'We're primed': Jamie Morrison ready for his Ags to open 2024 on Friday

The preseason slate of the volleyball schedule is in the rearview, and on Friday evening, the Fightin' Texas Aggies will officially begin the 2024 season against South Alabama in Mobile. Head coach Jamie Morrison joined TexAgs LIVE on Tuesday to provide an update on his team.

Key notes from Jamie Morrison interview

• It was a good weekend. We headed up to Baylor for an exhibition. We were about six points into the first set, and I turned around to my assistants, and I was like, “We're going to be good.” It was just the execution and the way we were able to play. I think the people we brought in define the culture that we want.
   
• The first set was high-level volleyball by both teams. Baylor is ranked No. 22 and has been legitimately a top-15 program for many years. I never felt like we were out of control. We won 3-0 and then played a fourth set just to play it. We lost the fourth set. I thought both teams were playing good volleyball. I am excited to see what it looks like when it counts toward our record.
   
• We are going to be good. As a coach, you get a movie about what your team can look like from a culture and volleyball standpoint. When you become good at coaching, it becomes how quickly you can move your team towards that movie. It started to look like that movie. We are primed to do something special if we can stay healthy, on-task and bought in.
   
• There was a little bit of playing with rotations on Saturday. There are lots of different people who can come in and contribute and help us win in different ways. You'll see those different ways throughout the season, with different people coming in at different times and playing different roles. I think that what we are doing right now is trying to figure some of those things out.
   
• We are further ahead this preseason than we were last year. People have an idea of what to expect from the culture piece. I think from the volleyball piece, we brought in many new people. I think having people here already to be the model for both of those things helps things happen faster and faster because they can look at the people that have been here instead of just listening to me. They can look at the person to their left and know what to do.
   
• The volleyball season is like running a 400m race. You have to go, go, go, but near the end, you are tired. There is a sense of urgency. I think everyone is excited that we play for real this weekend. It is year two for me, and I remember sitting in the other studio for the first time ever, and it felt like yesterday. The season gets here in a hurry, and it is over in a hurry. When you are in the middle of it, it is a grind.
   
• I think things are trending great offensively. In volleyball, efficiencies are a little bit like hitting percentages in baseball, except we subtract errors. At one point, I think we were hitting .500 in the first set. A typical percentage is .250. Baylor was hitting .400, and I remember saying we just needed one or two stops. We got the one or two stops and won the set. We have a lot of different offensive options on our team right now. We are really hard to defend for that reason. One of the things we talk about is strength in balance. We don't want to necessarily have one person that does it all. If an opponent wants to take that one person away, we have three other people who can attack the ball.
   
• I don't like singling out players. If I were a fan, I would look at the new players that are on the court and get to know those faces. We are not a one-trick pony. We have five or six of them on the floor, and some that aren't even on the floor sometimes that are going to come in and contribute. Different people are going to have their games on different nights.
   
• We head off to South Alabama and play two matches there beginning Friday. My goal was to play at home as much as possible. The 12th Man has been asking for it, so we had to adjust our schedule a little bit. Usually, the preseason is a three-game tournament where you play three days in a row or two games in one day, which I will probably never do again because of athlete well-being. We fly back Saturday night and then practice on Sunday. Then, on Monday, we play at home for the first time this season against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. I hope to see as many people there as we possibly can. Then, the following week, we play Texas State before a home football game, so I hope to see some people there, too.
   
• I don't think, as a coach, you ever feel like you have enough time to get things where you want them to be. There are always things you can work on. I was going back through the Baylor match with a fine-tooth comb, and there were a lot of good things going on. There are always things to work on, but I am just excited for the world to see what this group and staff have been working on for the last eight months. I told our team that I am proud of the work they have put in, but we have more to do.
   
• We do not get to see the girls enough during the offseason. Basketball and football get to coach their athletes during the summer. I think for us and women's soccer that should be the case, too. That is one of the things I am going to push for with the NCAA.