SMU Mustangs College Football Media Day Quote, 08/04/2021

Improvement of team chemistry with a more normal offseason:

It’s a whole lot different than it was, and I think the thing that we understand is that things are changing pretty much every day. We’re talking to our medical professionals and getting their advice on the things we’re doing. Our players have done an unbelievable job. Our guys came back in late January to start working out and we didn’t start spring ball until really late. We had a great 12-week block of training before we started spring football up until the last day of class, and our guys came back in June and had an outstanding summer. As a football team we’re in the best place we’ve been since I’ve been here at SMU and I’m excited about this season. We’ve done a really good job of improving our roster from top to bottom. You’re only as good as the bottom third of your roster and we feel that ours is much improved. We have more young players that are going to contribute and there will be more competition for spots. We have guys who have been two and three-year starters who are going to have to work hard to hold onto their job. We have a great chemistry on this team and that’s so important. This team has a great work ethic and I think they’re very determined. They’re playing with confidence and I think we’ll start practice with a lot of confidence. They had an outstanding offseason. We’re excited about our opportunities and are looking forward to getting started.

On the QB competition:

We’re very fortunate in that we have three quarterbacks competing for the job. All are unique and bring a different skillset. All three were on campus this spring and had a chance to begin to get comfortable with the offense. Tanner Mordecai joins us from Oklahoma, he is a guy who has played in big football games and is someone we’re very excited about. I think he has a lot of potential. It should be a great battle, Preston (Stone) graduated early and went through spring ball and Derek Green has been here and really improved every year. We really like our quarterback room and like the competition. The funny thing about that job is that sometimes as coaches we want the battle to be decided by a certain day, or this practice or that practice, but what we’ve tried to do in the past is let it occur naturally. Bring the guys in, put the ball in their hands and let them go out and compete every day. See which quarterback consistently moves the team the best, makes the fewest mistakes and gives us the best chance to win. That’s the criteria that we have. All three had outstanding springs and I feel that we have a great chance to win with any of the three. We’ll see how that turns out this summer and as we start fall camp. One guy usually makes a big jump over the summer, we will see which guy does.

Importance of familiarity specifically with regional teams on your schedule:

If you look at our schedule, we play North Texas every year and we play TCU every year. We play teams that make sense to us regionally, this season we have Louisiana Tech and Abilene Christian and other nonconference teams that are close to us that we’re going to play. At the end of the day, we want to play against the best competition we can play against. If that means playing against Central Florida, a team in the state of Florida that has had tremendous success, or Cincinnati or Memphis or Houston, teams that have had success in this league. We’re ready to play them and it doesn’t really matter where they are. I think this league is incredibly strong and it’s year in, year out proven to be one of the top leagues in the country. We’re going to continue to get better as we have opportunities to play on bigger stages.

WR Reggie Roberson Jr.

On his rehab process and returning to fall camp:

It was an everyday type of thing, I went into the training room every single day for hours and worked on some PT trying to get my leg back, my quad, my hamstring back. Going out there and running with the team, working out on the side. Going into fall camp I feel better than I have the whole time I’ve been here at SMU and I can’t wait.

LB Delano Robinson

On what defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt brings to SMU:

I have seen tremendous changes since he stepped in. He comes to work every day when we’re there, even early in the morning, he’s right there with us and encouraging us with so much energy. He’s bringing the pieces together with our defense, he’s pulling everyone together and putting everyone in the right spots. We’re going to make a good run for it.‚Äù