Liberty Bowl Preview: TCU Defense Takes the Podium

On Wednesday morning, it was the defenses turn to take the mic, as Chad Glasgow, Travin Howard, Nick Orr, Josh Carraway, and Ty Summers talked about the challenge ahead in corralling the Bulldogs two powerful runners and a freshman QB with a big arm.

TCU Defensive Coordinator Chad Glasgow opening statement:

“Well first of all, we want to take the opportunity to thank the City of Memphis and the Liberty Bowl for giving TCU the chance to be here as a football team and as a university. We’re excited about being here. We’ve been here for a couple of days now. We’ve done some unbelievable stuff with the kids. They seem to really be enjoying their time. We’re practicing over at the (Memphis) University School, which has been very hospitable to us. Got a chance to go down to the Civil Rights Museum and had some barbecue. They were all still bragging about the banana pudding this morning after everything. We’re excited to be here and looking forward to the opportunity to play a really good Georgia football team.”

Glasgow on Georgia’s offense:

“The running backs are really good football players—both of them are. They’ve been extremely productive, both Sony (Michel) and Nick (Chubb) have been. You’ve got to go tackle big backs. They’ve done a good job, and they’ve done a good job of getting to the ball to the receivers out there.”

Glasgow on TCU’s defense this season:

“We’ve had our ups and downs with some things. We did some things early that we’ve learned from and that we’ve grown from, which is kind of what we want to do throughout the year, continue to get better on a week-by-week basis. We had some bumps in the road where we’ve not tackled and we’ve not played technique very well at times. You can’t go and not be consistent throughout the course of a season.”

Glasgow on what leads to defensive inconsistencies:

“It’s a lot of things. At times, we’ve been a young football team. At times, we’ve had some guys hurt, but nobody cares about those things. When you go step on to that field, we talk to our kids all the time about not just going and playing, but going and playing great. When you have an opportunity, make the most of that opportunity. That’s what I try to stress to them throughout the week of preparation and practice, and going and doing it on Saturdays.”

Glasgow on Josh Carraway:

“Josh (Carraway) as a football player is very important, but like you touched on, Josh is also a leader. He’s a senior and one of the few seniors we have on defense, and a lot of the younger players look up to him, how he goes and does things. He’s got to be a leader for us and has been a leader for us this year.”

Glasgow on Josh Carraway’s pass rush this year:

“At times it’s been really good, but again, I’ll go back to the consistency thing. We don’t want to be really good at times and not so good at other times. That consistency from week to week and play to play basis is what we really try to stress with our kids and try to push and prepare them for.”

Glasgow on Travin Howard:

“Travin (Howard) is one of those guys who’s going to come in here and talk in a minute, along with Nick Orr. They may be two of the most selfless football players in college football. If we asked Travin to go play nose guard today, he’d step in there and go play nose guard the best he could and wouldn’t ask a question about it. They took his appendix out. He had an emergency appendectomy during fall camp and was out a little bit of time that way, but Travin is a football player. Those guys out at Longview (High School) did a tremendous job with him and that’s what they told us throughout the recruiting process. ‘Travin isn’t a big guy, he’s a 190 something pounds, but he’s one of our leaders in tackles for a couple of years. He just a football player.’”

Glasgow on Nick Orr:

“Nick (Orr) is a lot like Travin (Howard) in a lot of ways. Nick came here as a corner. Nick has moved into safety. Nick is a very smart football player, comes from a great family—the Orr brothers. We talk about Mama Orr being a part of our group of safeties all the time and how would Mama Orr handle this situation. I’ve asked her a bunch of times if we could send a bunch more to her to kind of grow up a little bit with some things, but Nick is just a really good kid. He’s a tough guy; he’s a smart football player.”

TCU LB Travin Howard on bouncing back from his emergency appendectomy:

“It was hard, but things like that happen. That’s football. Injuries happen. I’ve been injured before, you just have to come back.”

Howard on the last half of the season:

“It was pretty good. It was decent, but there’s always room to improve and I want to get better and better each and every week.”

Howard on how the defense played this season:

“It’s something you have to get rolling into. We have a lot of young guys, now we’re rolling. It’s a little glimpse of what we’re going to have next year.”

TCU DB Nick Orr on how to be successful on Friday:

“We just have to keep fighting when we get hit. We just have to make sure we keep going.”

Orr on Georgia’s offense:

“They have good size and good players. I feel like they’re a good team and it’s going to be a good game.”

TCU DE Josh Carraway on both teams having defensive minded coaches:

“They like to run the ball, so they’re going to try to tilt the clock and try to keep it because they know our offense if pretty high tempo and we can score pretty fast. They’re going to try to keep our offense off the field. Our job is to go out there and get three and outs and give our offense the best field position we can.”

Carraway on how the defense improved the second half of the season:

“Just night and day from the beginning of the season to now. Just how everyone is playing and how practices are going, how everyone is communicating now and just the confidence that guys have.”

Carraway on how the defense has improved:

“We’ve just grown up. We haven’t really had any breaks go our way. Our biggest thing is just tackling. We’ve got to tackle because they have two pretty good running backs and if we don’t tackle, they’re going to run up and down us.”

TCU LB Ty Summers on the trip to the National Civil Rights Museum:

“It was a very interesting sight; I enjoyed it. I didn’t even realize that Martin Luther King Jr. was shot in Memphis. I had no idea and to actually see it in person was pretty amazing.”

Summers on what comes to mind when he thinks about Georgia’s offense:

“SEC, big time football, historic program. We look forward to getting a chance to play against teams like that. Those are teams you grow up watching. To get the opportunity to play against them is pretty exciting.”

Summers on Georgia’s offense:

“They have some really good running backs and a fast offensive line. They have a young quarterback, but he’s obviously doing enough to help them win. They’ve got a lot of potential and they’re a really good team, so we can’t take anything for granted. We’ve got to do our jobs and if we all do our jobs I think we can become successful.”

Summers on similarities between Georgia and Arkansas:

“They do a lot of similar things. Both being in the SEC, they both run about the same thing—a lot of power football, put it right down the middle, making you stand there and hit them. I’m looking forward to that. It’ll be very similar to Arkansas, I’m looking forward to it though.”

Thanks to the Liberty Bowl media team for providing the quotes!