Aug. 20, 2009
Opening statement: We’re in the middle of pre-season camp, and what we’ve tried to do with pre-season camp is go back and treat it like NFL pre-season. We do not have pre-season games, so what we have to do is treat our three scrimmages like they’re games, and try to get the older guys some work, really work them hard in practice, work them hard in individual drills, work them in team periods, let them scrimmage some, but get them out, because we’ve seen what they can do over time. And work the young ones really, really hard in practice and the scrimmages and find out what they can do.
We had a great scrimmage yesterday and it was a good evaluation piece for us. We’ll come back and do the same thing on Saturday morning, and then we’ll come back and do the same thing next Wednesday. The Wednesday one is a little bit more like the game. It’ll be preparation for the game with Louisiana-Monroe. When you’re in the scrimmage yesterday, it was about 100 plays. There were kicking game situations that came up that help us, substitution situations that come up. More than anything else you find out who looks good, and who’s struggling, and who can handle walking into the stadium for the first time, and that’s what yesterday was really all about.
I’m really pleased with the turf. I thought the guys looked quick, I thought they liked it. It’s the first time we as a team have been out on it. I think they worked on it some this summer in their 7-on-7s, but it’s the first time we saw it. I didn’t even realize we were standing out on turf it’s so much like grass now. They’re doing a tremendous job with it, but we stayed out there a long time, we started early, and again we’ll do the same thing on Saturday morning.
A lot of the players, some people mentioned yesterday, Tray Allen playing defense and offense. A lot of the players we cross train. We’ve been doing that since we got here. With Mike Williams, he played defensive tackle our first year. It’s one thing Dick Tomey talked about all the time when he was here. I think there’s probably about 10 or 12 players on our team that we’re cross-training all the time, and I can go through a few, but we’ve always played the Derek Lokeys and Roy Millers at fullback. Henry Melton played two places until we really found the place that he fit the best, and that was defensive end more than running back because it just didn’t fit him as well. But you look right now, Ryan Roberson is working, he worked at fullback this spring. He’s worked at one-back tailback some, he’s working at linebacker. Dominique Jones is working at tight end and defensive end. Dravannti Johnson is working at tight end and defensive end. Lamarr Houston is working at the fullback spot in the goal line, short yardage like Roy and Derek did. Tray as we mentioned, Tray is still working at offensive tackle. In fact, he worked there two days ago. But, because he’s 306 pounds, because we’ll have some teams in the league that will try to line up and run at us, I’m the one that brought it up, because I remember him in high school. I saw him play defensive tackle. We’ve got some youth at defensive tackle. We’ve had some people banged up at defensive tackle. So it’s nothing different, nothing new, but from my standpoint as a head coach, we’re trying to constantly develop depth. So, I wanted to put him over there and see how he’s done. We did it I think the morning after the last open practice, so he’s been over there a week, and he’s done well. I mean, he’s obviously an offensive guard or tackle that’s playing defense, so he’s not ready to play, but we’re trying to get him in situations where he could help us in emergency situations if we could, but not lose his depth on offense. And we’ve still got more offensive line depth than we’ve got defensive line depth. So, you try to keep that balance. Dan Buckner is playing flex tight end as well as playing split end for us, and that’s a real plus because of all the injuries we’ve had at tight end. It’s why Chris Hall plays five different positions. I mean he can move anywhere. If Tray does really well on defense, and we need him more over there than offense, then you may play David Snow as a center, and when Adam Ulatoski is out, put Chris Hall at left tackle. I mean because you can do that, because Chris can move out there. So, you’re constantly looking at combinations that will help. The other one that we’ve been doing for about a week is D.J. Monroe now is playing wide receiver, but he’s also playing tailback. So, we’re having him cross train, so we can get the ball in his hands at different ways and different times to try to get that speed on the field. I apologize you all didn’t hear that yesterday. I was going to give it to you today, but that’s what we do. We’ve had a lot of injuries over the last three years, a tremendous amount of injuries in ’06 and ’07, but we just don’t talk about them much, because that’s how we are, and it’s an excuse if you sit around and talk about all the guys that are hurt instead of the guys that are playing, and at the same time we’ve got to continue to have depth and if somebody goes down, just put them back in. People forget last year Brian Orakpo missed the fourth quarter and half of the third quarter at Tech and missed the Baylor game and missed the Kansas game. It really was never mentioned because we just said that’s not who we are, so we went back to work and that’s the same thing that we’re doing today.
On redshirt freshman WR D.J. Monroe: He played running back in high school, and when you’re trying to change positions, it’s been our experience it takes longer. Brock Fitzhenry is taking longer to be a receiver because he was a great wishbone quarterback. It’s just different. Some of those guys who did it for 17 years get there a little bit quicker than guys who have done it a shorter time. D.J. missed spring, we held him out because we wanted to make sure he was doing his stuff academically, so he was behind as a receiver. He can run the screens; he can do the things that a running back can do at wide receiver. He is not where he needs to be yet at route running, and for us to have a chance to get him on the field this year, we’re trying to look at him in certain situations out of the backfield.
On sophomore S Earl Thomas: Earl has become a leader on our team and right now he is playing better than any other defensive back. It’s amazing the jump Earl’s had since his first scrimmage or even first game last year when we weren’t sure what we had as a young redshirt freshman safety, but he’s really playing well and taking a leadership role, which I’m really proud of. That’s what we need out of him.
On sophomore S Christian Scott and the depth at linebacker and defensive back: Christian Scott’s such a great hitter we’re still fighting to get him on the field. Christian’s made a tremendous amount of progress since really when he made the big hit at Kansas. I think that gave him a lot of confidence and he just continues to get better and better. One of the good things as you start looking at what we’ll be doing on defense is, do you have the third linebacker on the field, do you have the fifth defensive back, and we’re really good at both right now. We’re excited about those possibilities and combinations.
On the depth at wide receiver: We feel like we’ve got five today that could play today without question with experience, and we’d like to have eight because when you’re in your four-wide sets you’d like to be two deep with everything you’ve got. If you’ve got a 14-game season, which you would like to have, and you’ve got two-plus weeks before you even start, that’s 16 weeks, that’s an NFL season and anything can happen. What we’ve got to do is continue to work so that an injury doesn’t take us out of something we want to do offensively.
On the tight ends: You’ve got Greg Smith and you’ve got Ahmard Howard who are competing and improving each day. You’ve got Barrett Matthews who’s really stepping up and making some plays because he can be flexed or tight, and then you’ve also got Dan Buckner playing in there some. He made a fantastic catch yesterday. It was a one-hand diving catch down the middle. He’s moved in now and helped us there as well.
On sophomore WR Dan Buckner and the wide receivers: Obviously, he’s in the mix. When we’re throwing the ball, he’s more of a starter in the flex position, very much what Jordan (Shipley) did last year, so he helps us in there with his 6-4 frame. The others would be Malcolm Williams, Jordan Shipley, Brandon Collins, James Kirkendoll and John Chiles.
On junior WR John Chiles: He’s doing really well. John Chiles has lost weight, he’s running routes. I think more than anything else now, he’s taken the mentality of a receiver instead of a guy who moved from quarterback. He’s happy, he’s competing, he’s catching the ball well, like Quan (Cosby) he’s a force with the ball in his hands behind the line of scrimmage because he’s 208 pounds and runs 4.4, so we’re really excited about John and the progress he’s made.
On if the injuries at tight end have changed the team’s philosophy on offense: No, what we’d like to do is still be able to run the ball from the I-formation, we’d still be able to run the ball from one-back and we’d like to be able to run similar plays from multiple sets. That’s what we want to do. We’re being stubborn right now; we’re trying to continue to do what we’re going to do. Greg Smith is a much better blocker now at 250 after losing 30 pounds, so he’s much quicker. Ahmard Howard’s bounced around a little bit, but he’s getting better. We feel like we’re staying with who we are and we’re going to look at it. People have asked if we’re going to be under the center, if we’re going to be in the shotgun, what we’re trying to do is be multiple and still not take the ball out of Colt (McCoy)’s hands.
On the defensive tackles: Ben Alexander’s playing well, he’s been around. He and Lamarr (Houston), we usually don’t talk about the older guys in preseason because they know the deal. Right know you would have Kheeston (Randall), who’s playing great. He has had an outstanding camp. We’re excited. He’s made one of the biggest jumps on our team. And you would have Ben Alexander and you would have Lamarr Houston. Those would be the three guys that are rotating right now as the depth chart would be. Then you’re trying to get the young group, Tyrell Higgins, looking at Tray Allen now, to see if anybody else can get in that mix. You’d like to have five ends minimum. You’d like to have five defensive tackles minimum. Obviously if you have six, it’s better.
On the freshmen: They’re all lost. This time of the year freshmen get so tired, and they’re so worn down. What you have to be careful of, you’re excited about them early, and then they get worn out and you can’t give up on them because then they get better. We’re 16 days from game time, so next week about midweek they’ll get a little better and they’ll see that the game’s coming, all the students will start coming back in, they’ll think there’s a life again and you may need some of them by the fifth, sixth game of the year, so you can’t just say, ‘He’s not ready.’
On freshmen defensive tackles Derek Johnson and Calvin Howell: I think when Derek Johnson went home he had a little more conditioning issues, so Calvin (Howell) would be more ready to play right now, but Derek’s running every day after practice and trying to pick it up and get in the mix.
On if anyone is standing out at running back: No. I don’t think there will be other than to a degree. Vondrell (McGee) and Fozzy (Whittaker) came in and had great summers and they’ve had really good practice sessions. They look good. Cody (Johnson) can do the short-yardage, goal line stuff. He’s cross-training at fullback now and that really helps us because Antwan Cobb’s playing well. He’s had his best pre-season camp so far. Those two guys are really strong fullbacks who can run and catch, and (Cody) will still do the short-yardage stuff. The other two will be out on the field now. Then you’ve got Jeremy Hills and Tre Newton trying to get in the mix, and yesterday for the first time Chris Whaley ran it probably six straight times and looked good. That’s the first time he’s been healthy enough to run. We’ll watch Chris again on Saturday morning.
On junior QB Sherrod Harris and freshman QB Garrett Gilbert: It’s the weirdest things that happen in pre-season camp that get you. Probably four days ago Sherrod was throwing in a one-on-one drill and he strained one of the muscles in his rib cage, nobody touched him. Garrett right now would be the second team quarterback. Sherrod played in the scrimmage yesterday, but didn’t throw. He’ll be fine, but he’s been limited in the passing game. Right now they’ve separated. It was a dead heat. I’m really proud of Sherrod, he’s competing and hanging in there, and I really hate that he had the strain, and hopefully he’ll be able to come back and get in that mix again.
On sophomore S Blake Gideon: He’s humble and smart, he’s tough, he’s athletic, he’s a guy that had a winning team in high school and played quarterback and running back and safety and was the snapper on the punts and covered and returned kickoffs. He’s very, very athletic, he’s very smart, but because he had a back injury in high school, he was not on all the lists of the people that thought he should be this highly recruited guy. If he’s out there playing like he played last year, he would be a five-star and that’s what we look at. He’s really athletic, he’s smart, but he’s tough as nails. After he had his shoulder fixed this spring, we have to try to keep him from knocking everybody out because he wants to hit all the time, and we’re trying to tell him to let himself get well. He will be a factor for us. We’re really lucky that we’ve got Nolan Brewster, we’ve got Christian Scott, we’ve got Blake and we’ve got Earl, four guys that can play a lot, and then we’ve got Ben Wells that will be on kicking teams, so you’ve got a good mix of safeties there.
On the correlation between starts on the offensive line and wins: I think that it’s fair to say if you have a really good, older, experienced offensive line, you’ve got a better chance to move the ball. Now if you put a freshman quarterback in there without any experience, like we did Colt (McCoy)’s first year, it’s still more difficult. I would think that it’s fair and it’s a positive. It’s even better if you’ve got an older quarterback like Colt that has that experience too, because Colt as a freshman is very different than Colt as a senior, and we had the same situation in 2006. We had a younger, banged up offensive line in 2007 and really struggled until we got to midseason. Starts in the offensive line is important. I don’t think it relates to wins, but it helps you. You’ve got to have some other stuff, too.
On the young linebackers: We are so excited about our young linebackers. You know what Jared (Norton) and (Roddrick) Muckelroy can do. They’ve done it, so we’re not worried about either one of them. Keenan Robinson, Dustin Earnest and Emmanuel Acho have come a million miles and we’ve given them a bunch of snaps. Dustin’s weight is down, I think he’s 220-something instead of 238, and he is so quick. He’s playing so well. We’re excited about those three guys. We’ve got five linebackers right now that could all rotate as starters, and Ryan Roberson’s coming on fast. He’s trying to get in the mix. We don’t want to hurt Ryan’s opportunity to learn at linebacker, but we still don’t want to get him too far away from fullback if we need him over there, so we just constantly get the guys enough on both sides of the ball.
On what early game planning the staff has done: We do it in the spring. We do the first five games in the spring and then we have not done any to this point. We actually work on things that we think we’ll need for the first five weeks in preseason camp. After next Wednesday, it’s all game planning and you start working hard on ULM. But until then, you’re trying to get stuff in. You’re evaluating. You’re trying to figure out who plays where, how many snaps each one would get, and you’re trying to figure out still what you feature.
On finding kick returners: We’re looking at D.J. (Monroe) back there. You’ve got six or eight (candidates), that’s the good thing back there; we’ve got a lot of depth. You look at guys like Jordan Shipley, Aaron Williams, Christian Scott, Malcolm Williams, and then you start talking about D.J. Monroe and Marquise Goodwin. There are just a lot of guys. Chykie Brown can return kicks. Those are other things that after next Wednesday we’ll have to narrow it down and start looking hard at who those are. John Chiles is in that group. We don’t want to overload him. He’s never run this much in this heat. We’re trying to make sure that he doesn’t run so much that he’s exhausted until he gets used to that type of running.
On punt return candidates: Punt returners right now would be Jordan Shipley, James Kirkendoll, Curtis Brown, Marquise Goodwin, would probably be your guys.
On the biggest concern he would like to solve before the season starts: We’d like to get to five defensive tackles. That’d be really important for us to make sure that we’ve got five who can play. In this league there are so many passes and we’re continuing to work on defensive ends in pass situations if the tackles need to come out to save their legs. So what is the package of defensive ends that go in? Trying to get more depth at defensive tackle, and the same thing at tight end (are the main questions). Who are we now at tight end? What can we do and how will that affect us in who we feature and what we do going through the season? Those are probably the biggest unanswered questions. We’ve got three really good kickers. We’ve got some really good punters. We’re trying to separate all of those guys. I don’t think we’ve missed a field goal in practice yet, so it’s hard to separate them when they all don’t miss. Justin (Tucker) is kicking now, and he kicked all our kickoffs out of the end zone yesterday, screwed up our kick returns (laughing).
On finding a kickoff coverage team: It’s hard to tell this early because you’re still working on it, but they’re so tired and it’s so hot that you don’t do that live until Saturday probably. We’ve done it three-quarters speed. We’ve taught it. We’re trying to get our personnel to where we can look at it. We did it some yesterday, but again, (Tucker) kicked some out, so I’m going to have to get somebody else to kick (laughing).
On senior QB Colt McCoy: The question with him was, would be come back with confidence instead of tightening up and all that? He’s having fun, he’s laughing, he’s cutting up, but he’s competing. The thing that’s different about him in my perspective is he’s still as grounded as ever with who he is as a person, but he’s much bigger and stronger now at 214 pounds and hasn’t lost any quickness and speed, and he’s competing at the highest level. He’s being the best leader I’ve seen him be.
On if McCoy has any play-calling input and the maturity of freshman QB Garrett Gilbert: No, but I think he and Greg (Davis) will obviously sit down before games, and we always with our quarterbacks say, ‘What do you like the best?’ When you’re talking about your checks, he will have input, even if it’s a key play at the end of the game, we will come up and say, ‘Of these three, which one do you feel more comfortable with?’ And Colt, just like Vince (Young), they’ll give you one. They’re not bashful about it. Older quarterbacks have more influence there. The thing we’ve been so impressed with Garrett at the same time because we didn’t know him from an on the field standpoint is his maturity. We knew he was big, and he can run. We knew he was accurate and had a strong arm, but he’s very, very mature and he’s handling the huddle well.
On Fan Appreciation Day this Saturday: It’s a fun time for us. We’ll have our scrimmage, the guys will go in and clean up and we’ll have all of our scholarship seniors and the walk-on seniors that are playing will go over and sign autographs while they’re watching our volleyball team. They have gotten to the point now where they are in the top five every year and they have a chance to win all the games. We’re doing it now because we felt like it’s better in that setting, it’s more controllable and we had pregnant ladies, we had ladies with young kids, we had men and ladies with disabilities sitting out in that heat forever over here under the stadium, and it was really, really uncomfortable and we thought it was dangerous and unfair to some of our fans. So that’s why we’ve moved it over, and at the same time, we thought that it would really help our ladies volleyball team get the publicity that they need and that we could work with them to get some more people to watch them practice and hopefully fill up Gregory Gym every time they play.
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