Sept. 9, 2003
WACO, Texas - Two of Baylor's head coaches spoke to the media at Tuesday's press luncheon. Below are excerpts from their comments.
Head Soccer Coach George Van Linder:
On last weekend's results:
"This last weekend was a bittersweet weekend for us. We beat Houston at Houston 2-0, which was a good result for us. Sunday we played Utah; this week in the national rankings, they were ranked 24th, and we lost to them in overtime. With the improvements we are trying to make, we are disappointed in losing in overtime, but at the same time it wasn't a disaster. We feel like it was something we can build upon, and we are excited for the future when we get to play those kind of teams again."
On this weekend's schedule:
"Our future is this weekend, and we play SMU, my old school, which is a big rivalry as it is, but also they reached the second round of the tournament last year. So we feel like this will be a good opportunity for us to hopefully be ready to make a showing and put our name on the map. We feel like we're just kind of getting there, but beating SMU this upcoming weekend will be a good opportunity for us to put our name on the map and get out there in terms of the regional rankings and those kind of things, and hopefully be given consideration for an at-large bid as the year goes on.
"TCU is also another team that has made some changes in their program. The coach used to coach both the men and the women. They dropped the men's program and now he just coaches the women, so he's a little more focused. They have had some good recruiting, so they should be a decent team. We are looking forward to rectifying our loss on Sunday night and moving on from there."
On returning to SMU:
"I didn't know how to respond to it when this opportunity came back in December. Now it's a big rivalry and I want to try to turn the tables. SMU is undefeated against Baylor the last couple of times. We certainly want to try to take it to them. I think it's going to be interesting how the game goes and it's going to be tough. I was just thinking about the Notre Dame football coach when he played Stanford and those kind of thoughts and I hope I can handle them. I hope I can have the same kind of results he did and respond the same way. So it's going to be difficult but I am looking forward to it."
On the team so far this season:
"Ginny Rosario-Tull is a junior and is leading our team in scoring; we are hoping to get more help for her to take the pressure of scoring off her shoulders. The defense is playing a lot better then it has in the past and we have a lot of new players back there. Because of that we are feeling real excited about what we are able to do. We are just still young and learning a lot of new things and the players are doing a good job with it all."
On recruiting for next year:
"Recruiting has gone really well. It has been exciting and today is a great day to ask, actually. We have four commitments for next year already. One thing we are excited about is we just had a 6-foot-2 goalkeeper commit last night, so that was something we really needed if you look at the history of the program so we are excited about that. We have two players from Texas that have committed and a forward from Georgia. I have to be vague, but at the same time we are excited about the future and we think we are going to get a few more kids in the next couple of weeks."
Head Football Coach Guy Morriss:
On the team's multitude of turnovers in their loss to North Texas:
"We emphasize turnovers. You've seen us practice and all the up and downs we've been doing for things like that. Its something we absolutely have got to get corrected. In our first two ball games, we have had spurts where we played pretty good. We moved the football up and down the field and so forth. But then we will put the ball on the ground or throw it to the wrong guys and that kind of stuff, and those are just drive killers. We got to find a way to get it stopped."
"After the ballgame, I talked to the kids. I mean at some point its got to be up to them to do something about it. Its got to become important to them. We can run them to death almost and those kind of things and punish them. But if its not important enough to them to get it corrected, its going to continue. I think you just keep talking to them about it, keep hammering them about it and hopefully at some point we will start getting it under control."
On what positives he can draw from last week:
"I think Khari Long again showed up big. This kid comes to play every week. Obviously we know he is a player. Michael Tolbert played some and he played pretty well. I think Cedric Fields did a pretty descent job on the big defensive tackle they had. Rashad Armstrong got off to a good start until he hurt his ribs. He was having a pretty nice game. We did some good things, especially in the first half. Again, we were moving the ball up and down the field but the turnover bug would bite us. We gave up the one big play in the first half on defense. We were pretty much hanging tough with those guys and controlling the line of scrimmage and doing some good things. I think the play that really killed was obviously the opening kickoff when we let the ball fall in there and they pick it up and run it in and from that point on it took a lot of steam out of us. And things got even worse from there."
On Baylor's special teams performance:
"I thought we took a step back as a football team overall. Greg has to get better. There was a mental lapse on the punt block. We obviously had a mental lapse on the kickoff return. I thought our coverage team did decent, but as far as our return teams and punt teams we weren't very good at all. We are going to work on that. We are going to get it fixed."
On the frustrations of losing:
"You know it's frustrating to lose a game like that. If you line up, play hard, and just get beat by a better football team, I can accept that. But to lose the way we did, frustrating doesn't even close to describing it. But you know the thing you have to understand, when you start changing the mindset of not just a football team but the university and everybody involved, is that it's hard and it takes time. And I know that all the coaches are not going to cut our wrists after two ball games. We've been through this before, and the best thing we can do, and I say this every week, is get back on the football field and keep grinding and keep emphasizing what these kids need to hear. Don't give up on them and show them we have confidence in them and all those kind of things. And just keep sawing wood."
"We have got a lot of players here who haven't had a lot of success at Baylor. The first time adversity hits that is the first thing that goes through their mind: oh boy, here we go again. That is the kind of mindset we are trying to change. Some of those younger guys come out of good programs and are used to winning and I think they are not used to losing as some of the older kids. Its tough when all you know is losing."
"We want to be as competitive as we can. We are going to try to play our best players all the time. The part that I think you have to give time to is your personnel. Recruitment is a very slow process. We don't draft kids. We don't waive kids. We cant trade for other players and those kind of things. In college ball it's a slow process. The maximum you can bring in a year is 25, and we cant fill all the holes in one class. You have to play with what you got and make those kids believe and be overachievers and you have to try to break this catch-22. You need good players to win, and you need to win with what you got to attract good players. You want to be as competive as you can and win as much as you can with what you got, but at the same time you are always striving to replace a player with somebody better, and that's how you get better. You go out and recruit a kid that's a little better than what you got. Then you go out and try to replace him with somebody that's a little bit better also. It's a slow process. We don't have the luxury that the NFL has. In the NFL, if they have a bust, they just get rid of the guy. So if we make a mistake, we just have to live with the guy. So that is why we are trying to be very careful and thorough in our recruiting process."
