Tracking Mack

Opening Statements:
"I feel like today was good. We had a physical practice for about two hours. We were not as pleased with defensive play in our scrimmage last Wednesday before we left. But we have been looking at the film and studying it and we thought the intensity was back today. We are not good enough yet to take a day off like that. It doesn't happen around here very often but it is very serious when it does. I feel like they responded to [Wednesday's poor play] well and today was a good practice.

On dealing with bad practices:
"None of us take it very well when we do not play well. When we got back we had a talk with the guys. We told them that we are not going to be complacent. Some of our offensive guys did not play well last Tuesday. What happens in spring practice is that the defensive players responded to that and did not play well on Wednesday. That is not who we are. I tried to take the first team defense out and put in the second team, but they were playing just as bad. I'm glad it came up when it did. We really went back to work today."

"The players want to be good again this year. When you send them home for a week, you cannot be sure about what they did over the break and how much they conditioned. Everyone tried really hard today, and it was good to see that no one was complacent. There is a lot going on with basketball tournaments and baseball games and it could be an easy time for players not to focus. But we were pleased with the attitude on the practice field today and we need that each day."

On his areas of emphasis during the final spring practices:
"We are continuing to work on throwing the ball deep. We want to get the ball deep to the wideouts, so that is a focus for the end of spring. We are going to continue trying to get settled at tailback and work on their protection. Ramonce (Taylor) has not played there much and Chris Ogbonnaya has not played there at all. Michael Houston is a young player who is not used to pass protection so we are working on our backs and their protection. Defensively, linebacker is where we are need work more than anything else. We do not have much experience at linebacker other than Aaron Harris and Eric Hall. The rest of the guys are young and have not played very much. We are working on gaining experience and depth at that position.

On moving players around on the field:
"We have Scott Derry playing both middle linebacker and defensive end. He is being looked at in both places. Other than Michael Huff playing some cornerback as well as safety, Scott is really the only player we have moved."

On Ramonce Taylor:
"He slightly tweaked his ankle before the break so he did not practice as much today. We tried to give him some rest, so hopefully he will be back more tomorrow. We think we know what he can do at wide receiver so right now we are looking mostly at running back. He has so much explosiveness with the ball in his hand, but that is what we already know. The question mark is whether he can handle a pounding, which you cannot tell right away. The second part of the question is whether he can hold on to the ball. He has had great ball protection so far and has not dropped the ball in the first seven practices. Lastly, we want to look at his pass protection."

On the importance of Wednesday's Pro Timing Day:
"Football players do not play only because of their speed in the 40 (meter dash). Each NFL team has two years of game film on each of the players, so they have pretty much made their decisions. There are a few intangibles that the scouts still want to see. Derrick (Johnson) has already run (at the combine). It is not as important for them so see Chance Mock run at quarterback, because it is more of an ability to get the ball to the right places. As for Phillip Geiggar, Will Matthews, and Cedric Benson, obviously those guys will have an interesting test on Wednesday. I think the scouts will be more interested in looking at Phillip and Will because they have not seen those two play as much as they have seen Cedric. People always questioned Emmitt Smith's speed and he's in the Hall of Fame now. If you are a good football player, you will do well."