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Michael Reed – “We know we’re going to face a tough team” |
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JaredCowley | Monday, October 30, 2006, 3:08 pm
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Transcribed by Jim Vallen
COUGARBLUE
KNZ’s The Manly Morning Show (6 A.M to 10 A. M. weekday mornings on 1280 The Zone, 1280 AM Salt Lake; 960 AM Utah County) aired an interview this morning with BYU receiver Michael Reed.
This interview was taped from this past weekend from Salt Lake City’s CBS affiliate KUTV (channel 2) “Talking Sports” program with Dave Fox.
Michael Reed is a 6-1, 202 lb wide receiver from Baytown, Texas. He is a redshirt sophomore this season, having red shirted his first year after coming to BYU from Robert E. Lee High School and being named the 2003 Texas 5-A Receiver of the Year. This last Saturday Reed had four catches against Air Force for 47 yards. For the season, Reed ranks fourth for the Cougars in receptions with 18 receptions for 213 yards. That gives him 2.6 receptions per game (he’s missed one game this season) and 11.8 yard per catch average. He has also scored two touchdowns. His longest pass this season was for forty yards.
DF: “I went and looked at the stats at the BYU website [byucougars.com] and I took a look at the receivers. Even before I went there I had kind of the feeling that the receiving corps was kind of balanced, but when you look at the numbers you have 18 catches for 213 yards with a couple of touchdowns this year and a lot of guys have numbers just like yours. John Beck is really spreading the ball around to all of you guys this year. ”
MR: “Yes he is, but first of all I’d like to send my condolences to Bird [Carson Bird is a 5-11,190 lb cornerback that injured his neck while tackling BYU receiver Zac Collie in the game Saturday. He hit head first with another team mate.]. I want him and his family to know that my prayers are with him. I hope to see him back on the field. Secondly I think John is doing a great job distributing the ball this year. We have several receivers with double digit catches and over 200 yards in receiving so he’s just doing a fabulous job of spraying the ball around.”
DF: “I’m looking at John’s numbers. He’s completing 71% of his passes. He’s thrown twenty touchdowns and only three interceptions. That’s a nice seven to one ratio. He has over 2,000 yards passing [2,068 yards]. I know they could be higher, but because you guys have blown so many teams out that he many times hasn’t had to throw the ball in the fourth quarter. Is it a case where when you hear that a passing play is being called that you just know that John is going to make something happen?”
MR: “Yes, that is correct without a doubt. And the good thing I like about John is that he doesn’t like to run. That’s a good thing for a receiver. He’s staying back there in the pocket and he has confidence in his offensive line. We just know that if we run a good route and get open that the ball is going to come to us. It’s up to us to make the catch and get yards after the catch.”
DF: “You know one thing about having a balanced receiving corps and being two deep being able to rotate different guys in and out; coaches can really put pressure on you guys. You have to be able to block if you want to stay on the field. Their was a drive against Air Force Saturday early in the game where it was Cutis [Brown] and Fui [Vakapuna] over and over again and they were picking up some yards down field. You guys have to block for those guys for them to have success. That’s a priority isn’t it?“
MR: “Yes, without a doubt. Coach Higgins stresses making key blocks every day in practice and every day in meetings. It’s very important for us to make a good block because with Curtis and Fui, you never know. They can take a pounding sometimes, but also they can break tackles. You just never know when they are going to burst one and you don’t want to be the one who misses your block and get blamed the next day in meetings.”
DF: “You guys have benefited from a lot of short fields this year. The Cougar defense now forcing twenty turnovers on the year. You guys have been winning the field position battles quite often.”
MR: “Yes, the defense has been doing a great job this year. We know as an offense that if we don’t score in one possession, we know that our defense will get the ball back with another opportunity to go down and score. All those guys are doing just a great job. There are new faces on the defense this year. With Nixon [David Nixon, 6-3, 223 lb sophomore linebacker], Ben Criddle [6-0, 185 lb junior defensive back], Justin Robinson [5-9, 168 lb senior defensive back] is doing a wonderful job and of course Cameron Jensen [6-2, 247 lb senior linebacker] is maintaining that defense and going a great job. We have a lot of faces out there. Kehl [Bryan Kehl, 6-3, 231 lb junior linebacker] is just doing a wonderful job out there right now and we’re just happy to see our defense contributing so successfully this year.”
DF: “You guys take the five game win streak to Ft. Collins next week and play Colorado State. Have you been able to watch them on TV or are you one of the guys that doesn’t get the mtn. and you haven’t been able to see the Rams much?”
MR: “I’ve seen them a little this year and basically it looks to me like they stick basically with their same scheme. We know they’re going to try to come up and jam us as the receivers and it’s our chance to get off the line and make a key play in the game and just get open. We know we’re going to face a tough team. They’re looking for a win this week especially since they had a hard one-point loss to New Mexico Saturday. We know it’s not going to be easy to beat them over there. We just have to go out there and execute our scheme and take one play at a time and if we do that we should come out with a win.”
DF: “BYU is just two spots outside of the top 25 and are one spot behind Tulsa, which makes no sense to me since you beat them 49 – 24, but if you keep winning that will take care of itself.” |
