THE MODERATOR: Coach, if you could just start us started.
COACH BRILES: We've had an outstanding time. It's a beautiful city. It's been a great team for our support staff. Everybody was able, fortunately, to come on the trip with us and their family. It's a very, very friendly city, a lot of activities, of course, for the young children and old children too. And all the bowl people have been unbelievable. It's been a really, really first-class experience for us. And we're excited for being in Florida and playing in a bowl game. I'm not sure. I think it's the first game we've ever played in Florida. It's a big deal for us. We're trying to be a national brand. And we've had a bowl game in California, and now Florida.
THE MODERATOR: All right. We'll open it up to Q&A at this time.
Q. What have you seen from Chris Johnson, since you've come back from ball practice? And just tell us about his development.
COACH BRILES: He's done a good job. He really has. We really love Chris'-- his attitude, his personality, the way we cares about the other members of his football team. And his skill level is really good. It's a situation where -- it's like I've always said, you can have a lot of money but you can't buy experience and the way is to get on the field and do it. And he's gained a little month or so. And there's still some unknown qualities in there that we have to filter there. I think we've hopefully done, as a staff, a good job of allowing him to be successful tomorrow and that's the main thing. We're trying to help him feel comfortable with what he's doing. He's a guy we have a lot of confidence in and he'll fight like hell for us.
Q. I know you've been asked variations of this at various times: How is it missing so many of your punchers, and is that what makes your team that much more motivated?
COACH BRILES: I haven't been asked it that often, but I'll tell you the strange thing about it is that if you've got a bowl of cereal and you wanted bacon and eggs, you get it eat the cereal. We got what we want. You know what I'm saying? That's kind of where we are. So we really have not really discussed it, reviewed it at all with the staff or with the team because it is what it is. We've got good players. We've got guys that we recruited that we have a lot of confidence in. If I had give you one thing, what would it be? They better say chance. That's what they've been given. So we've got some guys had that have been given a chance and an opportunity to help our football team. And that, to me, is -- I find it very inspiring, to answer your question. I look at it from that standpoint. It's an inspiring situation for us as a football team.
Q. Coach, you guys have the number one offense in America, but those last several games where you were missing a lot of those players, you weren't putting up 60 points a game or 600 yards a game. But now talk about the experience. Now that Chris has the experience and you've had a few weeks to prepare here with the guys that you're going to have, do you think that we'll see that kind of number one offense again and glimpses of that and be able to put up those types of numbers again?
COACH BRILES: I mean, first of all, you casually say we've had the number one offense. That's a great tribute to our football team and our program for the past three years in our conferences, so that's a big deal. And we're not trying to be that, first and foremost. It's just the way things that have ended up with our scheme and the talent level and the things that we have been able to do. So what we're going to try to do is do what we can do tomorrow. We're not concerned about yards and being the number one offense. We're concerned about winning the football game. Our mindset is a little different than it might have been late September. That's the reality of the football team. So we feel good about what we've got going into the game tomorrow, and that's to fight our tails off and try to scratch out a win.
Q. Coach Briles, talk to me about the offenses.
COACH BRILES: I'm admiring their ACC deal here. We've got to upgrade. I don't know if Jeff is in here or not. It's a big-time deal they have right there. That actually is kind of a step above. I'm kind of impressed with that.
I'm sorry. Where are you at?
Q. Right up front. A lot has been made about the offense. What have you seen now for a week and a half to be able to watch North Carolina, from Coach Fedora and that senior quarterback, Marquise Williams?
COACH BRILES: He's really good. They've done a good job offensively. Larry has always been able to grow offenses all his career, the last 15, 20 years. And really when he was at Baylor back in the mid '90s, when Chuck Reedy was the coach, he was very good offensively. He did a lot of things. He's done it and he's done it his way and he's kind of mixed in a lot of things that he's picked up over his career. They've got a good thing going. They're a really good football team. When you talk about watching tape, it's 14s, 21s, 28, 35.They're scoring and they're scoring in a hurry and bunches. And they've done a really good job on the other side of the ball with Gene. So they have a complete football team. When you get to bowl games at this level, are you're going to mix and match all the time. You're going to get two really good football if teams that are playing at a high level. They've knocked out 11 straight throughout this season. That's very impressive because it's hard to win every week. You step on the field and do 11 weeks straight, that's pretty impressive.
Q. Coach, a lot of people say you have similarities on the field but you have similarities off the field as well. Larry was talking about his experience at Baylor and recruiting kids that used to go to night school. Were you aware of that back then, of who he was and your history? And can you talk a little bit about the history between you?
COACH BRILES: Yeah. I mean, it's kind of crazy, honestly. I guess when you're fortunate enough to coach as long as I've coached, you know, and, you know, be in the same state for that long, you cross a lot of paths with a lot of people. And Larry is certainly a guy -- or a man that I remember from, you know, really back in the early '90s.About '93 is when the time frame he's talking about. We had a quarterback named Brandon Stewart that they recruited at Baylor at that time, ended up going to Tennessee, finished up at A&M. That's really my first time to get around him and he was, you know, a pretty young guy then. I was a little younger myself, but he was -- he was probably 30, you know, 31 years of age and just real class guy. He's a Texas guy. He's done a great job all his career. He's worked hard to get to where he's at and he's done a great job at what he's been. That, to me, is been the most impressive thing. He's kind of like, with a player -- you get a player. What do you do with him? Do you make plays or do you disrupt? Are you an asset or a liability? He's been an asset everywhere he's been, so that's an impressive thing to me about his career. He's been given a chance. He's earned a chance. He's taken advantage of it and made it work.
The rest is in the next post.
COACH BRILES: We've had an outstanding time. It's a beautiful city. It's been a great team for our support staff. Everybody was able, fortunately, to come on the trip with us and their family. It's a very, very friendly city, a lot of activities, of course, for the young children and old children too. And all the bowl people have been unbelievable. It's been a really, really first-class experience for us. And we're excited for being in Florida and playing in a bowl game. I'm not sure. I think it's the first game we've ever played in Florida. It's a big deal for us. We're trying to be a national brand. And we've had a bowl game in California, and now Florida.
THE MODERATOR: All right. We'll open it up to Q&A at this time.
Q. What have you seen from Chris Johnson, since you've come back from ball practice? And just tell us about his development.
COACH BRILES: He's done a good job. He really has. We really love Chris'-- his attitude, his personality, the way we cares about the other members of his football team. And his skill level is really good. It's a situation where -- it's like I've always said, you can have a lot of money but you can't buy experience and the way is to get on the field and do it. And he's gained a little month or so. And there's still some unknown qualities in there that we have to filter there. I think we've hopefully done, as a staff, a good job of allowing him to be successful tomorrow and that's the main thing. We're trying to help him feel comfortable with what he's doing. He's a guy we have a lot of confidence in and he'll fight like hell for us.
Q. I know you've been asked variations of this at various times: How is it missing so many of your punchers, and is that what makes your team that much more motivated?
COACH BRILES: I haven't been asked it that often, but I'll tell you the strange thing about it is that if you've got a bowl of cereal and you wanted bacon and eggs, you get it eat the cereal. We got what we want. You know what I'm saying? That's kind of where we are. So we really have not really discussed it, reviewed it at all with the staff or with the team because it is what it is. We've got good players. We've got guys that we recruited that we have a lot of confidence in. If I had give you one thing, what would it be? They better say chance. That's what they've been given. So we've got some guys had that have been given a chance and an opportunity to help our football team. And that, to me, is -- I find it very inspiring, to answer your question. I look at it from that standpoint. It's an inspiring situation for us as a football team.
Q. Coach, you guys have the number one offense in America, but those last several games where you were missing a lot of those players, you weren't putting up 60 points a game or 600 yards a game. But now talk about the experience. Now that Chris has the experience and you've had a few weeks to prepare here with the guys that you're going to have, do you think that we'll see that kind of number one offense again and glimpses of that and be able to put up those types of numbers again?
COACH BRILES: I mean, first of all, you casually say we've had the number one offense. That's a great tribute to our football team and our program for the past three years in our conferences, so that's a big deal. And we're not trying to be that, first and foremost. It's just the way things that have ended up with our scheme and the talent level and the things that we have been able to do. So what we're going to try to do is do what we can do tomorrow. We're not concerned about yards and being the number one offense. We're concerned about winning the football game. Our mindset is a little different than it might have been late September. That's the reality of the football team. So we feel good about what we've got going into the game tomorrow, and that's to fight our tails off and try to scratch out a win.
Q. Coach Briles, talk to me about the offenses.
COACH BRILES: I'm admiring their ACC deal here. We've got to upgrade. I don't know if Jeff is in here or not. It's a big-time deal they have right there. That actually is kind of a step above. I'm kind of impressed with that.
I'm sorry. Where are you at?
Q. Right up front. A lot has been made about the offense. What have you seen now for a week and a half to be able to watch North Carolina, from Coach Fedora and that senior quarterback, Marquise Williams?
COACH BRILES: He's really good. They've done a good job offensively. Larry has always been able to grow offenses all his career, the last 15, 20 years. And really when he was at Baylor back in the mid '90s, when Chuck Reedy was the coach, he was very good offensively. He did a lot of things. He's done it and he's done it his way and he's kind of mixed in a lot of things that he's picked up over his career. They've got a good thing going. They're a really good football team. When you talk about watching tape, it's 14s, 21s, 28, 35.They're scoring and they're scoring in a hurry and bunches. And they've done a really good job on the other side of the ball with Gene. So they have a complete football team. When you get to bowl games at this level, are you're going to mix and match all the time. You're going to get two really good football if teams that are playing at a high level. They've knocked out 11 straight throughout this season. That's very impressive because it's hard to win every week. You step on the field and do 11 weeks straight, that's pretty impressive.
Q. Coach, a lot of people say you have similarities on the field but you have similarities off the field as well. Larry was talking about his experience at Baylor and recruiting kids that used to go to night school. Were you aware of that back then, of who he was and your history? And can you talk a little bit about the history between you?
COACH BRILES: Yeah. I mean, it's kind of crazy, honestly. I guess when you're fortunate enough to coach as long as I've coached, you know, and, you know, be in the same state for that long, you cross a lot of paths with a lot of people. And Larry is certainly a guy -- or a man that I remember from, you know, really back in the early '90s.About '93 is when the time frame he's talking about. We had a quarterback named Brandon Stewart that they recruited at Baylor at that time, ended up going to Tennessee, finished up at A&M. That's really my first time to get around him and he was, you know, a pretty young guy then. I was a little younger myself, but he was -- he was probably 30, you know, 31 years of age and just real class guy. He's a Texas guy. He's done a great job all his career. He's worked hard to get to where he's at and he's done a great job at what he's been. That, to me, is been the most impressive thing. He's kind of like, with a player -- you get a player. What do you do with him? Do you make plays or do you disrupt? Are you an asset or a liability? He's been an asset everywhere he's been, so that's an impressive thing to me about his career. He's been given a chance. He's earned a chance. He's taken advantage of it and made it work.
The rest is in the next post.
