Opening statement: Proud of our team, not much left to say after my post-game comments. Everything that I saw on film was pretty much what I saw during the game. Extremely balanced in all three phases in terms of winning the football game, and when you can have good production in all three phases, obviously, really good things happen.Proud of the offense for getting the run game, giving it some life a little bit, and hopefully we’ve got some confidence in where we’re headed in that direction, and then obviously, our defense for the last couple weeks, really the last six or seven weeks, has been playing at a winning level. That’s really encouraging.Injury updates, Sam Ehlinger and Zach Shackelford both practiced yesterday. Toneil Carter did not. He will be evaluated again today. As you know with those concussion deals, it’s a daily evaluation process. So won’t know if he’ll even practice or anything until after he’s evaluated today. And then P.J. Locke is very doubtful for the game with an ankle sprain, but we feel encouraged that, after this game, we would have him the remainder of the season.On the running backs and if the freshman established themselves as the lead backs: Lead back, I don’t know that there is one for us right now, but I think they definitely seized an opportunity to create more reps for them and more carries, and that’s encouraging.The one thing I said on the conference call, I thought both of them did very well, was they played with good vision and they broke tackles. When an offensive line blocks a play or three or four yards but you’re getting seven or eight or ten, that’s really good. What’s even better is when an offensive line blocks it for zero and you get three or four. I think that’s where they showed some effectiveness in our offense.I don’t know that there is a lead back right now.On the lack of quarterback continuity: It has been hard. It would be foolish of me to say otherwise. The one thing is they’re not complete departures from each other. We’re not talking about a guy in Shane who’s an excellent passer and is a statue, and we’re not talking about a guy in Sam who’s an excellent runner but can’t throw the football. Obviously, one guy is a little stronger in one area than the other, but it’s not limiting in terms of the offense.I do think there is a rhythm, there is a continuity factor, especially in the throw game with the receivers and timing and all of that. To say that we’d like one to ride out the next four games, yeah, I think that’s pretty accurate. Now, is that realistic? I don’t know. Recent history tells me it’s not, but I think that would be ideal.On how he approaches the Big 12 race with the team: We won’t talk about it. I think one of the things we did so well this week was really get back to our mantra being 1-0 and treating Baylor as if it was the most important game on the schedule, and we really believe that. We believe that this week against TCU is the most important game on the schedule.I’ve made that mistake before. We lost to Navy last year after being ranked fifth in the country or whatever, and I wanted to give our guys hope. And Navy was on our side of the conference too, so it was going to take a couple losses on their part. And we harped on, hey, we’ve got to take care of business, but if we do, then this is a great conference, and Navy’s going to get knocked off a couple times and yada, yada, yada.Then kind of the perfect storm two weeks later in Dallas with the announcement of the Big 12 not expanding and SMU coming off a bye week. Probably, to be honest with you, myself and our staff focusing on some things we shouldn’t have been in terms of the big picture. We went up there and laid an egg.So I’m not going to let that happen again. I think the biggest thing that we’ve got to concern ourselves with right now is playing against one of, if not the best team, in our conference.On handling the quarterback situation: Credit to them, I haven’t really had to. Two great kids that just want to win. I know that sounds cliché, but I’ve been a part of some different places where the head coach can get up here and say that and you get back in the locker room and that’s not reality, but with this one it is. It’s reality. Both guys just want to win. I think that was very obvious in Shane’s preparation when he wasn’t playing, to be able and go out and have the game he had after being on the shelf for as long as he was.There’s been very little management other than a couple — you know, me telling Shane I appreciated him and how he’s handled it the couple weeks that he wasn’t playing. The first game that he was somewhat healthy, at least cleared, but didn’t start, which was SC, I reminded him early in that week that at some point your team’s going to need you, and they’re going to need you to be engaged throughout the course of however long it takes for you to get back in, and he was.So management of those two guys has been really, really easy.On naming a starti
Source: Tracking the Longhorns: Tom Herman press conference – University of Texas Athletics