Hey guys - sorry again for the super choppy notes, no title, and I even posted this on the hoops board! I was trying to go to these media things in between meetings. I got home a bit ago, and am finally getting around to posting the transcripts. Here you go!
HEAD COACH JERRY KILL
COACH KILL: Appreciate everybody coming out today and I think the biggest thing is right now we're hard at work preparing for Illinois. From an offensive standpoint Coach Cubit is a nightmare to prepare for. We've known him for a long time as a head coach of Western Michigan. And he's given us fits with all the things he does. He's got two weeks to prepare for us and another quarterback. I've seen him playing two quarterbacks, two both completely different styles.
So defensively it's a big challenge for us. It's always hard as a defensive coordinator right now with all the different things that you see in college football.
And from an offensive standpoint, they're a football team that does a lot of blitzing. And you've got to spend a lot of time over the next few days picking up all the blitzes that you're going to see. So it's going to be a week that we've got to have great preparation. And then we need to continue to improve on some fundamentals.
So with that, I'll take any questions.
Q. Coach, can you talk a little bit about Mitch's development?
COACH KILL: I think Mitch is, just like anything, I said that he would progress. And I think the biggest thing, again, he's able to do that, he's been able to set his feet and the protection is better. We've protected him better. And when a quarterback gets protection he feels more comfortable and then he becomes more accurate. There's not very many quarterbacks that are very successful when they're on their back or they're scrambling around. There's a few, Johnny Manziel, of course, when he was playing A&M, he ran all over the place.
But for the most part you've got to get your feet set and get a chance to throw. When he gets his feet set and doesn't have a lot of pressure he throws the ball pretty efficiently. And he can throw the ball down field. But certainly probably the biggest plus we threw at several different receivers, and I think that's the most important thing.
Q. How is Ryan doing with the new found fame?
COACH KILL: He doesn't say too much. He's a pretty quiet kid. He doesn't say too much. He doesn't say much when he makes a field goal. He doesn't say much when he kicks off. And he's struggled with a couple of kickoffs. I just don't say anything to him. He knows what he needs to do. Those kickers and punters, they have coaches in the summer, all those kind of things. So I just try not to screw them up. But he just doesn't say much. I guess he's handling it pretty good.
Q. Has recruiting the kicker become anymore of a priority for you anymore recently?
COACH KILL: No, we've always had we've always recruited kickers. We've always had our specialists on scholarship. It's always been important. Finding them or finding one that can do it on game day is the most difficult to do.
And then sometimes there will be a great kicker in high school, but the protection is not good or they don't have a very good holder. Most of them now are coming out of camps and it's people who you know. I know somebody that's helped us on two or three kickers that I trust. But everybody asks that question, but until you get to game day and they go through the goal post or they can kick it out of the end zone, that's the only time you really evaluate it.
There's also a lot that goes it into the two people that you don't talk about and that's the snapper and the holder. Because the snapper, you've got to have a good snap and to kick a football you've got to get the laces. You can't be spinning the ball all the time. Our snapper has been able to get the laces and Pete gets the ball down good. You've got to hit it on the exact spot. If it doesn't hit an inch from that spot the kicker is going to miss. Sometimes you see a kicker miss, and you say the kicker is not very good. But a lot of it has to do with the hold and the snap.
Q. When Cedric got hurt and then there was the scrum after that, just in terms of a teaching moment, how do you handle the balance of like you want your guys to stick up for each other and be tough and all that, and not get pushed around?
COACH KILL: There's a lot of teaching points about it. Didn't last very long on Sunday. You've got to be smart. You've got to be able to in football or anything like it, you better be able to control your emotions or you get in trouble.
So you've got to be able to control your emotions, you've got to be smart. Protecting your teammate and all that stuff is good. Pulling him out of there and so forth. But usually the emotion of a football game everybody gets tangled up in there and something happens and you're protecting. But you can go sit out the next week. You sit out the game, you get a great player sitting out a game, that's not going to help anybody.
So you've got to talk to him about it all the time. But football is a game of emotion. And sometimes things happen. But our jobs as coaches, we need to do everything we can to prevent it. Because the worse thing we can do is have a great player sitting on the sideline. And on college football there's more and more emphasis so you better coach it and teach it. We certainly talked about it on Sunday.
Q. You haven't heard from anybody about Dirk?
HEAD COACH KILL: No, he's substituting in. As long as you substitute in, and so forth. When he comes in and dead ball and all those things, realized. But, yeah, I've talked to the people in charge. And that's part of that teaching moment. And that's what you do. And that's one young man we certainly talked to. And actually talked to him right after the game. And also talked to another young man. But it's called teaching moments.
Q. Speaking of those teaching moments, you probably had a lot of those games you had against Purdue where you don't play your best throughout, but you're still able to win. Are you still able to kind of get across to your players, get a picture, even, that there's a lot of things that need to be tightened up out there?
COACH KILL: I don't think that's the problem. We addressed that on Sunday, too. I think that, again, give Purdue credit. I said throughout the week that there's a good chance we'd have to get to 30s to win because of what they did to Michigan State. With that being said, There's a lot of things we need to clean up. You have to take care of business.
We had been consistent all year at practicing. And I mentioned something when I was on the radio show talking about that and then Thursday, Thursday afternoon it was not as clean as it has been. And I wasn't very happy on Thursday and so forth. So I can promise you Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday will be very clean.
Q. They attempted 272 passes, is that a product of them just trying to catch up?
A. That's coach Cubit, that's what he likes to do. However, he's a great person adjusting to the personnel that he has. So with the quarterback situation, he has a running quarterback, he's great at being able to fit packages with those quarterbacks, but he'd like to throw it. But he also is smart enough that if the situation arises that they need to run the ball he's smart enough to scheme it up there.
He's a big person, switching people on and off. He's done a great job there. From a year ago offensively, they're always scoring points offensively. He just does a lot of things. There's a lot of little gimmick things he does, that you've got to settle in on defense a little bit. And same way with Purdue. And some of the things that happened halftime that you had to do against Purdue because of the little stuff, that gimmick wise, that can give you problems on defense.
Q. (INAUDIBLE)?
COACH KILL: Well, when I say gimmicks, I don't mean an offense that can adjust, you go in a week and you prepare something and then they'll do something out a bunch of different formations, but they'll do the same things, and then they may switch a right on you, Leach is good at that, you know, Texas Tech had been great at that. We may have been running curl post, and but we may run a dig with it, things like that.
So you have to be more, I guess, basic in what you do. And make sure that you can cover all the different route concepts and also run concepts. So it makes you be a little bit more basic in what you do, and that's why they do it.
Q. How do you evaluate the progression of the wide receivers?
COACH KILL: Well, I mean, I think that part of that, again, is us being productive when we throw the football and so forth. And I think just like anything the coaching staff is more confidence, and better progressions, more confidence in the receivers, and route running. So I think they're progressing very good. And I think that as we go it will continue to have to progress. I mean the whole football team, offensively we've gotten better, but we have a whole long way to go to do the things that we need to do down the stretch.
So that area will have to continue to progress and still be able to run the ball. But at the end of the day we're going to have to be able to throw the football to help the running game. We did that we progressed in that on Saturday and we hit some big plays, but we're going to have to continue to hit some big plays down the field and we're going to have to throw the ball 35, 36, you've got to be able to complete. And we struggled in that early in the year. And I think, again, we're gaining confidence in that.
But part of that goes out to practice and timing. We're a little bit late on throws on Saturday on some things that we had open. But in college football and even more so in the NFL, that ball has to get out on time, if it doesn't, the defensive backs are too good in college football to close down on it, but even better in the NFL. You don't throw it in time in the NFL you're going to have trouble. That's hard to find those quarterbacks to do that. You have to play full speed all the time in practice.
Q. Is there a sense with your guys that the stakes have gone up?
COACH KILL: We don't talk about it much. We take one game at a time, I know it's a cliché. But I've said every game you play is a game that's important. It's a championship game and you've got to take care of that game. But we don't talk about it. We talked about that early in the year.
But they're smart enough to know all that. I don't have to tell them. The social media, all that stuff, they know the stakes go up. They know that. So I really don't have to say so much about it. My job is to make sure they do what they need to throughout the week, and then they have to perform on Saturday. And that's my job. And that's what they need to do.
Winning is preparation in my opinion, it's the preparation during the week, then they have to carry it over to the game. And then if things don't go right, then the coaching staff has got to do a good job getting it straightened out, do a good job making things straightened out when you're dealing with young men, and getting it translated out to the field is not always good, but that's our job.
Q. Would you say the Michigan game was the most complete game you played as a team. And if so, is there a sense with this coaching staff that you got to 6 1 without maybe even your best potential effort?
COACH KILL: Probably. I'd say probably, but I'd say for us that we have a whole lot more to improve, to be a really, really good team. We just do. And so are we close to being as good as we can be? No. No, we're not. So we have a lot of room for improvement. You can see that on film in all three phases. The offensive line, we started three different offensive guards. And Foster Bush is coming back off a concussion, so he'll be back this week. So it's been a revolving door as an offensive line.
So if we've got to continue that offensive line, hasn't played our best game with last week, and Joe Bjorklund did a heck of a good job. We've got to continue to get consistency. And fundamentally we've got to improve. We've got to improve with our hands, with tackling, we've got to improve in throwing and catching the ball, all those things, to be a really good team. But I think anybody in this point in the season is probably saying the same thing. And there are some teams that are peaking right now and are on a roll, really going. Each week is a different week in college football. And we find that out every Saturday. You've got to play every week.
Q. You mentioned all the different thing offenses do now. Has there ever been a point in off season that you thought you would dabble in that?
COACH KILL: I think we're always working as far as we go all over the place, Coach Claeys is talking to people, we talk all the time. It's kind of like the NFL. Even they call college coaches now, because they're running the zone read in pro football. And they're not used to seeing the zone read in pro football. They want to know, hey, what are you doing on the zone read play. There's constant communication with those defensive coaches right now. You go to certain conferences, they're all spread out, certain conferences are more run oriented, some are both. So it's difficult.
You're trying to figure out a lot of it has to do with recruiting. You go in, you're playing all these spread offenses, and then all of a sudden you line up against a Wisconsin that's going to go downhill. So you've got to be built for that a little bit. And you're playing spread, playing six defensive backs, five defensive backs, and you've got to get three linebackers in a box. Somebody may have to play that hasn't been playing. You've got to keep them sharp. And that's why we try to rep everybody. But that's what makes it difficult.
Now when you're recruiting, you're recruiting you've got to have 8, 9 defensive backs that can play, but also you have to have about 8 linebackers, and a couple of them have to be more plug linebackers, 230, 240, that can come downhill. They may not play every game. We've got some guys that haven't played a lot that will have to play in those situations coming down the stretch.
And we've spent some time in the spring ball working against other teams that do some of that stuff, to try to get it carried over. But that's what makes it tough in college football. Pro football, teams are pretty similar. And that's why you can see players go from one team to another, the terminology is the biggest difference. But in college football you're seeing everything. So it's a lot of work and you've got to be sound across the board in what you do.
Q. How did the players react to being ranked in the coach's policy?
COACH KILL: I haven't talked about it. We met on Sunday, and Sunday afternoon and we went to work. To me the more you talk about it the more one thing one way or one way the other. We talked about the game that we played on Saturday. And we talked about the positives in the football game and we spent a lot of time in the film room in what wasn't so good that we needed to improve.
Because the only thing that matters to the coach is we can it's great to be excited, all those kind of things, gaining confidence, that's good, finding ways to win. Sometimes you've just got to find a way to win. And we did that.
But as coaches, the only thing that matters is at the end of the season where you're at, really. You've got to keep your players grounded, this is what you need to do, and you find out how mature a team you have is or we have. We have to coach that up. We can't worry about all the other stuff because they already know about it. Maybe in the old days you'd have to, but in the new days, they already know. And you say, hey, did that put more pressure on them? Sure it does. They talk about it. But we talk about you don't do what you're supposed to, that's called don't last very long. So you better take care of business and what you do from a day to day and a weekly basis, playing the game.
ASSOCIATE COACH TRACY CLAEYS
Q. When you go back and look at the film from Saturday, what was your biggest take away difference how you played the first half and how you played the second half?
COACH CLAEYS: The first half, a lot of that was my fault. Just as far as from the formations that we didn't get a chance to work on enough. So whenever there's confusion, ultimately that's my responsibility.
So we got it worked out at halftime. And I thought the kids played awfully well the second half. So that's really the biggest thing. It just wasn't simplest correction by one person. I need to do a better job. And we can prevent some of that.
Q. (INAUDIBLE)
COACH CLAEYS: It really is. You have to be careful what you do, because you always have to have somebody help the quarterback in a pinch. The place where we don't make very good decisions, you can get away with some things like that. But they make awfully good decisions with it. And Bill, we faced him before, and he's very good at what he does, he uses formations and things to get you in a situation where the offense becomes a problem. We'll have to spend a lot of time on different formation adjustments.
Q. (INAUDIBLE)
COACH CLAEYS: Yeah, it's the same thing, though, even though no matter how well you run, you have to take care of your responsibility first. And it's impossible to take care of two of the three or all three yourself. And that's the thing that some kids got to learn is that take care of your part first, then you can go help somebody else as far as instead of thinking you can take care of all of them.
Q. Boddy Calhoun, seems like he's overshadowed by Murray and the people who rave about Murray's NFL potential. What do you see about Boddy Calhoun about what you're seeing week to week?
COACH CLAEYS: You know, I think at corner we played awfully well, even Jalen has. So we talked a little bit on Sunday. I never get a chance to watch the NFL, so I don't know what they're looking for. It's a different game. All I know is secondary wise between Briean and Derrick Wells, Jalen and Eric, they've all played extremely well and made some plays. If we thought there was a big difference, we would move them around a lot on certain people, but right now we're working about whatever they have to do. I think they're all very similar in that regard.
Q. Boddy Calhoun weighs 200 and all that, but his ability to make plays, just
COACH CLAEYS: The open field tackles. Like I say, any of our kids we've had in that situation have made those plays. Tell kids all the time, I don't know who is going to make plays in this game. All depends on how they decide to block or the type of routes they decide to run, as to who is going to have to end up making the tackle. Just so happens the last couple of weeks, we've got a lot of bunch routes Briean has been the one in that position that's made those plays. But they're all playing very well.
Q. Can you talk a little bit about the difficulty in making the adjustment in the first half?
COACH CLAEYS: I've said this before, and it's hard to believe this that adjustment is overrated at every level. It's all about getting kids comfortable, having good players and running and chasing the football. That's really what it is. And a couple of their motions caused a little bit of confusion at first, and they took advantage of that. And I say that's my fault. So it's not so much the adjustments we made is making sure that the kids knew how to react to the motions that they were seeing.
Q. Going on the road, and knowing your schedule in November, is this the kind of game that makes you nervous?
COACH CLAEYS: Here's the thing, we don't – they have two different quarterbacks that are completely different. They've had two weeks to prepare. Bill does a good job, again, with formations and motions. So it will be a challenge, especially coming out of the gate again. We need to handle it better than what we did last week, and hopefully I do a better job getting practice organized where we understand things a little better coming out of the gate.
But there's no question that with the two weeks, and playing the two quarterbacks, we're really not for sure everything we're going to get. So that's why you get good players and hopefully they'll make some plays for us.
Q. Talk about how different the two quarterbacks are. Is it tough to simulate?
COACH CLAEYS: Yeah, whoever you play, when we were at Southern Illinois we played Tony Romo, it's hard to simulate him at Eastern Illinois, you have to get guys to line up on game day and it takes a little bit of adjustment at the beginning of the game. I tell kids all the time the first two or three series, you've got to survive and see what they're going to do and. And get lined up from there.
Q. Talk about Cockran, talk about his performance? People seem to look at his stats.
COACH CLAEYS: I think he's done pretty good. We have to get people in more longer yardage situations on third down, like we did in the second half. And I think we'll see those go up. So right now we've got to play better on first and second now for the stats thing to get where it needs to be. At the same time we've got to throw the ball out quicker than they have in the past, and as long as the ball comes out quick I'm not worried about the sacks so much.
Q. Do you use stats as a motivator with the players?
COACH CLAEYS: I don't. Whether that's right, wrong, because then everybody thinks they should intercept one ball a game. Somebody intercepts seven, you lead the NFL for 16 games, it's a great year and they pay them millions of dollars. I look at third down conversion which we did awfully well in the second half and points scored is really the only two stats that I look at. I think the rest of them there's a lot of untruths.
Q. What do you think of the younger players, how they've progressed so far?
COACH CLAEYS: I think they're doing good. Most of them are up front, we're playing. And so I think they've continued. That they've held in there good. Again, we're going to see a team that's mainly one back and does some things like that. The ultimate test will come after the break, and seeing how well they hold up with Iowa, which will be the first true come downhill two back team we've seen. I think they get better each week. I don't think that shouldn't change this week, because very similar type of offense. So our next game we'll see how they do.
Q. Tracy, can you compare Purdue's speed on the perimeter with TCU's?
COACH CLAEYS: I don't know. I think they both run pretty good, but TCU has been a while, you know. One thing I'm pretty good at is when I get up the next morning, that damn game is gone. I move on to the next one because there isn't anything I can do about it. It would be hard for me if you talk about playing five wides on the field or four wides at a time, TCU is right up there, you know. Just because they play almost all wide outs all the time.
An Interview With:
ASSISTANT HEAD COACH MATT LIMEGROVER
Q. You guys used a lot of different receivers, what did you do to get them motivated and involved, spread out?
COACH LIMEGROVER: I think all of the above. There's no doubt that the more we can get those guys involved the harder they're going to play. And they're starting to figure out that the better we run the ball, the better they do their job on the perimeter and blocking and running. Good routes, maybe even when we're not particularly targeting them throwing the football, that that ball is going to start finds go them a little more. The great example is KJ Maye, he's been battling his tailend off all year, blocking, trying to do all the little things we asked him to do and he benefits because now we're able to find him on a route. That's some good, positive momentum we have going with that group right now.
Q. Coming into fall camp I know developing a fullback was a big area for you guys. How do you feel now with the lead Miles has made? Are you getting to the point you're able to do a lot of things you were able to do with Mike last year?
COACH LIMEGROVER: Absolutely. It's interesting you bring that up. If you listen to Coach Kill over the last couple of years when he talks about junior college kids, he'll talk about guys that game four or five of the first season is about when they start really settling in, even if they've been here for spring, it's just a process. And right about the time we hit Michigan, we started to really notice a difference in Miles, that dependability, being able to go out and doing the things we were asking him. And looking comfortable, not being a fish out of water.
That's been a really, really nice I don't want to say surprise, but it's been an added bonus for sure, to have him at the point he is game 6, game 7 in the season and feeling as comfortable and playing as well as he has.
Q. How big a lift for your whole offensive unit to have a game like that, where the defense, maybe didn't have its best game, but you really needed a big number and then drive after drive they delivered?
COACH LIMEGROVER: Yeah, you know what, I think I don't think there's any doubt, because we kind of knew at some point that it was going to have to be us stepping front and center. And didn't know when it was going to be, didn't have any idea. We talked about that. We said there's going to come a time where this thing is going to get put on our backs and we need to be ready. It just so happened it presented itself on Saturday. I give a ton of credit to our defense. The turnaround the first half and the second half and there at the end of the game. And for us to be able to say, okay, we've got some work to do, it's our turn to step to the forefront and pick up the defense a little bit and do our part. I think the kids felt a lot of satisfaction in that. I think there was a lot of positive energy that came out of that situation.
Q. Coach was calling Saturday the best game from your offensive line. You're probably your group's biggest critic. What did you feel?
COACH LIMEGROVER: I'm not going to go against the head coach. But here's the problem. One thing you need to understand when you're an offensive line coach, you never have a good day. There's never a day when all five of those guys do everything right every play. I'm a perfectionist, those guys know it. We win a game and I go into the film room, and if you're an outsider, you'd think we lost by 30.
But that's where we're not where we need to be. They know it. I know it. We're getting closer. I love the way they're competing. They come to work every day. They're going to come today and I know they're going to come ready and to get better. For those group all playing well at the same time it's like trying to herd cats. It's hard to do. You try to get as many as you can for as long as you can playing well, and we're doing.
Q. Have you got a true No. 3 in quarterback, and can you talk about him?
COACH LIMEGROVER: Well, I don't know, do you know something I don't know? That we need to be ready with the No. 3. I think Jacques Perra really has separated himself in that group. He's an interesting case, walk on kid from here at Roseville. He came over and spent a lot of time in the spring when he was still finishing up high school, came over to spring practice.
Really over the course of the summer did a lot of work on his own. And that's really benefited him. Benefited him in a lot of ways, from the standpoint of he isn't a fish out of water when he steps into that huddle and he's called on to jump in there. There's a real confidence about him. And he's a pretty darned good player, too. He's been able to separate himself as far as that No. 3 goes.
Q. What does a play like the one KJ made do for him?
COACH LIMEGROVER: Well, you know, like I said, the thing about KJ is he's I said it last year, he's such an energy kid. He brings such positive energy to the receiver group, to the offensive, to the whole team.
Last year he was banged up, and you could just tell he was trying, but it just was weighing on him. Now he's healthy, he's feeling about good. He gets it. He understands my opportunities are going to be there and I have to take advantage of them. And I think Saturday was a great example of that.
We had talked all week about he needed to run the route at a certain yardage. He needed to get where he needed to be with great tempo. And he did those two things. And we with were able to hit him. The joke was he wasn't going to be held out of the end zone because he knew he might not to see the ball again. He was going to find a way to get in the end zone.
It was great to see him get that and then to kind of step back, him, Donnell Kirkwood, those kind of guys contributing, Isaac Fruechte making a big catch, Donovan breaking free. Those are things that kind of keep that positive momentum going and keep it building, which is where we need to be right now.
Q. Worry when you see a guy dive for that goal and see the turnover?
COACH LIMEGROVER: My heart stops. I just hope the defibrillator is working up in the press box. You just don't know. There's a lot left up to chance when that happens. You love his effort. That's an enthusiasm that he brings, and he's going to find a way. That part you really like. The other part you just kind of hold your breath a little bit. And when you see the official raise his arms, you breathe out, and you figure out if you're going for one or two.
Q. David leads the nation in carries, are you going to keep your eye on as the season goes on and make sure he stays fresh?
COACH LIMEGROVER: You know, I heard Coach Kill say he gets stronger as the game goes on. I love David’s quote he wasn't used a whole lot his first couple of years, and there's still a lot of tread left on that tire. He's a gamer, I think he would be disappointed if he wasn't there at a key point in time. But you have to make sure the last couple of years we've run out of gas, as an offense. So we're also really looking at ways we can make sure that we stay strong right up until the end of November. That's something we take a look at and say at what point is enough too much. So that's always the thought process for us.
Q. Right now the nation's top rushes are all in the Big 10, including David. What do you think the reason is for the conference not having any big rushes?
COACH LIMEGROVER: Recruiting. I don't know. I mean it's hard for me to say. I get a chance to see glimpses of the other guys that are in that top group. And I tell you, I think that the other offensive coordinators of those three schools, Indiana, Nebraska, and Wisconsin, I think they do a great job of taking great players and putting them in positions to succeed. I think it's showing. And I just hope David can stay in there and hang in there and continue to do what he's doing.
Q. Rodrick hasn't had a carry in a couple of weeks. Are you guys saving him or is there anything to that?
COACH LIMEGROVER: It's just hard. It's hard when you have a kid that's going like David is, and I think part of it is that David, he's so strong. You look at him during the ballgames, he never looks exhausted. He never looks like he needs to come out. It's hard when you have a kid that is going the way he gets going, to say we're going to take you out and go a different direction. That's hard right now.
It isn't anything that Rodrick necessarily has done right or wrong, per se, it's just a matter of we've got a guy that's really feeling it right now and got great chemistry and rapport with the offensive line, and the tight ends, as far as how they're playing and what they're doing and making things right.
Q. For Donnell to give you that one drive where you gave it to him and he puts it in, how big for him?
COACH LIMEGROVER: Oh, like I said, you know, there's so much that goes on that you don't see on Saturday afternoon, that aid in your success or your failure as a football team. And Donnell is a kid that's aided in our success, even though it hasn't shown up on the stat sheet. Being a senior, being a guy that was put in the tough spot, the starter is no longer the starter. It's easy to go the opposite direction. He's never done that. Great leader in the locker room. Does whatever he needs to do to help us win a football game.
So it's great to get that score, obviously for the bigger picture, to help win a football game. But it's extra special when it's a kid who you just feel so good about and he had that opportunity. He's another one, he said, I won't get tackled, at the one, I was going to get that one in. Everybody had a smile on their face of the bigger picture of what that signifies.
Q. You guys have sure been at the one yard line a lot this year.
COACH LIMEGROVER: Yeah, and so we better be pretty good at quarterback sneak, because it's nice having a 6 4, 230 pound quarterback who can mash it in there. It's hard to say. But I think it's one of those, especially like with David Cobb, there will be guys that get tackled at the three, that he finds a way to get to the one. There's been a couple of those where probably should have been tackled at the one and he got it in. We'll take it. The closer we get, the easier it is.
Q. With David, were you pretty close to red shirting him?
COACH LIMEGROVER: Oh, boy, I have a hard time remembering plays the first half Saturday, let alone four years ago now. I think Duane Bennett was banged up at the time, and we had Donnell Kirkwood and really, I hate to think that I'm missing somebody in there, but we were just so thin that we said, you know what, we just can't go into a ballgame and not have the ability to be able to play a guy like David. Coach Kill talked to him and he was okay with it. And I'm pretty sure that's how it went. I'm pretty hazy on that one, too. I don't know if that's one that can make it in the article.
