September 12, 2000
Head Coach R.C. Slocum
How have the offensive coaches blended with the arrival of Coach (Pete) Hoener and Coach (Larry) Kirksey?
"They're all big people, but I've been very fortunate here. We've not had any staff friction. You hear stories about how guys may not get along with each other and that could very easily happen on a coaching staff. To be in this business, you have to be competitive. It's a very volatile profession, and it takes big people to be in it. These guys have come in with the openings, and Steve (Kragthorpe) has been very secure about it. He wanted me to get the best guys I could get for the jobs. That's what I was going to do anyway, but it's helpful for the guy to participate in it. When you bring in a new guy, he has to feel good about the people he's going to work with. I would never bring in someone that didn't fit. Everybody feels good about them (Hoener and Kirksey)."
What have they added to your offense?
"Both of the (new) offensive coaches are experienced guys with varied backgrounds. They've done a bunch of different things and they had some ideas on what we were doing. What happens when you're a young coach sometimes is you know one way of doing something, and you think that's the only way. The older you get you realize it's how you coach those things. It's having something you believe in. Being able to add to that is important. I think it's been a good mixture of bringing in some guys with a wealth of experience."
Talk about how Chris Taylor bounced back last week from the tough opening game.
"He came back the next day. We talked to him after the game and told him you've got to shake that off and go back out and play. There's been very few, if any, guys who have played this game that didn't have a drop along the way. I told him he's made a bunch of big plays and he'll make a bunch more. I'm not surprised he had a good game, but I'm glad he did."
How indicative of your team's progress was the Wyoming win?
"That remains to be seen at this stage. When we played Notre Dame, we didn't know how good we were, how good they were and we don't really know how good Wyoming is. This time of the year you're just trying to get wins, and trying to see improvement in your team. I thought without a doubt, we improved the other night. We caught the ball better. We just played better. We did better on defense. Assignment-wise we were better. I think UTEP is a better team from what I have seen on tape. It will be a bigger challenge to us than Wyoming was. So you look to see if you can get better this week. I was glad to get the win (against Wyoming). I was really glad to get to play a lot of players and to see the other two quarterbacks play, but I'm not ready to say we're a finished product."
What about the fact that you have an open date after this week and then you start conference? It seems like this could be a type of springboard game for the team.
"We'd like to come out of this next game feeling like we've made improvement from this past week. That's the most optimistic thing we could hope for right now. The week after next, we start playing for keeps. We've just about gone through the dress rehearsals, and we've got more opportunity to polish everything up. Then it will be a long two weeks waiting for the next game. If it were up to me, I'd want to play it the next week."
You've always talked about balance in the offense and being unpredictable. Do you get a sense now that defensive coordinators are looking at film and saying they're not sure what A&M is doing now?
"If I were to speculate on what they think, I would say over the years they are going to make us beat them throwing the football. I would guess some of them now are thinking we're going to have to work on pass defense as well. They might still take the approach that they're not going to let us run the ball, but I would say they're at least spending a little more time on it. I think they're looking at the individuals and the scheme. We're giving them a lot of different formations and personnel groupings to look at. I think they're seeing more looks from a scheme standpoint. From a personnel standpoint, the quarterback is a pretty accurate passer. In two games, he (Farris) hasn't thrown many bad balls. He threw one at Notre Dame that was a high pass on a slant where the guy was wide open, and that was going to be a big play. Overall, he's been pretty accurate. We've got an accurate passer and a couple of guys who have shown the ability. Our protection's been pretty good as well."
After two games, how would you assess how (Ja'mar) Toombs has come along as being a well-rounded back, as far as running, blocking and catching the ball?
"I think he's done about what we've asked him to do. In the first game, he was playing against a good run defense. They were lined up in tight to stop us from running the ball. He's blocked better. I think he's in better shape, and I've been pleased with him so far. He's doing what most fullbacks do. They don't make a lot of headlines. He's fit into that role, and we've been pleased with him. He made a couple of key blocks in that game Saturday night."
You've been pretty good about determining if a player can play on the next level. What about (Robert) Ferguson?
"Right now, I'm making sure he can play at this level and it looks like he can. He's played two college games, so I don't want to start worrying about his pro career right now. I want to see if he can be an outstanding college player. It's just hard right now to say that this kid's going to be a great college receiver. Right now, he's off to a pretty good start. It would certainly be premature for me to start speculating on his pro career right now."
You've had two games to get a look at (Wes) Bautovich. What has been your impression of him?
"I've been pleased with him. He's got good speed, but we knew that. That's why we put him over there to start with. He came in here as a quarterback, but he wasn't going to be in the quarterback mix. We knew he could help us on special teams, so we put him over there. By default almost, he started getting some reps in the secondary, and we were pleased with what he did. We brought him back in the fall for some additional reps, and then we started he could be a backup player for us at that position. Then Jameson got hurt and we scrambled to get him ready to play. I've been very pleased with him. I thought he did an exceptional job for a guy who has had limited work at that position. I'd say at this stage, he's every bit as far along as Rich Coady was."