August 26, 2003
Coach Dennis Franchione and selected players met with members of the media on Tuesday at Cain Hall. Click the links above to hear what they had to say.
Here is a partial transcript of comments made by Coach Fran during the news conference.
Who's the starting quarterback?
"(jokingly) Well, we have made a decision ... it's going to be Dustin McNeal."
Do you plan to try to give Reggie McNeal and Dustin Long equal time at QB against Arkansas State?
"We are going to try to play the guys as balanced as we can. The first priority is to win the football game and if somebody gets into a rhythm, we may lean more towards them. I don't think you can come up with a formula going into the game, saying 'the third series this guy is going to play' or 'in the second quarter this guy is going to play.'
"The key point with these guys is that our players believe in both of them. I don't think they're going to play differently with either one out there. I suppose we have to run one of them out there to start the game, although we could run both of them out there to start the game. Who takes the first play is probably a bigger topic for you guys than I think it is for us as a football program."
How much apprehension is there for you as a new coach in a new program?
"The anxious part about it is that I haven't seen these guys play in a game. I don't have a lot of past experiences to draw from. As I told them many times during the spring and now here in August camp is that I only have what I have seen in practice to judge them by and that's what I have to base my decisions on. Hopefully our practices have been intense enough and good enough that they've been put in situations where we can make good judgements.
"It's always a little anxious in a first game. As the game wears on, you'll know more about your team a little bit, but the whole evening will be a learning experience for us as a coaching staff. First games are always that way to a degree, but when it's first games of first years, I think it's even more magnified."
Do you plan to pare the quarterbacks down to one eventually?
"Not necessarily. Our plan is to move the chains and score points. If playing two of them does that, that's fine. If playing one of them does that, that's fine. Obviously when you play a game, your evaluation is stronger. Their performance will have some bearing on next week. And as the season goes on, it will continue to be that way."
Can either one of the QBs lose the starting job on Saturday?
"If one lays an egg and one plays great, yes. I don't think either one will lay an egg, but I think what happens on Saturday is that the guy that plays best may be the starter the next Saturday. How they play will carry the most weight."
Your two-deep lineup is laden with young players. What are the positives to that and the drawbacks?
"I wish I could reach into my pocket and give them some experience, but I can't do that. The thing we can do is prepare as well as we can in practice on a daily basis to be able to play well on Saturday. As I tell them all the time, practice is to create a positive habit. You create either a positive habit or a negative habit. If you practice well, you're creating a positive habit. Hopefully we've done that. Experienced players are great to
have, but good players are great to have whether they're young or old. Historically the young players will bite you if they're good players. This team has the potential to get better on a weekly basis."
Arkansas State...
"I have a lot of respect for what (ASU head coach) Steve Roberts did in his first year last year. They got beat pretty soundly in the first two games by Virginia Tech and Illinois. And then they went on and finished 6-7. He inherited a team that lost a lot of games the year before. They got better and they got chemistry and they were patient. They believed in what they were doing. They're were willing to try to milk the game down to the fourth quarter with the chance to win and they did that. With a few more points in the right places and they would have had a winning record and finished a
little bit higher. I've gone to Jonesboro, Arkansas with a heavy underdog and won. So I'm not going to take anything for granted in this first game. A lot of times in the first game, I have met the enemy and the enemy was us --- missed assignments, turnovers, penalties, things like that. One of my hopes in this first game is that we don't have too many kinds of those issues. They're in year two and I think that's a little bit of an advantage for them. I expect this to be a tough, hard-fought, four-quarter football game."
There appear to be many true freshman on the two-deep. Have you made a decision on who is going to play?
"We've discussed that twice as a coaching staff and I'm sure we will do it again as the week goes on. There are some that I think will play for sure --- Earvin Taylor, Cody Wallace, Justin Warren. It's pretty easy to identify some of those. Then there is another group that, right now, are likely to play. And there's another group that we will have to wait and see how they continue to improve and see how the guys in front of them play. We don't want to play a young guy for just a few plays here and there. We want to be wise about that. Need has a lot of do with it. We have a plan going in, but we have to see how things progress."
Wide receiver is regarded as one of the team's deepest positions. With Earvin Taylor stepping up, what does that say about him?
"Earvin has had an impressive camp. He came in as a good receiver and he's illustrated that. Mentally he's handled the challenge well. Generally the test of time for a freshman to play in his first year is not physical, it's mental and emotional. He's handled both those things exceptionally well."