Aug. 1, 2008
WACO, Texas - The Art Briles era at Baylor officially opened Friday afternoon with the first day of fall camp at the football practice fields. The team practiced two and a half hours in shorts and helmets. Baylor continues fall camp Saturday with an 11:30 a.m. practice. [Briles quotes below]
NOTES: Baylor track and field All-American Jacob Norman suited up and participated on the first day of practice. The third-year sprinter from Temple, Texas, has walked on as a receiver and has two seasons of eligibility remaining in football... Twenty-one true freshman participated in practice, their first fall camp experience... The majority of the Bears are enrolled in Baylor's second summer session, which concludes Aug. 13 - fall classes begin Aug. 25, three days before the season opener... Baylor opens its 2008 season Aug. 28 when it hosts 2007 Meineke Bowl champion Wake Forest at Floyd Casey Stadium in front of a national television audience on FSN.
BAYLOR HEAD COACH Art Briles - Aug. 1, 2008
On the first day of practice:
"You can always do better, but I thought our guys came out with a good attitude, enthusiasm, effort and good retention. We are going to have to make sure we are on the right path to victory. All the intangibles are there, we just have to put the basics in place; which is defense hustling to the ball, sure handed tackles when we get the pads on and protecting the ball on offense."
On the players fighting through the hot weather:
"It tests your mental toughness a little bit. We assume our guys are tough, we really do. We don't look at a guy and say `oh he's not tough' because he's not working at the speed we want. We are under the consideration that we need to be careful with them because, with the heat, that (the health of our student-athletes) is one thing we always monitor out here. We expect our guys to be tough and we expect them to play hard and if they start to get winded or light-headed, we will stop and get them water."
On what impressed him the most on the first day:
"I think what stood out was the effort overall. That's the main thing and that's what we have to play with. If it's an intangible, you have to have it. Effort, attitude, toughness, tenacity, intelligence, heart, grit, you know, all of those things when they talk about Baylor football is what they have to talk about. We have to control the things we can control, and that's what we look for in our football players before today was make sure they did the little things right."
On true freshmen making an impact:
"Right now it looks like Kendall Wright and Robert Griffin are going to play. I would be surprised if that did not work out for them, and I would be surprised if there weren't some others before it's all said and done."
On throwing the freshmen right in at practice:
"They are feeling the heat, but we aren't asking them to make plays at the first team level. We are just asking them to listen, learn and help us with the scout team right now."
On making a decision on the quarterback position:
"There probably is a point (when a decision needs to be made) but we don't know when that point is. In the season you get ready in three days and we have got 20 or more practices until Wake Forest. We feel like time is not a pressing matter right now."
