Bears Begin Texas State Preparations
9/5/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 5, 2004
Q: How is Baylor wide receiver John Martin doing? (Note: Martin did not return home to Waco with the team after sustaining a third quarter neck injury at UAB). Morriss: "John is on his way home now. He was released from the hospital about 3 a.m. this morning and they (the doctors) decided it was a concussion. He won't be able to play this week against Texas State. We'll get him back to Waco and then have our doctors and medical staff put him through some more tests." Q: Have you had a chance to look at the film from last night's UAB game yet? Morriss: "I've finished the offensive and defensive films. I think we can fix it all really. I thought our intensity level was a little bit better than it looked like on the field. Our kids didn't really red line it like we have to each week, but the effort was not that bad. We just weren't very disciplined defensively and we had some guys out of position and misplaying some technique and things like that. Obviously, when you do that, it seems like they always find that hole or weakness. Offensively, we broke down a couple of times in some protections and got the quarterback hit. A couple of times, we had what we call a protection where he has to account for the free blitzer and he didn't get that done and took two pretty vicious hits. He made a couple of bad decisions on throws. Overall, it was just one guy making a mistake here and there, which I think we can get corrected. You look at the good things we did, it's when 11 guys are doing the right thing and everyone is doing their job. We moved the football and stopped them from time to time. We are going to show them the film, chew on them a little bit, hug their necks a little bit and go down the road." Q: It looked like missed tackles were a problem? How will you correct that? Morriss: "We were in position a lot of times to make the play, but just kind of like froze for an instant. If we would have just kept going and run through the ball carrier, we make a tackle. There were a couple of times we could have disrupted the hand-off in the backfield, but we couldn't make the play. We had trouble getting the quarterback down. We hit him high, but we should have been going down around his legs. We just didn't tackle well. We were afraid to make a mistake." Q: What can you take away from a game against a I-AA opponent (Texas State) this week, other than the chance to have a really bad upset? Morriss: "We need to re-emphasize some of the things we've been talking to the kids about and help us find our groove a little bit. I guess there is a certain degree of risk involved, but I don't know what in life isn't a risk. We just need to go out, play well and execute on both sides of the ball. I want to us turn up the dial from an intensity standpoint and get after them." Q: Will you do something different to make sure this year's UAB loss doesn't affect your team like last year's did? Morriss: "Last year we watched the UAB tapes in position groups, but this year we'll watch them as an offense and as an entire defense. We'll make our corrections and let the kids see what the people around them are doing or not doing and make them understand how we have to mesh together as 11 players. Everyone took their turn making a mistake and we have to get those corrected. You just stay on them about it and stay the course. We don't need to panic and put in any new offense or defense, anything like that. We just have to do a better job of carrying out our assignments and do the things we've been coached to do and we'll be fine." Q: Can you evaluate Dane King's play against UAB in his first stat at the Division I level? Morriss: "He did some good things. He made some good throws, but he got himself in trouble and got himself hit a couple of times on a protection where he has to account for the free blitzer coming off the back side. He set the protection that way and then took the hit. He's got to do a better job with that. So overall, not bad, he did some good things as well. Baylor Notes: As it does throughout the season, the Bears will take Monday off before returning to practice Tuesday afternoon ... Baylor's 28 pass completions (in 43 attempts) at UAB was one shy of the school record set on three previous occasions ... Baylor had six players make their first career starts against UAB--WR Dominique Zeigler, OL Chris Evans, OL Chad Smith, QB Dane King, DT Corey Ford and DE Montez Murphy ... QB/WR Terrance Parks played in his first career game as a Bear, lining up at receiver and catching a pass on his first play from scrimmage ... WR Trent Shelton has caught at least one pass in 12 straight games and his 39-yard TD reception against the Blazers was a career long. Shelton also established career-highs with five catches and 64 receiving yards at UAB ... RB Paul Mosley established career-highs with 9 carries and 46 rushing yards against the Blazers. His four-yard TD run in the fourth quarter was the first score of his career ... Baylor returns home to host Texas State on Sept. 11 at 6 p.m. in Floyd Casey Stadium ... Outside of WR John Martin's neck injury, the only other injury reported by Baylor trainer Mike Sims was OL Chris Evans' sprained ankle.
