ON EARLY IMPRESSIONS FROM DAY ONE OF PRACTICE
“The first day you’re hoping that there is a bit of a carryover with veteran players in certain areas. When you get into some team time you want to see a competitive environment with guys that know how to practice the right way, and that was certainly the case… The quarterback, (Ian) Book, looked sharp. Chase Claypool looks natural at the position in terms of where we’re playing him (boundary receiver). I think there’s going to be some really good continuity on the offensive and defensive line. They know how to practice, they know the pace of practice, so a lot of good things that you would expect in the first day with a group that clearly knows the standards of how to practice the right way.”
ON THE PROCESS OF FIGURING OUT WHO HIS CAPTAINS WILL BE
"I want to continue to give them opportunities to lead in a different kind of environment. Being a captain in the weight room and being part of the SWAT team is one thing, but now handling different situations where maybe they have to interact a little bit differently in the locker room, on the practice field — I want to expose them to as many opportunities to lead. This segment in our development of this football team just lends itself to different opportunities… They’re all kind of new at this, so it just gives them more experience."
ON JARRETT PATTERSON STARTING AS FIRST-TEAM CENTER
I like his athleticism, smart kid. One thing that really stood out last year was assignment correct, emotionally stable in the sense that every single day you got the same kid — and we like that at the center position. He’s going to have some help with the guards in terms of they’ve got some experience and they’ll be able to call out some things for him… We need to continue to work on his technique snapping the ball — not that that ball was all over the place, but we’ve got some work to do technique-wise there. We feel like that’s a good position for him."
ON RECEIVER BRADEN LENZY AND HIS GROWTH, ADDED SIZE, AND HIS SPEED
“I think anybody that has been in our strength and conditioning program and has really shown a dedication to it is going to put on a coat of armor. Thicker without getting slower. Michael Young has been the same. Michael has put on good weight and he’s faster. He just needed that weight to get up there, cover up DBs and do his job — catch the ball in traffic and be more confident as a football player… Still have to catch it consistently, but he hasn’t lost a step. He’s got that explosive speed that we recruited, but certainly a stronger player is a more confident player.”
ON DJ BROWN AND HIS MOVE TO SAFETY FROM CORNERBACK
"He was cross-training. We had an indication on ‘Stud’ (transferring), but we wanted to see DJ at both of those positions."
ON TIGHT END COLE KMET MISSING PRACTICE DUE TO BASEBALL
“This is the last weekend that he’ll miss. In practice one where we weren’t doing a whole lot — we didn’t want him to miss the contact scrimmages. So working with baseball, we felt like this would be the one (weekend) to give up.”
ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOPHOMORE ROVER LINEBACKER SHAYNE SIMON
“Just a lot more confident, playing faster. Everything was robotic last year. He had to see it before he could react. He’s reacting, playing a lot faster. I think we’ll see a lot more from him. It’s the first day. Everything he does — engagement, conversation — his eyes were down last year when you had a conversation with him. He’s looking you in the eyes (now)… It's just the natural progression of a young guy that we think is on the come. He’s going to do some nice things for us."
ON GUYS WHO MADE BIG STRIDES PHYSICALLY THIS OFFSEASON
“I think there would be some guys that would look at the defensive line right now and look at Julian Okwara and the good weight he’s put on. Across that defensive line, they’ve done a great job of not only putting on weight but strength with the weight. They look really good … There’s not a guy that doesn’t look good and put on functional weight for his position… Chase Claypool looks faster, moves faster, catches the ball with speed out of the break, so he looks more explosive. The guys that need to look good for us to be good look good."
ON QUARTERBACK IAN BOOK AND HIS GROWTH AS A LEADER
“Oh yeah, and we’ve put him in a leadership position as well. A couple of things happen. One, you are put in a position of leadership and you handle yourself differently. But two, the expectations he’s handled on a day to day basis quite well. Ian’s not a particularly loud and vocal guy, but he’s going to stand up when he needs to say something. He’s done that a couple of times, he was asked to do that, and it resonates quite well. He is a different leader than he was last year. He was just a quarterback at Notre Dame last year. He’s a leader in our program (this year). That’s a big difference.”