September 29, 1998
The big issue today seems to be Randy McCown's enthusiasm and the type of leader he seems to be. Can you talk about what he brings from that standpoint?
"I think Randy is a guy that has some enthusiasm about him. He's one of those eager guys. I wouldn't characterize him as a 'rah-rah,' overly out-spoken type guy, but he does have some enthusiasm about him. It helps when you're out there completing passes, because that picks the enthusiasm up."
Has that enthusiasm been needed?
"The way we were playing the other night, we needed something. We started out with a bang on the first play (60-yard TD pass from Branndon Stewart to Chris Cole), but after that we were sluggish. It looked like we just needed something to speed things up; get a little change. And I thought it did that. For whatever reason, when we put Randy in things seemed to pick up a little bit. We had a little bit different intensity on the field. That's what it looked like to me, so when we came out in the second half, decided to go with Randy again. It looked like we had a little more intensity, or the tempo was different."
"In coaches' meetings throughout the season and I even said it before the season that one of the advantages we have is that we have two experienced quarterbacks, and that I wouldn't have any reservations playing Randy McCown. I thought we could win with him. In the coaches meeting over the past few weeks and after evaluating tape, it was apparent that Randy was practicing at a level very comparable to Branndon. So if you're in a game and things are going quite so well, then out of fairness, I owed to Randy to let him go out and play. There's no reason not to, unless you just didn't want to play a second quarterback."
Do you have any predisposition about letting Randy McCown play this whole game?
"No I don't. It will be just how the game goes. It won't be something where I say, "if you don't do well on that first series, then I'm going to jerk you out." It will be a 'by-feel" type of thing, just like when he was put in. I'm not going to pre-determine because I don't know in my own mind how we will do that."
"Branndon has always had the burden of supposed to be an all-world quarterback that makes everything happen when he's out there. The reality is that not many quarterbacks do that. Most guys have ups and downs in their play, and Branndon has been like most. He's had some brilliant moments for us and some not so brilliant, but that's the way it is for most quarterbacks. I'm not sure that it hasn't been burdensome at times for him to try to live up to the expectations of what others had for him."
"Spike (Dykes) made the statement during the summer that the two best jobs are weatherman and backup quarterbacks and there's something to that. The backup quarterback is always the guy that everyone wants to put in there. A lot of times when they come in there, there's not the pressure that's been on the starter. So it's not unusual for that guy to come in and make some good things happen."
Has Chris Cole developed in that "go-to" guy you've been looking for?
"Chris Cole has been a big-play guy. You could see it coming. Last year he made plays and has been getting better. As you make plays, you get to expecting to make big plays and the more you expect to make big plays the more you make. It's a cyclical thing. Chris is on a roll right now. He's getting better and he's working to get better. His expectation level is high and that's helped us immensely."
Where do you think this team is as you begin conference play?
"We've used up our exhibition games and now we're playing for keeps. All the games are vitally important. They all count the same. I guess as a coach, you'd always like to be better off than where you are. We'd like to have zero turnovers and be averaging 500 yards and 40 points a game, but it's never like that. We really don't know just where we are on the scale. It's really not all that important because a lot of teams can be up here right now and two or three weeks later they're way down here. What is important is for us to be better this week, and for us to find a way to beat Kansas.
What about Kansas?
"They're a dangerous team. They have gotten a lot better. They use a lot of two back formations and they have speed at the tailback position. They have good receivers and their quarterback is an athletic guy who can move around and make plays. They're 2-2 but after looking at the tape you can see that they could easily be 4-0 overall and 2-0 against the league. There's no question that this team is good enough to beat us."