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2003 Comprehensive Football Information
On not needing to play as many freshmen this coming year:Last year we knew from the outset that a lot of the players who were going to take part during the course of the season were not taking part in spring practice. This year it’s kind of the opposite. A lot of the players who will be taking part next year are currently here with us. Now that doesn’t change what I said in early February. I think there will be a lot of young players participating again next year, but there aren’t as many open positions as there were last year.
On what to improve upon:Last year our team finished last in the Atlantic Coast Conference in total offense. We finished second to last in total defense. Those two circumstances usually correlate to where a team finishes in the standings. It’s really quite astonishing that the team finished second in the conference. Obviously there’s a lot of areas in both offense and defense where we can show considerable improvement.
On training some players at two different positions:We’re going to work a lot of players at two positions. In most cases, it might seem like a lot to the player, but it’s usually where the player has a significant background in one of the positions. Whether we would do this for a game or not, I don’t know. Besides giving us a chance to look at players in different circumstances, I think it builds more depth for the team.
On the importance of spring practice and the off-season program:[Through an off-season program] what I try to emphasize to the players is that getting stronger, more powerful, more explosive should be an aide to being a better football player. But you become a better football player by playing better football. You technically become better, your footwork becomes better, your hand placement becomes better, and your anticipation of situations becomes better. Amongst the unusual circumstances last year was that there was a large number of players who played a lot of minutes who had never been through an off-season program and competed against lots of players that had. Now they have been through one. I think with those guys in particular; it’s after the second one that you can really tell the telling impact. The degree to which we want to develop football players just doesn’t happen in two months. Can substantial improvement be made? Absolutely. Can we get to where we want to get in two months? No.
On QB Matt Schaub, and the importance of keeping him healthy and protected in the pocket:He’s a big, strong player who trains hard. Nobody trains harder than Matt does. I think he’s ready. There’s no quarterback in the country that meant more to his team than Matt did last year. I think circumstances would have been different if some weeks he wasn’t available as the quarterback. That’ll be a very important thing for our team to do-to keep our quarterback on the field next year.
On DE Chris Canty, and how injuries have affected his progress:I think Chris is looking forward to getting some continuity. Summer training last year was obviously fragmented because of the healing with the leg, as was his training camp. There was really no foundation basis to go into the season. He just started playing games. As a result, it took him awhile to get on top of his game, and of course he then missed the bowl game and a lot of this off-season program. He was really limited to what he could do because of the healing of the elbow. So I’m hopeful we’re now entering a stage of his career where there’ll be some non-interrupted training. With that, I have very high expectations of what this player can accomplish.
On improving in order to meet and surpass last season’s performance:I’m looking for a lot of people in our organization to expand their capacity. There are a lot of players that have to expand the capacity of what they can do if the team is to move on. There’s a lot of coaches including me who have to expand their capacity to produce from what it was last year; that’s what they should be wanting to do, for their own ambition and career advancement, and that’s what the team needs to do.