Opening Statement
"Alright, we need to keep this short today. I'm starting to see you guys more than I see my wife and my family right now. It's been less than 22 hours since I've seen everyone. Hope everyone is having a great day.
"Good to get back, get the pads on. Some goal-line scrimmage situations today. We had Derrell Scott back in practice and he did some very, very good things. So it's great to see him and see him add to the overall competitive depth of the running back position. Dylan Wiesman was back today, so that was great to see as well. Jashon Robertson had his stripe removed today, in the team meeting room. So that was great for him and he's earned that.
"I thought Justin (Worley) came out and had a good day of practice. When you look at his body of work, also I think we seem to forget that last year in games that we started and finished, he was 4-2. And I'll continue to say it, in terms of the starting quarterback is a lot like a starting pitcher in baseball. It's your win-loss record. That's the most important thing with the quarterback, leading your team to victory and doing whatever it takes to get the victory."
On if he's surprised how quickly Jashon Robertson has been able to transition to a new position
"When we recruited him, we knew he brought value to both sides of the football. But he's extremely smart, he's very intelligent. He's very instinctful, and he plays with a good pad level. And he was a wrestler (in high school), that's really helped him from understanding (the) leverage side of things. But he's very bright and he loves football. He's done a tremendous job and he continues to push the older guys that we do have in the offensive line."
On finding where Jakob Johnson fits the best
"We have to find the best position, the best fit for Jakob Johnson. And he does bring value, because he can do some very good things. But one of the strengths that Jakob has is his ability to run and hit. So we're going to move him around a little bit to an outside linebacker position, try to get him standing up more and let him use his athleticism and his speed to run sideline to sideline."
On if that's even more of a challenge with a player with Jakob Johnson's background
"Well it's all going to be about his personal growth and development. We knew that when he recruited him. Just because he hasn't played football for a very long time. So the learning curve may be a little bit more. But he does play with great instincts. He's very, very intelligent. Now it's just a volume of repetitions that he needs to have. But we knew when we recruited him that we didn't know where he'd be at his first year. But we would like his body of work in year two, year three, year four. Sometimes when you put together a recruiting class you're also looking for developmental players that, some individuals may currently be ahead of him right now. But where will they be year two, year three, year four in the program?"
On specialists being tested during Saturday night's open practice
"Tomorrow night is critical for everyone, but particularly our specialists. We're going to do some different things with the game-like atmosphere, creating some stressful situations to put them in. Because we need to see who our kicker is going to be moving forward. Also our short snappers and our long snappers as well. So tomorrow night is a big-time evaluation tool for them."
On more competition in the return game
"Much more. You know, last year besides Devrin, we were really struggling to even have competition at the return game. Again, everything is about competition. It elevates your program and it elevates everyone in your program. And you see who the competitors are. And now, you know, we have a lot more. We've been able to add to that competition through the recruiting process. We're not there yet, but we still have made ourselves better in area just from the recruiting end of it."
On Jashon Robertson
"We need as much flexibility as possible, and it's finding the best five that will work together. Communicate as one, have one heartbeat, one mindset. You have to think all alike. Offensive line is very, very indicative of one wrong, all wrong. And so it's having five that can continually put together and feed off of each other. So it's allowed us to move some players around and try to evaluate and find out the best five to put on the field. But it's not just the five. You know I've said it, it's six, seven, it's eight. We travel with 10 to 11 offensive linemen. That's where we're really down. We're suffering some consequences in terms of recruiting right now. We're down about five offensive linemen in our numbers of running a football program. So again, every rep that they take is critical but we need to continue to recruit at the position."
On Owen Williams
"Owen continues to be work in progress. He's making some plays for us. The big thing for Owen is just his stamina, his football endurance. The ability to play four or five plays in a row at a very high level. Owen is very explosive, uses his hands well. But it's just the overall mental toughness, the mental conditioning of being able to fight through fatigue, which that's what football is. And playing with a level of toughness, play in and play out."
On Curt Maggitt
"Curt rolled his ankle a couple of days ago. All precautionary, so we're taking our time with him getting him back to full strength. He's going through walk-throughs, going through some different things but he'll be fine."
On Chris Weatherd
"Again, work in progress. For Chris, it's the fine details of playing the position. The overall discipline to do things right, each and every day. But what you see is an individual who can run. Very, very explosive who's trying to do the right things. It's just creating and formulating those habits and those instinctual habits. We always talk about, you train a certain way so that it becomes instinctual. We're working on that, but you can see that he has a lot of ability. He wants to do it now. It's just repetition."
On Neiko Creamer's position move
"Yeah, we're trying to find the best spot for Neiko. And so today we tried him at tight end, and we'll continue to see what he can do at the tight end position. But again it's just moving him around. He may be at a number of different positions, just seeing the fit. He's a big body-athlete. Now we're just trying to find the right fit for him."
On the timetable for Curt Maggitt's return, if he'll play in Saturday night's open practice
"No, he won't play tomorrow night. He'll go through practice. He'll go through the morning practice on Saturday, but he won't play Saturday night. He'll be ready to go Sunday."
