ACC Coaches Spring Football Teleconference Transcript

April 25, 2013

An interview with:

BOSTON COLLEGE COACH ADDAZIO

COACH ADDAZIO: Thank you for having me on the conference call. Obviously, we're really excited for the start of football season at Boston College.

We just completed our first spring practice and really had a great time getting the chance to know our football team and our football program and saw some young men with great attitudes, great work ethic, and a desire to really have success.

So it was an awful lot of fun. Good winter, good spring, and just thrilled to death and honored to have a chance to be the head football coach of Boston College. It's obviously a fantastic institution with a great football tradition. So now we have the task at hand of getting ready for a great season.

Q. I know you guys obviously had the unfortunate events in Boston, and I wondered if you could just first talk about how that impacted you guys and the school having to deal with that horrible situation last week?

COACH ADDAZIO: Well, obviously the school was closed on Friday, the day before the spring game. We were all kind of bunkered down and just following all of the events, trying to figure out what was best. We really felt that at that time, probably around late afternoon, that they hadn't caught suspect number two yet. And really, all of the law enforcement police officers have been working around the clock, and people were fatigued. It was like, okay, there have to be security sweeps. The school's not even open yet.

We don't know if it's going to open.

But the overriding thing was we just didn't feel like it was fair to all of law enforcement and everyone to say, okay, amongst everything that's happened and everything that's continuing to

happen right now, we're going to worry about a spring football game?

It just didn't seem appropriate.

There was just so much going on, so we decided to cancel that game, and absolutely knew then, and continue to feel now, there is no question it was the right decision.

In terms of football and in terms of our spring practice, we got a lot done this spring. I mean, really liked our team -- where we started and where we ended. I loved the growth that we had.

Quite honestly for the alumni and the fans and the energy to see the culmination would have been great. But really would 20 more snaps for the first team make that much difference? No. I thought we got done what we needed to get done.

We also had a chance to walk off the field and walk out of the stadium, because we ended up having a day with the parents and the cookout, and we had a spring-wrap up session. We walked out of there healthy and excited with a lot off energy and a lot of enthusiasm about Boston College.

Q. As you left spring, was there a certain area that you felt better about and felt you had kind of turned a corner in the spring?

And then also was there an area you still have some questions about as you go into the fall?

COACH ADDAZIO: Well, what I felt great about is when I watched the development of our team from when we got there through the culmination of spring practice. This is a group of guys that really took well to tough coaching, to accountability, to the concept that we need to be a real team and we need to be accountable to each other and build some physical and mental toughness.

I really felt like they really absorbed all of that and took to it. That was really a neat thing. In the installation of spring practice, the mental part, the new schemes on offense and defense and special teams, we've got really bright guys here, and I thought they did a great job of processing all of that. So I thought fundamentally, schematically

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and team chemistry has grown quite a bit. I really enjoyed watching that development.

Now the thing that concerns me is our depth. I think we really developed our lineup up front. I think we found a running back that really is a big, strong, powerful guy. Our quarterback, Chase Rettig had a phenomenal spring. He's a very accurate guy. You can just see it in him as a senior. You can feel that determination in him. I thought Alex Amidon had an outstanding spring.

So those pieces on offense came. I enjoyed watching development.

Now on defense, I just think Don Brown came in with a new scheme and very aggressive scheme as Don is noted for. His enthusiasm, his passion, the staff's passion for the game you could see within our defense. Guys like Kaleb Ramsey up front, and Netty, and Steele Divitto and Sean Sylvia, and just some guys really stepped up, Kevin Pierre-Louis, one of our linebackers.

You could really see the development on our defense.

We have two passionate coordinators, Ryan Day and Don Brown and a staff full of guys that have a lot of energy and a lot of passion for the game. I really saw this team respond there.

Now depth, depth is a problem right now, at a lot of positions. So you're in that quandary of you've got to develop a tough, physical, hard-nosed football team, and the only way to do that is to practice really hard. When you do that, you become susceptible to some injuries, and injuries won't be our friend because we don't have a ton of depth.

But if we can manage to stay healthy with the development of our guys and the influx of some young players that can help us, I think good things can happen.

Q. Do you think this team will look a lot different in the fall because you're the head coach now?

COACH ADDAZIO: Well, what I want to see this team look is I want -- when you come to the game or you watch on TV, I want you to see a team that's physical, that's passionate, that plays like a team that has high energy. I want you to watch an attack-style defense, and I want you to see a diverse offense, because we've got some play makers. I want you to see a balanced football team on offense.

You'll be the judge of what kind of football team that's going to look like, but that's what we hope to have ready for you in the fall.

Q. I assume before when you were talking about a running back, you were talking about Andre Williams?

COACH ADDAZIO: Yeah, if I did not mention that, that's exactly right. I'm talking about Andre Williams. I tell you what. I thought Andre had one of the best springs of anybody. The kid is a wonderful guy. I mean, he's bright, and he's a terrific person. But I tell you what, he's powerful, he's fast, he's a physical back, and I think the complement of that style of back with the development of our offensive line and the ability to throw the ball with Chase Rettig is a nice little combination.

Q. Are the expectations any higher for him because Finch left? And I'm not sure, you mentioned depth as an issue for that position as well?

COACH ADDAZIO: It is. There's no question.

But you know what happens with opportunities is usually with guys that are competitive, someone will surface up.

Dave Dudeck had a nice spring for us. He's probably one of the hardest working guys on our football team. We have a couple other backs rolling in here, freshmen coming in. So it is what it is. But Andre, I just really am impressed by him.

Q. What's it been like coaching Louie, and have you yelled at him more than you thought you would or less?

COACH ADDAZIO: Yeah, I mean, you know, yeah, I yell at him. I yell at everybody. It's been really a neat thing. He's been around football all these years and programs that I've been at, but I've never had a chance to really coach him. So I'm enjoying him.

He's a guy that loves football. He's a guy that has a lot of passion for the game. He's still in the rehab phase of his shoulder injury that he had.

But I've really enjoyed watching him. He's a very low-maintenance guy. He's got thick skin. He can take tough coaching. His position coach Frank Leonard is a very demanding, up-tempo, high-energy guy, and he just loves it.

So he's doing quite well, and I feel really fortunate to have a chance to spend this time with him. Because too far and away, when you're a football coach, you don't get a chance to see your own kids or your own son play and be around

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them. So I'm really going to enjoy that.

Q. What was your involvement with him previously?

Were you able to watch huddle film with him? Did you have any kind of involvement with his career?

COACH ADDAZIO: At some point there towards the end of his high school career, right in that part there, I would have him come over when I was at Florida, and I would work with him a little bit on blocking mechanics and things like that. I never wanted to be a guy that was overbearing with any of my kids in sports. So I really wasn't at all.

But at that point he seemed to really want to be a Division I player so I certainly did get involved a little bit. I felt like I could help develop him fundamentally certainly in the blocking end.

Then on the strength and conditioning end, you know, Mickey Marotti at the time and Frank Piraino who is with me now, we're such close friends, they're like godfathers to him. So that gave him a nice jump start into college football.

Then of course he had a couple of injuries, and it's nice to see him getting healthy again and having a chance to develop physically.

Q. I thought I heard you mention a while ago Kaleb Ramsey had a nice spring. I had thought he had used up his eligibility on some of the draft boards.

COACH ADDAZIO: He was granted a sixth year, and Kaleb had a fantastic spring. He's an elite defensive lineman. I mean, he's the kind of guy I was used to seeing in the SEC. He's a guy that's very physical, very powerful. He's athletic, and really just was very disruptive in the spring. So we have high expectations for him.

Q. Did he have an injury?

COACH ADDAZIO: Yeah, he was dinged up last year. I don't think it was anything major, but it was enough to keep him out.

Q. So he got a sixth year because of injury?

COACH ADDAZIO: Well, I can't remember which. He had been injured throughout his career, and I'm not sure which exact year he got that exemption on.

Q. But you're glad he's back though, right?

COACH ADDAZIO: Oh, yeah. Really glad he's back. I know he's a Pittsburgh kid, and he's

just a really quiet guy, but a really good guy.

Really excited to watch him have a good, healthy year.

CLEMSON COACH SWINNEY COACH SWINNEY: Well, I think we had a very productive spring. It was a good spring. It has a chance to be a great spring if we'll take the things that we learned and apply them this summer and come back more knowledgeable and improved in a lot of areas that we've asked each player to improve in.

I'm excited about this group. This is a group that's got quite a bit of experience. When we get back together in the fall, that experience hopefully will pay off for us.

We've got Tajh Boyd back, and it's the first year I've ever had a third-year starter back at quarterback, so I'm excited about that. I like the guys we have battling in the trenches on both sides.

Probably the biggest concern coming out of spring is our secondary. But we've got eight signees that are on their way in here. So it is really kind of hard to evaluate that group from a totality standpoint until we get all those pieces here this summer.

But I'm excited about the team. We're a long way away from being a great team right now.

But I think we've got good ingredients and it should be a fun group to coach. With that, I'll take whatever questions you've got.

Q. You had to replace two good ones in Ellington and Hopkins; how do those positions look to you coming off the spring?

COACH SWINNEY: I like the guys we have at both positions. We've got some pretty good experience at receiver returning. We're losing a guy that caught 82 balls, obviously, and probably going to be a first rounder hopefully tonight. But you know, between Adam Humphries and Charone Peake, and Martavis Bryant, all three guys are going to be juniors, and all three are going to be solid players for us. Really expect a combination of those three, or one of those guys to really step up, emerge and fill that void from Nuke.

I know they're glad he's gone. That's for sure, because they've had a hard time beating that guy out.

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But these guys have worked hard and I'm excited to see them seize the moment in this opportunity that they have. But they're all really talented players, and I don't have any doubt they'll be productive.

Then at running back, Rod McDowell was a guy that was just critical to our success last year.

Really had some big moments for us. Was huge in the bowl game for us. He's going to be a senior.

He's very confident and just has developed nicely as a player since he arrived at Clemson. Then D.J. Howard will be a junior. Another guy with some experience, had to battle through some injuries last year, but he also had a great spring.

Zac Brooks was a true freshman, so he got some time last year, but boy, he had an excellent spring.

So I feel good about all three of them. It will be a little bit more of a committee approach, and I'm perfectly fine with that. All three of them can do some special things, I think. So I think both of those positions will be fine.

Q. The last couple of years you guys have been so young on the roster and still achieved big things. A lot of these guys, as you mentioned, are experienced now. Is it any different coaching them to be better than they were now that they've got some experience?

Do you guys have to do anything different this summer to get them ready to take that next step?

COACH SWINNEY: Well, I think a lot of that depends on those guys, the leadership. We're still a young team. We only have ten seniors on this team with a scholarship, ten scholarship seniors. So we're a very big sophomore-junior football team, but they've won 21 games in the last two years.

To me, the exciting thing about that is they've been through the battles. They have that experience to draw upon now, the good and the bad. I think both of those are critical from a growth standpoint. So, you know, the biggest thing is the leadership in our junior group, and the ten seniors that we have, I think is what you have to count on in the summer.

You know, that's always the unknown as you go into it, but I like this group. Again, you've got a third-year starter back at quarterback who has really become the leader of the team, not just the offense. It's great to be able to deal with an experienced group, because you have different conversations with guys that have played two years than you do with a guy that's getting ready to

play for the first time. It's a whole different approach from a mental standpoint and the things that you can give them.

So that's probably been the biggest thing, and that was the biggest difference this spring.

Just more continuity out there this spring. Not quite starting over in as many areas, especially last year when we really started over on the OL and DL. So we've got a lot of competition. Hopefully these guys will have the right mindset and pay the price this summer and come back and do some good things this year.

Q. Just wondering with the injury to Sam Cooper what that does for you guys at the tight end position?

COACH SWINNEY: Yeah, well, it's a big loss. Athletically we're in good shape. We've got some really good players at that position. Stan Seckinger and Legget and McCullough, we just don't have any experience.

Stanton is a sophomore that played a little bit last year, and then Jordan and J.J. are both freshmen.

So the biggest loss with Coop is just that veteran leadership, that saviness, the craftiness that comes from playing.

Also he's a 250-something pound thumper at the point of attack. So we've got to develop those guys in a hurry. We've got to ramp their development up.

We were kind of bringing them along because we had the luxury of doing that with a guy like Coop.

But now their development is going to have to speed up, and we've got to force feed them a little bit more than maybe we would have.

Athletically they're talented and capable of making a lot plays, but we're going to have to challenge them and grow them up in the running game.

Q. The ACC and Notre Dame football announced last Friday the rotation for the schedule in football. It's a few years down the road, but what is their presence and having them on the schedule do for not only your program but maybe for the conference?

COACH SWINNEY: Well, it's great for our conference. I think that Notre Dame has a great brand. For them to be full-fledged members in all of the other sports is a really good thing. For them to commit five games to football is great. It gives everybody a very quality, non-conference game, if you will, that they can schedule.

I'm really excited about it. I guess they're

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coming on -- they're coming here in '15 is what I've been told. It's exciting. You got a chance to play a great traditional program like Notre Dame. Every few years they're here or you're going up there. I think that's great for your overall schedule and competitiveness and all that kind of stuff and the fan bases. I personally never have coached or played against Notre Dame. So it's something that I'm certainly looking forward to, and I think it's great.

I just think it's a good thing for the overall conference to be able to have Notre Dame scheduled in there five times a year. I definitely think that helps us.

Q. Looking ahead here from a couple of years from the new playoff system, but with the BCS meeting coming with some results this week, your thoughts on how that is structured and maybe some of the locations of the game?

COACH SWINNEY: I just think that it's taken what was already a great product and just made it better to be honest with you. I mean, it's made it more competitive and basically added one more game, which I think is exciting. Everybody hates when the football season is over, so now we get one more game.

So it will be fun for everybody.

I like how they've structured it as far as really incorporating the bowls. Because I'm a traditional guy and I just think that's a huge part of college football and having been a player and a coach and seeing the benefits from those experiences.

I like the fact that they're moving those playoff games up so that you've still got the bowl experience, and then whoever the two winners are, you get back to campus and you've got time to reload and prepare for one more game.

I just think it's exciting. There's going to be a lot of anticipation, and, again, just taking what was already a great game, great product and it's made even better. It's certainly a challenge for everybody. People talk about playoffs and all that stuff, and listen, first of all, we have -- in college football we have a playoff every week, every week is a playoff. For us, we've got to win our division, and then you've got to go win a championship game, and now you've got to go win, if you're fortunate to get in that four, you've got to go win in those four games. You've got to win that game and then you've got to win another game.

I think it's the best of both worlds because you have advocates for different things and strong

opinions on both sides. I really think it's a good compromise and solution that really can accomplish what everybody's after.

FLORIDA STATE COACH FISHER COACH FISHER: We finished our spring.

Very excited about the way we finished up. Like the progress we made in all three phases. Our young kicker really came on.

I feel very comfortable with him. Our punter improved. I feel very solid in our kicking game, return game and players offensively. I really like the experience we had on the offensive line. It really showed. Our experienced backs or wideouts, I think, had the best spring.

It allowed our young quarterbacks to really develop. Those guys understand what they're doing. That is a huge part. We've got some talented young guys there battling for a job, and I'm really excited about it. I think our kids really bought into some additions which we did. We kept a lot of the same things we did. We added a few wrinkles and are very excited about how our guys grasped it.

Our athleticism will be able to show with the things we're able to do, and very excited about that part. We got through with some bumps and bruises but nothing that will keep the guys out in the fall, which is very encouraging.

Looking forward to our guys having a good summer, and during fall camp, I think we have a chance to be a very good football team. Excited about this football team, because I think they understand how to win, the things that go on with it. And I think our leadership in the senior and junior class is really starting to show. Excited about going into this fall.

Q. Does Winston now get an automatic promotion now that trick is gone? Will he take most of the reps with the first team come summer camp?

COACH FISHER: No, we're still going to break it up. Jameis had an outstanding spring, and he'll be right in that battle. I thought Jacob Coker will still be in that battle, so will Sean. But Jacob and Jameis will be battling hard for that job and we’ll see how Sean is developing, we're very pleased with him. But we'll split those reps and keep it because I think we have some outstanding

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quarterbacks on this team, and we'll see how the consistency realizes through. But I was very pleased with those guys in spring practice.

Q. I know a lot of people talk about Winston in the spring game. What were some of the things that Coker did well this spring?

COACH FISHER: The arm strength and the ability to run. He played all spring with a broken foot. For three-fourths of spring you never saw him utilize all his tools. So he's a big, strong guy that can think. Really knows the offense, tough guy, big-time arm strength, can get the ball vertically and throw the underneath game.

Winston has all the tools also. So I'm very excited for those guys in the future here.

Q. You lost a lot of key people on the defensive line. How do you feel about that position coming out of the spring?

COACH FISHER: Oh, I felt very good.

Because you look at our defensive tackles, and we lost Dawkins and McLeod inside, but Jimmy and McAllister played as much. And if you look on the depth chart, they had more sacks and more tackles, and those guys will play in the NFL. But we had co-starters and we built a lot of depth behind those guys with Eddie Goldman, and Jacobbi McDaniel back, and Derrick Mitchell, we feel very confident there.

Defensive ends, I thought Dan Hicks moved back over who had split time with Brandon Jenkins two years ago. He had an outstanding spring. Mario was coming on, Giorgio Newberry, Chris Casher, all of those guys there. I thought the defensive line played very well in the spring.

Q. You've got a number of guys who are going to be moving on to the NFL over the next couple of days, including maybe four or five that might get picked tonight. Considering where you guys started from when you first got here. What's it say about what you've been able to accomplish beyond the wins on the field that you're putting this many guys this year into the league?

COACH FISHER: I hope we can do that every year as we establish ourselves as a definite program. We ran the type of system we were doing and identified certain types of athletes we thought are difference makers and not only that but great kids and have great academic skills.

So our graduation rate is over 80-something percent in the last few years I've

been here. So I'm very proud of that. I always talk about having a good team or a good program.

Good programs you're able to replace with other good guys and those guys will work their way through the system and they come out. We have a chance to have five guys possibly taken in the first round. I think you'll see two to five, but five taken in the first two rounds, which is excellent.

Really like the development of our program, and excited for the future, and I think we've come a long way in the last few years.

Q. This is a random question, I guess.

You talked a lot in the spring about Telvin Smith and his personality and how much he's been a leader on the defense. I know Greg Reed was a guy who played that role too. Is there something about maybe not just Lowndes guys in particular, but those south Georgia guys that there is a certain personality you like about recruiting those guys?

COACH FISHER: I tell you what, those kids are tough now. They've been coached hard.

They've come up on that red Clay and been coached since Pop Warner. But Florida's got great ball. Everybody's got great ball. But I think those two guys have a great personality, Greg and Telvin have. Telvin, if you started practice over and practiced for eight hours, which you can't do, but Telvin would be the happiest guy in the world. He loves everything about football and loves being out there.

He's really grown as a person. I'm happy for him, and he's going to be a huge part of our football team.

Q. Talk about the dynamics of the spring with six new coaches, just having to get to know the kids?

COACH FISHER: You know what's funny, we're doing the fourth quarter program and all that and they're doing a great job. And most of those guys come from a system where we do things similar. So they grasped ahold of it very well.

They spent a lot of time watching film and evaluated kids in the off-season program and getting them into spring.

Our kids really love our new coaches and they love the old coaches. I think they bought in to see what these guys are bringing things to the table that we had, and now they're adding to those and they see where they can have success, and

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they're having a lot of fun interacting with these guys.

Most of these guys have National Championship rings and been in the NFL and coached.

Kids want to know, well, they've coached other great players. They want to know that these guys can get you there. That excites players to know the coaches that are coaching them. It's working and it's worked in the past for great players.

I think the cohesiveness with our staff and our players was about as good a transition as I can expect.

Q. Just talk about the development of Kelvin Benjamin? There was so much build up last year his first time on the field. And then there were some drops and some things that didn't go great for him. But what did he learn from last year and what did you see this spring?

COACH FISHER: We all put so much expectation on the kid as if he had an “S� on his chest like superman. He wasn't going to succeed.

And I think we have to be careful of that. He wanted to make the big plays so bad. And like we told him in spring, go back, do the little things, run the underneath routes. All of a sudden, he gets 100-something yards and you weren't just trying to create big plays and throw it down the field to him.

It was within the framework of the offense and learn to be an every down player, whether it's blocking, running the clear out route, running the drag, wherever it goes. I think he's really grown in that aspect, and I think that's what you're going to see.

You're not just always going to see the big plays. I think you're going to see the consistent play, and that's what I'm hoping for. Because when he has that in his arsenal, the big plays are going to be good. It takes a lot of pressure off you.

You don't always have to do something spectacular to win a football game. There are all kinds of things that can make him a great player.

COACH FISHER: I think it's going to be crazy. I grew up in the state of West Virginia. I know football and the passion people have. Being an opening ACC game, I think it's going to be a great environment and a huge challenge for our players. Pitt returned a ton of guys on defense, a top 30 defense in the country and a lot of guys on offense.

They have quarterbacks who have experience. They have play makers that are coached extremely well.

I think it's going to be a terrific, terrific football game. I'm going to tell you, boys, that's a starter right out of the gate. We better have a great camp and be ready to play. There is no doubt.

Q. Everyone up here in Pittsburgh, it's a few months away, but pretty excited about that opening game?

COACH FISHER: You guys don't need to do that. Can you forget about all that?

Q. Well, what are your thoughts on that game, and what sort of atmosphere do you expect?

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MARYLAND COACH EDSALL COACH EDSALL: Thought we had a really good spring. Thought our guys really worked hard. We got a lot accomplished in the 15 days.

Saw quite a bit of progress from our football team.

Now we're already into our summer program. As our young men finish up classes here and head to finals, we'll be back on campus at the end of May preparing for the season.

Q. How would you say after digesting the spring and the quarterback play, how would you best characterize quarterback competition and depth chart right now?

COACH EDSALL: The depth chart we put out the other day is pretty straightforward. C.J. is our starter as we go into the fall. Then we have Perry and Caleb, and Ricardo who will battle to be the starter as well. There is competition that you have and you have a depth chart that you go into the fall with and you go from there. We also have Shane Cockerill coming in as a true freshman.

We'll make sure guys get snaps and guys get the ability to show what they can do.

Q. What is the latest on Perry and Caleb's health right now?

COACH EDSALL: They were doing things. Perry is running and progressing. He'll be ready to go come August, and Caleb has been cleared to go as the players do 7 on 7 on their own to do that, and C.J. has been cleared for everything. So all of those guys will be healthy. It will be great competition. It will be good to have all of them out there. When you bring Shane into the mix, I think we'll be more than adequate at that position.

Q. Randy, regarding C.J., was he able to do anything this spring? If he didn't do much, are you apprehensive at all about what might occur in the level he'll be at in the three weeks going into the season?

COACH EDSALL: The good thing is we were able to have C.J. involved with 7 on 7, individual drills during spring practice. He just wasn't allowed to have any contact. So you could see the progression and the progress that he was making throughout spring in those drills. So I was very pleased. You could see the confidence he

was gaining each time he was out there. Now we're doing conditioning and lifting with our eight hours per week.

He's doing well. There's not going to be any limitation or hesitation. I know on his part, I'm not concerned about him. He's worked extremely hard to put himself in the best possible position to be as healthy and as sound as he can be. So, no, there is no hesitation on my part and I don't believe we'll see any hesitation on C.J.'s part either.

Q. Is he further along than you anticipated?

COACH EDSALL: He's doing extremely well. I know this. He's cleared for everything. So to me that's where we thought he would be.

The biggest thing for me was I could see the confidence grow in him, and he was out there, driving off that leg and doing the things that you need to do as a quarterback. And as he's doing things to continue to move forward, there is stuff that happens each and every day for him that just leads you -- that knows he's where he needs to be, and he'll be as close to perfect as he can be come the time that we start practice on August 5th.

Q. It sounds like the running backs had a pretty good spring. What was it that those guys improved upon specifically, and how much of it was the offensive line's improvement as well?

COACH EDSALL: I think that one of the things is you have great competition there. Wes wasn't out there due to injury, but Albert Reid is such a worker and a guy that wants to do well. He puts pressure on anybody because of the way he works and the way he competes. And Brandon, you could see him. He got stronger over the winter and felt more comfortable and more at ease with the offense and knowing the offense a lot better.

Also, I think our offensive line made strides, but we still have a lot of strides to make. I just think that we're developing more depth and more competition at each position, and I think that's what we have at running back is we have tremendous competition there. Joe Riddle had a good spring. So you bring Wes in there, and there are four guys that can really get after it. So when you have depth and you have that depth rates the competition, it makes everybody work a little bit harder and everybody get a little bit better.

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Q. Coming out of spring, what areas are you most pleased with, and what areas do you have most concern for going into the fall?

COACH EDSALL: I think in terms of our offensive line continuing to come together and continuing to develop and figuring out who is going to be the third tackle, who will be the third guard. I know we've got a back-up center in Evan Mulrooney. But who are those guys going to be?

Are we going to be an eight-man rotation or eight guys on the offensive line we feel good about? I hope to get to where we've got ten. So I think that's the biggest thing on offense. Again, I was pleased with the overall work ethic and commitment by all of our players in terms of what they wanted to get done.

I thought they had great competition each day between our offense and our defense, and we go good against good all the time. I just thought that made us better. But, again, we've got to continue to work hard and get better.

Fundamentally and on our techniques over the summer, get stronger and bring into the mix the freshman class that we have and look forward to a very good season.

NORTH CAROLINA STATE COACH DOEREN COACH DOEREN: We definitely enjoyed getting out on the field with our players. It's fun in your first spring with guys just trying to get to know them and them getting to know you as well. Just getting to see the skillset of our players, the strengths and the weaknesses, and to work on those things together.

I can tell that these guys want to win.

They want to be great, and there are a lot of things that we've got to continue to stress and continue to improve.

But we're a young football team particularly on offense. So there are a lot of gains that we’ve made and a lot more that will need to continue over the summer months.

Felt really good about the progress of our specialists and our defense. The running backs and wide receivers played a lot, you could see that they did. There was some youth at other positions.

Quarterback, obviously, we're still in a battle going on there between some guys. I thought our tight end position really came out strong in the spring.

Q. You hired your defensive coordinator Dave Huxtable very soon after you were hired. Where's Dave, what do you think Dave will bring to the defense this spring both in practice and at games?

COACH DOEREN: He's a very passionate football coach. He loves the game. He and I share very similar philosophical values when it comes to coaching defense, what we believe in.

Being tough, being sound, playing with hands. Not trying to have too many calls but being masters of those you have. Just coaching every day with a great attitude and positive energy.

Dave and I both worked at similar places and similar people. I was able to get a great feel for what he brings and just very excited to have a guy like him on my staff. Also a guy that has an ACC background at Georgia Tech and North Carolina.

Q. How does the quarterback position look to you coming out of the spring?

COACH DOEREN: Pete Thomas is in the lead right now just because he's played more.

Pete was a starter at Colorado State before he transferred here. So he's a little more game savvy.

You can tell he's played and his improvement over the spring was pretty dramatic.

Manny is a younger guy that for Manny, it's tough because he's going into his second year and already having to learn a second offense. So I feel a little bit for him that way. But we're not going to name a starter for a while. I want to see these guys over the summer continue to improve. And we have some freshmen coming in that I know want to show what they have.

Q. How different will this team look on offense and defense because you're the coach now?

COACH DOEREN: Time will tell on that.

Defensively we're somewhere from a shell. They were a four-three team and we still are. So there are more similarities probably on that side of the football.

Offensively we're a no-huddle offense that operates from the pistol or the shotgun, so that part of our offense is a lot different. There are a lot of similar passing concepts and a lot of similar formations. But just how we get into them and the tempo we run them at is a lot different.

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Q. What are some of the things that you guys didn't get done that are the main priorities heading into summer?

COACH DOEREN: In the summer or the fall?

Q. Fall camp, summer camp, whatever you want to call it, I guess.

COACH DOEREN: Well, I meet with all the players individually now, talking about things that I think they need to improve on over the summer while we're not allowed to coach them.

Hopefully those things our players really have to run their own practices and with the help of the strength staff, get bigger, faster, stronger over the next couple of months to improve on their deficiencies.

Hopefully those things show up when we come back together August 1st. We didn't put everything in. We put in enough and really wanted to find out what we could and couldn't do, and that was get our base packages, our terminologies and our languages taught and teach them our expectations and how we like to do things day-in and day-out. But what we're going to be from an offensive and defensive play standpoint will change a little bit over the summer just because now we know what we have and don't have. There are some recruits coming in that can help fill in some of those gaps as well.

Q. With so many new things going on this spring, did you feel like from practice to the 15, did you feel like you made the kind of progress going into it?

COACH DOEREN: Yeah, I do. I was really happy with the progress we made. There are areas we need to continue to get better at, no doubt, but we definitely learned a lot of things as a team. You make tremendous gains from spring to fall. Because that spring, the first spring where they don't know what to expect from the coaches, they don't know the language or a lot of things, now they come back and it's a routine. You start to see them get more than they did in the spring because there is a lot more thinking going on in spring practice when they didn't know anything. I look for those things coming up, and the guys have a lot better grasp coming on.

Q. Dave, there is a question about the defense, it seems you had a good spring out of MJ at linebacker. I was just wondering what

you saw out of him that kind of allow him to be atop the depth chart.

COACH DOEREN: M.J. is consistent, he has a great motor, he's vocal. He can run, and he's got a good skillset from a movement standpoint. He's a tough kid that loves football.

He can play outside linebacker as well. Really Coach Huxtable was trying to find the combination of three guys that were playing the best and who fit best in the middle out of the three between D.J. Green and Brandon Pittman. And M.J., we felt like those three guys made the most plays.

So there are still some guys competing. I know Zack Gentry had a good spring for us as well. But M.J. is just really productive, a high motor, positive guy that we liked having out on the field.

SYRACUSE COACH SHAFER COACH SHAFER: Spring ball went well, and we went into it with the goal and objective of creating a high intensity and high level competition and wanted that bar to be set high, and I felt like the kids did a nice job especially in the second half of spring ball playing with great tempo and the competition moves forward. So we're excited to get started into the next phase.

Q. How important is a class that just graduated has it been since you've been there in the school and the revitalization of the program?

COACH DOEREN: I'm sorry, could you repeat the first part of that question?

Q. Ryan and Alec, the guys that are leaving, how important have they been to the program in elevating it from what it was?

COACH DOEREN: Yeah, they've been essential to the success of the program. When we first got the job here under Coach Marrone, that was our first class, and we inherited some red-shirt freshmen. Then went out and recruited that class.

You could argue that is the best class that we've had. Starting with Ryan Nassib who broke a lot of records here at Syracuse and thrown to Alec Lemon who broke a lot more, wide receivers coach now. He actually broke records when he was a player here. Then Marcus Sales.

So in the passing game we lost really the three most influential people. In the front we lost

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two starters that you could argue were our best players in Justin Pugh, and Jack Chibane, then on defense we lost our leading tackler. So we have an uphill battle to replace those kids as football players.

But as you mentioned, essentially, they were also our leaders that took the program from really the depths of the NCAA to winning a couple of bowl games and having some real success both on offense and defense, and ultimately getting the Big East championship or a share of it this past year.

Q. Has their success opened doors for you that may not have been opened four years ago as far as recruiting goes?

COACH DOEREN: Yeah, I think any time you have success, a couple of things happen. It's easier to go ask for money and people to give it up. So also it's a little more sexy on the recruiting trail.

Our program is extremely excited to be part of the ACC and work up and down the eastern seaboard. Do a good job of recruiting, and getting around and working in the pockets that we've worked at in the past. Now we look forward to working with more familiarity with the schedule we'll be playing.

Q. How does the QB position look to you coming out of the spring?

COACH DOEREN: Well, it's definitely the middle of competition. Someone asked me the other day, is it controversial? And I said, hell yeah.

We've got a quarterback controversy. We don't know who we're starting yet. I've seen good progress.

I think Coach Lester and Coach McDonald have done a nice job with the kids in house.

Terrell Hunt, John Kinder, and Charley Loeb are the three guys in house that are competing right now, and they know we've got help on the way. We have some freshmen coming in and some transfers. So the more the merrier.

I think competition is the best motivator for any position. Don't want to talk about the most physical at the quarterback position. But I would say coming out of spring, Terrel Hunt probably has a little bit of the lead. But 15 practices and not all of them are padded, and that sort of deal, we don't want to put all our marbles into what happened in just 15 days, but I've been pleased with their progress.

We've got three quality young men competing right now at that position, and we look forward to the newbees getting in here and increasing the value of the quarterback position here.

Q. You don't just have a new QB and a new coach. But you have a new conference. Is there anything in the approach to Syracuse football change as you go from a Big East program to an ACC program?

COACH DOEREN: Well, I think first and foremost, you've got to know who you are and who you aren't. You've got to embrace who you are and not worry about who you really aren't. That will be our focus starting off.

It's going to be a new territory. We've played a lot of teams in the ACC over the years both here at Syracuse and at different schools I've been at. So I'm really familiar with the quality of the athletes and the quality of coaching in that conference. So it will be a hell of a challenge for us, a challenge we can't wait for though.

Q. Coach, you're obviously so passionate about football.

I think it was obvious at your opening news conference.

Where does the passion come from? Are you passionate in everything do you in life?

COACH DOEREN: Well, I'd say there are some things more than others. But football is an area that I've watched since I was a little kid. My father was a high school coach in Ohio and had a lot of success I measured his success to the kids' lives he had an opportunity to influence.

Only the good die young, and he was one of those folks that died at a really young age. I can remember at his calling hours and funeral, just the influence he had on so many people. It wasn't just great players, but it was some of the kids that were managers, some of the kids that were probably the least talented on the team that came up and spoke to our family about the influence he had and just promoting a positive environment to learn how to become a man.

Throughout the years as a coach, whenever I'm in a situation of making a major decision with a kid, I think back to those days and what would my dad have done? I think that's where the passion comes from.

We all love the X's. We all love the O's.

We love the opportunity to recruit and get out there

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and try to get the best players. But for me when a kid walks across and get his degree and a lot of people told him he couldn't and he used the vehicle of athletics and football to get there, that's when we've done our job. That's what makes me most passionate about the sport is the opportunity we give others.

Then you get on the field and the frosting on the cake is the football, the touchdowns, the memories on the football field. But the underlining fact that those kids are better off than they were prior to arriving at each university we've been at is really what establishes my passion for the game.

Q. How did Funderburk look to you?

COACH DOEREN: He made a couple good plays here and there, but he's got to work on his consistency. He's shown flashes of being a good player. Big key with him and the rest of them that I didn't mention is taking care of the football, running discipline routes, consistency, so the quarterback feels good about where they're going to finish up in the routes and that sort of thing.

But good group of kids. They worked extremely hard, and I was pleased with the way Coach Moore brought them along from day 1 to day 15.

Q. You mentioned the three guys primarily in the running for quarterback. Where does Ashton Broyld fit in this year? I assume he's not in the quarterback mix. What do you see for him?

COACH DOEREN: We're going to use him everywhere. He's one of the best athletes on the team. He can run. He can catch. He can throw. Hell, he could play outside linebacker. He's that type of an athlete.

We're going to keep him on offense, and we're going to try to be creative and innovative with him. All of those things aforementioned will be all inclusive with the game plan. So just excited to get him on the field, move him around, try to create match-up problems and have some fun with him, with a kid that can do a lot of things.

Q. Four months into the job, how do you feel settling into the job and leading this program? What would you say is the state of the program now as you see it compared to when you came aboard with Coach Marrone back in '09?

COACH DOEREN: Yeah, big question. I expect that from you. You've got a lot of juice and so do we. So I'll try to answer it as best I can. I think the state of the program is in a great place because I think the kids know who we are and what we expect of them. I think Coach Marrone, being part of Coach Marrone's staff the last four years, I think he laid a great foundation for what we expect out of our kids and how we want to develop them as people first and players second. We've taken that ball and run with it.

Now with that being said, we've lost some really good football players. You look at the productivity of the players that have moved forward and hoping to get in the NFL and have their day up there. And you say, boy, there are a lot of voids there. How are they going to replace it?

Well, that's the excitement about college football. There are replacements. There are kids that have been working their tails off to get on the football field, and we have a bunch of them. The state of that is they're competing their ass off, and we can't wait to see who is going to win and who we're going to have to share time with at all those different positions.

But the state of the union is good. The bar is high going into the ACC, and going up against these great coaches in this conference, but we're excited and we can't wait to get there. We're running there as fast as we can, and look forward to getting all these freshmen in house so we can add to our numbers.

Q. Speaking of potential play makers, can you give us an idea how your receiver position looks this spring with Alec and Marcus both gone?

COACH DOEREN: Yeah, Jarrod West had a good spring game and had a good spring.

He did a nice job. Then we have a handful of kids that are in a fight. It's a good fight. They're all fighting for playing time. At times they looked really good with some things, and at other times they looked like they were a long ways away.

But at the end of the day the competition was the part I liked most about it. So I think really Jarrod is the one guy, and Adrian Flemming is the guy that did some things that I was extremely excited about, as well as Ashton. Ashton got banged up early, and we were smart with him and got him healed up. Those are the three that jumped out at me the most. You know, we'll just see how the other guys compete as we get a little bit closer to the season.

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Other than that, we feel great about it and excited about where we're headed.

WAKE FOREST COACH GROBE COACH GROBE: Thank you. Good to get spring practice done. I thought we had a very competitive spring. We stayed pretty healthy, which was a good thing. Had good competition. I think we know a lot. We're a better football team right now, so I think it was a good spring. We need to have a good off-season here before we come back in July. But I'm excited about our football team. I think we've got a good group of guys that are pretty close and work really hard this spring.

Q. Did you guys have a number two receiver emerge this spring?

COACH GROBE: We kind of let the players vote on some different things at the end of spring. I usually don't do that kind of stuff. I'm not real touchy-feely about some of those things. But our guys, everybody almost unanimously felt Orville Reynolds had the best spring on offense.

Just completely different guys, catching the ball really well. He's kind of embraced the slot position.

Going through spring, as much as we love camp and we know he can play, I thought it was a perfect scenario for Orville to show whether he could play or not. He had a great spring. Did some good things running the football, catching it.

Just a completely different kid from what we've had the past couple of years. So I do think we have a guy that can back-up Campanaro. But what he's done for us is he's probably made us look at having two slots on the field sometimes.

Q. Wondering if you ever sit back and contemplate the ACC of today versus the ACC when you took the Wake job or the ACC when you played? Can you even name all the teams now?

COACH GROBE: It's tough and getting tougher and tougher. You know, I thought when I played at Virginia, I thought the ACC was pretty tough back then. Then when I came to Wake I thought, wow, it's so much tougher with Florida State in it. Then when we add the three teams to that, and you add Miami and Virginia Tech and Boston College, I thought, oh, my goodness.

We've really ramped it up. Now with Pitt, Syracuse

and Louisville coming in and of course then we're going to be playing Notre Dame once in a while, it's just so competitive now. It's really made our jobs a lot tougher.

But it's made our jobs more exciting. So I think it's good to see the profile of the league getting better and better. But it certainly keeps you up at night thinking about all the great teams that you're going to have to tee it up with.

Q. I think you successfully named all the teams there.

COACH GROBE: Well, you know once in a while I get it right, not very often.

Q. Coming out of spring, what area do you feel pretty good about, and what area do you still have concerns about going into the fall?

COACH GROBE: Well, we didn't do a lot with the kicking game this spring. I think we've got some kids that will do a good job with our coverage teams and block teams and those sort of things.

We didn't ask our guys to kick a whole lot this spring. We worked our specialists a little bit.

But that's probably my biggest concern coming back in August that we've got to get right after that. I think offensively Tanner Price had a really good spring. I think we're asking him to do a few more things that we've done in the past, and I think that's going to help us as an offense, and I think that will help him be a little more versatile.

Defensively we really didn't do a lot this spring. We played a lot of base stuff, and we just wanted to see if our guys could get off blocks and go make plays. As spring went on, they got better at that.

I thought we had a really good fundamental spring.

Coming back, probably our emphasis starting in August will be jumping right into special teams and working those a little bit harder than we did this spring.

Q. Coming off last season, do you leave spring practice thinking, okay, I feel a lot better about this team than I did going into spring practice, or do you still wonder how good this team will be in the fall?

COACH GROBE: No, I think that's right. I thought last year we were a bowl-capable football team. We dropped the ball in the middle of the season, lost a couple games that I thought were

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within reach. By the end of the year we were not a very good football team.

We had some behavior issues that ran the middle of the season. Then we had a lot of injuries. By the end of the year, we really weren't a good football team. The good news is a lot of those kids that were banged up are back. We get them healthy and have a good August.

I felt great about the spring. I really feel like we potentially have a good football team. We always play a great schedule, so that is a little bit of an issue. You never know how you're going to fare against the team that you're going against.

But I'm very encouraged coming out of spring.

We had some young kids that stepped up and really did some good stuff this spring. Even had some surprises like Orville Reynolds.

I mentioned Orville Reynolds, and some of the guys that really stepped up. A guy on defense, Des Floyd, the defensive end that we really didn't know what to think of, had a great, great spring and looks like he's going to play a lot for us. Had some good surprises, and coming out of spring we're very encouraged about going into the fall.

But this past year when we weren't as strong at receiver and had all those issues with injuries and whatnot on the offensive line, we just put too much on Tanner to throw the football. So we've got to get back to where we know Tanner can throw the football, but we've got to get back to where we don't live and die with the throw game. I think asking him to run the football more is going to be the thing that our offense needs.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports

Q. You mentioned Tanner Price having a good spring and asking him to do more. He started as a freshman a couple years ago and threw for a lot of yards at the time. But can you talk about the evolution of his game as he gets more experience and adds to it?

COACH GROBE: You know, I think what we did is we really tried to make Tanner, Riley Skinner. He's got some great attributes. One of the attributes he's got is he runs a lot better than Riley did. Riley didn't have very good foot speed, but he's really good at the control foot game. A lot of the underneath stuff, and we were able to move the sticks a lot with him hitting the short passes.

Where Tanner is more of an intermediate to down-the-field guy.

We've really got to get back to running the football. The key to that is having him run the football. We did that as a freshman, then we got him knocked out at Florida State running the football. It panicked us a little bit. Then we went back to being more of a pocket football team and making him throw the football all the time. You know, you really need a good offensive line and a great group of receivers to do that.

I think a couple years ago we probably got lulled to sleep because we had Chris Givens, and Mike Campanaro, and a veteran offensive line.

We made a lot of hay throwing the football.

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April 25, 2013

An interview with: GEORGIA TECH COACH JOHNSON THE MODERATOR: We now welcome Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson.

Coach, just a brief opening statement about spring practice, then we'll go to questions.

COACH JOHNSON: Good morning. We actually concluded our spring practice Friday night with our spring game.

Felt like we had a productive spring. Got a lot of things done. We had several starters who missed spring practice due to post-season surgery. But I think that was good in that we got a lot of young guys a lot of reps.

Encouraged by what I saw in the spring with our guys. They're working hard. Looking forward to having a great summer and coming into the fall being ready to play.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Johnson.

Q. How different will this defense look with your new coordinator now in charge?

COACH JOHNSON: Well, I think clearly it's a different scheme, so there were some different things. I think a big emphasis this spring was just kind of running the ball, playing hard. We worked a ton on tackling and fundamentals.

I'm encouraged by what I saw. I think the guys enjoyed playing this kind of style.

It's aggressive, up-tempo. The proof will be in the pudding when we play. I think we're better. I hope we will be.

Q. What area do you leave the spring pleased with and what areas do you have concern about going into the fall?

COACH JOHNSON: Well, we ended up most of the spring with only one scholarship wide receiver playing. We had a couple guys with off-season knee surgery. They just got back this

week. We had two others that pulled hamstrings in practice.

That area we didn't get as much work as we would have liked. We had two of our starting linebackers who missed spring practice. So it's another area that probably we didn't get as much work as we'd like.

At the same time you're developing a lot of depth, a lot of young guys are getting reps there, too.

Q. Vad Lee had his moments last year where he looked outstanding. How strong is his situation at quarterback or how strong is the competition there with younger guys pushing him?

COACH JOHNSON: I think there is good competition there. Vad had a good spring and so did Justin Thomas, a young freshman we redshirted. I think that will go right on through fall camp as a competition. We're excited about both of them. I think they both athletically are as good as we've had here.

We'll let it sort itself out. I feel good about playing with either one of those guys actually.

Q. Last year you used two quarterbacks. Are you comfortable if it came to that, using both guys consistently?

COACH JOHNSON: If it gives us the best chance to win, I am. I'm not committed to doing that, I'm not 100% against it.

I think right now, Vad is the starter. He has a little experience and edge in play, but there's not a wide gap.

Q. How much, if at all, do you change your offense through the years and how much your personnel changes what you do?

COACH JOHNSON: Well, I think each year it's changed, probably more to us than the normal eye might see or understand. We try to find things that have given us problems and try to find ways to tweak that and take advantage of doing some things that if we feel like people lined

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up that gave us some issues in certain areas.

But all in all, I have to say really since 1985, the base offense is still very similar to what we ran then. I mean, the core principles of it are pretty much intact. You have some wrinkles here and there. We've added some things. If you watched us play in 1985, it's probably not a lot different now truthfully.

The second part, how do we change the personnel. I think you have to adapt to your personnel. When I was at the University of Hawaii doing this, we inherited some throwers and receivers, we threw the ball a little more.

I think you play to the ability of the guy that's playing. I could see possibly throwing the ball a little more with these guys. I think they're a little better at it than what we've been playing at, if we can get the protection and the guys that can catch it. It's not just one guy, it all intertwines together.

We're not going to get away from what we've done.

We've been fairly successful offensively. You can always be better. If you go back and look through the years, we've had some success doing what we do.

Q. If you do have some receivers who emerged this spring, if you could see using Vad's arm a little bit more this fall?

COACH JOHNSON: There's a difference in having a strong arm and being a good passer.

Q. True.

COACH JOHNSON: So I think Vad is a work in progress. He'd be the first guy to tell you that. Certainly he has the physical tools and the abilities. So does Justin. Justin can throw the ball, too, a lot better maybe than people think.

Q. Who are some of the receivers you're looking for some progress for during summer?

COACH JOHNSON: Darren Waller is a guy who has all the tools to be a really good player. He's 6'6", 230 pounds. There's been days in practice that he looks unstoppable, then there's days that he's not. He's got to become consistent.

Anthony Autry is a freshman, started some last year, hurt his knee about seven or eight games in.

Michael Summers is a redshirt freshman.

Travin Henry got hurt last year. He'll be a redshirt freshman.

I think any of those four guys probably could step up.

We have two true freshman coming in as well and a couple other guys in the mix. But I would think if anybody is going to come to the front, it's going to be one of those four I mentioned.

Q. Paul, you played both of the new teams coming in, Syracuse and Pitt. What kind of changes will that bring to the ACC? Anything significant that you see with two new teams coming in like that?

COACH JOHNSON: Well, I don't know about changes to the league. I mean, both the schools you're talking about, Syracuse and Pitt, both come in with a great football tradition, a storied past. Both played in bowl games a year ago.

They're going to be very formidable opponents.

I'm sure as the thing gets closer, we'll know a little bit more about them as individual teams. But I think they bring a lot to the league, no question.

Q. Do you find teams in different sections of the country may play a different style of game?

COACH JOHNSON: Probably. But I think that's overblown a little bit. I think it's more a function of what style that they choose to play.

Both those teams are probably a little more back oriented, power football, pro style offense than maybe, say, some of the spread teams. There's plenty of teams in our league that play that way already.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for being with us. Enjoy the rest of the spring. Good luck in the golf tournament early next week. We'll see you in Greensboro in July.

COACH JOHNSON: You guys have a great day.

An interview with: MIAMI COACH GOLDEN THE MODERATOR: We now welcome Miami head coach Al Golden.

Coach, just a brief opening statement about spring, then we'll go to questions.

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COACH GOLDEN: Yeah, we came out of spring relatively healthy.

We should have everybody back by August 1, with the exception of Dyron Dye. But it sounds like he will have a chance to be back during training camp.

We came out of it healthy. We learned a lot. We only lost two starters off the fall roster, so this was a unique spring in that we had an experienced group, a mature group. I think we got a lot done. We're anxious to see some of our young people get drafted here in the next couple days. Obviously the staff is working real hard to make sure that those that don't get drafted get a great free agent opportunity.

That's where we're at for now and we'll open it up for questions.

Q. Al, wondering if there's anything new with Gabe Terry? How do you handle a situation like that?

COACH GOLDEN: Well, again, Gabe was suspended before the incident. Obviously we did not take him to the spring game.

Gabe is no longer with our football team.

Q. How do you evaluate a situation like that when someone gets arrested?

COACH GOLDEN: How do I evaluate it?

Q. Is it the same process you take every time?

COACH GOLDEN: You're breaking up on me here. What is the question?

Q. Do you evaluate the situation the same way every time or is it a case-by-case process?

COACH GOLDEN: It's certainly case-by-case. It certainly has to do with the résumé of the young man in terms of whether or not there were any incidents in terms of his career here, whether he does all the things we ask him to do. All those things factor in.

Q. Will your offense look any different this year with your new coordinator James in charge?

COACH GOLDEN: It will certainly have his fingerprints on it. There's going to be a lot of things that we'll do similar to last year. But I don't think there's any question there's definitely going to be some nuances that James and the things that he likes to operate with.

Q. Is there a certain area that you feel pretty good about coming out of the spring and some areas you have concerns about going into the fall?

COACH GOLDEN: I certainly have concerns everywhere. We built some depth in the spring. I have concerns at a number of positions.

Again, we're building and growing. We have to continue to do that, keep the hammer down, not relax. We’ve got a long way to go to be the type of team we want to be. Certainly we'll get going on that the next 12 weeks.

Q. With Malcolm Bunche, do you foresee him staying at left guard?

COACH GOLDEN: Malcolm is really a talented athlete. Because of his ability to run, his size, he's unique in that way because he doesn't give up much speed or agility with his size.

He can play either guard or either tackle.

Again, it will sort itself out in training camp. The best five will start. But certainly we'd like to get to the point where we're playing nine or ten in the game, for sure.

Q. Eddie Johnson not coming back, you finish the spring with Alex Figueroa, Tyriq McCord.

How concerned are you at that position, the lack of experience there?

COACH GOLDEN: At what position?

Q. Strong side linebacker.

COACH GOLDEN: Obviously I think Alex did a great job. For Tyriq, it's really not a change of position. Those positions are primarily married in our system.

They're the same skills and techniques.

Certainly Thurston Ambrister should be healthy and ready to go by camp. He'll be cleared here shortly for full participation. Then we have a young man Devante Bond coming in, too.

Between those guys, those guys competing, getting better, I wouldn't rule out Cornileus over there, either. Depends who the best three or four end up being and who plays the best, performs the best, and we'll go from there.

Q. David Thompson, you have him on the depth chart. What are you expecting from him post baseball this season?

COACH GOLDEN: Right now he's concentrating on baseball and school. When he's

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done with baseball, then we'll cross that bridge.

I'm not really interfering with David. David is exceedingly bright, can figure things out in that way. So I expect him to be a quick learner with Coach Coley in this system.

When he's done, he'll take a break, come out, start throwing. He's an excellent athlete. I would like to see if we can use him in different ways, for sure.

Q. Are there any players that you don't expect back with the team due to different circumstances, whether it's transfer or going in a different direction?

COACH GOLDEN: I think right now kids are finishing up exams. I think it would be premature for me to say that or speculate on that, especially when nothing's definitive. I think it's probably prudent for me to wait until we're finishing exams and then make a release.

Obviously every year this time there's kids that for a variety of reasons, whether it's to go closer to home, to play earlier, to have a better opportunity, whatever the case may be, seek transfer.

I don't want to speculate on that right now.

I think the best thing for us to do as a university is to let it play out and then release it all on one day if that's acceptable for you guys.

Q. I don't want to push. There's been some reports about Robert Lockhart's future not being with the team. Would he be under that you would want to wait?

COACH GOLDEN: It's hard for me to speculate when I don't know what their status is, or that status is evolving. You know what I'm saying?

There's rumors all the time. I think it's best for us to see what their status is and if there's any status change to make sure we notify everybody at that time.

There's some privacy issues with that, too.

Q. How does a backup runningback situation resolve itself throughout the spring?

COACH GOLDEN: I was pleased with Dallas Crawford. I think I said that after the game.

I think he had a really good spring. He certainly shows that he's interchangeable, can do a lot of things with the football.

Right on with Dallas, still tenuous in terms of Eduardo, what the decision is going to be there.

He's anxious to come back. All indications are that he will be cleared. In terms of the medical aspects

of that, I have to make sure I'm careful and don't overstep my bounds in terms of his privacy, the information that we have.

Then Danny Dillard made a lot of progress.

He's got a long way to go. But we certainly hope that Danny will continue to grow and mature and learn and be comfortable in there.

Obviously Gus Edwards, we have a big back coming in.

I think the eight ball here, the guy that threw us the curve, was Mo Hagens. Mo really grew as a ball carrier. He really grew as a ball carrier. I'm excited about Mo and the contribution he'll make.

Q. Is there any chance that Gabe could come back to the team or are you done with him?

COACH GOLDEN: No, it's done.

I apologize. I don't know what was released from our end. He's no longer with the team. As I said earlier, he was suspended before the incident.

We've separated and are going in another direction now.

Q. The new punter, talk about him, what you like about him.

COACH GOLDEN: Well, I mean, obviously he's going to give us a great opportunity.

Really the experience we need, the veteran player that we need. Again, I'm excited about Goudis.

Did a lot of good things this spring. Got to take that next step. Then we're going to supplement that with a lot of eager walk-ons that want to come in and earn a scholarship.

Pat kind of bridges that gap. We're going to have a lot of guys competing both at kicker and punter, but O'Donnell certainly gives us an opportunity to be really steady. We're really steady with the punting and kicking the last two years. I think O'Donnell gives us a chance to continue to do that.

Q. Please excuse me if I come off uninformed here.

When I called up your website, the first thing I saw was a picture of you swinging your golf club. Could you talk a little bit about Alex Figueroa, a guy talked about for a while, but under the radar.

COACH GOLDEN: He's a great golf instructor (laughter).

You know, I kept waiting for him to hit a

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wall, whether it was in the off-season program, whether it was with his weights, whether it was academics, missing something. I just kept waiting for him to hit a wall, and he never did. He's a mature kid obviously. His parents are Marines, very disciplined young man, very competitive, very tough. He comes to us 6'3", 231, very strong, physical, smart, explosive. When it's all said and done, he's going to be 250 and running really well, and he's a smart player.

We're excited about his progress. We've kind of thrown away the freshman tag because he doesn't act like it at all. Basically he started from the first practice to the last and did the same in the off-season program, really did a great job with his conditioning, came in in good shape. He's on a mission right now. We're going to let him continue to grow and do his thing.

THE MODERATOR: Al, thanks for being with us. Enjoy the spring and good luck in the golf tournament.

COACH GOLDEN: Thank you.

An interview with: NORTH CAROLINA COACH FEDORA THE MODERATOR: We now welcome North Carolina head coach Larry Fedora.

We'll bring on coach, ask for a brief spring update, then go to questions.

COACH FEDORA: We had a good, solid spring. We had quite a few guys that weren't able to participate in spring because of post-season surgeries, things like that. But we were able to develop some depth. That's going to be good for us and pay off for us down the road.

But I thought we came out of spring fairly solid. We didn't lose anybody. We got a long way to go, though.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Fedora.

Q. I'm going to ask you about the schedule a couple years now. The ACC, Notre Dame, announced the rotation about a week ago. What does it mean to have them playing ACC teams and for the program there at North Carolina?

COACH FEDORA: I think all it does is strengthen our conference. To have Notre Dame playing five games a year, obviously Notre Dame

has a lot of respect around the entire country.

That's always going to strengthen everything about your league.

For us, we look forward to it. It's another game on the schedule. That one happens to be on the road. We'll go out there and we'll give it our best shot.

Q. How does the running back position look to you coming out of the spring?

COACH FEDORA: I thought those guys did a nice job. I don't know, if we had to start out tomorrow, we would go with A.J. Blue right now.

A.J. Blue has emerged as a team leader, not just on the offensive side of the ball, but the entire team. A.J. is about 215, 220 pounds, a guy that is going to finish off all his runs, he's going to be the bruiser type of runner, do a nice job of being physical, does a great job in pass protection and can catch the ball well. A.J. is a guy that's really come on for us.

The guy that probably had the best spring was Romar Morris. He's a guy that can take you from goal line to goal line. He's got special speed and skills. He's much more effective as he slowed down to be able to see the zone run and all the seams that are created that way. I'm excited about what he's going to bring to the table this year.

Then we had Khris Francis on campus, got in here, graduated earlier. Did a nice job at 110 yards in the spring game. I was pleasantly surprised how quickly he picked everything up.

Q. As far as the team, is there an area you feel pretty good about coming out of spring and areas you still have concerns about?

COACH FEDORA: There are no areas that I feel really good about and I have concerns about every area, if you want me to be honest with you. I've got a lot of concerns. We've got to improve in every area on our football team, in all three phases, offensive, defensive and special teams. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We were solid coming out of spring. We accomplished some goals.

We have to get better.

Our team understands that. This summer is going to be very critical to our success.

Q. Coach, if you can believe all the prognosticators, you are going to have two guys' names called tonight. Can you talk about

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Cooper and Williams, what that means to the program to have that kind of impact.

COACH FEDORA: First of all, what I can tell you is that we're very, very proud. Both of those young men have their degrees from the University of North Carolina. They're tremendous ambassadors for our program. Great kids on the field and off. Everything is about the team, what they needed to do to help the team win. I couldn't be happier for both those young men.

I'm excited for them as they make this next step in their life, this next phase of their life. I'm really, really excited for them. They have put in a lot of hard work, a lot of effort, have done things the right way. So to see two young men that have done it the right way, took your coaching to heart, to see them be successful is I think very rewarding.

Q. Obviously it's part of the game, but their departure leaves a couple big holes on the roster. Can you talk about who you're looking at to fill those gaps?

COACH FEDORA: Yeah, tough to fill both those holes. Probably Caleb Peterson has been playing at Cooper's spot, that left guard spot. I think he had a solid spring. He's a freshman. He redshirted in the fall, so he got extensive time in the spring. He still has a long way to go, and he understands that. He is an athletic young man.

He's a solid 6'3", 310 pounds, has great strength, working on his feet and quickness. I think he really came on and did some nice things.

On the other side, Tim Jackson, who played behind Sylvester last year, has the most reps of anybody over there. He's a fifth-year guy.

This is his time to shine. He has taken that to heart. I think Tim really did a nice job emerging as a leader on the defensive side of the ball this spring.

Q. Now you have a chance to be bowl-eligible this year, have you talked about that much? Have the players talked about it?

COACH FEDORA: That's never been brought up. We never said one word about it.

That's not something we have to talk about. It's expected. Our goals haven't changed. When you say you want to win the state, you want to win your division, I mean, that puts you in a position to reach all your goals right there. That's really where our focus is.

We really have never talked about that.

Those things were talked about last year when we

found out what the sanctions were. We really haven't gone back and talked about any of that.

Q. Did you sense last year's team was able to focus on just the 12 games that you were scheduled to play, the fact they couldn't go beyond that, did that ever play into their performance?

COACH FEDORA: Oh, yeah. I think they did. I think they did a really nice job of focusing on it. We talked about it. Let's focus on each one of these 12. If it plays out where we would have played in that championship game, then we can all be mad, but we'll be happy that we're mad, you know.

I thought our guys did a really nice job of focusing in on each game and making that game a bowl game in our minds. We knew we were only going to get 12. I mean, we wanted to make the most of each and every one.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for being with us. We look forward to seeing you this summer at the ACC football kickoff.

COACH FEDORA: Thank you.

An interview with: PITTSBURGH COACH CHRYST THE MODERATOR: We're now joined for the first time by Pittsburgh head coach Paul Chryst.

We'll ask for a brief opening statement about spring practice, then go to questions.

COACH CHRYST: Thank you.

Appreciate being here. We're obviously excited to be joining the ACC. I thought our spring, what we tried to get done, what we wanted to get done, we were able to accomplish it. I really do believe that you've got kind of four phases to get ready for the fall season. That's winter conditioning and spring football, then summer workouts and fall camp.

I like the way the guys approached the spring. We had a few players that we moved positions. I think we got a little bit more to do, but I think we've got more guys slotted in the right positions. We have a feel coming out of spring who are guys that we can look to grab a couple roles for this team.

Kind of what Larry was saying earlier and I'm sure every other guy, we've got to have a great summer and we've got a lot of work to do. But with

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that being said, was appreciative, and I think we did get better in the spring.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Chyrst.

Q. Paul, you made a real emphasis at the end of spring drills about how important December was going to be.

This is an opportunity for your seniors to step up and develop some leadership with the team. Have you seen that from your seniors so far?

COACH CHRYST: Not really. That's not a negative. We had a week after our spring game.

We had a team meeting. Guys were lifting. Shoot, I bet half of them had finals that week. They're finishing up finals this week. We get back May 13th. That is when our first summer class starts, kind of guys get back.

We've had discussions, talking to guys. I think they're ready to take ownership of it. But as far as putting it into action, it's a little bit early.

Q. What about the attitude they've shown so far that might develop into something like that?

COACH CHRYST: I feel good about that.

I think I like the way the guys are starting to think, kind of wanting to have those roles that you talked about. I think understanding the value of that work.

I'm excited about their approach, looking forward. You said it in the question, and we've talked about it before, but summer as a coach you're a little bit nervous not being able to be around the players. But really if you're talking about the health of your team, for players, it does give them a great opportunity to take ownership.

You're going to be as good as your seniors are.

You need your seniors to play their best football.

We have some seniors, a good number of them, that will be in key roles. If we can live that mantra, then we'll be in pretty good shape. We'll be better, I believe.

I'm excited for the work these guys will do or anticipate them doing this summer.

Q. In anticipation of playing this year for the first time in the ACC, what are you looking forward to the most?

COACH CHRYST: I mean, I think program-wise you're just appreciative of some stability, kind of proud to be a part of a great conference. I think team-wise we're just looking forward to obviously when the schedule came out,

looking at some not just good teams but programs, programs that have won for a long period of time.

I think there certainly is excitement. Guys understand, we better be getting to work. We've got to be better if we want to have a chance to compete.

Q. As you change from the Big East to the ACC, does the approach change at all?

Does that affect your style of play or anything like that?

COACH CHRYST: No, I think, to be honest with you, we're still trying to evolve in our style of play. I think a coach's job is to adjust and fit to the people we have. I think it's kind of a continual evolution.

We've got a group of players, and our job as coaches is to help them be the best players they can be. Obviously, you want to be able to fit against your opponents, to be able to compete at a high level. But right now I think we certainly respect and appreciate the opponents. But so much of what we're doing right now I think is focusing on how can we be better as individuals, which will make us better as a team.

Q. How does the running back situation look to you coming out of spring ball?

COACH CHRYST: I think it's a little bit unsettled right now. I think Isaac Bennett, Malcolm Crockett did some good things. We've got a chance if they can keep working and growing.

Then James will be coming in and joining us in the summer. Really the first time we'll be with him as coaches on the field will be fall camp.

But I like some of the things we're doing, but we certainly aren't where we want to be right now.

Q. What is the difference heading into summer where you are now as opposed to where you were a year ago with only 15 spring practices under your belt at the time?

COACH CHRYST: Yeah, I think certainly schematically what we're asking players to do in the schemes, they've got a better understanding.

So I think they'll be able to gear some of their individual work towards that a little bit better.

For instance, when quarterbacks are throwing to receivers, I think they've got a better idea how to run some of the routes, kind of the timing of it. I think that helps in the summer.

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I think we're working better as a team. So I think that alone, leading into a period of time where you have a lot of opportunity and you need to take advantage of that opportunity to work, I think guys have a better, I don't know if the word is 'mindset,' but they're better prepared to approach this summer.

I think just the continuity of everything, they know what to expect for fall camp, so they can prepare themselves for that. I think there are certainly some advantages this summer that guys have that probably weren't there last summer.

Q. You have a lot of starters coming back on the defense, new guys on the field this spring. How do you feel about that unit, not only the guys coming back, but guys that might see the field for the first time this season?

COACH CHRYST: Yeah, I like the way they worked.

You're right, Jason Hendricks missed spring football on the field, but it gave Eric Williams a chance to get a lot of reps. Ryan Lewis got a lot of reps.

Whether you're talking about building depth or getting enough work to where you truly can compete and be a starter, I think the defensive end spot we had that a little bit. I thought Shakir Soto got a lot of work. Whether he starts or not, I don't know, but I think he may have put himself in a position, he's coming to fall camp thinking, I've got to keep growing, but he's got a chance to play.

You go across the board, Shane Gordon missed all of spring, which gave Mike Caprara a ton of reps. Shane is feeling better now. He's cleared to go for summer. So I think you have to be on the field to get better. Guys I think were able to take advantage of that. If we can build some depth or create competition, I think it makes players better. If we're better individually, we can be better as a team.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for being with us. Enjoy the rest of the spring and we'll see you July the 21st and 22nd here in Greensboro.

COACH CHRYST: Thank you.

An interview with: VIRGINIA COACH LONDON THE MODERATOR: We now welcome Virginia head coach Mike London.

We'll bring on coach, ask for a brief opening about spring, then go on to questions.

COACH LONDON: Good afternoon, everyone. We had a very productive spring, as you can imagine, with the new coordinators instituting schemes and systems that we think the guys picked up pretty well, now have to carry it over into the next three months when there's no one working with them but the strength coach.

We're excited about the new staff, the infusion of talented coaches and players, ready to get after it.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach London.

Q. Mike, a little off topic, but the draft.

Oday Abushi, people joke about the 15-yard penalties. In coaching him, does he have that mean streak that you think NFL teams are looking for?

COACH LONDON: Well, I do. That's part of that whole mentality, nastiness, aggressiveness.

You just have to be smart about when you do that.

Post-snap penalties are not good for anybody. I think he does have the temperament, he has the ability to be a productive member on any of these teams' offensive lines.

Q. Mike, did you like the rhythm of having three post spring game practices? Will you continue to do that in future years? What were you able to accomplish in those three sessions?

COACH LONDON: I think so. We have, as I said, on this staff, a very valuable staff in terms of coaches that have been head coaches before.

What you find is everybody wants to play the spring game. You have the opportunity to play it on TV, get that type of exposure. But you also want to make sure you take care of some of those offenses or defenses that sometimes you don't see as much.

I think with the first time with BYU, playing them, since I've been here, there's a new coordinator, offensive coordinator, so we've heard different things about whether it's the pistol or spread, obviously trying to get acclimated to Oregon's style of offense is a hurry-up, no-huddle, run a bunch of plays. We left one more practice for the Georgia Tech option.

I think for this year it was kind of exactly what we needed in terms of putting a couple, three

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games on a prepractice plan. As we get into August, we'll take care of ourselves. But then we'll start fine tuning on those offenses that will be new to us or ones that provide challenges for us.

Q. This year was the first in your three that you did not take any of your spring sessions on the road. Where do you see that going forward? Do you think you'll go back on the road in the future or just keep it at home?

COACH LONDON: I think so. It's been very productive, beneficial for us. I think this year with the new coordinators, the three schemes, it was best to just fine tune what we're going to ask our players to do, give our coaches more time for us, preparation.

We used to travel and do coaching clinics on that Friday night before Saturday.

This year was just geared towards getting everybody acclimated, on the same page. We've had some success in taking our program on the road, the recruiting implications to it, the goodwill aspects of it. We look forward to doing it in the future.

Q. Another draft question. I've seen this number, about having a player selected in 29 consecutive drafts.

Does that mean anything to you?

COACH LONDON: I mean, I think it does.

There's another article that came out not too long ago about programs that have players drafted but also contribute to teams and have sustainability in the league. Virginia was in the top 20 of those numbers, as well.

I think long before I got here, when I was here with Coach Groh, now even as it's manifested itself in the last couple years, Virginia is a place that has guys that are smart players, do well in the classroom, have gone on to the NFL, kind of stayed in the league, had longevity there.

You can't take the credit for it. It's the school, it's the coaches preceding me. It's my job now to get these guys educated and help provide opportunities for them to have their name called today on tomorrow, whatever happens for some of these guys.

Q. Could you talk about where you think the talent level is compared over your time there as head coach? Is that something you'll have to wait down the road to assess?

COACH LONDON: Well, I mean, when you look at it, we've always been a young team.

When you come in, you're changing over rosters because you're changing over schemes and things like that.

You have an opportunity to assess players as they get bigger, stronger, have those experiences on the field, in the classroom, in the community. I think if you still look at our team, they're young guys that have played in college football games.

To me, this next three months, four months before we play a game, is a critical development in some of the guys, like Eli Harold. You look up and down the roster, it's dotted with guys, Maurice, these guys that played in college games, but now you want that kind of experience, the exposure they've had. I think Evan Marcus, the weight coach, will do a great job with them. You want those things to take over. So you're always trying to collect talent, develop talent, but understand they have to perform on the field at some point.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Phillip Sims and his spring. Is he solidly entrenched as the quarterback now after having some good moments last year or is there competition there?

COACH LONDON: There's competition at every position, particularly the quarterback position, which is essential and critical for us to have that number one and that number two guy having opportunities to learn our system that Coach Fairchild has put together.

I think the benefit for me or the program, as I've said before at the beginning, having three former head coaches on football teams that understand the importance you put in your system, find a guy that can bring along the other players in the system, but also do what you're asking him to do because he handles the ball 100% of the time.

These next three months, as you see David Watford, Greyson Lambert, and Phillip, are critical.

No coaches will be watching them, standing on top of them making them watch film, getting seven-on-sevens organized. It's going to be critical for our team that those guys, particularly the quarterback position, emerge themselves coming out of the summer. But then as we get into early August, we're going to make the decisions of who that one and two is going to be.

Q. So right now you don't even have a tentative one or two?

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COACH LONDON: I would say not. All these guys, 15 practices, have the coaches look at the players, particularly the quarterbacks, assess their skill level. They all have good skill. Trying to find what they do best, then put it together with the surrounding cast that we have on our team.

They all know this is critical for them in terms of what they do, how they do, how they prepare themselves, their body, their mind, everything about being a quarterback for the system. They all understand that the competition of this is going to be critical. As they emerge, we will pick the one and then the two as we get early into August camp to allow us to get ready for our upcoming opponents.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for being with us. Good luck the rest of the spring and we look forward to seeing you in Greensboro this summer.

COACH LONDON: Thank you.

An interview with: VIRGINIA TECH COACH BEAMER THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer.

Coach, just a brief opening statement, recap of spring practice, then we'll go to questions.

COACH BEAMER: All right. Number one, I thought we had an August spring practice. I thought every practice was a good practice. The spring game had its positives. I think it has some things that need to get better. You'd like to identify them. The good thing is we've got some time here and there's not a limit on how much a guy can get in the weight room, lift, or how much he does on his own here during the summer.

Hopefully we'll have several players that won't be the same player that they were last Saturday. Hopefully they'll be better in some areas.

I thought having over 40,000 people, that's a fair estimate, was a great way to end our spring.

I like getting the kids out there in a game-like situation, see them perform. I just think sometimes you find out something about guys in game situations, that kind of atmosphere, that sometimes every day in practice it may not be there. Some guys just have a knack for stepping it up.

This being the start of the draft, one thing that just came up here recently, since 2001, we are eighth on the list for most players drafted into the

NFL. That's certainly a stat that we're proud of. I think it goes back to we feel great about developing players.

From a strength and conditioning standpoint, from a coaching standpoint, from an effort and knowing what hard work is, knowing what it takes to be successful, I think a lot of the NFL teams like the guy that comes out of Virginia Tech. I'm very, very proud of the fact that we're eighth on that list since 2001.

That's quite a bit of time back.

I'd ask for any questions now.

Q. Frank, coming out of spring, was there anything that didn't get done with all of the new coaches, anything you go into the fall most curious about?

COACH BEAMER: Oh, Bud and Scott were talking about our last meeting getting ready for spring practice, about how we would like to have a few more practices to get some more things done. I think there's always things there.

Overall I thought we got a lot done. I thought we got great effort, great enthusiasm every practice. We got as much out of it as we possibly could. Now I think we've identified what guys need to do.

This week we spent talking personnel on Monday with Mike Gentry and our whole staff, everyone connected, training staff. Tuesday we spent meeting with players, telling them exactly where they stand on our football team, what they need to do to improve.

I think we got a good evaluation during spring and I think we know where we need to get better.

Q. What came out of that personnel meeting in terms of the running back pecking order and starting offensive line? Who did you tell was out front?

COACH BEAMER: I think this: Trey Edmunds has a chance to be right in the mix. I think he is. There's no question he's in the mix.

We'll see where the Michael Holmes situation goes. I think there's probably two sides to that. I think that's to be decided where that is.

But then I think Mangus and Coleman in certain packages, and Tony Gregory, when he gets back, I think use him in certain roles.

But right now I think certainly the top three as far as tailbacks are Edmunds, Holmes and Coleman.

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Q. Frank, after the game Saturday, Josh Stanford was saying he knew at least two of Logan's three interceptions were because receivers didn't run precise routes, and even Logan said he thought the ball was coming out of his hands really well. As you went back and evaluated tape Saturday, was that the case?

Might Logan's performance have been better than met the naked eye?

COACH BEAMER: Yeah, I think Logan's statements, after you go back and look at the video, were really right on. I think one play I thought he overthrew the ball, but our receiver doesn't come off the ball full tilt. If he had of, I think he would have been in position to catch the ball. A couple times, you question whether the decision was right.

Logan's comments I think after the game are right. He's made improvement. He feels good about it. The ball is coming out of his hands faster, good velocity on the ball. I know he's going to work hard all summer, throw a lot of balls to these receivers who need to catch a lot of balls.

Then I think the next thing, we got a machine out here that will throw the ball to them.

One way or the other, I think we got a situation where we got guys that need to catch a bunch of balls.

Q. Coach, a scheduling question for you.

The conference and Notre Dame announced the rotation in the coming years.

What does it mean for the ACC to play a program like Notre Dame consistently here over the next number of years?

COACH BEAMER: Well, I just was reading this morning that the strength of schedule is going to be very much a part of who's chosen to play for the national championship. Certainly adding Notre Dame to the league, an opportunity to play that program, adds to the strength of the schedule.

And I think just overall what's happened here in the last couple weeks, the ACC is solid.

Always thought it was. But I think what everyone has agreed to here in the last week or so, I think it's full speed ahead now.

We've got a great league. We lead in every academic category as a league. Then we got some big ballgames coming up this fall. We need to win our share of those big ballgames.

But I do think the league's getting better. I think we have an opportunity to win some of those

ball games. So that's to me what's important right now.

Q. You mentioned Michael Holmes.

How has his situation affected the team internally?

COACH BEAMER: Well, I don't think it's affected it that way. We really haven't met as a team since Saturday after the spring game. But you certainly don't get yourself put in those situations. I think we need to let it play out. I think there's definitely two sides to the story on this one.

Q. Are you even allowed to have contact with him?

COACH BEAMER: No. With the way the thing is set up here, he's not involved with the football program at all.

Q. Did you see enough progress out of those young cornerbacks this spring to make you any more comfortable if you don't get Exum back in time for that opener?

COACH BEAMER: Yeah, I think Facyson, a true freshman that came in, you have to feel good about his upside. Greene, I thought he had a tremendous spring, made a big play in the spring game. Then between Manning and Rolly, who has terrific ability, and Tookes came along the last few practices, showed improvement. And Manning had a good spring.

Yeah, I think one thing you want to feel better about is not only the starters but the depth in our secondary. I think particularly with Greene and Facyson, we helped in that area.

Then Antone, I know he's going to work at it. He's such a strong guy before he got hurt, and that usually helps. I know he'll be grinding to be ready for Alabama.

Q. Frank, did you see enough out of Tariq Edwards to make you feel comfortable he's all the way back from that leg injury?

COACH BEAMER: Yeah, I think he's certainly well on his way back. I think he feels much better about it right now. He did some things that looked like the old Tariq. That's certainly a key, because he was playing at such a high level when he got hurt. I think that's a big factor in our team.

Then another one, Zack McCray, how he develops at tight end, we think he's got a great

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future there. A lot of work this summer. But we need probably more production there at the tight end position, between Malleck and McCray, I really feel like that's two talented guys to get it going.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for being with us.

COACH BEAMER: Thank you.

An interview with: DUKE COACH CUTCLIFFE THE MODERATOR: We now welcome Duke head football coach David Cutcliffe.

Coach, we're glad you made the call.

Know you had a long cross-country flight today.

Just begin with a brief update from spring practice, then we'll go to questions.

COACH CUTCLIFFE: All right. We really had a productive spring. We had a lot of questions with losing play-makers, certainly a quarterback like Sean Renfree, Conner, Scott on offense, a good bit of our secondary.

I was very pleased. I'll start with the defense. I thought we made progress there. We made a lot of changes defensively. I liked the way we looked up front. Got to get a few more people back healthy that missed spring, but certainly need to be better there. Still got a lot of work to do to be able to build our secondary. Big challenges there.

Offensively I thought we had a really good spring. Anthony Boone solidified himself as our starting quarterback. The receiving core I thought had a tremendous spring. Max McCaffrey is one I mentioned filled a void, and Jamison Crowder is on the path to being an extremely special player.

Mentioned our kickers, I think that's a strength of our team.

I think we can be outstanding at punter and place kicker. I think we also will be a team that's a very good return and coverage team.

Overall just a more athletic, faster football team.

With that I'll take your questions.

Q. I want to ask you a quick draft question. Conner and Sean in particular, can you share with us the conversations you've had with NFL people and how they'll translate to the next level?

COACH CUTCLIFFE: I've had numerous conversations and calls about both of them.

Nobody really tipping their hand as to what their thoughts are. That is so unpredictable, I would be afraid to predict what people's thoughts were.

I'll first address Conner.

They had all those guys, a lot of great players. One of the things, all of those guys' comments about Conner, they were blown away by his explosiveness, how well he blended with them, and of course Peyton and Eli have always said that about him.

I will say this, whoever gets Conner Vernon is going to get an outstanding football player and a guy that's going to contribute to their team.

Sean Renfree, I'll say it again, I think is the most accurate passer in the draft. Sean is doing really well. I talked to him. Had a number of teams call. It wouldn't surprise me if he was drafted.

I did get a comment over and over that they've never had anybody blow them away on the board like he did in Indianapolis.

His understanding and knowledge of football, defensive football, coverage. He's doing well, feels good. I just don't want him to get too anxious to throw to quickly. I keep reminding Sean the same thing I reminded Peyton a year ago. Let's get well, then we'll worry about getting back. Hopefully Sean gets a great opportunity somewhere.

We have others, Desmond Scott, Tony Foster, Jackson Anderson, others, I'm not going to mention them all. This could be an interesting draft/free agent year for Duke football.

Q. What would it mean for the program to have someone drafted?

That hasn't happened in a while for Duke.

COACH CUTCLIFFE: I tell you, it helps, on the field first, as you saw in our play a year ago.

I think it's a direction that obviously we wanted to get to in the recruiting process. We've got some real good-looking young football players that I believe will be draftable players.

I think that's the way you've got to start the thing. The easiest way to win the league is to try to be the best team in the league through recruiting.

That's a big challenge, but that's what you have to try to do.

Q. You talked about rebuilding the secondary a little bit. I know you have a few veteran players there, obviously a solid one in

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Ross. Can you talk about after evaluating the film, some of the younger guys, how much contribution can you get from like Edwards?

COACH CUTCLIFFE: That's a great question. It's my biggest concern, to be honest with you, going in. As you know, Ross missed the last half of spring practice. So it really kind of gave us a new look out there.

I thought we solidified ourselves with a starting unit, counting Ross. Jeremy Cash being eligible. Dwayne Norman. Corbin McCarthy is a redshirt freshman that had just an outstanding spring. I see in my mind he can have an impact. I don't think there's any question about that.

I will mention both true freshman that came in, Evrett Edwards, a lot of talent. I mean, he could use 15 more days, which is what you would expect, but I've watched him get better literally every day. He's got a lot of skills, and he's starting to come together with an understanding.

Another youngster from right here in North Carolina, Quay Mann, he has come in and played corner and safety. He is just a play-maker. I think he's probably such a play-maker, has such a great feel for the game, that you're going to see him involved in the safety rotation. I think he's played himself into that mix.

Even with those two and some of the other redshirts, you hope we see more out of Michael Westray and a few others. We're going to have some true freshmen come in here that I think are going to have a chance to contribute.

Ross Cockrell is going to be doing a lot of coaching before we ever get to those guys, but I think some of those guys have a chance to compete for some depth and playing time.

Q. How comfortable are you playing young guys? You started Ross as a redshirt freshman four years ago. He had some ups and downs before he became the player he is today. A guy like Mann or Edwards, how comfortable are you if they have to play?

COACH CUTCLIFFE: It's never ideal.

The first thing you do is you walk right over to the front, the defensive line that we have, they're not babies anymore, we've got some good young ones there, too, but we've got some people that have played, some linebackers that have played. Walk right over to them, see that youth behind you, you better make a difference.

When you have a front that is veteran and you have a front that should be better, they can help those guys. You can be a little different in the

back end if you're playing better in the front end.

So all of that goes hand-in-hand. That will be part of the summer conversation they will be having and part of the summer emphasis that they're going to have.

Q. The quarterback you lost, the receiver situation. How did the passing game look to you coming out of the spring?

COACH CUTCLIFFE: I thought we threw the ball extremely well. Anthony is an experienced player. We have Brandon Connette, who is also an experienced player that got some limited work.

Unfortunately we lost a really talented freshman in Thomas Sirk at the very end of spring to a ruptured Achilles. He's going to be out for a lengthy period of time.

But I like the quarterback position. I thought Scottie Montgomery had an impact coming in. Matt had those guys sitting on ready. I tell you, Scottie got great progress out of that position.

We've moved Isaac Blakeney and Erich Schneider, guys that are going to be in the receiver rotation, one of them, if not both of them could be starters.

That's a 6'6" guy, a 6'7" guy. Jamison is better than he's been. Max McCaffrey didn't have a good spring, he had a great spring. Our backs are all good receivers. We return all of our runningbacks.

Anthony was loving it. He's surrounded by people that know what they're doing. Our passing game, not only our quarterbacks' reading coverages, but our receivers' read coverages, and I thought it went extremely well this spring.

Q. What is the area of the team you're most concerned about?

COACH CUTCLIFFE: Still the defense overall and certainly my concerns with the secondary. We can't survive giving up as many big plays as we've given up. That obviously was our number one emphasis going into spring practice.

Again, we do have some challenges to rebuild the secondary just from graduation that we're going to have to address, continue to address, through the summer.

Q. Dave, what are the skills that Anthony Boone brings to the quarterback position? A bit of a change from Sean.

COACH CUTCLIFFE: There's no question. He can extend plays a lot of ways. He

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can extend plays with his running ability and his quickness and his strength. He's a 235-pound guy that's very quick. I haven't had a lot of guys that have a cannon as an arm. He's got that. He's got incredible range when he extends a play. He's a guy that's a play-maker.

The thing that I want to see Anthony do, he knows it, our conversation was about consistency.

I don't want Anthony Boone to be a 55% completion guy. I expect him to be at least 60%.

But we're hunting that midrange there. If Anthony can accomplish that and do all those exciting things that he does, he could be a very special player at quarterback.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for being with us. Enjoy your trip. We look forward to seeing you in Greensboro on July 21st and 22nd for the football kickoff.

COACH CUTCLIFFE: Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: This concludes today's ACC coaches spring football teleconference. Thank you.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports

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