BIG 12 MEDIA DAYS

July 20, 2005

Mike Leach

Khalid Naziruddin

E.J. Whitley

COACH LEACH: Well, our players are senior corner, Khalid, you are on your own with that one. The fellow here is offensive lineman E.J. Whitley. I'll foul up the pronunciation so I am not even going to dip any further with regard to it. I have attempted this thing for years and never gotten it right. Naziruddin is my best guess here, but he does a heck of a good job. Quite honestly, when he came to Texas Tech, he transferred to Texas Tech, walked on and ends up -- fights his way through and ends up starting corner as a walk-on from a lower-division school, which I thought was really an impressive course to get to where he is, and surprisingly enough has improved steadily. E.J., offensive lineman, played early for us, played several games as a freshman. The most amazing thing about E.J. is that he can play basketball besides just offensive line, and contrary to the athletic specimen you see before you, I just never really quite envisioned basketball, but he is good at that, too. Anyways, we are looking forward to a great season, excited about it, getting close to football time again. So any questions?

COACH LEACH: Taurance is doing good, yes. I am not allowed to comment on the guy's academic situation. He is out there practicing every day and, yes, we definitely anticipate him playing with us a whole lot this next year.

COACH LEACH: The tricky thing about quarterbacks is they are always changing, none of them stay the same. You know, they -- they are all getting better at some rate or another, so the thing that you do, you just check in on them each time you get to practice. At some point you have to make a decision so you can invest the reps in one guy or another and allow him to develop. So when we get into camp for about a week, maybe a week and a half at the most, we will take a look at where they are at. We will make the best decision as a staff that we can, and we will invest a lot of reps in one or two and go from there. I get all this stuff like there is some secret planning and stuff like that. It reminds me, they used to always talk about some secret recipe, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Colonel Sanders, he had this recipe for finger-good -- finger-licking-good chicken, and I drove by it one time when I was at the University of Kentucky, and I wanted to know where the vault for the recipe was exactly. Contrary to belief, we don't have a vault. We have a lot of classified things there, but this isn't one of them. There is no vault, no magic to this thing. What we are going to do is look at it, do our best to compare the guy that we think can win us the most games, and then he is going to get a lot of reps, and then the other guy is going to get one-third to a half as many reps and we will go from there. That's kind of how it has always been. Phillip Daugherty, he really threw great balls. Graham Harrell, until he hurt his ankle, but he is back 100 percent, and has been since June. Cody Hodges has looked good from beginning to end there in the spring.

COACH LEACH: You know, I think the most important thing from that is the fact that we really had a good preparation period, and I think coaches, players, just our entire organization as a team, I think really came together well and played well in order to beat Cal, who I thought was a really good football team, just what we can do together as a team, I think we need to keep that in perspective and understand that we can even improve on that together as coaches, players, everybody pulling for the same goal. None of that selfish stuff that gets caught up in there, which goes to the chemistry thing that you mentioned. I think chemistry is really kind of the most important thing with regard to a team effort. What we can accomplish together, I think, was manifest in that Cal win. I think we need to not just duplicate it, but also try to improve on it as we go into camp and go on throughout this season.

COACH LEACH: I thought part of it is we got older and more mature as a defense. You know, we were predominantly sophomores last year. This year we are predominantly juniors. I think the extra year, I think, should be helpful to us. Really, the way they came together as a unit, I think, as the year went on, was impressive. I have seen considerable improvement just in the weight room and out there in spring and all the rest. I am excited about that. It's kind of like your work is never done, you know. I have two great players sitting right here but, you know, the thing that needs to be understood is there is no plateau, no, hey, we have established this or that. These two guys could represent us as candidates, but everyone else needs to understand there is no plateaus, no benchmark to improvement. We need to keep improving every day we are out there. Both of these fellows are good examples of that, which others need to follow. We need to make sure that they keep their eye on the ball. You guys understand when we get back to school, we will get after it the whole time, right?

COACH LEACH: We would be excited to have Fuller back. We haven't heard anything for sure. He is still playing baseball up in Utah. I have been gone. I don't know what kind of thoughts he has in that area right now, but we would be excited to have him back. As far as starting rotation, I don't know anything about that. You have to fight through it. I think it's the best way to get some play. If we think some other guy is better, we play that guy.

COACH LEACH: I think the biggest thing is it really is constant reps, just have as productive of practices as you possibly can. Then the other thing, I think, getting a lot of people involved in the offensive effort. Quarterbacks have done some good things, but we have great linemen protecting them. A lot of people are touching the ball. A lot of people in defense are keeping track. A lot of people are helping them get the yards. The understanding that it is a team effort, but also getting as much as you possibly can in your plays in practice. I have always thought the most important aspect of a team is how they practice. I think how you practice is really crucial. I would like to think that we practice well, and that is -- because that's what you spend most your time doing, is going out there and practicing. How you practice, I think, is crucial.

COACH LEACH: I couldn't hear you.

COACH LEACH: He has done really well. I thought, among the receivers, he had the best spring of all of them. He did some things instinctively. You draw straight lines, you stick your toe here, you go here, catch this ball, it goes like this. Occasionally the world of football out there with defensive guys trying to bat you around, it doesn't work in a world of straight lines. Where it came to that fork in the road, some guys have the instincts to go to a productive spot as opposed to an unproductive spot or hesitate. He didn't hesitate. He had good instincts where to go. He is real explosive. I am excited to see where it goes.

COACH LEACH: Bigger. They are bigger collectively. Probably mid range as far as experience, more experienced than some groups, less experienced than others. Pretty explosive. What the ideal thing that you would like to have is a combination of experience and guys emerging. I think we have a little more emerging guys than we do experienced, but I feel really good about it. We have had some little guys which really look good getting loose and running with the ball and stuff like that. Now we are more bigger guys and sort of muscle a ball away from a guy and still have some escapability. I am excited about that. I think we have really a strong unit, though.

E.J. WHITLEY: I really enjoy playing for Coach Leach. He is a great players' coach. I think he has come a long ways. I love sitting down and talking to him in practice in spare times. We do spring drills where Coach Leach stops and thinks of a new play and he will throw it in the middle. He is a lot of fun and I enjoy being with him these first four years and what I came away with last year.

KHALID NAZIRUDDIN: I think it's fine fun. Halftimes are never boring. Halftime it is always something new with Coach Leach and he surprises me every time. I think that's a good thing about it, he gets you going during halftime.

COACH LEACH: I think pretty good. First of all, we are at home. We have had some non-conference schedules in the past where we probably won the award for toughest non-conference schedule, which I am not sure that's the one we are chasing. This one I think we have the games at home. I like that, rather than being road warriors in the non-conference, and I'm looking forward to that. The most important thing in non-conference is to win the game, but it's more important -- it goes beyond just winning it. You have to play well. If you don't play well, then you are not heading anywhere very fast. If you play bad, you are stepping off at a low point. If you play well, you step off at a high point. The season in football is all about steady improvement. We have to see that we are able to get that.

COACH LEACH: I haven't thought about it much. When it comes to playing in Lubbock, my favorite place to play would be in Lubbock. Would I rather play in Dallas in College Station? Probably so. One way or another I am going to be at the game, so they are going to have it regardless. I really haven't spent a great deal of time thinking about it. The Aggies are going to be tough any time you play them, so we just need to prepare well and go to the game and figure out a way to win it. If we play well, we will probably win, you know.