BIG 12 MEDIA DAYS

July 19, 2005

Jaxson Appel

Dennis Franchione

Archie McDaniel

Reggie McNeal

COACH FRANCHIONE: The far guy is Archie McDaniel. Archie has been a very consistent player for us, great leader on our football team, a reason our defense can take another step here. Reggie McNeal probably doesn't need much introduction, I think, a great quarterback, guy that has had a fantastic career to this point, unlimited potential for what he can accomplish in his senior year. As coaches we feel the challenge on offense is to help Reggie be as good as he can be before he leaves our program, and certainly exciting to have both those guys and going into this year. This guy is Jaxson appel, going into his 15th year at Texas A&M. That's what opponents think when they hear Jaxson's name, because he has been playing for a while. You talk about a rock solid guy that is a steady performer down in and down out, and is a great leader of his defense, and makes sure that people are getting in the right position, and all three of these guys stand for what's great about college football. They are outstanding players, but they are really great people, good students, take care of business, all on track to graduate, and all exactly what you would love to coach and feel very grateful to be able to coach those guys.

COACH FRANCHIONE: Do I have a choice? I will make one. Just reflecting back, last year we certainly made some great strides and big steps forward. We felt like, as a program, in getting in the Cotton Bowl, and having the past season that we had. We probably finished the year last year as a top 25-35 team. We were ranked at times, but when it was all said and done, I think that's where we were. The foundation for that turn-around last year was the fact that we came together as a team and we reversed other turn-over take-away ratio. Reggie did such a tremendous job with that, the amount of times that we put the ball in his hands, and the very few turnovers that he had, and we had, as a team. Eight turnovers in 11 regular season games is a fantastic number, and he had the ball in his hands a lot to be able to do that. I have to say this, as a coach, Reggie's judgment being what it is with the football, makes you not afraid to call anything at any point in time in the game or any field position because you have such a great trust that he will not put you in a bad situation, and so it really lends you to do some things that you can't always do. In '05 we would like to take another step. We have eight starters back on offense and defense, and have a solid place kicker returning in Todd Pegram. We have 18 seniors on this football team on scholarship, which is the most we have had since I have been here, but by the same token we are still going to be a youthful football team. We played 10 or 11, maybe 12 red-shirt freshmen, maybe as starters last year at different times, and the good thing about freshmen, I always say, is they become sophomores, and so they will be red shirt sophomores this year. We feel good that they have some experience under their belt. There are still some guys like Danny Gorrer that will make a big impact for us. When you go down through the red shirt, Chris Harrington, Corey Clark, Cody Wallace, Kirk Elder, Stephen Hodge, Japhus Brown, Brock Newton, Pierre Brown, all guys that were young and made impacts with us last year are going to -- it's certainly good to know they have a little more experience under their belt. It's great on offense to know we have a senior quarterback back. We are 20th in the nation in total offense last year. Courtney Lewis is healthy, just started out, will be good for us. He played hurt a good bit of the time last year. We have four out of five starters back on our offensive line. That's a comforting feeling. We lost a good one in Geoff Hangartner, but Corey Clark will step in there nicely. We have two good senior receivers in Mobley and Jason Carter. Terrence Murphy had a great year last year. Defensively, the D line has a chance to be a good unit. Look at Red Bryant, Jason Jack, and Chris Harrington will be sophomores starting, and Johnny Jolly, a senior, and linebacker with Archie and Green, and Foliaki, all seniors. The guy who is set to have a break-out year is Justin Warren who is running and making plays sideline-to-sideline better than ever before. Jaxson anchors the secondary with Japhus Brown. We are inexperienced at corner, although Brock Newton has played a lot, and certainly we are glad of that, and Ray Ray Jones has played, Danny Gorrer, Marquis Carpenter. We have some experience returning, which is a comforting feeling for me sitting up here this year as compared to other years. We have some seniors, so we know we have a tough challenge ahead in our schedule. You always have a tough schedule when you play in the Big 12 South, and everybody comments sometimes about your November schedule and record, but we are always going to play a tough November when you are in this league. That's just the way it's going to be. You understand that. One of our challenges this year, I think, is how we are going to manage this road schedule. You go to Clemson, you go to Kansas State, you go to Colorado, you go to Texas Tech, and you go to Oklahoma. I can't sit here today and say that any of those are going to be anything other than a hard-fought football game, and we will have to fight for everything we get. But for us to take the next step, we are going to have to manage that part of it and take care of Kyle Field. These guys won some pivotal road games last year and took steps in that area, and now we need to take the next step.

COACH FRANCHIONE: That's a reflection on Reggie and his great athletic ability. Sometimes the worst thing that happens to our opponent's defense, and one of the best things that maybe happens to us is we get a pass called, and they are all dropping into coverage and doing a heck of a job covering them. Reggie pulled it down and starts running it. Keep in mind this guy ran 4.30 on pro timing day last spring. I haven't seen many guys time at 4.30. He has great speed to make great plays. I also jokingly say -- and I want to make sure everybody says jokingly -- that he overcomes my coaching some days. He can take those plays that break down and don't look like much and turn them into something positive. That's one of Reggie's strengths, and one of the things for us on offense, if there is any doubt about what to do, it's put it in number one's hands and let him do his stuff. He does it very well.

COACH FRANCHIONE: That's true.

COACH FRANCHIONE: I don't think there is any one or two particular areas. I just think overall Reggie has been very purposeful about growing as a quarterback. He is a better leader than I have ever seen him. He is more mature. He has depth and understanding of the offense that is as good as it has ever been. There is not an area that sticks out by itself. It's the total quarterback in all areas that I think led our coaches to vote him to that accolade.

COACH FRANCHIONE: You know, it never goes as fast as you want it to go, but when you live in my world every day, you feel pretty good about what we accomplished last year. I don't think a lot of people in this room last year, maybe other than these guys up here, thought we could accomplish everything that we did. We took a major step last year. So we feel pretty good about that. We didn't do everything that we wanted to do, and we certainly had some areas along the way that we stubbed our toe, but we grew in so many different areas and, you know what, obviously taking the next step this year is an important part of that. With our schedule we can take the next step, and maybe not show it on our record as well as we would like to. That's what you fear sometimes as a coach, that you see your team doing that, but we are playing a tough schedule. We play the number one schedule in the nation last year, and this one is going to be a challenge, too. We feel good about where we are and we are growing, and certainly we want to go farther and take more steps.

COACH FRANCHIONE: Our offensive line returns four starters from last year. I think the issue that you are hitting on, which we have targeted as coaches, is running a football and doing well up-front against the top 15 teams in the nation. That's the next step that we need to be able to do there. Obviously, we lost Jonte' and Byron at corner, but Brock played a good bit last year. Ray-Ray has played a good bit. We certainly are very high on Danny Gorrer. We are certainly excited about Marquis Carpenter. We certainly have some freshmen coming in that are going to push some people at corner, too. You hit two areas that I think are pivotal areas for us to show improvement in.

COACH FRANCHIONE: Well, we did -- we averaged about 165, 168 yards a game rushing last year. We are a little bit more of a throwing team than I think people have talked about. Tech was number one in the conference throwing the ball. I believe we were number two. I think we threw for a little over 260 yards a game. But we have to be -- I don't know if it's so much third and one or third and two that we are as concerned about as we have to be able to get our share of the rushing yards against the top teams in the conference, I think, to put balance on our offense and to be able to keep really good defenses out of tune just a little bit so we can have success moving the football, not just be one-sided as much. Courtney being healthy is probably a big key. That certainly limited him at times last year. We had to hold him out of the Wyoming game. Probably should have held him out of the Utah game in retrospect. We did hold him out of the Wyoming game, and that gave him more time to be healthy right there.

COACH FRANCHIONE: We didn't have time to have a hangover. It was quickly lick your wounds on the way home and get ready to play again. That's the name of this conference, you have to be able to play every week. You can't bask in a win too long and dwell on a loss too long. If you feel sorry for yourself too long or feel too good about yourself too long, somebody is going to plant a hickey on you pretty solid, and you can't let that happen. Older players, mature players help you avoid those pitfalls.

COACH FRANCHIONE: I think the best thing that will help our corners is our defensive line, pressure from them. If you can get pressure on the quarterback with a four-man pass rush, which we are hopeful we can more, then that's going to let those corners be a lot better in coverage. If you have to get in a blitz situation where you end up in a lot of man, now you are really counting the clicks, and how long you can let that quarterback have. Our defensive line, I think, is going to be helpful to our corners. They are not going to be the end-all answer. Linebackers certainly give you help in underneath coverage and combination coverages and putting teams -- if we can make them one dimensional and deny the run, where they have to become throwing teams, we can dictate the down and distance and coverages that we can play with our guys and maybe help this guy help that guy at times, and that's certainly going to make a difference.

JAXSON APPEL: I think it is because he is such a competitor. He wants to win. He wants to be one of the stars on the defense. I think he has a tremendous work ethic. He becomes one of the better corners at Texas A&M. He has good size.

ARCHIE McDANIEL: Just Danny is one of those kinds of guys where he wants to be good. He wants to play on the next level. He wants to hold the top receiver in the nation if he could week in and week out. He has tremendous athletic ability. He has potential to the sky.