Oct. 18, 2005
Head Coach Guy Morriss
"Well, I'd like to say congratulations to Frank Fallon and David Campbell for getting inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame tonight."
On a more even playing field vs. Oklahoma:
"I don't know that it's going to be any harder to easier sell to the team. They've gone into every game thinking they are going to win, and I would assume they are going to feel the same way this week. I don't think we really have to sell them at all. What I have to sell them on is things like consistent execution, elimination of penalties, and prepare well. They are going to be ready to play. I have a lot of respect for Oklahoma and their talent. They are kind of like a sleeping giant right now, especially offensively. They've got the talent; they just haven't put it together yet."
On Oklahoma:
"I think that they are just struggling a little bit right now; they're just missing [Adrian] Peterson. And they just haven't seemed to find a rhythm yet offensively. They are still very talented. There's no question that they've got athletes. They may decide to wake up. I don't know."
"I think going into every ball game, whoever can control the line of scrimmage is probably going to win the football game. I really believe that. We will have to challenge our offensive and defensive linemen again this week and take our `A' game to Norman."
On Oklahoma's offensive line:
"We're going to go after them a little bit. That's a pretty good line, they're all seniors. They've all played and been around. I don't think we'll catch them by surprise. I don't know why they are struggling exactly; but, I wouldn't put it all on the offensive line. We'll go after them like we have to go after everybody. We'll try to disrupt the quarterback and take him out of a rhythm, give them some looks maybe they have not seen and disguise some things. We'll just try to keep then off balance as much as we possibly can."
On Oklahoma's freshman quarterback Rhett Bomar:
"He's probably going through what most redshirt freshmen go through playing quarterback. He was a tremendous high school quarterback; but, it's a different ball game at this level. He's probably learning on the run. But it's going to pay off down the road for them. He's got playing time under his belt and probably seen about every blitz that you can devise. As long as they can keep him from losing his confidence, he will probably live up to his billing as one of the best quarterbacks that have come along in awhile. He's just going through some growing pains right now. It's tough to go in as a freshman in those situations with so much mental involvement. He's got the physical abilities to be a great quarterback. It's such a mental game for those guys and at that young, I think he's struggling with some of that right now.
On Terrance Parks:
"I think it's still one of those game-time decisions. We've talked about what's the optimum time to put him on the field. I think that's something we have to decide on the sideline. We'd like to see him in the game; we need to get him looked at a little closer and harder. But; at the same, time we need to win some ball games, and Shawn is still our guy. We're going to ride him out. I think Terrance is improving but we have to judge him on is in practice. He did some good things Saturday night but a couple throws he'd probably like to have back. I don't think it's fair to give him a real hard evaluation after playing the short amount of time that he did. We need to see him after three or four drives.
On Baylor's fourth TV game:
"It helps our program every time we get on TV. I know our kids get pretty excited about playing on the tube as well. It helps the program just by getting us in front of the folks that tune into the game that day. I think so for every time we've played on TV we've given a pretty good account of our football program at Baylor, how we've improving. We've been getting some good publicity from our announcers and they see us improving. I think it's a tendency maybe that even those guys are pulling for the underdogs a little bit. We've gotten some good mileage out of our exposure on TV, and you always do as long as you play pretty well. And our kids like it; that's what all kids are looking for coming out of high school: to play in a bowl game and to play on TV. We're trying to make that all happen this year."
On Nebraska:
"We knew coming in that Nebraska had a tremendous front seven; they led the nation in sacks. We had our work cut out for us. I think it was some things that we did to ourselves and a lot of what they did to us that forced us into some errors. I don't think it was our best game by far. I think our kids are capable of playing better and they're going to have to. I'm going to challenge our offense today. We have to put points on the board this week. We need to practice a little better and be more consistent in our execution in order to have a chance to get this one and find those last two or three wins to get a bowl game."
On penalties in the Nebraska game:
"We had three facemask calls which the one was intentional was a good call; but, the two that were incidental I think we go back and make our kids aware that when you're up around the head area, you have to be conscious of trying to keep your hands and arms out of the mask. It's hard because you're trying to get a tailback down. The tailbacks that we face with the caliber of talent that we'll face this week, you're grabbing the jersey, body, anything to get the guy on the ground. I can tolerate some of that but we have to be more conscious of staying away from the head. The things that really drive me crazy are pushing in the back, not getting lined up, or jumping offsides. We can take that out of the hands of the officials if we concentrate a little better and don't give them any reason to put the flag on the ground."
On the Nebraska loss:
"They were disappointed. After they came out of watching tapes, they saw where we made some mistakes that really hurt us. I hope that they are going to work hard this week to get those things corrected. Obviously, penalties didn't help us. We have got to do a better job in that area. I don't think the play from our secondary was any different from the play in the secondary from Nebraska."
Offensive Coordinator Brent Pease
On Nebraska:
"When we started out taking the opening drive like we did, we really found out some things we could do and what our kids can handle. We kind of got them off balance a bit. In the rest of the first half, we just got in situations from then on out; we really weren't in really good situations. We had too many shorts drives and didn't generate anything to create big plays until after halftime. Trent [Shelton] made a big play and we kind of got ourselves back in it at that time. We were just too up and down offensively. If we could have just matched what we did in the first series, I think we could have found a little more consistency. We have to do that a little more often. And then we went back and got back into a situation when Shawn [Bell] ran out of bounds and we lost yardage. We can't be in that type of situation to lose field position. Then Terrance [Parks] came in and gave us a little drive until the turnover. At that time, we were moving the ball pretty well but Dominique just fumbled the ball. Every time we'd get going, we'd kind of run into a wall. Doing what we did in the first part of the game, we should have been able to be more consistent."
"I hoped our kids would gain some confidence after that first drive. We've just got to find it in our belief system that we can do it in every drive."
On Oklahoma:
"I think they've got a good bunch of players. But their kids up front aren't probably as big as what we saw with Nebraska; but, they are very athletic kids with speed and athletic ability. Their linebackers are all kids with experience. In the backfield, they are going to play a lot different coverages. In the last couple of games, they have really backed off on some things and they have become more basic. They will probably play more man coverage against us and play simple coverages that we can be accountable for. We have to find that spot in between where we have guys to run the ball and attack the bubbles that we can create for ourselves."
Defensive Coordinator Bill Bradley
On Nebraska:
"Defensively speaking, they got ahead of us a little bit. And they started running the ball with their big people. Our guys a battled them; they really battled them extremely well. They were flying around, running to the football, and giving it their best shot. The thing that we didn't quite get done in the game was to make a play to turn the tide. We gave them a cheap touchdown. After looking at the type, you see a lot of guys throwing their bodies around; and, as long as we get that kind of effort and intensity from our guys, we're going to be alright. They pounded us a little bit with big people; but, our guys really held up well and did a tremendous job of sticking their noses in there. We just couldn't get a play to turn the tide.
On Oklahoma:
"They made a lot of hay on the offense in their front five; they are a senior team there. Their linemen are seniors and their tight end is a senior; so, they do a pretty good job of pounding the ball. Their quarterback's not bad at all. They've run some zone plays and he's done a pretty good job of playing within himself and within the scheme they allow on offense."
On Adrian Peterson:
"I'm sure he's ready to play. We expect him to play and we're prepared for him. And really you can see that their offense is a steady offense; but, they're missing the big play from Peterson. They are playing solid football to try and win games. I think we did a pretty good job last year of holding down to 242 yards; but, in that game he had a 70 and 50 yard run. But; you could see early in the game we were moving around and got some good hits on him. He actually left our game with a minor injury and returned later; but, he is explosive. When he's healthy, he is able to break a big play and we have to try to stop that."
