On how he feels the offense has played

I think he has been cautious. I think he has been trying to take things as they come. I think he and I both have been getting a feel for each other, some of the things we’re trying to do and I know, and I know he would agree, he hasn’t played his best game yet by any stretch. But I think we’re just continuing to push through and working together.

On if Adrian Martinez has been too cautious

I think those 50-50 plays are hard. Even as coach and I remember as a player, it’s how do you walk the line of pulling the trigger when you need to, being cautious when you need to. That’s probably as much my fault, as much as anything, making sure that he doesn’t feel any pressure that way. That’s on me as much as anything. Trying to let it be organic, be on him. We are working through it. I have 100 percent faith in him, obviously, we need to get better.

On parts of offense that didn’t work vs. Tulane, aside from QB

When it happened like it did, it’s never just one thing, person, position group. Unfortunately, we all took turns on some level in some facet of the ballgame. We got some loss yardage plays for whatever reason and are on third and 11 plus four times and we weren’t able to stay on the field. We were able to sequence a third and long to a fourth and short, but not able to stay on the field there. Then we go 0-for-4 on fourth and two, fourth and three and we couldn’t find ways to stay on the field. Whether it’s a call, block read, throw, catch, whatever it is we have to find a way to do it. We have to find ways to keep those drives going and we have to finish and score touchdowns in the red zone and be a lot better.

On what he learned as a play caller on conversion downs

I think it was a hard day on all of us. We were staying the course and being patient. I think when things aren’t going right, it’s easy to get frustrated, out of rhythm and that makes things worse. Making sure all of us, myself included, stay patient, focused and focused on those little things do and that you have to do in those critical situations to be successful.

On how he establishes a rhythm, especially vs. Oklahoma

That’s going to be our challenge. That’s what we have to do and they make that hard on purpose. There’s a reason Coach Venables [is one of the best] and he’s done it for a long time and is as good as there is out there. We’ve had a lot of different fronts, coveraages and we’ve got to mix and match with those fronts, pressures and you can tell that they match his mindset, mentality as far as being aggressive and playing very high energy brand of defense that tackles well and everything. It’s going to be a great challenge for us. The biggest thing is they are going to make plays, they’re a good defense. We have to get out of our own way and make sure we are doing what we need to do when we need to do it consistently and get the rhythm. That’s where the confidence comes from.

On how he schemes against an offense that is so big, but fast at the same time

We have to do the simple, fundamental things very well. I mean, we have to stay on blocks, make good reads and make good decisions with the football and can’t hesitate because if you hesitate they’ll get you upfront or something is going to come out of the corner in the back end. I have confidence in our guys, we have a lot of good players and excited for the challenge.

On importance of a quick-hitting passing game

It doesn’t matter what we do. It’s how we do it, and making sure, and I tell our guys all the time, making sure we are on the same page and finishing the deal. Again, I have great confidence in our guys.

On exotic coverages from Venables

It’s been a good prep. It has already made us better. It will make us better whenever you go through challenge, adversity when handled correctly it makes you better.

On back side pursuit protection needing to be better

It all depends on the play, scheme. I think, overall, we have to be more physical, fundamentally sound across the board.

On if preparation is fun being in charge

Absolutely. It’s a lot of fun. It can be stressful at times, for sure. But that’s why you love putting that puzzle together and trying to figure out how to maximize and stay efficient in time, so you’re not spending time where you shouldn’t or vis versa. You just have to keep fine-tuning and making sure we are sound for our guys.

On Oklahoma not having a base defense

When you say diverse, it’s been a bit different each game. You look at even all his history at Clemson, they did a lot of different things for a lot of different years. I think we’ll get a feel for us relatively early and have some things in place to make sure our guys can play fast.

On fourth and short being in shot gun

It’s yes and no. It all depends on what type of scheme you’re running. Being in the pistol or in gun allows more threat of the quarterback in some situations that can help you in any number of [ways]. But it all depends on the situation, front and what is needed at that time.

On getting Malik Knowles more involved

There’s things that you can pretty much guarantee where the ball is going to go and others where it hasn’t. I know Malik has been great, great teammate. But we have to be able to spread the ball around.

On what freedom QBs have to make a change at the line of scrimmage

He does. He has the chalk last for sure, and has done a good job of that. We don’t just send him out there and say ‘Hey if you see something do it. There’s structures of this to that, that to this in certain situations to help give him direction there. He does

On challenges vs. OU

Incredible tempo. It’s going to be a key, getting our cleats in the ground and being ready to play. The second part of that is being really good talent-wise at the skill positions up front. Big kids up front that can move people up front and guys that can do things after the catch. It’s a scary group.

On Oklahoma being a spread-out offense

I think they do a really good job of seeing the pictures you are in. Whether you have more people in the box than you and the quarterback know what to do with it. He’s been so seasoned in this system, and at Central Florida, he was doing the same stuff. And he’s really, really capable to dish this thing around the field.

On why the Briles offense is hard to defend again

Because they are never wrong. If the quarterback is doing a good job, I don’t know if those guys go home at 6:00 or what, but it’s just putting the ball in the quarterback’s hands. Because if he’s got a favorable box to run it, they’ll run it and they should gain yardage. If they don’t, they have one-on-ones all over the place. So, we’ll have to go about that.

On how he combats the ratios that Oklahoma wants to create

I think really it’s on me to dictate a little bit with what we are presenting to them. If we are loading it up in there, we’re going to have to win on the outside and if we’re not we are going to have to stop the run.

On playing lefty quarterback

It’s strange. We don’t have a player in scout team to replicate that. It’s been a long, long, time since I can remember going against a lefty. It’s going to be a different deal. I don’t know if it changes anything though.

On pressure on the defense when the defense scores just 10 points

We don’t talk about it. We just do our performance and we don’t worry about what’s going on the other side. I don't want those guys watching the video boards, thinking about it. I just want those guys thinking about their execution. We’re just hanging onto that.

On creating takeaways

I think you have to play fast, and I think one of the things these types of offense do is they get you on your heels and you don’t play fast because they get you out of position. I can’t tell you how many snaps watching these guys how many times all 11 guys on defense weren’t aligned properly. You’re going to have a hard time creating turnovers, making big hits, breaking on balls if you can’t to where you need to pre-snap. I think getting aligned. Getting your eyes where they belong and letting it go from there and playing as fast as we can.

On availability of Nate Matlack

We’ll know more today on Nate. It’s better than we thought on Saturday, a week ago. Hopeful there and it will be a game day deal there though.

On subs vs. Oklahoma offense

We practice that. I know it’s a weird drill that our guys hate doing. We have certain situations where our guys are taught to substitute. They can’t do it on their own because if they do they’ll never make it. You might be able to get on, but you’ll never get the other guy off. So we have a certain set of times when we coach our times when to substitute. We do that in fall camp, or two-three times and we’ll do it again today to replicate when the appropriate times to get people on and off.

On if he was surprised Tulane went for it on fourth and one from the 24-yard line

I don’t know if I would have had the stones to do that, but we knew they were a really good quarterback sneak team so we were prepared for that being the play if they were going to do anything. We were very cognizant because we had jumped a couple of times in the course of the game of making sure we were holding our water in there if they did want to hard-count that thing. So, yeah, we were ready to go. Unfortunate that he got it by a foot or a foot and a half.

On issues with jumping offsides

I don’t really know. I thought they had some peculiar snap counts. Some guys were talking about movement stuff they were seeing before. I can’t confirm or deny that on tape, but it was loud for sure. So, I don’t know how the snap count could have been a thing. Guys were amped up; those are dumb things that have happened to us a couple of weeks in a row that we have to clean up.

On Josh Hayes getting more time at SAM LB

We’ve done that a little bit. The more that VJ Payne gets comfortable, and week one we were hamstrung without Josh, and then we did a good amount of it vs. Missouri. We did a good amount of it last week too. I think that package will continue to develop too. Nothing against Khalid Duke, he’s got a certain set of skills. Playing man coverage is not one of those skills, at least not against wideouts. That’s something that we are pushing for each week, getting better. But it really relies on Josh because I think he’ll handle that stuff. It’s the other guys that we’ll have to put in there. VJ being one of those guys.

On Oklahoma’s WR

Mims is going to be in the Biletnikoff discussion and all that stuff. It’s really a shame some of those other guys don’t get the publicity because they’re good players. Those are going to be great players at a lot of places. They kind of get overshadowed a little bit by him. For that matter, the tight ends are good players. And the tight ends are dynamic catching the football. Maybe not as dangerous after the catch as those receivers, but they’re certainly capable route runners.

On Daniel Green

That interception he made at the end of the first half was very instinctive, recognizing what was happening to us route-wise and that was a big-time play. He was so gassed; I was hoping that we could turn that into some points or he could have pitched it to somebody else – I don’t know. But he’s continuing to become the total package.

On play of cornerbacks

I think the experience that Julius [Brents] has and Ekow Boye-Doe has. It brings a level of comfort to me because there are very few pictures that those guys haven’t seen. There are very few things that those guys can’t do in one-on-one settings. Omar Daniels and Jacob Parish have really come along too. Those guys are playing and you’re not seeing those guys as much on the stat sheet because it’s just not showing up. But those guys are getting some snaps and they’re doing a great job. Jacob as a true freshman, that’s impressive.

On Drake Cheatum dropping what would have been a pick-6

It’s funny I didn’t see that on game day. I was sitting somewhere else. I know he regrets it. Things like that happen. In games like that, we’re going to be in games like that, every play matters. Whether it’s us losing contain on a rush that matters. Dropping a pick, that matters. It amplifies those little things. We’re trying to amplify every play and master them.