Archive for the ‘Notre Dame Football’ Category

Golden Tate

• On adjusting to college football, “It’s been tough, it’s been a lot of hard work, and the fellas are all great.”
• On being in the mix at the wide receiver position, “I wouldn’t quite say I’m in the mix yet.  I’m trying to get on the bus.  I’m just working hard to get on the bus and if I can get on there, I’m happy.  I’m just trying to help the team out.
• On what his best ability is, “I think my best ability is my speed.  Obviously I’m a wide receiver so I can catch a little bit, but probably speed is my best ability.
• On learning the offense, “It’s tough for me.  I’m trying to learn it.  It’s real tough to learn it, but it’s just tough.”
• On being at Notre Dame, “It’ s a great environment and I love the guys and I love being here.  I’m getting ready to get the real college experience so I’m looking forward to that.”
• On what to expect from Notre Dame in the season opener, “I think we’re going to go out there and play our hearts out and come out with the win.  We’ve been practicing hard and our leaders on the team have been pushing us also, so I think we’re ready.”
• Kind of surprised to see Tate say he thinks they’ll come out with the win over Tech.  Obviously all of the players should feel that way, but its a little surprising that he came out and said it since it’s a little bit of bulletin board material.   Tate wasn’t disrespectful of Tech at all, but it’s a little surprising that Weis didn’t instruct the freshman to not say anything about beating Tech.

Duval Kamara

• On adjusting to college football, “This whole transition process has just gone wonderful.  I’m just trying to stay on track.”
• On getting onto the field, “I’m just trying to make an impact either way.  Whether its offense, defense, or special teams like I said before.”
• On his strengths, “My strength I would say big body, shields the ball well, and great hands.”
• On the experience of coming to Notre Dame for the summer semester, “This experience is wonderful.  I had the chance to come in in the summertime and take classes so that was great.  Now I’m on to the football side and school starts Tuesday so we get into the mix of both.  I’m just getting ready for Tuesday.”
• On the academic experience of the summer semester, “It was wonderful.  I thought it would be much harder, but actually it wasn’t.  I guess because it was the summertime everything was relaxed, but I’m just looking forward to the fall session.”
• On the hype being created on the internet regarding Kamara, “I didn’t really know that, but sounds good!”
• On what he likes best about the offense, “Just competing with the other great guys - lot of talent everywhere.”

Mike Ragone

• On his goals for this year, “Every opportunity is great and I appreciate it, and I’m just trying to get on the bus.  No matter what bus it is, just trying to go on the bus.”
• On why he came to Notre Dame, “I came here for one reason and that was to win a national championship.  I’ve never been on a team my entire life that has won anything and here I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people and we’re gonna win.”
• On what he likes about the offense, “Tight End University – that’s how I feel.  Fasano, Carlson, now Will Yeatman, Konrad.  Hopefully I’ll add to the mix.  This offense uses the tight ends a lot so that attracted me a lot.”
• On the depth at tight end, “I love coach Weis and I know that hopefully we’ll find a way for me to get on the field somehow.  It didn’t shy me away.  First off, I talked to Carlson before I was coming and he told me that he was going to stay another year and that really excited me because I wanted to come in an actually learn from him because he’s going to be a first round pick.  I’ve taken so much from him every practice, every meeting and he’s helped me out tremendously. “
• On adjusting to college, “It’s tough.  Because I didn’t come here in the summer.  I came the first day of training camp and that was actually the first day I actually put cleats on in about a year and a half because I tore my ACL my junior year of high school.  It’s been pretty tough, but Carlson and coach Parmalee and everyone has basically understood my situation and has helped me out tremendously.”
• How great is it to hear Ragone call Notre Dame “Tight End University”?

Matt Romine

• On the transition from high school to college, “It’s been a big transition coming from high school camp where you’re maybe working maybe five hours a day where here its eight to nine hours a day you’re basically living here whether it be meetings, lifting, practice.  That’s been the main part – the time consuming part of it and then just the speed of the game.  Everyone’s bigger, stronger, faster, and it’s just been a big change.”
• On the difference between high school and college, “It’s a big change.  Usually in high school you’ll know the play, know the man you’ve got and you’ll go block him.  Here if the defense shifts a little, if you have a different ID on the MIKE or something, the whole play changes basically.”
• On the influence John Sullivan has on the offensive line, “We’re really close and I think that does help us out a lot.  We’ve got Sully whose a 5th year and he’s the leader of us and he tells us what to do.  He sets the pace for us in practice everyday.  The part with the sophomores and then me and Taylor, I think that’s what brings us together because we’re all just kind of in the same boat.”
• On Sully being named a captain yesterday, “It’s well deserved.  Everyday in practice he’s going 100% and he’s a good leader.  He leads by example.  He’s never late to meetings, he’s early for everything, works hard in the weight room, works hard at practice every play, never takes a play off.”
• On running out of the tunnel on September 1, “Its kind of hard to think about. I’ve heard everyone always talk about that the most amazing thing you’ll ever do is run out of the tunnel of Notre Dame Stadium and I’m just really looking forward to experiencing that.”
• Romine is another really well spoken kid and also probably doesn’t have to worry about making it on the buss.

Taylor Dever

• On how things have been going, “Its definitely going very well.  I’m improving a lot.”
• On the difference between high school and college, “The speed of the game.  That’s the first thing that I noticed.  Other than that, the offensive line gameplay is based on technique and if you don’t have that, you’re not going to play as well as you want to and if you do get better at, which is what I’m working on, you’ll be fine.”
• On the youth of the offensive line, “The great thing about having a young team is there’s always people learning.  There’s always people willing to get better which I think is great.  Especially with my position, I’ve always had Sam Young right in front of me from day one.  He’s been such a great help.  Even though he’s a sophomore, its seems like, at from what I’ve seen, he’s been here for at least three years.”
• On the unity of the team, “It is, especially with the offensive line, those guys have so much fun.  Everyday we get closer and closer, and we have a great time.
• On his goals for this year, “Undefeated baby.  I just want to do well and contribute to the team anyway I can and get on the bus.”
• Loved hearing Dever say “undefeated baby” as a goal for this year.

Kerry Neal

• On how things have been going so far, “Working hard trying to get on the bus.  It’s going pretty good.  It’s a big learning experience and stuff like that coming from high school to college so it’s a big jump, but it’s going pretty good.”
• On his impressions of the 3-4, “I love it.  It allows everyone to make plays.”
• On the difference between high school and college, “In high school I could probably beat everyone just off of my speed and athletic ability.  In college you’ve got linemen that are just real athletic, probably not as quick as you, but they’re real athletic to be that size.  You’ve just got to play smarter, do your role, and stuff like that.”
• On the first time something that always worked in high school didn’t work this summer, “On a normal speed rush I could just get low and come off the edge as fast as I can.  Now I’ve been blocked a couple times just trying to beat them off speed and I was like “wow, this guy’s pretty good.”  You just keep going.  After a while, everything will just come natural to you.”
• On the youth in the defense, “We’re all young so you just keep building and building.  It’s amazing how good we’re going to be now and in the future.”
• On what it will be like to make his first tackle, “I’m going to be so excited because it’s like a dream come true.”
• On what it will be like to run through the tunnel September 1I’m going to probably be like chills and goosebumps coming out of the tunnel.  I know the first time I came on a visit when me and my coaches were walking down, I had chills and goosebumps.  When I put on that jersey and all the fans, I’m probably going to be nervous.  It’s normal for a player to be nervous.  Hopefully if I play, I’ll make the best out of it.”
• Neal is another guy who does not have much to worry about when it comes to making the bus - he’s on.
• It’s great to hear Neal describe making his first tackle as a dream come true.

Brian Smith 

• On if Notre Dame was where he always wanted to go, “This is the place I always wanted to be.  I’ve been here 50,000 times at games and stuff like that.  Coming up as a kid, this was the place where I’ve always wanted to be and when that offer came through, it was hard to pass up.”
• On Corwin Brown, “Coach Brown is a real cool guy.  He makes everything simple for you.  He always refers to page one where if you get confused, refer back to page one and you’ll be alright with the rest of the defense.”
• On having fellow freshman Kerry Neal at outside linebacker, “During camp my roommate was Kerry Neal and having him as a roommate,  if we have questions or anything we’ll sit with the playbook and go over things.”
• On his impressions of Notre Dame so far, “It’s pretty much consistent to what I thought it would be having a father whose gone through it all, but coming into the situation I expected the absolute worse.  I expected running everyday for so long and not doing anything and just watching other people play so that when I came here, it would be a little better.”
• On Charlie Weis, “Coach Weis is a real cool guy.  He pulled me out in practice on day in front of the team because we were going through situational type stuff and he put me on blast in front of the whole team asking why he would do this in a certain situation so that was nice to know that he wants to make sure everyone on the field knows exactly what’s going on.”
• On not having a scholarship offer from ND till very late in the recruiting process, “I lost all hope when I committed to Iowa in August.  I lost all hope.  I was like ‘they’re not going to come through, I might need to move on,’ because coach Weis is a definite kind of guy if he’s not going to do something.  I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to receive an offer later.”
• On how an offer from Notre Dame eventually came, “When I started flirting with K-State, my dad kind of under the radar said Brian’s having second thoughts about Iowa if you guys would like to take a second look, its open.  It’s whatever and they said ok just send a tape.  This was at the time that coach Brown was just being hired and from my senior tape coach Brown really liked what I could bring off the edge and stuff like that.”
• On Corwin Brown’s influence on him getting a scholarship, “I owe a lot to coach Brown.  He’s my guy.  I really like him a lot.”
• Hearing Smith talk about the recruiting process really has to make Notre Dame fans happy for him and based on the early reports out of camp, question why the hell he didn’t get the offer until January.

Aaron Nagel

• On where he fits in on the defense, “I was recruited first by the db coach, then they told me they saw me more as an outside linebacker  and everything.  Once coach Brown came, they changed me to inside linebacker.”
• On the difference between high school and college, “It’s a lot different than high school, especially since I never took on linemen playing safety and everything.  Now that I’m playing linebacker, just taking on guards and just the physical part of the game is a lot different.”
• On working with fellow freshman Steve Paskorz at inside linebacker, “We can talk about things and what’s going tough for us and help each other out a little bit.  It’s real good.”
• On his expectations, “Just trying to get on the bus and do what I can to help the team out and do whatever they need me to.”
• On how to get on the bus, “Just hard word and whatever the coaches want you to do, you do it for them.”

Here are some highlights from the freshmen defensive backs available which can be seen on UND.com’s All Access. If you have the time, definitely take a look as it’s always great to see how well spoken Notre Dame’s athletes are - especially for freshmen.

Harrison Smtih

• On hos the coaches are preparing them for the season, “We face a lot of teams with good receivers and I just think our coaches are going to have us ready to do whatever we have to do to stop them.”
• On defensive backs coach Bill Lewis, “He’s a really good coach.  He’s very detailed oriented and he takes his job very seriously.  He’s a great guy to learn from.”
• On Corwin Brown, “He’s firey.  He’s an intense coach. They’re both students of the game and they just love trying to teach us all of the little things that we can do to get an advantage.  They’re both great teachers.”
• On Corwin Brown’s past playing experience, “Just knowing that he was there – he played at Michigan, he played in the NFL.  It’s just another thing that adds to his teaching skills.”
• On making an impact this year, “Nothing’s set in stone or anything so I’m just trying to help the team any way that I can.  Get on the bus, the plane, the train, anything.  Just trying to help the team.”
• Smith is another player who doesn’t need to worry about getting the bus. He’ll be there and he’ll be making a contribution at least on special teams./

Gary Gray

• Gray’s interview did not have many football related questions and he wasn’t asked any questions on the portion of the interview that was shown on UND.com.
• One interesting note from his interview was that he told a story about some guy bringing his kid to he and Clausen’s dorm last semester to ask for an autograph, which Clausen gave him.

Here are some highlights from the freshmen defensive linemen available which can be seen on UND.com’s All Access. If you have the time, definitely take a look as it’s always great to see how well spoken Notre Dame’s athletes are - especially for freshmen.

Ian Williams

• On how things are going so far, “Things are going great. The guys are great. I’m having a fun time here”
• On the adjustment from high school to college, “It’s a very big adjustment going from high school to college. I’m still just adapting to everything.”
• On the biggest difference between high school and college, “Study a lot more. Some things in high school were easy to adjust to and things in college are totally different.”
• On his impressions of the 3-4 defense, “It’s great. We get after people and just have fun. That’s basically what we do.”
• On Corwin Brown, “He’s a great guy. He’s gotten on me a couple times, but you know it’s expected.”
• On his goals for this year, “I’m just doing my best to make it on the bus so I can contribute to the team.”
• On the team unity, “You can’t win a game by yourself. You need people around, you need 10 guys around you to do their best and you need those 10 guys.”
• I loved watching Williams interview because he was very well spoken and his answers were all very short and to the point.
• It’s funny hearing Williams talk about “just getting on the bus” because not only is he on the bus, he’s going to be playing a lot.
• It’s great to see that Brown has been getting on Ian since ND is going to need a lot of quality minutes out of him.

Andrew Nuss

• On why he came to Notre Dame, “First of all, academics. You can’t beat it, and playing a high level of competition of football there’s nothing better than this.”
• On his impressions of the 3-4 defense, “It’s just a great defense and coach Brown’s dong a great job with it. I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people with it.”
• On how he’ll feel after his first tackle, “I don’t know. Right now I’m just trying my best to get on the bus.”
• On what it will be like to run out of the tunnel September 1, “You try and picture it, but everyone I’ve talked to, even the freshman from last year, said it’s a whole experience they’ll never forget it.”
• On the best part of being at Notre Dame so far, “Just playing. Just being around the team and everything its just a great experience.”
• Nuss’s answers were fairly boilerplate responses and he didn’t say anything off the wall which is always good.
• It’s also always great to see a freshman saying he came to Notre Dame for academics first.
• The defense surprising people was a common them among the defensive players when asked about their impressions of the 3-4 defense Notre Dame is installing.
• Nuss was labeled as a defensive end during the interview.

Emeka Nwankwo

• “It’s real exciting, but right now I’m just looking forward to helping the team win and trying to get on that bus.”
• On his impressions of the 3-4 defense, “The 3-4 is real exciting because you can do so many things with the 3-4. From what I’ve seen its going to be real exciting.”
• On the emotions of coaches, “Everyone gets emotional. When we make plays – the defense makes plays, the offense makes plays – it can get real exciting during practice.”
• On the biggest challenge he has faced so far, “The biggest challenge right now is going to be balancing the college life with education and school because its different than high school, but I’m up for the challenge.”
• On why he selected Notre Dame, “The alumni, graduation rate was a big key, and just being a part of this program. The tradition it has is just outstanding, it’s been than any of the other schools I had on my other list so that just made it even better for me to come here.”
• Again, these were some pretty standard responses. I wonder if Charlie had them practice?
• As with Nuss, it’s nice to see graduation rates listed as a reason for coming to Notre Dame.

• The Irish wrapped up two a days today with a couple practices in the Loftus Center due to overnight rains and then more rain throughout the day.
• The 2007 season will be the last year Weis can hand out multiple scholarships to walk-ons.  This year’s walk-ons who were given a scholarship for the year are JJ Jansen, Thomas Bemenderfer, and William David Williams.
• Weis also named John Sullivan as a the fifth captain for this season.
• The order of wide receivers through the drills is still Grimes, West, Parris, Gallup, Hord, Jackson, Kamara, Tate.
• He hasn’t been talked about that much this summer, but Barry Gallup is a guy who I think could find his way on the field more than people think this year.  He’s looked very quick and has been the forgotten man at the position this summer.
• Robert Hughes has had some trouble running through the gauntlet drills at times this spring because he hasn’t been bending his knees when running through.
• Armando Allen just looks a little more comfortable running through drills every day.
• Jashaad Gaines could be a very physically imposing safety with a little bit more weight.  It looks like he has the frame to accommodate it as well.
• Put a #83 jersey on Robby Parris and it would be like watching Jeff Samardzija all over again.

• On his dealings with Romeo Crennel with regards to the quarterback race in Cleveland: “I don’t want to be involved in anything that’s going on with the quarterback situation. The timing isn’t right.” “Even though we’re very close friends, that conversation could go somewhere I don’t want it to go so I’ll just try to stay out of that one.”
• On Brady Quinn’s performance Saturday night: “If you look at every pre-season game, there’s always a few guys that are just better than everyone else out there when they’re playing and he was one of them.”
• On the quarterback race: “We have three guys and that will be the case until Georgia Tech.”
• On where they stand with dividing up the reps in practice at quarterback: “We’re right on track.”
• Weis had the players practice outside in the rain yesterday to get them used to playing in bad weather since they have been indoors whenever its rain this summer.
• The first half of every practice this week will still be focused on individual drills and first team offense vs. first team defense, but the other half will be show teams.
• On the development of Will Yeatmen and Konrad Reland : “I feel a lot more confident at this time about our backup tight end situation than I felt last year at this time because you had two young pups at the time last year. Now they’re a lot more seasoned. They know what to do. They both have different strengths and weaknesses, but they both have shown they can play on the field.”
• On the differences between Will Yeatmen and Konrad Reland:“Will’s a lot bigger. He’s a big muchacho.” “They’re different in their body types and they’re different in how they play, but they both are capable of playing any of the tight end spots that we’ve put out there. They’re smart, and that’s the one thing they have going for them.”
• On settling in on a wide receiver rotation: “I think that there’s a lot of guys in the mix. The good thing about the skill positions, just like the tight ends, is that at wide receiver, running back, and tight end – all of them – we have more players than we’ve had before. You have to keep them involved in the game plan because if you don’t have them involved in the game plan, not that you lose their interest, but their psyche drops some because they don’t think they’re involved in the mix.”
• On the competition at place kicker: “We are coming closer and the thing is, it looks to me like there’s a possibly that you might have a different place kicker then you might have a field goal kicker. Just like at every other position, if they’re too close to call you try to give them one job instead of two. That’s a possibility that might play out like that as well.”
• On the development of Justin Brown: “He’s probably, of the entire team, the most pleasant surprise on the entire team during this training camp. It isn’t just his strength gains, it’s been his motor. That’s what’ really impressed me the most. He’s always shown flashes, you know, he’s always shown flashes since I’ve been here, but I’ve never seen him play with the motor he’s playing with now. It’s been very encouraging.”
• On the development of David Bruton: “We put him with the first group, but you still don’t know what’s going to happen once he gets out there and he looks like a man amongst boys out there. It’s nice to see that tall rangy kid who’s now close to 210 that can run like a deer and hitting people and covering ground.”
• On the development of Luke Schmidt: “He gives us some versatility because not only can he play fullback from the backfield, but he can play fullback from close to the line of scrimmage as well.”
• On the development of John Carlson as a leader this year: “Not only is he a leader by example because on offense it was clear in the winter and in the spring that the two guys, well you could include Sully in there as well, so the three guys that really stood out during everything we did were Travis, John, and Sully. “ “In John’s probably the most pleasant surprise is how he’s become so much more vocal.
• On how he has changed his coaching style with a very inexperienced team this year: “I’ve had to show easily the most patience that I’ve had to show since I’ve been here because you’re playing with some many guys that are stepping on the field for the first time in a true meaningful role. There’s some things that you want to say and you find yourself biting your lip. You pick and choose when to ride them and it’s not as often as you normally do.”
• Weis addressed the status of Derrell Hand who has been suspended indefinitely all training camp: “He’s going through some things here soon in the next couple of days that will help clarify his status. Once that happens, I’ll have a better idea of where we’re going. I said at the time there were two things he had to do. He took care of one part of it and now he’s dealing with the other part of it and once that’s cleared up, then I can act accordingly.”

It gets harder and harder to make any sort of observations based on all of the videos out there on a daily basis, but here’s a few points from the past couple of day.

• Mike Ragone runs through some of these agilities drills quicker than some of the running backs. He’s clearly got the speed and athleticism to play early.
• Barry Gallup dropped a pass in the one four cone drill on Friday.
• Duval Kamara looks more and more comfortable out there running through these drills every day.
• John Ryan had to redo a back pedal drill Friday because his footwork was not very good.
• Golden Tate appears to be running through these drills with a lot more confidence as well. Early in camp it looked like he was thinking too much about his cuts. Lately they’ve been looking effortless. He’s still got to parlay this into other drills, but he is definitely progressing nicely.
• George West has looked very smooth in almost every drill this summer and he looked particularly good in one drill where the receivers run up to a cone, back pedal behind it, then run to another cone and do that again before sprinting to the end of the drill and catching a pass.  West looked better than Grimes in this drill IMO.  Maybe Sporting News was right about West having a breakout year.
• Toryan Smith destroys the blocking sled when they work on working off blocks.
• Scott Smith was told he had better footwork on the same blocking sled drill.
• It looks like Darrin Walls was working as the nickel back with the linebackers being Smith and Crum.
• I said it the other day, and I’ll say it again, Taylor Dever is a BIG kid.
• In almost all of the practice videos, Michael Haywood is seen instructing the RBs on how to carry the ball and has them run through a “human gauntlet” where the ball carrier has the ball swiped at by all of the other backs.

The South Bend Tribune report on Friday that freshman quarterback Jimmy Clausen was cited with transporting alcohol back in June.

“Indiana State Excise Police cited the 19-year-old Clausen and a 23-year-old outside the Belmont Beverage store at 1621 South Bend Ave., near the Notre Dame campus, police said.”

Clausen entered a pre-trial diversion program just as Derrell Hand and Kyle McAlarney, other Notre Dame athletes who have had recent run ins with the law, did. According to the Tribune, Clausen’s deal included a $170 fine and an agreement to not commit a similar offense for the time period of one year.  If Clausen fulfills both ends of the agreement, the charge will go away.

The entire situation does not seem serious and one would assume that if this occurred back in June it was already dealt with internally. What strikes me as odd is the timing of the report from the SBT. This incident happened in June, but it just for reported now.

It should be noted that the SBT is the same newspaper that ran a entire series of articles which were extremely critical of Clausen earlier this off-season which slammed Clausen for everything from his haircut to his announcement ceremony back in the spring of 2006. Now today’s report comes with the following opening:

Maybe someday Jimmy Clausen will make headlines for something he actually does on the football field — not for ornate announcements with stretch Hummers, not for clandestine elbow conditions, and, most recently, not for a minor scrape with the law.

I wonder what the Clausen clan did to tick off the SBT, but it seems that co-authors Joshua Stone and Eric Hansen took just a little bit too much enjoyment out of writing that opening.

Now the real fun will begin when the national media gets a hold of this and turns it into an expose of how Charlie Weis has lost control of the program or how Notre Dame is selling its soul for football glory. That is of course, unless that is part of this Sunday’s edition of the South Bend Tribune.

• On solidifying a depth chart - “Not so much solidifying the depth chart, but just knowing the number of guys and we’re figuring out that maybe we have more guys than we thought in the beginning. We’re happy with some guys at different places and we’ve got good depth and really good competition. That’s been very encouraging.”
• On how the players fit the scheme - “I think for the most part, the guys have adjusted really well. We’re really excited about they’ve done and what they’ve been doing and I think they’re anxious so we’ll see.”
• On developing a depth chart - “That’s a never ending process because you just keep working and working and working and you put guys in situations where they have to make adjustments and they have to make plays. When you show that you can do that, you gain our trust. When you don’t do that, then we know that we still have to work on that area with that player.”
• On the progress of the installation of the defense - “We’re pretty comfortable with where we are. We always have things that we can fall back on or things that we can go to, things that we can call upon on that there may be a variation here, a variation there, but for the most part the guys can go out and they can function right now without doing any game planning at all.”
• On if this defense is more “simple” for the players - “In any system, cover two is cover two. Three is three and four is four. You can have as many variations and adjustments as you want. We choose to keep that limited so it allows our guys to line up and play. nd puts it on them to say “ok, you’re in a situation, really regardless of what the coverage is, if im deep and theres a receiver deep, or if I’m a lineman and I got an offensive lineman on me and a running back is coming, there are things that need to be done. And that’s what you have to do. If you’re a linebacker and you have a fullback leaning on you, you’ve got to take on the block and shed it. So, regardless of what the coverage is, we try to get the guys to play fundamental technique. This is where your help is, play to your help, play to your coverage strength. IF there’s a weakness in the coverage, we’ll just try to eliminate the gain.”
• On if more variations of coverages will be installed as the players get more comfortable with the defense- “I think that’s fair to say because we did some things in spring and we’ve elaborated and now in the fall we’ve done more. When they guys get comfortable or get bored or there’s more to be done, then we’ll do that.”
• On what Zibby’s leadership allows him to do as a coach - “He’s like a security blanket, so to speak, because he’s going to play a certain way. He’s demanding of the guys that play around him and with him and he leads by example. So, those are little things I don’t need to worry about – worry about DB’s running to the ball, guys playing tough, guys playing physical, making calls. I can put my energy and my focus in other places.”
• On what Toryan Smith has done to distinguish himself - “He’s demonstrated that he can handle calls and that he likes to play and he’s physical and he’ll make plays in coverage.” “He is a physical guy. I’m going to go back and rate these guys, but he plays physical. He plays the game like I envision it being played.”
• Brown said he keeps a mental log about how many times a player does what they are supposed to in terms of rating the players.
• Brown mentioned the linebackers have been progressing. “Every day they are getting better.”
• On the progression of Darrin Walls and Raeshon McNeil - “We’ll see where they are pretty soon here. Right now I think it’s early to have a real big opinion of them so we’ll see, but I am comfortable.”