Morrison encouraged by A&M's recent practices, Maroon & White Scrimmage

This weekend, the 12th Man received a first look at Jamie Morrison's third-year squad in Saturday's Maroon & White Scrimmage. With an exhibition match with No. 20 Baylor on deck, the head coach joined TexAgs Live to share his thoughts on the performance. 

Key notes from Jamie Morrison interview

• It's always nice putting on a uniform, and it gets the active juices flowing. We get activated a little bit. It’s what we play the game for. We are looking forward to those moments instead of running from it. It was probably the best crowd we’ve had for the Maroon & White Scrimmage.
   
• Anything you learn, whether the way we act or learn... When you put the uniform on, sometimes you slide back into old habits. I think what I'm encouraged about is that all the stuff we’ve worked on has stuck. When you throw a different color uniform on the other side, you just hope it sticks.
   
• I felt like we were passing really well. This happened over practice a few weeks ago. I was clocking the serves, and they were coming in around 42 or 43 miles an hour. I'm like, “No, that's a tough serve, so our ability to pass the ball... We’ve upgraded that during the spring, and I think everyone back there can put up an angle and put the ball in the right spot. I’m not surprised cause it’s continued from camp to that match.
   
• How natural some of the things that we think are important are. We had the whole team falling for the ball, and then teammates picking each other up. It’s not something that forces us to just who we are.
   
• We talk a lot about making a skill a part of you. When you’re in the heat of competition, and it's 14-14 in the third set, in football, it's the fourth quarter, two-minute drive. You don’t want it to be like I'm forcing it. It’s a, “This is who I am, or as a team, this is who we are and how we act.” We try to do that as much in practice. In order for Maroon & White to be a piece of us, it has to show in that one. The next one is, can it be shown against Baylor?
   
• There’s a competitive piece of me. I want to win. It’s hard to win, though. You spend four years with the national team, you at least have a chance to bring home one of three medals. You have these annual things where one team is deemed successful out of 300. There’s a part of me that wants to prove that I'm really good at what I do. The second piece is the relationships. If you talk to any of our athletes or coaches, there’s going to be a match you’ll remember, but most of the time, it's a funny memory with an athlete. It’s the opportunity to go on the road, and there are all these experiences that happen along with it.
   
• We’re trying to make these skills a piece of them so that hopefully it has us win a national championship, but also it bleeds into the other pieces of life.
   
• There are two pieces for me where you never know. As a coach, you have a model and video of how it should not look, and as your team gets closer, it’s like, “OK. This is awesome,” but it's like, what if the video or model is wrong? As a coach, it's like, “OK, this is the time to go test that.” For me, it was springtime.
   
• The ability of skill we had and how we were playing teams. We played four or five top 25 teams that did really well. For me, it was day one of practice this year because there was the process of how we got here in the spring. We aren’t allowed to coach in the summer, so I was like, “Please, I hope they were doing the right things during the summer.” It’s like not seeing your kid for three months. The second piece was how we went about the business that day. “Oh, they are dialed in.” It’s not that we are going to sit here and be good. We're going to go through the process of what got us here and do that every single day.
   
• I got chills from the way we were going about business. We’ve only had 10 minutes of bad practice the whole year so far. I think that’s what’s telling me we're going to be really good.
   
• We are focused on having seven things on the whiteboard where we attack those seven things and get better. The competitiveness and what’s going on… They're getting after me in the right way. The depth that we have. That’s through the development of the people who have chosen where they want to be. This combination is a high, high level. It’s entertaining volleyball. I think anyone can step on the court and contribute.
   
• I believe in setting boundaries, like what would make me frustrated, so day to day they can come in and take risks because our sport is very risk-taking when you're up in the air and the ball is 25 feet up. They are some constraints we have, like “Hey, these are things I'm going to get frustrated with, but we haven’t hit those yet.” I don’t get frustrated unless that happens. I'll raise my voice a few times a year, and me saying I'm disappointed will hit harder than my yelling. Our players are in line with what we’re trying to do, and I don’t really have to because they're the ones holding themselves accountable.
   
• Everyone has to keep up. The thing I'm most impressed by is that everyone can play international volleyball right now. The rules are different. Suppose we were to go over and play in the Champions League, we would be able to play the game at the level it's supposed to be played, and that’s important for me because I want our players to go on and do that if they want to. Everyone can do each skill, which I think is important.
   
• Until this point, we’ve been the underdog. We’ve finished two or three spots ahead of where the SEC ranks us, so I hope it stays true, then we'll finish No. 1. This past year, the chip was how often the team can break the opponent. We had to change our mind on what that chip is, but I think we’re heading in the right direction.
   
• Baylor is a good team. They serve tough with a lot of velocity. They have a fast offense. How we manage that is one of the things that’s important. Hopefully, for us, we play good volleyball across the board. Can we get out there, can we pass the ball, and can we serve at a high level? I’d love for that to continue on trying to get more aggressive while keeping the ball on court. Also, playing with emotion. We’ve talked to our players a lot about how if you stuff a ball, you have to come down like you meant it.
   
• For me, on the sideline, I had this realization to let my competitive side out of me. For me, I'm a fire competition on the inside. When we go through life, we need to be a certain person in different situations. In a teaching environment, it's not safe if I'm yelling and screaming constantly. I want my team to take risks. The fiery me on the sideline is for my athletes, not against them. I really want them to go big every moment they have.
   
• I think you’ll see different people come in and impact matches. I think we don’t want to make large changes, but I think we’ll continue to tweak and move as the season goes on. If you stay static, you’ll lose because other teams will get ahead of you.
   
• The Baylor match is going to be a great match. It’s an exhibition, but it's a top 25 match. I’m trying to encourage people and our event staff that we are going to put on a show. I’m getting fired up. The season sneaks up on you. It gets the competitive juices flowing. We’re here to make this an entertaining thing. I want to put out an entertaining product. I probably got the most fired up after our Florida game, where I didn't think we did that. That’s a thing that we have to do every single night.