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TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL: CENTRAL FLORIDA v BAYLORDecember 26, 2013Art BrilesGLENDALE, ARIZONA THE MODERATOR: We're excited to welcome Baylor. Coach. COACH BRILES: We're extremely excited for a variety of reasons. First of all, to represent Baylor University and the Big 12 Conference. We take and feel a whole lot of responsibility for doing a great job in this bowl, not just representing ourselves, but representing our conference and that part of the United States. Our guys are jacked, they're ready, they're excited. Coming to beautiful weather. It's going to be a great stadium, indoor stadium, which we like. We know the crowd is going to be enthusiastic and energetic. We are, too. We've had a year where our guys have maintained over a long period of time. We started August 31st, we'll finish off on January the 1st. I'm proud of our guys for hanging together through all this time, keeping their focus and energy because it takes a lot of soul, spirit, substance on the inside to be able to do that. So I'm very proud of them. We're extremely excited. This is a BCS game. It's a big deal for us. That was my whole deal when we were able to qualify for this game. And you do have to qualify. They're not invites. You have to earn it. We could all sit here and name the BCS people that are involved in games. The other bowl games, we've been in them, they're great bowl games, but you would have to look at a piece of paper to figure out who is playing. We're excited to be able to represent Baylor University. We couldn't be more thankful to be where we're at right now. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Art, you saw a lot of the players on the way up. What was the feeling like on the team plane coming here? COACH BRILES: We got them together last night and had a dinner, then a little workout this morning before we headed out. Our focus, it's been good all along. Gave them two, three days off. We're excited about playing UCF. I've known Coach O'Leary for about 10 years. We were in the conference together a few years ago when I was at Houston and he was at Central Florida. He's done a great job there. I'm guessing this is probably his 11th season. His team is well‑represented. They play tough on the football field. We know we're in a tough football game, buts that the way it should be. It's two good teams in a BCS game. Our guys are extremely active and excited and determined at the same time. Q. Can you talk about the receiver you're going to have back for this game, the general health of your team. COACH BRILES: Talking about getting Tevin Reese back. He's been our leading receiver, really up for the last four years. Up until this year, he's the most prominent receiver ever to be a receiver at Baylor University. Antwan Goodley broke his record this year in his junior season. Tevin is a guy that got us started this year. He's a big‑play guy. The first time he worked out since he got injured, I believe it was November the 7th against Oklahoma, was this morning. It adds a spark to our team without question. The main thing we're concerned is making sure he'll be healthy and he won't have a chance to injure himself anymore. When he's ready, able and healthy, he's dangerous. It makes us a more dangerous football team offensively without question. Q. You talked about the importance of playing in a BCS game. What would it mean to the program to win a BCS game? How do you keep the guys from being distracted with the pomp and circumstance that goes along with it? COACH BRILES: That's a great question, because it would mean a tremendous amount. I've been coaching a long time. It's my first opportunity to play in a BCS game. These guys have never had that opportunity. Baylor has never been in that situation before. It is all new. Who knows when the next opportunity is going to come. When you have the opportunity to do something, you take full advantage of it. We are not going to say, We'll get in there 2014, 2015, whenever you play the bowl game. We need to take full advantage of it. Our guys are wanting to get that on a T‑shirt that says BCS Bowl Champs. You can't order it unless you do that, so we'd like to order a shirt that says Baylor. Q. What have you seen from Central Florida, especially Blake Bortles, their quarterback? COACH BRILES: Yeah, he's really good. I watched a special on them during the season. Caught an ESPN All Access. It showed him, showed him moving around their facilities. Showed Coach O'Leary, insight into their program. The thing that I was watching that night, I thought, This guy is kind of different. I can understand why they're winning and doing really well on the offensive side of the ball. You can see it in people, you can feel it in people. It came through the TV to me, he's a winner. He's a tough kid that's done a great job for them. He's certainly getting a lot of accolades by his play and well‑deserved. As a general football team, I hit on it earlier, like I said, I've known Coach O'Leary a long time. His teams are going to play tough defense, not going to beat themselves, they're going to grind and find a way to get the ball down the field and work out some yardage on the offensive side and they're going to make you work on defense. They're not going to take a lot of chances defensively to give you big plays. We know we're in for a dogfight. That's the way it should be. You have two top 20 teams playing each other in America, it's going to be a heck of a game. Q. Talk about your defense this year, how much that's helped you get to this stage. COACH BRILES: Without question, that's really the difference in our football team. I mean, we were able to win I guess 10 games in 2011, we won eight last year. We've been pretty active offensively. This year the way our defense played, we felt good about our defense coming into the season, eight starters back, did a great job against UCLA in the Holiday Bowl last year. We had a good taste last year in the spring and summer. They started where they finished. Coach Bennett and the staff have done a great job of leading on that side of the ball. Our guys are very well‑prepared. That is the difference in our football team without question because we've maintained offensively, but we've grown defensively to where we have a top‑20 defense I think in nearly all categories, and we're first or second in the Big 12 in most categories. I mean, that's what it's all about. You can flash on offense, but if you're not playing great defense, it's just going to be a flash. We don't just want to sustain. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you. COACH BRILES: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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