September 03, 2001
On this week's short turnaround:
"It's a challenge. The purpose of the Sunday workout is usually to work some of the soreness out, but yesterday the coaches were up here all day getting ready. Normally we would have all day yesterday to get the game plan ready, but now we basically have today and tomorrow to get the plan out and taught. Wednesday we will have a walk through practice. Our normal Friday practice will be Wednesday. We will fly out and have some meetings on Thursday. With out a doubt it is a fast turnaround. The travel makes it tougher and the altitude and time change both have a physical impact."
On evaluating the game from Saturday ...
"The young freshman receivers were the highlights. Both Murphy and Thomas showed that they will be able to help us out a lot. Our kicker Cody Scates answered our place-kicking questions in a positive way. Outside linebacker Penright did some real good things. Our defensive line did a pretty good job. This was a game that could have been a 38-8 score if we took away some of the deflected passes and a bad situation on a good opening drive. I would have felt better had we run the ball more effectively. I did not think that coming out of that game that we have that worked out, but we are trying to objective about it. We have a redshirt freshman running back in his first ball game. He had 6 yards a carry on 10 carries. Our quarterback completed 60% of his passes for 240 yards on an off night. We had to work with him throughout the night as he was hurt from the first series on. An injury that affected his release."
Would you like to see one of the running backs getting 20-25 carries a night?
"We will do more of that. That was one of the things coming out of the game that we have decided. We will establish someone soon similar to the way we have in the past with Darren Lewis and Greg Hill. As of yet we do not have a front runner in mind."
On Terrence Murphy's adjustment to a new position.....
"In terms of athletic ability Coach Sumlin felt he compared favorably to a lot of guys he has seen when he was at Purdue. He has good physical size and excellent speed. Sometimes you take a little chance on a guy having good hands. There is something about a guy that plays quarterback that gives him a better understanding of the defense. I felt like when I took Chris Taylor and Terrence that we were taking them as athletes. I think Terrence will continue to get better and he has a chance with his size to be something special."
On Terrence Murphy's hands.......
"We just had to guess on his hands. I watched a lot of tape on him and noticed he had real good hand-eye coordination. I felt if he could not help us at receiver, then he definitely could make a cornerback or safety. I was pleased with him."
Who's the starter at running back?
"I do not know. I do not know who the starter is. We have three guys. (Richard) Whitaker, (Oschlor) Flemming and (Keith) Joseph are all the ones competing. We'll see who can be the one to step up and be the tailback. It is not fair to Richard since he is hurt, so we'll make sure he is well."
On the running game.....
"I was not pleased that we could not run the ball more consistently. We had some good plays. I would like to have taken some of the longer runs out and shown more consistency of making 4 yards a bunch of times."
Why was the running game inconsistent?
"We have some younger linemen and (Seth) McKinney was out with leg cramps. We had a problem at guard and those were all fairly new linemen. We also had a redshirt freshman at tailback who did average six yards a carry on 10 carries and could possibly have turned in a 120 yard game had he carried it 10 more times. That is a pretty good game for a freshman."
Is it a coincidence that you chose early games in the mountains?
"I wanted to get a chance to travel out of our immediate area. I thought the Florida State thing (1998 Kickoff Classic) was good for us in the past. I think it will help us a lot to learn how to get used to playing at different places as the visitor. We do take into consideration the fans and in the future we have some games against Virginia Tech, Pitt and Florida State. We are trying to get a place where we can take the fans. We have tried to get out to the West Coast, but it does not seem to be able to fit into the schedule."
Do you think that as the year goes on you will like your receiving corps more and more?
"I said going into the season that we do not have a Robert Ferguson out there, but overall as a group we are better. Put Porter in there and he will make some phenomenal catches. He is a 6-5 guy so he will make some big plays for us. You have a guy like that, who last year was just getting into football. I do not know how much mentally he was into it. We did not utilize him that much. This year he came back and is having a lot of fun and we are enjoying having him out there."