The Texans practiced at the Methodist Training Center on Wednesday, and afterward, head coach Gary Kubiak and some of his players answered questions from the media. The following is a transcript of their respective interviews from the morning practice.
Head Coach Gary Kubiak
RB Arian Foster
WR Lestar Jean
FB Lawrence Vickers
Head Coach Gary Kubiak
(on RB Arian Foster) "I thought he looked good. We told him to be smart when he came out here today. It looked like he was fine, so hopefully every day's a progression and we work towards Saturday night. It's a good step in the right direction."
(on if he's concerned about RB Ben Tate) "Yeah, I have been. He's missed a lot of time as a pro football player and we're waiting to get him out here. But I will say this, from what I saw this morning, I'm hoping like heck he's on this field tomorrow morning. We'll see, but it looked like he took a big step forward and needs to get out here and compete."
RB Arian Foster
(on how it felt to be participating today) "It felt good getting back out there cutting, running around. It felt good."
(on if there's any limitations to him right now) "No, not really. I'm pretty much 100 percent but I'm just not going to push myself past the limit right now. There's no need to, so."
(on if he's playing Saturday) "I don't know. We'll see how it goes. It felt good today but we're going to take it day by day."
(on if it's difficult to just let go because of the hamstring injury) "No, not really. Hamstrings are a part of a runner's life. You can't really ever know when it's healed unless you just feel it. It's kind of a feeling that you know. Right now there's just no reason to push it, go all out and try to win a marathon race or a sprint. We're just going to take it day by day."
(on how many reps he needs in this preseason to be ready for the season) "62. It's a science, man. It's a science."
(on how important it is to play in more than one preseason game) "It's important to just get the feel of football again. To bounce around, get hit, hit guys, see the field, feel the defenders around you. Running back is probably like 90 percent instinctual, I mean instinctive. You need those reps and I'm glad to be back out here."
(on if he felt like himself out there today) "I feel like myself every day, but as far as football shape, yeah I felt like myself. I felt good on my cuts, but like I said earlier, we're just going to take it day by day. I'm not going to push it 100 percent so we'll just go about that."
WR Lestar Jean
(on his expectations coming into camp) "Well I just knew that it was going to be competition, I was going to have to compete. My motto is to outwork everyone. I just knew they had great receivers and I'm just trying to learn from them."
(on having five daily goals) "Yeah that's one of my goals every day. I come out every day with five goals in my mind so I can come out here and accomplish and get better every day. So, I don't take a day off."
(on being moved up the depth chart) "It makes me feel good but I know I have a long way to go and I gotta keep working. It's a lot of life challenges ahead of me, I just have to work."
(on getting confidence from success in the game) "It just makes me want to work harder because whenever you get success people are always looking for you to fail. I just want to work hard and get better and better every day. "
(on if the odds were against him coming in) "The odds have always been against me. I didn't get recruited out of high school, I had to walk on to my college. It isn't anything new. I just love it, being the underdog. You come out and you just shock the world."
FB Lawrence Vickers
(on what he's going to do to prepare for Saturday) "I'm going to get in my book, make sure I work hard, stretch and bring the energy and passion to the game that I always do."
(on how impressive the offensive line is) "I think they're very impressive. They like to move quicker, cut down that back side within the zone schemes. They all like to keep it flowing and they're all smart. They've been together. They play with each other, so that's always a plus when you have an O-line that knows each other."
Night practice
Head Coach Gary KubiakILB DeMeco Ryans
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Head Coach Gary Kubiak(on G Kasey Studdard's injury) "Like I said, he's got a severe ankle sprain at this point. It's being evaluated. He's going to meet with the doctors tomorrow and I'll have more information for you tomorrow."
(on ILB DeMeco Ryans' injury) "He played his plays, came in, his elbow (swelled) up on him pretty good. We took some MRI's. We're waiting on that to come back and we're evaluating it as we speak, so he'll be day-to-day. I'll let you guys know more tomorrow."
(on if ILB DeMeco Ryans will play on Saturday) "I hope so, but it's such a quick turnaround. It'll be hard for me to sit here and say right now. We'll be smart with him. It just (swelled) up real good and we're just trying to make sure we're going to do the right thing."
(on how much RB Arian Foster will play on Saturday) "I hope he plays. I'm going to watch him practice tomorrow. We're going to get after it in the morning pretty good and see how he does. He was fine today, but we were pretty light. Let me see how he does tomorrow."
(on what he's doing this week to get ready for a 4-3 defense) "We've got a lot of experience against the 4-3. Our whole division is a 4-3. As you can see, we got a ton of reps out here tonight. That is the difference in our team this year. We work against a 3-4, so our 4-3 reps have to be carded and orchestrated. It's a little bit different and this one's a tough one and a quick turnaround. We really get two-and-a-half days of practice to play this game, so we're just trying to get them fresh and ready to go."
(on if the starters will play a half on Saturday) "That would be the most, but they're definitely going to play more."
(on if there are any other injuries) "No, just all the same. Possibly get (RB Ben) Tate back in the morning, too. That's a good thing, so we'll see."
(on why the team practiced tonight) "We spent half the day on the Jets. We practiced this morning on ourselves, went back in, worked on the Jets all day, got the corrections made watching film. We lifted some weights and started on the Saints at 5 o'clock this evening and now we're on the Saints tonight, so it's been a hell of a day for them, but they handled it pretty good."
(on ILB Cheta Ozougwu) "Cheta's doing great. He went home and will be around tomorrow. You'll see him tomorrow."
(on RB Derrick Ward) "Derrick's doing great. He's out here. He's fine. They're both on their way back."
ILB DeMeco Ryans(on how his elbow is doing) "It's doing alright. Just looking at it, taking it day by day and see where we go from there."
(on if he hurt his elbow during the game) "Yeah, I did."
(on his expectations for practice tomorrow) "Just going day by day; see how it feels when I wake up in the morning."
(on if he's feeling better) "Oh, yeah."
