Oklahoma State University Athletics
Signing Day Press Conference
February 05, 2003 | Cowboy Football
Feb. 5, 2003
OSU Football Press Conference
Signing Day
Head Coach Les Miles
"Like in any recruiting class, you have to look four or five years down the road before you can see what they accomplished. At this point, I think that on paper it is as quality of a recruiting class as I have seen in awhile. It gives us a great opportunity to work with a talented group of young men."
"Every year you look to replenish needs. On the defensive line we lose Kevin Williams, a great player for us, and LaWaylon Brown. We needed to do a great job replacing those guys in this recruiting class. We did so with both Brad Girtman and Xavier Lawson-Kennedy. Those two guys will have an opportunity to play here awfully early. With the addition of Efe Mowarin, it looks to be a quality defensive line class."
"Offensively we lose two tackles and we had to replace those guys with tall, athletic tackles and did so with Corey Hilliard and Jerome Bremby. They are both tall, athletic men who gave us that style of player."
"At quarterback we have Donovan Woods, who with some work and development could predict to be as talented as any dual-threat quarterback who can throw and run the football. Obviously, he follows a tradition of Woods at Oklahoma State. We look forward to his arrival on campus."
On if he had any doubts about Lawson-Kennedy signing
"When a young man stands in front of a regional viewing audience and says that I am going to that school, he must have felt in his heart that that is where he wanted to attend. I did not have any doubts at that point."
On Lawson-Kennedy playing next year
"You look at a guy who is 6-3 and about 320 pounds, can bench press over 400 pounds, physically he is capable. He runs well and theoretically he is capable. A couple of those guys like Girtman and Lawson-Kennedy, can be expected to come in and play early."
On Donovan Woods playing early
"I think that the quarterback position is different. It takes time to get your feet on the ground. I would not want to remove that opportunity from Donovan. I think that is a personal decision that every player makes. I think if you ask him, he would say I want to start next year. If you asked him if he would be ready, there is a lot of learning that would have to take place. If he comes in here with the idea that he wants to aggressively learn our offense and pursue a competitive course, we will entertain that competition. It is not as readily opportune for a guy to come in and start at quarterback his freshman season."
On freshmen starting on offensive line
"Hilliard and Bremby are the physical types that might be able to play early. The only question will be how they approach it, if they are ready to get on campus and get comfortable with the academics and be ready to compete right away, or whether they need a year to get their feet underneath them and get adjusted to their surroundings. Adam Gourley is a junior college guy with three years left to play. He will be a little older and a bit more mature. He might have an early nod and get the ability to compete early."
On the wide receiver class
"We graduated three seniors, and really at wide receiver other than Rashaun Woods, everyone who caught a ball for us has graduated. We had a great need there and we had guys on that list that have talent, can run, are tall and have a great presence around the football. The ones that end up competing the best will be awfully good. I think Tommy Devereaux is as talented a wide receiver as there is. Chijuan Mack and Philip Jones are tremendously talented. Eric Allen has great height and caught 70 balls as a senior in high school. There is some talent there, who will emerge is yet to be determined."
