Big 12 Coaches' Teleconference Quotes

Oklahoma Offensive Coordinator Chuck Long
“We are truly excited about the matchup and the great tradition of Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. There are two great quarterbacks going at it in Jason White of OU and Matt Leinart of USC. They take their teams down the fields and have great efficiency ratings as passers.

"This should be a great matchup with a tremendous USC team and could get some of the top ratings ever for a college football game. There will be a great deal of interest in this game. There will be a lot of cat-and-mouse games between the coaching staffs as far as play-calling, and that should be interesting.

"Jason White has handled some adversity and really kept fighting back -- especially like games where we trailed by a couple of touchdowns at Texas A&M. Having the balance of Jason and Adrian Peterson has given us great balance and taken a lot of pressure off our line.”

Colorado Coach Gary Barnett
“We're looking forward to getting back on the field after the way we played against Oklahoma. This is a great opportunity against UTEP, and we appreciate the job that coach (Mike ) Price and his staff have done there this season. You have finals and we let our kids go home for Christmas, so the quality of practice suffers some. We try to be a little more fundamental, try to break it down a little more and try to get our young kids a little more work. We have a pretty young team, and this will be like another spring training for us. Just watching our team grow together and just become a really positive unit. We have seen so many young players grow this year, and they have been fun to coach. Except for last Saturday against Oklahoma, it has been a fun and rewarding season. Jason White and Adrian Peterson (of Oklahoma) can play the game.”

Iowa State Offensive Coordinator Barney Cotton
“We are really pleased to be going to the Independence Bowl and played a very good MAC (Mid-American Conference team) in Northern Illinois earlier this year. We're familiar with how competitive teams from this conference are. We have been pleased with the development of (TB) Stevie Hicks, and he did extra work on Sundays. He is a young guy, just a sophomore, and he has a great future ahead with his work ethic and concern for ball security. Our kids have proven their heart the last five or six games, and they have shown a lot of dedication and commitment. We practiced last week after the game with Missouri, and it was like spring training. The ones competed against the ones and showed a lot of spirit on the practice field. Our line has matured quite a bit.”

Oklahoma State Coach Les Miles
“Congratulations to Oklahoma for winning the Big 12 Championship and to Texas for getting a BCS berth. This is a great opportunity for our program, and after playing and coaching at Michigan, the chance to play Ohio State is exciting for our team and me. That Michigan-Ohio State game traditionally decided the Big Ten Championship and brings back great memories. We have been in Houston the year before, Dallas last year and San Antonio this year, and we truly enjoy being in Texas for bowl games. There is great focus on these games, and it's so much fun for Oklahoma State supporters and families of our players to go to Texas. We cannot encumber our student-athletes around dead week' and final exams with long practice schedules; we'll go into heavier preparations in the closing days prior to going to San Antonio. We need to be at our best game speed to compete against Ohio State.”

Texas Coach Mack Brown
“We're obviously really excited about the fact that we're going to the Rose Bowl. They tell me that the Pac-10 actually owns one-third of the bowl. For years it was a Pacific-10 and Big Ten agreement, and our kids are excited about the opportunity. I've been told that the 1941 Texas team with Noble Doss almost made it to the Rose Bowl, but the war and move of the game to Durham, N.C., made Texas miss the invitation. Coach (Darrell) Royal and coach (Bo) Schembechler will be there, and it will be a great time. Michigan might have the advantage from being to many Rose Bowls and even last year. I have watched Michigan on TV, and we haven't seen much film, but our coaches are doing the film exchange today (Dec. 6). It's surprising that Texas and Michigan have never played and that Texas has never gone to the Rose Bowl.”

Texas A&M Coach Dennis Franchione
“Obviously, we're excited to be playing in a New Year's bowl game and our 11th appearance in the (SBC) Cotton Bowl. I don't know whether it will be a true home' game for us, but our fans are happy to be able to make that trip. I have been a proponent of allowing non-bowl teams to practice, and this is a very important time for preparing our young guys for future competition. We can just about come up with two to three days of cumulative work like spring practice. After the flight back from Utah (Sept. 2 season opener), I don't know whether any of us had any thoughts of a bowl. We took a lot of young players and kept believing in them. We feel very fortunate about the kind of season we have had. We knew we were close, and we had so many that ended on the last play or in overtime, and we got our share of those.”

Texas Tech Coach Mike Leach
“We're excited about going to the (Pacific Life) Holiday Bowl and about playing Cal. Each team presents its challenges, and Cal presents one to us on offense. We just hope to score more than they do in these situations, and we would like to keep the ball and make first downs. Every year that I have been involved in the bowl situation, there are some surprises, and this was one. Maybe they haven't involved Texas Tech, but you don't know until the final day. After the bowl, I hope to get in some surfing out there with a wet suit. Bowl preparations, meetings, etc., are kind of hectic, and time is at a premium. I thought going in Texas might have a chance to get into the BCS. In football, everyone is mad, and I don't know that Cal will be any madder than anyone else. We have to prove ourselves every week.”

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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