April 5, 2009
Opening statement: I thought we got what we needed today. It was really windy and obviously not a quarterback-friendly day out there, but it was good for us, because we are going to see some of that in the fall. We thought the kicking game was something we wanted to have great emphasis on, and it was all full speed. We probably had more kicking situations today than we've ever had. Again, trying to catch kickoffs in the wind, have punts into the wind and catch punts in the wind was all really good. We wanted to line up in the ‘I' and try to run the football. I thought Vondrell [McGee] did some really good things and Fozzy [Whittaker] had some good runs early. I thought both of them had some good runs throughout the day. John Chiles didn't get as much as I wanted him to. Brandon Collins continues to grow and so does James Kirkendoll. Malcolm and Aaron Williams both showed what they could do on kickoff returns. We're excited about that.
We were pretty simple on both sides of the ball, although we did blitz some to see the protection up front with the guys, but I thought overall, we got what we needed. We do appreciate the crowd and all of the people that came out. We all appreciate our military and we probably don't tell them enough. I think General Hammond felt that the military was appreciated today, and that again, was the point of today's scrimmage.
On Sergio Kindle: We felt like Sergio had enough. He's had a great spring and we're trying to build depth in that area. So, Will [Muschamp] and I decided this morning to hold him out. He could've played. He didn't even know it until today. We sat down and said that we've seen him plenty. We needed to get him out of there and we did. He was the only one that didn't play at all today.
On the younger defensive linemen: It's hard to tell until we see the film. I thought there was some good pressure. We've been really pleased with Alex Okafor throughout the spring. We know what Sam [Acho] can do, because we've seen him for two years. For Alex to come in and do what he has done as a pass rusher and just a senior in high school has been really fun for us to watch. He's got so much potential and he will get stronger. He will get a lot stronger for the fall and we do think he will be a factor in the two-deep.
On the defense in general: I thought the two turnovers early on were really good. It's something we've needed and have talked about. We dropped enough interceptions last year and it has been a true emphasis for us this spring. We were proud to start the scrimmage that way. It's the first time we've had everything live except for the quarterbacks in a scrimmage, and it was the first time we kept the first team against the first team and the second team against the second team. I thought it was very competitive and it was 14-7 at halftime, like you would think it should be.
On if there is a cause for concern for Colt McCoy's low completion percentage: No, none what so ever. I thought about half of the incompletions were dropped, and that should be the cause for concern. We're not going to throw to the ones that drop it, that's one thing for sure. The second thing is that if you were down there with me out in the middle, that wind was whipping hard. I couldn't believe Colt completed the pass on fourth-and-17. James [Kirkendoll] made a great catch. I think to have both sides press some was good today. It's good for this football team. We need to know we have some work to do and we need to know that we got a lot done today. The guys really competed with each other, but we also can't roll out the helmet and expect to be really good. We've got a lot of work to do before we can be consistently good, and that's why we wanted to stay with the first team against the first team today as much as we could. We wanted to let them understand that we're not going out to have a cake walk spring game just to make things look good for the off-season.
On who will return kickoffs and punts: We feel like Jordan [Shipley] will be back and he will continue to return kickoffs. We're fighting with him, but I think he's going to win because he wants to do it. James Kirkendoll has looked really good in punt returns. He dropped one today, but again, the wind was whipping so much that it's hard to field a punt. I think he has got a chance at punt returns and we didn't know that 10 days ago. We also think Christian Scott, Aaron Williams and Malcolm Williams can be guys that have a chance to score every time they touch it on kickoff returns. That was another big emphasis for us.
On where he thinks he got some answers this spring and where the question marks still remain: We feel like our depth in the secondary is a real positive. We thought it would be going in, and Christian Scott and Nolan Brewster really came on. All four corners played really well, so that was good. We answered the question about Sergio [Kindle]. We knew he could drop back and cover, but could he be a consistent player like Rak [Brian Orakpo] at defensive end as a pass rusher? He can be a great pass rusher, not just a good one. So, that question was answered for us. Sam Acho can be the other end and be a really good player. Ben Alexander can play more now. He's not an every-down player, but he's a guy who can step in and help us. We've already seen what Lamarr Houston can do, and since he's only had one fall at defensive tackle, we think he can have more. Kheeston Randall has continued to improve, but we need to find more depth in the defensive line. Alex Okafor has been a real positive like I've said, and we didn't know that coming in. Russell Carter has made some improvements and we'll have Eddie Jones back. Roddrick Muckelroy and Jared Norton had outstanding springs. We're pleased with Dustin Earnest. He has played the best that we've seen him play since he's been here this spring. Emmanuel Acho continues to get better. Keenan Robinson and all of three of those guys are helping us surround Jared and Muck with the linebacker play. Offensively, we probably have eight guys that we feel like are starters on the offensive line. We're still concerned and have to make progress at tight end. We're blocking there better than we are receiving. We feel like John Chiles moving outside has been a great addition to our wide receiver group. Malcolm is over his “oops,” and he is catching the ball now and catching it really well. He made a couple of great catches today. Like we've said, the bowl game proved that Brandon Collins and James Kirkendoll could be really good. Dan Buckner has had a good spring. DeSean Hales is coming on. Cody [Johnson] had a great half of spring ball, and we have to make sure that he is in the condition to possibly be an every-down back. We think that Vondrell's running today and this spring has been really good and he has his confidence back. Fozzy sprained his ankle again this spring, but he has a chance to be good. He just has to continue to do it. We feel like there will be a really great battle with Sherrod [Harris] and Garrett [Gilbert] at quarterback when Garrett comes in during June. He's so far ahead of most freshmen, because he has made so many meetings and practices and has been around. We feel like our kicking game should be good. We continue the experiment with Justin Tucker to rugby punt to his left. He can do it either way now with his right and left foot, and he can punt normally as well. He had a great punt at the end of the game. We feel like he's a plus and we feel like our kicking game can be better than it has been.
On the running backs this spring: We thought that Vondrell and Cody [Johnson] took a step ahead, and when Cody got hurt, it set us back a bit. We'll look at Chris Whaley in the fall. You can see that Jeremy Hills has made some really good runs and he has made some progress this spring. Tre Newton has really made progress as a third down back, because with his offense at Southlake Carroll, he can pick up the blitz and he can catch the ball out of the backfield. So we feel like all five of those guys can play and it will be interesting to see Chris Whaley.
On the experience and depth in the secondary and how it can help more this year: It should help us, number one, on special teams. That's the number one key, because a lot of those guys are your best special teams players. We should be fresher for special teams this year. Secondly, it lets you play nickel and dime more easily and at a higher level than we've been able to in the past, because all of those guys can be starters. If the offensive trends in this league continue like they were last year, we're going to have to use the nickel and dime a lot. That was the other reason not to have Sergio back there all the time. It was a great move on our defense to get him closer to the line of scrimmage and then have the ability to bring in a defensive back or safety that is not playing into the game. When you go to the nickel or dime, you have faster guys on the field. The simplest answer is that there is so much competition back there that those guys can't miss a step. If a guy has a sore ankle, he better practice. They are at a high level of competition. We've had really good players back there, but I think the most we've ever had were six guys who we thought could go in there and play, and right now, we're sitting at a minimum of eight, which is pretty good.
On what he told the team now that spring practice is over: I told them we had an outstanding spring and that they have handled all of their business off the field. They've been on time to the early meetings and they've worked really hard. The only thing that can keep them from being really good is themselves. We need to continue to grow with our leadership. You do not lose leaders like Roy Miller, Brian Orakpo and Quan Cosby and not have somebody step up to try to fill those voids. Those are as good of leaders as we've had since we've been here. We'll work hard on conditioning. We're working at new levels and we're finding ways to determine dehydration better. We'll have a complete body makeover with body fat and stretching. We want to see if they can stretch more to check their ability to stretch or lack of. We feel like the dehydration and body fat will really help us. We will have extensive work with the guys over the next month in that area, just to make sure that we know who we are and where we can improve our bodies as a team. We'll start on the academics again tomorrow and with the body workouts.
On what his level of concern is with tight ends: I think the ability to stretch the ball deep is our concern. When D.J. [Grant] was working, Colt was able to get him deep and give us the stuff that we've had in the passing game with our tight ends. D.J. was starting to do a better job with his blocking when we lost him to a sprained ankle the scrimmage before spring break. We used Dan Buckner in there some as well in the last 10 days. We felt like if we can't stretch the field with our tight ends, then we need to make sure that we've got a way to do that. We hope we can do it with what we've got. If not, we'll still branch out and get it done, because we have to be able to throw the ball down the field to our tight ends. We looked at Dravannti Johnson a little bit over there. He played mostly at defensive end today because of depth issues. We also are going to look at Dominique Jones some there. He was an outstanding tight end in high school and he had his shoulder operation right when he got here, so he was out for the spring. When we get Kyle Hix back, he works in that group as well with the offensive line. We'll get two or three of these guys back in the fall. Josh Marshall will be back from his shoulder, because he did not get to practice any this spring. So, we've got some possibilities there, it's the consistency we need to build there.
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