SMU head coach Chad Morris spoke to the media before Thursday's first fall camp practice. Here are some highlights.

On his overall thoughts heading into fall camp:

"I'm excited. Year 2, obviously anytime you do something the second time, you are going to be better at it. If anything, we just know how to work faster. It's Year 2. Anytime you do something the second time, you are going to be much better. I'm excited about the start of this thing. Our kids are ready. They are in unbelievable condition -- a full 19 months in our system now with two springs and one season. They are as close of a unit as I've been around, which is good. We are going to be better. There is no doubt. What is better? I don't know. We'll talk about it in December. But we are going to be better."

On how much easier things are after one year with the program:

"It's so much [easier] from the preparation standpoint from coaches. From how you prepare your meetings, and the kids didn't have to learn a new name. We didn't have an addition or subtraction off our staff. We lost a GA. But there is no learning process there. It's retention. We have to get better defensively. That's been a huge emphasis. That was a big part of our signing class. We have to have some guys step up that have been here."

On the secondary needing to improve:

"I don't want to harp on last year too much. The schedule we played was just brutal. Six of the 12 were in the top 20 at one time. Three of those were in the top 10. There were a lot of growing pains. Our defense as a whole over the second half of the season showed lots improvement. There is still a long way to go. But I'm excited about a lot of the guys that we got in. Obviously, the player-led workouts this summer. Everybody is talking about the additions of Christian Davis and Eric Sutton. They should be able to come in and help us out. Both come in from great programs. So we'll see. That's an area that has to be better."

On the 2016 schedule:

"I tell our guys that we have a 29-game schedule right now. And that's fall camp. We're going to control what we can control, and that's the SMU Mustangs. We're going to get better everyday. We've got a tough little Texas team that has a new coaching staff and new recruits that are going to be excited for their home opener [Baylor]. We're going to take it one day at a time. Our focus -- and I told our guys last night -- is we're going to control the controls, and that's us."

On injury updates:

"They are all back. I think we have three out today. Some of them are just out because they didn't have quite the summer work or the conditioning that I thought they should have had. We are going to let them get in a little extra work with Coach Trumain [Carroll]. They'll all be back. I'm excited about that."