Sept. 12, 2006

Head Coach, Guy Morriss

On Thomas White:

"Thomas has been here, this is his third season. I think he's really matured this year and he got his opportunity this week and made the best of it. The depth and the competition make us a better football team and a better receiving core. In my mind he's a guy that we'll continue to let play more and see if we can't feed him the ball because he's got great speed. He's just worked himself into a position where he deserves it. The more he gets the ball and the better he does, the more we'll keep feeding it to him."

On rotating receivers:

"As you see different teams, different coverages and match ups, it has a lot to do with it. Maybe one play that was really good last week may not be as attractive to the signal caller next week. You're always looking for your best stuff and maybe your best stuff this week doesn't feature the "X" receiver so much last we did last week with Trent [Shelton]. That's kind of the way it works and you have to take what they give you. A lot of time it predicates going to somebody different each week based on what you're getting coverage-wise and match up-wise.

On the new quicker pace of college football with clock changes:

"For us, we like to have a lot of plays. When we get to full stride, we want to have 90 plays a game. I don't know if that will be possible with them shortening to games like this. It hasn't bothered us because we're a fast paced offense, or we think we are and we're trying to be. It really hasn't bothered us at all."

On Washington State:

"They are kind of rebuilding and trying to establish their program, identity, and recruiting power just like we are. I think they feel like most of the woes they inherited can be fixed with recruiting. They're a big strong football team but I really believe we'll have a speed advantage over them and we'll try to take advantage of that. I see their defense, especially their front four, as blue collar guys. For us as offensive linemen that's going to be tough. We have to `bring out the lunch pale' so to speak and match their intensity and stay with them for a full sixty minutes. They play hard and will come after you. But I think overall with team speed we'll have an advantage.

"We need to get better this week and open it up a little bit more. We need to get better each week and not necessarily because it's Washington State but because it's week three. When we get better we can keep adding things and do more and more as we go along the schedule."

On offensive fouls and dropped passes:

"It's a deal where you kind of have to send the message to the guy who is committing fouls and goof ups. You have to find a way to get his attention. It may not be that we don't start the guy or bench him for three weeks but maybe keep him out for a series or two. Then he knows next time it may be longer. Then you hope the new guy you plug in there can hold up for you. "

On presumed weaker defenses in the PAC-10:

"I wouldn't say that to Southern Cal. But I think most coaches understand that from a philosophical and reality standpoint, if you can't play defense, you don't have a chance to win. You may be an offensive coach but you're defensive minded as well. If you don't have a good defense, you better be able to outscore everybody you play against or you don't have a chance to win. I would think that most of the coaches in the PAC-10 feel the same way."

On traveling to Seattle:

"Our kids are really looking forward to playing in an NFL stadium. It'll kind of be a good change of scenery. We've been here and out on the practice team since Aug. 3, and it will be a good change for us. It's a long trip but it means new scenery and a new opponent. It's always good to play people you don't see year in and year out. As long as we handle our business out there and don't get distracted, I think we'll be fine. I think the kids are looking forward to it.

"You've had a little success and handle things the correct way, you can build on that and put some of those nightmares to rest. It's a new stadium; it's an NFL stadium. We'll go by on Friday and our warm-ups and walk-throughs. Let the guys see what it looks like and get all the demons out."

"It's a game we need to win desperately. It would be good to win it on the road; it really would. It's going to be fun and also a challenge. For me those are the kinds of games you really like. "

On traveling fans:

"I think there are a couple of plane loads going. From what I understand the Bear Foundation is taking some folks. There are few up there I know."

Offensive Coordinator, Lee Hays

On Northwestern State:

"We still have a lot of work to do. The second half I really just called certain plays I wanted to work on, base plays. Make sure we could execute those. We stayed away from any run checks and just called vertical stuff.

On the offenses dropped passes:

"That's big and it causes problems. It will be to a point here soon where the ones who drop them will stop starting or something. They can bring their hats to the game; they won't be in. I hope it's a concentration deal. I hope it's not a lack of hands. One of them that surprised me was little Carl [Sims]. I think he has some of the best hands on the team and that's just a lack of concentration. He'll get better. It's the same way with some of the others, some freshman. And again, it's just a lack of concentration and we'll be better."

"It just upsets me when I see some of our receivers bust. Like the interception that Shawn [Bell] threw was a receiver's bust. I get a little aggravated with that because it's a very simple four-yard route. You really don't have a lot of options. You run four yards then you stop. There was some confusion somehow, and that's just unacceptable. For a guy like Shawn (Bell), who has been under a lot of fire here the last couple years, I hate seeing that on a mistake because he's not going to run out and tell everyone it was a receiver's fault. "

"As far as the rushing game goes, I'd be concerned if I called a bunch of runs and we didn't get any yards. As long as we are keeping our completion rate over sixty percent and eliminate the dropped balls, I'm fine. "

On Washington State:

"Every week is a test. I have a lot of respect for Coach Doba and his guys out there. He is really known as a guy who brought a lot of pressure under that four-three. I think they've been a little bit limited by personnel the past few years so they've done things a little bit differently, playing coverage behind it. It's going be a little bit different match up than the last two games, and the reason I say that is the last two games have been a four-two-five. Those teams were built on speed, smaller defensive lineman who can run. Where as [Washington State] is a more traditional, what I like to call "college four-three" where you have big 6'5" and 6'8" defensive lineman in the middle who are three hundred pounds. It's a little bit different match up.

"I think it will be a huge test for the offense just as far as execution is concerned. It's probably going to be a game where we have to throw and catch and be able to run it a little bit. I would like to go into it similar to TCU and throw and run to keep the clock ticking. That's my goal this week.

"If they give us the vertical ball, that's great. If they don't, that's fine, too. I just want first downs and touchdowns. That's it.

On Thomas White:

"Thomas is very athletic. He's just the guy who has kind of suffered from having [Dominique] Zeigler in front of him and a pretty good freshman. One of the things we needed to see was how he looked under the lights. He worked hard over the summer and has had a pretty good fall."

Defensive Coordinator, Bill Bradley

On Northwestern State:

"A little bit about the game defensively, we give our guys some goals sheets and stuff and we measure our success on how we hit all those goals. Of course, the No. 1 topic up there is to win the football game, and that trumps everything. We went into that game thinking that we definitely win it if we held [Northwestern State] to 17 points or less. I think they were averaging 24 points and we held them to 10. So we checked that goal.

"The two things that we didn't do, we wanted to keep them to no big plays. And in those no big plays, we don't want to allow a 25-yard run or a 40-yard or better pass. They got a 29-yard run and a 42-yard, maybe, pass. So we didn't get to check that goal's block. On third down efficiency, we wanted to keep them below 35 percent; we held them to 33 percent. Interceptions were fantastic. That play C.J. [Wilson] made was just beautiful, absolutely wonderful. We got three picks. C.J. got two of them and Jason Lamar got the other one. We had emphasized trying to get more turnovers with the fumble. We got two of those which was pretty good. Jordan Lake caused one and recovered it. And of course our turnover motto, "Two we're in; four we win." We had five total so we banged that one up. We got three sacks in the game which was good. Overall, our defense played a good game. We tackled well. Turnovers and getting to the football was really good. They had a pretty good little offense going into the game and that was their strength. I think our guys responded really well."

On Washington State:

"Washington State is a really good offensive football team. They feature 12 personnel with two tight ends and two wide outs and a back. They feature 11 personnel with a tight end, three wides, and a back. They have fine receivers. They aren't overly speedy but they're competitive. Right now their leading receiver is Jason Hill; he's No. 83. He usually plays the lone receiver on the weak side of their formations. So far this year he has six receptions for 110 yards with one touchdown. He's a good, competitive receiver and one of the quarterback's go-to guys. The second leading receiver on the team is Michael Bumpus. He's usually their slot receiver. He is also very athletic, a punt returner so he can run a bit. And then with their other receiver Chris Jordan, they have a very good receiving core. They catch the deep ball well. And their tight end Cody Boyd, he's a big target.

"Overall, I think they're a pretty good offensive football team. They execute well and have decent speed. They have three seniors on their offensive line and a junior and a sophomore. It's going to be a fun game and closely matched game between our defense and their offense. The match up will be pretty even so we'll just see how we respond to it. They're a little bit different from TCU. This team will spread you out a little bit and they also can run the ball and play-action well."