Sept. 30, 2008

Head Coach Art Briles

Opening Statement...
"We are glad to be back playing. It will be fifteen days since our last game. We are excited to get on the field and get back to it over these next eight weeks."

On Oklahoma's offense...
"As a program, everything that they have had come there way over the last 10 years is certainly well deserved. Especially what they have done in the Big 12 south. They are a very good offense, defense and special teams. They have a good football team. It will no doubt be a good test for us."

On challenges faced when playing the #1 team in the nation...
"We aren't looking at it that way. What we are going to do is play hard for 60 minutes, play well for 60 minutes and win a football game in 60 minutes. Their rankings and all of that is going to be hyped up without us getting involved in all of that. What we are going to try to do is be a better football team than we were against Connecticut. We are going to get on our home turf and represent Baylor University. We've got our guys, our people, our university, so that is the way we are approaching the football game."

On Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford...
"He is calm, he is poised and he protects the football and plays very intelligently. He has been very productive on the field. I think that goes without saying over the last two seasons. He is a great football player. He does a great job for what they're asking him to do for their offense."

On the offensive/defensive match-up...
"I like our guys. We have guys that will get after it and they do too. I think it is a great match and an interesting part of the football game. We really believe in our people up front on both sides of the ball and without a doubt they feel the same about theirs. It will be a good match-up throughout the day."

On dealing with Oklahoma's no-huddle offense...
"Tempo has been the reoccurring theme this year, across the nation especially with the 40/25 clock. Our guys will be ready because we like to think of ourselves as a tempo team offensively. They (the Baylor defense) have been against us all through spring and fall camp. We get together and practice Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. They are aware, they know. We watch the TV games so we understand the tempo that Oklahoma play with."

On stepping up for conference play...
"We broke the season down and look at the first four games as last season. It will have been 15 days since we have been on the field and somebody blows the whistle. We feel like the next eight games are a new season. I can honestly say that and we are smart enough to understand that we will be judged by theses last eight games and not the first four. We the Big 12, we live in Texas, we're apart of this part of the nation. What we did in Washington, Connecticut, Louisiana, and North Carolina doesn't matter. We recruit down here, we're going to be judged down here so it is what we do here that matters. That makes up our 2008 season."

On facing ranked teams in Big 12...
"If you're going to outrun someone, outrun someone that can run. You don't want to be turned around looking at the finish line, you want to fight through it and win. When you want to play, you want to play with the best and we are getting that opportunity, and hopefully so are our opponents."

On benefits from the bye week...
"We wanted to get healthy, get academics and get strong. Those were our three bases we took care of. Also to get right schematically on both sides of the ball, special teams fine tuned and then to provide some direction with our schemes. So that is really what we worked on. We had some guys that were able to get healthy, some were able to get some help in the classroom. We accomplished our goals and had a great week."

On doing anything differently during the off week...
"We got to recruit a little bit last Friday, so that was fun being able to get out into the real world for a few hours. Other than that, we went Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday and came back in Sunday. So the guys had a little more time off before we brought them back in on Sunday."

On the success of Baylor's running game...
"We've got to run the football and keep doing it. There are two ways you can look at things. You can fast-tempo, make things happen in a hurry and hopefully get points or you can grind, milk the clock a little bit and work the game and hopefully get points. We will do whatever we need to do to win the ball game. The main thing you have to do is be productive when you have the football, especially when you're in games with good competition on the other side. Our main objective is to be productive when we have the ball on offense."

On Senior ...Jason Smith
"I don't like to individualize too many players, but the thing that impresses our staff abut Jason is his approach to everything he does everyday. His approach to weight-training and practice, I have been around some great practice players and he is right up there at the top. Everything he does, he does with purpose. That is the way you have to practice, with purpose. His leadership ability through his action and backs it up with his words. If someone wants to come challenge what he does on a daily basis, I welcome it. And the greatest thing about it is that he doesn't have to. He is good and it's not like we will not let him start for not working hard. He is going to play but he wants to be great and that is how you have to approach it. You can't be satisfied with being good, you have to want to be great. We have other players like that too, we just have to have 85, and that is our job as coaches."

On national recruits watching...
"As far as recruiting for the future, we are in the Big 12 and we cross recruit everywhere we go. It is very important every time we line up to play, It is also important that when people flip on the TV Saturday morning they see a great setting at Floyd Casey Stadium in Waco, Texas at Baylor University. We have to do a good job when we step out on that field in our green and gold uniforms and our guys will. We will compete and we will play hard."

On featuring a tight end in offense, ...Justin Akers
"If we feel like we have opportunities to throw the ball there, we will take advantage of that and it just happened that in the weeks prior, there were some things that allowed that to happen. Justin is a very good football player, he has got soft hands, he is a big guy, weighs about 243 so we are very fortunate that he wears our uniform."

On Oklahoma running back DeMarco Murray...
"He is a good tough back and they are going to have good people. What we are going to have to do is play at the level we can play at and make things happen. We have to make them work and earn everything that they get, which we are going to do. We are anxious for the game to get here."

Freshman Robert Griffin

On playing No. 1 OU in Big 12 opener...
"Obviously everybody, they either want to be No. 1, or they want to play No. 1. We have the opportunity to play No. 1 this week, and we're going to go out there and take advantage of it."

On being a freshman and playing in such a big game
"This is what all D-1 athletes want to do. You want to come to college, you want to play the best of the best. Or otherwise, you wouldn't be here. We come out here to compete, and we get to compete against the No. 1 team in the nation. So that's definitely a plus."

Senior J.D. Walton On the intensity of Big 12 play... "Conference is a totally different level of intensity. Everyone is excited about it because it brings out the better part of you." On defending home field against #1 ranked Oklahoma... "We have a big path in front of us with 60 minutes on the board, so we just have to go at it as hard as we can."

Junior Jake LaMar

On starting conference play...
"Everybody is wanting to step it up a whole notch now. We break it into two seasons: non-conference and conference. Everyone is bringing up their intensity level because we've played a lot of these guys in high school so it's a little more fun."

On playing against #1 ranked Oklahoma...
"It's a great opportunity to start off conference play against the number one team. You can't really ask for much more. It adds another level of excitement with the possibility of an upset."


Senior Jason Smith

On conference play...
"There is a lot of focus on conference play because nobody cares what you did in pre-conference play."

On facing Oklahoma...
"I'm excited to start off with OU since they're supposed to be the best of the best. There's no pressure on us, it's all on them. We're excited to have fun and play some football."

Senior Vincent Rhodes

On conference play...
"There are no more Division 1-AA teams or teams that are on the verge of being good. For the next eight weeks it's nothing but hard work and determination because everyone's coming to do that. How else would you want to start? You want to play the best teams every weekend and we start our first week after the bye with the number one team in the country."

On facing Oklahoma...
"It would be the best win in Baylor history, I think. I was talking to a gentleman the other day and he played on the 1941 team when they upset Texas when they were number one, and he was telling me that we can do it too. I truly believe that and it would be so great for us in a turn around season to knock off the number one team in the country and continue with the rest of the Big 12."