Nov. 14, 2006

Head Coach, Guy Morriss

On the seniors' last collegiate game:

"I think we're playing for a lot of pride. If we can get a win this game, obviously it would be our fourth conference win which would be a first. To me, that's what these kids came here to do, to play football. If I'm a player I'm going to be excited about playing Oklahoma. And I'm going to give it my best shot because it may be my last shot. I would be excited, if for no other reason, just because it's a chance to play Oklahoma. That's what I'm here for, to play and try to win football games."

"We are going into the game playing our best players, our veteran players, and try during the course of the ballgame to get some of the younger guys that we're going to have to count on next year some experience. I don't think in our case you're going to see a whole sale, just benching seniors trying to prepare for next season. I think that it's worth while for us to go out and give it our best shot to see if we can't win the football game."

"Most of those guys were a part of this restoration process, trying to turn this program around. They had a large part in doing that. They have been, for the most part, a pretty good bunch. Maybe not as successful as you'd like for them to have [been] but never-the-less, they have been solid contributors. They're good kids. I haven't had any trouble from too many of them. They'll all do well out in the big world, I think.

"I don't know the exact number; but, it's a lot. As far as seniors go, I can't stand in front of a group and say, `Hey seniors, we're counting on you exclusively.' We have to have some help from our younger guys, and we've talked about that earlier. I kind of got the idea that I need to call in some of our younger guys and let them know what we expect from them and what they can do to be good leaders because our senior class will be pretty small next year. We need some help and some leadership from some younger guys. You know, most of them come in thinking, `I can't speak until I'm a senior. Or, that they're almost not allowed to be a vocal leader. But I think we've got some younger players who have a lot of credibility, have played well, and have the respect of their teammates. We need to identify those guys and promote leadership from them as well.

On Baylor's emotions:

"I think as a coach you worry about everything, but I think by the time it's kickoff on Saturday, they'll be excited and looking forward to playing this game. We have to assume that they're going to give their best effort and so forth. We're going to coach them hard and try to prepare them as best we can and put them in a position to make plays. And hopefully we'll make some plays and be OK."

On playing a 12-straight game schedule:

"There is a point in a season where you can use that break, I think. To play one game on a Saturday and you don't play for another two weeks, you can get a lot of bumps and bruises healed up. You can get your mind freshened up. I think it is, to me, in my mind, it's a distinct advantage for people who have an open date. For people who don't, it's a disadvantage. I don't think it's fair; but, I think it was a rule that was flipped over when everybody's playing 12 games from now on; there wasn't a lot of thought put into it. The NCAA talks about how they don't want any unfair advantages, well, they have certainly created one, in my mind, when they didn't figure out a way to give every football team that plays a 12-game schedule in Division I an open date. The last open date we had, I think we played one game then had an open date [last season]. That's ridiculous. What good is that? They need to structure it so that somewhere along in that sixth or seventh week in there, half of them are playing and half of them are getting a break. That's just my opinion, but I think it does have an effect on this football team.

"[Having the second to last week off] would help you in preparing for that last game, obviously, but in an overall sense of it, I don't think [it's helpful], no. You want it somewhere about midway through the season.

"[Next year] we play straight through. And I'm not using that as an excuse, by any means, but I just don't think its right or fair to our kids and everybody else out there who has to go 12 straight. I know [Texas Tech head coach] Mike Leach isn't happy about it. But it's out of our control."

On playing well in televised games:

"You worry about it. If you're on TV and you have a lot of folks watching, you want to look good. With recruits now days, it's more important than ever."

On Oklahoma:

"They've kind of hit their stride, I guess. They're loaded with great athletes and they are playing really well, I think."

On correcting mistakes from the last two losses:

"To me, the last two losses, you can distinctively point to turnovers. Those cost us those two games. We never gave ourselves a chance to even be in either one of those games. We were too busy donating the football to the opponents. I think we were like minus eight in those two games in turnovers. You don't give yourself a chance. That's something that we've struggled with all season long. To me, as much as we've worked on ball security and preach it, you have to take a hard look at how you're trying to get it through to your players. Obviously, we're doing something wrong. You get frustrated by that, but overall there are some positives to this season. Obviously, we didn't win as many games as we would have liked. We switched offenses so there are going to be growing pains. But we're making progress, I think, as an overall program. We're still growing. I think we've done a good job of putting a class together of those incoming freshman and we just got to work like heck to hang onto them. Most of them are pretty solid.

"We'll just try to keep doing what we're doing. We'll take a look at some things and make sure everything, in my mind, is exactly the way I want it. Is it sound? Is it solid? Is it the right thing to be doing? You know, like we always do and go back to work."

On being able to close out the season with a win:

"It's always good to win the last one because that's the last taste you have in your mouth and it springboards you into the off season and so forth. In a lot of cases, that's the one game that a lot of people remember about the season. Like last year, what really made me feel proud was that they did gear up and play hard when there wasn't a whole lot to play for. And that's what we need to do this Saturday."

Offensive Coordinator, Lee Hays

On Blake Szymanski:

"I thought Blake did well. He got a little crazy on me, but he did well. I know he had three picks, and I wasn't excited about two of the reads. I hope lesson learned on that. The one pick where he threw for a touchdown, it was kind of a deal where we were supposed to have a man getting cut that down and it's a rhythm throw, he's actually letting it go and we didn't get the man down for him. I feel bad for him on that note. But two [other interceptions], I don't know, I think he might have been reading a little press or reading some of the stuff that Shawn [Bell] used to get hammered for about throwing it down field. I think Blake felt like he wanted to throw it down field and throw it to [his] playmaker. And that's what he did and that's why we don't do that. He figured that out and I don't think that will happen again."

On David Gettis:

"You know Dave, I don't know that it's `come on late' in the last couple of games, but I think the last four or five weeks, he's really started working hard. I think it was more of a situation where we can get him in and kind of let him do what he does well. We needed to sit Trent for a minute or two and let Dave get in there and get some reps. If we get a defense that that's giving us the hitches, he's as good as anybody when is comes to running the hitch or the post. Our problem is throwing it deep enough for him. But he's really starting to shine, and I'm really excited about him."

On Oklahoma:

"The defensive line is pretty good. Their linebackers are pretty good, and the secondary is good. They remind me a lot of Texas; they're good across the board. I think that this is really, really going to be a huge challenge for us offensively. [Oklahoma head coach Bob] Stoops knows the offense as well as I do. His blitzes - he can make it tough on a young quarterback and even on a veteran quarterback because he can trick you into some things. He knows what we're looking for so it's going to be a little bit of a chess match there. I think that he can make you throw hot and they have to bring pressure because he's so good up front.

"The back end is physical and they'll mix up the coverage a little bit. Stoops does a great job not staying in the same thing twice. It's hard to get a beat on him. His kids run really well and tackle really well. He's tough, but that's why you play the game."

Defensive Coordinator, Bill Bradley

On Oklahoma State last week:

"We didn't play very well again, and it's something where we have to keep coaching better and keep a positive attitude. We have to work with these guys and get them really do go again because we are fixing to face another big time running team offensively speaking. And so we have to stop the run before we can do anything else.

"They did a couple of little plays that they hadn't done in the past that caught us off guard a little bit. But they ran well and blocked well. And misalignments got us again. Tackling, we tackled average to good. We didn't miss a whole lot of tackles; they just had gashes on us. Of course when the running starts and they're successful at it, you're going to get some bootlegs that are going to get you, too. They ran the ball well on us and we didn't play very good against it.

"I think it was a little bit of everybody, mostly up front and then the linebackers. [Oklahoma State] has a good offensive line just like Oklahoma does, and they run the ball well. But you can't donate to the cause by not getting and beating somebody, getting into a gap, or flowing to the ball properly. They get some breakout plays, and they're off and running.

"You can find some good things in it, too. Early on in the game I thought we were well. Of course we kept them to a field goal on the first return and up. Then we let them off. We had them on the third and long, and then we had a foolish foul and a face mask. That gave them a new first and ten and we stopped them again down at the goal line. And we made them kick a field goal. I thought was kind of an indication of how we would play these guys the rest of the game, but it just didn't happen.

"So we have to go back out today and see if we can get a good look at what Oklahoma does with our scout team. Get people in their right gaps with a little bit of authority, too. See what happens.

On defending the running game:

"When we played Texas a while back, we held up against their run pretty good, and they're a good running team. Then you go down the road and get soft in some spots, some people are going the right assignments, then they break out on you. That's what has happened the last couple of games.

"But one good thing is, you go back and look at the tape, go back and look at all the video, and we've got guys that are still playing hard. They haven't quit or anything like that. They're playing hard; it's just they aren't playing right all the time and executing right. But they are prideful guys who play hard. I know everybody kind of gets really down the way the games have gone lately.

On rebuilding Baylor football:

"Baylor football started righting the ship a few years ago when they hired Guy [Morriss], brought a little sunshine to a program that was in a muddy ditch at the time. We've dried up the mud now, and we've gotten out of the ditch. The expectations, because of the way we've played in the past, I think, are a little bit higher, and that's the way we want them to be. I think Guy hired a good staff when he brought his people over from Kentucky and then added a few here and there when other people left and did other things. He's got this football - we've got this football program back to respectability where people can't just chalk it up as a victory. They know they have to execute play and we know we have to withstand the barrage of it, too. We have to continue to get better and get better players. I think in my mind, we, as a staff, have done that.

"The last couple of weeks have been extremely hard because it looks like and it has been what people call blowouts. But two years leading up to this when the defense is flying around causing turnovers and having fun, it kept us in games and gave us a chance to win. Let's not forget that."