Tuesday Media Luncheon Quotes and Audio

November 07, 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 23rd-ranked Aggies are preparing to host 25th-ranked Nebraska on Saturday. Kickoff at Kyle Field is set for 2:30 p.m. (CST) and the game will be televised on ABC.

Links to audio clips are available to the right.

----------------------------------------------------

Texas A&M Football

Head Coach Dennis Franchione comments

Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2006

COACH FRAN: Let me just start today by saying that we had some sad news yesterday about the death of Bernie Richardson. He was a great supporter of A&M and Aggie Athletics and obviously of Kyle Field and traveled with our team. His grandson was an intern in our department. So our condolences and prayers need to go out to his family at this time. We certainly miss him and certainly can?™t tell you how much he has meant to Texas A&M and Aggie Athletics.

THE QUESTION: Coach can you talk about the recruiting process with Chris Harrington and how he has progressed to this point in his career?

COACH FRAN: We knew of Chris at Alabama. I don?™t know how much of a chance we felt like we had with the distance involved. When we got here it was certainly a no brainer for us and I guess what we were bringing opened his eyes a little bit. I think he?™s right on schedule. Chris is one of those guys that was a redshirt freshman and had to play early and we were all very high on those guys, him and Jason (Jack) and Red (Bryant) and certainly Chris. Probably sometimes as a freshman and sophomore more was expected of them than maybe what they were actually ready for yet. I think those guys have all played fairly consistent and Chris played pretty consistent even at that time. I certainly think all three of them are playing their best football at this point in time and living up to what we thought they would be and right on course and Chris is certainly playing that way.

THE QUESTION: Do you get a sense of what it meant to him to be able to come here and play when it didn?™t look like he would have that chance originally?

COACH FRAN: I think I had a sense of it. It wasn?™t a slam-dunk for him when we first got here. He had to kind of get to know the coaches and talk about the scheme. I know it meant a great deal to his family and his mother especially that it all worked out. It was a good issue in that regard. So I?™m sure it meant a lot to Chris to be able to do that, but it had to be a good fit for him too. He had to look for what was going to be the right fit for him and that was part of his thinking.

THE QUESTION: We?™ve talked a lot this year about the defense getting slower starts and faster finishes. Have you seen anything more to kind of pinpoint why we?™re seeing that pattern?

COACH FRAN: You know, I?™m sure Coach Darnell probably addressed that some with you when he came in. I wish there was a little switch we could flip that could change it. It?™s different things. Different style offense, getting a feel for the speed of the game. We had a couple wrinkles defensively that we weren?™t really able to use because we got some guys banged up immediately in the first quarter and that changed a little bit of our thinking there and had to kind of put us back to where we started and that had some impact on it. I?™m not sure there?™s exactly one particular thing you can hang your hat on and say maybe if we change this we can get off to a better start.

THE QUESTION: On the one hand the defense in the second half seems to have given you a great chance to win every game, but on the other hand is there a fear that you may dig yourself a hole that is too deep to get out of.

COACH FRAN: Well, these are all tough, hard fought, competitive games and the hole hasn?™t been that big that we haven?™t had a chance to climb out of it. I compliment our players and coaches; they know it?™s a 60-minute game and they keep playing and get a better feel for things. Make a few adjustments and get a better fit to some of the plays that we know this is their game plan now and know which direction they?™re going. Sometimes it?™s just a matter of maybe setting your linebacker a foot wider or putting your defensive end a wider shade or whatever it may be and you know to their credit they?™ve been able to kind of get a feel for what the opposition is going to do then make some adjustments to get better fits on those plays and they?™ve done that week in and week out. So sometimes it?™s just getting a feel for exactly what the game plan is going to be. At this point in the season you have seen a lot of offense so you have to prepare for a lot of things that you have seen and even though you may think it?™s going to be this, you still have to spend time preparing for it.

THE QUESTION: Third and 2?

COACH FRAN: We talked it over as a staff and yards were hard to come by. We had worked really hard on red zone and goal line thoughts on the week. We felt like we had a good play called. It was very much like the play that we had hit earlier to Chris Alexander for a big first down. You know, it didn?™t work out. We thought it was going to be a good call or we wouldn?™t have called it. You have got to make a decision then if you can go for it or do you get points. As hard as yards had been to come by and Layne (Neumann) was kicking good, I felt like we get the three our defense is playing good, we kick it out of the endzone which we did pin them on the 20. We stop them we are going to get the ball back with a minute 20, minute 25 somewhere in there I think. Short field. I mean, you have to think you?™re going to get it around the 40 maybe and we?™ve been really good in the last couple of minutes of halves in games of moving the ball down the field and in this case we don?™t have to have a touchdown we just need about 25 or 30 yards of offense to be in fieldgoal range and Layne has kicked the ball good. So that was the choice that we made.

THE QUESTION: With the great numbers that (Jorvorskie) Lane has in these situations is it hard not to give him a chance or is it almost to obvious to give him the ball?

COACH FRAN: It?™s a little of both, Jeff. Hindsight is always easy and you certainly rethink everything that you do in situations. We wouldn?™t have called the play on third down that we called if we didn?™t think it was going to work. Jorvorskie was another option in that situation and we chose our direction and went that way and it didn?™t work out. If it works out then all is good. So again, it?™s something that we have to execute and make it right when we make that decision.

THE QUESTION: I looked it up and I think Jorvorskie has converted on 15 straight third our fourth down plays. As long as it?™s working, why change something that simply has worked all year long?

COACH FRAN: Well, a lot of those are not on the 2-yard line where defenses are bunched down as close as they are. A lot of them are in the field in a little bit different situations. Now there?™s nothing wrong with that call, I?™m not saying there is.

THE QUESTION: Did you already know that you were going to kick the fieldgoal if you didn?™t convert on third down?

COACH FRAN: No. There was a chance for Stephen (McGee) to run that in, there was Chris (Alexander) in the flat, there was Martellus (Bennett); and that was kind of the option we were looking for in that situation. That play was the high low with those two guys that had been very good to us.

THE QUESTION: Is that one draw back to throwing in that situation is that if you don?™t score you are probably not going to get any closer for fourth down.

COACH FRAN: Well, there?™s no guarantee if you run it you?™re going to get closer either. Last I looked nothing?™s a guarantee there. It was tough sledding and if I had had any guarantees, I would have probably been real interested in those.

THE QUESTION: Coach, there was some stuff being made of Jorvorskie?™s demeanor coming off the field after that. Did you hear any of that?

COACH FRAN: No, but guys want to win. You want players that want the ball and want players that want to win. There?™s nothing wrong with guys being like that. I didn?™t talk to him.

THE QUESTION: How close was Mike Goodson on those two late runs to breaking it and going all they way?

COACH FRAN: Yeah. Really close. I think both times I felt like watching the video he was about to hit those extra burners that he has sometimes. One of the runs a guy had a pretty good angle on him but I think the one you?™re talking about Jeff, that guy just barely got him and if he doesn?™t get him he might go to the house.

THE QUESTION: Did you feel Oklahoma was stopping the run as well as they were stopping the pass on Saturday? The numbers suggest otherwise that they were having more luck against the pass than the run.

COACH FRAN: They were difficult to move the ball against. I mean, I didn?™t feel like you could just run the ball and move the ball on them and I felt like you had to continue to try to have some other elements in the offense other than just one thing. They?™re too good to be one-dimensional. You know, the drive that probably bothers me as much as anything was when we recovered the fumble on about the 38 or 39 and we ended up going backwards. That one hurt. I think we were going into the wind a little bit there. That one was bothersome as much as any of them.

THE QUESTION: When you faced fourth and six, was that a more difficult series to contemplate because of time slipping away? Is that an even more difficult decision than the third and goal previously?

COACH FRAN: I don?™t know if it was more difficult but six yards was pretty precious to come by in that game. I just felt like the best thing for us was to get the three points and now we can win the game with a much shorter field. We don?™t have to have a touchdown. The way our defense has played there?™s a good chance we?™re going to get a stop. The first play of the series we get them for minus 2 or 3 then we let the second one get out too much and we didn?™t get the stop.

THE QUESTION: You may still be leading the conference in redzone touchdowns. COACH FRAN: I don?™t know about touchdowns. Redzone over all I think we?™re third or fourth.

THE QUESTION: What are your thoughts on sometimes having to settle for fieldgoals and not getting touchdowns down there?

COACH FRAN: Touchdowns are always vital over fieldgoals. Points are the first goal that you have to have when you?™re in that situation. We?™ve been surprised a couple of times with different defenses than we had seen on film. So that was a little unusual. We?™ve got to be better down there and those are hard yards and we have to find a way to get them.

THE QUESTION: Coach can you talk about Nebraska.

COACH FRAN: Nebraska is a team probably on a mission right now and you look at their schedule they have lost to USC, Texas and then Oklahoma State on the road. I think we know what Oklahoma State is offensively. They are pretty good and got on a good role in the second half. I suspect maybe that playing that game the week after the Texas game emotionally might have been a challenge for them. So the bottom line to all that is I think we?™re playing a pretty good football team. Good solid defensive team. They?™re pretty balanced offensively. They have run the ball with some success this year and they certainly have some good receivers. Quarterback can throw the ball. Their offensive line is playing pretty well. They are a good power running team. They keep you off balance well, doing a lot of movement and shifting with their formations. They try to gain some leverage and get you out of position. Hopefully one of the advantages of our defense is that we don?™t have to make too many of those adjustments like some people may have to.

THE QUESTION: In the redzone is there a target as far as percentage of time to get points and a percentage of time to get touchdowns?

COACH FRAN: No. I don?™t have a magic figure for you. I?™d say we want points 100 percent of the time and we want touchdowns as close to 100 percent of the time as we can.

THE QUESTION: With touchdowns, is there a number that?™s probably considered a bare minimum?

COACH FRAN: I don?™t have a number on the top of my head here for you.

THE QUESTION: Is Nebraska?™s power running game similar to Oklahoma?™s?

COACH FRAN: It?™s kind of similar to Oklahoma?™s yes. I think that?™s probably a good way to look at it.

THE QUESTION: It seems like you are less likely to take chances with on-side kicks and fake fieldgoals this year. As you team?™s talent level increases and you become more evenly matched on the field, do you feel less of a willingness to take those chances?

COACH FRAN: I think that?™s a fair statement, Brent. I called a fake punt Saturday night but the look changed so we checked out of it. I have called fake field goals this year but the look has changed so we checked out of them. We?™ve still been calling those, but we?™re not going to run them into just any look that there is. I thought the one that we called Saturday night had a chance to get run but obviously Oklahoma?™s concerned of our fakes and understandably so. So we didn?™t get to run it. We called one the week before and I?™m not sure if we did the week before that or not. We have still called them we?™re just not willing to run them into just anything that may not succeed.

THE QUESTION: What part of the game was that on Saturday?

COACH FRAN: I think it was about mid-point of the third quarter.

THE QUESTION: There was one field goal that you kicked and OU didn?™t even rush anybody.

COACH FRAN: I know. I know. That was pretty big clue we weren?™t going to get a fake in that aspect of the game. They were like kick it but don?™t fake, please.

THE QUESTION: There was a fourth and eight at the Oklahoma 45 is that the one you were thinking?

COACH FRAN: I was thinking it was back about our 40 or 45 Randy. I?™m not positive about that. That?™s kind of what I was thinking. I may have the second quarter and third quarter mixed up on that. It could have been the one you?™re talking of. I didn?™t think it was.

THE QUESTION: How well is Mike Goodson holding up over the course of the season as his responsibilities and work load increases?

COACH FRAN: Well we haven?™t had one of those games for him to carry it 25 times yet and with the combination of backs we?™ve had he hasn?™t had to and I really believe Coach Pope has done a good job with him and not overloading him. Early in the season there were a lot of things pass protection wise we didn?™t ask him to do. Certain running games we played him to and now we?™re doing more with him and asking more of him as the season goes on. He?™s ready for more of it. He?™s held up physically pretty well. He got his ankle twisted last game but nothing that kept him out or will keep him out. One of those plays he needed a break or two.

THE QUESTION: Is he getting better in pass blocking?

COACH FRAN: He is. He knows much better what his assignments are. He is still a guy that needs his Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of preparation to have it all reinforced on a weekly basis and with new defenses that?™s to be expected. Sometimes the older guys know what they?™re going to have to do. With the younger guys, it takes them a little more time.

THE QUESTION: Coach, we have talked before about not letting a loss beat you twice, what do you see out of these guys coming out of the OU game?

COACH FRAN: Yeah, I see a pretty determined group and I really believe this team respects the seniors a great deal and they recognize that this is the senior?™s last home game and they would like to send them out with a win. We don?™t talk a lot about the bowl situation but they know the better they can do the better opportunities are out there for them as far as places to go. I think they all know that there are not any bad bowls. They are just glad they?™re going. They know that is there and they know that these are two games against nationally-ranked teams and I think maturity wise they?™ve done a much better job with this one putting it behind them. It took longer with the Tech game and I sensed on Sunday that they were headed in the right direction.