February 04, 1998
General Comments: "We're excited about the young men we've recruited to bring into our football program. We tried to address our needs in recruiting. We needed some help at the wide receiver position, particularly speed receivers. Some guys who could take a quick slant pattern and do something with it and turn it into a big play. I don't think you can have too many quarterbacks. If you're ever going to be any good, you better have yourself a big time quarterback. It was a good year for quarterbacks in the state of Texas, and we went after two guys and we got the two guys we wanted at that position."
Lateness of verbal commitments: "Players generally don't commit without visiting your campus and taking official visits. Our school was out in the second week of December and I don't believe school started until the 20th of January. It leaves us in a difficult position. Our student hosts, our players, are off during the holidays. This is a traditional college town setting, and when you pull 40,000 students out of here, this town is totally different. They (the recruits) do not get an accurate picture of what Texas A&M is all about when you take all of the students out of here."
Players going out of state: "It's a disappointing thing to me. It's something I'm not willing to give up on and we're going to continue working to keep players in state. I've talked to Coach Brown at Texas about it and other coaches in the state. I'm very, very proud of the state of Texas. There should be a concerted effort by people, outside of the coaches, in towns saying `you know what you ought to do, pick you someplace out here in this state and go to college.' We've got great universities in this state, we've got good coaches in this state and the best thing for you to do is stay here in Texas. Our bright young people, whether they're athletes, or non-athletes, there should be a concerted effort in this state to say this is the wealth of our state and we're going to keep them here. I'm ready for some writer somewhere to write a big "what if" article. If those players who went out of state to play, stayed in the state of Texas, I contend you would have the same situation when you watch Florida and Florida State play and one's #1 and one's #2 or #3. You would have the same situation when Texas and Texas A&M plays. It would bring great pride to this state. The kids would have a whole lot more fun. Instead of a stadium full of Florida people watching in the stands, you would have a stadium full of Texas people who work with and are friends with families of players who are actually playing the game. I'm not saying Texas A&M is the only place for everybody. But there's enough here in the state of Texas with quality schools and quality coaches to stay here and pick one of these schools. When you get out of here, there's not a better place to go to work and raise a family than here in the state of Texas. Why do you think all of these people are moving to the state of Texas?"
What about the stories earlier about you being a candidate for the Dallas Cowboys position? "I'm always amazed at something like that. Someone can run a story like that, and then it comes to me. The story ought to be all of you (media) going to those people who ran the story and saying `You elaborate on this, tell us where you got this and on what basis did you put this kind of news item and we want to check your creditability.' Are you willing to back this story up. The last couple of weeks I've had to talk to recruits about that. I thought it was irresponsible for that to run as a news story."
Quarterbacks: "Chip Ambres is a guy I was very impressed with. He's a mobile quarterback, he can run and throw, he has a very quick arm. He's an impressive young man just to meet as a person, and has a beautiful family. Vance Smith is a prototype NFL guy, he's 6-5, 225, got a strong arm. He can throw the ball from here (College Station) to Navasota (20 miles south of College Station). He's got a strong arm and has good mobility as well. We felt these two quarterbacks were the best in the state of Texas and those were the two guys we wanted from Day One." Both are very accurate passers with good, quick, strong arms. That's why they were recruited by Texas A&M, because of their passing ability and because of their character."
Linebacker Brian Gamble: "He's a young man who's been in our football camp, his dad is a high school coach. He played quarterback and linebacker in high school and he's smart. He's got very good speed and we think he is an outstanding prospect."
On how the recruiting class handled the process: "I'm really impressed with all of this group the way they handled the recruiting process. The two quarterbacks are an example. Vance Smith considered some schools, took a couple of trips and decided before Christmas and said I'm tired of this and I know what I'm going to do and that is it. Chip Ambres said right up front he narrowed it down to the schools he was going to visit. Told everyone else he had no interest and systematically visited those schools and made a decision and that was it. This entire group of young men are to be complimented for the way they handled recruiting. We had some guys commit early (in the fall) and they stayed with their word."
Offensive Line Prospects are Larger than in the past: "I think it's a sign of the times. The NFL teams are much larger than they've been in the past. The kids we are seeing in high school are getting larger. It's a matter of us taking guys who we felt were good players and they end of being big guys. The trend, across the board, in football is the big physical lines."