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sportsTexas Longhorns

Texas quotable: Tom Herman challenged the offense during bye week to improve run game

The Longhorns ran for 159 yards and two touchdowns with a balanced offensive attack.

Here are the highlights from Texas' postgame press conference after the Longhorns' 27-16 win over Baylor on Saturday in Austin.

Head coach Tom Herman

On the improved run game:

“We challenged the offensive line, we challenged the tailbacks and really we challenged everybody on offense because the perimeter blocking too is a key part of that. Last week, we practiced Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and it was run period, run period, run period. And both sides of the ball improved because of it. We didn’t get any of those in a spring ball and we got very limited amounts of those in training camp. We wanted to make the most of the bye week and improve our areas of deficiency, and for at least a week I feel like we did that.”

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On receiver Joshua Moore’s big catch in the second quarter:

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“Through four games, we’ve had a lot of (opponents') receivers make plays on 50/50 balls. And we haven’t. Not near as many as our opponent. Josh, I thought he did a great job going up, fighting for the ball. And then he was rewarded with a touchdown catch later.”

On getting third down stops

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“We practiced a lot on third down over the last couple weeks. Early in the game I was a little disappointed because we did get off the field, but it was after a couple of first downs and we were giving our offense some pretty long fields to operate with. But we got that settled down and you get what you emphasize. There wasn’t any magical calls or anything. I thought we pestered the quarterback pretty well and they completed some balls underneath us, but we rallied and tackled.”

On the strong start to the second half

“I wish I could tell you that there was some magic thing that we did. There wasn’t. We made an emphasis on it. In my opinion, once is an anomaly, twice is a coincidence and three times is a pattern. So there was definitely a pattern there. We wanted to make our guys aware of that.”

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Senior defensive lineman Ta’Quon Graham

On how important it was to get a win

"Just seeing how my teammates responded to what happened after the OU loss, and to how the coaches challenged us, I felt like they did an amazing job and I’m proud of that.

On knocking down passes at the line of scrimmage

“He necessarily might not say it, but it’s emphasized in our drill work that we do every single day. Matching the throwing hand while we’re rushing, that’s a big thing he puts an emphasis on while we’re doing drills. I feel like it definitely translated today.”

On if the team thinks this got them back in the Big 12 title race

“We never felt like we were out of it. We definitely were disappointed about those two losses. But at the same time, we always know that we have a chance to win the conference and we’ve taken it week by week.”

On the team all standing for 'The Eyes of Texas"

“When it comes to the team and within the team, in my honest opinion, it wasn’t an issue. But hopefully we all can put this behind us and we can move forward and just focus on ball.”

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Sophomore receiver Joshua Moore

On beating press coverage

“We know as a receiver group, if a DB does decide to press, and we get off the press clean, everything else is going to take care of itself. With the athletes we’ve got in our room, we have all the confidence in the world that if the ball is in the air, it’s our ball.”

On if the win restored confidence

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"I can honestly say we never lost confidence. Even though we lost those two games, we knew as a team that we should’ve won them. We always know that. But even after a win, there’s always something to improve on.

On if he gave receiver Tarik Black an earful after getting caught from behind

“Of course I did. But I can’t even say anything too much about him because I got caught on that reverse that we had today, so I’m kind of disappointed in myself about that. … I had heard that on that play his top speed was 16 miles per hour, so I kind of got in his ear a little bit, had something smart to say. But after I got caught on the reverse, I (said) ‘okay, I see where you’re coming from.’”

On the 50/50 ball he won

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“I’m a competitor. If the ball is in the air… it’s my ball. I just let my athletic ability take over from there.”

Senior quarterback Sam Ehlinger

On why he went to the medical tent

“I got a helmet to the calf. So nothing extreme, just kind of like a dead leg right to the calf. It tightened up on me there a little bit, so I just had to keep it warm, keep it moving. Kind of flush some of the inflammation that popped up immediately but I’m all good.”

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On the plan to run the football

"Coming into the game, we knew that we wanted to run the football. It’s really important to be able to run the ball because you can control the game with your run offense. We knew that, and we just stayed at it and continued to chip away.

On the entire team standing for ‘The Eyes’

“I think we made a decision as a team to stand out and sing ‘The Eyes.’ So moving forward, I would assume that’s what it’s going to be.”

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