Feb. 2, 2005

"Some of the things that we were trying to get out of the 2005 class is we wanted to balance out as a team with an emphasis on speed. For the first time since 1999, we signed more young men that are going to be on the defensive side of the football. We had to have an emphasis on tailback, which we feel like we fulfilled. We also had to fill some needs in the kicking game. We have a new punter and kicker in place for the spring, which we felt was important to go along with the guys that we have coming back."

"We wanted to get a punter and kicker and we were able to do that. On offense, we wanted to get speed at the running back position and add a fullback. With Aaron Brown and Joseph Turner at tailback and Chris Smith at a fullback, we feel like we accomplished what we wanted to."

"It is always interesting for me on signing day because I never look at where the kids are ranked throughout the recruiting process. I find out where they're ranked at this press conference when I see their bio information. Looking at it, there are a lot of people out there that feel like this class is a good one."

"This might be the best class of the last four, but only time will tell. That is why I call them "paper tigers" because it takes a lot more than stats to be successful. That's my job to help them improve when they get here."

On quarterback Marcus Jackson
"We feel good about adding Marcus Jackson to the quarteback situation as he is a very athletic and intelligent young man. Look for big things from Marcus, as we think he'll be able to come in and learn the offensive very quickly."

"We think that Marcus is very close to former TCU quarterback Patrick Batteaux. Marcus is probably not as fast as Patrick, but he throws the ball better than him."

On the offensive line
"We've recruited some athletic guys the last couple of years that came in around the 240 range, so we've had to grow them up and put pounds on their frame. Nic Richmond, Tyler Marrou and James Vess all come in to play on the line."

"Richmond might be the steal of the Metroplex. You have a 6-8, 285 pound guy that played tennis his first two years of high school. He is the first player at 6-8 that I have seen that is able to get in the four-point stance as a defensive lineman and move around the way he does. He'll be an offensive lineman that can probably get to 320 pounds here for us."

On the defensive side of the ball
"One of the things we've always had here is great defensive lineman. Last year, we weren't happy with the way we played defensively so we tried to get some players to fill out the defensive line. Chris Jones is an impact player that we feel will be able to come in and contribute early."

"One of the areas that we didn't feel we needed to address was the linebackers. Darius Ingram was a top-100 player a couple of years ago that transferred here from LSU. Additionally, cornerback Vernon Russell is another transfer that will be able to play this spring."

On the defensive secondary
"The defensive secondary has been one of our strong points here and recently that is one of the areas that we've been short on. Since 2000, we've graduated five safeties and three corners and we haven't caught up in that category as far as the overall numbers are concerned. One of the guys that will help is Marvin White, a JUCO all-American out of Kilgore College that signed with LSU out of high school. We feel like he will be an impact player here. He is a very athletic kid as he has a 40-inch vertical and he was also a McDonald's All-American in basketball."

"In this day and age, we felt like we had to go out and get big corners. Both James Pierce and Corderra Hunter are big corners to go along with Rafael Priest and Nick Sanders, who are both playmakers. We looked at the high school ranks and wanted to get players with speed that could go out and make plays."

"This is a group that is in the 6-foot range. That has one of the things that is changing in college football. The corners and wide receivers are getting bigger and faster."

On whether the corners will play next year
"They are all paper tigers. We're looking at the corner position. You could see us playing at least one player in the rotation to gain some experience."