November 06, 2007
Coaches and players met with the press on Tuesday at the weekly football media luncheon, held at the Bright Complex on the Texas A&M campus.
The Aggies (6-4, 3-3) are preparing to face 6th-ranked Missouri (8-1, 4-1) in Columbia on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 11:30 a.m. (CST) and the game will be televised by FSN.
Coach Fran Press Conference Quotes
"Well, we're going to play a good football team this week. They're good on offense, really moving the ball well. Their quarterback (Chase Daniel) is playing with a lot of moxie and playing well. They're improved on defense. I think the last four or five games, obviously their Big XII statistics bear this out, played very solid defensive football. If you look at the Big XII statistics only they're ranked pretty high in a lot of categories. They gave up some yards early in the year to people but since the season started in conference play they've played pretty solid."
What has been responsible for the turnaround for them defensively do you think? Were they a pretty young unit early on?
"You know, they had a few new guys in the lineup. Gary (Pinkel) would be a better one to analyze that than me. I don't know whether experience, time playing together, they've been ahead in a lot of games and so if they made a mistake it wasn't critical and they could kind of grow and play confidently and they've done a good job of doing that."
Fran, the just of yesterday's excitement resolved around whether or not you have begun negotiations for...
"Let me just stop you before you go any farther, okay? I am not going to get into the rumor game with you guys. I'll be glad to sit here as long as you want to just about, to talk about Missouri and the games but there are no facts to that and I'm not into it. I'm sorry that you guys have to deal with it. I know you have your work to do and your questions to ask but I'm a none participant in those. I spent all day (Monday) working with the coaches on the game plan."
Did you talk to the team yesterday or did they talk to you? What did you talk to them about?
"They've kind of gotten used to that climate. I talked to some of them last week and it's like, "Anything change?" I'm like, "No. We're good. I think a couple of them may have asked Alan (Cannon) yesterday after they heard some ESPN things."
Fran, do you expect to be the coach here beyond this year?
"Let me say this one more time: If you want to talk about Missouri, if you want to talk about the games, I'm willing to sit here with you. You guys go ahead and speculate on all the other things. That is not my concern at this point in time. My concern is trying to get this team ready to play Saturday at 11:30."
Switching the subject to the tight end position. How do you think your tight ends compare to the rest of the tight ends in the Big 12? Then could you also talk about how good the talent is at the tight end position as a whole in the Big 12?
"Well, let me ask you a question before I answer that question, okay? What do you call a tight end?"
Well, I mean, obviously that's changed.
"Well let me ask you this, does a tight end ever play "tight end?" Well to me, a tight end does. (Texas) Tech calls their guys inside receivers. And if you're relating to Missouri's guys they're inside receivers with tight end bodies."
Right.
"Okay? But they don't really ever play tight end. They play inside receiver. So when you say tight end are you including them in that mix or are you talking about true tight end type guys?"
I'm talking about the guys who are also being split. Such as the (Martin) Ruckers and the (Chase) Coffmans, not necessarily the (Danny) Amendolas.
"We split Martellus (Bennett) out a lot and Joey (Thomas) out a lot. We don't split them out all the time. They do come back in and play true tight end and the guys like that that I think are good are those guys (Bennett and Thomas) and the young man from Oklahoma State (Brandon) Pettigrew. I think he's really good. The Kansas guy (Derek Fine) played tight end a lot and he was a solid performer. Baylor really doesn't play with a true tight end. (Texas) Tech doesn't. Nebraska I don't think their tight ends are probably in the categories of what we've seen. Now, Missouri's guys as far as talking about them and what they do, they're very effective players and they use their size well and their height for what they're asked to do and I know they call them tight ends but I don't ever really see them put their hand on the ground and play tight end. To me there is kind of a little differentiation there in comparing."
You see those guys more as true receivers then?
"Yeah, I know in their vernacular they call them tight ends but our guys come in and play tight, as do Kansas' guys. The guys I talked about they do play true tight end and block and I think that's the kind of guys you should compare our guys to. We do flex them out once in a while but not like Missouri's guys and Texas Tech's guys. Those are totally different offensive styles. I know Chase Coffman's dad really well. When I went to Kansas State he was finishing up. Those guys do a really great job and he's had a really good career."
Coach you talked about this on the conference call yesterday but I want to clarify on Goodson. Did he sit out the first half the other day for disciplinary reasons?
"He missed practice time. If you want to call that discipline you can. It really wasn't that. He had some personal family issues. He kind of was a little bit behind on knowing the game plan. The other guys did practice and so we felt like they should get to play first in the game."
Was he excused from practice?
"We certainly understood his situation because it was a difficult one that he needed to deal with. We felt like we should be fair to the other guys too that were there."
Coach when you look at Missouri's defense, #38 (Stryker Sulak) is a local boy from Rockdale, Texas. Does he show up in film, do you notice him? Where is he at right now?
"Yeah you do. He's a good solid player. He plays good technique, plays hard and makes plays for them. I think their defense plays well together and he's a good anchor point for them and the things they do."
Coach the last couple of weeks Les (Koenning) has come in here and talked about how well you have moved the ball late in the game when you open things up a little. Do you give thought to maybe opening up a little earlier this week?
"We are talking about that more this week. Without saying too much about it, yeah I think it's a good point."
With the run game kind of struggle the last two weeks is it just because you have played some really good defenses or are y'all not clicking maybe?
"We're certainly not going to skirt our responsibility but we've played two very good run defensive teams. It's been a challenge, no doubt about that. I still think we should have rushed for more yards than we have."
Where do you see the breakdown? Was it on the line or a little bit of everywhere?
"I don't know if you pinpoint it to any one area on every play. We need to go 11 for 11 more times than we have sometimes. It's nine or ten out of 11 and the one or two certainly have an impact."
Are you starting to see more teams play closer to the box against your offense because of the running game?
"I don't think we've seen it much different than we have all year. Not a lot."
So they're still defending you guys pretty honestly and respectfully?
"I think much like they were in the beginning of the year you know as honest as they were then."
Coach will you talk about going on the road and playing another tough team. It's been a tough stretch for you guys and now having to go up there and play Missouri.
"Well, it is a tough stretch. You play four teams ranked in the top 15 at least; three of them are in the top eight or somewhere in there. November is tough here. It always has been. It certainly has been with Missouri and Kansas' emergence this year. Missouri had a good ball club last year but it's been more challenging and we knew going into the season this road schedule would be demanding and it has been. We have one more opportunity to do well in it and we'll look forward to it."