Nov. 7, 2011

Opening Statement...
"A good win the other night against Missouri, a good football team. I thought we caught them as a hot team, a real confident team. Going into the game, we really felt like we were going to have to play tremendously well to have a chance to win the football game besides them being very well coached and extremely talented. The way we kept looking at it was that we're a good football team, too. We didn't feel like we were going to have to play above our heads and do phenomenal things to have a chance to win the game. We felt like we had a good opportunity to win. I think we won the football game the Sunday after the Oklahoma State game because we didn't allow our players to do anything but focus on the next game. That is what we did yesterday. We've got a job in front of us and that is to go to Kansas and win a football game. That is where our focus and determination is right now."

On facing bowl eligibility for second consecutive season...
"You have to win the first five (games) first. Every game is a huge game. We have done a good enough job to put us in position. We understand it is going to be a tough road. When you line up in conference play, they're all tough. It makes no difference who, when, or where. It's going to be a tough football game and we're going to have to play our best to have a chance to win. We're going to have to go up there (to Kansas) and play the best game we've played all year to have a chance to come out there with a victory."

On Turner Gill's rebuilding efforts at Kansas...
"Every situation is different. Until you're in the fire with someone, then you never really know what the situation is. For me to speculate how it is going up there, it's taken every ounce of energy and brainpower I have to take care of what we've got going on here. We do a pretty good job of focusing on what is at hand and that's given Baylor the best opportunity to win every time we step on the field."

On the Kansas/Iowa State game...
"It's tough to win at Iowa State and they go up there and get ahead 10-3 after they came off a big win the week before with having over 50,000 people at the game. That is a big deal for them. They played real well defensively. They had a chance to win the game all through the game. I'm sure they're going to have a lot of confidence on that side of the ball going in. Offensively, they present problems by their schemes and they do a real good job of some run pass schemes and high percentage throws. They have an offensive line that four of those guys started last year. They have as much experience with returning starters on the O-line as anyone in the conference."

On the Baylor defense against Missouri...
"I think we did a good job. We knew coming in we had to stop James Franklin. We felt like if we could stop Franklin, we could slow them down. I thought we did a real good job defensively. I thought Coach Bennett's staff did a good job nullifying him to a certain extent running the football. They did a good job throwing the ball late. But we won the game. That's all that matters."

On the durability of senior C Philip Blake...
"We go way back with Philip like we do with Terrance [Ganaway]. Both guys have a pretty different story to get to where they are at today. But Philip's - and you mentioned durability - that's something that's good about it. I'm not sure if he's missed a snapped playing the game; he's played tackle for us and been at center the last two years. He's a little more mature, a little older individual so that helps from that standpoint. He knows how to take care of himself and knows how to prepare which helps his performance. He's solid and he's our rock in the middle because that's what your center is. You got to have a guy there that there are no questions about and we don't have any about Philip. We know what we're going to get every time the ball is lined up and ready to go."

On the play of Tevin Reese and Terrance Ganaway against Missouri...
"The thing that helps is Tevin had a kind of a breakout game and so did Terrance Ganaway. You can talk about how these guys make due and what kind of potential they have, but if you have never done it, it's never been done. It's all it is. It's potential. It means you've never done anything. They delivered and they delivered in a big game, big atmosphere. Next time when Terrance breaks the line of scrimmage, he's going to think about scoring a touchdown. He's not going to think about maybe running this guy over. He's going to think about scoring. The same thing with Tevin. Now Tevin has had some pretty good games prior to [Missouri]. We know he can stretch the field. He's a guy that can really bring another dimension to us and keep people off us a little bit and open up some run-game opportunity. But both of those guys, I think, what they were able to do the other night will certainly help us down the road."

On Tevin Reese's speed and ability to avoid the big hit...
"He's smart. He's not going to try to do something he can't do. We encourage him to be an intelligent player. If he gets in the open field, it's hard to tackle someone you can't touch. If he can get out there and run, we have a chance for some good things to happen."

On Baylor's feasibility study for an on-campus stadium...
"I'm inspired by it, no doubt. I'm inspired for Baylor. I think it's great vision for our University for the next 100 years. To me, it shows a great leadership at the highest levels of the University. It's great vision, great leadership. I've always been a proactive person in everything...I'm for progress, always have been. Like I said, I think it shows great leadership and great vision."

On the leadership of senior IR Kendall Wright...
"Kendall's a guy that lays it out on the line every time he plays. I mean every snap. Guys that play at that high rate of speed with that much passion and energy - it's kind of like a race car. If a guy's going 30 and the other's going 95, there's a chance that guy going 95 might have to hit his brakes and slide. The guy going 30 keeps on going. He plays at a high rate of speed, which can be conducive to some minor nicks and bruises and sprains. But he's done a tremendous job of being a tough-minded mature individual for us. And he's a guy I'm really proud of growing up also. He'll turn 22 this Saturday and it's been a great four years at Baylor University for him and for us."

On Baylor in the red zone...
"[We have to] keep getting down there. Keep getting opportunities is the main thing we need to do. We had a chip-shot field goal that didn't go through, [and] we had a fumble on first down at the 4-yard line. Struggle? I'm not buying into that right now after the game the other day. I think Coach Montgomery and the rest of offensive staff have done a tremendous job offensively. I think we're as diverse as anybody around and I think that gives us opportunities down in that part of field...When we get down there (in the red zone), we're expecting to score touchdowns, I'll tell you that. We're calling plays to score touchdowns. One thing I learned a long time ago is if you don't try to score, you're not going to. We try to score when we have the football."

On the offensive line and the running game...
"The offensive line is one of our strengths coming in, no doubt. Four of those five guys started last year. We have to be physical, strong, and tough up front. We understand that. We're going to be a team that likes to run the football, that needs to run the football and makes everything go better. We have struggled. One game comes to mind is the (Texas) A&M game. If we had to play them again, we'd throw 62 instead of 42 because of the way the game played out. What we were getting from defensive side. But we didn't feel that during the game. We felt like we needed to run the football and did not do it effectively and it ended up hurting us. But for rest of year, I think we've been pretty productive. People may view us as a spread football team, but we're going to run the ball. That's something we're going to do."

On the run-pass balance against Missouri...
"That's the ideal situation for any team. You want to be able to throw it around and run it, and [Terrance] Ganaway, Glasco [Martin] and [Jarred] Salubi definitely helped us run the ball. But none of that's possible without the offensive line. They did a great job pass-protecting at the beginning of the game, and then in the middle of the game when we really needed it they bunkered down and moved the line of scrimmage to help those backs have some big holes."

On being one game away from being bowl eligible...
"It's one of our initial goals. You don't want to be a one-and-done bowl team, so getting back to being bowl eligible is big. It's not all we want, we don't just want six wins, but it's definitely part of the process. We know we've got to go do it on the road, and we're looking forward to it."

On the difficulty of playing on the road after losing three road games...
"It's not a mental block, but it's definitely a point of focus. We realize that we have not won on the road, and we have to do that. The great teams do it, the good teams do it, and we want to be a part of that. So we're not taking Kansas lightly. We know that they play extremely well at home, as most teams do. It's our job to go take it because it's not going to be given to us."

On the play of Jarred Salubi and Terrance Ganaway...
"It just kind of switches it up for the defense. They don't know whether they're going to get the 240-pounder in [Terrance] Ganaway or the 215-pounder in [Jarred] Salubi. He's actually bigger than you think he is, but it just switches is up for us. Salubi's a great back, he's a local talent. He brings a lot of passion to the game. And so does Ganaway, but Salubi's kind of a change-of-pace back with Ganaway running an 80-yarder, so we might have to switch the roles or something, but it was good to see they both got a good amount of carries, and they both utilized those carries with a lot of yards."

On the play and depth of the receivers...
"It just shows that if you try to shut one guy down, then there are other guys that can do it. We're proud of our receiving corps and we know that we've got talent there. Whether it's Kendall [Wright], Terrance [Williams], Lanear [Sampson] or Tevin Reese, you know all those guys, including the tight ends, can make plays for us. We knew that and Kendall had the chance to get the three yards [to get to 100], but dropped the pass so it happens. But for us to be able to continue to stretch the record books and rewrite them is big because we have a powerful offense and our defense played big for us in this last game.

On the play of Tevin Reese...
"He's so skinny so he's got to be fast. That's the way we look at it. He's got to be able to stretch the field for us, catch the deep ball. But he's gotten good at knowing when to go and when not to go. Whenever he's manned-up or they're at five to six yards, he can run past almost anybody in the conference, so we look forward to teams trying to hunker down on him or trying to man him or zone him, because if you're going to play soft we can run the ball or throw it underneath like we have all year, and when teams challenge us, we throw it deep. So Tevin just adds another deep threat along with the rest of those guys, because I consider them all deep threats. But definitely Kendall's [Wright] shown it, and Terrance's [Williams] had a bunch of long touchdowns lately and he's shown it as well."

On his performance against Missouri...
"It sounds really good; the thing is just got to keep playing fast and keep helping your team win games. I thought I did that really well. I thought the whole team felt like that for four quarters and we came out with a victory."

On potentially becoming bowl eligible with a win against Kansas...
"It's important because it's the next game on the list. And it's even more important because we've got to have one on the road. We haven't played well on the road yet, and I think it's been a lot of not what the other team is doing but what we've been doing, shooting ourselves in the foot. So we've got to just go out there and execute our game plan. Just go out there and play ball."

On playing Kansas this weekend...
"[It's a] hostile environment, on the road. It's always going to mess up the plans. People trying to get ready to go, with the flight, with the focus. We've got to pay a lot more attention to detail when we go places. It's easy to get distracted. So just handling our business, being Baylor and just `be you, BU.' So that's what we've got to do. And if we be ourselves, I don't think anyone can really handle us. So you've just got to go out there and execute, that's why you play the game."

On the Kansas offense...
"We're going to approach it like we do every other game. We're going to go out, and I think it's what we try to do every week, is try to exploit the weaknesses of the offense and go out and play hard and hit hard."

On playing on the road...
"I think it's another statement game for us to prove that we can play well on the road because we have had our struggles over the past three that we've played. So we're going to go out there, start fast, finish strong."