Tuesday Media Luncheon Quotes and Audio
Sep 13, 2005 | Football
September 13, 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 open the home season on Saturday against SMU. Kickoff at Kyle Field is set for 11:30 a.m. and tickets still available by calling 1-888-99-AGGIE.
Coach Franchione Media Luncheon Quotes
Y'all probably thought SMU was better than anybody besides SMU, but for the players, whose minds may stray a little bit towards thinking hadn't been good for a while, how big of an eye opener is it with them beating TCU?
"That's a pretty good statement. I think it's good to put it in perspective for our players. TCU goes to Norman and wins, and they go to SMU and get beat. I don't know how much more needs to be said about what can happen. This is an improved ball club. It's easy to watch the film and see how hard you're playing and how well they're playing."
Do you like that, the players knowing SMU's coming here with the ability to maybe do some things?
"From the players' standpoint, I think we would be ready to play no matter who the opponent is, but from the standpoint, you know, that the focus and intensity should be there now. That's a pretty good statement by them. And the film is pretty clear how they're playing and it's the first opponent you have film to watch. Going into the first game we didn't have anything recent. So there are advantages to this, yes. We take SMU very seriously as a coaching staff and they have done a good job."
With Phil (Bennett, SMU head coach) having coached here and played here, how big is it do you think for him to come back in here and coach?
"Well, I don't know if I'm the right guy to ask that question. I would think that there are big games on his schedule. Conference games are always bigger than non-conference games, but this game has to have some special emotions to Coach Bennett, having been here and with all the different ties he has to Aggieland. Phil's a veteran though and I know he'll have his own personal thoughts, but I think he knows Conference USA games and Big 12 games are the most important for us. But there's no doubt there are going to be some emotions I think that are probably different than from some other games for him."
It seems really evident just watching college football for the first two weeks that the young quarterbacks out there, the red shirts, haven't played much and they're struggling. Does that make any more apparent that you need to get a guy like (Stephen) McGee in there and play him throughout the year if you can?
"That's not unusual. I mean, that happens. Not very often does a red shirt freshman step out there and play like a junior and senior. It's pretty typical. Sometimes they are surrounded by enough really good players that you can minimize their impact on the game. You know, when you've got a great tailback to go back and hand it to, that can minimize your errors as a quarterback. That's pretty vivid I think in the first two weeks as you mentioned. I think the other things that have been vivid to me have been the old saying 'More games are lost than won' and I see kicking-game glitches, I see turnovers or takeaways. I see things happen here in these first couple of games that you know as a coach you agonize over in the first couple of games and certainly having a veteran quarterback I think is always--it's hard to have a good team without a good quarterback. A veteran quarterback is usually going to be one that doesn't hurt you. He may not win the game for you but he doesn't hurt you, and that's been pretty important across the board."
Yemi (Babalola) talked about being physical How important is that part of it in an offensive lineman?
"It's a physical game and if you don't have that mentality, it's hard to play. When you do have it, like Yemi does, you can almost overlook a mistake once in a while because he's going to do it going hard and hitting somebody. Yemi has worked very hard to get all of his assignments done and done a magnificent job. Spring practice was kind of interesting because he might knock the tar out of somebody, but you didn't know if it would be the right guy on a lot of plays. With more and more practice, and more and more reps, he's gotten more and more confident. He does bring a little bit of a nasty demeanor to his play which, as a coach, you like to have those kind of players. I think that kind of demeanor permeates through your offensive line and through your team and you gain respect of your teammates and this game is about that."
Coach Torbush told us the team had doubled up on its tackling drills. How much of an emphasis did you put on that this past week at practice?
"It was a major emphasis in just about every drill that we did in addition to the extra drill work that they did."
Overall, on this offensive line, how close are they to all five of them being sort of nasty enough for your taste? Do you see that in other guys, too?
"You know I see this line working that way. This is a relatively young offensive line. When you have somebody that kind of carries that torch for you it helps that others start to like that style, too. It doesn't matter whether you're in a spread offense or two tight end offense, you still have to have five guys up front that play that way. Yemi brings a great attitude in that regard."
What are your impressions of your special teams play right now?
"Well, you know, some of these questions are still hard to answer. I mean, we played one game and then we haven't played and now it's almost like we're starting over again. It's our second game which should help. We've had some practice time. I think the obvious things to you are also obvious to me. We were better on kickoff returns. We covered well on kickoffs. The one punt return certainly was a glitch that hurt badly. We were fine on PATs and field goals. It appears we have the ability to be a little better. I don't know if I can cling to a lot after one game on all that yet, just maybe some direction that it wasn't bad. It did show some marked areas. I mean, we had two nice kickoff returns and things like that. We just need to play some more to give you better answers in those situations."
How much of an emphasis was put on special teams during your off season?
"I don't know how we could have made any more emphasis on it than we have. Sometimes emphasis doesn't necessarily lead to production, but I usually believe you get what you ask for. We've asked for that part of the game to be better and our players have responded well and we've worked hard at it. That doesn't mean we're not going to have some glitches along the way. A large part of improving in the kicking game is having more players who have played, so you have more experienced guys on the field, and having an attitude about special teams. I think we're improved in both of those areas. Time will tell that answer for sure, but I think we are."
How important is it to get the tight ends involved to give defenses something else to think about with this offense?
"You've watched our offense long enough to know some weeks it's this guy, some weeks it's that guy. We don't sit around and say we've got to get this position more involved and that position. Now, we do say this guy is making plays and we need to get him more involved. Use him. This guy can make plays and we need to create plays offensively to get them involved. But you know, it's like the age-old question that you get about every week of the season of every year, is why don't you throw the ball to the tight end. It's not like you can just call a pass and throw it to the tight end, guys. You've got a lot more things to go through on that. I think there are going to be games where tight ends are heavily highlighted and some of our guys are going to be used to split out more, and you know some game plans may be different. It just kind of depends. But I can promise you one thing about this staff--they will always identify who can make plays and put those people in position to make plays. Whether it happens or not every week remains to be seen, but that's what their goal always is."
When you saw the film of those two long kickoff returns Jason (Carter) had, besides him doing a good job, was the rest of it significantly better?
"There was no doubt more physical, better blocks, and people in the right place. They had to do some adjusting the first game. You work on a lot of different things, but you weren't quite sure how they were going to run down the field or who was going to pull out or whatever it might be. They did a nice job after first one of adjusting what had to be adjusted."
Are you comfortable putting that many starters on that team, or would you prefer other guys, or does it matter?
"The best player plays for that play. If we've got a back up offensive or defensive player that can perform that play as well as the starter, then that's who will play. If we don't, then that player plays."
Can you talk about Courtney Lewis and how him being healthy can impact your team this year?
"Courtney is a guy that rushed for over a thousand as a redshirt freshman, and was a little off a little last year because of his ankle as much as anything. Certainly when he's healthy he's an element of our offense that can make plays and hit home runs. He can always take one the distance. And then there's other plays. I don't know if you'll remember the play I'm going to talk about. We ran I believe it was an option towards our sideline against Clemson and blocked it very poorly and somehow he made five. When the play was over I even said 'Not many people could have done that.' I'd like to say that was good coaching, but that was a good athlete making a good play. He made people miss and do things. That's what Courtney can do for you. If you can block some of them he can take care of one or two of them himself sometimes. Those kinds of backs make things gel a lot more. He did that on more than one play that night. The highlight play the whole evening from what he did was the play where he only gained four or five yards, but he should have lost six."
What's your backup tailback situation? Do you even need a-you really played last year without a true backup. Might we see that again?
"You know, we're probably a little bit backup by committee. I think we'll see more of them. We only snapped the ball 50 times the other night. When you get into a 70 to 80 snap game, which is a little more normal, you're going to see more guys in there, like Samson Taylor and Jorvorskie Lane. Chris (Alexander) played some tailback for us the other night. I think we're going to be fine in that regard. Obviously right now, Courtney's the stallion back there, but I think as time goes on, practice time and playing time, those guys are going to have roles."
Do you feel like you know Stephen McGee well enough to know what he's going to do, or do you need to see him play before you have an idea where he's at?
"I think as a coach you reach a feeling through practice, and as I tell our players, I can only base my judgment on whether you play on Saturday based upon your practice performance. So I think we have a feel for how Stephen would do in a game right now. I think actually going into a game and playing would give us a better feel and give him an improved feel, and that's just all part of the growing process of new quarterbacks. That's just going to be a situation that we're going to have to let play itself out and hopefully it'll develop where he'll have some time."
For him to get some snaps, is that predicated on the score of the game, or would you ever even put him in a close game like in these non-conference games?
"Right now it's predicated on the score I guess you could say. If it's a tight game, Reggie McNeal will be in. If I'm the opponent's coach, and I take Reggie McNeal out, I'm going to be doing flip-flops on that side of the field. (laughing) I'm not doing that for them. I'm not doing that. I got 10 more games with that guy for sure and maybe I'm shooting all his guns."
How did the defensive line leave the game at Clemson after being rushed on like that?
"I think every one of our players walked off the field disappointed. They played very hard. They wanted to win. They maintained their poise. You know sometimes when you lose on the last play of the game it's harder than losing like we did at Utah the year before. I don't know if anybody walked off feeling great about themselves that night. Some were probably too hard on themselves. You know, our ends-Chris (Harrington) and Jason (Jack) I thought played good solid football games. Red (Bryant) didn't play badly, and I wouldn't say Johnny (Jolly) played bad but I think he's played better. They feel like they could have stopped them for less yards rushing in the style of offense they had, and they should feel that way. If they didn't I'd feel disappointed in them."
Last Tuesday you said David Ross was a guy that might have earned himself even more playing time. How does he fit in? He's kind of a forgotten guy with all the position changes...
"David is kind of a forgotten guy. He's a valuable part of the d-line. He and Bryce (Reed) go in and take a lot of snaps. One thing about David is you know you're going to get a rock-solid performance. You know what you're going to get, you know he's going to play hard. You know he's going to be in the right place and he's going to do everything he can. You can always find guys on your football team that probably don't get the appreciation that they deserve and David's probably one of those guys. I told David a week or two ago I said I really appreciate you. I think sometimes the rest of us maybe don't realize that. David's a pretty integral part of us."
Could you talk about the importance of the next three games being here at Kyle Field?
"It's great to come back to Kyle. We hope that, you know, Kyle Field is Kyle Field, and makes an impact in the game. I know it will impact our players, the student body and the 12th man and everything is such a huge part of us. It was such a part of last year's momentum change, being able to come home for three games and play here in front of our fans. We hope that it gives us that little extra spark again. I promise you it's going to be better than playing at Clemson. It's always better to play here than on the road. Our players feel very good in this stadium and with this crowd and the way they support them, and the impact that they can make on a quarterback that is in a no-huddle offense. For instance, it's worth several little wrinkles in a game that add up to helping you have success. It doesn't make the difference, we've got to go play, but it certainly helps."
Can you talk about how the A&M defense handles the noise?
"Our football team understands that when we go on the road the offense has the stress of communication. When we play at Kyle Field, the defense has the stress of communication, but I don't think they'd want it any other way. That's the way they want it. But they do know, and they talk about it, that we've got to over-communicate at home. That's the way we like it. They know-and the secondary really knows they've got to do a great job. In the Clemson game, the offense had to do a great job. Now the tables are turned. We'll always take this setting over all the rest."
How do you go about stressing that to the young guys defensively who haven't played in this environment?
"Well, you practice with crowd noise and you talk to them about it. Obviously the guys that were on the road at Clemson saw what it can be like in a college football game, and now they've got to understand the tables are going to turn and defensive guys will have that pressure. That's always going to be the case. You hope that they listen, learn, and get better from each game in each situation they're put in, because if they don't they're going to have a bad play and they're going to learn from a negative instead after positive."
What do you think of your linebackers and how they played against Clemson?
"I thought Justin (Warren) played pretty solid, pretty good. I thought our other guys were okay. I wouldn't say bad, but I wouldn't say as good as I would have hoped they would play."
-- transcript courtesy Paula Frederick
