Chris Del Conte Press Conference Transcript

Jan. 12, 2007

"What a great day to be a Rice Owl. I'm telling you I'm flat out excited to be here today. A guy that we hired a year ago came in here and proved that we can win at Rice, and we should celebrate that. Because I'm excited so about a 1-10 program we all said couldn't win and a guy came in here an said, "we can win at Rice" and he won. And we embrace that. I can't thank him enough for what Todd and his staff have done at Rice.

"It's not about a man, it's about a program, and this program had lost hope. A guy came in to give us hope, and we all embrace that. But you know what? You win with players. The players embraced that, and they won. What Todd has done is he taught us that we can win. We didn't lose anybody. He went off to a different opportunity, chose the opportunity to go to Tulsa. I want to congratulate our president because David Leebron took an unbelievable responsibility when we were going to renegotiate our contract with Todd and said, "I'm going to make a commitment to this program and to Rice athletics." I was grateful for that, and we did all we could to keep Todd here. When it came down to it he made a decision that was best for him and his family. I have no remorse for that.

"When you're 1-10 you're going to get a certain talent pool. Today, my phone is burning off the hook with guys who were not applying for this job a year ago that want to be at Rice because he proved you can win. I can tell you what. When people are...for better gains whether it be Alabama four million dollars or other places I learned a valuable lesson. The lesson is Division I athletics need Rice more today than Rice needs Division I athletics because we're going to do it the right way. We're going to have a contract here and we're going to honor it. We're going to pay what is right and appropriate. I'm never going to get in a bidding war to say here we are, hear us roar because we have a school where we're student athletes first. They come to get a degree. We're going to win on the classroom, we're going to win on the playing field because thats what Rice is about. The great thing about what Todd has done is he's shown us that you can do both and win. He took an opportunity to better himself and his family, and I don't disparage that, good for him.

"I can tell you in the short order we're going to move very quickly, when the iron is hot. Coming off a bowl game, seven wins, we've got a nucleus of a great football program coming back, a great recruiting class and we're going to strike and get someone here in the short order that is going to take this baton and run faster than we were running before and build upon the foundation that we laid. I want to stress to everyone it's not about the man, it's about the program."

Questions:

(on candidates) "All candidates will be considered, this is wide open."

(on his personal feelings) "I feel disappointed, not betrayed, but only disappointed yesterday, not today. You've got 24 hours to be disappointed. I was disappointed yesterday because I felt like our president, this institution we moved, we did the right thing, we negotiated, we went through the situation and I was excited about Tuesday. I was excited about the programs direction. I was disappointed yesterday because I was not expecting it, but in this day and age it's what intercollegiate athletics is about. What Rice is about is not going to do that."

(on the quick turnaround) "There was no timeline to sign an extension. I heard about it yesterday, 24 hours we're off and running. There was not necessarily anything else. I didn't have a lot of time to adjust to anything and nor was I going to. If someone else says, 'here's your opportunity', there's your opportunity. Rice University doesn't play those games."

"Rice University gave a contract to Todd Graham rewarding him for a seven win season and going to a bowl game. We stepped up to the plate big time. There was no stone unturned. When we came to the plate, I was proud of the effort, proud of the contract. I would take that contract any day."

(on the recruiting class) "We're doing everything we can right now. I've got 19 commitments. I've called everyone of those 19 commitments and told them, 'Rice education is important. You got into Rice University, you belong here, you're going to stay here.' I'm honoring their commitment. They committed to Rice if they want to come here, regardless of the coach, they have a scholarship at Rice."

(on whether he's worried about Rice being a stepping stone) "Not at all. It's about a program. If you start worrying about can I hire this guy? Is he going to leave in two years? You hire a guy because he's going to win. He's going to win in the classroom, he's going to win on the playing field, if he wins he goes somewhere else. But we're not going to play that war. You're always worried about bringing in the guy can he stay here three, four, five years, continuity, I want that for our student-athletes. Wayne Graham taught us you come here, you win, you can stay, you can build a great program and be here. At the same time if I sat here and decided I'm going to be worried about bringing a guy who's going to be gone in three years so I need to hire a lesser candidate, that will not happen. I will hire the best candidate for Rice football that can continue the success we built."

(on his confidence in the position) "My resolve is not shaken because that is society today in intercollegiate athletics. You don't have to accept that instead you have to lay your own path. I know who we are, I know what we stand for, I know what Rice is all about, so my resolve is not yet shaken. What you do is you get the very best candidate that you can that is going to build on the foundation we have. I'm not worried about two to three years from now. If he gets an opportunity a year from now and he leaves then guess what, we must have won 10 games, must have won the Conference USA championship. We embrace that. That's the attitude you take."

(on college coaching contracts) "What ends up happening is you sign a contract and you have buyout clauses. Then you put those buyouts on the institution thats going to take him that's willing to pay those buyout clauses. I will tell you we had a buyout clause in our contract and that institution was willing to do that. I share that with you because because I want it known that the commitment we made to Coach Graham in this contract was substantial, yet we're not going to play that game and someone else bought that contract out, good for them. You know whats the problem with that is if someone doesn't want to be here then I don't want them here either. Todd wanted to be here, but he took a situation that was going to better himself and I don't disparage that. I'm not going to say I'm embracing it, but the situation is what if all of a sudden you're stuck here for seven years then you've got misery and everything else."

(on the assistants) "This happened so quickly I just met the players this morning at seven o'clock and right afterwards I met with our staff just to collect our thoughts a little bit and then met with the coaches. A lot of those coaches are with each other. That staff has been together for a long, long time so, as you can anticipate, some coaches staying, some coaches leaving it all depends on what happens."

(on the status of the assistants) "I've discussed it with everybody and went through their options with them to make sure that my responsibility to our coaching staff and to our assistants is that they're taken care of. I wanted to let them know that, you know, here's our obligations to you and vice versa. They have families. I'm making sure that Rice University does it the right way, that our coaches, if they're here, a new coaching staff will have an opportunity to hire them if they don't go. They're on year to year contracts and we take care of them. One thing you want to do in intercollegiate athletics because it's so volatile is you want to look at not the head coach who got the job, but everyone else around him. You want to make sure that you stabilize their families and make sure that they know we're here for them. That's what Rice is doing."

(on new candidates) "I can tell you this much, the candidate that I'm looking for is going to have to fit what we are. At the same time, I want someone that loves being around kids, loves coaching football, understands academics, understands success, understands what it takes to win at a place like Rice. I'm not looking for a magic wand. I'm looking for a winner in all categories, but I'm not going to say, 'they have to be this', and pigeonhole them. You can never do that. You have to go with the best fit for Rice and hire a winner."

(on integrity) "You would always hope that everything would involve intergity, but, again, in this day and age in college football its hard to sit there and say, ' what is integrity?' The idea that a football coach was here for a short time but went back to Tulsa, you can call it a lateral move, but he went back to take care of his family. Integrity from his side of the fence is, 'I'm going to take care of my family. This is what I'm doing.' From my side of the fence it could be different. So that word can get thrown around loosely when it should mean what you and I think it means."

(on Major Applewhite's future) "Major Applewhite, as of this morning, has been contacted by LSU and Alabama, both schools, and that is on going. I could not tell you if he's accepted a job or not. I have not been told that. Again, everyone is a candidate at Rice and that's all I know

I'm hopeful I get a good candidate pool. Major is a good guy, he's a great name, but I'm not holding my hopes--he's 28 years old."

(on the search process) "We'll probably streamline it a little bit just because of timing. You've got basically 20 days until recruiting is over, so we don't have the luxury of sitting there and going through what we did last time. The search will be done with integrity, it'll be done the right way, and it'll be inclusive. This is not the Lone Ranger. I'm not being one guy who's boss saying, 'here you go.' This is Rice University we're going to have a committee, we're going to have faculty, we're going to have student involvement, some of our players involved. Unfortunately it's not like I can have a drawn out process, two, three, four weeks and all of a sudden, bam! I'm hoping to have this down to the short order."

(on next year's Tulsa game) "I guarantee you, our 83 student athletes have circled that game. But you know what's interesting? They're looking at that schedule for next year saying we have a destination to win a bowl game not a destination to beat Tulsa. I can promise you this much, our goal next year is not to go 1-10 with one game of beating Tulsa. Our destination next year is to go to a bowl game and win it. That's why they're here, that's why they're going to summer school, that's why they're working out. It's because of their belief. Remember, a lot of things happened. Those 83 people were galvanized together. They won the games, they were down there. I saw them in the locker room by themselves. I saw the trials and tribulations they went through and they said, 'we are going to win ourselves and institution.' It's not about Tulsa. It's about winning Conference USA and establishing another foundation on top of what we already have."

(on athletic fund raising) "We had a guy here that ignited a fire, but the program is bigger than an individual. How many football coaches do we have here? What we have here is we have people that have been here for a long time. Rice is celebrating it's century celebration in 2012. We're here forever. The program is big. I've enjoyed working with Todd, it's been great, but what has happened is he's ignited the passion. And it just doesn't end. It is my responsibility, it is our collective responsibility to stay together and continue that going. That's the ultimate travesty of the downfall of a program if you just stop. It's our collective responsibility that that torch is handled and passed through. The next candidate whoever our coaching staff is, it's my responsibility to continue that."

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