Here are Mack's post-Spring game comments. Here's the AP summary.
I pulled out some of the quotes that interested me the most.
On the younger defensive linemen: We’ve been really pleased with Alex Okafor throughout the spring. We know what Sam [Acho] can do, because we’ve seen him for two years. For Alex to come in and do what he has done as a pass rusher and just a senior in high school has been really fun for us to watch. He’s got so much potential and he will get stronger. He will get a lot stronger for the fall and we do think he will be a factor in the two-deep.
The coaches love Okafor. S&C will be a big priority for Alex over the next five months. He'll be on our two deep in the Fall. As for Acho, yeah, we know what he can do but he needs to take the next jump. Having a secondary pass rusher on the edge to complement Kindle is key. I'd love to see Eddie Jones heal up and start living up to his potential.
On if there is a cause for concern for Colt McCoy’s low completion percentage: No, none what so ever. I thought about half of the incompletions were dropped, and that should be the cause for concern. We’re not going to throw to the ones that drop it, that’s one thing for sure.
Terrible wind conditions played a role, but so did great secondary play across the board. There just weren't many plays available to our WRs and our DBs know our offense. As for the drops, Mack pretty much called it out: in a move-the-chains passing offense, the catch is the most important thing. Everything else is irrelevant.
Mack will play the dependables and bench the undependables - no matter what their potential. Dan Buckner needs to get serious about football or he's going to find himself on the outside looking in rather quickly. The good news is that Malcolm Williams is increasingly being perceived as one of our dependables.
On the experience and depth in the secondary and how it can help more this year: It should help us, number one, on special teams. That’s the number one key, because a lot of those guys are your best special teams players. We should be fresher for special teams this year.
Absolutely. Your special teams play is directly correlated to the number of starters - or starter equivalent talents - that you can put on the field. If you're relying heavily on marginal back-ups to make plays, it follows that you'll see results comparable to what you might expect when your reserves are playing in other units. The Trahan-Ungar Corollary excepted.
Add in the fact that we're allowing playmakers to return punts and kicks and we should see much better special teams play in 2009.
The simplest answer is that there is so much competition back there that those guys can’t miss a step. If a guy has a sore ankle, he better practice. They are at a high level of competition. We’ve had really good players back there, but I think the most we’ve ever had were six guys who we thought could go in there and play, and right now, we’re sitting at a minimum of eight, which is pretty good.
Eight dudes who can play and four of our five secondary starters are potentially elite. With players as good or better coming down the pipeline from our recruiting classes. Last years #1 CB is now our #4 CB. Darwinian processes, how I love thee. Throw in the threat of being Wally Pipped and you're going to have a bunch of guys playing like their jock has been dipped in curry.
On what his level of concern is with tight ends: I think the ability to stretch the ball deep is our concern. When D.J. [Grant] was working, Colt was able to get him deep and give us the stuff that we’ve had in the passing game with our tight ends. We hope we can do it with what we’ve got. We also are going to look at Dominique Jones some there. He was an outstanding tight end in high school and he had his shoulder operation right when he got here, so he was out for the spring.
After the TE buffoonery I saw in the scrimmage, he has to be worried. As for Dominique Jones - he was a phenomenal high school blocking TE, but he's not going to help us stretch the field. Barrett Matthews: a Longhorn Nation turns its eyes to you.