September 27, 2005
Audio from Tuesday's football media luncheon is available through the links to the right. Files can be downloaded and are in MP3 format. More files will be posted soon.
A transcript of Coach Dennis Franchione's press conference on Tuesday at the Bright Football Complex is posted below.
The Aggies open the Big 12 season at home on Saturday against Baylor. Kickoff at Kyle Field is set for 11:30 a.m. and tickets still available by calling 1-888-99-AGGIE.
Coach Fran Media Luncheon Transcript
The wide receiver position, with Earvin Taylor's unfortunate injury. Will there be more shuffling? Who do you see filling his void and where does that go?
"Kerry Franks was already playing a good bit there. We'll use Pierre Brown at that position, also. If we had to have injuries, we had them in a position where we had some depth, and hopefully we've emptied the tanks on all those kinds of injuries at that position. Hopefully we don't have anymore."
Has your confidence or anything in your defensive coaches been shaken at all?
"I've seen this coaching staff lead the nation or be second and third in team defense. I know what this group can do and I'm not shaken at all."
Offensively, the numbers are staggering. There are lots of big plays, lots of yardage, but also seems maybe a little bit inconsistent, like against SMU in the first half. Where do you think the offense is right now?
"Well, we've scored 66 and 40-something in the last few games. I would take those numbers week in and week out. I don't think you can expect that to continue in Big 12 play. There's always things that we can do better. We talked about the inconsistency in the SMU game. I think a lot of that was due to the week off and getting back into a rhythm. We've still got plenty to work on and by no means do we think we've arrived on that side of the ball. We have had some guys that have made plays for us and obviously more time of possession would be nice, but I'm not going to turn down any minute and 30-second touchdown drives. We had five drives last week of 75 yards or more for scores. I think four of the five were for touchdowns. I believe I'm correct on that. That's hard to do against anybody. The statistics will tell you that if you take the ball on your 20, your odds are about one in 12 that you're going to score. Anybody that's going 80 yards for scores on drives on any kind of consistent basis has big plays in their offense, because the reason you fail is that the defense makes you grind it and you eventually shoot yourself in the foot or they make a play and get you behind the chains. You can't do that. I'm not disappointed with our offense. I think we've had four turnovers this year. That would be one thing I'd like to see us minimize more. After last year I think we're all a little spoiled on that statistic. Other than that I just want us to continue to improve and keep doing the things we've been doing."
In years past, the Baylor game hasn't been one circled on a lot of Aggies' calendars. It is this year. Speak to that and maybe if you have to keep your guys in check going into Saturday?
"I think whoever we're playing this week would be a big game. This is the opening of Big 12 Conference play. I think that right there in itself makes this an exciting weekend for everybody in the Big 12. Our fans probably remember last year's game and that's why they've circled it. They all count one at this point in time. There's not any one of them that count any more than the other one today. This one's next and this one's important."
Coach Koenning said the offense needs to be more physical in this game and you've had changes in the first three games. You really played a lot of guys against Texas State. Do you have a set starting five or are you still searching for a true definitive starting five?
"Well, I think when you use the word 'searching' you make it sound like we're disappointed and maybe you didn't mean it that way. We're not really. I think our offensive line for three games has done fairly well. The challenge gets bigger this week. Our job is to put the five best on the field. Each game we evaluate and each day we evaluate. More changes? Yes, only because we think this guy is one of the five best that needs to be on the field. So it's possible that could happen this week or any given week."
How do you feel like Reggie (McNeal's) improved this year over last year?
"You reach a point with a veteran quarterback where his vision of what's happening in a game is better than it's ever been. I believe that's really true of Reggie. Now, in some ways, the game kind of slows down. I imagine when Reggie was a sophomore or junior it seemed a lot faster than it is today. I think that's his command of what he's doing. I don't know if there's a particular area I'd pick out and say he's doing that much better; it's just that his vision and control of what's going on is probably the best."
He's always had such a good touchdown to interception ratio. Is that something you have to hammer him about or is that something you think he's just instinctively good at?
"We coach that very hard, not to force the ball. We've been explosive enough on offense, and it's easy to say you don't need to force this one, just rehuddle. This offense has been able to create enough points and yards and things that if you just be patient it'll come. Reggie is smart and takes great pride in not turning the ball over and making good decisions. He makes very good decisions for the most part and I'm not saying by coaching that we deserve the credit. Reggie has those instincts himself and we nurture and foster it and help it blossom. Not every quarterback can do that, especially young ones. You have to coach them more conservatively for a little while so they don't force the football. With Reggie right now you don't have to do that. He's going to be careful."
Have you ever looked at Chad Schroeder returning punts at all?
"Chad has not really spent a lot of time during special teams doing that. I wouldn't have any problem with him being back there. I have great trust in him. I imagine if I went to Chad and said I want you to work on returning punts, he would be back there this afternoon. That's not a bad idea."
He has good hands and the speed's obviously there.
"It is. It takes a special guy to go back there and stand under that thing coming down with nine or ten guys bearing down on you. Maybe we'll put him back there."
On the defensive side again, we're all aware that there's a lot of guys that are still early in their sophomore years. But at what point does it get to that point where you start maybe "demanding" more, where (youth) no longer is an issue. (Maybe saying) We can't keep giving you that curve?
"We're not giving them that curve now. They're disappointed with the way they played and I'm disappointed in the way they played. There is no curve. We have to be more productive on that side of the football and be more consistent. The guys know that. It's not like they don't know what happened and didn't watch the film. They understand that."
You said you obviously have confidence in your coaches. As a head coach, when a part of your team starts to bog down, do you go over there in practice or go to team meetings to try to infuse whatever expertise you might want to do?
"I've spent a lot of time there in the last few weeks. You bet. I'm quality control. That's essentially what I am. And vision. So I do it whether it's offense, kicking game or defense. I think as the head coach you have to guide your team into what they can improve on and understand what they can't change a great deal, and then get your team to play to your strengths and manage your game plan as best you can with the limitations that you have."
How difficult is that to do?
"Just a couple of hours less sleep. No, that's my job. That's what a head coach does. I'm responsible for all three aspects and I need to be involved. I think every coordinator wants the head coach to be involved, and to not necessarily micromanage, but give input and conversation as to what you need to do from my standpoint when I go in the defensive room. I can give them a good angle on 'This is what they're going to do to you from an offensive standpoint and how are we going to defend that? We need to be ready for this.' Things like that. I think sometimes it helps when the defensive guy goes in with the offensive coaches and says 'This is what we're thinking.' We all manage those thoughts from our own side of the ball, but sometimes to hear it from the other side or from somebody else outside that forest, you know, helps you to prepare for what's ahead."
There's been a lot of bravado out of Waco. How do you keep from being tempted to get into a war of words, with all the things that have been said in the past year based on that one game?
"You know me well enough to know that's not my style. It never has been and never will be. I'll prepare my team. We'll get ready to play the next game."
What was it about the spread offense that made you decide to put some of those elements into your offense?
"Well, several things. It philosophically blended in with what we were already doing. I think it played to our strengths. Reggie is comfortable in the spread offense, he played in that in high school. We had receivers. Those are probably the biggest issues that made us decide to point more in that direction, to play to our strengths. Offensively we've always been about doing what our players can do best and getting playmakers involved, so we felt like that was the best way to do that."
Did you kind of adopt that kind of mid-stream during the season or was it something you guys started working on maybe during the off-season last year?
"I'll relate this to what Utah and Florida are doing now. We've always had a little bit of that style to our offense. So it was just a matter that what they were doing created curiosity--because we thought it would blend well with what we're doing. So we spent time on that. But we started that back in spring practice, and we were actually doing a lot of the same things last year, maybe even a little bit the year before, but last year certainly."
Did anything you saw in the Utah game impact your decision or your desire?
"It did. I spent a lot of time with our defense trying to figure out how to defend Utah, and obviously I didn't do a very good job. It created a real interest on my part, that as much as I would like to think I know about option football, or about what they're doing at that offense, I didn't have a lot of answers. If I didn't have a lot of answers, then I needed to get some answers from the other people in the situation. They didn't have a lot of answers. That's kind of the way I thought that one. I was glad they went off the schedule so I could visit with Urban (Meyer) and I could talk about what he's doing."
You talked about before the season maybe finding a way to give Courtney Lewis a little bit lighter training camp. He said it wasn't a no-contact training camp, but did you do some things to lighten load on him so he could avoid injury?
"No. 1, he never scrimmaged. He didn't need to that and we needed to test our young backs in scrimmages. No. 2, we limited his reps. Those are two of the things you can do in that situation. He didn't get days off, he just got maybe a third less reps than he would have gotten last year when we were more limited in tailback numbers, so he had to get more reps. This year we didn't have that problem and we're still trying to hunt for that No. 2 and No. 3 guy."
Have you done that before with other backs or with other players?
"They never tackled LaDanlian Tomlinson in two years. If anybody got close to doing it, I didn't have to say much. The players didn't want to tackle him. But most of them couldn't."
This is a big game being the Big 12 opener. I'm sure you're aware that to your fans it has some extra meaning to it. Do you sense that with any of the players on your team that, after last year, maybe it has a little extra meaning to them?
"Oh, I think any time that you don't win the year before, that game has extra meaning to it. It has some significance to it, to make amends for what happened and play better. I'm sure that that's true with us."
-- transcript courtesy Paula Frederick