4/4 BAYLOR (1-0) €ˆ 56, NR/NR SMU €ˆ(0-1) 21
GERALD R. FORD STADIUM • DALLAS, TEXAS
SEPT. 4, 2015 • ATTENDANCE: 32,047

BAYLOR HEAD COACH Art Briles
Opening Statement:
Kind of what we figured. We knew it was going to be a dogfight, no question. Everybody thought we were going to just show up here and win. Doesn't happen. They're a good football team. Matt Davis is a great player, Coach Morris is about as well-schemed that you could have to open up with in a blind situation. I thought our defense adjusted and made some great adjustments as the game went on. I can't really remember. I think they scored 21 the first quarter and none the rest of the game, might have scored in the second, can't remember. What was it? Fourteen in the first, seven in the second. Yeah, offensively we came out pretty hot and then kind of self-destructed. That's what we have to be careful with. We had a couple of penalites, made a couple of plays, had a bobbled ball out of bounds that could have put us in good position when I think we were up by seven in the second and maybe 14.

But you've just got to win. It's like I was telling coaches, if we get out of here 12-9 tonight, I'm happy. 3-2, I'm happy. It's tough to win. Tough to win when people like to beat you. People like to beat us. Try to beat us.

On resiliency: We felt like if we could get away from them a little bit, we would be in decent shape. It's like I said, we've got money in the bank with these guys. We've been through a lot with them. We've played 26 games in two years and won 22 of them. Lost some that we shouldn't have lost. No question. We got to right a little bit of a wrong today from the Cotton Bowl eight months ago, so now maybe that Chick-Fil-A sandwich will taste good. I don't know, I haven't eaten it yet. So we've got a little bit of a decent feeling for a little bit. Our guys, when you've won as many games as we've won, when things go bad, and they had all the momentum in the second quarter. You could just feel it. You hang on. You hang on and keep fighting to try to make plays, and I thought our guys did a great job of just staying the course. I thought Seth was phenomenal for a first start.

On the defensive struggles: I think the unknown of not having any tape to really go on with these guys. You can watch tape on Clemson, you can watch tape on Tulsa and get a feel, but personnel is always different. Everybody kind of adjusts their scheme to personnel. We knew Davis would be heavy in the offense, because he's good. He's a good player. We knew he'd be a run-pass guy and I thought he made some exceptional plays to keep their chains going two or three times for them in critical situations. He's going to continue to do that. He had 186 yards rushing against Tulsa last year late and about 190 against UConn when they won. That's a lot of yards. We didn't have 190 I don't think. That's a lot of yards. He's good.

Big plays by Seth: Yeah, wish that last one would have counted, because he can really run. I hate that got called back. I thought he played really well. He had a couple of balls in the middle there that were a little suspect. But he's got a lot of confidence. But I thought he really had the ball on the money. I don't know what his stats were. I guess I could look at them. How many times did he throw, and I could tell you how many he completed. (30). I'm going to say he completed 24 out of 30. (15) Well, how many touchdowns? (Five). We'll take it. That ain't bad. He's just good. I'm a little surprised there were that many incompletions, but that is stuff we'll have to work on. This is the first time the guy has ever walked out and started a game in an enviornment like that. He started last year at home against Northwestern State. This was a tough enviornment. We knew it was going to be.

Things to correct: First game you always worry about penalties. We had some penalties that hurt us. They had a couple or two that hurt them in a drive. Just a little consistency or continuity that we can do this when we need to do it. Second and 4 we can get 5. We didn't really have that feel tonight. We were kind of searching a little bit in the run game, and personnel issues in the run game. They did a good job defensively. They forced us to do some things throwing the football that we normally wouldn't have. But that is probably the only thing. Defensively, it's all about assignment on defense. Anytime you play a scramble quarterback you're going to have some things that break down and he made some plays with his feet.

JUNIOR QUARTERBACK Seth Russell
I felt really comfortable. That's what we've been working for. We weren't quite sure what SMU was going to do on the defensive side. Luckily, we hit a couple deep balls early, which definitely made them a little bit softer, which definitely helped us out in the run game. We did a lot of things right, but we did a lot of things wrong. First game, starting off the season, you're going to have those deals. But we have to get better at and we can't have those things go wrong.

On the second quarter: They changed the defense up on us a little bit. They kind of got a little softer and brought some more inside blitzes. But with me, I just have to hit the receivers. I missed a couple throws, had an interception in there, threw the ball behind guys, threw the ball out of bounds. And those are things I can't do. I have to give them a chance to make plays. We kind of hit a little bit of a lull, but luckily the defense stepped up as we knew they would.

On assessing his performance: Sub-par. With the interception, it can be a big game-changer. If they did have a really potent offense, it could have definitely hurt us. it's momentum whenever you get those interceptions. (talking to Jay Lee about the interception that was tipped) He said the DB grabbed one of his arms and he wasn't able to get it up in time. But I forced that ball. I probably shouldn't have thrown it. I probably should have just ate it and run for three and got down. Those are the mistakes that you can't have in a tough game.

SENIOR WIDE RECEIVER Jay Lee
On his three tds, three catches: I had to make up for what happened in the second quarter. Coaches believed in me, and I believed in myself, and I had to go make some plays. (what happened in the 2Q) I had a false start. We had penalties. We had to shake it off and come back after halftime and make plays, and that's what we did.

On Seth: He did a lot of good things, but he still has a lot of things to work on. Seth did a great job out there of getting us set and getting the ball around to the weapons out there.

JUNIOR WIDE RECEIVER Corey Coleman We have full confidence in our defense that we were going to get a stop. And we know that every time we get the ball, our job is to score.

On making that TD catch: I think I did, but the ref didn't, so it doesn't go down in the books. But we'll watch film. Film don't lie.

SENIOR SAFETY Terrell Burt
It took us a little bit, and that's part of the game. We knew just starting the season sometimes it takes some time to play at a high level. But overall, as you saw in the second half, we got it together and made some adjustments and did a better job than we did in the first quarter.

On missed tackles: It was our fault, it's on us. We work on tackling every day. And that's something that shouldn't happen. That's something we'll go back and work on.

On SMU's first touchdown: It was just miscommunication, guys on the wrong page. And we can't have that as a defense. We know that and we're going to work on it and make sure we're better.

SENIOR OFFENSIVE TACKLE Spencer Drango
We just started executing better across the board. We were slowly but surely shooting off our toes with all the penalties we had, pre-snap. So, we minimized those and I think we finally got a rhythm going.

On Seth: I thought he did unbelievable. I wish that long run would have counted for him. that would have been an even better way to end it for him. But he did great in really his first start.

SMU HEAD COACH Chad Morris

Obviously not the end result that we were hoping for. I'm extremely proud of the way our guys played. We're going to celebrate that, but the days of the moral victories at SMU, this feeling that we have in our stomach us unacceptable.

The effort that I saw tonight, battling and really should have been tied at halftime or at least right there close to it. We should have got a field goal out of it.

Late in the third quarter it's still a ball game and we gave them some easy stuff and missed some tackles. It got away from us right there at the end.

On the sack at the end of the first half: Matt knew better. he came up to me and said coach I knew better I should've thrown it away. It was disappointing right there. It's going to be a valuable teaching experience for us to get the ball out and come away at least with a field goal.

I can do a better job of coaching in the second half. We weren't very good in the third quarter on third down, which resulted in getting our defense back on the field.

You've got to contest the ball, you've got to make plays in space. We did that at times but we gave them too many free yards. You've got to give Baylor credit. They've got some of the top wide receivers in the country.

On Matt Davis: His ability to move the chains with his feet when things break down around him is really his biggest asset. I thought he made some really good decisions.