Sunday Conversation With Guy Morriss
11/21/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 21, 2004
Notes:
*Against No. 2 Oklahoma, Baylor had four starters make their first career starts--WR Shaun Rochon, QB Terrance Parks, RB Paul Mosley and DT Ricardo Flores.
*Baylor recorded season lows for points (0), rushing yards (26), total plays (53), total yards (156), penalties (1) and penalty yards (15) against Oklahoma. It marked Baylor's lowest rushing output since the 2002 season (-37 yards at Texas Tech), while the Bears recorded their fewest penalties in a game (1) since having 1(for 5 yards) at Kansas State in 1999.
*Senior WR Marques' Roberts' 31-yard reception in the first quarter vs. Oklahoma was named the top play of the day in college football by ESPN analyst Mark May on his Sunday SportsCenter "May Day Report." Roberts had a team-high 5 receptions for 80 yards against the Sooners.
*Roberts finished his career with 91 receptions, good for seventh on Baylor's all-time list, and 1,222 receiving yards, which rank No. 10 all-time at Baylor. His 11career TD receptions rank in a tie for sixth all-time at Baylor.
*Sophomore WR Trent Shelton had 1 reception for 3 yards against Oklahoma to extend his streak with at least 1 reception to 22 consecutive games, the longest for a Baylor player since Robert Newhouse ended his career in 2002 with a 34-game string.
*Sophomore P Daniel Sepulveda, a Ray Guy Award semifinalist, averaged 47.3 yards on 7 punts vs. No. 2 Oklahoma, placing 4 of his kicks inside the Sooners' 20-yard line. He had a long punt of 53 yards vs. Oklahoma, 1 of 5 of 50 or more yards he recorded vs. the Sooners, tying his career-high.
*Sepulveda averaged 45.97 on 62 punts, which ranks as the second-best one-season average in school history. His average ranks No. 2 in the Big 12 and No 3 in Division I-A heading into games this week.
*Sepulveda's career-high tying 5 punts of 50-plus yards vs. Oklahoma allowed him to move into first-place on Baylor's all-time list with 50 punts of 50-plus yards (in 149 career punts), three more than Ron Stowe had during his career from 1979 through 1982.
*The first Baylor punter ever to record two seasons with 20 or more punts of 50-plus yards, Sepulveda ended the 2004 season with 24 punts of 50 or more yards, which ranks second on the Bears' single-season list to his record-setting total of 26 a year ago.
*Junior OS Willie Andrews had a school-record tying 41 punt returns for a school-record 443 yards, an average of 10.8 per return. Gerald McNeil had owned both records with 41 returns for 395 yards in 1980.
*Andrews' 30 kickoff returns rank third on Baylor's single-season list, while his 741kickoff return yards is a new school record.
*Andrews' 1,184 all-purpose yards ranks in a tie No. 10 on Baylor's single-season chart, but he's the only player on the list without the benefit of rushing or receiving yardage.
*Junior FS Maurice Lane was credited with a game-high 14 tackles vs. Oklahoma, 11 of which were solos. His effort against Oklahoma pushed his career solo tackle total to 205, good for fourth-place on Baylor's all-time list. Lane is just the fifth player in school history to record 200 career solos and now has 281 total tackles in his Baylor career.
*Lane led the Bears in total tackles for the second straight season with 104 stops, which included 77 solo stops. His 77 solos ranked as the eighth-best one-season total in school history.
*Senior LB Justin Crooks was credited with 2 TFL vs. Oklahoma to push his season total to 16, good for a tie for fourth-place on Baylor's single-season list. His 33.5 career TFL rank No. 5 on BU's career list, just behind No. 4 Mike Singletary's 34 TFL.
*Senior OT Quintin Outland started the final 37 games of his collegiate career along the Baylor offensive line and played in every game (46) of his collegiate career. He recorded a team-high tying 45 knockdown blocks as a senior.
*Senior FB Jonathan Evans has been invited to both the Hula Bowl and the Gridiron Classic, while DE Khari Long is a Hula Bowl-invitee and Outland has been selected to play in the Las Vegas Classic.
*Baylor averaged 30,586 fans for six home games, its highest mark since a 30,601 average in 2001 and only the second time in the past six seasons it has averaged more than 30,000 fans over its home schedule. The Bears' 2004 average was an increase of 735 fans per game over their 2003 average.
*Baylor posted a 3-3 mark at Floyd Casey Stadium in 2004, only the second time since 1995 that it posted a .500 home record (the Bears were also 3-3 at FCS in 2002).
*Baylor quarterbacks completed a school-record 59.5 percent of their passes on the season, surpassing last year's mark of 56.68 percent, and their 235 total completions were also a school single-season record. The Bears' 395 pass attempts ranked No. 3 on the single-season chart, while the 17 TD passes ranked as the third-best (tie) season total and the 2,342 passing yards ranks No. 5.
*Currently eight of Baylor's 11 2004 opponents are bowl-eligible and if Nebraska wins its regular-season finale this week, nine of the Bears' 10 I-A foes will be bowl-eligible. Through games of Nov. 20, the Bears' schedule ranks the second-toughest in I-A behind only Texas A&M.
*Baylor opens its 2005 season Sept. 3 at SMU. The Bears will host Samford (Sept. 10) before closing the non-conference part of the schedule at Army (Sept. 17).
Guy Morriss Quotes:
Q: What things went well for you or didn't go well for you against Oklahoma? Did they do the things you thought they'd be able to do or did they do things you didn't think they could do?
Morriss: "In the second half they only threw like six or seven times. They could have hung a bunch of points on us. It was obvious to me that we kind of got dominated on both sides of the ball."
Q: What did you think of the way Terrance (Parks) played? Did he show you anything to get you excited about next year?
Morriss: "Absolutely. Obviously he showed us more in the Oklahoma State game, but our line protected him a little better then and he was able to run the ball more effectively. We just couldn't seem to get anything to work."
Q: You have to be a little disappointed with your record this year?
Morriss: "Yes. To some degree, I thought we had the opportunity to win two or three games that we didn't. We just didn't go out there and get it done, the Missouri game and the Iowa State game in particular. With the exception of the opener the kids played hard, they tried hard. The kids are giving pretty much all they've got. Sometimes great effort just isn't enough we have to execute better, and not turn the ball over all those kinds if things. But purely from the record standpoint I am very disappointed."
Q: So you had higher expectations for your team this season?
Morriss: "Yes I did. The turnovers killed us the first six seven weeks of the season. I thought we could be in a little bowl mix somewhere. We didn't play well early, and things kind of got off to a bad start. The road games, when we come out flat. We are trying to get it off our backs but that's what bugs me more than anything is why we can't seem to muster any steam when we are on the road."
Q: Were there any of those road games where you were in the game, and maybe just couldn't finish?
Morriss: "We were in the Texas Tech game until the half and the Nebraska game. But what it comes down to is that last drive of the first half. Again yesterday we gave up a TD on the last drive of the first half. We have to find a way to get off the field at the end of the half. A lot of the times it's the opening drive of the second half, too."
Q: What positions, or what specifically disappointed you about this year? Is there anything that really didn't come on like you thought it would?
Morriss: "I thought we would run the football better than we did. Our pass defense has got to get better. I'm not singling out the secondary because that has to do with the rush and all that, but I didn't like the way we played the ball seemed to me like sometimes we were lost out there. It just seems like we don't do a good job communicating we have a lot of blown coverage's."
Q: Is it usually communication problems or is it more mental things?
Morriss: "I think it's a combination of the two. The players have to do a better job of studying. That's one thing I'm really going to emphasize this winter is that 20 hours a week just isn't enough, these guys need spend the time studying the game in the off-season."
