	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 10, 2016

Chad Morris

Waco, Texas

Baylor - 40, SMU - 10

Q. Tale of two halves there.
COACH MORRIS: Yeah. You know it was -- first of all, I want to take my hat off to Baylor and Coach Grobe. Those guys fought hard in the second half and made some plays when they had to make them to come away and pull the game out.

I felt like our guys deserved to be in this moment. I felt like the moment wasn't too big for them. I'm extremely excited about the direction of where our football program is going. I think we're definitely trending, trending upward, and I'm proud of our players and proud of the effort they give. I'm not in this for moral victories by no means, but our guys came out and played hard, fought hard.

We had opportunities to make plays, and a team like Baylor, you can't settle for field goals. You've got to have touchdowns. We cost ourself a couple of picks. Actually, we had four turnovers. Any time you have four turnovers, it's hard to win anything in a pick six. But when you look out on the field and you see the majority of those kids are freshmen and sophomores, the future is getting bright, it is. But I'm proud of our players and proud of their effort.

We've got to clean up a lot of things. We've got to put the ball in the end zone, and we will.

Q. Ben Hicks' performance, especially in the first half.
COACH MORRIS: I felt in the first half he was at dynamic as anybody around. I thought he was on it. I thought he had -- he was ready for the moment and excited about this moment and was prepared.

I thought the second half we had a couple of things go wrong. We had Courtland open in the end zone and underthrew him, and the guy made an incredible play on it. Another corner ball here to Myron, and then just one mistake led to another. That's being a young kid. You've got to let those things go. You can't let one mistake lead to another one, and that's what happened today.

He'll learn from it. He's a competitor. I know everyone in his hometown is proud of him. I'm proud of him. He's got a great future.

Q. It seems like your wideouts were a positive, especially Sutton. What's made him so dynamic this season?
COACH MORRIS: Courtland is coming off of last year, and I've been around some great wide receivers. Newt Hopkins, who plays for the Texans, Courtland reminds me a lot of him. Courtland can contort his body in so many different directions and make plays. He's got great hands, great concentration for the ball. He is, he's a force.

But it was good to see James Proche make some plays today. Might be as good a catch as I've seen a kid go up and over and down here in the red zone. Again, freshmen, sophomores making plays. So I'm excited about those guys.

We're going to continue to keep pressing. The season's got to start tomorrow mentality for us, but it was good to see some of those guys make some plays. Wish we'd have had a few more of those plays made.

Q. What do you tell the guys at halftime? They're at 6-6. What do you tell them?
COACH MORRIS: Really the first thing I said to them is we belong in this moment. We've got to keep playing. You no he, we've got to keep fighting. This is going to be a four quarter game. We've got to have touchdowns.

Baylor is going to come out, and they're going to score. Nobody has really shut those guys out before. You've got to be able to match points, and you've got to be able to do that to stay in ball games like that. We were unable to do that, especially late in the second half, and that was disappointing.

Q. Do you feel like you let one off the hook in a way today? They were more than beatable today?
COACH MORRIS: I felt like we played the first half well enough to win. If we could have came out and matched that intensity and that energy and made a few plays, yes, I feel like we -- and our guys feel the same way. We deserve to be in this moment, we feel like, but we had an opportunity to play well enough.

If we just executed and made some plays in the critical situations down here -- you know, we make two picks, get down deep in the red zone, and we come away with zero points. You can't do that. If we come away with points there, I think the outcome could be different. I think the game is close to the bitter end in that case.

We've got to be able to capitalize off turnovers and be able to execute. We were unable to do that in a critical time.

Q. Can you take positives from the defensive play?
COACH MORRIS: Yeah. I thought defensively, they played too many plays tonight. They were on the field entirely too much. I tell you what, their play, they were very prepared and ready to go. I was excited about their performance tonight and the way that they performed and played and executed.

Again, when it got down late in the game, you know, one of the things we deal with is some depth. But they snapped the ball 103 times tonight, and we've got to be able to help them out. Three and outs don't do us any good.

Q. Earlier this week, you said that this was a good gauge for where you'd be year one to year two, and you like teams to show a lot of improvement from year one to year two. Early thoughts?
COACH MORRIS: I think if you look just at the line of -- for whatever stats mean, I think this is a much improved football team. I think we're a better football team than we were a year ago at this point playing the same opponents. We've got a lot of improvement to do. That's got to start tomorrow.

But I do. I feel like we're moving in the right direction. We're still a ways away, but we've got to keep pushing.

Q. Can you talk about the receiving depth? You went to Proche pretty much all game. Where was everyone else?
COACH MORRIS: That's something we've got to develop other play makers to be able to get the ball to our inside receivers. I feel like that's an area that we've got to do a better job of. Obviously, we know that those two guys are definitely dynamic. Xavier Castille has got to be a guy that's got to be involved in this thing. I think he had a couple of catches tonight.

Those guys made some plays tonight, and that's kind of what you want to do in a game like this. It was unfortunate Xavier Jones didn't get to play. We held him out. He's still having a nagging hamstring injury. We'll see where he is and reassess him. It's unfortunate for Matt. But we're going to keep pushing.

Like I said, I think that you'll continue to see this team continue to grow.

Q. When did you tell Ben he would start?
COACH MORRIS: He kind of had an idea all week he was going to have an opportunity to play. He was prepared. He's been preparing for this moment his whole life.

Q. And Matt going forward, do you expect him to play?
COACH MORRIS: We'll look at everything and assess things Monday, and we'll go from there.

Q. Is this the first time you've been to McLane?
COACH MORRIS: It is.

Q. Thoughts about it?
COACH MORRIS: It's a beautiful stadium, outstanding stadium. This is definitely first class.

Q. I've got to ask you. Everyone is talking about it. Did you in any way, shape, or form view this game as possibly a job interview? How can you not look ahead knowing there might be an opening here in a year?
COACH MORRIS: That's a -- you know, a game like this, that's very unfair. I'm very proud of our players. I love my guys, and we're playing exceptionally hard. We're building something, and I felt like we were in the moment right here. I felt like we took these guys to the end and right there to late fourth quarter.

So all we can control is ourselves. We've just got to continue to get better.

Q. Is Badejo okay? Do you know yet?
COACH MORRIS: He came back in actually. He came back in late.

Q. You said that Ben had an idea during the week that he'd get a chance to play. With this being his first start and in his hometown, what was he like before the game in terms of his nerves and emotions?
COACH MORRIS: Ben is very confident. He was very calm and excited. I really didn't say a whole lot to him. I talked to him a little bit last night. Talked to him a little lit in the locker room today. I just told him, go in and have fun. That's why you started playing this game is to have fun. We're going to have fun as a coaching staff. We're going to turn it loose. We just ask you to do the same thing. You don't have to go out and win the game for us, just go out and manage the game for us.

And I know there's some throws he wishes he had back. I thought the pick six was a very critical turning point in this ball game, especially off the interception right down here. We throw a pick and turn right back around and throw another pick six. That was a back breaker. I think, if we take those two out, I think the game is definitely down to the wire.

Q. Not having Xavier Jones, what did you think of Ke'Mon Freeman and Braeden West? What do you think of the job they did?
COACH MORRIS: I think they did a decent job. They both rushed for over 80 yards. Those two guys right there are really talented players. Our depth at running back is an area we've got to continue to improve on. Hopefully, we'll get Xavier back this next week. He definitely gives us some depth. I thought Ke'Mon did some really good things. Braeden did some good things. Again, we laid the ball on the ground too much, and that's an area of concern for me.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297