November 01, 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 is posted below.
The Aggies return to the field Saturday at Texas Tech. Kickoff from Jones SBC Stadium is set for 6 p.m. and the game will be televised nationally by FOX Sports Net.
Coach Fran Media Luncheon Transcript
"(Chad Schroeder) broke his leg and will be lost for the year."
Are you going to have tryouts for receivers? It was more than a ding?
"A little more than a ding. They decided to X-ray it and look again."
Surgery?
"Not a surgical thing."
When did you find out? Yesterday afternoon?
"About 4 o'clock yesterday, yeah."
How long--two months, three months?
"I think if we could get to a bowl game he could maybe get back."
Are you going to get to a bowl game?
"We've got three more tries to find out. We'll see."
Was (Saturday) any worse a defeat than you've had here? I don't know if you rate them or not...
"You don't rate defeats. Defeats are defeats. And...I haven't had one that felt very good. I'm not sure Clemson kicking a field goal in the last play of the game wasn't just as difficult. I'd say it was."
Does the team have that "backs against the wall" feeling? Does it ever have any sustaining life to it? Because clearly with all the injuries you guys have, and these three games, talking to some of the guys the backs are against the wall at the moment...
"You know we've still got three opportunities ahead of us and we've got to focus on them one at a time. We've got to deal with the circumstances that we have, close ranks, and march on and find a way. That's what our job is to do."
Has this been your most trying season to this point?
"Well, from an injury standpoint it certainly has been. '03 was probably a more trying season in a lot of ways. I think that's our 11th season ending injury (Chad Schroeder) if I counted correctly. So from that standpoint that's been the most I've ever had in my coaching career that I can remember."
Just bad luck?
"We've not been able to find any denominator. We've had non-contact injuries, practice injuries--we really went through year one and year two, you know, pretty well. David Weir (football trainer) brought in our training report from last year on Tuesday, and we had two guys--Keelan Jackson and Jesse Woods--that were out like that, and Keelan was the one that played the most at the time. So that's just one of those 'lucks of the draw' this year."
Chad's injury must have been a little bit strange. He didn't get hit that hard, right? Just rolling?
"The guy just must have rolled over on his lower leg."
What do you do (when you lose) a receiver? Does that change in terms of who's going to play and whatnot?
"Every game plan, you evaluate what personnel group you can do offensively the best with against who you're playing. So, we've got to make some adjustments. I think we've got our game plan pretty well in order, and there will be some changes, obviously. There has to be--and moving some people to positions based upon the formation we're going to use."
Fran, this is just kind of a basic question, but do you feel like you're playing for your job the next three games?
"My job?"
Well, are guys that have been on this staff playing for their profession?
"Certainly we're not thinking about that. We're thinking about trying to win the game."
I guess kind of what I'm leading to is -- you know, there's this big perception out there, you may get it first hand or second hand...what do you tell people out there? What do you tell the fans?
"I don't know if there's anything that anybody wants to listen to...if I say one thing it's an excuse, and if I say something else it's this. So I don't know if there is anything that I can tell you that somebody won't take wrong at this point in time and I can't worry about that. I've got to worry about marching ahead and get this team ready to play again."
That said...do you rate the job you do? I know it could be the old "forest through the trees" thing...
"I'm far tougher on myself than anybody else."
Do you feel like you're coaching as well this year as you have any other year?
"Oh, I haven't sat and evaluated myself except on a weekly basis, not for the whole season. Obviously when you have the ups and downs of the season like we're having, you don't like yourself very well some days."
Do you sound like you have a losing record? You're 5-3...
"Well you guys make me feel that way some days (laughing). I've been hanging around you guys enough to feel like that. Thank God it's just for 20 minutes here once a week. (laughing)"
You thought you would be in a much different situation right now than what you are. How disappointing is that?
"Well, we're 5-3 and we've got three left. We're disappointed we're not better, but we've still got opportunities ahead of us. There are opportunities full of challenges. We're not going to change and we're going to keep doing our very best to put our team in its best position as we can to play and play well. That's what we should do right now. We need to stay focused on that."
Where do you know this team is going get better? Where are you confident, you know, "Okay we're making progress"?
"Are you talking about this year?"
This year and going into next year...
"Well, we're playing a lot of young guys. You start six true freshmen right now, and they're getting better. They're going to continue to get better. They're going through ups and downs right now. We're starting two or three seniors on defense, and not starting too many on offense, so I think our lower classes are talented and are going to get better."
I know in one respect, whether or not you lose to Iowa State by one or by several touchdowns isn't meaningful...but are there ways that that, especially in the big picture over a whole season, does become meaningful? Not just that you're winning or losing but how you win or lose?
"A loss is a loss. I don't know if we are much into style points on either one. But still, I mean, you probably feel a little differently in certain games than you do in others."
Fran do you feel like the team quit at any point Saturday?
"Not at all."
Any time this year?
"Never."
How do you feel (Defensive Coordinator) Carl (Torbush) has handled this season, as far as the team not performing up to what obviously everyone had hoped? How has that hit him and how has he handled that?
"Carl is the consummate professional. He's a class gentleman. He's continued to stay focused and worked as hard as he can on getting things as good as they can be. He is a rock in that regard. And I really admire him a lot."
When you hired him on...when you guys went to Alabama...what was your history with him? Had you known him? Obviously he had that long history with Mack (Brown) at North Carolina. Was it just your history with him and how you decided to bring him aboard?
"I knew Carl a little bit, but I knew him really as an outstanding coach and what he had done with some of his defenses. I knew he was a good person. Dal Shealy at the FCA gave him a great recommendation as both a person and an individual."
How do you feel about the leadership from the players? Jason (Carter) mentioned the Leadership Council met. I guess you don't sit in on that do you?
"Sometimes I do."
Did you Sunday?
"No. I let them meet on their own Sunday."
Did they invite you or were they excluding you or what?
"No. They told me they were going to, and I said if you want me to sit in or or if you need me I'll come down."
Did they talk to you about it afterwards?
"Yeah."
How do you feel like that went?
"I thought it went well. Our seniors did a good job. The kids sitting in there are doing a good job."
Are they all seniors?
"No. Not all of them."
Do you think that considering some of the struggles of your defense right now, that maybe sometimes the defense could be a ball control offense?
"Sure. Sometimes, yeah."
And why did you guys maybe go away from trying to make that part of the game plan last week?
"Well, I'm not sure we did until we got behind 28-7 with the clock not on our favor. Then, you have to change your gears just a little bit with the way things have gone. Now, we moved the ball, but we didn't move it long enough or far enough and we didn't sustain it well enough to offset things. Iowa State did a good job. We had the one big play."
Do you coach differently in a game with Texas Tech than any other game, given their proclivity for scoring?
"Well, I think you respect their ability offensively to score quickly. In every game you make a game plan--or you have a thought process as to what is best for your team to handle a game. Each one has it's unique identity to it. Certainly this one does, too."
Because your defense has had some problems, have you called plays offensively differently than you would otherwise?
"I think the one thing that I always make sure (Offensive Coordinator) Les (Koenning) does or I do is (to make sure) whatever we're trying to do offensively is based on the circumstances of the game, how we're doing defensively, and how the flow of the game is going."
From your experience, how important is it, for these young players' long-term development, for them to have success--because they develop as time goes on?
"It's always important. They're having success. We have won five. I know we forget those sometimes. I think they're having some individual success. I talked to Martellus (Bennett) yesterday, and all the kids came by, and he was talking one of his goals is to have 100 knockdowns at the end of the year. I don't know how many he has right off the top of my head but I think he has a shot at that."
How's Reggie (McNeal) playing?
"Reggie's playing okay. I don't think he's playing bad. I'm not disappointed with Reggie. He's had some things to deal with in this season that have certainly make a impact, but..."
Are you alluding to the losing of four receivers?
"Well, yeah. Things like that."
You say 11 players have been lost. I can count eight off the top of my head...
"I mean, there's a couple true freshmen that have been lost that maybe might have got into the factor, but..."
Like Jordan Peterson or someone like that?
"Yeah. Paul Freeney, guys like that that maybe could have helped us. They didn't get on the field to help us, but that's part of those 11."
You said last week, or maybe two weeks ago, from an injury standpoint it's been like nothing you ever have experienced. Do you feel every week something's going to come up?
"Well, I duck when I see the trainers coming in the hallways, and things like that. In fact, David Weir (football trainer) just came up to talk to me about something else and I said, 'What are you doing here?' It's just one of those things. You get injuries, you have to close ranks, you have to march on and you can't sit around and dwell on what you don't have. You've got to be concerned of what you do have."
Fran, what would a bowl mean to what you're trying to build here?
"I think it would be great for this team because of everything they've gone through in this season, and the amount of young players that would get some more practice time and the opportunity to go to postseason."
Would it be a huge setback if you don't get to a bowl game this year, or is it hard to gauge?
"Well, I haven't given that any thought yet. I mean, I think we'd all be disappointed. There's not any doubt about that."
You said Reggie's dealt with some things this year. Besides injuries what else are you talking about?
"Well, he's had his own personal injury that he's had to deal with. At one point in time in the Colorado game his offensive line was pretty beat up and then he's kind of had to, you know, get used to receivers a little bit differently."
Do you think people underestimate what that is...getting used to new receivers and having, maybe, receivers out there that don't know the pattern?
"I don't foresee that people have a great understanding of that or a concern for that. I mean, I don't think that's their thought process. They're concerned with the big picture, and I don't bring those up for them to cast their opinion in a different manner--just to let you guys know where we're at."
But you know that it probably makes--tell me how big a difference it makes...
"I don't want to even go there, because as soon as I go there, somebody says that's an excuse. I'm not trying to use those for excuses. We'll accept responsibility and keep working and leave it at that. That's just not the nature of what I want to do. I want to focus on what we got. Leave it at that."
With the type of offense that Tech runs, how important is it for y'all to control the ball, and we asked (Offensive Coordinator) Les (Koenning) a ton of Jorvorskie/Courtney questions earlier, and whether we might expect to see more of Jorvorskie this Saturday...
"Controlling the ball is not the only answer. You have to score points when you control it. You can drive it 60 yards and not get any points, and they can go two plays and score. Sooner or later that cycle won't work. It is a formula that can help you certainly, but you're going to have to get in the end zone against this team. They've scored a lot of points all year long and are very capable of scoring points."
You think with the injuries Reggie has tried to put too much on himself? After seeing players go down?
"I don't know if he's tried to too much. He's done a great job of accepting responsibility and doing everything he possibly can better than I've ever seen him do. He's been a good leader. He wants to win very badly, and I think he's accepting the roll of a senior and a leader on this team well and doing everything that he can. He's still very careful with the football and things like that. I haven't seen him cross over where he's throwing balls or trying to do too much."
Fran, do you still enjoy coaching?
"Except for the last 20 minutes, it's been pretty good (laughing). Yeah I still enjoy it very much."
You didn't want to be a doctor or anything?
"No I was never smart enough to be anything like that."
What were you going to be if you hadn't been a coach, do you know?
"That's a hard one to answer. I didn't have many other options."
Farming is big in Kansas...
"When you don't have any ground, you can't be a farmer (laughing). I grew up in the country, but it was pretty modest spot, so a garden was about all we had."
Why do you feel like maybe the team hasn't played as well as it can to this point?
"Well, that is a long answer and there's a lot of components to that answer. Not just one or two. We can start with maybe we were overrated, we can start with the injuries, we can start with coaching, we can start with, you know, just a lot of issues. Again, I think I'm better off letting you guys figure those things out and write about them than me telling you right now because I'm going to focus on the next one. Okay? And, analyze what we can do best to win this game and put our team in a position to do it, and avoid sounding like I'm trying to fabricate any kind of statements that are anything except accepting responsibility."
Do you feel like your players are having fun this year? You're real hard. You're a driven kind of guy, and I wonder if you feel like sometimes the enjoyment goes out of football. Is that a fine line?
"I don't know if they had much fun Colorado week after that game or after this one. But they've enjoyed their wins, and they've enjoyed those things, and they are still very determined. They're very resilient and I don't think you'll see this team let down. Just go back one week to Kansas State. Kirk, you weren't here and didn't go to the game, but that was as spirited, enthused, mentally tough, hard-nosed, and gritty a performance as we've had since I've been here. It took every little play and every guy fighting hard to find a way to win that game. Kansas State has lost two in a row at home now, but they've lost 15 in the last 15 years. We couldn't have won that game if we didn't have those components and I don't think those components are gone. We just have got to put them all in order."
Where do you think this program is now compared to other programs you've taken over?
"New Mexico was more this kind of challenge at the time. Obviously TCU wasn't. Alabama wasn't. You can compare the records in those years and it's not in the same spot as those two were. There's components to that, but..."
Do you think there's as much patience here as in New Mexico?
"You know, the way I look at that is that when I first went to New Mexico they were most interested in when basketball practice was. I can remember hoping that I coached at a place that had same passion for football (that I do) and this place does have that. So, I'm going to prefer to look at that as passion and enjoy it. I'm glad I've got a place to coach that has passion for the game."
-- transcript courtesy Paula Frederick