Jeff Banks Quotations

We had backups ready to go. We charted his plays to see how many times he touched the ball, worried about overusing him.

One man down the road said he tried desperately to get his wife into the attic. The man got in the attic, but his wife fell back down and drowned right there in front of him.

He has great mechanics as far as his hand work and getting the ball off, and he just has really dedicated himself. Everything I ask him to do, he does 110 percent. And he's not gun-shy. He believes it's the right thing to do and he goes out and does it. The last 3-4 practices, he has really been hitting the ball well.

He's, by far, the most improved player from spring. The new coaching and the new technique and all those things combined tend to make for a tough transition (for a junior transfer) in the first four weeks of spring ball. But now the kid has just completely dedicated himself to the weight room. He put on 15-20 pounds of muscle, got after it and did an incredible job of doing what Bryce did when he was here. He's not necessarily walking in Bryce's footsteps, but he's got something to uphold here. He's coachable, he listens and he really works hard. I think that combination is going to make him successful.

When he comes out to the practice field, he knows exactly what to do, and he's ready to compete and get better.

He just exceeded our expectations. He just kept making play after play and running the football and not wanting to get out of the game.

It almost got away from us. But we didn't give up just because we were behind. That's the best part.

Our house is only one block off the beach,

We have some things in our passing game that might fit one guy better. A short-yardage situation might fit better for a certain guy. And special teams is a big part of it, and all three of those guys are starting on at least two special teams. So we'll just see where we go from here. But we're in a great position. Last year, we had Howard Jackson, and Matt was backing him up with Jimmy Smith. This year I think we've got three threats, as opposed to just one.

We're not going back. That's just not something I want to go through again.

Finally my sister's ex-husband spotted us and took us to a shelter.

We fulfilled all our needs and stuck with the plan we had. We really needed to supplement our offensive line and receiving corps ... those were the two big needs for us, and we got them. The height of the class, as far as big and tall, really improved. There are 10-12 guys over 6-foot-4 ... (and) there's another 10-12 guys that ran a 4.55 (40-yard dash) or lower.

Brandon Jackon and Johan Givens and Jon Lane have all played well. They're all dependable. Jon Lane is kind of the faster back out of the three guys. He's a real surprise. He worked really hard this offseason. We tried to get him in on some special teams. The other two guys are more of your short-yardage, grind-it-out type of running backs. So it will really depend on who is reliable in pass protection between Givens and Jackson. But Lane knows the offense, he studies his butt off, he works hard . He's just been an all around surprise.

At the beginning of last season, he was on fire. Then it starts to get tough and windy and he's playing away from the Sun Bowl, and it can get really tough. So he had a little bit of a tough time at the end.

During the storm we realized that Sherry left her purse and our five-month-old baby's diapers behind at the house,

There's a difference between going out to practice and punting, and getting in a game and punting. He has to get the ball off, he's got a live rush, he's got guys coming at him, and I'm trying to work on his mindset. I'm trying to get him to where he's competing against New Mexico State when he gets a snap, and he's not just going out and going through the motions.

I see a blue car racing out of the parking lot and I seen two people -- one kneeling, and one standing -- firing rounds at this car.

Right now, Tyler is doing good in a lot of facets as far as pass protection. Matt's showing a different type of quickness to the hole since last year even. He's really running at a high level. And Marcus has shown some maturity. He knows everything he's doing, he's making the right reads. He's going to the right keys in pass protection. So that gives me a chance for our offense to be able to depend on him.

No warning, whatsoever. All of a sudden, it's a pop, pop, pop.

They're just learning everything on scout team and looking at a card and going through the plays. But now we can evaluate them and make a decision at the end (of spring training), of where basically they fit in with the team and what their opportunities are.

It's definitely the best class we've had since we've been here. I think the speed of the class, the athleticism of the class, is by far a better quality.

The sewage problems were bad. Dead bodies floated and settled for days and the stench was horrible. The whole thing was horrible. Pick your worst nightmare and double it.