Weekly Press Conference with Head Coach Guy Morriss
10/26/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 26, 2004
On Texas A&M's turnover margin... No, that's just a good opportunity for us to go get some turnovers. They've done a good job hanging on to the ball. That's something we've got to keep focusing on and working on and seeing if we can't knock it loose and get on it.
On Texas A&M quarterback Reggie McNeal... He's making better decisions and I think when he feels like he's in trouble, he's moving around pretty good. I think he's scrambling to still try to throw the football. But when he decides to run, he's pretty elusive. You don't see him taking a lot of hits.
On how McNeal is effective... They do run a lot of option, and they do have the design keep for him off the option, as well as the draw, and then a lot of scrambling going on, too.
On last year's game... I haven't seen it and I haven't said anything about it and probably won't. Last year is last year. This is a new season.
On what a upset of Texas A&M would mean... Well, I think it's been since '84, '85, somewhere along there? That's too long. I think if you polled most of the Baylor fans, that's the one game they'd like to see us win every year. So it would be significant if we could pull it off, yeah.
On McNeal compared to other quarterbacks... He may be the best quarterback we've faced this year. This is obviously his second year in the system. You can see that he's grown quite a bit. He is making good decisions. He's very athletic, got a good arm. That, to me, is where his game has really improved is his passing. He seems to be a lot better passer now than what we faced last year. I think he's more comfortable in the system, and the people around him are more comfortable as well. That's helped him quite a bit. As far as him in the grand scheme of the quarterbacks we've seen, I think you could make at least a statistical statement that he's probably the best quarterback that we've seen.
On the Texas A&M defense... They are playing better. They seem like they're doing a little bit more, I guess, or maybe it seems that way. They're shifting into different fronts a little more. They're a 4-3 base and they slide it to the overs and unders. They stem down to their version of the 'Bear' look. They can slide into the '34.' They're playing halves. They're playing thirds. They're playing quarters. They're playing the man stuff. They're playing a lot more coverages than we saw last year from them. I think it's just a matter of them maybe growing and they keep expanding the package. I know the defensive line is probably as good-looking a bunch as we've seen, very active. Their secondary is good. They've been kind of really opportunistic. I think they've gotten on seven fumbles, they've got 22 sacks and 10 interceptions. So they're hawking the ball pretty well.
On the match-up for Baylor's offensive line... Yeah, it's going to be a good challenge. But the way we're going to present it to our kids, I think it's a great opportunity for us this week. You always like to play against good competition, and I think our kids understand that. And they understand this is a big rivalry. You've just got to answer the challenge. And we're going to challenge them.
On the Texas A&M turnaround... No, nothing in college football ever surprises me anymore. Dennis' history has pretty much been established that in that second year, they really take off. And that's kind of been true to form. They're playing well, playing smart. They've got good athletes. No, that doesn't surpise me at all.
On redshirting players... If you look at their roster, they've got good depth. They've been able to redshirt quite a few players, you bet. And if you look at the roster and go back and look at the past however many years, they were able to redshirt quite a few of those guys when R.C. (Slocum) was there. So they're taking advantage of that as well.
On the success Colorado had against Texas A&M... I don't know that they really confused them that much. My take on it was they got after them physically. Seemed to me like they were really flying around. They were up for the game and maybe just outhustled them to the football. You say 'Throw things at them that they weren't ready for.' I don't know if I buy into that that much. Not nowadays. I think they just decided as a group they're going to get after A&M and play lights-out, and that's what they did. And they almost won the football game.
On Baylor quarterback Dane King... From my take on it, I think each week he's gotten better and better. And I think the people around him as well have stepped up each week and gotten better and better. As our protection got better, as our route-runners got better. The whole thing's tied together. You can't have one without all of it. I saw us as a passing team, everybody got better. And then production goes up. And, of course, the one guy that's the visible guy that gets too much credit and takes too much heat is the quarterback. But he's certainly done his part as well. He's making better decisions. I think particularly the last couple of weeks, he's been really crisp and sharp with his throws, very accurate. That's how your production goes up.
