Weekly Press Conference - Oct. 3
10/3/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 3, 2006
Head Coach, Guy Morriss
On
"Once the kids look at the tapes, they are going to see that these kids are good athletes and they are well coached. I think they are going through some gruesome, obviously, growing pains. But they scheduled us for homecoming weekend for a reason; I'll tell you that. So we better not go up there and think that we have a stroll in the park.
"If we are going to try and get our goal of reaching a bowl game, we don't have a lot of room for error now in the Big 12. To me, it's the only game we play this week and we need to win it. It's our focus. For us to accomplish what we want to do, we need to win this thing."
On
"I'm not sure. They came out and we see a lot of moving around. They have shuffled different fronts. They have people walking into the line of scrimmage, backing out, dropping out. It looks like they were trying to confuse the
"Last week was the first week we saw a lot of that. It didn't do them much good. I thought personally that
I think that we're going to have to do the same thing. We can't turn people lose on our quarterback."
On the altitude of playing in
"I've been up there enough and I've been with different coaches and taken every different approach you can possibly take. The high altitude will affect you a little bit but I think it's going to be a mental thing more than anything. I think you can psyche yourself out.
"It could be a time to rely on our depth. We'll take that into consideration. And the kids have to do a good job with communicating with us. Sometimes they aren't always honest. We tell them if you're tired, come on out and we'll put somebody in for them. They have to be honest with us if they're gassed. Sit down and let somebody else play. Take a recovery. We want full speed players on the field at all times.
"So, I really don't know. I think to some degree to mental and there's probably residual to it. "
On last week's pre-game senior talk:
"I wasn't really silent. I just didn't talk to them right before they went out the door. We talked over at the hotel and I just felt like it was a time for our seniors to step up and be leaders. It's their football team and I want them to understand that. I want them to take a hold of this team. I think sometimes our kids probably get tired of listening to me all the time and so maybe it means more coming from one of their peers. I thought that's just what seniors are supposed to do. It something I'm going to consider doing again this weekend.
"I have no idea. There were no coaches allowed. We were outside in the hallway waiting for them to come out and go to the field. You would have to ask the guys. I've never known C.J. [
On Baylor finishing games:
"We are trying to figure that out. We have gotten off to a pretty good start and usually the first or second drive has been good to us. We get satisfied with a little early success and relax too much. You know, we've been in the lead five weeks in a row coming out into the third quarter, maybe we are lacking that sense of urgency that you'd like to see in them. Things get tighter so we get better in the fourth quarter. But I guess we just don't have that killer instinct quite yet. We need to have more urgency and learn how to play four full quarters."
On Baylor's offensive linemen:
"I tell you the guy who has probably been most consistent is Chad Smith. Jason [Smith] has played really well at different times during the game and he'll have his moments. But that seems to be the story of our whole offense. We've never been able to get everybody clicking consistently enough through the four quarters. But to answer your questions, I would say
On Baylor's running game:
"I'm not really pleased with our running game at all. And I will say that some of it is in part to the two-point stance. It's not impossible but it makes it harder on our linemen. I was thinking about this the other day. We've got taller offensive linemen than I've ever had to work with before and that seems to be a little bit of the problem, trying to get those guys to get down. Travis [Farst] is 6'7" and the rest of them are about 6'5" or 6'6", of course except for Will [Blaylock]. We're having a little bit of trouble getting under people's pads. What really perplexes me is when we get under center, we're in the three-point stance, and we'll just not get it done.
"I don't think we're aggressive enough and our footwork is not good. For some reason we just don't seem to have the feel of what we're trying to get done on a particular play or two. I think that's something we just have to bear down on them and emphasize it in practice. We might have to start doing one-on-one run blocking drills. We spend a lot of time on pass protection and that part of the game is pretty good. We may just have to put them in some more of a heating type deal where it's one-on-one. Heat them up a little bit.
On Baylor's linebackers:
"I've been too busy on the other side of the ball, but they're coming along. You've heard Coach [Bill] Bradley talk about them. They are turning out to be what we thought, like Joe [Pawelek]. We knew Joe was going to be a good linebacker. And Antonio [Jones] has got the physical side of it. Like Bill was saying he just needs a couple more reps, to look at things a little bit longer and harder. He's developing fine. They are coming along.
"I think Joe's proven himself. To go out and play as well as he has as a redshirt freshman, I feel very good about that whole crew actually."
On the team's reliance on the defense:
"That was something else we talked about early in the season. We knew the defense was going to have to hold up well and go through come growing pains. We were not anticipating to still be going through growing pains six weeks into the season like we are. But the defense has responded well. They've kept us in every ballgame and have given us the opportunity to win every ballgame."
Offensive Coordinator, Lee Hays
On
"Again, the first quarter we're OK. The second or third quarter I'm not excited about and the fourth quarter just got worse. A little bit of it, to be honest with you, was play calling. There was some stuff like when it got counted as a sack when really I told Shawn [
On Baylor's offense:
"Shawn Bell has been doing a great job and that's been a help. Our receivers just have to become a little more consistent. They're doing some good things. It's just kind like once we get cover two cleared up then another coverage is thrown at us and our routes become a little bit off. The offensive line has really showed me some stuff. It's just more consistency. Probably the most disappointing thing right now are the second and third quarters. We just got done doing some self scout stuff and there's a big drop in the second and third quarters. You try to look at it, and you see a nice route in the cover two in the first quarter, then the second quarter it's not so good, but the fourth is good again. That's something I've got to get taken care of."
Defensive Coordinator, Bill Bradley
On his defensive coaching staff:
"Let me open up and say that I am extremely proud of our defense again. I thought they really played a complete football game. More importantly, I think a lot of times the coordinator, myself as the coordinator, gets a little too much credit for what goes on out there. I want to take this time to thank my coaches; Coach [Don] Wnek, Coach [Wesley] McGriff, Coach [Gary] Kinne, and Coach [Larry] Hoefer. I just think they are doing a fantastic job. I get a lot of credit for stuff when we do well and they probably get a lot more credit when we do poorly. Those guys did a tremendous job. I don't know if you notice but when they're on the sidelines between series, they are coaching their rear ends off. They do it every day in practice and they deserve some mention and notice.
On his defensive players:
"As far as the players are concerned, I think Dwain Crawford had an extremely good game, both tackling and, of course, his interceptions. It showed up when he made Big 12 Player of the Week. But also I think all of our corners, James Todd, C.J. [
"We did get some heat on the quarterback this week which I think was a big factor. And a couple of those interceptions, we got good turnovers. We had three picks, two forced fumbles, and one over on downs. My hat is off to those players. They responded when Coach Morriss challenged them to step up and be a leader in their play. They did that and we have to continue to do that. I was just really pleased with the way they played.
On
"We had something like eight "threes and outs" which always gives the offense a lot better opportunity. The thing I was proud of the most, we had some unfortunate instances when the ball bounced into a return guy and [
"[Our defense] played a lot of plays and they played hard every play all throughout the game."
Cornerback, Dwain Crawford
On being named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week:
"It is a great honor, but I want to give it the whole defense. We all played together last Saturday and I got the honor, but I want to take my hat off to the whole defense."
On how well the defense played in the
"We really played well. That came along with film study. They seemed to run kind of the same plays throughout the night, because they used the no-huddle. We kind of picked up on some of the signals after the first couple of drives and after that we really felt like we knew what they were trying to do on any certain play."
On the
"We just need to sit down and break-down the film, and try to see what kind of things they are going to try to throw at us. Defensively we are excited about playing them; they have a running quarterback and a good running back. We just need to have a good week of practice, and hopefully we can go down there and start off 2-0."
Quarterback, Shawn Bell
On what took place before the
"Coach Morris turned it over to us. He asked all the staff and coaches to leave the room and left it up to us to do what we needed to do. Some of the seniors stood up and said what was needed to be said. I feel like that really helped this team take control of ourselves and this season. We talked about how we have not accomplished what we wanted to, and that the
On what it would mean to beat
"That would be huge for us. That would get us to 2-0 in the Big 12 and 3-3 overall, which is good enough to get us to where we need to be. We are not happy that we are only 2-3 right now, but a win this weekend would be huge. Plus, getting a Big 12 win on the road would be great for our confidence."
Cornerback, C.J. Wilson
On the
"I tell people all the time that I think we have on of the best defenses in the country. This is just another place for us to prove that. Our goal this week is just like every other week."
On six straight games not allowing a point in the 1st quarter:
"We are trying to start a new tradition as a program, but we are also trying to change the way people look at Baylor defensively. Our slogan for this year is "everyone eats", if we play well everyone on defense gets the credit. Look at Dwain Crawford; he got Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week. Next week it might be someone else. Whatever needs to be done to win we will do."
