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University of Minnesota Athletics
Fall Practice Opening Press Conference: Complete Transcript
8/4/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Head Coach Tim Brewster
Opening Statement:
“It’s great to start out the 2008 season. We got it started this morning with a 6:00 running test. Our team is in tremendous physical condition. [Strength and conditioning coach] Mark Hill deserves to be acknowledged for his work he’s done an amazing job with our football team in the two short years that he’s been here. In this day in age, the strength coach spends more time with the players than coaches do, so he’s absolutely essential to our success. The gains that our players have made physically are just amazing. We couldn’t be more excited about the physical condition that our team is in.
“On this day across the country, every football coach is somewhat optimistic about his football team. The question really is whether or not that optimism is realistic. Without question, I think we’ve taken the steps necessary to ensure that our optimism is realistic. Everybody has made it known that we went 1-11 last season. We all understand that, but we’ve taken the steps necessary to improve our football team. To me, that’s the exciting thing about what we’ve done. Last spring, we had very physical spring practice. After spring practice, we really got into the strength and conditioning program this summer. Again, we’ve gotten bigger, stronger and faster. Anyone who saw our football team last year knows that we had to become a more athletic football team, a stronger football team, a faster football team, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. I think you saw that in our recruiting class in that many of our recruits come from the defensive side of the football. Again, we’re really excited about the acquisition of players we have made to improve our team, particularly on the defensive side of the football.
“I think our leadership is going to be outstanding this season. We’re very pleased with the captains that our players have elected for this 2008 season. You look at someone like Adam Weber, who basically took every snap last year as a redshirt freshman, someone that put up tremendous numbers. Although he turned over the ball too much, his development as a quarterback has been excellent through last season and through the spring and summer. I just think that Adam is poised to have an outstanding redshirt sophomore season. We really think that Adam is going to be one of the better quarterbacks in the Big Ten. In my mind, the quarterback position is without question the most essential position on the field. Eric Decker is another guy that has worked extremely hard. He sat out spring practice and was able to help the baseball team, but he’s back out this summer. He showed up in great shape this morning. I think Eric Decker is going to be one of the best wide receivers in the country I have made that statement before and I think it’s going to hold true. He’s going to be a focal point in our offense. On the defensive side, I think that Steve Davis is really comfortable for the first time since he’s made the move from defensive end to linebacker. I think he’s comfortable standing up. I think he’s made tremendous strides as a football player and as a student of the game. When guys are good students of the game, it allows them to be more confident, particularly on the defensive side. Everybody knows what Willie VanDeSteeg did two years ago. Last year, he did not have the type of season that everyone would have liked him to have, but he had a broken wrist. He wasn’t able to do some of the basic things as a defensive lineman [because of the injured wrist] that you have to be able to do to be successful. He’s in great shape and he’s put himself in a great position to have a great senior season and go out with some success.
“I believe that with our leadership, with our strength and conditioning, with our acquisition of talent, we’ve taken the steps necessary to be an improved football team in 2008. One other thing that is going to help us is competition. We’ve got tremendous competition, especially on the defensive side of the ball. We’ve got competition on the defensive line, we’ve got competition at linebacker, we’re still a little bit thin in the secondary but we’ve added some guys there. On the offensive side of the ball, we really have some good competition on the offensive line and we have brought in a lot of young players that can really help us. I’ve said this before, but it doesn’t bother me or scare me that young players are going to be a big part of our football team because these kids are extremely gifted and talented players. If these kids weren’t talented, there might be some reason to be bothered, but these kids are here and they are not going to take a back seat to upper-classmen. We’re not worried about hurting anyone’s feelings around here we’re trying to win football games. I think it’s really exciting to have these young kids come in here. They’ve got a little arrogance about them, they’ve got a little cockiness to them, but I think that’s a good thing. I like it. Their confidence isn’t bothersome; they feel good about their abilities and they certainly should.
“Our main emphasis from this point to Aug. 30 is Northern Illinois. That’s the only thing that we care about. We’ve done a great job of studying Northern Illinois and studying the things that [NIU head coach] Jerry Kill did at Southern Illinois he brings his whole staff to Northern Illinois. He’s an outstanding football coach. That program had a down year last year, but he’s got good players there and Jerry’s going to do an outstanding job that’s going to present us with a significant challenge in the first game. But again, as I talked to our team last night, the only thing that matters is at about 9:00 on Aug. 30 that we’re 1-0. We’re going to put a tremendous amount of time and emphasis into making sure that we do the things necessary to go out and win the game on Aug. 30.”
On expanding the complexity of the offense:
“Without question we are going to be able to expand the offense. Adam has done his diligence as far as studying the game. He has done a great job studying the mistakes he has made last year. One of the things I talk with Bill Walsh about with Joe Montana is that after every season he would sit down with Joe and study his interceptions and figure out the reasons why those interceptions were thrown and we have done the same thing with Adam. We have sat down and have really studied the game. What we are going to do a good job of is really taking into consideration the things that Adam really likes. Adam is going to play a much more significant role in our game planning and the things that we do offensively. I just think his progression will be very strong from year one to year two.”
On the secondary:
“I think that this spring, Tramaine Brock made a tremendous impact on our football team. He is an outstanding football player with tremendous speed. He is a dynamic player. I have used that term a lot but I think that is a meaningful term as far as a football players concern. Tramanie Brock is a dynamitic player, great tackler, and a good leader. We are really excited for what he brings to the plate. We just got a young player named Traye Simmons. We have him this summer. Traye was one of the top Junior College corners in the country and he has shown tremendous speed and confidence. Traye is a guy who can cover so we are excited about him. I am really excited about Marcus Sherels. I think he has done an amazing job in the short time we have had him on the defensive side of the ball. He is an outstanding football player with tremendous speed. He understands the game. I think Marcus Sherels is really going to help us out on that side of the ball. We have a returning guy named (Kyle) Theret. We have some young guys that are going to be in the mix so I think we have gotten back to the defense which we all knew we needed too.”
On Marcus Sherels:
“We needed him on the defensive side of the ball and he has proven to be an excellent athlete. Last year he did some nice things as receiver in the return game. He is going to continue in the return game. He is going to be in a battle because there are some return guys that are involved with him at the position. He is one of those guys where there is a tremendous sense of trust. If he is anything like [his brother and former Gopher] Mike, we will take two more of them too.”
On the wide receiver position:
“I think that the skilled position is probably a little easier to play as a young athlete and we have young receivers that are going to have to come in and make an impact from day one. I anticipate these kids - like Brandon Green, Xzavian Brandon, Brodrick Smith - these guys are going to make an impact on our football team. They are excellent football players. They are big and fast players that I think are going to do a good job of picking up the offense and being able to help us because we are going to need their help. I really think Eric Decker is going to do a great job of being a mentor and a leader for these young guys as they go along.”
On David Pittman:
“He is going to play receiver for us. We are going to try to be multi-dimensional with him. We are going to line him up in the backfield, direct snap the ball to him some, and let him throw the ball some. He and Adam in the backfield together will create some issues for the defense. I think that he is really a slash guy. I think he can do a lot of things really well but he is going to line up as a receiver.
On the expected contribution of the 2008 recruiting class:
“I think of lot of those guys are going to have to help us win games this season without question. I think a lot of those kids have the ability to help us win games without question. I couldn’t be more pleased with intentionally what they have done in the weight room with Mark and running and conditioning. They have done the things to take the steps necessary to put themselves in the position where they can help us. Now we have to see how it is going to unfold. These are extremely talented kids. They are not afraid in any way. They think that they belong. I think that is a huge part of being successful as a college football player believing that this is where you want to be and belong on this stage.”
On the impact of the 2008 class on 2009 recruiting efforts:
“Good players want to play with good players. We really feel like there is emphasis on the 2008 class but we think the 2009 class will be just as good. They will be probably a little less in numbers but the quality of the class will remain the same.”
On new players in practice:
“We have signed 31 kids. As everybody knows, you can only bring in 29. So we counted three back and we also over signed three. We have a situation where three guys either have to grayshirt or not be here. The only unexpected situation that came up for us was Sam Maresh. His having open-heart surgery was unfortunate but we are going to get him in January. Sam is going to come as a grayshirt. We believe that of the 31 kids we signed, 29 of them will end up being Golden Gophers at the end of the day. We are really please with how the process has unfolded."
On Spencer Reeves:
“He will not be here today without question. He is a guy that we will possibly look at as a grayshirt but we believe at the end of the day, Spencer will be part of our program.”
On the excitement level:
“It is a little more of a calm feeling today compared to last year at this time. I think I understand the job and exactly what it entails. I think we all understand each other; players and coaches. We just came out of a staff meeting and they said to me, 'You must feel pretty good,' and I told them that I do feel very good. The reason why I feel really good and calm is because these kids have worked so hard and I think that when you match hard work with talent, good things are going to happen.”
On the mood of the team:
“We spend a lot of time on team-building, talking to the team and talking about the things that we want to accomplish as a team. What I truly believe in is that this team is driven by its own players. It is not driven by me or our staff, it is driven from within. I think every great football team I have been around has had tremendous leadership and that leadership takes the team where they want it to go. I feel really good about the leadership on this football team.”
On Jay Thomas:
“Jay Thomas is great. He is 100% and ready to go. We cant wait to get him back on the field. We have Duane Bennett at running back and a bunch of young kids so it is nice to have Jay back out there. He has some experience and he has worked so hard coming back from two ACL injuries. I am really excited for him and that he is healthy again and I think you are going to see some good things from him.”
On the opportunity for freshmen to come to campus over the summer:
“Without question, it is a tremendous plus. I think the NCAA has done it in a positive way it to institute the rule that freshman can be on campus, they can take class, and you can pay for it. They also can get involved in your strength and conditioning program. The transition process is much easier and in our case, when so many of our young kids are going to have to make an impact on our team.”
On the possibility of MarQueis Gray being redshirted:
“I don’t know; it is hard to say. You never know how injuries are going to play a role. I recruited Vince Young at Texas and he redshirted, and it was a very positive thing. I don’t know if we are in the same situation here. You never know what is going to happen with Adam. We were luck last year that Adam went the whole year and didn’t get hurt. If Adam were to go down, we would have to look at what is our best alternative and whether that is Gray. [Gray] is an extremely talented guy so we are going to let that play out. In a perfect world, maybe redshirting him would be the best thing but I don’t know if anyone of us lives in a perfect world.”
On whether Gray would immediately supplant Weber in the event of an injury:
“I don’t think so, [senior] Tony [Mortensen] is a veteran experienced guy and I think we know exactly what we have there and I think that we know what we have in Pittman now after having him for the spring. We are going to put the next guy out there that gives us the best chance to run the spread offense and really be successful. [Senior quarterback Mike] Maciejowski did some really good things in the spring, you don’t count him out if something were to happen. Fortunately we have some options.”
On practice on campus as opposed to camp held at St. Johns last year:
“We are just going to do what we do but better. We are really going to focus and concentrate on just being a better football team with the fundamental aspects; bigger, stronger, faster, alignment, assignment, and tackle. Everybody talks about us defensively, but I think the step that we are going to take on offense this year is going to be big because the transition between year one to two in the spread I think everybody is going to be much more comfortable. We have a chance to be an explosive offensive football team. I also think the kicking game is going to be a big part. Justin Kucek has the chance to be one of the best punters in the country. He is a great guy and a Ray Guy award nominee. He did a great job last year and he is really going to help us. Joel Monroe, I think, has the chance to be an excellent kicker and a force with his leg strength. We have established who we are and our way of doing things and we are really focused on improving.”
Linebacker Steve Davis
On anticipation of the first fall practice
“It’s been awhile since we hit each other so I’m pretty excited. It’s big for a lot of guys, especially the new ones, to get acquainted to the system and how we do things around here.”
On the difference in this year’s camp compared to last year
“It really doesn’t matter where we go [for camp]. We’re just going to keep working. We’re all really excited for the season coming up and we can’t wait to get our first practice in. We’re just going to try to keep the enthusiasm up all week and once we get into pads, it’s really going to get started.”
On how starters are beginning to play out
“The coaches told us already that there is no set depth chart. Competition is everywhere, at my position, at defensive line, at safety and corner. Everybody is competing to get a starting job. Coach wants to put the best 11 on the field. We’re going to work hard and get better and let things fall as they may so we can get the best 11 players on the field and have our defense ready to go.”
Wide Receiver Eric Decker
On playing baseball and how it might affect this season:
“It was a great experience for me and I’m very thankful to have the chance to play both sports. Coach Brewster was really great about it and really encouraged me. I plan on doing it again next season too.”
On pressure to follow up last year’s individual performance:
“There’s always pressure every year. There’s self-pressure along with the outside pressure. I’m not going to play outside myself. I know what I have to do and how much work I’ve put in this past summer. I’ll just use that and do what I know how to do.”
