February 01, 2006
Texas A&M head football coach Dennis Franchione announced the signing of 21 student-athletes to national letters of intent in a press conference Wednesday at the Bright Football Complex on the A&M campus.
A transcript of the press conference is posted below. A link to the audio file of the press conference in MP3 format is located to the right.
Coach Fran Signing Day 2006 Quotes
Opening comments...
"Well, signing day is always an exciting day. Just reflecting on being here and recruiting here is exciting, because of the great facilities we have to offer now and the fact that our facilities continue to improve, with the McFerrin Indoor Facility that should be in by the fall and the new video board and sound system that we're going to have in at Kyle Field. We also feel kind of fortunate that we have a lot of things to sell that are positives for Texas A&M, in great academics, a great research institution, the largest campus in the country. We feel fortunate that we are here at a time where we have great leadership and great vision, with (University) President (Dr. Robert) Gates and with (Director of Athletics) Bill Byrne...with members of the Athletics Department administratively that are great to work with and very visionary. You know, it's always I think a highlight for me to get to go out and talk about A&M and it's values and education with families, the traditions that we have here that are special, and the history that we have here in football.
"In regard to our class, we certainly feel like we've strengthened our program in regard to lot of areas such as speed, athleticism, versatility, the character of the guys we've signed, the great families that they came from. It was really pleasing to go in and see a lot of great moms and dads and be a part of their family atmosphere and see how it would fit in with our program and our family.
"Going into the process...last year we identified three areas of needs in this class. Running back...a great running back was certainly a need that we identified. Courtney (Lewis) is going to be a senior next year. Linebacker was certainly a need that we have identified, and then I think the other need was skilled athletes. And as you look through the signees, I think this class reflects that we did a very good job of meeting our needs.
"I want to take a moment to compliment our coaches. Coach (Johnny) Barr (coordinator of on-campus recruiting) is sitting up there, and he led the charge and did a great job. Our coaches were very diligent and worked very hard. They were still here late last night working on things. They did a great job working on our evaluation process. It takes a lot of people pulling in the right direction to get something like this done.
"Just let me talk a little bit about some of our guys.
"Offensively, if you look at that side of the ball, I think you have to start with Mike Goodson. Mike is probably one of the nation's elite running backs, certainly arguably one of the top running backs in the state of Texas. If you look at his stats the last couple of years, he averaged almost 10 yards a carry as a junior and over 11 yards a carry as a senior. I think one of the things that sticks out to me about Mike is he's a pretty complete back coming out of high school. Obviously he can run with the football and do a lot of things with the ball in his hands when you hand it to him. But he's a good receiver. He catches the ball very well. The other thing that really catches your eye when you watch Mike is he's a good blocker. So often that is probably an area, for a running back coming out of high school, that they may need to work on immediately--pass protection at this level and picking up linebackers. Mike is pretty good at it so I think that's a real bonus and will help him to be ready to play early.
"I have to mention Latrael Cooper. I think that's a hidden gem in this class. He had a tremendous sophomore year. Everybody knows about the knee injury in his junior year, he came back in his senior year and had a good solid year. This is young man of substance. I really admire him, the way he's fought through his injury and fought back and handled everything. I really think he has a chance to get back to top form and he may already be at top form. I think he feels very good about where he's at.
"We added Cornell Tarrant in there. He's a versatile guy that can do a lot of things for us. He's explosive, got great track speed. You watch his runs on film and he gets you excited seeing some of the things he can do.
"One of the other guys that's kind of a gem in our class is our quarterback, Jerrod Johnson. He's the son of a former Aggie player. His father was a receiver and running back at A&M. Jerrod is certainly an exciting prospect for us at quarterback, and that is the only position we've really thought about Jerrod at, is quarterback. He was the Houston Touchdown Club Player of the Year. We had a number of quarterbacks in camp this summer, and by far going away we thought he was the best prospect. One of the exciting things I would say about Jerrod is his best football is ahead of him. He's intelligent. He's athletic. He's big. He's strong. He's physical. He's going to play football and basketball here at least starting out.
"We did very well at receiver. I think if you look across our receivers, one of the things you see is size and speed. We've been excited about getting size into our receiving corps. Kenny Brown brings size and speed. He is a good athlete. Obviously there's a big upside to him and we felt very good about being able to attract him.
"Chris Caflisch is a versatile guy that can play a bunch of positions. We kind of project him as a returner and receiver right now. Chris was the San Antonio Offensive Player of the Year. He's a really good athlete. Torey DeGrate we signed a couple of years ago. We hope to get him to campus now. He was the leading receiver in the Southwestern Junior College Conference. E.J. Shankle...I think the best comparison I could give you about E.J. might be Jason Carter. He's electric with the ball in his hands from different areas. He can return kicks and punts. He's also got bonified track speed. There's a lot of things that young man can do with the ball.
"Terrence McCoy is (current A&M player) Jamie's brother. We had Terrence in camp. This is another guy that brings size and speed and physical play to our program at that position, which we really like.
"We only signed one offensive lineman in this class. That wasn't as high a priority. We would have maybe liked to sign one more but that was really about where we were at with this class. We did feel good to get Lucas Patterson. The kind of guy he is, he could play offense or defense. He again comes from an Aggie family. His dad played here in '79 and '80. He is strong, physical. He can move. I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up playing defense but right now we think of him as an offensive lineman.
"Moving over to the defensive side of the ball...linebacker was certainly a position we needed help at. Anthony Lewis was the Fort Worth area Defensive Player of the Year and one of the highly-ranked linebackers across the state and nation. This guy has already got college size, speed and physicalness. (He) Has a great family, good student, just a tremendous upside with that young man that we think can come in and make an immediate contribution for us.
"Mark Dodge is a junior college transfer that is on campus now. We felt he was one of the top junior college linebackers in the nation. He had an exceptional sophomore year, made a lot of tackles. As you read his bio, you'll see he has a Marine background and he's got quite an interesting story that I'm sure Aggies will love to hear. Obviously our military background was a lure to get Mark here, and we're grateful for that. Since we got him on campus I think he's put on about 10 pounds since he's been here. It will be exciting and interesting to watch him go through spring practice.
"The other JC linebacker, Misi Tupe, was a junior college All-American. He was the MVP of his league. He was a finalist for national defensive player of the year. He's a young man that came out of high school as a tailback, moved over and played linebacker. He's very active, very athletic.
"Defensive line wise, we signed two guys there. One would be more of a defensive end in Cody Williams. The thing that's really exciting about Cody is he's a speed rusher. He's going to be the guy that coming off the edge maybe we haven't had, that kind of speed and athleticism. He's a great student, has a great family. He's a winner, no doubt about that. I think he's a guy that can make a contribution fairly early. Leslie Ray is an inside guy, most likely. Good interior guy, great strength, great power, low center of gravity, the kind of guy that can be a run-stopper inside. He had some sacks so I'm not saying he can't rush the quarterback either.
"A lot of DB types, which was something we were looking for. A lot of versatility in that group. Pierre Fleurinor kind of characterizes that. He's a versatile guy. I would characterize Pierre as probably a Keelan Jackson type, for those of you that have watched us. He could play weak-side linebacker, rover, safety, something like that. Jarvis Neal is a JC guy who we know a lot about. Jarvis is a big, physical safety with great size. There are a lot of positions he can play and has played and been very good. We project him to be a free safety in our defense right now at this point in time. We'll be anxious to get him in here and see exactly how that fits but that's what we would look at.
"We got a good size corner in Jordan Pugh. He comes out of a great program in Plano. He's a corner with good height, good size, good speed. He played some tailback this year and rushed for a lot of yards, as brief as it was. Returned some kicks. This is a young man that's really intelligent, good family, has all the characteristics that you look for that I think can come in and make an impact.
"DeMaurier Thompson is again one of those Keelan Jackson types. I think he's going to get a lot bigger. He's a track athlete and that keeps him thin right now. He's pretty versatile, can fit into that safety, weak-side linebacker type of guy.
"Johnathan Batson was the junior college National Defensive Player of the Year. He was a first-team NCJAA All-American. He can play corner, he can play safety. He came out of a fine high school program in San Antonio at Judson High School.
"I'm excited about all these things these guys can do at these positions to give us the opportunities to personnel people into our secondary in certain spots. Five or six of these guys could probably be return guys-punt return guys or kick return guys. That happens when you have as heavy of a skill class as this one is. Obviously our needs for next year will change, just in reflecting and looking at this class you can see that next year we'll probably be more interested in offensive linemen, defensive linemen, tight ends, probably still continue to be interested in linebackers. I'm not saying the other positions won't be critical too, but looking at needs and those kinds of things, it will fit in well.
"The other guy that I wanted to mention that's on campus is Cody Beyer, who comes out of an excellent program at Smithson Valley. He's a kid that's played a lot of positions. He can do a lot of things. He will be a receiver for us. He's here to go through spring practice which is a real bonus. He graduated high school early, and that tells you what kind of student he is. Great support from his family. We're excited about having Cody here too."
Talk about the recruitment of Mike Goodson...
"(Assistant) Coach (Jim Bob) Helduser and the guys did a great job with Mike. I think from the outside you can look at it as a real up-and-down wave of energy one direction or the other. When you have as high-profile a guy as him, people aren't going to give up. They're going to fight to the end, and they did. One thing about Mike...he never really came off wanting to be an Aggie. He never wavered very much on that. Obviously when you've got a team that played for the national championship three years in a row hammering him, it takes some real intestinal fortitude to stand up to that and still want to play close to home, where his family can see him play. Mike stood right in there all the way through this process. He was involved in the recruiting process. He talked to lot of athletes himself from all different kinds of places and schools. He was always pleasure to recruit. His high school coach, Ronny Feldman, was magnificent to work with as all the Texas high school coaches are, but Ronny really had his plate full with all the recruiting that went into to Mike Goodson and managed it very well and really made our job much more pleasurable to work with. Good family, good dad. Exciting football player. We're excited that we got him."
Last year you had the fanfare with your class, signing Martellus Bennett and all that. This class seems more low key, but is deep where you need it. Can you talk about the overall feeling of this class? Maybe they are not superstar names but they are filling needs...
"I think there are a couple superstar names in there. Mike Goodson's a pretty darn good name and there are some others in there. We didn't have as many scholarships this year. Rankings are nice for the fans. How meaningful they really are is to be talked about by lot of people a lot of different ways. The only ranking that really matters to us is how we feel about this class. We feel like we got another good, solid class. They are kids with character, kids with athleticism. There are a lot of good students here. We don't think there are going to be many academic difficulties in this class at all. When you sign 21 as compared to somebody that signs 26, 27 or 30, you're not going to be as high up in the rankings. That's just the way that works and the way they do those things. We don't sit around and worry about the rankings. We spend our time and our evaluation process understanding that we need to know what fits into our offense and defense and what our needs are, and then go out and try to attract the guys that can fill those position needs. This class was more a 'needs' class maybe than last year's. Last year's was more a pretty 'broad-based' class."
You still have one more scholarship?
"Yes. We could probably offer one more."
Will you?
"It's possible. There are always things that come up. The phones haven't stopped working."
Do you expect to have everyone in this class here in August?
"There's one guy I'm a little concerned about, but I think other than that I feel pretty confident they all will be here."
When do you decide this will be 'needs' year or to go for the best at any position? Is there a time you decide on this?
"Well, I think as soon as you finish this class and you plug in your grid of how many you have of everything, you immediately go in and identify--and we'll do this today or tomorrow-we'll identify exactly now what our needs are in the next class. It's pretty vivid already, as I mentioned already, what some of our needs are going to be. I think next year's class will go back to a little bit more like last year's class, in being a broad-based class, where we'll need some of everything again. With our numbers this year we had to be more position-specific than maybe in the past couple of years. We always are, to a certain degree, but I think with 21 guys, it probably causes us to be a little more."
With a couple of the wide receiver injuries last year, you've got those seniors coming back. With so many freshmen wide receivers coming in does that allow you to redshirt more, or think about other positions with these guys to fill other needs?
"They're all versatile guys. E.J. Shankle could go back in the backfield and carry the ball, things like that. We don't have any thoughts of that right now. We want them to come in and be ready to play. With the 12-game schedule like it is today, and with us playing 11 games consecutively without an open date, I don't know that we can sit around and have the luxury of talking about redshirting players. I think it's more imperative than ever before that people have to be ready to play. Maybe they're not ready in September, but that's just four games out of a 12-game schedule. Maybe we can get them ready by October. Hopefully we won't have the injuries that we had last year, but hopefully we can get some guys to fill in there, if and when we do have some."
When you look at the DBs, particularly the safeties, they seem to be little more physical and a little bigger than in years past. Was that a conscious effort by you, and will they fit in well with (Def. Coordinator Gary) Darnell's scheme?
"They will, and it was a conscious effort, and that probably starts on my part. I wanted some bigger guys. I think one of the struggles you have as a coach today is that receivers are getting so big and athletic, and sometimes you look out there and if you've got a 5-9 guy and that receiver like Terrence McCoy is a 6-4 guy, already you know you're a little bit behind the 8-ball. You better have a good vertical jump and play the ball in the air well. That was a conscientious effort on our part to bring more size in, especially in the safety position where we're going to need to be more physical."
When you look at the JC guys, do you look at any of them to come in and be immediate impact type of guys?
"We hope they all are. Our philosophy on JC guys is that they should come in and make immediate impact. We understand the learning curve sometimes, that it takes a little bit in September to get them where they need to be. Our thought right now is that they are going to come in and compete for the position."
In terms of the high school kids, do you see any of them coming in and helping right away?
"Well I certainly think Jordan Pugh could. He's got the size and speed and he's played a great level of football. Cody Williams could give you a guy that could come off the edge maybe, give you some special pass-rush situations, those types of plays. Anthony Lewis is certainly a guy who's physically ready to play college football today. He could certainly do that. Offensive linemen seem to redshirt most of the time. We don't go in with the premonition that's the way it's going to be, but it's a development position as much as anything. All those receivers could make a contribution, depending on which way our focus goes offensively with how many receivers. McCoy's got some good size. Shankle is certainly an athletic kid that can do things. Byers played in a great program. Kenny Brown, I think when he quits playing basketball and lets his body catch up and put on weight, has a chance to be a pretty special guy at his position. Mike Goodson I think we're all sitting around thinking Mike could make a contribution immediately...any of those running backs can for that matter. Jerrod Johnson is an intelligent young man. He's going to have a lot to learn about quarterback, obviously. That always has an impact...how quickly can he do that? But he will be here this summer and get a good start on things. Certainly I'm not going to sit around and think that he can't learn enough to be ready. I've had a freshman quarterback start for me and win a conference title in Casey Printers at TCU. That certainly wouldn't eliminate Jerrod from being able to contribute this year."
What about signing more JC players than usual...was the high school talent maybe not there or why did you sign more? Talk about what they will bring to the team this fall...
"I think the biggest thing was we thought they could come in and make our team better, come in and make an impact and help us right off. With our scheme, certainly that's probably the number one reason we wanted those guys. They could make our team better immediately."
Defensively are you staying with the 4-3?
"We know exactly which direction we're going. I'm not sure we're telling today. We'll still be in a four down linemen set. I think what was our 'will' linebacker is going to be far more a speed position than it's ever been. If you start breaking down what you play against a lot, you don't see a lot of two-back sets like you used to. You're defending a one-back set all the time. The question becomes, do you go to five DBs or do you start with 5 DBs? Well, if you're seeing more one-back sets you're inclined to think to start that way. A lot of what we did will carry over, but there will be a lot of changes."
Talk about the significance of getting Mike Goodson to follow Martellus Bennett here, and for two years in a row landing probably the premier high school talent in the Houston area...
"Certainly we think that's big. Not only do we think Mike is a top running back in the state that came out of Houston, but Jerrod Johnson was the Houston Touchdown Club Player of the Year in Houston. For us, in recruiting Houston as a primary is of ultra importance for us. East Texas is a prime area. We've kept all of our connections alive there and now it's two years in a row that we feel we've been able to go into Houston and get the top player, with Martellus last year and now with Mike Goodson and Jerrod Johnson this year."
One of the reasons you came back to this state is because of the talent in this state. Kind of speak to that philosophy of not having to recruit too far outside the borders...
"I love recruiting this state. I love it for lot of reasons. Number one, the high school coaches in the state of Texas do an awesome job. They do such a great job of coaching and developing their players. Their professionalism is second to none in supplying you with information, giving you transcripts, helping you track young men as far as their academics, being honest and open with you in the recruiting process. That's such a benefit. That is a strength of this state in comparison to a lot of states. The Texas high school coaches do such a great job. There are approximately 300 Division I signees a year in this state. When you look at that and think you want to get 20 to 25 for yourself, you like to think you've got a good shot at getting a good group of those. I still think one of the large reasons young men choose their school is proximity to home--the opportunity for family to see them play and be part of their college career, to be in the stands 10 or 11 weeks out of the season, for a young man to be able to share his college career with his family. Being in a state like this, where we are a hotbed for talent, and good talent, and a multitude of talent, is always a strength. To me, if you go around the nation and look at the programs that are consistent winners they have a recruiting base to draw from. We certainly feel like we have that here."
How many recruits did you have visit and how was the recruiting climate?
"We had 28 visits. We signed 21 of them. That's a pretty good batting average. Really, I didn't think there was anything unusual about this year out there. There's always different things and different cases you work through each year, but I didn't think anything was abnormal about this year."
Did you hear any concerns this year from recruits about the record this past season?
"That's not something they mention to you right off the bat. I think they have lot of confidence in the history of this program and the number of winning years that's been here, and the facilities that are happening and the academics that are here.
What kind of selling point was the new indoor facility?
"It was huge. It was a big selling point. Now, let me quantify this a little bit by saying recruits are 'touchy-feely' more than visual. The visual part of it was great. But next year, when they can walk in and see it, I think it will be an even bigger boost for us. Certainly our video department does a great job in presenting a presentation that almost feels like you're inside of it in today's technology. That's great for recruits and parents but never quite as good as being able to walk right in that facility and look around, like in the Bright Complex. For a long time we visualized what this was going to be but until you walk in and it's finished, it's hard to have a complete feel for just how nice this building is."
With Mark Dodge's background, have you had player that's done that before?
"I've had some bounce-backs like that. I don't know his age but he's not too old to play, that's all I know. He's very mature. I think they (older players) are always much more attentive to detail and purposeful in what they are doing and Mark is certainly that way. You don't have to worry about Mark's accountability. He's in the right place doing the right things all the time."
Have you had a player like a Latrael Cooper who's had a devastating injury come on in his college career to be a big-time producer?
"I have. It's not unusual. Knee injuries today are certainly significant, I don't mean to say that they are not. We know so much more about redeveloping them and recovering from them today, the amount of time it takes to bounce back from them, the ability to fight through them. Certainly in Latrael's case we knew he had an injury, but he has such an upside that we wanted to work with this young man and believe in him, because he's a special case. He's a great person. Solid through and through. He was a fantastic running back as a sophomore. Just fantastic. I still think in his recovery he's pretty well there, but I still think a lot of good days are ahead for him."
Talk about Kenny Brown and getting one of the top kids from Oklahoma...
"Coach Thurmond did a great job of recruiting Kenny. Kenny had great visits here. I think we maybe caught Oklahoma in year where they didn't need receivers as much and we were able to be benefited by being able to get Kenny to Texas A&M. That may been part of that. The beauty in our eye was Kenny's size and speed were never in doubt. We're pretty excited about him as a football player."
A little more on the indoor facility...you fully expect to be in it by August?
"That's what I'm hearing right now. The potential exists there for us to be able to use that sometime in August or early September."