From "It's Always Sonny..." — Ra'Shaad Samples joins show

[PonyPride]

Not direct quotes — some are close, while others are paraphrased notes jotted down on the fly:


Ra’Shaad Samples

• (On this year’s freshman class) “I thought they’re exactly who we thought they were. I think we did a good job evaluating. I think we have some of the best evaluators in the country, with Jeff Jordan. Sonny does a great job of identifying guys — as a staff, I think we do a great job of evaluating guys. (The freshmen) came in and they were ready to work, and they were hungry, and a lot of those guys had chips on their shoulders.”

• (On injury to Ulysses Bentley) “I think it’s forced those (other) guys to grow up. It’s unfortunate for Ulysses — he’s had kind of freak … some freak events happen to him. You look at the TCU game — he was having one of the best games he has had since he’s been at SMU. I mean … how he ran that game, just so aggressive, he ran between the tackles really good, he was violent, he was finishing runs, he wasn’t looking to run out of bounds. Then, at the end of the game, somebody falls on his ankle. He works really hard to get better, and kind of the same thing at the Houston game, I think those guys … we talk in our room about "unit pride" a bunch, and the culture of this room, and I think those guys took it upon themselves and accepted the challenge. They wanted to step up, and prove to themselves that they can be the guy, the next up and we didn’t have a dropoff. Those guys challenged themselves every day. They challenge each other every day. If you watch them on the sideline, they’re rooting for each other when they go in the game. You’ve been a part of games where people (say) “man, I wanted that touchdown” or “I wish that was me.” If you really pay attention, the guys on the sideline are cheering — you’d think the guy who came out is about to get the carry.

• Tre Siggers “has been awesome. He walked through the door and led by example. He worked hard. He doesn’t say much, but speaks with his actions.” Siggers has been “a really good example for a guy like Brandon (Epton) who is going through the maturation process.”

“In high school, sometimes you just show up and play. It’s not like that here.” Athletes are better, and they’re prepared, so you have to prepare yourself the same way.

• Tyler Lavine “is a wardaddy. He probably drinks a cup of coffee before he goes to sleep. He’s ready to go at all times, and he’ll run through a wall for you. I love that kid. They don’t make many Tyler Lavines.”



Sonny Dykes

• (On whether Mustangs suffered from any hangover from the Houston game Saturday when playing Memphis) “I don’t think so. When you get on a winning streak, sometimes things have a tendency to go your way, balls bounce your way. Kind of the same thing happens the other way, when you lose one.

“There’s only what … four undefeated teams left? Maybe three? Only three or four undefeated teams left in the country, and not a lot of one-loss teams. There’s a lot of parity in college football.”

• (Quarterback Tanner Mordecai) has had a great season for us, and we need him to continue to play well and continue to get better. He probably hasn’t played his best the last two weeks, and I think that’s characteristic of, really, our entire offense… We’ve given up a couple of sacks the last two weeks — that’s something we really haven’t done all year — I believe it was five sacks the last two weeks. That’s something that, obviously, we have to improve on.

“We’ve had a couple of guys that … we just busted some routes here and there — we kind of put ourselves in some bad situations and couldn’t overcome them.”

• “Every game hurts when you lose. It’s hard now to lose — our guys are not accustomed to losing. We’re now at that point where every game is really big. When you go on a run like we have the last couple of years, every game is big.”

• (Ulysses Bentley’s ankle) continues to be an issue. Obviously, Ulysses is one of our best players — we’re not quite the same when we don’t have him as when we do. That’s pretty obvious.

“When you’re playing running back, you can’t really afford to be 80 percent, especially when you’re a speed running back and you’re a guy that relies on playing fast and being elusive … and that’s Ulysses’ strong points. So I think he’s better, I anticipate him practicing more than he has in several weeks, and I anticipate him playing Saturday.”

• (The absence of Alan Ali) led to a little more shuffling. Branson Hickman came in and did a nice job. With Branson, Marcus (Bryant) and Justin Osborne, we’ve got three young guys that are playing a lot for us.”

• “Bryan Massey is a guy that I think will continue to have a bigger role on the back end (of the defense). Bryan is still learning to play that position.

• DeVere (Levelston) has been one of our most consistent guys. I’ve been pleased with the front seven. DeVere is a guy that’s really starting to figure it out and come in to his own. Elijah Chatman has been very consistent, Mike Williams has really played well for us.”

• Part of the problem covering the pass “is our ‘youngness’ in the back end.” Got to mix things up, our coaches will do a good job, and those guys will play well this week.

• Did not think about switching QBs at Memphis. Everybody knows we have a great backup. We can still redshirt Preston (Stone), and we should see him in the weeks ahead … The idea was to redshirt him this year, but still get him in to games.

• UCF has played good defense the last three weeks, giving up 7, 7 and 10 points.

• UCF uses a lot of misdirection in its offense and does a good job getting the ball to the perimeter.

• Keys: stop turning the ball over, and people are going to test SMU DBs — got to make plays on 50-50 balls.

[BUS]

Thank you for the summary.

Sign Sonny Sign.

[Charleston Pony]

Thank you for the summary.

Sign Sonny Sign.

But if he doesn't, SMU needs to do whatever it takes to keep Ra'Shaad on the staff

[Ikus]

Would be nice, but you'd have to think he'll have a lot of suitors