Patterson Quotes from Signing Day
2/5/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Feb. 5, 2003
On his signing class:
"We're excited about this signing class. Over the last two years we've felt we've signed a group of kids placing an emphasis on speed. Probably the highlight position of this class is at quarterback, where we took three who are athletes, the number one being James Battle from Denton Ryan [High School]. We're very excited about the other two gentlemen, Brian Bonner and Chad Huffman, as well."
On key positions to fill:
"Probably one of the impact places we had to find people was offensive line. Another place is at linebacker. We felt like we are short there. We ended up committing three of those guys, with another one being a junior college player."
On academics:
"The nice thing about it is we had a GPA of over a 2.4 as a group in the fall which is very high. Over the last three years we've graduated probably over 75 percent of our kids with 20-of-22 in this year's senior class graduating. Most of you know the academic standards are going to change. The emphasis is not going to be so much getting the kids in school, but it's whether they can stay in school. I think the emphasis has to go back a little bit more on the student. In the five years we've been here, to be able to go to five bowl games and to win three championships and still graduate young men, speaks highly of our program."
Who are some of the players to watch:
"Brian Bonner from Beeville [Texas] is a guy who can play safety, he can play wide receiver, he can play corner - he's very athletic. You have people like Marcus Draper who was twice 2-A Player of the Year. Not only is he a fullback, he's a long snapper, he played linebacker and he played defensive line. He can also punt. Tommy Blake was one of the South Texas Players of the Year on offense. He could probably be a linebacker or a defensive end because he is 6-4 and about 240 pounds."
On moving players to different positions:
"What we do as far as our program is concerned, when a young man, as a freshman comes in, we allow him to play anywhere he wants to play to start out. We have found out that they are a lot happier when they come in and are given opportunity."
