Feb. 2, 2011

Opening Remarks
"Today was truly a success; it was a victory. We started the season 1-0, and we're very, very excited about this class for a number of reasons. We're built for speed, athleticism and character. We had a total of 29 signees; of those 29, 10 had BCS scholarship offers and 23 had other Division I scholarships. Of the 29, four were from the city of Memphis; we only offered eight in the city, so we're at 50 percent, which is probably where we are in terms of getting the city behind us. We will continue to be aggressive in our own backyard.

We also signed six junior college guys; five of them are already enrolled and going to class and working out. Three of them have three years to play three, so we expect them to have an impact, be productive and give us what we want in terms of quality play.

I've continued to talk about speed and athleticism. We have a number of guys that can play multiple positions, which is critical. Ideally, we'll know exactly what we want to do with them as they come in."

On recruiting
"There would be times when families would come to campus not really expecting much. These families would leave here blown away by what we had to offer. Parent's would say, `Coach, I'm really impressed by what you have going on here.' It just validated what I believed since day one, which is that we do have a great product. We can walk into (recruits) homes and not take a back seat to anyone.

As I look at this class, I think it settles our program, because we've addressed all our needs. We've had some attrition but it's allowed us to focus on those things we know will push us forward. As we've cleansed our program, this class serves as the foundation and strengthens our program as a whole.

I'm excited about it, and I'm excited about the style of guy we bring in. Not just about things like talent level, speed, or athleticism, but things like character, leadership, discipline and attitude."

Assessing his class
"Based just on what they bring to the table, I view this as a better class than last year's, just as I think next year's class will be better than this year's. We still need last year's class to continue to be as productive as they were. As a coach assess guys, you have to compare them to what you already have and think, `Who is he as good as or better than?' Because if he's not as good or better, why would we bring him? How would we improve?"

On Looking Ahead to Spring Ball
"I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. We've got what we call "Coach's Station" starting next week. Those 6 a.m. morning workouts; that's where it all starts, and we've got to put ourselves into position to come together as a team. A lot of the things we're going to be doing from the drill perspective are going to be all about competing and competition and having a winner and loser and some consequences behind it; just to have that competitive spirit throughout this whole spring. Be it in the weight room, in coach's station workouts or in spring ball, we've got to put ourselves into position to truly come together and compete for 60 minutes with attention to detail, effort and toughness."