February 02, 2005
Head Coach Dennis Franchione's signing day press conference is available through the audio link to the right. The file is in MP3 format.
Coach Fran's opening comments are posted below. The rest of the conference is available through the audio link.
HEAD COACH DENNIS FRANCHIONE COMMENTS - NATIONAL SIGNING DAY
"This is always an exciting day. It's always great to reach this point of time in February and get to national signing day. We felt like we needed to get a third good strong class and we felt like we were able to do that.
"It takes a lot of people to be able to do this. Coach Barr, who is new to us, did a magnificent job. Shane (Elder), his assistant, and our entire staff obviously worked a lot of hours and did a lot of traveling and talking. But so many other people are part of that team-the faculty, administration, our athletes that help with hosting-Coach Gillispie (men's basketball) and Coach Henry (track and field) were both major parts of our success this year, so it really was a true team effort. The faculty hosting our athletes on weekends, some of them were there every weekend to help us, and you can't say enough about that.
"We felt like we signed just what we needed in this class. We signed somebody at every position except place kicker, and, you know, probably Martellus (Bennett) could take care of that for us. We did meet our formula that we had going in and that's good to be able to do that. We got off to a good start in recruiting. Michael Shumard, who we were able to sign, was actually committed to us probably 18 or 19 months ago, before his junior year, and I think he'll prove to be an excellent player.
"This class has good size, good speed and good athleticism, which I think you'd say about a lot of your classes. I think one of the things that sticks out about this one is the versatility that is in this class. There are a lot of guys that have played both offense and defense, or could play multiple positions, and it'll be interesting to see just exactly which way they go in college and how they develop.
"We had high expectations in our class. This group of guys that we recruited embraced those expectations. I really believe we recruited an excellent class of character. (There are) some great families in this class. I can't tell you how many moms and dads were an important part of this class, and really the character from mom and dad that was passed on was very good. That shows in the fact that all but couple of them are in great shape academically.
"We did sign a junior college defensive lineman and junior college cornerback. We got three freshmen enrolled at semester. Obviously the JC guys, when you look back now and see Michael Montgomery and DeQawn Mobley and Lee Foliaki and Renuel Greene, and how some of those guys have panned out so well for us, hopefully these guys will too and we have every reason to believe that.
"I suppose from what I hear this class is going to be a highly-ranked class. We have never put a lot of emphasis on that. We put far more emphasis on our own evaluations, but it is nice that the athletes in this class collectively are drawing some accolades for what they have accomplished. The bottom line is we've signed some good high school players, and we've signed some good junior college players. Now we have the mission of turning them into good Division I football players.
"There were a lot of things that we could merit for having this kind of class. This complex still is a major 'wow' factor in recruiting that recruits are very impressed with and families are very impressed with. The statement it makes is very impressive. Kyle Field this year was magnificent. I really believe that guys that came to visit and saw games were just very impressed with how that all came about. Again, the coaching staff I think did a great job. If you'd been around our office the last two days, they were watching tape of the '06 class, (and) making phone calls on the '05 class as well as the '06 class. The process never stops. As I've said many times, recruiting is like shaving-do it every day or you'll look like a bum. That's what they're doing right now.
"Offensively I feel like we got some playmakers. I feel like we really got some guys that could be difference makers in this group, what you'd like to call go-to guys. Talking about our defense, we had needs across the board, really, on the defensive side of the ball, to start to replenish what we're going to lose next year. I think it's safe to say that we got good athleticism, good speed, (and) guys that can play multiple positions, and we filled our needs-especially filling our needs in the secondary with the loss of Jont? Buhl and Byron Jones to graduation."