August 31, 2004
Audio from Tuesday's first football media luncheon of the season is available through the links to the right. Files can be downloaded and are in MP3 format.
A transcript of Coach Dennis Franchione's press conference on Tuesday at the Bright Football Complex:
Would you agree upgrading the run defense is probably the first step forward toward getting to kind of where you want to be?
"I think you're probably right. You know, total improvement on that side of the ball. But it generally starts with improving your ability to defend the run."
You have a lot of guys you're high on, but like you said, a lot of them haven't played. How confident can you be with those guys that they can make that kind of a difference?
"Well, we're somewhat inexperienced as you mentioned. I think we're taking, if I counted correctly this morning, 27 redshirt freshmen and true freshmen out of 78 players. But all of those guys have athletic ability and they don't have game experience. I do believe they'll be good players. I just need for them to be as soon as Thursday at 5:30. We'll be better. I don't know if you can go into a first game in college football, with the way the rules are, completely knowing what you have. It's much easier in year two to have an idea than it is in year one, but we don't have the benefit of the scrimmage against anybody else (like high schools)...we don't have the benefit of a exhibition game (like the NFL). A lot of those guys -- I think we counted 34 or 36 that will be playing in their first division 1 football game. it's hard to predict early in the season, to say anything with confidence."
You've answered all the questions about year two being a better year than year one. It seems like when you went around in the summer to booster groups, you talked a lot about patience, but there's a reality in college football there's the fantasy of everyone wanting to win right away. How do you balance all that?
"It's difficult. I'm not sure anybody listened to me last summer when I went out and talked. They had their minds made up and heard what they wanted to hear a certain extent. You always want to be optimistic and enthusiastic and the balance is to make sure that you convey the dose of reality that needs to go with the situation. It's probably been easier in year two to do that because we have knowledgeable football fans, and they saw last year and they remember. I think they have the ability to understand that without me having to say it right now. At least that's been conveyed to me a good bit."
Is this the most redshirt freshmen you've taken in a season and do you approach the season differently with so many youngsters?
"This is probably the most, or as many as we've ever had. You do have to give some thought to your approach. We just did our sequence, which is our series of plays to start the game, and it took us almost an hour to do that. We probably agonized over that probably more than a normal week. Usually it takes about 30 minutes. Part of that is new players, and the first game, and putting them in a comfortable position to get into the flow and rhythm of the game. That's just kind of an example of what I'm talking about."
What's a realistic number of how many of those 27 freshmen that'll play?
"I did not tally that up but I would say -- 15. I could look at it and let you know, but that'd be my guess off the top of my head. It kind of depends on how quickly we put the four redshirt freshmen linemen in the game, or how much we're in nickel and dime personnel on defense--those kinds of issues."
Is it safe to say maybe a half dozen of those freshmen will have significant roles in early in the season?
"I think it's very safe to say that."
Is that scary on one hand and exciting on the other? Is there a balance that you're hoping to get to?
"I do think that in a first game -- what you're alluding to is the anxiety that you go through as a coach, and probably a little bit as a player, because of the unknown. You guys have heard me say this before but sometimes you meet the enemy and the enemy really's got your colored jersey on. Hopefully that won't be the case. This has been a pretty mature bunch and been very purposeful in what they've done since the day they've gotten here, and very mature in how they've handled redshirting and the off season and work ethic and the season. But I do believe as a coach, when you sit around and analyze how are we going start this game and how are we going to play, you try to take out all the unknown factors you can and deal with as many of the known factors as you can. But there are a lot of them to deal with in this game. You know, we'll learn ? those are new players, you're going to learn more about them Thursday night than maybe any time since I've been here. And that learning curve won't stop on Friday. It will continue through the second game and third game and I think it takes them about a month or so. Some of those guys are going to get better as they get more experience, and you'll learn about them, and some of them are going to be up and down. Thursday night is the beginning of the journey, not the destiny. We'll see how the process is in between."
A year ago, nobody had heard of Courtney Lewis. He was a redshirt freshman who came out and looked like he was a veteran. Are you kind of secretly hoping you have a few guys that play like Courtney does?
"I think a little bit Courtney was somewhat protected. Derek (Farmer) was there and Courtney didn't have to run out and carry the load right off the bat. I think we'll have some guys that'll respond like Courtney, too. I'll be very surprised if three or four of them don't play pretty solid football that we'll all be pleased with, if not more. You know, we may have to give some oxygen after the first few snaps to settle them down, but after that I think once they settle in and get used to the speed of the game and lock in their focus on the game and not all the external things that are surrounding the game, I believe they'll get to playing pretty well. I really do believe on Friday when we watch the film we're going to look back and say some of these guys did some nice things. Hopefully they do enough nice things for us to be successful but I do think that all those guys are going to play -- we have reason to believe as coaches we'll be pleased with a lot of what they've done."
Talk about what you expect from Utah's offense...
"Well, they spread you out and they would like to run the ball first but they've got receivers and they'll throw the ball around. They are not just an air ball team. They have a good running game. We saw it last year first hand with their tailback who hurt us dramatically in the second half. They're not a big play action team, so you pretty well defend the run and the dropback pass for the most part. They've got experience at receiver and they've got some guys back in the offensive line. I think the key on their offense is Alex Smith. We did not see him last year, but watching him on tape he's obviously kind of special. He plays a little bit like a seasoned veteran from the way he came in and took off on their offense. He obviously is a very intelligent young man, he's already gotten his degree in only two years of college. I don't think we're going to throw anything at him that's going to surprise him. He gives them great versatility in what they are going to do offensively."
How tough is (Utah's) offensive line for a youngster to go up against in terms of the different things that they do, or do they do a whole lot of different things compared to other teams?
"I don't believe they do a lot more or maybe even any more than most teams. What they do, they do well. They're big and strong. We're going to sit here for 11 straight weeks and say just about the same thing about every offensive line we face. It's one of those 11 games we're going to have to be physical up front and get off blocks and get to the football. They did a great job I thought last year for the second game in that offense against us, and we got out of our gaps a little bit here and there. We're not going to be able to do those kinds of things."
In terms of Reggie McNeal's progression what do you want to see this year from him? What would you like to do to see ideally from him?
"Just real solid play, leadership of his offense out there. Consistency is the word you used and I think it's correct. A guy that starts to look like a veteran quarterback. I believe he had about as fine a practice last night as I've seen him have. I was pleased watching the tape of practice. I think he's headed in that direction. You know, he's going to be dependent upon his supporting cast, but it's better. I look for us to see those things from Reggie."
Who would you say is your No. 2 quarterback going into this game?
"Either Ty Branyon or Stephen McGee. I'm not quite sure which one is going to run out there second right now. It kind of depends on the situation, the game, where we are. We have confidence in both of those guys. We may not give them as much we give Reggie, but Ty really knows the offense well. Stephen is getting better and better every day. I think his last six to eight practices were steps positively for him. I think we have to deal with that when the time comes for us to deal with it."
This isn't your ideal schedule, but Jaxson (Appel) said he'd rather go on the road against a top 20 team than bring in a team like Southwest Missouri State.
"I should have got Jaxson to schedule them."
You at least have to like that enthusiasm, right?
"Games like this give you something to point to from January 1st on, looking in the off season through spring practice and into August. You know you're going to play a top-20 ball club and play on the road in a visiting team situation. Those are inspiring to players. I think they push themselves harder when they know that. A lot of people talked on the air about Virginia Tech's excitement to play USC (the other night). I think as a coach you see all ends of the spectrum. The players see this game and they're either excited about it or not. I think this one is easy for the players to get excited about. No. 1, it's the first game and No. 2, it's doing to be a very challenging game. When you're the second game of the year in college football and you're on national television, if that doesn't get you fired up you probably shouldn't be here."
When you see No. 1 USC kind of get out of the gates slowly, does it concern you or is it just part of that first game deal where you can tell your team the No. 1 team in the country struggles so we've got to get focused?
"We talked about it. We talked about Virginia Tech hurting themselves early in the game, about every other play for them unfortunately was a penalty. Obviously, the offensive pass interference call seemed like a sequence in the game there that turned it all around for Virginia Tech. An underdog has a tough time overcoming those kinds of happenings in a football game. I believe the players noticed (USC) being a little bit out of sync, but a lot of that was probably Virginia Tech, too. I thought they played very well, better than any of us anticipating them playing. USC has got some guys -- I think, you know, you won the national championship and everybody thought they were going to take off and go again and they were a little out of rhythm. We talked about consistency and knowing those things can happen. The biggest thing we've talked about has been A&M not beating A&M, like Virginia Tech did probably."
Health-wise, are you guys as good as can be expected to start the season?
"We've got a little bump, bruise, ouchie here and there, but nobody right now at this point in time we feel like we'll have to hold out of the game."
Can experience be overrated?
"It can be. I've had some really crummy experienced players. I think lack of experience can probably be overrated. What you're really hearing when we talk about that is more a coach's anxiousness about their new players being in their first game more than the fear of inexperience. I think it's the unknown that we deal with, and as coaches we don't like to deal with unknowns very well. We like to gather the data and select the odds and play them as best we can to give our team the best possible chance for success, and in the first game like this it's just very difficult to do. We know on offense that we've got a quarterback that's been in battle, a tailback that's rushed for a thousand, we've got an outstanding receiver, we've got two or three linemen starters back, we've got a few things that we can cling to. Our kicker has been a solid performer for us. So you'd like to be able to go into the game and believe that you're going to get consistent performance out of those positions. You're just not quite sure what you're going to get, as I said. I won't be surprised if they do just fine."
I guess the fear of the unknown can actually be maybe the fear of what you do have can be even a greater concern there.
"It is. A lot of times more games are lost than won early in the season and that's what you want to try to always avoid as a coach, and do the best you can on that. We've worked very hard to tried to that but ? like I said, there'll be somebody that'll make them play beautifully Thursday night and there will be somebody that never busted this play one time in the whole 25 practices leading up to the first game and goes the wrong direction Thursday night. If we could explain all those things we probably wouldn't need to play the game. It'd just be kind of boring. That's what makes it kind of interesting and exciting and -- I am really fired up to see this team play. I'm fired up because of how hard they've worked and the enthusiasm they've carried into practice. We haven't had a bad practice this August. Not a bad practice. There have been a couple of days I just gnawed on them to gnaw on them because I didn't want them to think I started liking them too much, but we really haven't had a bad practice."
Is that almost unheard of to go through 25 practices though (that way)? Have you done that before?
"I've had a camp or two maybe that's been like this. There's been a day where the offense didn't (have a good day). Our second scrimmage our offense, we were not very good. But we've practiced hard and we did some good things, too. The first 18 or 19 practices offensively we couldn't move the ball well on our defenses and then practices 19 through 23 or 24 the offense started clicking, and then I went home and worried about what happened to the defense those few days. That's just the ups and downs that you go through but really as a football team from where we are in the second year and the things that we've dealt with -- it's been a real pleasing August. We've got a lot done and the weather has been as cooperative as it ever could be in South Texas."
Jaxson mentioned a couple of times about things that happened last year, specifically the Oklahoma game sticking in his head back there and making sure it doesn't happen again. As a coach and staff do you forget about last year or remind them we're going to be competitive and we don't want the same thing to happen?
"I haven't talked much about last year. We talked about a lot about this year and this year's team. It's totally different. A lot of these players weren't here last year. We want to do as I've always said. Our eyes are on the front of our head to see where we're going and that's what we want to focus on. We can't do anything about the past except learn from it. We've had plenty of days to do that. We've got to focus on Utah now and come 11:00 o'clock Thursday night we have to start thinking about Wyoming. We can't do anything about those other issues right now. We've got to go forward. The players know enough about it, we don't have to talk about it."
Can you talk about whether or not it's intentional that you guys stop referring to the defense as the "Wrecking Crew"? Is that something where you guys said we're not going to make reference to that for a little while?
"I think some of this got blown out of proportion. We never wanted for the defense not to be known as the 'Wrecking Crew.' I think Coach Torbush just took the stand that that's not something that is just given to you. You need to go out and earn it, play in that fashion. If you look back at the Wrecking Crew's statistics, there for a lot of years they were very, very good and -- with him being new and everything ? I believe it was far more you want to play up to that level and deserve to be called the Wrecking Crew. Defense at Texas A&M will always be the Wrecking Crew. Whether their statistics live up to Wrecking Crew standards remains to be seen. But that will always be synonymous with Texas A&M defense. That'll never go away."