Tuesday Media Luncheon Audio/Transcript
Nov 16, 2004 | Football
November 16, 2004
Audio from Tuesday's football media luncheon is available through the links to the right. Files can be downloaded and are in MP3 format.
Here is a transcript of Coach Franchione's Tuesday comments:
THE QUESTION: After four close games in a row, how important is a week off?
COACH FRANCHIONE: It's hard to measure it , but if we had to play Saturday we'd find a way. I could tell the last week or ten days that we needed a little physical healing and a little emotional time to get away a little bit and recharge. We played seven straight or something like that (without an off week). I think it'll help us to have a day or two to let the guys get away from practice and the regiment of practice, refresh a little bit before we get started again on our game plan.
THE QUESTION: Is the argument that a Div. I-A football playoff would require too many games a valid argument?
COACH FRANCHIONE: I think so. I believe we took the No. 1 team in the nation ranking twice to the playoffs (at Pittsburg State) and when you go into a playoff, (you face) all good teams and the collisions are bigger and there are more of them. And it becomes in our game -- it really becomes a survival contest physically to play three or four games. I don't know if it really measures completely the best team. It measures the team that can survive the beating and pounding and the injuries and who has some depth I suppose. It's not like basketball where you have all the injuries to deal with and lose good players. In our instance we lost a couple of good players and you aren't quite the same team.
THE QUESTION: That said how do you feel about what the set up -- the way it is now -- specifically if you put yourself in the shoes of Auburn or Oklahoma. If it plays out the way everyone assumes, one of those teams will be undefeated and left out of the national title game. What's your feeling on that?
COACH FRANCHIONE: That's unfortunate. You know probably the biggest reason that that could happen is Auburn started the year ranked so low. I'm not sure we need to have preseason rankings. I think if we didn't start ranking teams until maybe the end of September we would avoid that a little bit more. But it's still possible to happen. I don't think it's avoidable in some instances. I have been a proponent of the "plus one" method.
THE QUESTION: At the end of the year?
COACH FRANCHIONE: Right. But you know this is the system we have. I think as coaches we understand that we don't always understand the computers and completely what all that is about. I think I would be far more for a committee like the basketball committee to select the teams than I would be for a computer and all that analysis. I mean, we can do that in basketball, so I don't know why we couldn't do it in football. But this is the system we have and that's possible for that to happen and we just as coaches have to trust that it'll all work out and the two best teams will play. I'm not sure a little controversy at the end is not good for our games sometimes.
THE QUESTION: Is it possible that there's more talk going on right now about what's going on in this BCS than there would be if you had a playoff set up? Maybe these people are crazy like foxes.
COACH FRANCHIONE: I think there's something to that. If you really wanted to get down to it, we started playoffs about the first of October when we started Big 12 play. The Big 12 is eliminating down to one and the ACC is and SEC and Big 10 every conference is limiting down to a champion and that's a playoff. The problem comes in when there are those that got eliminated down to there are more undefeated or we have a hard time deciding who plays in one game. But I don't have a problem with it really. I mean, I'd hate to be the third team out I guess but you know that could happen.
THE QUESTION: Being a member of the Big 12 South division do you kind of sense that people don't realize what OU had to do to get through this division undefeated?
COACH FRANCHIONE: I think that's true. You know, obviously the south is much tougher than the north this year. It's one of those instances. But I didn't think K-State would beat Oklahoma last year either but they did. But Oklahoma has had to go through some pretty good competition -- Oklahoma State on the road, our game on the road, Texas at a neutral sight. They're certainly going to be a worthy team to be looked at for that final game.
THE QUESTION: In the south division, the teams are all fighting over the same talent pool in the region as far as recruiting. Right now OU and Texas are in the top ten and have been for a few years. Can this region sustain three top 10 teams?
COACH FRANCHIONE: I think so. I believe that and that's part of the reason I wanted to be here. There are approximately 300 Div. I signees in this state every year. And though we have all kind of recruiting services who rank who the top 100 are, as we all know there are some great players that aren't in that top 100. It still gets down to evaluation. There are over 50 Div.I schools that sign players in the state of Texas each year. You know Texas is going to get their share and Oklahoma is going to get their share. What we need to do is get our share. And then coach hard.
THE QUESTION: How competitive is the recruiting process?
COACH FRANCHIONE: It's very competitive and there's always some things said that are not completely accurate in recruiting. If you say something about they have five quarterbacks on their roster --- they have this guy, this guy, this guy, and this guy and you're a quarterback, I don't believe that's negative recruiting. Facts are facts and if it's us or them that's what we've got and you have to deal with that. Now, if you say things that aren't true, then that's when negative recruiting comes in and perceptions are that way. You have to deal with some of those issues every year.
THE QUESTION: Who's going to be on your scout team? Who's Cedric Benson? Who's Vince Young?
COACH FRANCHIONE: That's a good question. We like to have him on our first team let alone our scout team. Stephen McGee is probably going to have to do it a little bit of the chore there at quarterback and maybe Jordan Chambliss some. Tailback we may use Jay Lucas or Samson Taylor.
THE QUESTION: How confident are you they're going to be able to give you some kind of idea...
COACH FRANCHIONE: Texas doesn't run a real complicated offensive attack right now. They're just executing well, blocking well and have good players. They don't beat themselves. It's not so much what they're doing, it's who they're doing it with. Obviously they don't have a Reggie (McNeal) to probably do what he does either except for Vincent Young. One thing we may do these next few days is work a little more against each other than maybe normal because of similarities in quarterbacks and styles and some of our offense and their offense and some likeness to it.
THE QUESTION: How much have (senior cornerback Byron Jones and Jont? Buhl) meant to the overall maturation of all those young guys in the A&M secondary?
COACH FRANCHIONE: They've been great examples. They've made some very good plays and had some tough plays against them but I think those guys have been very steady. They've never gotten too high and never gotten too low. They've lived life on the island long enough that they know how to get out and play the next play. I think for the young guys, that's been a good example to follow. Our young guys are very competent young guys but having that senior there that's been through all the battles and how he handles the ups and downs of playing that position is valuable.
THE QUESTION: Was there ever a moment where either of (Byron Jones or Jont? Buhl) were in jeopardy of losing their job to Erik Mayes or Brock Newton?
COACH FRANCHIONE: Sure. Erik and Brock have been right on their heels and nipping there and trying to take their jobs away. The fortunate thing for us there's enough times where we're playing five and six defensive backs that we almost consider those two guys starters along with the seniors. It's been a healthy situation I think for the most part.
THE QUESTION: How much you going to miss guys like Geoff Hangartner and Terrence Murphy?
COACH FRANCHIONE: They've been rocks. They've been solid. You know what you're going to get, they care about the team. Geoff is a very intelligent football player. He'd make a great coach. He thinks and sees deeper than a lot of people do in this game and he understands adjustments to be made without us telling him all the time. Geoff's a smart football player but they've been steadying influences on a young team. Their work habits and vision have been excellent. They're leaders but they lead by example very well. Young players only know what to do if the old players do it sometimes. Part of the problem in our first year is the older guys are learning what to do in the first year, too, so in the second year they're much more comfortable and able to do a better job of leading.
THE QUESTION: Can you expand on how you know (Murphy and Hangartner) worked to turn around about teaching young kids and taking under them under their wing for the turn around year.
COACH FRANCHIONE: Both those guys have been through a lot of games and a lot of practices and a lot of ups and downs. You don't see them get too high or too low. Their work ethic is very good and all those things bleed over to the rest of your team. I always believe your team will be as good as your leaders lead it to be. I didn't say as good as they play, but as good as they lead. And those guys have been good leaders. Our senior class as a whole has been pretty good leaders and certainly those two stick out.
THE QUESTION: Is it not too far fetched to say Hangartner moving from center to tackle for his senior year which is an unselfish thing I felt -- was it maybe one of the real keys because you got an offensive line got your best players out there and if you look at it your offensive line is I think been one of the big keys to your success.
COACH FRANCHIONE: You're exactly right. When we were going through August two a days we had to solidify the other tackle position. We had hoped a couple of those young guys would be ready to do it but they weren't quite ready. You have to make a decision about how to get your five best on the field and we talked about a lot of combinations and you know at the time you're getting closer and closer to the Utah game and want to have this group have an opportunity to maybe have eight or ten days to work together before they have to play a game. Geoff didn't hesitate. He did what was best for the team and solidify the offensive line and then helped Chris Yoder immensely throughout the season. He's a great influence on them. That was pretty instrumental.
THE QUESTION: Can you talk about what you've learned in the short time about the Texas rivalry and the differences between the two schools?
COACH FRANCHIONE: Any team you sing about in your fight song you know is an important game. I've watched this rivalry from outside in and saw the intensity and the desire for both sides to win. I think it's a very respectful rivalry at this point in time. I think both sides obviously want to win very badly but I believe our players respect them and their players and our fans do and I think that is in return. Like I told our players, they write books about this game and these games stay with you for a long time. There are a few -- we can sit here and name 10 or 12 traditional rival games that are highlights of the college football season and this is always one of them.
THE QUESTION: Back in your younger days of coaching when you thought about great jobs seeing yourself maybe coaching the other sideline rather than this one?
COACH FRANCHIONE: Well, I watch this game very intently and enjoyed it. So many Thanksgiving weekends. I certainly had admiration for both schools.
THE QUESTION: Without throwing too much out of left field, I'm just curious. You mentioned just because he's going to play Cedric Benson. Jay Lucas, he had kind of a crazy road to get here. What will his role be next year? What does he bring to the table?
COACH FRANCHIONE: Jay and Samson are going to have a play a major role next year with Keith (Joseph) graduating. One of them is going to be in a definite rotation with Courtney, if not both of them. Jay has got strength and power to go with his running ability. He's got a little bit different style. He's probably a little bit more like Keith. I don't know if he'll be as big as Keith eventually or not.
THE QUESTION: Jordan Chambless, he's the intriguing guy we hear about. Playing several positions. Got the baseball thing going. What are y'all going to do with him?
COACH FRANCHIONE: I don't know if we've figured that out completely. We're leaving him at quarterback for now but if we were in our staff meeting right here talking personnel and brought up Jordan's name, other than (DL) Coach Eggen and (OL) Coach Helduser, every coach would say I want him at my position which I think is the highest compliment you can have in that situation. It's a nice problem to have or a nice circumstance to deal with. But we still want to see this through as a quarterback for a little bit longer. I don't know whether we'll sign a quarterback this year or not. We may, we may not. So I think it's probably imperative to us that we let this play it out a little longer before we make any decisions about that.
THE QUESTION: Does the baseball coach want him, too?
COACH FRANCHIONE: Oh yes.
THE QUESTION: Is he going to play?
COACH FRANCHIONE: He'll play.
THE QUESTION: Comment then on how Stephen McGee has progressed this year?
COACH FRANCHIONE: You know, he's done well. As a freshman he hasn't had to play which I think is going payoff in the long run for us. By the time next fall gets here he'll have had two spring practices under his belt and been out there for 11 college football games and been a part of preparing and seeing how the game goes and seeing what Reggie goes through and the speed of the game and all those things. I think his development has been good for where he's at right now. He's not ready to go in and take over the game at this point in time but he's on a nice time line to be able to do some good things. I think this next spring practice will help crystallize some things in his mind. It's a little hard to be the guy that thinks he's redshirting knows he may have to play if we get an injury. That's a difficult situation. How many reps do you give him? We used to split his and Ty's pretty much, who together would get as many as Reggie but as we got you know -- maybe a couple three weeks ago we started cutting back on Stephen to give more to Ty and T.J. Sanders as guys to get us through this season.
THE QUESTION: Is he a pocket passer or is he going to be able to tuck and go like Reggie?
COACH FRANCHIONE: He's got good speed. I don't think I don't know if he'll have that hold your breath speed that Reggie has but he has good speed. I think that's one thing that Steven needs to learn. Right now he is inclined to stay in a pocket too long and as I told him you do that in the Big 12 you'll have a lot of bumps and bruises and some might not heal. You need to start thinking about how many alligators got and taking off a little sooner.
THE QUESTION: In the big picture, in the long term are you happy that you have four more years of Stephen McGee instead of three more years?
COACH FRANCHIONE: I'm really happy. I guess a good way to analyze that would be to say just think of if Reggie was a sophomore today. And then think about the next two years. In the development of a quarterback that's a huge plus because of how much they have to know and learn on week in and week out basis. If you sat through a week's worth of meetings with coach Koenning and the quarterbacks you would say 'whoa that's amazing.'
THE QUESTION: Because of the injuries to the linebacker position just how impactful has Lee Foliaki been?
COACH FRANCHIONE: Lee started playing good about the time we really needed somebody to step forward. If you go back to the beginning of the season we talked about they needed to be ready by conference play and Lee pretty well was ready by then. With the issues that we dealt with injuries his being ready to play was great timing. Lee brings a good linebacker attitude to our defense. I really like his personality and his attitude and approach to things and he's got a lot of savvy as a football player and all those were going to be ingredients that were important to us in the development of getting better on defense especially at the time when that all sort of happened with others and with him. I don't think you can over look Renuel Greene and the Wyoming game is when he started to make a impact and he's had to deal with some things too, but he gave us something in September a little quicker than Lee and then Lee really gave us a lot from October on I think.
THE QUESTION: Against Texas how key is this linebacker corps especially to have as many as possible in uniform?
COACH FRANCHIONE: Well, any time you're going to play a team that runs for over 300 yards a game, you have to have your run stoppers ready. We have been able to do a decent job against people's rushing attacks and I think all those guys on that second level of defense have been key components to us being able to do that.
