SAN ANTONIO —Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich and TCU head coach Gary Patterson met with media on Friday in the final press conference before tomorrow’s Alamo Bowl.
Helfrich announced wide receivers coach Matt Lubick will be Oregon’s new offensive coordinator going forward and will call the plays on Saturday.
Patterson discussed his disappointment in regards to the attention quarterback Trevone Boykin has received since his felony arrest for assaulting a police officer early Thursday morning.
Helfrich:
When did you come to the decision to name Lubick the offensive coordinator?
I don’t know if there was an exact moment. I think Matt is an outstanding football coach. He’s extremely detail-oriented. He’s a very good recruiter. The players really take to him. Just tireless.
How comfortable are you having Coach Lubick call plays? It’s a difficult game to do that for your first time.
We’ve drilled it. It’s always funny communicating with guys on the headsets. This isn’t the first time we’ve ever communicated that way. We’ve done a lot more called situational work throughout the bowl prep than we would normally do. That’s good for the offense and the defense and for our players to kind of try to improvise more than just script it.
Will Matt continue to coach receivers or do you expect to hire a quarterback coach and a receiver coach?
That is kind of to be determined. We have a great pool, got a plan that I’m very excited about that is probably going to happen. But he’s very versatile, and the people we’re talking to on the outside are very versatile. After the game, we’ll address that.
How comfortable are you with the way Don Pellum has coordinated the defense? Will he be the defensive coordinator going forward?
Everybody has to get better. Somebody asked me a similar question the other day. I could get fired tomorrow. My boss might fire me after this press conference. I don’t know. But we all have to get better, starting with me.
TCU head coach Gary Patterson instructs his team during an NCAA college football game against SMU Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015, in Fort Worth, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Patterson
Can you talk to us about what Trevone said to you about his arrest, the explanation he gave to you?
I didn’t talk to him, but let me say this to you: I was a little disappointed yesterday that everything that was basically talked to my kids about was Trevone Boykin. We’re here to play Oregon. If we’re going to make this a press conference about him, then I think we’re ruining San Antonio and the bowl game and we’re saying everybody else that plays at TCU is not important.
Here is the thing that I don’t think many people realize: It wasn’t just Trevone that had to go home, but nobody asked about the other guy. That’s the thing that disappoints me. Nobody asked about the other guy. There was two that had to go home.
You’re not just teaching him, you’re teaching the other 120 guys that are on your team. They understand all your actions have a reaction, and you have to learn from it.
Yesterday when we talked to (co-offensive coordinators) Doug (Meacham) and Sonny (Cumbie), they said they were unsure who was going to be your starter tomorrow. Speak to the confidence you have in both the back-up quarterbacks.
I mean, we were able to win at Kansas. We played both of them in Oklahoma. Probably if they were asking me, Bram (Kohlhausen), for the simple reason of the last game both of them played in.
If you guys were asking me, ‘Would you rather have a new coordinator or new quarterback?’, I’d probably say new coordinator, because the guy on the field makes everything happen.
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