Sept. 28, 2009

Baylor head coach Art Briles spoke Monday on Big 12 weekly teleconference and to local media (selected quotes below) [QB depth chart and links to QB bios follow]...

Baylor Head Coach Art Briles

"Our guys, they'll adjust. And they'll fight.

"We're going to dial it up, we're going to fight hard, for Robert, for Mikail, for A.B. (Antareis Bryan, out with broken foot) and then for the rest of these guys on this football team and for this University - that's what we're going to do. We're not going to come walking out of the dressing room Saturday, we're going to come charging out. We'll be coming out with an intent to make a statement."

On senior QB Blake Szymanski (suffered bruised shoulder Saturday):
"Szymanski is day to day, he took a pretty good shot the other day so we're just monitoring his progress. He wasn't quite as far along yesterday as I would have liked him to be but he was a little bit better today. If he's not good to go, we'll manage the game, we'll be competitive and we'll go out there with a chance to win the football game.

"Hopefully later in the week he'll be able to perform a little bit during practice and then we'll move from there. Blake's a guy that doesn't have to have a lot of practice time to be ready to play on Saturday.

"We have a lot of confidence (in Szymanski). I like him because he's weathered. His path hasn't been easy, and he's stayed very loyal and stayed very consistent with his emotions for this football program and this University. So those things rise up and show up in these type of situations. So we feel OK.

"Blake knows what to do. He knows what to look for, he can get out there and run our stuff and he can be very effective."

On true freshman QB Nick Florence:
"If Blake can't go then right now Nick (Florence) is going to be the guy. What Nick brings to the table is a lot of intelligence, a lot of youth, which a lot of times in these situations isn't bad, because he's just wanting to do whatever he can do to help the team win. And he does have a lively arm with a little bit of escape-ability to him."

On not being the type of coach to want people to feel sorry for him:
"Baylor is in good hands. We have good people on the field and good administration and we'll move in the right direction. We'll have good support."