Sept. 5, 2006

Head Coach, Guy Morriss
On TCU:
"Coach Hays is taking a lot of the blame for the loss, but that's just his personality. He would never blame the kids. There was nothing wrong with the play calling. The play calling was fine and there was nothing wrong with the game plan. We go down on our second drive and go back to back with illegal procedures. That takes us out of a chance to score. We miss a field goal. We come down on this end and throw an interception. We had a holding call in another situation that took us out of the red zone. That's not a coach's fault. If it's anybody's fault it's mine for not being disciplined enough to make sure this kind of stuff doesn't happen. That's something we'll have to address. Coach Hays called a good game and it wasn't his fault. On the third down play, we just got stuffed. It's that simple. We go back to work today and get ready for the next one."

"We have five dropped balls and a lot of fouls, the illegal procedures. The thing that you hate about Paul's [Mosely] fumble is that he's a kid who doesn't hardly ever fumble. The call probably could have gone either way but we stressed to the guys that you can't leave it in the hands of the officials. We stressed that all through camp; to beat TCU we cannot turn over the football. The interception was just a matter of just trying to make a play. It was late in the down and he [Shawn Bell] forced the ball back over the middle. The defensive tackle wasn't rushing at all; he just jumped up and batted it and they intercepted it. In that case throwing out of bounds may have been better. But I thought the play calling was fine. I don't think we had any problems with play calling. We just have to do a better job of everybody executing together on the same play."

"I'm kind of surprised and upset with the breakdowns that we had, the illegal procedures. We haven't changed the snap count since March 1, the first day of spring training. Then we get down here and going into the red zone, we jump off sides in back-to-back plays. That bothers me. As much as we stress not turning the ball over and so forth, it all bugs the heck out of me. The times that we have 11 guys executing and there are not penalties, we move the football. That's the way it's supposed to work. "

"Our defense played well enough for us to win. We moved the ball up and down the field at certain times. It's a matter of being consistent and not stopping ourselves."

On special teams:
"We got caught with 11 guys inside the hash; that's easy to correct. The punt return, it looked like we got out of our lanes a bit. If Nick [Moore] doesn't get shot in the back, he may slow the guy down or tackle him. There was a pretty obvious clip that wasn't called. And I'm not using it as an excuse. We do get kind of stacked up in our lanes but that we can fix. I think we'll be fine.

On LeQuantum McDonald's season-ending broken left fibula:
"Well he's a good player. A young guy in the third play of his career, he takes a cheap shot and now he's lost a year. That's kind of upsetting but it is what it is. We just have to go down the road. He was one of our better defensive linemen. He had a great future. I don't know what the rule book says but we are going to try to petition to get the year back."

On Sunday's cramping:
"I can't tell you the number of phone calls with home remedies I've gotten. I think it's a matter of just not being aware that we need to be constantly chugging fluids two or three days before kickoff. I know when we go to camp I tell them the first night they'll be in trouble if I don't see a bottle in both hands. They do a good job during camp but when they get back on a normal schedule, going to class, living their own lives, I think some of them neglect to hydrate like they should. Of course we have to do a better job of reminding them. There's nothing wrong with what we give them. They have access to I.V.'s before the game, during half time, after the game. That's not the problem. We just have to be conscious about overloading the body with fluids two or three days ahead of time so that reserve can build up."

On the offensive line:
"I thought not bad but with a lot of room for improvement. We have some things that we have to do a better job of. We didn't run block as well as I'd hoped. We didn't run a lot. A running game is hard to block when you're in a two-point stance. But overall, from a pass protection stand point, I thought we did well. There are some things we have to get better at as well. It's a good defensive line we're playing against this week, maybe as good as or better than TCU's front four. Northwestern State has two preseason All-Conference and one preseason All-American at defensive end so we have to be ready to play."

"We had three lineman play pretty well. Travis [Farst] did a good job shutting down [Tommy] Blake. Will [Blaylock] did a good job in the inside, and Jason Smith, he's like a beast out there. He did a good job handling the ends on his side. Those three guys played pretty well, not to say that the other two didn't play OK. But, we have to get better all across the board."

On Northwestern State, playing a D1-AA school:
"We talked about this right after Sunday's game. Take Colorado as a good example. It's fresh in their mind and they'll hear it all week. "

"I think that once our guys look at the tape they're going to see that this is a pretty good football team. Maybe not score-wise against Kansas but I was certainly impressed with their front seven. They got my attention and I'll make sure our kids are ready to play this weekend. I'll make sure they're ready. "It's a short week and I haven't seen their offense or special teams but they have a good front seven. I think it's good to have the short week and get back on the game field. If we come out in the right frame of mind and have a good week of practice, we'll get back on the right track."

Offensive Coordinator, Lee Hays
On TCU:
"First off, I'd like to thank you guys for being here. I also want to take my hat off to TCU and coach Patterson. I thought they did a great job. I'm really proud of Bill Bradley and his defensive staff and their kids. I thought they played their hearts out. There's no question that we have to do a better job on offense; seven points just isn't what we're looking for."

"I'm very pleased with Shawn [Bell]. I thought Shawn had a good game. I'm glad he didn't try to force anything. TCU played over the top and there's a couple ways their defense tried to play us. Some of them want to keep everything out front and you just have be to patient enough to nickel and dime it. I really thought that if we would have scored one of the two times we got down there, it might have changed their defensive complexion and put them in a different position coverage-wise. "

"Looking back, I probably would keep the same type of play calling just because I thought our defense was really playing well. I wasn't going to chance it and try to create a turnover just for the sake of pushing the ball down the field. On that fourth and one, I probably would have called something else. We just didn't execute it."

"I was a little surprised TCU played coverage the way they did. I don't know that I would have called anything different as far as passing goes. I made a few mistakes early. A lot of people like to keep things up front and make you fight for the yard. And as long as we are in the 65-70 percent completion rate, I'll take that all night. To me, those short passes are just like a run. It keeps the clock ticking and keeps our defense off the field. We just have to take advantage of it early. By turning it over or taking a penalty, you get a third and long and you're forced to play into their hand. We have to be a little more disciplined to attack what they're giving us. We need to get first downs, keep the defense off the field, and score touchdowns. I felt early on that it was a patience issue. It's five yards, six yards. I'll take that all night now. It's kind of a mindset. I don't know if our kids were ready for that, as far as understanding that I'm never going to force anything. I don't believe in taking shots and throwing something up and hoping."

Defensive Coordinator, Bill Bradley
On TCU:
"About the game we just played, there were a lot of superlatives defensively speaking and then there are a couple of things we have to get corrected and we've got to get corrected fast. In a nutshell, what we did, on a positive note, I think we tackled well for a first game. There weren't near as many missed tackles as you usually have in a normal first game of the year. Especially when we had to make the tackle. There was one missed tackled on a third and five that gave TCU a first down. That was probably the biggest glaring missed tackle or maybe one of the few we had in the game. I thought we ran to the football extremely well like we expect our guys to do. We don't accept any less than that; it's a given. As a unit, I thought we played extremely well for a first game and for what I call OJT guys, on the job training. In particular some of the back ups had to be thrown in there with the dehydration and cramping."

"I think the only thing that really got us in that football was basically mental communication all the way across, from the backers back and the backers to the d-line. That's basically how the 84-yarder hit. We had nine players playing a defense and two players not getting the proper communication to them and not being able to play the defense. It was a mental error by the whole defense."

Wide Receiver, Terrance Parks
On transition from quarterback to wide receiver:
"I feel pretty comfortable, right now. I have been used to it since high school. It was really more about getting on the field, playing center, playing tackle, as long as it will get me on the field I will do it. "

On how teams are going to match up against him:
"Most of them will probably put a linebacker on me, but a little guy can play defense just like a big guy can."

Wide Receiver, Trent Shelton
On the record for consecutive games with at least one reception:
"I really have not paid that much attention to it, but the media has brought it to my attention so I would not mind getting the record. I think it has a lot to do with staying injury free. A lot of players miss a game or two with injuries but taking the strength and conditioning workouts seriously has helped keep me out of the training room."

On his one handed catch in the 2nd quarter of the TCU game:
"As a little kid my dad always told me to work on stuff like that, so I go out to practice sometimes and work on catching balls one handed and play around with stuff like that. That catch was pretty difficult, but it just happened to stick."

Quarterback, Shawn Bell
On offensive production against TCU:
"I thought we moved the ball well, it is just a matter of getting the ball in the endzone. We can have all the yards we want but if we are not putting points on the board it does not matter. We just need to find those little mistakes and correct them: penalties, interception and fumble in the redzone."

On the new offensive philosophy:
"Coach (Lee) Hays has told us so many times, that this is an offense that sometimes (the offense) lays low and then all of the sudden hang 70 on a team. We knew that coming in, know it is just a matter of execution. We would execute all the way down the field and then one or two plays would cause the drive to end. We will get that taken care of, we have seven seniors on the offense that has been through a lot."

On Terrance Parks moving from quarterback to wide receiver:
"I knew he would be fine. Starting in the spring when he moved to that position he became a big target for me. (Parks) is an exceptional athlete with great hands and his big body helps him get in front of the defender.