Sept. 19, 2006

Head Coach, Guy Morriss
On Army's effort against Texas A&M last week:
"They played well against Texas A&M. I guess they wanted to show the cadets who the real Army guys are. They went down there pretty fired up and got after the Aggies pretty well. They probably, well, maybe should have won the game. I don't know. I haven't seen but the last play or two and what happened.

"That helped our kids. They better treat this team with respect. I guarantee you. They are probably, like Bill [Bradley] was saying, better than last year and you see a lot of the same traits in them. They play really hard and don't make a lot of mistakes, something we could probably learn from. They'll get after you. And if I was watching what we did against Washington State and I were them, I'd come down here figuring they can whip our behinds. That's the kind of team I think we are going to have to get ready for. I certainly hope we will be ready; I feel confident that we will be better."

On penalties yards taken:
"I don't know how you deal with that. I get all this help from folks telling me we need to be running the kids for jumping offsides, but they do enough running every week in practice you don't want to beat them down to the point where they can't play. To me it's not an issue of just physically beating them down; but, somehow, we have to get through to them on a mental standpoint they need to sharpen their focus and increase their concentration. I'm thinking about hiring a shrink to come over here and talk to them about it. I don't know what else to do."

On correcting the penalties:
"I think we have a good team. I still believe that. It's just the little things. We have two problems: No. 1 is Army and No. 2 is us. And we have to talk about that. We talked about it last week. If Baylor doesn't beat Baylor then I don't think Army can beat us. If we don't get all these dumb penalties and mistakes stopped, anybody can beat us. And that's kind of our issue this week is to try to find a way to get all that nonsense stopped. It's kind of like this with the problem: The good news is, it's us. The bad news is, it's us. We still have to get it fixed.

"We try to motivate our kids from a positive standpoint. I don't like to use fear, and we certainly don't ever try to be negative. I don't think kids respond to that. We sat down as a whole offensive team this week first off to let everybody know that we didn't get beat last week because of dropped balls. There are a whole lot of other things that have to get better. We wanted to make sure that everybody understood that so that first of all, we don't have any finger pointing; and we don't. And secondly, from a positive standpoint, when we do things right, we get results. I think it was the second drive of the TCU game. Bam, bam, bam. Score. The quick strike was with Northwestern to Trent [Shelton] two weeks ago. When we do things right, this offense will work. It was the same story again Saturday. The second drive of the game and bang, here we go. It's almost like, "We scored our seven; now we can shut it down and go home." It doesn't stop there. We can't stop there.

"It can be positive. They should understand that when they do execute correctly, we get results. I think we have play makers, we just have to operating together for a full 60 minutes."

"We obviously want to win this one; it's the only one we play this week. It can move us back to .500 and we still have opportunities left to go win some more games, get in a bowl, and finish on a positive note having a great season. We've already addressed that stuff. The kids know what's at stake. No doubt."

On finishing a ballgame with the lead:
"These are the things you talk about to your team. You can't waste a play. You only get so many opportunities, so many drives, so many touches. You better take advantage of every one of them. And that, to me, is the mental attitude, a swagger almost, that we haven't found yet."

On the lack of running game:
"I know we need to run the football better. In this offense we can generate and average about 100 yards a game and we're not close to that. That's something we've already talked about. We just have to, as a group, remind ourselves to keep calling the plays. And if a play gets blown up, we can't give up on it too fast. We just have to make ourselves call it. It will be helpful, I think, when Paul [Mosely] is back. Basically the type of running we want to do is up inside and that's his forte, his strength. Of course, it will be nice to have him back. So yeah, we need to make an emphasis on getting running plays called more often so throw more balance in there."

On Army's defensive linemen:
"Not to me. They are all a lot alike. They all play hard and are disciplined. They're where they are supposed to be, and they're flying to the football. They play team defense."

On hearing back from the NCAA and Pac-10 on questioned plays:
"No. Not yet."

Offensive Coordinator, Lee Hays
On Washington State:
"First, I want to take my hat off to our defense. I thought they did a great job. Bill [Bradley] and his staff do a great job week in and week out preparing for the opponent. We have to do a better job offensively helping those guys out. I know Bill's upset about them not finishing; but, it never should have come down to that.

"I promised myself that I'd never be an excuse guy and I'm not going to make excuses about Saturday. You either do it or you don't. We have to score more points offensively. We didn't score enough; that's the bottom line. And that falls on my shoulders. I thought Shawn [Bell] played a great game. He did everything we asked him to do. You can't pin the loss on one thing, the penalties or the dropped balls. I was pleased with assignments. I thought the kids got better with knowing where to go and how to get there. We just have to eliminate the mental mistakes, and that's my job. I think we have to do a better job in certain situations, like third down efficiency. The bottom line is that I called the play and it didn't get executed. But however you shake it up, it comes right back here."

On Army:
"Army has a good, solid defense. I think the most points they've scored on them are 21. I know Texas A&M tried to come out with two tight ends and smash Army; it didn't work so well. I am very impressed with how hard their kids play and how disciplined they are. I think we are going to have to come out, match their intensity, and make sure that we execute while eliminating the little things."

On Justin Fenty:
"Somebody else got the start but Fenty came in there and got the job, for the time being. I thought he had a great catch. The safety stepped back on the outside post and Shawn [Bell] put it in right between the seams. He went up, curled around the ball, and held onto it."

On the running game:
"I'd like to see about 100 yards a game. Well, if I had my choice I'd like to see 300, 400 yards a game. Typically, I expect anywhere from 75-150, that's what I hope. But I'm not going to force anything just for the sake of forcing it."

Defensive Coordinator, Bill Bradley
On Washington State:
"Looking at our defensive goal sheets, of course the number one thing is to hold the opponent down and get the win. We didn't do that. One of the reasons why we didn't do it is because we have to learn how to finish a football game. It doesn't matter what all went on out there. The bottom line is that they got the ball in the minus territory, and we had a chance to win the football game.

"Now defensively, we played an outstanding football game with the exception of that. It doesn't matter how many dropped balls, etc., people talk about; the bottom line is that at the end of the football we had they lead, Washington State was in the minus territory, and we had to hold them and keep them out of the end zone. In this case it was to keep them out of field goal range. We kept them out of the end zone but let them get into field goal range. The big play in that series was on third and eight; we could have gotten off the field on that one.

"Our turnover rallying cry that says, "Two we're in, four we win," we're going to have to start a little cry of "Get off the field on third downs." It was a fantastic job with Nick Moore hitting the guy, forcing the ball out, and Anthony Arline scooping it up to score and go ahead. Now we have to stay ahead. That's just my take on it. Like I said, defensively we played another good football game; but, we didn't play good enough in the end to win the game. Our guys know that.

"There were so many good things that we can take from this game. And I'm excited about the next one."

On Army:
"Army is a very good football team. They are going to give you every ounce of energy that they have. It's like we said last year; a football game is like recess to them because of what they go through during the week. They are not going to be fatigued. They are going to be a hustling team. Watching the Texas A&M tape, offensively they scare you a little bit. They execute extremely well and Coach Ross does a tremendous job with them. They are a multi-formation team. They feature two backs and one tight end - the old grind-them-out, play-action football. Then they'll come in with eleven personnel and then they'll come in with twelve personnel, one back and two tight ends. They run more of an old fashioned pro offense.

Defensively, we have our chore in front of us to do but I think our guys will respond. They just need to keep going. We have to keep pushing them and keep them going. That's the signature of our defense, and that's what we want to be known for. But we'll never be known as a great defense if we don't finish a football game. This defense, even as young as it, has the makings of being an outstanding defense. And until we finish a football game, we aren't going to be on ESPN or FSN as far as highlights are concerned. That's my take on it."

"Against Army we have to stop their running game and their play action. They're not a stretch-the-field type team so far."

Wide Receiver, Dominique Zeigler
On weather or not Baylor is ready for a breakout game:
"It has been here, we are waiting on it. We just need to get rid of the penalties and drop balls that we have had. We are just going to come out this week and really try to focus on the little things. "

On what the receivers are doing to correct the problems catching the balls:
"As a receiver, I did not really speak up about them, but we called the offense together to talk about what has been going on. Now we are starting to meet at 6:00 A.M., and we have decided that if you have a false start or drop a pass on Saturday then you have a hundred yards of something Tuesday afternoon after practice."

On playing the whole four quarters this Saturday:
"We are going to prepare the same way, just try to stay focused longer, because we know that they are not going to give up. That is just the mental approach they have. They never give up. We just need to go out and play the full 60 minutes."

Cornerback, C.J. Wilson
On the defense's performance Saturday at Washington State:
"Other than what happened at the end I am extremely proud of our defense. That goal line stand was beautiful. I had not seen anything like that in high school or college. I am still proud of that."

On playing both cornerback and safety:
"It is something that I have been doing for two years now. The coaches are trying to put me in the right match-up. Some of the other teams are trying to move their best receiver to the slot to get them away from me and so the coaches started to put me some at safety. Maybe, if they start playing tackle or tight end, then maybe you will see me playing some linebacker or defensive end."

Quarterback, Shawn Bell
On the final non-conference game:
"This is a big game for us. We need to get rolling going into conference, and it is a home game. If we are going to be the ball club we want to be, we need to start getting some wins."

On the confidence level of the team:
"I think we are down a little bit; but, at the same time, we are a team that has been through a lot. We are going to be fine confidence wise. We need to get rolling this Saturday and we will be ready to go."

On what cutting the mistakes will do for the offense:
"On the second series of the game we did not have any mistakes and we went down and got a touchdown. We can execute like that whenever we want if we will just stop making those silly mistakes. That comes from us as players, that has nothing to do with the coaching staff. They are making good calls and the plays are there, we just have to execute better."