Sunday With Guy
11/19/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 19, 2006
The Baylor football team closed out its 2006 season with a 36-10 loss to 16th-ranked (both polls) Saturday at Floyd Casey Stadium in Waco. The 2006 Bears, who played nine of their 12 games against bowl-eligible teams, finished with an overall record of 4-8, but won a school-record three Big 12 games. Here are head coach Guy Morriss' thoughts on Baylor's season-ending loss to Oklahoma and the 2006 season in general:
Do you think you had a good chance of winning coming into the second half of the Oklahoma game?
"I thought defensively we played well enough to have a chance to win the game until later in the game when it kind of got out of control. Offensively we were of out sync and couldn't get in a rhythm. We had some bad decisions by our quarterback, poor routes by our receivers and breakdowns in our protection. With a red shirt freshman at the helm, you've got to be a little more supportive and play better than that. I think he got rattled."
How do you think quarterback Blake Szymanski performed these last three games?
"His first game was pretty good, I thought, for the first drive out of the box. I think in the last two he kind of locked onto some receivers, didn't go through his progressions, and held the ball a little too long. Sometimes he kind of got himself pressured because of that holding too long, and then forcing a throw. Those kind of things. Like I said, sometimes those receivers really weren't where they were supposed to be, and then other times, he's running for his life. So, with a combination of all three, it's hard to give him a fair assessment. He does have some positives. We got to keep repping him, and try to build the people around him and improve that with better recruits and all that kind of stuff. I'm hoping it will all get better."
Going into the spring, is Szymanski the No. 1 quarterback?
"I'd say right now, in fairness, it's Blake's spot to lose. He's the most experienced guy we've got on campus with three ball games under his belt. So he's going to line up and take the first snap. We'll see how all of our challengers do. We'll give all of those guys some reps. It's kind of a day to day thing. Our thing here is that everybody competes for a starting job in the spring. There's going to be 22 guys that take the first snap, but after that, it's up to them to hang onto their starting job."
Was the decision for you to go back to coaching the offensive line a good one?
"For me personally, I thought it was a good move. I know that at times we didn't protect very well. People were telling me to fire the o-line coach, and they weren't joking about that. But I still think in the long run, it will be the best for this ball club because I know the system, and I know what it takes for them to get to the line where I want them to be. From a recruiting standpoint, we have five pretty good kids coming in here, and I think they are coming in here to play for Coach Morriss, and that's the reason they are coming here. That will improve that position and make us a better offense overall in the long run. So, I think that gives me a little bit more of a chance to interact with the players because I'm actively coaching the position everyday. That's something that as a head coach you don't really do. I'm not going to look over a coach's shoulder and interrupt his drills and that kind of stuff. I thought it was a good move, a positive really. I think the players would tell you it was a positive."
What are some things you need to improve this off-season?
"We've got to become a more disciplined football team. We need to improve in that area. We're going to talk about special teams play. That's obvious right now that is wasn't a very successful year from a special teams standpoint. We had turnover problems. We need to figure out how to get that corrected. We had dropped balls. What can we do to make sure we're catching the football? If we're going to have an offense where we are going to throw the football a lot of times, we need to make sure we're doing everything we can to help our receivers. We've got to address the issue of leadership from a player's standpoint. What can we do to help these guys be better leaders and educate them on that in those areas. You know, just keep improving. This will be the best class, I think, that we've had in the Big 12 if they sign here. But with expectations, we've got to have a better one next year. All of those kind of things are issues that we need to talk about and keep improving on."
Looking back, was losing the emotional Texas A&M game and Shawn Bell too much to overcome?
"Yes, evidently it was. For these young men, I think it was a little more devastating to them than we first realized. I'm not too sure we ever overcame it to be honest with you. A lot of teams don't. Look at what happened to Texas. They lose their starter [against Kansas State] with all the talent they've got, and they got beat that night too."
What did the senior class mean to this program?
"Well, we've had a lot of these guys here for four years, and they've really worked hard. One thing I'm proud of is they never quit. There wasn't any quit at all in this bunch. They went through a lot of adversity in a tough grind year. Most of them stuck it out. I'm proud of them for that. We didn't win as many football games as we would have liked, but they are a great bunch of guys. They've got great character. The fact that they won five games last year when they were all juniors, and they were a big part of that. This year, they won more conference games than Baylor has ever won, and they were a part of that. They've got some positives that they can share down the road in a few years about helping turn this program around, and they can be proud of that."
Were you worried that this Oklahoma game might get out of control?
"Not really. Even in the [Texas]Tech and Oklahoma State games they didn't really quit. Things just kind of got out of hand and snowballed on them. I don't think you saw maybe that little extra step of energy that we're used to seeing from our defensive football team. But if you go back and put the film on, there are still guys running the ball hard. They're still trying hard."
What turned it around for the first half of the Oklahoma game?
"I think that it was their last ball game and senior day. We talked about how we are the team that swept our north opponents and hung tough and played hard and made good things happen and found a way to win those games. We just appealed to that side of them. I thought they came out and played hard and there is no shame in that."
How did the offense progress up until the Texas A&M game?
"I thought we were getting better each week. There's probably some people that would disagree with that. But if you watch it from the inside out and know the little details of what your trying to get done and so forth. And, you know, the key component in this offense is the quarterback spot, and if he goes down, you are almost starting from scratch. I saw just from the position that I coach, that there are things we are getting better at and we're not thinking about anymore. It's becoming reactionary. From playing the position, I see it. I know it is happening, and that's what we've got to have across the board so that we can execute without having to grind. And I saw that happening all throughout the season."
How much does it help for these players to have a year in this offensive system?
"That will help a lot. That will be tremendous, you know. Some of the stuff, like I was talking about, you could see the smoke coming out of their ear holes. We're past that now. I think we as a staff have a better handle on where our weaknesses are, and what we have to do to fix them from a technical standpoint."
Do you stick with trying to have a running game?
"I think we stick with it. It's tough to keep calling it if you're averaging two yards a crack. But I think it will be better with an upgrade with the people doing the blocking as well."
Is Brandon Whitaker your feature back next year?
"He's our most experienced back coming back, as far as playing time. He'll line up No. 1 that first day, but from that point on, it's anybody's position to win. We have a lot of faith in Jacoby [Jones]. He didn't have a chance to play a lot. But he's got a good feel for that position. You never know, he might be the guy. Maybe it'll be Jay Finley or Andre Pierce. We'll just have to see how it shakes out."
Do you see any linemen coming back and blossoming next year?
"I think Jason [Smith] is probably the most talented in that group from a physical standpoint. I think he can [be a top Big 12 lineman]."
Do you see yourself heading for a quarterback controversy?
"The times there is controversy around football programs are pretty frequent. I don't have a problem with that. We're going to do what's best for this program."
Sunday Notes: Saturday's game against Oklahoma was the finale for 32 Baylor seniors ... Senior P Daniel Sepulveda, a 2006 Ray Guy Award semi-finalist, currently leads the nation with his 46.5-yard average ... Sepulveda ended his career as the NCAA's all-time leader in 50-yard punts (94) ... Against Oklahoma, Sepulveda averaged 46.7 yards on six kicks with three inside the 20 and three of 50-plus yards ... As a team, Baylor leads the Big 12 and ranks fourth nationally in net punting ( 39.01 yards per punt) ... The Bears scored 33 offensive touchdowns in 2006, the most by a Baylor squad since the 1996 team scored 35 ... Senior RB Paul Mosley ended his career ranked No. 10 on Baylor's all-time rushing chart with 1,718 yards on 408 carries ... Mosley also ranked T-No. 7 in career rushing TDs (17) ... WR Trent Shelton registered at least one reception in a school-record 45-consecutive games to close his career, while his teammate, Dominique Zeigler, had at least one catch in 32 straight games to end his career ... In 47 games under Baylor coach Guy Morriss, the Bears have recorded 17 defensive and special teams touchdowns ... Baylor drew a school-record 259,559 fans for seven games at Floyd Casey Stadium in 2006 to break the old mark of 240,367 set in 1991 ... Baylor averaged 37,080 fans for its seven-game home slate to record back-to-back seasons of 37,000-plus averages for the first time since 1990 and 1991 ... Oklahoma held Baylor to 140 total-offense yards, including a school-record low (-48) on the ground ... Ten different Bears caught passes against Oklahoma ... The Bears won a school-record three Big 12 games in 2006 and over the last two seasons have recorded nearly half (five) of their 11 all-time Big 12 victories ... All-told, Morriss has led the Bears to seven of the program's 11 all-time Big 12 wins in the league's 11-year history ... Baylor opens its 2007 season Sept. 2 at TCU.
