Tuesday Media Luncheon Quotes and Audio

September 19, 2006

Texas A&M coaches and players met with members of the press on Tuesday at the weekly football media luncheon, held at the Bright Football Complex.

The Aggies are preparing to host Louisiana Tech on Saturday at Kyle Field. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. (CDT) and the game will not be televised.

Links to audio clips are available to the right.

Head Coach Dennis Franchione comments:

THE QUESTION: I guess real quick can you assess the defense -- just from what you saw going into fall camp and to where you guys have progressed

COACH FRAN: Well, we're improved in all facets I think. You know, we're not where we want to be yet; but gosh we came along way in a lot of areas since last year. We still have room to improve and tackling is certainly one of those areas. It's always an issue. We really haven't been what I would call bad at that. We've had a play or two where we've missed more than we needed to and I think we only had five or six the first game so... I like the direction we're headed. We have got bigger challenges ahead.

THE QUESTION: Regarding missed tackles. It seems like kids these days tend to just hit and not wrap up. The whole wrapping part of the tackling process is gone.

COACH FRAN: Yeah, I think might have a little something to that. You teach them to wrap up. I think what we are experiencing a little bit, and Coach (Gary) Darnell and I have talked about this a little bit. In today's games you have more tackles that you have to make in open space than probably ever before. As a result of that, almost all of our tackling drills are open field, lots of open space tackling drills. I think part of the reason our tackling has improved some, too, is we've had better pursuit to the ball this year. And we?™re getting more people around them, which I think helps. Saturday night we over-pursued a time or two. We got over there and actually outran the back and he cut back on us and that hurt us a time or two.

THE QUESTION: With regards to fourth down call: As a coach, is it a gut feeling you get when you toss out conventional wisdom?

COACH FRAN: The thing that made me decide to go for it the other night is we had run that play -- didn't count them up. Probably at least five times for about whatever yards we needed for two touchdowns and it had been very successful and I just felt like we could make it, I felt like our players believed they could make it and I felt like that if we didn't make it that we -- our defense has played good in the red zone if they do score we've been in good in our two minute drill getting back down the field. Obviously it came down to fewer seconds in the game than we would have been able to use but still had some positive feelings about it.

THE QUESTION: So what happened differently on that play than the previous five or whatever it was?

COACH FRAN: Well, obviously didn't block it quite as well and in hindsight I wish I would have probably ran to the other side with it than -- probably more our call than anything else. I think we could have run behind Martellus (Bennett) maybe in that side over there and may be been more productive.

THE QUESTION: As a coach can you afford when you're making a decision like that to even -- how much do you take into account the ramifications if it doesn't work?

COACH FRAN: I understand the arena I live in and I understand all the ramifications. I'm not concerned about people's opinions on it. I'm concerned about whether we win or lose the football game. I don't listen to the crowd but I was told there's a lot of cheering when we decided to go for it. Probably all those people weren't happy when we didn't make it. I wasn't either. Obviously we didn't make it and we didn't make the right decision and there are a lot of times in a football game that you have to make those kind of decisions, maybe not just like that one but different kinds of decisions. Once you make one, you got to make it right if we can and weren't able to do that offensively but we were able to do that defensively, so it turned out.

THE QUESTION: During that situation -- or juncture of the game didn't it seem like Army's offense was moving the ball pretty well. Obviously their confidence was growing, too. To put them in a situation where they are 10 yards away from the red zone. Or could be ten yards away from the end zone could have been kind of a precarious situation for your defense?

COACH FRAN: It definitely was a precarious situation. I didn't plan on not making it.

THE QUESTION: As a coach you have to factor (the chance of not making it) in because those guys (on defense) are on scholarship too?

COACH FRAN: I had a lot of time to think about it and believe me I went back and forth about 50 times. That's one of those calls when you're on the head set talking to everybody and what do y'all think? Hello? Hello? Anybody there? I think I got a dropped call. Finally I started just hunting them up on the sideline, you know. Obviously those are tough decisions and if I'm going to be faulted for believing in our players and believing we can make it then so be it. That's the way it is. And I may not do it next time, you know. Each situation is different and if we hadn't have ran that play four or five times with such success the way Jorvorskie (Lane) was running the football we wouldn't have been as apt to do it. Maybe in a different situation, I wouldn't be apt to do it.

THE QUESTION: Coach do you normally feel pretty confident in taking chances like that?

COACH FRAN: I do. I think sometimes people think like we started the game off with an onside kick or faked a field goal or faked a punt and they -- you get labeled as a river boat gambler or whatever it may be sometimes when they work and why did you do it when they don't work. I think as a coach you -- No. 1 have watched practice all week, you've worked on the play, you've seen it -- the situation in the game. And so you -- even though you understand the ramifications you also have a degree of belief that you're going to be successful because of what you've seen or you're not going to do it. It's not just hey lets try this, you know? It's -- there's been a lot of time spent preparing for that decision and they don't -- you know, like I said -- like Terrence said they're on scholarship, too. Doesn't always work out. I think more of them for me have been successful than not and we spend a lot of time planning on those situations.

THE QUESTION: On the previous plays do you always run to the same side?

COACH FRAN: No we had not always run to the same side.

THE QUESTION: Coach you mentioned Jorvorskie (Lane) earlier. Talk about his progress and with Courtney's injury him becoming the go to guy for now?

COACH FRAN: Well, he's doing a great job. I mean, you know, obviously Jorvorskie (Lane) is not going to break a lot of 40 or 50-yard runs for you but he's going to get hard tough yards. He made one run the other night on just a straight ahead lead play and I think we gained about 12 or 14 yards and I think he drug about six of them most of the way. And you know, that's just a -- a benefit to him. I mean, you use him in the areas of his strength and you understand that -- you know, his -- one of his touchdowns he got hit on the 4-yard line. The guy bounced off like a ping pong ball and two more hit him and didn't get him on the ground and he ran into the end zone. You are always looking for the back that can make yards when you don't block a couple people and he certainly does that. He doesn't hit home runs like some backs can when they miss but he certainly does sustain drives. Really the other night in the kind of game we were in I thought his -- his performance was pretty pivotal for us. He did a great job holding onto the football and making hard tough yards and there is certainly no doubt that he deals out about as much punishment as he ever absorbs.

THE QUESTION: I asked Coach Koenning this and he deferred to you: Is Jorvorskie (Lane) at his ideal playing weight?

COACH FRAN: Yeah. Right now I'm not worried about his weight. You know, I'd be the first one to not be honest if I didn't say that we've talked about it and thought about it. And in fact you know there was kind of a funny story and don't make more of this than it?™s worth. During two a days looking at weights I thought if we don't get Jorvorskie down he's going to have a hard time. I said, ?Kenny (Pope) Let's think about if we don't get his weight down he's not going to play in the first game.? We broke up staff meeting and watched film and he makes about two 20-yard runs, knocks people over like bowling balls and I quickly came to my senses and said Kenny forget I said that. Now, you know -- I mean, he can do things -- he is a -- he is an unusual athlete. I don't know if he can dance but I'm betting he can because he is light on his feet and he'll slip once in a while and fall because he cuts off the wrong foot once in a while, but not too often. He did it -- he had one the other night he tried to cut off his inside foot instead of his outside foot and slipped out from under him. He's unusual.

THE QUESTION: I guess there is probably a difference between what number he is on the scale and whether or not he's in shape. I imagine those are essentially two separate things. Where is his actual conditioning because that is what you are ultimately worried about?

COACH FRAN: I think the other night was a great example. I think he carried 24 times the other night and I saw no signs of fatigue with him. I think he could have carried it another 15 if we had had the ball. That's the pivotal thing as you pointed out Rachel.

THE QUESTION: Have you ever had anything like him? Is that part of the challenge that you don't have anything to base it on as far as knowing what works for him because you can't say so and so needed to be this weight.

COACH FRAN: Well, you know you do look at him and say this is what he is if he lost 15 pounds would he be a little quicker would he be a little faster and still be as effective? I don't know that for fact. I have kind of said until you lose speed I'm not going to worry about your weight. I haven't seen him lose any speed. Now, he's -- he's not going to win any hundred meter dashes all the time either but he hasn't -- he hasn't lost any of his speed and ability to cut and run and -- I don't care what he weighs if he can still do that.

THE QUESTION: Now, if circumstances played out where he had to be your future back for two, three, four games at a stretch, is he capable of doing that? Is he versatile enough to do that and also does it change your game plan at all if you know that you won't have Courtney (Lewis) to offset what Jorvorskie (Lane) does?

COACH FRAN: Well, it might alter our thinking a tad but not a great deal. We still got Michael (Goodson) and other backs, you know like Courtney (Lewis) -- you know, Courtney (Lewis) would probably be back in the one back set a little bit more maybe than some of the others. We?™re going to leave Jorvorskie (Lane) back there a lot in a one back set right now. So it might a little bit, not a great deal.

THE QUESTION: Is Jorvorskie (Lane) the kind of guy who can be your feature back for 25 carries in a game especially in conference?

COACH FRAN: Yeah, judging by the other night I think he could have carried another 10 or 15 times if he had to.

THE QUESTION: Then I guess how do you handle Mike Goodson and the problems he had with some of the pitches. How do you handle overcoming this situation. It?™s just like you always say, ball security is job security.

COACH FRAN: Well, we still believe in Michael and Michael is going to be a great player and we just have to keep bringing him along. You know, he's played three college football games and the speed of the game, the atmosphere of the game all the things that a freshman goes through are all still prevalent and he's progressing through it. You know Mike -- we believe in him. We're going to continue to work with him as hard as we can on that. One thing we talked about this week is maybe we should do a few more handoffs -- just handoff plays with him you know where we take it back and give it to him instead of pitching it to him or doing some of those other things.

THE QUESTION: You probably know better now than to listen to talk radio or read the message boards, but by listening to those it?™s almost like y'all lost that game. Does that stuff annoy you or do you just take it as part of the territory?

COACH FRAN: You know I'm not going to sit around and worry about that. We're 3-0. We got the win. You know, anybody -- I mean, you-all were at the game and you saw a pretty inspired Army team that played very well I thought. They took advantage of three or four of our miss cues and that hurt us but we still won the football game. And at the end we're 3-0 and style points don't do much for me. We found a way to get a ?W?. That's what matters and in the long run that's all that matters and I can understand you know fans maybe thought we should win by more. I'm not sure that's giving Army enough credit and may be giving us too much sometimes.

THE QUESTION: Coach what is your status right now at punter returner and kicker? COACH FRAN: Well, Chad (Schroeder) is still our punt returner and I will evaluate the kickers this week and see how they do.

THE QUESTION: What's your assessment right now of your receivers as a corps? I'm not talking about just this previous game but over the body of the three games. How do you assess them and then in specific L?™Tydrick (Riley) and Earvin (Taylor). Obviously their production at this point hasn't been probably what people would have thought.

COACH FRAN: Well, it has kind of been an unusual circumstance. You know last week in here we talked about we don't have to go to any one particular receiver right now and Kerry Franks and Pierre Brown are farther along and more ready to play than they've ever been and playing fairly well. We have also probably been in more two back sets and two tight end sets here in these first three games than maybe we will be the rest of the year. Earvin (Taylor) and L?™Tydrick (Riley) have both had balls thrown to them and we just haven?™t connected. You know those are unselfish guys and they want to make an impact that way. I know they do but they're not sitting around bemoaning that fact as far as -- to my knowledge and our team is very unselfish at this point in time and certain reads take you certain places. We threw a deep ball to Earvin in the Lafayette game, he had his man beat and we just overthrew it. It would have been a nice gain on this sideline over here. That's the benefit of having enough -- a lot of guys to go to right now. Chad and Martellus -- playing six or seven receivers in a football game sometimes it doesn't work out. We didn't throw the ball a lot the other night. You know, we're probably going to have games where we're going to throw the ball more than we have here in the first three games so -- it'll all work out.

THE QUESTION: What about -- those two guys Earvin (Taylor) and L?™Tydrick (Riley) specifically coming back from a couple of pretty serious injuries. Are they still the same type players as 2004?

COACH FRAN: I think they've recovered. I do. You know, we haven't been in as many as four wide receiver sets and things like that. That probably affects them just a little bit right now, but it'll all work out as the season goes through.

THE QUESTION: Do you think the way the offense played out against Army is pretty atypical of what will work out the rest of the season. I mean you only had 11 pass attempts.

COACH FRAN: Yeah, I think so. We only had 55 snaps in the game. We averaged almost seven yards a snap. You know, I played the military academies a number of times and you know the worse thing you can do is go three and out and we were running the ball so well it just felt like if you continued executing like you were -- we had three 80-yard drives for touchdowns, two 79, one 80. We mixed it up on some but we didn't throw the ball a lot. Maybe, you know, sometimes you look back after the game and say well maybe we should have; but 360 some yards of offense and 55 snaps is not a bad day at the office and part of it kept the Army's offense off the field too. And we continued other than some of our mistakes to reestablish some field position with that ability, too. So that -- that was important in playing those guys. When we gave them a short field they got points. Fortunately we got turnovers to off set that. And we ran the ball. I mean, they really had no real answer for the zone read the other night and you know until they learn to stop it you continue to bloody them with it and that's what we continued to do.

THE QUESTION: Like with Stephen (McGee) most of his gains were called runs for him. COACH FRAN: Well most of them were zone reads.

THE QUESTION: They probably weren?™t looking for him (Stephen) to run as much, but if another team is giving you something, you take it.

COACH FRAN: Stephen (McGee) is a good runner. One of the reasons we love him so much is because of his dual-threat ability. I wish he would get down once in a while, but I think he's a weapon that we can't afford not to use and the success of our offense is multiplicity and being able to use a lot of people. We didn't have a single Big XII preseason nomination (for an All-Conference offensive player), its not like we got you know anybody that's -- you can't live without them touching the football. Our strength is the group -- the whole that you have to defend and you know one week its Martellus (Bennett) one week it's Steven (McGee) one week it's Jorvorskie (Lane), and there will probably be a Courtney (Lewis) week or a L?™Tydrick (Riley) or Earvin (Taylor) week. We are going to move around and that's our strength right now and we need to play to that strength.

THE QUESTION: Is it accurate to say that Louisiana Tech throws it around more than your three previous opponents?

COACH FRAN: Very accurate.

THE QUESTION: Are you curious to see how your defense reacts?

COACH FRAN: You bet. This will be a challenge. They have a great receiver that I think is a great prospect. He made a tremendous catch in the Nebraska game. This will be our biggest challenge in that area.

THE QUESTION: Does this kind of get you ready for what's coming after that?

COACH FRAN: What's coming after that? I haven't thought that far ahead yet.

I'm not going to talk about that. We only have one Tech on our mind today.

THE QUESTION: There has been a lot of controversy the last few days about what happened in that Oklahoma game. Just in general when you hear about that as a coach how does that make you feel about instant replay knowing it could do this to you later this season?

COACH FRAN: You know we don't have a perfect system. You feel bad for any situation that plays in to deciding the game but before replay we had the exact same circumstances. It hasn't changed. And you just hope during your coaching career that more of those crazy bounces or calls go your way than go against you. And certainly -- I haven't seen any of the plays from the game Saturday. But I read the article this morning about what had happened. You know, I've had those things happen to me, too. You hate to see that be a deciding part of a game for anyone. We have humans still -- the human factor is still a part of this. I make mistakes, referees make mistakes, the players make mistakes. You?™re (the media) is about the only group I know that hasn't made one yet.

THE QUESTION: Do you take this into account when you vote in the coaches?™ poll? I mean, if that game played out correctly Oklahoma wins that game and they would probably be higher in the poles than they are now.

COACH FRAN: Well, you probably should. You know, when I voted Sunday I did not know the implications of all of that game so I did not have the ability to give any thought to that. You know, it's in the books as an Oregon win and that's not going to be changed and it was a great game, it was a hard fought game it was a close game and you know I probably in thinking about Oklahoma might give them a little more benefit of the doubt. I don't know if I'll rank them ahead of Oregon necessarily but I certainly -- I think you remember the fact that that happened to them. That's fair.

THE QUESTION: Do you think there should be some type of legislation that says when you go into a stadium like that for a non-conference game maybe you should be required to use neutral officials. Because the big thing here was those were Pac-10 officials in a Pac-10 stadium making calls in favor of a Pac-10. So could you alleviate some of that type of discussion by bringing officials from a neutral conference?

COACH FRAN: Well, normally in our non conference games like that like Clemson and I believe we've had a lot of times you know you have ACC officials in our place and Big XII officials at their place and you offset that with the different replay crew. That's usually negotiated in the contracts and I guess it's my understanding that the Pac-10 doesn't do it that way. You have Big XII officials at Oklahoma and Pac 10 officials there. Oklahoma signed the contract. You know, if they didn't like the fact that it was going to be that way, they could have continued to negotiate that. I mean you have to live with that. I'm not trying to be insensitive to Oklahoma because they're part of our conference and I like to see the Big XII win but we all know what's -- how things work and you know I don't think the -- that the Pac-10 replay guy or Pac-10 officials tried to make the wrong call in favor of the Pac-10. I don't believe that. I've mean -- does it look bad? Yeah. Now that it happened. If I was the team that it happened to I would feel just like Oklahoma, I guarantee you. So just put them in a precarious situation. Maybe the Pac-10 ought to stop and think maybe we're compromising our guys a little bit by putting them in that situation. Maybe we shouldn't do it. I bet when Oregon went to Oklahoma there was Big XII officials that refereed that game. This is one of those things we can talk about for the rest of the day and not come up with any perfect answers.