April 1, 2009
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OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR Greg Davis
On expectations of the spring game: There are some young guys who have not been in that setting very often, so we want to see them with the crowd there and the band there, coaches working from the boundary and not shouting assignments out to them and see what they know and how they'll react to that situation. We want to play a lot of different kids, a lot of different combinations in that setting and we're going to be looking at certain things, certain plays. Mainly, we just want to go out and function and compete.
On the depth within the wide receivers: When [Jordan] Shipley gets back, we probably will be as deep at receiver as we've been. And last year, we were pretty deep there. Last year, I thought it was probably the deepest overall group that we've had. With the movement of John Chiles out there, he's really improved out there. [James] Kirkendoll is now a year older. Brandon Collins is a year older. Malcolm Williams has had a really good spring, Dan Buckner, and you throw Shipley into that mix. That's a group that we can play a bunch of different players. It has a chance to be the deepest group. Last year, Quan [Cosby], Shipley, Malcolm Williams, James Kirkendoll and Brandon Collins, I thought it was a deeper group than Roy [Williams], B.J. [Johnson] and Sloan [Thomas]. That group you had three guys, one that's still playing in the pros and the other two that played some in the pros. Last year's group was really deep with guys who could go in, play and function. The guys we've got working now, I think we'll have a chance to be as deep as last year's group. I think that Malcolm Williams brings that threat [to go vertical]. We saw spurts of it last year. He's a big guy, got great speed and he's been more consistent this spring catching the ball. Because we play a lot of man-to-man, we've gotten a lot of work on different things against tight coverage. So I've been encouraged by him. Malcolm is a tremendous worker. He really studies the game. He just needs to be consistent in catching the ball.
On John Chiles' performance this spring: I think John made a great decision in that when we talked right before spring training, he brought it up to me that Colt [McCoy] was coming back and he would only have one year left after Colt. He said, "I really think my best position may be wide receiver." At that point, I was thinking he wanted to go through spring at quarterback. But John said, " Coach, if I'm going to do it, I need to do it now. I need to get out there and learn the nuisances of it." He found that he was in quarterback-shape, but he wasn't in wide receiver-shape. I think he's lost about eight to nine pounds over the course of spring training. He's really, in the last part of spring, come on and been the productive guy. He'll play a position at which we throw a lot of balls real quickly to him and take advantage of his ability to break tackles. John has shown that ability to catch the ball and do something with it after the catch.
On the offensive line's performance this spring: We've got good depth in the offensive line. We've still got some young guys that we need to bring along, but right now we have seven or eight guys in the offensive line that we feel real good about, that they can go in and play in a ball game.
On the tight ends this spring: Ahmard Howard and Greg Smith have a good battle going on at tight end. It's a shame that D.J. Grant got hurt early in spring because he was doing some really good things. He kind of brought to that position what we've been use to, a guy who can stretch the field and not have to substitute and play four wide receivers as much. I've learned that Ahmard Howard can help us there. I've learned that Greg Smith has got his weight down and he can help us there. They've got a good battle going on. They're not guys that are going to stretch the field by nature, but they do have good hands and can catch the ball underneath. The biggest thing is if they can just give us an extra blocking surface up there, and they've shown signs of doing that.
On D.J. Grant's performance before his injury: I was encouraged by D.J. [Grant]. He was a guy who wasn't afraid to put his nose in there, and he was guy who could run and stretch the field and obviously catch the ball, typical as a wide receiver. Speed wise, he's just in the middle of the pack. You move him inside and he's running routs from in there and then all of sudden he's real fast. He's dealing with linebackers and nickel backs as opposed to corners. He's not scared of contact at all.
On the running backs this spring: There's good competition going on at running back. One day, one of them steps up and then the next day the other one steps up. That's an encouraging thing. Having said that, I'd like one of them to just run off and take the job. We'll have to wait until August to see if that happens. Cody [Johnson] was having a really good spring. He's a guy that's got really good vision. Obviously, he's the bigger of the backs. He's done a good job. Antwan Cobb has done a nice job at fullback for us. He really has. He's a smart guy. He's got good flexibility in his hips, so he has great snap at contact. They give us some flexibility if we go to two backs to be able to do some things. [Ryan] Roberson, we've just looked at him a little bit, but we've seen enough to know that he has some of the some things we've talked about with Antwan. He's got nice hip bend and nice flexibility. From being a linebacker, he has good punch at contact.
On the power running game despite the injuries: We'll continue to do that whether or not it's two-back or one-back, from under center or in the gun. You can't lose sight that the most important thing for offense is to score points, and that's our job. With Colt, you've got to give him some opportunities to score points. Having said that, we still want to run the ball better as a general rule than we did last year. We'll keep working on being able to do that - mainly in situations where we're ahead and we're trying to grind the ball or trying to take some air out of the ball to help our defense.
On using the hurry-up offense more: We used it in the bowl game and with quite a bit of success. We had seven snaps of real fast tempo and six of them were really productive. We caught them [Ohio State's defense] one time with 12 guys on the field, we caught them offsides on a touchdown play and so it's a part. We're playing with it now. We used it today. We probably won't use it Sunday because it's not that kind of a day and we have a game plan for things. It will be a bigger part of our offense as we enter the fall. We're sending in the formation and the play. He'll [Colt] have freedom within that system. One of the things you're dong in that offense is you're trying to catch the defense from being exactly set with their call. Every time you give the quarterback freedom to start changing up there, you're also giving the defense more time to adjust to the formation, but he does have freedom in that formation, in that tempo. We have a couple of different kinds. One is we're hurry-up in the gun and then we do have hurry-up when we're under center. We're trying to get to the line of scrimmage as the official is making the ball ready for play. Then, we're trying to get the ball snapped from five seconds after he moves away from marking the ball ready for play.
On Colt McCoy's performance this spring: There are always areas to improve in. Colt's obviously a leader and he's extremely bright. In those areas we talked about in the offseason that we want to get better at, I've seen improvement in those areas. I think he's gearing up to have a heck of a season.
On splitting up the quarterbacks for the spring game: Colt and Sherrod [Harris] will take the most snaps. Trevor Walker and John Paul Floyd, we'll try to get them some snaps. The spring game, typically, is not a bunch of plays. We'll be smart with him [Colt] in what we ask him to do. He'll play most of the snaps with the first group.
On who has emerged as key players this spring: Obviously, John Chiles having gone out there to receiver and been there from the beginning. He has shown he needs to be in the mix and will be in the mix, especially if he keeps working like he did this spring. David Snow picked up, for a freshman, right where he ended up late in the season. He's a guy that can play center and both guards for us, so that's been encouraging. Then, probably the guy [who's emerged] is Britt Mitchell. With Kyle Hix playing the first seven days of spring and then Britt taking over there, he's really had an opportunity because he's played with the first group, the orange group, to show that he's going to be a heck of a player for us. So he would be a guy that I would point to that maybe the fans were unsure of or just didn't know his name, who has really come on and had a great spring. I like that he's athletic. He's a tight end and same old deal. You move a guy from tight end to tackle, all of sudden he's really athletic. He's got great punch. He's a bright guy. He understands different things. That tackle position is so critical because of as much as we throw the ball.
On the importance of the spring game for the offense: We want to see execution. We want to see the guys go out and take care of the football. We want to see them compete. Unlike a ball game, we'll be looking more at plays. We want to move the ball obviously, but we also want to get some things on tape. We want to get some ball carriers some carries. It's more of a working day for us than it is a game day. The biggest thing is getting off the field, letting the players get out there and they can't hear us screaming the last minute instructions and let them function the way it would be in a ball game. We want great effort. We want great intensity, but at the same time, we want to evaluate some players.
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR Will Muschamp
On what he expects out of the defense on Sunday: Any time you walk on the field, you want to compete and play well. Our kids need to play hard and execute what we're going to do because we're not going to do a whole lot. It'll be the first time for a lot of these kids to line up in this stadium, so it will be an exciting time for them.
On if he thinks the leadership from last year's team can carry over to the 2009 team: There's no question. We've had a couple guys that have stepped up throughout the spring in Sergio Kindle, Roddrick Muckelroy and Earl Thomas. Those are three guys we have identified that have had that every day. We certainly had great leadership last year. We need to have those guys continue to push forward. We had a great post-spring workout session, we had a great summer last year and that's going to be critical for us again.
On what the team is expecting from senior LB/DE Sergio Kindle this season: Sergio needs to be Sergio. He's a good football player, he was a productive player for us this past year and we look forward to him having a great senior year.
On sophomore DB Earl Thomas' spring performance: I think that everybody's different, and Earl as a young player had a really good spring last year. I think he's had a good spring this year, but we need to have more guys like him that have that lunch-pail attitude to come out and work hard every day, that have the consistency in performance of playing physical football every day. It's not something you just flip on and off. He's an intense competitor, he has a good, competitive edge about him and we need more guys like him.
On where the defense needs to improve: We need to get better up front, that's the bottom line. We need to have more effective rushers other than Sergio (Kindle), and we need to get better inside up front. We've got to continue to build depth, which is going to have to be with some freshmen next fall so they need to get ready. We're not where we need to be. We were okay in the first seven practices. I think as a defense we made some strides in the eighth, ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th practice, but we're not where we need to be, especially at that position.
On senior DT Ben Alexander: Throughout the season we're going to face some two-back run teams and he certainly fits in well there. He plays the run very well, he does a good job of eating two blocks and he understands his role. All the good teams I've been a part of have guys like that, that understand their role.
On freshman DE Alex Okafor: Alex is a guy that's got some natural pass rush ability. He's a good athlete, he can play in space, he's a very smart kid, he's learned well in the time he's played here, but he's one of those guys that hasn't lined up in this stadium, hasn't lined up in front of a lot of people, so I'm looking forward seeing him competing on Sunday.
On the seniors entering the NFL Draft: A lot of (teams) have called, there's a lot of interest out there. I think those guys played pretty well. They've been exposed to a lot within the scheme, so it'll be a good situation for them in April, but regardless of where they're drafted or whether they sign as a free agent, they all have to make the team. Those guys understand that they've got to go in with a great attitude and be ready to play special teams and be ready to contribute to the team in a positive way.
On where the secondary is compared to this point last year: We're light years ahead of where we were, obviously, because of experience. We've got a lot of competition back there, which is the best motivator. We've just got to have some guys continue to separate themselves from the pack and make those game-finishing plays.
On who the current starters are in the secondary: We've been kind of by committee day by day, based on the production from the previous day. Right now at corner, Chykie (Brown) and Aaron Williams have done a good job. Aaron and Earl (Thomas) have both played the nickel. I don't feel differently one way or the other about one or the other. Curtis (Brown) and Deon (Beasley) are our third and fourth corners at this point. Blake (Gideon) and Christian (Scott) and Earl have all played the safety position, and Nolan Brewster has had a really good spring and Ben Wells is coming along. We really feel pretty comfortable about our depth at that position and the quality of players that we've got.
On senior DT Ben Alexander's role on the defense: We would play him more in the early down situations and he understands that. He's gotten his weight under 300 pounds, he's moving a lot better, he's always had good punch and power at the point of attack. Everybody's got their role within what we do and he certainly has his role on this football team.
On the defensive tackle position: Right now we're playing with what we've got and we need to be more consistent up front and play better up front. We're not where we need to be, there's no question about that after 13 days. I don't think it's a lack of effort, it's more of a lack of consistency in what we're trying to do and I think we can get it out of them. I think the ability is there. I am very concerned about the depth. We're one injury away from a tough time in there. We just need to make sure we keep those guys healthy, but yet still get the work and the effort we need inside.
On if the staff is looking to move anyone to defensive tackle: Not at this point. I think the ability is there and I think the talent is there, we've just got to get more out of them and that's on us as coaches. It goes back to consistency and performance. We show some good things at times, we just don't do it enough. We've got to improve our pad level, improve our strike and improve our play-making ability at that position.
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