Sept. 18, 2007
Baylor Head Coach Guy Morris
ON THIS WEEK:
"We have to start off the week with a good week of practice and travel well. Just remember why we are going up there. We have to manage our intensity and just try to play mistake-free football and get after them."
ON THE GAME:
"The perception is never as good as you think it is and imagine it is. There is a lot of room for improvement; we have to get better. Overall, it wasn't near as bad as I first thought standing on the sidelines."
ON COACHING CONCERNS:
"You always prefer the win, no matter how you get it, but I think the thing that as coaches you are concerned about is not playing as well as we expected our team to play, but we are happy with the win. Again, there are things we have to get fixed in order to move forward. We are going to work on those this week. I think we are making progress, and just have to keep improving each week."
ON THE TRIP TO BUFFALO:
"It's a long ride, we will get up there and work out in the stadium...after that we will get back to normal. The thing about 6 O'clock starts is what do you do on game day, and how do you occupy time. We just have to make sure when we are sitting around waiting we stay focused and get ready to play ball."
ON TRUE FRESHMAN PLAYING:
"The thing that concerns me is that we are a young football team. I'm sure there are several men that are going to get to play for the first time and that might be a challenge to some of them."
ON BUFFALO:
"I didn't see them play last year, so I don't really know too much about them. They have our respect; I'll put it that way."
ON LAST WEEK'S PRACTICE ALTERCATION:
To me as a coach, I have told our players never to curb aggression. Even last week we had some coaches upset at coaches. You aren't ever going to get fuss about fighting or big hits, never curb aggression."
Baylor Defensive Coordinator Larry Hoefer
ON THE GAME
"We were pleased we got a victory...it was a good win for us. We have things we can certainly correct. I think our players on defense really played hard. We had a great effort, did a lot of good things."
"We only had one turnover. Throughout the week we tried to emphasize that area, but we did play good run defense and when you do that you kind of force a team into being one dimensional. We had two sacks, ten tackles for a loss which we are pretty pleased with."
ON TEXAS STATE:
"Texas State had a great game plan for us. They knew they would have a difficult time running the ball against us. The way they tried to move the ball on us was good."
ON THE UPCOMING COLORADO GAME:
"Their offensive line is very solid. They got a lot of progress. All you have to do is look at the stats to see how they performed last week."
ON PREPARING FOR A GAME:
"We are trying to be physical. We have certain goals each week. We talk about playing fast. We talk about playing physical. We show that with certain plays. We want to play smart. Those things are a very big part of what we try to do. When you're prepared you can do that, if you have confidence."
Baylor Offensive Coordinator Lee Hayes
ON THE PERFORMANCE OF THE OFFENSE:
"Offensively I thought we did an okay job, I got really excited about some things I thought Blake did a pretty good job with his reads. I guess after the first few series, he got in a pretty good rhythm."
ON THE TEXAS STATE DEFENSE:
"I thought it was good for him to see that type of defense; it was a 4-3 flex, it's pretty unique, I don't think we will see it again. It was the first time I have ever seen it. They played man on the inside receivers, then rolled a little bit of zone, a two deep on the hash type look that I've never seen before. I think it was good for Blake to see that. I thought for the most part he ran the offense pretty good, just some accuracy issues. And we can get those fixed."
"You score 34 points, and your upset, that's a positive for me because I know the kids are feeling like their expectations are a little bit higher, and they are. They should be."
ON BUFFALO
"I think were going to have a dogfight on our hands. Those kids are pretty good, they are well coached. Coach Gill has done a good job with those guys. It's a game where we I think we got to go and protect the ball, play hard and execute."
BACK TO THE TEXAS STATE DEFENSE
"It kind of shocked me the way the played us. I thought they wouldn't stay in that scheme. Where the receiver just has to win and after that it's going to be a big gain. I thought they would try and get back to some zone stuff."
ON THE OFFENSIVE LINE
"One thing that is hard for the average fan to see or the guys on the sideline is the offensive line has gotten a lot more physical. Those guys really have to get down there in the trenches and battle with it instead of just laying on somebody. I'm excited about the direction they're headed in."
Blake Szymanski
ON POTENTIALLY BEING 3-1
"Honestly the Texas State game was a wake up call. We played down to their level, but don't get me wrong they are a good football team. They are gong to be good. I think that is going to carry over into this weeks practice. We're going to be in a battle."
DISSAPOINTING PERFORMANCE DESPITE
"I didn't think I had a great game; I know I didn't have a great game, especially after the first drive, and the third quarter too. We came out a little dead. I don't know the reason for that but we had a dropped player with a tall deep. Other things need to happen better for us to execute more."
FAVORITE RECEIVER
"No, I can get in trouble on this one. I just go through my reads and take what the defense gives me. Brandon Akers has been getting open and a lot of balls are going to him. They're the ones getting open and I'm going threw my reads and that's going to open up everyone else and distribute the ball around."
ROOMATE AKERS
"The good thing about him is he can come in on those pro sets. He can throw a block or two in the running game and spit out and get out there and make some plays."
Brandon Stiggers
ON IMPORTANCE OF ENTERING A&M 3-1
"It's very important; last year the Army game was very important and we let it slip away. That could have got us rolling so now if we go up to Buffalo and go into the conference 3-1 with a winning streak we'll be ready to beat them too."
ROADTRIP
"The fun part is when you have guys who have never flown before, and we had guys like that on the team last year. It was the funniest thing in the world seeing 19-20 year old men getting on the plane scarred like little kids on the plane holding their hand, but it's just fun to get out of Waco sometimes, out of Texas and past Oklahoma."
ON BUFFALO
"As of right now we haven't watched any film but we are fixing to go down and film and break it down. But I got one of those dream college teammates up there; he plays strong linebacker."
KEEP THE BALL ROLLING
"We want to get out there and dominate Performance is key every week. But we need to come out and show everyone we mean business. You know Texas State came out and played hard. We weren't overlooking them but we definitely didn't expect them to come out that hard. We want to put in a good week of practice and come out and dominate."
Nick Moore
PREPARING FOR BUFFALO
"We were hoping to step our game up to another level. We have to get ready for the Big 12 which will be a lot bigger competition. We've got to get use to it and play hard against Buffalo; beat them decisively. We got to get ready for A&M."
DIFFERENT STATE OF MIND
"Me personally, I'm really excited. I know a lot of the players are excited to go into New York; it's a long plane ride. It's kind of fun to get away with the team and not go to class on Friday. That's kind of nice. We get to go to a new state and kick some butt there."
IMPORTANCE OF ANOTHER WIN
"You know it's really important. You need six wins to go to a bowl game. Again, once we get to the Big 12 it's a step up in competition. We got to get this third win. We are better than Buffalo. There a good team and we need to beat them, and we need to go up there and prove that we can beat them. Prove to ourselves we're worthy of going to a bowl game."
