Dennis Franchione Quotations

We're going to make a tight end out of you, yet.

...With 9:36 left in the game, in retrospect we might have gone for two because we ended up with three more plays on offense the rest of the game. It's a lot easier looking back and analyzing going for two.

They say one of the greatest forms of flattery is for your son to follow in your footsteps. And so I enjoy that greatest form of flattery, without a doubt.

It's the reality of our business.

Mike is probably one of the nation's elite running backs, and arguably the top running back in the state of Texas. One of the things that sticks out to me is that he's a pretty complete back coming out of high school.

Obviously, he can run and do a lot of things with the ball in his hands. But he's a good receiver, he catches the ball very well. The other thing that really catches your eye is he's a good blocker. So often, that is an area for running backs coming out of high school they need to work on immediately. Mike is pretty good at it and that's a bonus.

I was impressed with how far we were able to get along on 15 days.

If they're prideful, it helps tremendously. That's certainly a gut-check.

I don't think Reggie has made a bad decision yet. He hasn't forced any balls. He is really comfortable here. He's doing his thing and is really sharp.

He has experience as both a defensive coordinator and head coach, and I have known Gary for many years. I know he has great passion for his players and he has a high energy level. I have the utmost confidence in his ability to put together an outstanding defense.

He is a bright young coach who will do a great job of developing our defensive backs and he is an excellent recruiter.

He never really wavered. Obviously, when you've got a team that played for the national championship three years in a row hammering you, it takes some intestinal fortitude to stand up to that and play close to home where your family can see you play. Mike stood right in there all the way through this process.

He's got quite an interesting story and our military background was an allure.

He was signed to come in and win that job. But Richie Bean is going to have some say about that.

I thought there was no way they've got that many scholarships available. I didn't think their senior class was that big.

I think this class reflects we did a very good job of meeting our needs.

It is monitored and audited to the dime. There are all kinds of checks and balances and procedures to make sure there is no abuse of the system.

I think they have a lot of confidence in the history of this program.

Jerrod is certainly an exciting prospect at quarterback, and that is the only position we have really thought about Jerrod at.

Reggie certainly had a fantastic game throwing and running the football and really only played 2 1/2 quarters to accomplish all of that.

Stephen has had an outstanding spring. He took that game and a half at the end of the season and used it to create a springboard into this year.

I think guys are still confident they can make plays. They know they need to make them. They get frustrated when they don't and that's true of every football team that goes through any of the things we're going through.

We need to play. We don't need to play a game, take a week off, play a game, take another week off. That's not a very good schedule for us.

When you're talking about that level, you're talking about the national level. You're talking about the elite teams in the nation. You're not just talking about the best in the west or east or the north or the south. We're talking about great football programs.

We follow NCAA rules here at Texas A&M. I believe Terrence did not explain himself well. We will do all that we can, within the rules of the NCAA, to help our players be successful on the field, in the classrooms and in life.

We know Oklahoma State has some talent at quarterback. We saw Bobby Reid out of high school, and he's going to be a great player. Al Pena looked good while he was in there last week against Missouri. We're just not sure what they may be doing at that position.

We are seeing far more one-back sets and far more need to be in nickel situations in today's college football than we are seeing two-back sets. We're just kind of basing it on what we are seeing the most and working the other direction basing with the 4-3 and working out to the nickel.

The only ranking that really matters to us is how we feel about this class, and we feel like we have another good, solid class.

We didn't have a power back in the past quite like him.

There are no weaknesses. You go position-by-position with them, and they are strong across the board.

This will put more speed on the field.

With eight returning starters on both sides, we have a little more experience to take in a setting like that. Probably very few people realized Utah was a BCS-caliber team at that time, and that wasn't much fun. ... The biggest plus is maturity and experience, which we couldn't claim at a lot of positions last season.

Yes, we take care of our kids, but we don't do anything outside of NCAA rules.

We certainly think that's big. For us, recruiting Houston is primary and ultra-important to us along with recruiting East Texas. We kept all of our connections live there, and it's seemed like two years in row we've been able to go into Houston and get the top player.

We did a little bit against each other and worked a little bit on Clemson today. It was good preparation and they came back pretty good from last night's workout. We started subtly working on Clemson yesterday and today.

Are we there yet? I can't say that, but we're a lot closer than we were. Hopefully we'll take another step this year.

These 14 players were selected by their teammates and they are a very important part of this team. They provide needed input and assistance in the way we operate as a team.

Sometimes when you get in a rhythm, you're in that zone. This was Reggie McNeal's zone today. He broke some records today, and it's probably not going to be the last record he breaks this year.

After evaluating our defense, I felt like it was in the best interest of our football program to make a change at defensive coordinator. I think Carl is an outstanding person and an excellent coach, but for whatever reason, we were not effective on defense.

Coach Snyder did one of the greatest coaching jobs in the history of collegiate football at Kansas State. He did it with class, and we will miss him in the Big 12 Conference.

This is probably the most complete game we've played all year.

I like it a lot better coaching him than facing him. He's a good athlete that can catch the ball, run with it and make things happen.

I really admire how he's fought through his injury and fought back. I really think he's got a chance to get back to top form.

I don't think anybody should have any doubt about the way he throws the football, his potential as a quarterback. It's time for him to take the next step in his career.

I appreciate the people that were here. We're certainly concerned about people's safety, but the student body was awesome.