· The leadership that has taken place with the kids this summer had been good, they’ve done a good job in the classroom, and we’ve definitely taken some strides. I look at where we were two years ago, where we’re at now, we’re moving the program forward. Our expectations are to be better. We need to keep on moving the program forward.
· Our strongest group is our linbacking crew, and Aaron Hill has done a great job. On the inside, with Jack Lynn and Damian Wilson, there’s some depth there inside. We may have more depth than we think. Athletically, we’re gifted there. We need to coach them up, and we basically have 2 guys with a whole lot of experience.
· Because of nickel packages and dime, you better have some secondary players. Texas Tech was a great example of how we did that.
· I really like the development of Cedric Thompson, and all of our safeties have put on 5-10 pounds.
· Where Eric Klein tells me that this is the first time that he’s put us in a better chance to have success, that’s good.
· With Coach Mason and those great offenses, they were able to run the ball. We need to do that in the Big 10.
· Offensively the Gophers have had the big tight ends.
· We may start one, maybe two seniors, that’s it. We’re still a young team. Sometimes that’s good, because they don’t know any better.
· Philip Nelson and Mitch feel really good about the development. They’re all high on a couple of these freshman kids (WR’s)
· I have a good relationship with Devin, so I thought that could happen; we prepared for him running track.
· Don’t forget Andre McDonald too.
· If you have a guy that can do much and Chris Streveler is a pretty intelligent guy. Those other two need to stay healthy. As far as improving our skill level and strength level on offense, we’ve done that, now we need to coach them up.
· Marcus (Jones) is going to play corner. That’s his natural position, we tried to make him play receiver.
· Jamel Harbison did some good things in the spring. They are both healthy.
· Jonah Pirsig – we still need to decide what to do with him. We need to see what progression he has, and make a decision. We’re leaning towards bringing him in.
· We’ve got to do a better job of getting our kids ready and staying healthy.
· The key to success is staying healthy. We need to do a good job of that at practice and watch what we do.
· Inside, we’re really big, which is good. You’re thick inside. We’re feeling pretty good. On the edge, we feel decently strong there too.
· On recruiting – I feel pretty much like my second at Northern Illinois. I feel good in the shift in what the kids are doing. They have worked hard. It all starts academically, and keeping players eligible. We’ve taken great strides in that.
· We need to win more Big 10 games, which hasn’t been done in a while. We need to kick more field goals.
· Mitch is like a lot of our team, a little young and a little inexperienced, but it’s sometimes good because they don’t know any better.
· We’re going to leave a couple of positions out of camp, and bring more in with punters to find out who is going to be that guy that will punt that ball on a consistent basis.
· All of our kickers, everyone has a coach, so if we don’t screw them up, we’ll be all right.
· If one can kick it out of the endzone every time, we’ll use him. If we have someone else that can kick field goals, we’ll use another guy. We can use a lot of different guys.
· When I took the job here, Ra’Shede was questionable and whether or not he’d be in school. Where he was, vs. where I see him now is tremendous. According to our strength staff, Ra’Shede has done a great job this summer. He’s in as good of shaped, and as focused as he’s been since I’ve been here. Right now, I’ve been really pleased with Ra’Shede Hageman, and our strength staff has done a tremendous job. We’ve had help, I’m not too proud to reach out.
· Aaron Hill and Josh Campion have been the strong leaders, and Phillip and Mitch. I’ve liked what I’ve seen out of Brock Vereen, Donnell Kirkwood. Ra’Shede has stepped out a lot. We’ll determine captains before the season starts. You get too many people talking, and no one listens, so we’re finding out who will listen to who.
· There are a lot of tweaks with the no huddle system.