March 23, 2000
On a quarterback competition between returning starter Dusty Bonner andredshirt freshman Jared Lorenzen:
“Jared has really taken care of business in the classroom. We promisedhim a shot (at the quarterback job) when he came here and we are goingto give it to him. This is similar to last year’s competition. The firstfive to seven workouts, we’ll let them compete and see how it goes fromthere.”
On what he will look for in the competition:
“We kind of like them to throw a lot of touchdown passes and nointerceptions. The scrimmages on Saturdays, we build those up like agame day and if they can get the offense into the end zone, that is abig positive. This is the first year since I have been here that we aretelling everybody on offense that there isn’t anybody with a job. It isopen competition at every position. We’re going to let them all compete… we don’t know who is going to win the jobs, even though we have somereturning starters.”
On Lorenzen’s physical shape:
“He has done a good job of slimming down. I think when he came here hisbody fat was 23%, and he is down to 16% which is about as low as he canget for the size person he is. He ran a 4.87 in the 40-yard dash at ProDay, and Dusty ran a 4.81, so it is going to be a close competition.”
On comparing it to last year’s quarterback competition:
“It’s a better deal than last year, because we know more about all ofour players. This time last year, we had to replace everybody except forDerek Homer and Anthony White. We know more going into this year, whichhas helped us narrow some things down.
“The thing that has to happen for Dusty is that he needs to take theoffense and grow in it and progress with it. I am going to give him alot of freedom this spring in terms of calling his own plays and seeingwhat he can do with the offense. He did some great things with it lastseason, particularly when it pertained to James Whalen or Anthony White.With Jared, it is going to be more like it was for Dusty last year. Ihave to call more plays and see if he can get me out of the bad calls.If Dusty wins the job, it is because he is really using the wholeoffense. If Jared wins, it is because he is physically bigger and canthrow farther, and show us that he can operate the offense asefficiently as Dusty did last year.”
On position battles at other spots:
“At split end, Quentin McCord, Jermaine White, Ernest Simms, and DerekAbney are all going to battle. Derek had a great off-season and ran a4.37 (40-yard dash) for the pros last week. I think that it is going tobe very interesting. At flanker, Garry Davis, Bobby Blizzard, andOctavius Bond are going to battle extensively. At tight end, DerekSmith, Chase Harp, and Edgar Gantt are going to have a great battle. Weget Jimmy Robinson back as a third receiver along with Champ Kelly andMike Beirne, so we are three or four deep at all those spots.
“At running back, Artose Pinner, Mike Kamphake, Kendrick Shanklin, andMartez Johnson are all going to battle. Homer is going to be held outthis spring, but whoever wins the job in the spring, will have to battleDerek in the fall. The spot A.J. Simon filled for us, Jeremy Davis, GusJacobs, and Joel Bryan are going to battle for that.
“We are going to suit up 13 offensive lineman and they are all going tobattle. We’ve got some guys that redshirted last year, such as DrewAshcraft, who had a great off-season.
“There is a great battle at linebacker going on. I don’t know how Mike(Major) is going to line them up, but obviously Ryan Murphy, MarlonMcCree, and Jamal White will get a lot of time. We have guys like ChrisGayton, Ronnie Riley, Morris Lane, and Mike Beshara who had greatoffseasons.
“At the safeties, Willie Gary, David Johnson, Quentus Cumby, PatrickWiggins and Anthony Wajda have all had really good off-seasons. Thatgives us five quality safeties.
“At cornerback, Eric Kelly and Kenneth Grant are the two seniors andlead the way. It is probably the only spot we don’t have greatcompetition in right now. Derrick Tatum is going to get a lot of reps.It is a spot where we recruited well, so hopefully we’ll have some guysstep in and play there.”
On the return of injured strong safety David Johnson:”He’s fine. It took him around bowl time before for his vision finallycleared up. He had a great off-season. He is about 10 pounds heavier anda lot stronger.”
On Derek Homer returning to running back after having played widereceiver at the end of the 1999 season:
“If Derek had been younger, I might have considered it (staying at widereceiver) more. We are too talented at wide receiver, and Derek has hadway too many reps and does too many things good for us coming out of thebackfield.”
On the defensive tackle positions:
“Grayson Smith is going to play there, and Dennis Johnson lined up theresome in the fall at times, like on third down situations. We are reallycounting on John Robinson, Nick Seitze, Richard Hardin, and Grayson tocome on and have a good spring.”
On tight end Derek Smith’s off-season:
“Derek had a great off-season. His squat is not quite 500 pounds yet. Heis going to get really close to 500 by August. He ran the same 40-yarddash time as Whalen last week, which was a 4.71.”
On wide receiver Bobby Blizzard:
“We are going to leave him out wide because we have good depth at tightend, and we like his size. He has slimmed down to 240 pounds. Last yearat this time, his 40-yard dash time was 5.0, and right now he is at 4.8.There is nothing wrong with having a 6-foot-6, 240 pound wide receiverwith great hands. We are going to line him up out wide and throw him alot of balls.”
On wide receiver Dougie Allen:
“He is coming along. He has been cleared to cut. I think he is ahead ofschedule. Dougie hasn’t actually participated with us (in the off-seasonconditioning), because has been with the trainers the whole time.”
On tight end Chase Harp returning from a stress fracture:
“Chase ran a 4.8 and I think he can get below that. He has only beenfull speed for half of the offseason. When we come back in August, Ithink he’ll be down in the 4.7 range.”
On Omar Smith moving from right tackle to right guard:
“He’ll work both the right guard and right tackle spots. You might evensee (right guard) Josh Parrish flip and play some right tackle. We arejust going to experiment.”
On wide receiver Jimmy Robinson returning from injury:
“He ran good on Pro Day and is in great physical condition. He isworking hard like he always does. He is going to graduate in May andstart work on a masters degree in the fall, so maybe this is a blessing.I am expecting him to rise up this year.”
On finding a go-to receiver:
“One always emerges but I don’t know if we’ll be able to see that thisspring. We have confidence in all the guys, but I’d like to see them allrise equally in the spring. During the season, somebody is going to gethot. It always happens.”
On defensive lineman Chris Sheehan:
“Chris has worked hard. He is only going to be a freshmaneligibility-wise, but he has some maturity. We tried to recruit himoriginally, so we are very fortunate to have him. I just want to seewhat he can do. He has had a layoff, so I imagine he’ll be a littlerusty.”
