TCU Hosts its 2002 Football Media Day
8/10/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 10, 2002
With practice beginning and the season opener just over three weeks away, TCU hosted its annual football media day Saturday afternoon at the Justin Athletic Center.
Head Coach Gary Patterson and selected players attended the event and shared their thoughts on the upcoming campaign. Below are quotes from Coach Patterson and seniors linebacker LaMarcus McDonald and quarterback Sean Stilley.
Head Coach Gary Patterson:
On expectations for the upcoming season:
"Anytime you have a large group of returnees, especially seniors, like we do, you will have high expectations. This is also special for me personally because this group of seniors is the first class that I recruited when I came here five years ago. So I especially want this group of 17 or 18 seniors to go out with five consecutive bowl appearances and a conference championship."
On the team's experience:
"We really have even more returning starters than the 16 that we list because Bo Schobel and Josh Goolsby don't even figure into the "starters returning" equation because they were hurt for so much of last season. When you have 48 letterwinners returning like we do, you have a lot of guys who have played a lot of football to anchor your team. On the other hand, we also have just four seniors starting for us on defense this year, so while we have a lot of experience, we are also still a fairly young team."
On TCU's defense:
"While we fell off a bit defensively last season after being first in the nation the year before, that had a lot to do with giving up too many big plays, so that will be a big focus for us defensively as we prepare for the season."
On the team's offseason preparation:
"I think as a team, we are as strong ever. I keep waiting for the year when we will plateau in the weight room, but that never seems to happen. I think a lot of that has to do with kids coming out of high school bigger and stronger and with more potential every year. I think we broke something like 22 team records and four school records in the weight room last spring, which is basically all of the records we have, so that shows us that our guys keep upping the bar each year."
On season opener versus Cincinnati:
"It is a more important game than last year's season opener at Nebraska. Just like last year, it is on national TV, but this is a conference game. So, for us, it is the first step towards Memphis and playing in the Liberty Bowl as the conference champion. That is our goal this year. We will have to take it one game at a time in order to be conference champs and that road begins in Cincinnati."
On Sean Stilley taking over at quarterback:
"Sean is a journeyman. He has waited his turn, got to start a couple of games last year and now is his chance. The advice that I like to give Sean is just for him to be Sean Stilley. He doesn't have to be anything more than what he is for this football team. We have never won a game here because of a quarterback. We've won with a quarterback. We've won because of a tailback. We've won because of great defense and special teams. Sean has a great supporting cast around him, with a full group of wide receivers back, including guys like Adrian Madise and LaTarence Dunbar, all of our tailbacks and fullbacks and 14-of-15 offensive linemen back this season. So, the biggest key for Sean is to spread the ball around, get us in the right place and do the right things. I think if he does that and gives us some of his great leadership, we will have a chance to be a lot more successful on offense this season than we were a year ago. Additionally, Sean is a great kid. He is going to graduate on time and he is going to be highly successful."
On where he would like the team to be at the end of the season:
"Well, all of us would like to end up in Memphis because that would mean that we are the conference champion. But, right now we're really not even talking about bowls. If you look at our pyramid, you'll see that the number one thing for us is to start family, attitude and chemistry. We all understand that if we can't worry about wins and losses is we don't have those things when we start the season and we don't live by those ideals. We have to beat us before we can beat Cincinnati or anybody else on our schedule. What we have to work towards right now is having the top 45 to 60 players to understand their roles and what they need to do for the team. We feel that if we do that, things will take care of themselves. If we don't, we'll struggle, like 50 percent of all teams do. We don't want to be part of that 50 percent."
Senior linebacker LaMarcus McDonald
On pressure of preseason expectations:
"The goals that I set for myself are even higher than what anybody else could expect from me, so the pressure is not from what other people think or expect but what I think or expect myself to do. I just have to go out and play my game and play within myself and things will happen the way they are meant to."
On opening the season with Cincinnati:
"This is a very big game, but no game is any bigger than another for me. No matter who we play, it's like a championship game for me. I play every game like it's my last."
On his preseason accolades:
"To have people say that they think that I am one of the best players in the nation is an honor, but it is not my focus. I focus on the season and my team so we can come out as winners. Things like the Hula Bowl are going to be there at the season is over, but it kind of takes away from the honor of being invited if I come from a losing team and an organization that didn't produce. So, right now my main focus is this season and coming out victorious. When I was a kid, I used to think about how I wanted to win this award and that award, but now it is about the team. If we do what we need to do as a team, all of the other things will work itself out."
On familiarity with coaching staff in its second year:
"No doubt there is more familiarity there. All of the coaches and players are a lot more familiar with each other now than we were last year. Once you've been to battle together one time, then you can do it even better the next time. You know what each other is thinking and have a better feel for each other."
On stepping up in big games:
"Like Marshall Faulk says, special players make special plays on special days. When it's a big game, you have to show up because if you don't show up then, people will begin to wonder what is 'Why is this guy so special?' But, it's easy to get up for big games, it's the less recognized ones that you have to get yourself up for and Coach Patterson reminds us of that all the time."
On being a leader on the defense:
"There is no doubt that I have to be a leader because I am in the middle. I am the one always in the middle of all the commotion. I always have to be talking and let my teammates know what is going on around them, so I have to be a leader. But, in the end, we are all only as good as the person in front of us. If the man in front of me is not producing, then it looks like I'm not producing. So we have to do it as a team."
On Conference USA:
"Last year, as a player, I didn't know that teams in this conference threw the ball so much. So, knowing things like that and how teams play, we all feel a lot more comfortable with this conference this year. As far as teams that I expect to be at the top of the league, you have to look at Southern Miss, East Carolina and Louisville, who always seems to be (nationally) ranked, and Cincinnati."
Senior quarterback Sean Stilley
On preseason publications generally picking TCU to finish in the middle of the pack in C-USA:
"I'm sure that a lot of that has to do with the departure of Casey (Printers) and the question of me being the starting quarterback. But, no matter what is said now, there is nothing set and done until the final horn sounds at the end of the season, so everyone will know where we stand when that happens. What is said now really doesn't mean anything, so we try to keep our noses out of the papers and magazines. Also, when expectations aren't that high, it takes a lot of the pressure off us because everything you do will be better than what is expected. But, until we get something going consistently, there will be a question mark in a lot of people's minds."
On Conference USA:
"It is a very competitive conference. The WAC was too, but a lot of the teams in C-USA have great defenses and especially explosive offenses, so there was a lot to learn as a first year team in this conference. But, having been through that has definitely taken a bit of the edge off because now we know what to expect. We know that week in and week out we need to prepare the best that we can in order to win games in this conference and be successful."
On the wide receivers:
"Wow, who can complain about (LaTarence) Dunbar, (Adrian) Madise, Terran Williams and Reggie Harrell, who a lot of people didn't get to see last year because he was hurt all of last year with a knee injury? Harrell will be a great addition, a guy who you can throw it to anywhere and he will catch it -- a big target who can also run. All of the guys are real explosive -- guys who can take a two-yard pass and turn it into a 70-yard touchdown, which really helps me out."
On the full-time return of Jamal Powell to the offensive line:
"It is a big plus for us because Jamal is the anchor of our line. He is also definitely the emotional anchor of our line as a big motivator who can really get people going. It was hard when he was down last year and not having him there to get us going because he was kind of quiet. Now he has brought a lot back. He's real excited and ready to go."
On Cincinnati:
"We've been looking at tapes of them all summer. I respect them a lot. I think they have nine-of-11 starters coming back on defense. They look very good. They're very physical, but the biggest thing about them is that they have a lot of speed. Last year we opened at Nebraska and had no problem getting up for that. Well, we have to have the same mentality for this game, playing in Cincinnati's house because it is a conference game. So, it is a very important game, they are a great team and we're playing at their house, so we have to be ready."
