Post by PAmedic on Sept 14, 2005 8:52:32 GMT -5
I know this is long, but figured I'd post the whole thing as a reference.
Out of necessity, you ended up playing a lot of younger players on Saturday. What is your evaluation to how they have responded?
I think in many cases, they exceeded our expectations. Zach Terrell had 92 yards of total offense as a true freshman in his first game against Connecticut. Pat Calvary, who is going to start for us this week, did some nice things. Nick Hursky got thrown in there quicker than we would have hoped when Manny (Rojas) went down and (Kenneth) Kemp being out. Chris Renick played a lot on the defensive line as a true freshman. For the most part and considering the opponent, I thought they did some nice things so they obviously got a ways to go. Any time a freshman can play against a team like Connecticut, you are going to get some good experience.
Can you give us an update on some of the injuries from this past weekend?
The most significant one is obviously Manny Rojas and we are hoping that he will be back for Saturday. It was not as bad as we had thought at the game as he was on crutches coming out of the locker room. I don’t know how much he will do today, but we are hoping that each day it will get better. Kenneth Kemp’s injury actually happened last week at practice and it was just a freak thing. He was not able to go in the game, but we were hoping that he would be. So he is questionable. He is worse off than Manny at this point. With both of them out, that make us put some guys in positions that they have not even played up until this week. So those two are certainly the most significant. We hope that Steven Ackley will be able to hold up. He played 10 plays last week and felt good. He will be one of our starting defensive linemen coming back and we just hope that he will be able to hold up for 60 or 70 plays.
We saw the two quarterback system for the first time on Saturday. We will see that again this week and is there a possibility of a three quarterback system?
We might see three and if we had a four, you might see a fourth. We really don’t want to get into that type of thing, but Zach Terrell is such a talent that is hard to keep him off the field. He can do things at every position. He will continue to play. We were very excited about Brock Smith through training camp, but he had a freak little injury and he should be back today. So hopefully we will get a chance to look at him today if he is healthy.
If Manny (Rojas) can’t go, what are the chances of moving one of your defensive linemen to the linebacker position?
There wouldn’t be any chance of that as obviously they wouldn’t know how to play that position. We are going to have to play Brandon Duke and Nick Hursky. Nick being a true freshman and Brandon will have to move to a position that he has never played. And then, we will have to play with a nickel back and plug in another freshman in Ian Childress at the other linebacker position. It will create some interesting situations that Coach (Steve) Carson is trying to put together two packages for.
Brock Farrel sounded a bit down after the game on Saturday about his performance in the first two games. Is Brock still solid at the starting quarterback position this week?
Brock will certainly start the game. What I think has happened at quarterback as I talked to Brock at length yesterday, is not so much just Brock, but we lost a lot of yardage in the backfield last year (due to graduation). Brock is more of a manager of the game and last year he could let the running backs carry the load. We don’t have that yet this year as our running backs are young. We think they are talented, but some of them are still very immature. They all have their different strengths. Zach Terrell can throw and he really can run. Brock Smith has a great ability to through the ball as a true freshman. So we’re hopefully going to use all of their strengths. Brock (Farrel) will start, but you will probably see the other two as well.
When you recruited Zach (Terrell), was it that you wanted to recruit Zach or were you looking to bring in a type of player like Zach to the program?
No, we really didn’t go out and specifically do that. Zach Terrell had been on our radar screen. Our defensive back coach would have taken him as he could be a starter there, he could even start at tailback. He may be our best running back on the team right now. But, when he became very interested in us, we felt that he was a guy that we wanted to try at this position as a sort of slash type of guy. We felt like he could fit within our system without having to get rid of everything. So far it has worked out well, but we are still in the early stages though.
Your receivers haven’t been able to show much over the first two games. Has it been because of the struggles on the offensive line and being overwhelmed by the nature of the opponent?
I think that is a fair assessment. We had some opportunities where a couple of guys dropped some balls that could have been caught. One was a big one down on the 13 yard line to Darnell (Edwards), but the first game was a game that they didn’t perform as well as they could have, but no one did offensively in the first half. And this week, it was a situation where I really didn’t want to get to a point where we are throwing 50 times a game, because we weren’t able to stop them on defense. Hopefully over the next nine, they will breakout and play like we know they can.
What are some of the biggest strengths that the three starting wide receivers bring to the program?
Lauren (Williams) is a guy that has good straight away speed. He is someone that you try to get big plays with. Brandon (Turner) and Wynton (Jackson) are probably the best polished of the three. Those two are very good at catching the ball and they run good routes. They are the type of players that you can go to down after down.
Do you feel with Lauren (Williams) that there is potential to have a lot of height advantages against some of the secondaries that he is going to face?
You would think so. Lauren has progressed and matured, but he needs to do that on the field and make those plays. He has done that at times, but not consistent enough. We are very excited about Dominic Bolden who can really run as well, so you are going to see him more and more.
Going into Connecticut, you said that one of the things that you were concerned about was punt coverage because of there excellent returner. Could you talk a little bit about how your special teams covered Larry Taylor?
As a head coach, you hopefully are not talking about your punt team, especially as an offensive guy, as that means your’ve not doing much. But Noah (Crouch) did a great job of getting us the hang time we needed, plus the direction we needed. And then, Dominic Bolden and Patrick Calvary, two true freshmen, did a great job of hemming him in and keeping him to the lowest that he has done all year and in a long time. That was a really plus, but hopefully we won’t have to use it a ton, but if we do, I feel good about it.
In the past, Youngstown State has gone with a two quarterback system. Is that still the same this year?
They are pretty set on Tom Zetts. I don’t think you will see two guys very much. They might do something different for us. They are the typical Youngstown State and that is not going to change. They are going to run the football and they are going to be patient running the football. Knowing what our situation is, they are going to try and run the football and see if we can hold up. We have just got to be able to make an effort and stop the run and make them throw the ball. Hopefully, our young corners and guys like that will play well.
You have played a Division II team and a Division I-A program and now for the rest of the way out it is I-AA football. What is your assessment going into Saturday’s game and how crucial is this game against Youngstown State?
They are all crucial. I don’t know of a coach in America that does count every game as crucial. We thought Connecticut was crucial, but I think that coming out of these first two games, it is sort of like coming out of preseason. We are 1-1 and that is where most people thought we would be and quite frankly that is where I thought we would be unless something crazy happened at UConn. Now the Youngstown State game, the only thing that I have concerns over is that we are not going to have our true team out there to see what the true test is like. It would have been one thing to go into the game with just some freshmen having to play and you don’t know what they are going to do. But I know, if you have some of your starters out, that is a concern. We were hoping that the Youngstown and the William & Mary games were games that could get us over the hump. They are two of the tougher opponents that we have on the schedule remaining. Hopefully, our kids will play above their heads and hopefully we will get a little bit healthier before Saturday so that we will be able to see where we are.
What concerns you most about their running back who is coming off a game where he ran for over 200 yards?
(Monquantae) Gibson is a transfer from Kentucky so he is a I-A running back. I think the thing that concerns me the most, and I know that it sounds like a broken record is that is it not so much them, but it is us. When you look at last week’s game, I think that Randy Edsall was kind. He probably could have scored 100 points, but he just kept running the ball up the middle. If you can’t stop the run, you are in for a long afternoon. It is going to be quite a challenge for our defense. Steve (Carson) and his staff are racking their brains to come up with a creative way that, if we have these guys out, how are we going to do it.
Where is (Patrick) Calvary going to start this weekend?
(Josh) Wallace and (Patrick) Calvary are going to be our starting corners. They are the two corners that we feel coming out of the first two games give us the best opportunity to compete at that position and than we will have C.J. (Moore) and Shane (Lancaster) at safety. We feel pretty good about our secondary, but its just our linebackers and front four that is iffy. Every day of practice, we have different people in the first unit. There is just no chemistry.
How is the team mentally and physiologically coming off a 59-0 loss to Connecticut?
I think they are all right. I think the freshmen probably don’t know any better and the older guys have been through this every year. We have played one team like this every year and they beat us pretty good. It is bigger than the game. As I stated earlier, it is about the big picture. It is about where we are trying to head with the dream of Dr. (Jerry) Falwell and all of us involved. But you are right, as a coach you wake up on Sunday and look at that film and whether it is Connecticut or a ninth grade football team, a loss is a loss and it still stings.
You talked about last week that the UConn game would be a learning experience for your players. What sort of things do you feel that they did learn from this past week?
I think the thing that I hope they have learned is when you recruit a young man and they all say that I should have and could have gone Division I-A. And then you turn on a tape, either you show that you belong there or you don’t. I hope that our guys recognize what it is going to take to get there. Every year, this game helps our guys see that the weight room, the summer workouts and those thoughts things help make you the type of player that Connecticut is.
The tackling issues that cropped up last week, is that is a desire or technique issue?
That is a great question. It is probably all of the above. You can never stop teaching tackling, so we as coaches do tackling drills everyday and we will continue to do that. What we would like to do is a little bit more live work, but with our injuries, you are tentative to do that so that puts you in a bind. Also, when you have guys that when it is 38-0 and you have the big fullback barreling down your throat, I’m sure you probably have some that say they don’t want this tackle. And then there are guys that just get overwhelmed.
How do you feel you match-up with Youngstown State? Are you guys evenly matched across the board?
I would say that if we would have everyone healthy, it would be an even match. Right now, if we have the guys out that are on defense, they would have the upper hand from an offensive standpoint against our defense. Offensively, I think it will be an even match, but we are a little bit immature at running back, but I think the things that we will do with Zach (Terrell) and even with Brock Smith will challenge them as well. I think our special teams are pretty evenly matched. Where I would give them the edge as of today (on Tuesday) is their offense going against the defense that we have right now on the field.
Going back to the situation with your quarterbacks, will that settle down so that eventually there will be one quarterback in that backfield or are you comfortable with seeing either of the Brocks (Farrel or Smith) and Zach (Terrell)?
What I think is going to happen is that we will probably settle on two, but I don’t think right now we are going to settle on one at least in their freshman year. There are things that Zach Terrell does that no one else does and we aren’t going to take him off the field and put that aside. But on the other hand, he is not accomplished enough at quarterback to just line up at every snap and do everything in our offense and he would tell you that. Brock Smith or Brock Farrel are going to have to supplement what he does, so I would think that you are going to see two (quarterbacks) this year.
Now that you have looked at the game file, do you feel the same way that the running game struggled so much just because you were overwhelmed up front and there was no movement on the ball?
That was definitely the case. We didn’t move the ball at all because we didn’t move the line of scrimmage. But it also has a lot to do with the immaturity of our running backs. One of the things that I walked away with from that game and this is not a negative to either side, but Dre Barnes and Eugene Goodman were very mature men at 18. Right now, our freshman backs that we are excited about have a ton of ability, but they don’t have that maturity. When Dre Barnes lined up against Bowling Green and Toledo in his early years, that didn’t phase him. He went out and rushed for a 100 or so yards. With these guys, I think their eyes were a little big. And that wasn’t just the offensive line, but it was a combination of both. As I went back and looked at last year’s I-A game, I watched Dre and Gene going through the holes. Gene had a 157 yards rushing against Kent State. So, I think as they mature, they will be better off, but right now they are young.
Obviously, you didn’t see the Coastal Carolina game, but how much do you think it helps the credibility of the conference with that win (over James Madison)?
It definitely helps the credibility of the conference. Any time some in our conference can beat someone else in a well know conference, it certainly helps. It is a tribute to Coastal Carolina and David (Bennett) and the job that they did.
Also, that will certainly help their playoff hopes, but what is it going to take to see Liberty make a serious push to make the I-AA playoffs?
I think anyone in our conference has to win nine games and maybe eight if you play a I-A game. But I would say nine wins and beating quality opponents like James Madison. If Coastal can beat James Madison and go on to beat Appalachian State this week and win nine games, I think they will have a shot at the playoffs and I think they deserve a shot. If we can beat Youngstown and William & Mary and we can win nine games, I think we deserve a shot.
With Marcus (Hamilton), did you see that same sort of wide-eyed expression against Connecticut or was he more strong and mature?
I think Marcus was fine. I saw it more from Rajive Otah and in some of the other guys, but Marcus again has been in these types of games. But Marcus’ ability is limited. Marcus can do some things, but Marcus is not a I-A running back that we can line up and give him the ball 30 times like Dre Barnes and Eugene Goodman. That is why he has been our third-string running back during his time here. Marcus is a great student of the game and he will handle anything that we put on him mentally. He can do the little things for you and he will make some plays, but we are not going to be able to line up and give Marcus Hamilton the ball 35 times to beat Youngstown State.
When you talk about immaturity with a couple of your running backs, is that immaturity in there approach when they face a UConn and being overwhelmed in that situation?
I think it is in their preparation towards that type of game and I think it is being on the field in that type of game. People don’t realize until you go to those games and have played at Michigan and Southern Cal like myself, that it is one thing to say that you are playing Connecticut, but when you stand on the sidelines and you get in that huddle against Connecticut, some of these young kids have come from playing high school football a year ago or from a junior college and it is a different animal out there. I think that preparation and the on the field things they need to do are all big adjustments. But right now we are very immature there.
I think in many cases, they exceeded our expectations. Zach Terrell had 92 yards of total offense as a true freshman in his first game against Connecticut. Pat Calvary, who is going to start for us this week, did some nice things. Nick Hursky got thrown in there quicker than we would have hoped when Manny (Rojas) went down and (Kenneth) Kemp being out. Chris Renick played a lot on the defensive line as a true freshman. For the most part and considering the opponent, I thought they did some nice things so they obviously got a ways to go. Any time a freshman can play against a team like Connecticut, you are going to get some good experience.
Can you give us an update on some of the injuries from this past weekend?
The most significant one is obviously Manny Rojas and we are hoping that he will be back for Saturday. It was not as bad as we had thought at the game as he was on crutches coming out of the locker room. I don’t know how much he will do today, but we are hoping that each day it will get better. Kenneth Kemp’s injury actually happened last week at practice and it was just a freak thing. He was not able to go in the game, but we were hoping that he would be. So he is questionable. He is worse off than Manny at this point. With both of them out, that make us put some guys in positions that they have not even played up until this week. So those two are certainly the most significant. We hope that Steven Ackley will be able to hold up. He played 10 plays last week and felt good. He will be one of our starting defensive linemen coming back and we just hope that he will be able to hold up for 60 or 70 plays.
We saw the two quarterback system for the first time on Saturday. We will see that again this week and is there a possibility of a three quarterback system?
We might see three and if we had a four, you might see a fourth. We really don’t want to get into that type of thing, but Zach Terrell is such a talent that is hard to keep him off the field. He can do things at every position. He will continue to play. We were very excited about Brock Smith through training camp, but he had a freak little injury and he should be back today. So hopefully we will get a chance to look at him today if he is healthy.
If Manny (Rojas) can’t go, what are the chances of moving one of your defensive linemen to the linebacker position?
There wouldn’t be any chance of that as obviously they wouldn’t know how to play that position. We are going to have to play Brandon Duke and Nick Hursky. Nick being a true freshman and Brandon will have to move to a position that he has never played. And then, we will have to play with a nickel back and plug in another freshman in Ian Childress at the other linebacker position. It will create some interesting situations that Coach (Steve) Carson is trying to put together two packages for.
Brock Farrel sounded a bit down after the game on Saturday about his performance in the first two games. Is Brock still solid at the starting quarterback position this week?
Brock will certainly start the game. What I think has happened at quarterback as I talked to Brock at length yesterday, is not so much just Brock, but we lost a lot of yardage in the backfield last year (due to graduation). Brock is more of a manager of the game and last year he could let the running backs carry the load. We don’t have that yet this year as our running backs are young. We think they are talented, but some of them are still very immature. They all have their different strengths. Zach Terrell can throw and he really can run. Brock Smith has a great ability to through the ball as a true freshman. So we’re hopefully going to use all of their strengths. Brock (Farrel) will start, but you will probably see the other two as well.
When you recruited Zach (Terrell), was it that you wanted to recruit Zach or were you looking to bring in a type of player like Zach to the program?
No, we really didn’t go out and specifically do that. Zach Terrell had been on our radar screen. Our defensive back coach would have taken him as he could be a starter there, he could even start at tailback. He may be our best running back on the team right now. But, when he became very interested in us, we felt that he was a guy that we wanted to try at this position as a sort of slash type of guy. We felt like he could fit within our system without having to get rid of everything. So far it has worked out well, but we are still in the early stages though.
Your receivers haven’t been able to show much over the first two games. Has it been because of the struggles on the offensive line and being overwhelmed by the nature of the opponent?
I think that is a fair assessment. We had some opportunities where a couple of guys dropped some balls that could have been caught. One was a big one down on the 13 yard line to Darnell (Edwards), but the first game was a game that they didn’t perform as well as they could have, but no one did offensively in the first half. And this week, it was a situation where I really didn’t want to get to a point where we are throwing 50 times a game, because we weren’t able to stop them on defense. Hopefully over the next nine, they will breakout and play like we know they can.
What are some of the biggest strengths that the three starting wide receivers bring to the program?
Lauren (Williams) is a guy that has good straight away speed. He is someone that you try to get big plays with. Brandon (Turner) and Wynton (Jackson) are probably the best polished of the three. Those two are very good at catching the ball and they run good routes. They are the type of players that you can go to down after down.
Do you feel with Lauren (Williams) that there is potential to have a lot of height advantages against some of the secondaries that he is going to face?
You would think so. Lauren has progressed and matured, but he needs to do that on the field and make those plays. He has done that at times, but not consistent enough. We are very excited about Dominic Bolden who can really run as well, so you are going to see him more and more.
Going into Connecticut, you said that one of the things that you were concerned about was punt coverage because of there excellent returner. Could you talk a little bit about how your special teams covered Larry Taylor?
As a head coach, you hopefully are not talking about your punt team, especially as an offensive guy, as that means your’ve not doing much. But Noah (Crouch) did a great job of getting us the hang time we needed, plus the direction we needed. And then, Dominic Bolden and Patrick Calvary, two true freshmen, did a great job of hemming him in and keeping him to the lowest that he has done all year and in a long time. That was a really plus, but hopefully we won’t have to use it a ton, but if we do, I feel good about it.
In the past, Youngstown State has gone with a two quarterback system. Is that still the same this year?
They are pretty set on Tom Zetts. I don’t think you will see two guys very much. They might do something different for us. They are the typical Youngstown State and that is not going to change. They are going to run the football and they are going to be patient running the football. Knowing what our situation is, they are going to try and run the football and see if we can hold up. We have just got to be able to make an effort and stop the run and make them throw the ball. Hopefully, our young corners and guys like that will play well.
You have played a Division II team and a Division I-A program and now for the rest of the way out it is I-AA football. What is your assessment going into Saturday’s game and how crucial is this game against Youngstown State?
They are all crucial. I don’t know of a coach in America that does count every game as crucial. We thought Connecticut was crucial, but I think that coming out of these first two games, it is sort of like coming out of preseason. We are 1-1 and that is where most people thought we would be and quite frankly that is where I thought we would be unless something crazy happened at UConn. Now the Youngstown State game, the only thing that I have concerns over is that we are not going to have our true team out there to see what the true test is like. It would have been one thing to go into the game with just some freshmen having to play and you don’t know what they are going to do. But I know, if you have some of your starters out, that is a concern. We were hoping that the Youngstown and the William & Mary games were games that could get us over the hump. They are two of the tougher opponents that we have on the schedule remaining. Hopefully, our kids will play above their heads and hopefully we will get a little bit healthier before Saturday so that we will be able to see where we are.
What concerns you most about their running back who is coming off a game where he ran for over 200 yards?
(Monquantae) Gibson is a transfer from Kentucky so he is a I-A running back. I think the thing that concerns me the most, and I know that it sounds like a broken record is that is it not so much them, but it is us. When you look at last week’s game, I think that Randy Edsall was kind. He probably could have scored 100 points, but he just kept running the ball up the middle. If you can’t stop the run, you are in for a long afternoon. It is going to be quite a challenge for our defense. Steve (Carson) and his staff are racking their brains to come up with a creative way that, if we have these guys out, how are we going to do it.
Where is (Patrick) Calvary going to start this weekend?
(Josh) Wallace and (Patrick) Calvary are going to be our starting corners. They are the two corners that we feel coming out of the first two games give us the best opportunity to compete at that position and than we will have C.J. (Moore) and Shane (Lancaster) at safety. We feel pretty good about our secondary, but its just our linebackers and front four that is iffy. Every day of practice, we have different people in the first unit. There is just no chemistry.
How is the team mentally and physiologically coming off a 59-0 loss to Connecticut?
I think they are all right. I think the freshmen probably don’t know any better and the older guys have been through this every year. We have played one team like this every year and they beat us pretty good. It is bigger than the game. As I stated earlier, it is about the big picture. It is about where we are trying to head with the dream of Dr. (Jerry) Falwell and all of us involved. But you are right, as a coach you wake up on Sunday and look at that film and whether it is Connecticut or a ninth grade football team, a loss is a loss and it still stings.
You talked about last week that the UConn game would be a learning experience for your players. What sort of things do you feel that they did learn from this past week?
I think the thing that I hope they have learned is when you recruit a young man and they all say that I should have and could have gone Division I-A. And then you turn on a tape, either you show that you belong there or you don’t. I hope that our guys recognize what it is going to take to get there. Every year, this game helps our guys see that the weight room, the summer workouts and those thoughts things help make you the type of player that Connecticut is.
The tackling issues that cropped up last week, is that is a desire or technique issue?
That is a great question. It is probably all of the above. You can never stop teaching tackling, so we as coaches do tackling drills everyday and we will continue to do that. What we would like to do is a little bit more live work, but with our injuries, you are tentative to do that so that puts you in a bind. Also, when you have guys that when it is 38-0 and you have the big fullback barreling down your throat, I’m sure you probably have some that say they don’t want this tackle. And then there are guys that just get overwhelmed.
How do you feel you match-up with Youngstown State? Are you guys evenly matched across the board?
I would say that if we would have everyone healthy, it would be an even match. Right now, if we have the guys out that are on defense, they would have the upper hand from an offensive standpoint against our defense. Offensively, I think it will be an even match, but we are a little bit immature at running back, but I think the things that we will do with Zach (Terrell) and even with Brock Smith will challenge them as well. I think our special teams are pretty evenly matched. Where I would give them the edge as of today (on Tuesday) is their offense going against the defense that we have right now on the field.
Going back to the situation with your quarterbacks, will that settle down so that eventually there will be one quarterback in that backfield or are you comfortable with seeing either of the Brocks (Farrel or Smith) and Zach (Terrell)?
What I think is going to happen is that we will probably settle on two, but I don’t think right now we are going to settle on one at least in their freshman year. There are things that Zach Terrell does that no one else does and we aren’t going to take him off the field and put that aside. But on the other hand, he is not accomplished enough at quarterback to just line up at every snap and do everything in our offense and he would tell you that. Brock Smith or Brock Farrel are going to have to supplement what he does, so I would think that you are going to see two (quarterbacks) this year.
Now that you have looked at the game file, do you feel the same way that the running game struggled so much just because you were overwhelmed up front and there was no movement on the ball?
That was definitely the case. We didn’t move the ball at all because we didn’t move the line of scrimmage. But it also has a lot to do with the immaturity of our running backs. One of the things that I walked away with from that game and this is not a negative to either side, but Dre Barnes and Eugene Goodman were very mature men at 18. Right now, our freshman backs that we are excited about have a ton of ability, but they don’t have that maturity. When Dre Barnes lined up against Bowling Green and Toledo in his early years, that didn’t phase him. He went out and rushed for a 100 or so yards. With these guys, I think their eyes were a little big. And that wasn’t just the offensive line, but it was a combination of both. As I went back and looked at last year’s I-A game, I watched Dre and Gene going through the holes. Gene had a 157 yards rushing against Kent State. So, I think as they mature, they will be better off, but right now they are young.
Obviously, you didn’t see the Coastal Carolina game, but how much do you think it helps the credibility of the conference with that win (over James Madison)?
It definitely helps the credibility of the conference. Any time some in our conference can beat someone else in a well know conference, it certainly helps. It is a tribute to Coastal Carolina and David (Bennett) and the job that they did.
Also, that will certainly help their playoff hopes, but what is it going to take to see Liberty make a serious push to make the I-AA playoffs?
I think anyone in our conference has to win nine games and maybe eight if you play a I-A game. But I would say nine wins and beating quality opponents like James Madison. If Coastal can beat James Madison and go on to beat Appalachian State this week and win nine games, I think they will have a shot at the playoffs and I think they deserve a shot. If we can beat Youngstown and William & Mary and we can win nine games, I think we deserve a shot.
With Marcus (Hamilton), did you see that same sort of wide-eyed expression against Connecticut or was he more strong and mature?
I think Marcus was fine. I saw it more from Rajive Otah and in some of the other guys, but Marcus again has been in these types of games. But Marcus’ ability is limited. Marcus can do some things, but Marcus is not a I-A running back that we can line up and give him the ball 30 times like Dre Barnes and Eugene Goodman. That is why he has been our third-string running back during his time here. Marcus is a great student of the game and he will handle anything that we put on him mentally. He can do the little things for you and he will make some plays, but we are not going to be able to line up and give Marcus Hamilton the ball 35 times to beat Youngstown State.
When you talk about immaturity with a couple of your running backs, is that immaturity in there approach when they face a UConn and being overwhelmed in that situation?
I think it is in their preparation towards that type of game and I think it is being on the field in that type of game. People don’t realize until you go to those games and have played at Michigan and Southern Cal like myself, that it is one thing to say that you are playing Connecticut, but when you stand on the sidelines and you get in that huddle against Connecticut, some of these young kids have come from playing high school football a year ago or from a junior college and it is a different animal out there. I think that preparation and the on the field things they need to do are all big adjustments. But right now we are very immature there.
