By Zach Mariner, sports editor
I just wanted to go ahead and put these up for those of you interested in reading. Most of these will be featured in my defensive story lines piece for tomorrow’s paper.
Bud Foster
Having to cut practice short because of lightning: It’s just one of those things. Better to be safe than sorry. I guess it’s still lightning out there. We’ll catch up with it on Friday. I thought we started off with a pretty good attitude and did some nice things. We’re looking forward to team time.
On how things looked on day one: We’ve got a good group of guys back on defense. But still, we need to create some depth. I want to see us keep taking strides. We were a good defense last year, but I want to be a great defense. We want to be one of the best in the country, and that’s what our goal is. But, to do that you’ve got to create some depth and have some depth up front. Obviously we’ve got some holes to fill in the secondary. We’re banged up at linebacker, so we’re looking to create some depth there. Right now, it’s hopefully improve and continue to go in the path we started last year. But then also, continue to develop our depth and get some of the young players to learn their positions and their expectations within the defense.
On Logan Thomas calling his unit “refined:” That’s a compliment. You’ve got some guys that have played. Even on the back end, where we’ve made a couple adjustments, moving some guys around, you had some guys that played and understand the speed of the game and the mindset as far as the communication and the sense of urgency. And that’s nice to see, it’s a nice compliment by Logan, I just hope we stay on that path each day.
On issues with corners switching to safety: My biggest concern will be, ‘Can those guys tackle consistently at the safety spot?’ I mean, they’re corner guys, but they’ve got good size, they’re not small guys. But, I want to make sure they’re good tacklers. Our safeties, we spill the ball to those guys a lot, and just being consistent with communication, there will be some new things for them. But they’ve been a part of it. Especially Bonner and Kyshoen are two young, good prospects that I think football is very important to. They want to be successful. They understand the tradition in our secondary. We’re just trying to create a little bit of depth there by moving guys around a little bit, and maybe maximize some of their abilities and that type of thing. I am curious to see how Antone does consistently in coverage. He’s a good tackler, but playing that boundary corner position, we put our guy in a lot of man-to-man, but he’s also involved in a lot of tackling. And that’s one of his strengths. He can run and cover people. We’re just kind of looking at some things right there. Obviously, Kyle Fuller’s a good football player. He needs more reps at corner, he’s been our nickel guy for the last couple years, so he’s gonna get some more reps at corner. I don’t even know if we’ll run a nickel package this spring. We’ll probably just keep him at corner.
On the backer spot: We moved Derek DiNardo, who’s a really good walk-on kid and we moved Josh Trimble. To me, those are two preferred walk-on guys who are potential scholarship guys. DiNardo started on a couple special teams last year, I think Josh is a guy that can do that. Right now, I think they’ve got good speed, but all of the sudden, if its average speed in the secondary, its good speed at linebacker. So they’re going to learn it, today was day one. I think they’re good football IQ kids. They’re conscientious kids. It’s gonna be good to create some depth. Chase needs to take that next step as a football player. And he’s going to get a majority of the work, which is what he needs. I feel good about Jack Tyler. Brian Laiti is a guy that we redshirted and then sat, didn’t travel last year. He needs to take the next step. Really good prospect out of high school, but he’s got to learn our system and be consistent, but those are gonna be the guys that get a lot of reps. DJ Ward, he’s a preferred walk-on kid from last year, I think he’s got a lot of promise as well. I’m looking forward to working. Where we go, I don’t know, I’m just looking to see how these guys learn the position, get them a good evaluation, and if they can give us some depth, they’ll give us some depth. Tariq will be back and I feel good about Chase. Chase is probably more suited to be a mike, but he’s a valuable guy because he’s intelligent and he can play both spots. So he’s gonna get a lot of reps this spring and I’m excited about it. I think it’ll be a big spring for him and for us. If he can take the next step like Jack Tyler has, and step into some key roles, he can really help our defense.
Antone Exum
On whether or not he was confused at corner: Not really. Today was kind of simple. Those guys looked really good at the safety spot, but as things start to get more complicated, the more and more they’re gonna start looking to me and Kyle for some communication things. So, we’re still out there talking. Everybody in our room has to know everybody’s position. It’s not like I’m at corner now, so I’m being nonchalant and not paying attention, not making calls, things like that.
On moving to corner: I’ve never been a full-time corner. But I played nickel corner as a freshman and was very comfortable. We joke around, call it ‘the slot life.’ It wasn’t necessary the island, but I was in the slot most of the time and I was very comfortable there. With all the coverage responsibilities I had to take on at free safety, I was comfortable there as well. I just see it as a new challenge. I’m not gonna go into it thinking that I’m not gonna excel at it. I still feel comfortable out there.
Were you surprised when they asked you to move to corner?: Kind of. But once we lost (James) Farrow, I kind of was thinking outside of the box, like, ‘They might try me out at corner to get a some depth.’ I was a little surprised when they asked me to switch full-time.
On the idea of having two very physical cornerbacks: I’m real excited. Kyle (Fuller) played a lot of nickel last year, but there’s more to his game than that. He can go out there and cover with the best of them. I feel like I’ll be able to go out there and cover with the best of them, as well. So, you put that together, and then you put how physical both of us of are, me having safety experience, being a bigger guy and Kyle kind of being a big corner and being aggressive with his experience last year at the whip position, I feel like we’ll be in good shape.
Torrian Gray
Are you worried about the depth at corner?: I am, but in a stretch right now I think I’m going to feel good about Mike Cole, I think Boye is going to take steps at safety, Theron Norman, I think all those guys are going to take steps at safety so if you don’t have anybody coming along, you can move those guys back. So you know, all it’s doing is adding flexibility to us. I can move Antone back but we have corners in Kyshoen and those guys, it’s just trying to maximize the personnel but I feel better now knowing those guys can go in and play safety. Corner is not easy at all but at least those guys are corners at heart too. Because I think our back up safety is going to be ok I don’t feel as bad as what it looks like on paper at our corner spot.
What to expect from January enrollee Donaldven Manning: From a technique fundamental standpoint I expect him to get better. Physically he’s only going to get so big at this point in time in his career but if he can show physically that he can get down the techniques and do those types of things I’ll feel encouraged because he’s going to be 15 practices better starting fall.
When do you know if your secondary switches are working?: I think as a coaching staff we are just going to see. I think the players have bought into it so now its just going out and right now we are just committed to working this way through the spring or we may look after the first scrimmage and have a discussion but for right now from the little bit of information I have gotten today I think this is something that we are going to want to go ahead and finish with the spring and be committed to it and just evaluate it afterwards but I really think we’ll have a chance for this to work out.
On moving Exum to cornerback: Well, Antone has great physical ability. Antone kind of slowed down at times last year when things started moving and shifting and all those things. He’s a good enough athlete where if you just put him out on a number one and let him line up there where its man or zone we figure it will just give him a chance to just let go and play. So that’s what we started discussing and decided to just try it and you hope that the guys that went from corner to safety can handle their end of the bargain because Antone was an exceptional tackler and an exceptional safety but just when things started moving we didn’t get him to play as fast.
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Photo by Kevin Dickel, SPPS
