October 25, 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.
A transcript of Coach Dennis Franchione?s press conference on Tuesday at the Bright Football Complex will be posted below when available.
The Aggies return to the field Saturday against Iowa State. Kickoff from Kyle Field is set for 2:30 p.m. and the game will be televised regionally by ABC.
Coach Fran Media Luncheon Transcript
With two freshmen, Devin Gregg on defense and Jorvorskie Lane on offense, it looks like they have made quite an impact on the overall scheme...
"Well, I think that's somewhat true. Devin has come in and solidified some things for us and put some speed on the field and played very solid. He's very impressive as a freshman. Jorvorskie's come in with basically two 100-yard games rushing. I think it would be wrong to overlook Martellus Bennett and Howard Morrow and some of the other true freshmen who have played and made contributions. Those two (Gregg and Lane) have stuck out in the last couple of weeks for us, but we've had to depend on a lot of those guys to come in and do a good job for us. Martellus does so many things for us that you guys don't always see. I was telling somebody the other day, in the Oklahoma State game, down at this end of the field on Jorvorskie's last touchdown, he (Martellus) was the left-side tight end and he blocked the defensive end on him. That was his assignment. When he was done, that left defensive end was now where the right defensive end lined up, on his back, with Martellus on him. Now those are things that you guys don't see -- it's not a catch for a touchdown or 100 yards rushing. I've coached 37 years and I haven't seen many blocks like he's made."
Devin wasn't playing at all, and Jorvorskie was playing just a little before that. To come from nothing to huge roles and making an impact, has that been the most amazing thing?
"Devin pulled a quad early in August and September camp, and it took a while for that to heal, and so that kind of impacted our direction with him. When you're a freshman, and you have so much to learn and (you have to) prove to your coaches your accountability, and then you miss so much time, it takes time to bounce back. You know also if it hadn't been for the injury to Lee Foliaki I don't know if we would have reached back and taken the redshirt off of Devin at that point in time. I'm certainly glad that he's played as well as he had in that situation.
"In Jorvorskie's case I really believe our offensive coaches have done a nice job of bringing him along at a nice pace and not putting too much on him too quickly. And of course the opportunity to get ahead in a game or two and get him some playing time was nice. The thing again that you all don't see sometimes -- in the Colorado game he made some nice runs. But, to just give you an example of the learning curve, he had a free release on a pass. Okay? He had no blocking assignment. We've got a vertical and we've got a curl. If Jorvorskie releases, he pulls the linebacker out and we throw the curl or we throw it to him. If Jorvorskie doesn't release, the guy hangs in the curl, we can't throw the curl, we have no place to throw the football. That's little things you guys don't see that impact the ability for us to move the football on a consistent basis. He's gotten better on all of those issues and then I think the Oklahoma State game was a good eye-opener for him, because he had 22 carries, which was about three-quarters worth of work in high school. 22 carries in college is a different animal for him and so it's just all been a process with those freshmen."
After the game we asked him what 22 carries in college was and he said a job. We asked him what 28 carries was and he shrugged it off. Is he maturing to the point where he can carry it?
"I think with that body of his he can carry it 40, 45 times. I'm not necessarily saying that's going to happen, but I think he can--and probably hand out about as much punishment as he'd take. You know, you notice sometimes when he does break the line of scrimmage those guys back there are going to be tackling him don't really like it very much. I've seen him get behind his pads and break the line of scrimmage and those secondary guys better go for the ankles or they've got a tough time with him."
Your offense is so multiple and you want to scheme to go against the defense you're playing, but is he the kind of guy you can say, "You know what? We can enforce our will a little bit on them." Do you view him yet that way?
"Well, he was a little bit Saturday and he was a little bit against Oklahoma State. I think it's a process for us to start to think that way a little bit. We haven't really had that kind of a back and, you know, we didn't know how quickly he was going to develop into that kind of a back for us. So that's part of what's taken I guess this long, too. Again, he's another example of an injury and a guy stepping up and, you know, he made the best of his opportunity and he's earned a lot of trust. Is there a day when we can just say it's Jorvorskie? The last drive was Jorvorskie and Reggie McNeal and it was...this is what we're going to do, and if you stop it you stop it. Fortunately for us we did a good job."
You're hesitation hints at this, but how tough is it as a play caller to go from a play you were calling to going "two yards is enough"?
"Well, I don't know if two is enough (laughing). 3.6 or something like that? That's been a transition, because when we had all our weapons we were such a big-strike offense. I think I told this to Rachel and Robert on Sunday, one of the things that I've always done in my coaching career is if your defense is struggling a little bit, you stay patient, grind the clock and keep them off the field. Well, it was not frustrating but we were exactly the opposite of that. We'd score in two minutes and put them on the field, and they'd play 95 plays and the offense would play 55 and score plenty of points. You always have to take the points, so you don't want to say you're frustrated with that, but it wasn't necessarily the best way for me to help the defense, or the offense to help the defense, and put your team on the same page. If there's one thing I try to pride myself in doing in my coaching career is to do that. But, you know, if you've got a one-play, 80-yard drive, you take it--the sad part of that is the defense goes back and if they can't get off they're out there. Those drives take their toll."
Part of you felt, I don't know if dirty is the word, but that's not your route. The game has changed and maybe, do you like this style a little bit better personally?
"I think if I could have my druthers I would like to hand it off and maul somebody, and just by the end of the day they're beaten up and mangled and we've done that to them. And I've done that, fortunately for me, a few days of my coaching career but, you know, what we've adjusted to with our spread has not gone away from my philosophy because I couldn't coach outside my philosophy. But it has given me the opportunity because of Reggie and several people to utilize our playmakers as much as possible and still maintain some of what I believe that you need to have in an offense even though it became a quick strike thing a lot."
You talked about running against the top 10 teams and that's hard for everybody. And it is when you watch those games. You haven't done that yet against a top 10 team, but do you feel like you're closer to being able to do that?
"Well, the dimensions we have now, with the speed and elusiveness of Courtney (Lewis) and the power of Jorvorskie (Lane) gives you hope that can happen. I really believe we're all overlooking one part of this equation that has to be there, and that's the guys up front. And when the guys up front control the line of scrimmage as they have been able to do the last couple of weeks, then those things are possible. The offensive line, for as many people as we've rotated through there, has really done a remarkable job in that regard. We won't miss being able to hand it off to the big guy. We're still going to have to win some battles against those highly-ranked rushing teams. And Iowa State is one of those teams. They don't give up many rushing yards. They're a difficult team to run the football against. I'm concerned about that with them because of the way they do defend the run."
Your O-Line as you said has been very fluid throughout the season. There have been some injury questions, but it seems everyone was relatively healthy for this last game. Do you like what you've got now?
"Well, we've come out of this with about eight or nine guys we can play. Cody Wallace came out for a little while Saturday and Chris Yoder went in. Chris Yoder was on the freshman All-American team this last year. So between those two guys, our starters, and Jami (Hightower) and D.D. (Dominique Steamer)-D.D. actually has become a starter. We've produced some depth and overcame the difficulties we've had with injuries respectably, and that is a good feeling to be able to have that kind of situation where you don't have to alter too much of what you're doing with whoever's in the game."
Jami (Hightower) is still playing some snaps in there as well. Will you continue to rotate or going into these final four games especially some of the "bigger boys" coming up? Would you like to keep those starters as cohesive as possible?
"I don't know if we're going to have the option to do anything other than rotate right now. We've just got enough little dings that we just about have to have it that way. If you have 38 or 39 minutes of possession time you're probably going to have to, in our case right now for certain."
How many snaps did Jami play? He was out there an awful lot...
"He played a lot. I would have to check the participation sheet to tell you. But I know he played at least half the football game, if not more."
Was that mostly for (Corey) Clark?
"Yemi (Babalola) was out a little bit Saturday too. One thing that's great about Jami is he can play either side for us. Jami's intelligent and so he can go from one side to the other one. So he's kind of the guy that's a swing guy that goes in for either one them if needed."
Coach, do you remember two weeks ago us sitting around and asking questions about just having to finish October strong just be bowl eligible?
"I remember those well."
Can you talk about the way your team has responded to get into this position where you can be bowl eligible this week?
"I'm really proud of them. You know, when you come back from Colorado and get thumped the way we did, you don't have a lot of friends. You don't want to go up on campus and hear from your buddies. They rallied together and they understood what they needed to do. The coaches gave them a plan. I think they kind of regrouped the troops. I really believe the determination and the heart and the fight and the grit kind of raised itself a level because they realized...you know, when you come off a tough loss like that you search for answers and the natural thing to do is to never point the finger at yourself first. So they got past anything like that, they stayed strong if not stronger together because of the adversity and they overcame that game. That's really been pleasing for us to see them do, and when you put it into the perspective that you just played a team (Kansas State) and won at their house where they have only lost 15 games in the last 15 years, you've taken a pretty good step there. We haven't arrived or anything like that. We're just -- I think our step was in being a team and fighting and competing and playing together and playing with heart for 60 minutes as much as anything else. Not that we hadn't done that at Clemson. I thought we did. But you know you kind of have to regroup after that Colorado game."
You get a sense from seniors like Reggie (McNeal) or Jason Carter that they realize there are four games now left in their career here. Is there a sense of urgency? Do they want to close it out and do you get that sense in talking to them?
"I haven't heard a lot of talk about that, but I probably wouldn't, as much as they might have that conversation by themselves. But I did see them accept the direction that we needed to go and the responsibility for that after the Colorado game, which was good. I think that's basically what you're saying much more than you've got four more football games left in your career. I think it's been more focused on we've got these games left and we want to have a good season. This team's had to overcome a lot of issues, and last year's team just had to overcome self-esteem and confidence issues. This year's team has had to overcome much more than that. Right now I just see a tougher group after these last two games and that's good because we're going to have to have that to go forward and the seniors have been a part of that happening. You know, if there's three guys probably that tightened their belts it was Johnny Jolly, Reggie (McNeal), and Jason Carter. There's others, too, don't get me wrong. But I think all three of those guys stepped up and said 'Get on my back we're going, men, and if you don't get on I'm putting you on and that's the way it's going to be.' That all goes along with what you're talking about. It's not so much 'I only have four games left' or 'I only have two games at Kyle Field left' or those kind of issues. This is what we have left to get this season where we want it to be."
Coming into the season did you think Reggie might lead you guys in rushing at all?
"Well I don't sit around and think about who might lead you in rushing. I knew that coming into this season, No. 1 needed to have the ball in his hands for us to have a good season. With Courtney's injuries and with the rotation we've had to do at tailback, it's not surprising that it's been that way. I think our offensive staff has done a marvelous job of utilizing his talents and that's part of what we have needed to do with him running the football. It's just like the drive after they got it to two points Saturday. It was, 'No. 1, this is going to be on your shoulders here and that's the way these plays are going to be called, so you get ready' and he was ready."
Is he running even better maybe now than he has in the past?
"I think so. You know, Reggie's a passer first; and that's okay. I like that. But he can be a great runner just because of his speed if anything else. And he's a smart runner. One thing I like about him is he'll get you the first down when he sees the line, but he's also going to get out of bounds and not take some shots he doesn't need to take and I think that's good as a quarterback. I think there are times when, like the Baylor fourth-down play, I told Reggie 'When this play gets dropping, if it stretches at all you look for your seam and you duck up and get us a first down' and he did that. I don't think Reggie would have done that a year or two ago. I think he is a better runner in that regard and that's all just again putting the responsibility on his shoulders as a leader."
And can his legs, sometimes maybe when the pass isn't going well, open up some things or maybe just open up the pass or open up some other possibilities?
"Everyone we play has to worry about him pulling the ball down and making yardage. Every team. And you know, if you watch Iowa State's game plan against Missouri, they didn't rush Brad Smith much. I would think they're probably going to do something similar to Reggie McNeal and we'll work on that. But they contained Missouri very well and they contained Brad very well, which nobody else has been able to do--and that's to their credit. Every team is wanting to contain Reggie and the ones that have been able to do it for whatever reason have been able to slow us down some. Again, as I've said many times, the best run we call is a pass and hope they cover them all."
Iowa State is 1-3 in the Big 12 and lost two of those in overtime. When you watch them does it suggest they're better than that record?
"I think that's a misleading statistic. The one parallel I look at is Stevie Hicks has been out about that long and that's probably made a big difference in their team. Unfortunately for us he's healthy this week. But you know, you give them 17 points and they're 7-0. Let's don't forget that. A lot of people picked them to win the Big 12 North. You like to say, 'Okay, they're coming to Kyle Field, hopefully home-field advantage is going to be something for us.' They went to Nebraska and took them to over time. They went to Missouri and really had the game won until overtime. So they've gone on the road and played pretty solid football and Dan (McCarney) has an older, mature team. To say older is right, but he's got a lot of guys that have played ball for him and you can tell they're pretty mature in their approach in how they're handling this. They could very easily be 7-0."
You never want to have injuries and Lee (Foliaki) and Courtney (Lewis) were key players for you. But both Devin (Gregg) and Jorvorskie (Lane) have brought something the team needed--speed on defense and help with the running game. They probably both weren't ready earlier anyway but it seems that not only have they filled in nicely but they brought a new dimension to the team...
"They have. Devin would have played sooner had it not been for his quad. They have given us some things. To our defense's credit, when we lost Lee, they made some adjustments and got a guy in the game that's been very productive for us. To Jorvorskie's credit and the offense, when you lose a guy like Courtney for a couple of weeks, somebody has to step up. That first week against Colorado we weren't quite sure who that was going to be but that's become pretty vivid the last couple of weeks who it is. We've talked a good bit about being able to run the ball with some power and Jorvorskie's given us that element."
Devin (Gregg), if he had been healthy throughout August, it seems like he might have been ahead of everybody coming in?
"Devin would have played early, yes. I don't think our coaches have much doubt about that. He would have played early. I don't know exactly how long he was out with the quad right now, but he was out long enough that it got to a point where 'Do we want to use him and not get a full season out of him or not?' But Devin Gregg is a special freshman. He's very intelligent, he's very accountable, he's got good speed, good instincts. You know, he doesn't make the same mistake twice. Once he makes once and you coach him, he corrects it. Not every young player can do that. Not every older player can do that either. Certainly not all the first-year players can do that at the level he has been able to."
Is there's anything about Iowa State you see that concerns you most?
"They're just a good, solid football team. When they get (Stevie) Hicks back they've been able to run the ball better and that -- I think that makes their offense even more difficult. I like their quarterback a lot. I think Meier is really a solid performer. I like the way they're playing defense right now. They're hard to run on, and one of their DBs just got player of the week. I don't know if there's a most (concerning thing) other than I just think they're a good football team that, you know, hit a little lull in there and lost some tough games. But I think they're a solid team."
How fine a line it would be between the decision to redshirt a kid and then a kid that can make a impact for you?
"I don't know exactly how to describe that for you. A lot of issues go into that thought process--you know, what your depth is like, what happens in case of an injury-- if it's an injury at safety, do you have enough safeties to move a safety to corner and be okay? How many plays is this guy going to play? It's not like there's a deadline for all those decisions. They linger and continue there, and in Devin's case, if Lee would have gotten hurt a week later I don't know if we would have done what we did with Devin. Two for sure probably. So there's a lot of angles to look at that decision."
At Colorado, would Jorvorskie (Lane) have maybe played more if you guys hadn't fallen as behind as quickly you did, or were you not sure what you were doing at tailback?
"I think we were still searching a little bit more at that time. You know, what he did play-even though I described a mistake or two he made--what he did play gave us some confidence, though, in him. It's just all part of the process to get him where he is today."
There's a lot of fast guys and big guys on the football field, and you touched on it that some are juniors, some are freshmen, but guys like Devin Gregg immediately have instinct. You can see it. When you go out and recruit is it hard to find guys like that? Do you see the instinct in guys and go after those guys hard?
"I think instinctive players are the best ones to coach. I used to have a great defensive end, Aaron Schoebel, who's playing professional football right now. Aaron would make a play and there was no reason for him to make this play. I would say, 'Aaron, what read did you get to make that play?' And Aaron would put it in very layman's terms, 'Well, the ball was over there. You want me to tackle that guy don't you?' 'Yes. That's right.' Basically what he was telling me is that he was just instinctive. Those are gifts that you know are not necessarily developed at that level and Devin does have those. The hard thing for us not being able to go watch as many games or practices sometimes is we're a little dependent on our gut feeling for that. Obviously some of them you hit, and that was a great hit right there, and some of them you miss as far as having that or not having that. But the more of those you hit the better your football team is going to be. Iowa State is going to show us a game plan Saturday that's going to have a wrinkle or two in it, and plugging in your scheme and using your instincts is going to help you defend that. If you don't have that, now we have to get you over to the sideline and coach you up harder and faster than ever before to get you in a position to handle that. Devin doesn't take getting him to the sidelines just between plays. You can just about see his wheels turning and (knowing) what he needed to do to defend that play better."
Back in February on signing day you were obviously pretty happy that day with the class. Did you ever expect you'd be as happy to have them in October of 2005 the way it's happened?
"Probably not. I've never let myself sit there and think that freshmen were going to make as big a impact as they have on this team. I did really think on signing date that we had signed our best class and I think that class is showing that very well. And you haven't seen it all yet. You haven't seen all this class, and we haven't either, completely, in game situations. But I do believe this class is just a notch higher in ability and everything. This is a smart class. These guys are for the most part good students, they're good people, they're good leaders, they're good in taking care of business and accepting responsibility. There's a lot of elements that this class has illustrated that you hoped and thought was going to be there on signing day and they have been to a pretty good degree."
Because of the influx of new receivers and maybe the offensive line, is there a sharpness to the passing game that just hasn't been there, maybe just a bit off that needs to be corrected in these final four games?
"You've asked for a couple of weeks about the passing game, and you just don't lose DeQawn Mobley, Earvin Taylor, and L'Tydrick Riley and not go through growing pains. A guy that's suffered a little bit is Reggie (McNeal), because all of a sudden at one point in time he's throwing to guys he hadn't thrown to that much. (He had) thrown to the other guys a great deal. Now, when you run an option route or read route or things like that, it takes Reggie a little while to--you know, I heard him say many times to Coach Koenning 'I'm not quite sure where he's going to be.' That puts just a little hesitation for Reggie, because he's very careful with the football--he won't force it very many times-and it takes time to redevelop that. I think we're going through that process a little bit, and it's coming along, but it is a process. There's one position on our team--I guess there's two really, receiver and offensive line--that have seen their share of people in and out of the lineup...and especially receiver, where the timing between the quarterback and the receiver are an important part of it and we've showed the growing pains of that."
It seems like Jason (Carter) and Chad (Schroeder) are able to catch those 70 mile-an-hour, whatever those fastball things are...
"They are."
How hard is that? I mean, Jason and Chad both make great catches...how hard is that for a guy to get used to?
"Well, I can give you a great example. Sometimes I have to tell Reggie you might want to take a little off that throw for this guy. And he looks at me like I'm a little bit crazy, but that's part of what we're going through a little bit right there-them getting used to Reggie and Reggie getting used to them is a process and that's what you're touching on."
Do you think he sometimes throws that hard to avoid an interception?
"Sometimes the guy sees the window and the window is a brief one and he can get it in there. He threw one slant Saturday--I think it was to Jason--and after I saw it on film I said, 'Oh, that was close.' I think it was 56 (Kansas State player), I don't know how he kept from getting it and taking it for a touchdown. It was in the second quarter. I think it was on a third-down play."
I imagine Earvin (Taylor) and L'Tydrick (Riley) had no problem with it (the speed of the pass)...
"I don't know-they were used to it. They knew what to expect and worked with Reggie enough days that they knew what's coming, where Pierre (Brown) and Kerry (Franks) and DeQawn (Mobley) being in and out and things like that...I tell you what happens sometimes, is once in a while we've had a receiver stop almost or quit running, and we've had to coach him 'You can't quit running with No. 1. You can't do that because he'll find you. He can find you at times when nobody else will find you. You can't do that.' Where with the younger quarterbacks sometimes they don't find them just yet, and they get into that habit. That's been a big coach-up point for the last couple or three weeks...don't give up and don't stop, because you don't ever know with him."