Al Groh Football Camp Update

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Aug. 8, 2006

QUESTION: What are your comments on the first day in full pads?

GROH: We were able to do a lot more full contact work and a lot more team work. We had a little, short scrimmage at the end. I think the players enjoyed the opportunity to cut loose with no holds on them.

QUESTION: Describe the progress in the offseason that Chris Gorham had.

GROH: Chris is off to a nice start. We chatted yesterday about how he is certainly playing with a much higher level of confidence, which is certainly his right to do after two years of quite a bit of playing. He’s earned that through his performance to be more confident in himself. As a result in the early play, he seems to be playing a lot more assertively.

QUESTION: Tempo is a word we hear a lot in sports. How broad or how narrow is that word and how much application does it have in the way you do your business on the practice field?

GROH: It is an `all practice’ thing. We like practice to run at a real “moving” pace, with a tempo or rhythm or whatever you want to call it is upbeat, it’s continuous, there shouldn’t be any particular lulls. In what you see from standing on the side there should be movement the whole time, whether it’s moving to and from drills or from the end of the play back to the huddle or from the huddle up to the ball. There should be a continuous flow of action, movement and rhythm to what you see. Clearly when you get going offensively-because the offense does control the rhythm a little bit-we like to maintain that and have a pretty good pace to what you do. We try to be pretty high pace to what we do.

QUESTION: Have the new assistant coaches brought any new wrinkles or perspectives to the program?

GROH: At practice specifically, each one has his own set of drills that he’s comfortable with and has developed over the years that he’s using to train the players to do the things that we do. That creates a little bit of freshness for the players. In certain areas of the offense, Dave Borbely has had some impact, particularly in some ideas on the running game. I don’t think there will necessarily be a lot of `new’ plays, but some new wrinkles to how we’re going to make some of the calls up front.

Groh comment regarding the status of WR Deyon Williams:Deyon Williams has a stress fracture in his foot and will undergo surgery on Friday. His return from that is undetermined.

QUESTION: Had he been laboring in camp?

GROH: No, he had looked real good. These injuries seem to be most common amongst basketball players, running backs and wide receivers; that is fairly good size athletes who make lots of full-speed cuts. He just complained of a little bit of soreness there, not an appreciable amount, and Dr. (team orthopedic surgeon David) Diduch was very alert in giving the area that Deyon pointed out, having an X-ray taken and that’s what the X-ray showed.

QUESTION: Who has been behind him at his position?

GROH: That position will be open to (Kevin) Ogletree, Bud Davis, or anybody else who wants to lay claim to it.