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University of Minnesota Athletics
Comments From Glen Mason's Media Day Press Conference
8/11/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Transcription of Coach Mason's Media Day Press Conference Thanks for coming and I mean that sincerely. It's an exciting time of year for us. Personally I love this time of year. I start by saying that because I went to the Big Ten meetings a week ago and it was amazing how many coaches got up and said "I'm happy to be here." And then they would proceed by saying that "I'm not really happy to be here. I'd rather be doing something else." And as I sat there and thought about it, I can honestly say there isn't anything I'd rather be doing than starting two-a-day camp at the University of Minnesota. I'm not only saying that because I've got a good football team. I felt the same way eight years ago when we didn't have a good football team because I just like what we're doing.
It's amazing to me, and I'm going to throw it out to you, that we take some valuable time as coaches when we go to Chicago for the Big Ten meetings to impart our knowledge of out teams on the writers that show up there. Why do they take the preseason poll by the media before we show up? I've never been able to figure that out. I remember one Saturday when I was working at Ohio State, Coach Hayes called a seven o'clock meeting on a Saturday and none of us knew what it was about. We were all curious. And we showed up at seven o'clock. And he walked in and he looked at us. And said, "Men, I know you're all curious why I've called this meeting. I've called this meeting to discuss what I've already decided. And that's what I kind of felt about that meeting, getting up and telling about my team. That people have already made up their mind about who's going be good and who's not going to be good. And saying that it really doesn't matter, I guess. It's how you play.
I want to give you some general information and then make some comments. And then give you an opportunity to ask me any and all questions that you'd like, and I'll attempt to answer them. Players in camp as we speak. We've got 103 players. By NCAA rules, this time of year, you're allowed 105 players. We've got 76, what I consider upperclassmen. That's kind of a misnomer because that number includes John Carlson, who came to us after graduating early from Hopkins High School. He was here for the spring semester and participated in spring practice. Along with Maurice Alexander, who started his matriculation in January and was also here for spring practice. We have 18 new scholarship freshmen and nine walk-ons in that group. That 18 scholarship freshmen also includes, the infamous Ernie Wheelwright, whose name's been bantered around. I'm happy to report that and I think this is one of the good stories about college athletics. He came up a bit short academically. I personally believe the University of Minnesota did the right thing and gave the kid a chance. And he was able to earn his eligibility after being successful in his first year academically. He's done that and he's on scholarship and now he'll be able to practice and play. He comes well advertised. How good is he? I don't know. I've not seen him play any football other than high school. He looked good in high school. I'm very eager to see how he can help this football team.
A couple players that are not in camp that you might expect to be here. Trevor McCulloch, who is an offensive lineman, will not report until school starts, but we anticipate him reporting then. Brandon Owens, a young man entering his second year, is still trying to work out some summer school issues, so I've not let him in camp yet. Willie VanDeSteeg, a young man we recruited out of Silver Lake, is still working on his certification. If you would add Brandon Owens and Willie VanDeSteeg, who may enter our camp any day, that would put us to the 105. That's why we're only at 103. We had one young man, David Wess, who did not quality and is going to go - or at least we anticipate him going the junior college route. Chad Redmann, a young man that's been in our program a number of years, would have been a senior at tight end, has decided to leave our program. And Everett Pedescleaux, a young man that we took out of Armstrong - a combination football, basketball player - hurt his knee during one of the all-star games, and underwent surgery - hopefully successful surgery. We think it's successful surgery. And he will not full-time enroll, the key term being full-time enroll, until January. Why? Because he'd be unable to participate athletically, right now. So, why start his athletic clock now? We'll delay it and that way he doesn't burn up a year of potential eligibility. So, hopefully everything will work out okay there.
Position switches that you may or may not be aware of - I'm talking about them happening right at the end of spring practice or post-spring practice. I've already mentioned Brandon Owens's name, but we moved him literally the last couple hours of spring practice from defensive back to linebacker. Another young man, Mario Reese, that we talked about quite a bit as either being a defensive end or linebacker - we've moved him to defensive end.
I have a rule that you can't talk to any players until they pass their running test. I'm very happy to report all but one scholarship player passed the running test. That's one too many as far as I'm concerned not making it. But again I think it's just an indication of what kind of attitude we have on this football team. We have a running test and if you say, "Well, how does that apply to football?" I'm not really sure, but when you stand there and watch those kids run, it's kind of a gut check. And it also measures the commitment they made over the summer. So, I feel pretty good about that.
Our plans - we did the running test. We have media day. We have to go, by rule, two days just wearing helmets which will be today and tomorrow. And then the next two days we can wear helmets and shoulder pads. And then come Sunday, it's the first day that we can practice in full pads. We still run two-a-day practices. Let me explain. the coaches will go twice a day. Any players will only go once a day. So we split the team literally in half. Why do I do that? To give as much attention as we possibly can to the young, incoming players. And give as many guys on this team a chance to get reps early in practice. Remember, we used to have three days where we had the freshmen all to ourselves. And then the rules changed at the NCAA level, so we came up with this idea a year ago and it worked pretty good. Then starting next Monday we'll go on our 2-1-2-1-2 schedule. Again, it's a change in rules. You can't practice twice two days in a row. I like the change. I think it was a good change. If they let us go back to the other way, I'd still stay with this format. But we'll be in full pads a week from Saturday, which will be the 21st. We'll scrimmage, and you're all welcome to come because it's open to the public. I know you're eager to see how we look. In fact, we're going to have our second annual Fun Fest. It's a good chance for our fans to come out, especially young kids, and get around our players. Our feedback from it last year was tremendous. So we're going to do it again. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. Our rehearsal game will be on the 28th. We'll hold that in the Dome in the morning, but that will be closed. And everything we do is leading up to our opening game against the University of Toledo on September 4th. They're a good football team. If you read any of the publications out there, they're ranked. Just like we are. So it's one of those early games in college football in which you have a chance to watch two top- 25 teams go at it. I think it'll be a good game. I know Toledo will be ready for us. Hopefully we'll be ready for them.
I'm optimistic. I had one reporter in Chicago say, "I've never seen a guy smile so much." Well I said, "Then you haven't been around me." I'm always smiling. I'm a happy-go-lucky guy. But I am optimistic about this year. I don't make any bones about it. I like to look back and think how we got here. And I made a reference to eight years ago. and I don't want to go that far back. But I like the kids we got. I remember back in 2002, if you check your notes, I said nobody thinks we're going to be very good, but I think we got a chance to be good. We're awfully young, but so what? And as you remember, we won eight games, which wasn't too bad. I said if we were good in 2002, we could really be something special in 2003. We had a great year and we came very close to really knocking the door down last year and we were still a young football team. The news is again this year, when you go to 2004, we're not as young. But we're still a young football team. There are not that many seniors there. I don't think of them as young, but when I introduce them, like I did last night to the freshmen, there are not many guys that are playing their last year of football here. In taking that we went from eight games to ten games, and the way we finished last year, the attitude, and the work ethic, and how I feel about these guys. I think we should be awfully good here in 2004.
When you look at the offense. I stood before you last year and told you how I felt about our offense and I thought we could finish in the top three. As you know we finished at the top of the Big Ten in just about every category. In every important category, we were right there at the top. When you look at our offense, I can't help but first mention our offensive line. I think we've got the best offensive line I've ever been around. Not the best offensive line ever at Minnesota, but the best one that I've been around and been able to coach as a head coach or assistant coach. You look at some guys. and everyone wants to point to Eslinger. Why? Because I always point to him because I think he's the best center in college football. I wouldn't trade him for anybody. It's amazing to me how many of our opposing coaches will mention Greg Eslinger. And how many times do you hear them single out a center? Now we're unique in our play. It's a skilled position playing center for the University of Minnesota. But the silent hero is the guy that plays right next to him - (Mark) Setterstrom. Another guy that came in here and started as a true freshman and played extremely well and is an awfully good football player. You look at Rian Melander at left tackle, with a wealth of experience. It's one of those guys you recruited when he was 210 pounds. Now he's 295. He's developed since he's been here and really good. Ainslie's got a year under his belt starting at right tackle. The only guy we lose off of last year is Joe Quinn, who had character coming out his ears and just played great for us. So we're going to miss him. That's the bad news. The good news is the guy that's replacing him is a lot more talented. I don't think there's a guy that's made more improvement, had a change from one year to the next, than Brandon Harston at right guard. Unbelievable. I'm telling you he's just a different guy and that happens sometimes. It happens at the college level. It happens at the high school level, where all of a sudden the light comes on with everything the guy's been through. We really think he'll be a good player. I'd have to say Mike Nicholson, another guy that we feel is a starting caliber player. We've got him. Tyson Swaggert is also a very good center. He just happens to be playing behind the best center in college football. And Matt Spaeth. you couldn't want more from a tight end than that guy. He doesn't say much. He just plays hard and he's as tough as they come. He's tall. About 6'5", 6'6". I don't know how much he weighs. 265? And he looks skinny. Awfully good football player. If you would've watched him and Jarod Posthumus, our other tight end, you would've said, "God, now there's some good looking players." That's what's fun about college football. We recruited Jarod Posthumus out of Becker High School as a quarterback. He was a great looking quarterback. He couldn't throw the ball. Can't throw the ball? You have to put your hand on the ground and block. That's what football is all about. He didn't really like the idea, but he adjusted to it awful well and we're really glad that he did.
We've got some good running backs. You know that. If you don't know that you don't have your eyes open. Every place I go I see billboards with Maroney and Barber on there. Where the hell's the picture of Coach Mason? You've got to get me out there now. But they're good running backs. Everybody's talking about them. Everybody wants to look at the negative side. How are you going to keep them happy? We don't have to worry about keeping those guys happy. They're not in it just for them. They're not playing for a contract year. They're playing to see how far they can push this football program. I tell the offensive coaches they had better keep me happy because I don't want to be standing on the sideline with one of those guys standing next to me. Because if you put 11 guys on the field on offense, both of those guys have to be in the top 11. So we'll do as much as we can to utilize both of those guys. Amir Pinnix, is a guy that all of a sudden during spring practice, he was that "Who is that guy?" That was the question. Because everyone came to watch the other two, and all of a sudden, they're saying "Boy, that guy looks pretty good." We lost (Thomas) Tapeh, who is now playing in pro football. But we think we've got a guy that can really help us in that two back set at the fullback in Justin Valentine. He's not going to be as big a physical blocker as Tupeh was, but he's got more quickness, more speed, and we'll probably do more things with having his hands on the ball.
I believe we're deeper at wide receiver than we've been since I've been here. I can tell you that we've got some great receivers in the Big Ten Conference, but I don't think there's a more underrated wide receiver than Jared Ellerson. And I mean that. He makes plays. Continues to make plays. He's better. He's bigger. He's faster. He's stronger. He's more experienced. He's awfully good. Logan Payne's back after playing last year. Jakari Wallace, just a little guy, is finally healthy. We've got to find out how Ernie Wheelwright can help us. Paris Hamilton, who's been well advertised, is healthy. We can see how he can help us. Micah Rucker, a big wide receiver who we recruited out of Florida, will figure into it. And a guy that is underrated in our own program, by us, is Mark Jundt. You go back and look at how he performed in spring practice, he really played well. And he's got a great attitude, is working hard, and has great confidence, and I really think he'll be able to help us this year.
On defense. a year ago I said we're going to be very inexperienced. We're not very big. And if we do a good job, we'll finish middle of the pack in the Big Ten. You know what? That's exactly where we finished. Now, there'll be some instances you can point at, and you can be critical of our defense, or I could be critical of our defense and it would be justified. But overall, at least from my standpoint, where you looked at where I though we could be, that's where we ended up. We'll be better this year. There will be noticeable improvement in our defense this year. Why do I say that? Well, I've got confidence in those kids and they've got more experience. They're bigger, faster, stronger, and I watched them in spring practice and they were a lot better. We are finally to the size and to the caliber of where we need to be in the Big Ten up front. When you take guys like (Mark) Losli - another very underrated football player. He's just the greatest. He's a guy that doesn't say anything. He goes outside everyday and works. He came in as a skinny little kid and now he weighs 295. He has about a 3.7 grade-point-average. He's a model citizen. You know what's great. I'm boring you with all this stuff. But I'm bragging about my guys because I'm proud of them. Losli does all this stuff. He works everyday. That's the type of kid he is. Just a great kid. You look at Anthony Montgomery. You look at Losli. You look at Darrell Reid, who as you know we moved from tackle to end, but he can still play tackle. They are those guys that are good football players, and boy do they look good getting off the bus too. They're a "Who is that guy?" type of guy. They've got the size that you need to play in the Big Ten.
We've got a lot more speed and athleticism at linebacker. You look at a guy like Terrance Campbell. and he switched his number. He didn't like 58, so now he's 32. He's got defensive back speed and he's playing linebacker. Kyle McKenzie, another very underrated guy, a guy that no one recruited in high school. No one recruited him and we gave him a chance. And all he's done is keep his mouth shut and work extremely hard. We've moved him to middle linebacker. He's a good football player. And Dominique Sims, who's been around here a long time, really had a good spring practice. Along with some other guys.you take a guy like (John) Shevlin, (Mark) Mullaney, we moved Brandon Owens there. They're good athletes and also tough kids. You don't have to worry about so many substitutions, adjusting from the power run, to the next minute the spread offense. In college football you need to be very flexible on defense.
And we're okay on the back end, the defensive backs. If you look at guys like Dozier, he's played a lot of football around here at corner. Banks has been a starter there. We're really impressed with Jamal Harris, a freshman, who is just in tremendous shape. He ran the running test today, like you and I would walk around the block. Fraley, one of our captains, has played a lot of football. JP (John Pawielski) really had a great spring. Another one of those walk on players, we gave an opportunity, and will start for us this year. Wojo (Mike Wojociechowski), who has been around here. We've got a lot of guys that have played a lot of football. We've got more experience. More depth. More speed. More athleticism. And that's why we should be better.
Our kicking game. I was hoping last year that we would be solid. I couldn't even tell you who our punter and kicker was at this meeting last year. And a guy came, literally, out of the stands and did a pretty fair job. What you like about him is that nothing bothers that guy. He has no clue sometimes how big those kicks are. He just makes them and I guess that's just what you need to be able to perform in that type of arena. But with our kicker back, our punter back. we need to take our kicking game to that next level. It can't just be adequate, it's got to be good. And it should be a lot better because we've got more experienced players around those guys.
Last, but not least, and it can't be underrated. when I introduced our coaches to our players there are no new faces. Typically, when you look at truly programs they have great continuity in their staff. Sure, some movement is good. You like to see that upward movement. Any guy that would like to leave my staff to become a head coach or to professional football, that's fine. What kills you at this level normally is you have a lot of lateral movement. A guy will leave a middle of the pack team to go to another middle of the pack team. And that's hard for dealing with the players. It takes time for us to know them and a lot of time for them to know us.
Q: Will Brandon Owens report to camp shortly?
Yeah, I think he'll be in. But really how do you know? It's like when you ask your girl to marry you. Until she says "yes," you're not really sure. He's going through all the things and we think he'll be okay.
Q: How will the upgrade in speed change your defense?
Hopefully it will allow us to keep teams from scoring so many points on us. We're not going to change a lot. We've had the same guys. If you looked at us as a 10-3 football team, the thing that would jump out at you if you read all the statistics, is the turnover margin. We didn't have the turnover margin of a 10-3 football team. Well then, you look at it closer and see the offense isn't giving the ball up. The big difference was, we weren't getting any. We didn't get our fair share. So the thing that we have to improve on as a defense, first and foremost, No.1 is getting turnovers because they're so important. And the other thing.everybody in America wants more pressure on the quarterback. And let's face it, you go back and look statistically, when we've done well sacking the quarterback, it's because we had one really good pass rusher, whether it be Lamanzer Williams or Karon Riley. They were difference makers. So some of our thought has been move Losli inside, move Reid outside, put Reese at defensive end, move Holden to defensive end. I don't want to say a better athlete, but a different type of athlete there to put more pressure on the end.
Q: Could you provide a description of the quarterback position?
Yeah, I failed to mention the quarterback. That was an oversight. I had it down here. I just skipped over it. It's probably a good sign that there's four, five, six questions before you asked that one, even though I didn't mention it. The one missing ingredient, the one unknown right now, is the quarterback position. Let's face it, I haven't had to field any more questions than normal because he was pretty good in spring practice. What I like about him or you want to make comparisons. He's a very accurate passer. The other thing, and let's face it, he's not a total rookie. This will he his third year in our program. He's been around. He's been through a lot of coaching. He's been through a lot of meetings. I thought he handled that experienced team as he stepped in there. You can imagine, a lot of pressure when you're the new guy in there and you got a veteran offensive line, receivers, running backs, and here you're the young kid getting in there. I thought he handled that with great poise and took command of the offense. The most important thing is our players believe in that kid by how he performed in spring practice. The first time we went live in spring practice with the quarterback, someone missed a block and he got KO'd right underneath his chin. Jumped right up, went into the huddle and went again. And I think that said a lot about the guy. He's an accurate passer. He's a smart kid. He's got great confidence. Is he a scrambler like Asad Abul-Khaliq? No he's not. But Asad Abul-Khaliq, on the other hand wasn't as accurate a passer a Cupito. Now I can just tell you, I've been in different situations, and if given my choice of having a really experienced quarterback with an inexperienced cast or what we've got. I'd take what we got. I really would, because I don't care how good the guy is, if you're having problems because the line's not blocking and the receivers don't know what to do and you've got to tell the running backs what to do. Uh-uh. Does that answer your question? OK.
Q: Six of seven top conference teams have new quarterbacks. Does the fact that other teams are also starting rookie quarterbacks make having a first year starter less important?
I don't know if it matters at all. How my quarterback is going to perform, it doesn't matter how their quarterback is going to perform. It's independent. Let's face it, what would they be saying about our offense right now if, all of a sudden, we had everybody coming back, but we didn't, let's say, Asad wasn't coming back and it was an unknown? You know, finishing first in about every category. We'll find out. That's what makes it fun. It really is fun. I'm really eager to watch how this kid will adjust, and approach and prepare for the season. And how he'll handle success and how he'll handle failure. Because there will be success and there will be failure.
Q: You have two new starters at safety, but would you agree that they're not rookies?
Yeah, I don't look at them as inexperienced guys. You look at Fraley - he's played more positions around here than the man on the moon. I know he's tough because we played him at linebacker for awhile. I'm making some of those remarks by how I watched those guys compete and play in spring practice. One of the things that I try to judge is the confidence that I feel coming out of the coaches when they talk about their position or the defensive coaches about the defense. You know, I can tell you a guy like JP - I have never once sensed any hesitation coming out of any of those coaches. They just believe in the kid. He's a good football player, but he's a rock solid individual. He is into it. He's giving you everything he's got mentally and physically and he is excited about a chance to play for the Gophers. You can hang your hat on that. What gets you frustrated in coaching is those guys that are just good enough to get the for sale sign in your front yard - those potential guys. They've got great potential, but they're never quite always with you.
Can you describe why you've moved Mario Reese back to defensive end?
The reason he moved back at the end of spring, I made that decision. We had a difference of opinion. Both the linebacker coach and the defensive end coach both wanted him. And as a defensive staff they didn't know where he'd line up best. So I expressed my opinion and said I think he's better at defensive end. But I don't like to micromanage everything. And spring practice was a good place to see how it goes. And he did some good things at linebacker. But the end result was that we need more help at the end position than we do at linebacker. If we were stocked at end, I'd probably leave him at linebacker.
Q: A number of players mentioned an improved attitude during the offseason. Can you comment on the change in attitude?
We've always had a pretty good attitude around this place. I've been really impressed with the Minnesota kids. They're not all Minnesotans, but all the kids in our program. For whatever reason, it's hard for a kid with a bad attitude to make it in this program. These guys will kind of weed them out. And we've weeded some kids out, and I'm glad we did. But I was really impressed last year with these kids. And winning the bowl game really helped us with all the kids coming back. And the way they approached winter conditioning and spring practice. Everyday I tell the players how I feel - exactly how I feel, I don't play games with them - about how they practice and prepare. It's been so long since I've had to say, "Hey, that practice was unacceptable." Everyday I say, "Good job men. See you tomorrow." Because that's how they've gone about it. By rules, I can't work with them during the summer. I can't watch them. I can't get reports - which I think is absurd.
I can tell you, I'm healthy too. I'm back off my Achilles tendon and I'm back running again. One day I'm running right along the river and all of a sudden I see these guys running up the hill. And hey, it's my guys. I didn't even know they were over there. So I stopped and watched for a second, and I don't know when I've been more impressed. Just with the look on their face and how they were going about their business. Again, an indication is they all made their running test except one guy. How would you like to be that one guy? Really, think about it. I don't need to say a word to him, because I know how'd I feel. Misery loves company. It would be a lot different if 10 of us didn't make it. You always know the 10 guys that didn't make it because they're all sitting together at dinner saying, "That test is BS. What does that test mean?" But when you're the only guy, and all the other guys are high-fiving each other - that isn't very good. That's an indication. I don't know if you sense it? I sense it - a positive difference in these kids.
Q: Will you be disappointed if you don't make it to a January 1 bowl game?
I've been disappointed before when we haven't made it there. But I'll be really disappointed - and you can write this one down - if we don't get what we deserve. In the Big Ten, there's only one clear-cut formula for what bowl you go to and that's the Rose Bowl. All the other ones, you can get screwed. And we have in the past. And it isn't right because it involves kids. It shouldn't matter about what the T.V. people say, what the bowl people say, what the conference people say. If you earn it on the field, you ought to get it. The kids ought to get it. So you can cry, and you can moan, and it doesn't mean anything. The thing you better do. You better get to the one they can't screw you out of.
Q: Is moving Kyle McKenzie to inside linebacker, is that an equally mental and physical adjustment?
We had Ben West in the middle. And what Ben West really brought to the table was that he knew the defense inside and out and he really made the adjustments. Everybody believed he knew it. I always though Kyle McKenzie was better suited inside because he's a really intelligent guy. He's really a quiet guy. You know what I really love about that guy was a year ago - and we've got it on film - he dislocated his elbow. You can see it. He dislocated his elbow. Not only did he play the next week. He didn't miss anything in that game. He went up to the trainer and said, "I think I hurt my elbow." What I'm saying is he's taking over in the middle. no problems. He's quiet, but he's not quiet on the football field. He makes all the adjustments. He'll be better in that situation.
Q: Who will be your punter going into the season?
It's like any other position. It's like saying, "Will Maroney and Barber be your running backs?" Unless there's someone better. And I hope there is. I mean, I love those guys. But if someone is better than them, it makes my job a little bit easier. The best guy will play, but he's proven he can do it at this level. We've been pretty creative in some of the things that we've done as far as punting with him. Yeah, we're expecting him to even be better this year hopefully.
Q: What are your thoughts on instant replay?
I was all for it. I think we had replay. I think we've had replay for a long time. You know why? Every weekend in the Big Ten you play on TV. So they're replaying all the bad calls and commenting on them. But the officials are in a disadvantage because there is no way of correcting a blown call. I'm amazed that when I watch the NFL at how good those officials are. And what makes them even better is that when they blow a call, they change it and everybody forgets about it. But in our case, there were really some blown calls that got more attention because you couldn't do anything about it. This was not a knee-jerk reaction because we've talked about how we can make officiating better. Coaches, officials, administrators, everyone was in on this until finally the consensus was we can't do what the NFL is doing because we can't afford it - which is absurd. So we're going to do an abbreviated version of it using the T.V. people. It's not going to be the coach throwing the flag out questioning the call, it's going to be the guy upstairs. After the season is over, they're going to be saying "What did you think?" And it's probably not going to be as good as we thought. But it's worth a try.
