mean,
08:17 take a guy like ADV,
08:19 that was all off of a cell phone video,
08:22 two days a week for five months.
08:25 And however damn cold it gets in Finland,
08:29 you know, so kudos to him.
08:30 But, that's what it was,
08:33 but you see things that you know
08:36 can carry over athletically,
08:39 into the game of football.
08:42 So, you just trust your evaluation,
08:43 and nobody is ever gonna be 100%,
08:47 but if you just trust it,
08:48 you believe in what you see,
08:49 and you stick with it,
08:50 you'll be right more than you're wrong.
08:52 - Tell me, go ahead.
08:56 - Just being a former D-line coach,
08:58 what has Coach Jackson done with this group
09:01 that they've played so well early on?
09:03 - I mean, I think,
09:05 AJ's fundamentally one of the,
09:08 probably the best I've ever been around.
09:11 And, you know, this group is really,
09:15 this is, you know,
09:17 you get into a tenure somewhere,
09:20 and it just, it takes time, right?
09:21 You got, you get your guys,
09:23 and your attitude, and your approach,
09:25 and it just starts to take over,
09:26 and it just takes,
09:27 it takes time to do that,
09:29 and I think that's what you see.
09:30 And, you know, he just,
09:33 you know, they respond to him,
09:35 and he does a good job
09:37 with them on the field,
09:37 with them off the field.
09:39 And he, you know,
09:40 he demands a standard and an expectation,
09:43 and he demands it in pre-practice,
09:44 and individual, down to team,
09:47 down to the walkthrough,
09:48 and so you're definitely starting to see that.
09:50 - Tell me, you recruit him hard the first time,
09:54 you pick someplace else.
09:55 I would think sometimes you could take that personally,
09:57 and say, I'm not gonna take you the second time around,
10:00 but what caused you to say,
10:02 you know what, we want the same--
10:04 - You know, I think the biggest thing is,
10:07 and what I do,
10:09 is I just always try to put myself back in the kids' shoes.
10:13 You know, I think most of us that do this,
10:18 we're recruited,
10:19 and you have your reasons,
10:22 and you have your evaluation process,
10:24 just like a coach does,
10:25 and so, you know,
10:26 I just respect people's decision,
10:28 you know, for whatever reason it was.
10:30 You come back on the back end,
10:31 and maybe it didn't work out,
10:32 or maybe it wasn't,
10:34 it was not what they thought it was.
10:36 I'm not saying that's the case with Tommy,
10:38 but you just, you respect decisions,
10:40 and you move on.
10:41 You know, it's,
10:43 you know, we signed a Sonny in that same class,
10:45 and so you go for a guy,
10:48 and it's your job to find the next guy that you like,
10:52 and go, it's our job to recruit,
10:54 so I can be mad at a kid for not choosing West Virginia,
10:58 or wherever,
11:00 and if I'm still left there with not a kid,
11:01 I'm not going to go out there and play,
11:03 you know, so,
11:04 so you better find,
11:05 you better find somebody,
11:05 and it better be somebody that's just as good,
11:08 or the next best thing,
11:09 and so, you know, you just don't,
11:12 I don't take recruiting personal.
11:14 You know, I had before as a young coach,
11:18 and it just, it's not,
11:19 you know, there's no,
11:20 just move on to the next guy.
11:21 It's your job to find the amount of guys,
11:23 and, you know,
11:25 especially, usually O-line and D-line,
11:27 where you're recruiting a high volume of guys,
11:30 it's hard, it's a lot of work,
11:31 so, if you don't,
11:34 that's really just lazy,
11:36 yeah, so, you just have to move on to the next guy,
11:40 and then, in this environment that we're in now,
11:42 in college football,
11:44 doesn't work out.
11:44 If you usually,
11:46 if you leave that on good terms,
11:48 then you probably have a better opportunity
11:51 the next time,
11:52 whether that's a one-time transfer,
11:53 or a graduate transfer,
11:55 and now the relationship is,
11:57 it never, it never had a break in it,
11:59 you know,
12:01 and it never goes sour,
12:02 so, you know, I just,
12:04 that's one thing I've never tried not to do in recruiting.
12:07 - You mentioned Asani,
12:09 but so he and Tomey,
12:11 have you seen their development?
12:13 I mean, is it,
12:14 they just sort of scratching the surface now,
12:16 or are they?
12:17 - Yeah, yes,
12:18 and I've said this about Tomey,
12:20 and I would say the same thing about Asani,
12:23 just coming off an injury,
12:24 so you don't have the same amount of practice reps,
12:27 and, you know,
12:28 summer reps to go off of,
12:30 you know,
12:31 Tomey, it means something to him,
12:33 he wants to be,
12:34 he wants to be good,
12:35 he works at it,
12:36 and not that he's perfect,
12:38 you know, Asani is
12:41 coming off and played his first college snaps
12:44 six months after a knee injury that has,
12:46 usually takes eight,
12:48 and the product,
12:49 that should tell you what you need to know
12:52 about how he handles his business,
12:53 so,
12:55 very similar,
12:56 very similar young man in their approach,
12:59 very similar skill set,
13:01 and I'm glad that we got him.
13:03 - Torey, we keep talking about him,
13:05 the first couple weeks,
13:06 it was about the ability to control gaps and whatnot,
13:10 he had five tackles,
13:11 and a couple behind the line of scrimmage,
13:12 so is that surprising you a little bit,
13:14 that he's starting to be a playmaker too,
13:16 in addition to that?
13:17 - No, it just,
13:18 again,
13:19 it kind of validates what we saw,
13:21 and asking him to play a position that fits
13:25 his skill set,
13:26 and when you do that,
13:28 and you start to see somebody
13:30 get really comfortable,
13:32 and get into the,
13:34 you know,
13:35 they just play fast,
13:36 play fast,
13:37 and,
13:39 you know,
13:40 I think that's what you're seeing with Fatorma,
13:41 and don't ask him to do much,
13:43 ask him to do a couple things,
13:45 and he's definitely a good get for us.
13:49 - Fatorma and Mike,
13:50 would that be maybe the two biggest surprises for you,
13:53 the way that they've controlled the line of scrimmage?
13:55 - No, I don't think so,
13:58 I think that when you,
13:59 you know,
14:01 it's like,
14:02 when I was asked about the evaluation,
14:03 the recruiting process,
14:04 when you see it,
14:05 you know,
14:06 you know,
14:07 it's just a matter of the consistency,
14:09 of finding a way to get that all the time,
14:11 and so,
14:12 I think that's been the biggest,
14:15 you know,
14:16 the biggest thing,
14:17 you know,
14:18 we did not know about Fatorma when he got here,
14:19 but Mike,
14:19 that's what it was,
14:20 it was being the player that he can be consistently,
14:25 which,
14:25 you know,
14:26 the next evaluation for all these guys,
14:27 and that's what everybody is going to look for,
14:31 knowing what you're going to get every single day,
14:32 and so they've done a great job with that,
14:33 AJ's done a great job getting them to that point,
14:36 and we'll need more of it.
14:39 - Is that,
14:39 would you say that the line of scrimmage,
14:41 the way they played,
14:42 it's been a,
14:43 the result of the way you played the last three weeks,
14:46 in some respects?
14:48 - Yeah,
14:49 I mean,
14:49 I think it always starts there,
14:51 and it always,
14:53 yeah,
14:55 I think you're only as good,
14:56 it depends on what your philosophy is,
14:58 obviously,
14:59 but in ours,
14:59 you're only as good as you are up front,
15:02 and our secondary guys,
15:04 they understand that,
15:05 and our kids,
15:06 whether it's Beanie or Ruffin or Aubrey,
15:09 they kind of feed off each other,
15:13 and so they understand the benefits of having that,
15:16 and they understand that the further we go down the road,
15:19 then the better we need them to play,
15:21 and I think they accept that challenge,
15:23 so,
15:24 I mean,
15:25 I've always,
15:26 you know,
15:27 we got here,
15:28 we built it front to back,
15:31 and now you're seeing some of the benefits of that.
15:34 - When you're an offensive coordinator,
15:36 you know,
15:37 the team takes the ball,
15:39 goes down the field,
15:39 11 plays,
15:41 all on the ground,
15:42 you know,
15:43 beats you physically,
15:44 et cetera,
15:45 how do you keep things together?
15:46 How do you,
15:47 not only with your team,
15:49 but with yourself?
15:50 - Yeah,
15:51 I mean,
15:52 you never panic,
15:52 you know,
15:53 there's always,
15:54 if an offensive coordinator doesn't do anything
15:57 that we haven't seen,
15:58 I honestly don't think he's doing his job.
16:00 They had a couple of different wrinkles,
16:03 formation-wise,
16:04 and play sets-wise,
16:05 and kudos to them,
16:08 I mean,
16:09 they're the same as within the core structure
16:11 of their offense,
16:12 they just,
16:13 they always dress it up different,
16:14 and it looks,
16:15 so you're just trying to see how somebody's attacking you,
16:18 and where the leak is,
16:20 where it's going,
16:20 you know,
16:21 really the first three plays are just three missed tackles,
16:23 so I think that was really more juiced up,
16:25 kind of playing a little bit out of your fundamentals early,
16:28 which I expected,
16:30 but you know,
16:32 we calmed down,
16:33 and got them,
16:35 you know,
16:36 got it fixed,
16:37 and guys,
16:38 you know,
16:39 again,
16:40 they come to sideline,
16:41 they know,
16:42 you know,
16:42 "Hey coach,
16:43 where's it leaking at?"
16:44 And their eyes up,
16:45 they're looking at you,
16:46 we fix it,
16:47 and then we go back out there,
16:47 and the result is a result,
16:48 so if we just keep that approach,
16:50 keep level head,
16:52 and just keep,
16:52 continue to,
16:53 they were playing hard,
16:55 missed a couple tackles,
16:56 misfit,
16:57 I think two things,
16:58 got it fixed,
16:59 calmed down,
16:59 and here we go,
17:00 so that's,
17:02 you know,
17:02 that's,
17:03 you just honestly expect that,
17:04 no matter if it's run game,
17:06 pass game,
17:07 you always expect wrinkles,
17:09 and different things,
17:10 so,
17:11 you know,
17:11 that's every Saturday expectation that I have.
17:15 - Okay, thank you coach.