Texas quotable: Strong says Longhorns 'grew up' in 45-44 loss to Golden Bears

 

Texas rallied with 20 points in the fourth quarter to get within one against California when senior kicker Nick Rose missed an extra-point. The Longhorns comeback fell short, 45-44.

Despite the gut-wrenching loss, head coach Charlie Strong said his team grew up during the loss.
"I'm just so proud of how our team fought back from being 21-down, and they grew up tonight," Strong said. "I can say that about them. When you, watch them, they came together and no one had a selfish attitude. They just continued to scratch and get back in the game."

Strong on the offense
"Just watching Jerrod (Heard) and the offense and how they just kept answering and answering and answering. I'm just so happy, and we can learn a lot from this. A lot of growing up tonight, but there was a lot of mistakes out there. We've just got to get those corrected."


Strong on the defensive issues
"Everything was gap. You see the one big run and we sit there, and the guy is in the gap and then he turns back and tried to fight off the defender. But it's all gaps and we've got to get off of blocks. We've got to hit blocks, get off blocks and that's where we didn't do a good job tonight."

Strong of it the loss can help Texas
"This one here hurts because you watch our team and you watch Jerrod take off, and there's a minute and 11 and we go and score and an extra point is like automatic. I didn't even look. What I'm saying, I'm on the headset saying, we've got a minute and 11 and what we're going to do on defense because we have to stop them ... Then I look up and all of a sudden I see one of their players running down the field, and I was like, Oh my God ... I hope this is the one that turned the corner for us."
Strong on Heard's performance
"That last run that he scored the touchdown on was really electric. I mean, you see where he takes off and we called a draw, he makes a wide-out miss and then all of a sudden - an open field is very dangerous. But just watching him, he's exciting and he has brought the excitement into the team."
Heard on what he told his teammate on the last drive
"I told them we were going to get this ball into the endzone," Heard said. "I had faith in them that we were going to. Coach called the play and I just relied on those guys and did my part."
Freshman linebacker Malik Jefferson on the loss
"In a sense (the loss is) not more devastating, it's a wake-up call. We know how good we are so that's also the frustrating part. When we played Notre Dame it's frustrating to lose that bad because we knew we weren't that type of team. Tonight it makes it more frustrating to see that happen again.
Senior wide receiver Daje Johnson on the game
"It was probably one of the craziest game I've been in so far. It's probably the one that hurts the most. I thought we were going to win. Once Jerrod made that touchdown I was thinking we were going to get this. The team had heart and we fought back."