He gave an opening statement and was asked three questions on the AAC media teleconference (none by me because I was picking up a relative from the hospital who had minor surgery).
"It (the open date) fit right during our fall break. We did not have school on Thursday or Friday, so we practiced Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then I cut the guys loose and then we're going to have a normal week of practice beginning with today. I thought that was good for the guys after six games, the halfway point of the regular season, to be able to take a few days off. I think we'll see guys went home, the ones who are not here from New Orleans, and they had a chance to heal up. We had a good practice this morning and a lot of guys available who probably wouldn't have been if we had a game last weekend.
"I'm looking forward to SMU. I think coach (Sonny) Dykes has done a super job over there. He's had a very difficult schedule, and you see some good things from them in all three phases. They have a really explosive return game--punt returning, kick return. They are doing a really good job offensively in spreading the field and getting the ball to fast people in open spaces. Defensively they cause problems because they come at you a bunch of different angles. A lot of second-level blitzes. It's going to be a heck of a challenge for us on Saturday."
Does the NCAA need to review the targeting rule at the end of the year? So many players are being ejected when time and space is not even a consideration, especially when the ball carrier changes his angle.
"Sometimes it happens bang-bang and it's hard for a guy to change angles and maybe the helmet to helmet occurred because the offensive player changed the angle and not the defensive player. It is a great in principle. We need to get the head out of contact as much as we possibly can. Everybody agrees with that--coaches, players, administrators--but sometimes it's difficult. You certainly don't want to penalize a player for something that would have been really difficult to avoid."
What's the time frame on making a decision on who is going to start at QB or if you are going to split reps like you did the last game?
"We are going to see how the week plays out exactly what we're going to do. We had our first practice today and are going to go through the week and just see how everything goes. They are both doing a nice job though."
With the SMU game coming up, sitting at 1-1 in the conference with the preseason favorite in the West already in the rearview mirror, the winner will be no worse than second place. Can you talk about what's on the line?
"It's pretty early to start talking about that. We just need to get a win. Every ball coach talks about being 1-0 each week. We've got to make sure that we're focused on the task at hand, and obviously that's SMU. We need to play a great game Saturday. I've got a lot of respect for them. They've beaten us in a couple of close games the last couple of years and have a lot of talent and ability over there. We need to play well and put everything into this game."
"It (the open date) fit right during our fall break. We did not have school on Thursday or Friday, so we practiced Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then I cut the guys loose and then we're going to have a normal week of practice beginning with today. I thought that was good for the guys after six games, the halfway point of the regular season, to be able to take a few days off. I think we'll see guys went home, the ones who are not here from New Orleans, and they had a chance to heal up. We had a good practice this morning and a lot of guys available who probably wouldn't have been if we had a game last weekend.
"I'm looking forward to SMU. I think coach (Sonny) Dykes has done a super job over there. He's had a very difficult schedule, and you see some good things from them in all three phases. They have a really explosive return game--punt returning, kick return. They are doing a really good job offensively in spreading the field and getting the ball to fast people in open spaces. Defensively they cause problems because they come at you a bunch of different angles. A lot of second-level blitzes. It's going to be a heck of a challenge for us on Saturday."
Does the NCAA need to review the targeting rule at the end of the year? So many players are being ejected when time and space is not even a consideration, especially when the ball carrier changes his angle.
"Sometimes it happens bang-bang and it's hard for a guy to change angles and maybe the helmet to helmet occurred because the offensive player changed the angle and not the defensive player. It is a great in principle. We need to get the head out of contact as much as we possibly can. Everybody agrees with that--coaches, players, administrators--but sometimes it's difficult. You certainly don't want to penalize a player for something that would have been really difficult to avoid."
What's the time frame on making a decision on who is going to start at QB or if you are going to split reps like you did the last game?
"We are going to see how the week plays out exactly what we're going to do. We had our first practice today and are going to go through the week and just see how everything goes. They are both doing a nice job though."
With the SMU game coming up, sitting at 1-1 in the conference with the preseason favorite in the West already in the rearview mirror, the winner will be no worse than second place. Can you talk about what's on the line?
"It's pretty early to start talking about that. We just need to get a win. Every ball coach talks about being 1-0 each week. We've got to make sure that we're focused on the task at hand, and obviously that's SMU. We need to play a great game Saturday. I've got a lot of respect for them. They've beaten us in a couple of close games the last couple of years and have a lot of talent and ability over there. We need to play well and put everything into this game."