Kentucky Football Media Day Press Conference

Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart, head football coach Mark Stoops, offensive coordinator Eddie Gran and defensive coordinator Matt House met the media on Friday during UK’s annual Football Media Day.

Full transcriptions of all press conferences will be available as soon as possible.

Kentucky Football Media Day
Kroger Field – Lexington, KY

Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart

MITCH BARNHART: Good to be with everybody today and coming out on Friday morning. It’s an exciting time of year as we begin to crank up, again, with all the students coming back and specifically our student athletes coming in as we begin ’18 and ’19.

I think it’s going to be a great season on a lot of fronts for a lot of our teams. Excited about our football program and where we are and looking forward to UK Athletics as a whole as I always do. We closed our year — before we open up the conversation, I want to look back a little bit, what we did last year and some of the things we’ve got going on.

We closed our year with the Big Blue Caravan, a special experience for a lot of us, honoring the deep ties we have in the people of the commonwealth in our state. It was important for us to smart in Marshall County to show our support for the community (that) went through the tragic shooting of January. It was an emotional time but a really cool time, and we really enjoyed our time with those people and sharing time. A bunch of our athletes were out with a bunch of our staff, and it was a great way to start the caravan, and we enjoyed the time with those folks that were deeply impacted by those events.

Closed it out in Pikeville the Friday at the end of the week. Had an opportunity to spend some time over there. My family and I, we were going to go on a little bit, take a couple days off, and my daughter met me there with my grandchildren.

We decided we were going to let them play in the park a little bit at the end of the night before we threw them in car and hope they fell asleep for part of the journey, and we ended up in a park and ended up helping celebrate a UK fan’s 60th birthday party in the park.

We were there all together having birthday cake, but it did — it reminded me of the tie we have to our people and how much fun it was.

So we were taking pictures and laughing and they gave us cake. We had dessert, which was wonderful, but it was pretty neat. Their tie to our program was immense and strong and really fun, so that was cool.

We’ll continue to do that. We’ll change directions and go different parts of the state next year as we continue to branch out and reach out to our folks and be a part of that. It was good for our staff and good for our student athletes and our coaches. We had a good time.

We’re also blessed to have a great story to share. It’s been a story of champions for this year. The past year we won a national championship. Harry Mullins and his rifle team won a national championship again, and really proud of the things they continue to do just to represent our program.

Harry is a humble man and a guy who has been here an awfully long time. He loves this place and (I’m) so proud of this place and the way he conducts himself and his team, so we are happy for their national championship and looking forward to what they do this year.

We had an SEC regular-season championship with Craig Skinner, a guy who has been knocking on the door for a long time and with some of his teams and had a lot of moments and he broke through to the Elite Eight this year and won an SEC championship. Really proud of him.

And know that was a big moment for some really, really great seniors we had in our program, notably Ashley Dusek, who was a Libero of the Year for a couple years in our league. And with some young people that are now going to go on to play professional volleyball in different spots; we wish them well.

But happy for Craig and his staff as they continue to grow our program. He has been remarkable in his tenure here. He’s never been out of the NCAAs in his time at Kentucky, and so, really proud of what he’s done.

We had an SEC Tournament men’s basketball championship again. Four in a row. Continues to be a special time of year for our program as we work our way through March, and so we’ll see if we can keep that run going as we go back to the tournament in March; I think it’s in Nashville.

Had individual champions crowned in rifle, national championship in rifle and individually, and then track and field as well. We had an opportunity to go to Eugene and watch several of our young people win national championships and that was fun.

Some incredible athletic performances and if we are not paying attention we miss those. Remarkable, remarkable athletes doing incredible things, and that was fun to be out there with them over a period of three or four days and to watch them compete.

So many of them going on to do some things internationally, and then that also — we saw the transition in our track coaching staff and brought in Lonnie Green, which you met Lonnie about three or four weeks ago. A great guy and we’re looking forward to what he will do in our track and continue to grow our track and field program.

Academically, our student athletes continue to achieve at a high level. We’ve achieved our 11th and 12th semesters in a row with 3.0 GPA or better. Nearly 100 Wildcats graduated this year, including Oliver White, who came back to earn his degree after three decades of playing football at the University of Kentucky.

That was a great story and happy for Oliver, but it continues to tell the story of bringing people back to get their degrees and we’ve had that happen every year. Folks are coming back and work being their way through their academics to get degrees, and we’ve got that lifelong scholarship. We want people to come back, after they have journeyed out, come back, and make sure they get that done.

In that transition, in Bob Bradley, we have a person on our staff who had been here for over 40 years. Want to thank him for his contributions to the University of Kentucky. One of the first people to ever get out and create an academic center.

So he was the first and created that and has been an absolute foundational piece of our academic program for an awfully long time. So he is retired, and I think on Monday he told me he’s getting in the RV and headed to Montana for a while and I think it’s a heck of a trip and a pretty cool deal. I hope he has a great journey and great time and he enjoys retirement.

As we change it up just a little bit, we want to take where we were and grow it a little bit. We’ve hired Jason Cummins on our staff. He’s been consulting with our staff and our leadership development of our young people. He will now head up our student-athlete experience and we are changing the way we frame it up just a little bit. You won’t notice a whole lot externally. Internally it’s a little bit of a change for us in how we are doing our work.

And the goal is to do a couple things. One, academically, stay strong where we’ve been, but also to grow that into making sure when they walk out of there with that degree, that there’s a career that waits for them on the other side when they do that.

It’s not just a piece of paper they walk out. They walk out with a plan and how they can get to the right spot in their lives, and we set them up for careers and what that means in terms of connecting them up to people in the Big Blue community.

So hopefully we’ll work our way through that, and I think I’m looking forward to what Jason does in our program and what that does for Kentucky student athletes.

We also have the pleasure of supporting some young men and women as they did some extraordinary things beyond the bounds of the term “student-athlete.” I’m thinking specifically of Courtney Love and the winning of the Wuerffel Trophy, the Heisman Trophy for community service; and Courtney just was so generous with his time and the things he did and an incredible representative of what it does and what it means to go out and do work in the community.

We’ve had a lot of folks do that. We just brought back another. Probably 12 or 14 young people that went to Ethiopia again. We had two different trips to Ethiopia this year and those folks went internationally to do some work and we have folks to do work all over the commonwealth.

We are going to focus on that specifically and continue to work extremely hard to do some things with our communities. We know there’s needs here at home and there’s needs internationally, and sometimes it’s those moments that teach you what it means to be a servant.

And so we want to make sure that we are sacrificial in that and that our folks understand that. We have a lot of young people that are doing incredible work, and I’m not sure I was doing that when I was their age; and they see a need and they are filling needs and they are helping people, and Courtney was an incredible example of that.

And to get that award with Danny Wuerffel and spending time with Danny up there with Courtney was pretty neat, and to watch the interaction between those two – and I give Marc Hill and Susan Lax a lot of credit. They worked really hard to make sure there was opportunities for Courtney to understand how valuable he was to our community. He’s done a lot of good things and some really cool work.

All that serves as a reminder of why we do what we do and the things that we — the core of our mission, honoring and deepening the mission we share with our state and our fans, taking care of our young people, absolutely core to who we are. Graduating young people: really important. Competing at a high level: incredibly important. And doing it all with honor, representing the state with the way it deserves to be represented, and we want to make sure we do that with class and with honor.

It’s easy to get distracted and focus on things that aren’t important, and we’ll tell you, we don’t let that happen inside the walls of our offices. We don’t. We’re going to focus on things that are important to who we are. We are going to continue to do that and that’s what we will be.

With that, we’ve got a lot going on. Just a ton going on. You’ll hear some things going on in the upper deck of the stadium. New bleacher backs going on as we try to finish that project out as we go. There will be a couple sections. We’ve added four more sections of bleacher backs to the stadium this year.

And we’ve got the baseball stadium going up. You’ll go by the baseball construction. It’s impressive. We hope to be in that stadium, probably mid, late September in total. We may move in bits and pieces with coaches, and then the team and then actually being on the field probably mid-September-ish.

So we are hopeful of that as we continue to lean on Russ (Pear) a little bit, and I’ll come back to that in a second. The new video board, we announced that a week ago, I think. The video board will be added to Memorial Coliseum as we continue to look at ways we get Memorial Coliseum sort of renovated and walk through that process. We’ve had the feasibility study, which has been out there, and the video board will probably be ready mid-October. We are hopeful that will be the date when it’s ready.

We have to do some auxiliary things in the meantime with our volleyball team as we get in there with the fall competitions. Coaches are excited about it. It’s a massive amount of scoreboard. We think it will be really a dynamic piece as we begin that process. The old scoreboard has been in there for, I think, 14 or 15 years. We are sort of out of parts. So it was time to get that fixed and replace it, and so will be another project that we have on the books and that will hopefully be ready mid-October.

All that will lead me to say — and we will give him due when it comes around — but Russ Pear is also retiring – at the close of the baseball project, I told him. So he gets to stay until he completes that project, or he will stay, I hope, until he completes the baseball project and we get in that thing.

Russ has been an unbelievable, again, servant to this university for almost 40 years. Maybe 40, I’m not sure, but has been all over this campus and is well respected and done a remarkable job with our physical plan, and we are so appreciative of what he has done and want to wish him well, and I do that publicly. We’ll do that privately and we’ll honor him the right way as we thank him for all he’s done for the University of Kentucky.

We have a capital campaign we’ll be launching as part of the university’s capital campaign in September, which will be vital to us laying a solid foundation in the future as we look to the things still to do that we have out there; and we have things that will always pop up and we’ll cycle around and continue to work our way through maintenance and operations and continuing to renovate and make sure we are updating and stay current with what’s going on and the needs of our student-athletes as we continue to grow our program. So really, really important.

And of course, all that gets us to the spot where it’s football season, and that’s why you’re here today, and I’m going to let you get to that here in a few minutes.

I’ll close by saying how thankful Connie (Barnhart) and I are to be at the University of Kentucky. We love this place. This is year 17 for us. It’s our home. We love the Southeastern Conference and the University of Kentucky, and it’s a great place to be, and it’s an honor to work with our president, Dr. (Eli) Capilouto and our commissioner, Greg Sankey.

Greg is a dear friend. He and I have been at this thing a long time together. He’s been in a league almost about as long as I’ve been the AD here at Kentucky. I’ve been in the league a lot longer than him in total but he’s a great friend, and I enjoy working side by side with him as we do things within the conference.

I’ll stop there and if you have questions, I’ll take those, and if not, I’ll let you get to Coach Stoops because I know that’s who you came to see.

Q. For you, what would success be for the football team this year?
MITCH BARNHART: That’s the annual question.

You know, I think that, always talk about improvement. We’ve continued to make strides. So when I was talking to someone the other day, they said, ‘I remember when’ – I look at our team and always think, gosh, we’re undersized and we’re smaller than most SEC teams, and that same person said, ‘Boy, I came to through the football facility the other day and we’re big. We’re a big group of guys. We’ve got some big-time players and a big group.’ And so — (phone ringing) who is that? No, just joking.

We have a big group of guys that we look like an SEC football team. Our front lines on both sides of the ball are physical. They look physically big, like we belong in there and I don’t know that we’ve always had that kind of depth, so I’m hopeful that will help us as we sustain. You always sustain some injuries in this league. That’s part of it.

But we want to take a step. We’ve been to two Bowl games in a row. We’d like to get to that third Bowl game and we’d like to win one of those and make some progress in that. It’s important. That’s what all of our folks want to see, and we understand that. There’s no one that — that doesn’t slip up on anybody.

So to take a step in the SEC standings, to take a step in the postseason, all of those things are important, and we understand that.

But I look at our team and I look at the talent, talking to some of our coaches and talking to some people that follow our team from a professional — from the professional scouts that follow it – they say this is as good a group of students as we’ve had on our campus in a long time.

I know these kids have worked awfully hard. We have watched them all summer. They look great. They have put in a lot of hard work and I think they are ready to go. Schedule is always hard that. Doesn’t change. We’re in the Southeastern Conference. That will not change.

So we’ll load up and get going and see what happens.

Q. Good for the state championship to come over here — a great success.
MITCH BARNHART: I appreciate it. We enjoyed hosting it. We’ve enjoyed hosting the state championships on our campus. We think that’s an important part of who we are. Our connection to young people that are wanting to play games, we want to give them a place that they can dream to play in one day.

So whether that’s — we’ve hosted, I think, you look — I don’t know the number. We host everything from tennis and track and field to football. We’ve obviously got the Sweet 16 here in town.

I think that’s important for a couple reasons for the University of Kentucky to showcase the incredible campus that we have got. We have an incredible campus now. If you have not been to the student center, remarkable, remarkable student center. To be able to walk through that and see the changes that have occurred on our campus, whether it’s the dorm life, the facilities we have got on our campus, it’s good for the city of Lexington.

We bring people to the city and we have an opportunity to showcase Lexington, and for people to come and spend some time in our city is really, really important.

But to make it a destination place for one people to want to come play college sports; if they are capable of playing the Southeastern Conference, we want them to understand what it looks like to play in our facility.

So we are excited and glad we get to do it and looking forward to doing it again.

Q. Not only are you the longest-serving SEC AD, but you’re the chair. From the perspective of that position, how do you think the current Kentucky program stacks up to the others in the league, especially in regard to fan support from the administration?
MITCH BARNHART: Yeah, I think our support is fine, in terms of the things that we do to support football, I think the people always — they had questions, were we committed, and I think we answered those questions a few years back with the renovation of the stadium and the addition to the football complex and the way we’ve supported it in terms of staffing. I think we’re in a good spot.

We are an SEC school that looks like an SEC school and we have got SEC students in our program. I think that you’ve still got to go win on the field, and that’s part of it. I was telling our — I’ve talked to our teams, all of our teams, not just football. It’s a tough league and you’ve got to understand that when you get in it, it’s not one of those things you get to take a day off and you can’t give a day away. Coach Ming (Mingione) talks about that all the time: You cannot give a day away.

I talk – and our folks have used that a little bit – you just don’t give a day away. I don’t think my tenure as an AD has a whole lot of impact of what we do from a football perspective other than to say I’ve been around it long enough to know that I think we’re the best conference in America competitively top to bottom. It is a really, really hard place to play, but that also makes it a real honor to play in the league, and the friendships in the league are great. I have great friendships from an athletic director’s perspective. I respect the guys in the league. We have a good fellowship and also great competitiveness between us, and so I look forward to those days and we shake hands beforehand and we shake hands afterwards, and I think that’s the way it should be.

I think that’s the beauty of this league.

Q. As the sports gambling legislation starts to come online state to state, how much does that change life for you and how much concern do you have just on the big picture?
MITCH BARNHART: I think that there’s been gambling on sports for a long time to be real honest with you, legal and illegal.

This changes the game. I think that there’s concern, to be honest with you, and I think patience, moving cautiously into this area, has a lot of merit. There’s going to be a lot of conversations nationally about, we must do these things to ensure. I think some of those things we’ve been doing on our own.

I think there will be some national governance in some way, whether that comes from the NCAA or whether that comes from states or federal, there will be something that happens that gets, hopefully, some boundaries to all of that.

To say there isn’t concern, I think, would be the wrong thing to say. I think we need to be really smart and understand that this — it puts pressures in some unique areas, and so, you know, you talk about conversations about player availability and you talk about injury reports and everything like that,there’s all sorts of issues adjacent to that that, I think, need real, real conversation.

And to rush in and say that we’re ready to take those on by Aug. 31, I’m not sure is the right thing. I think you might be making some mistakes, and then having to go back and correct.

Once the genie is out of the bottle, it’s really hard to get it back in. So let’s make sure what we do, we do it with real intelligence and real pause, if you will. There’s not 50 states legalizing gambling right now and there’s not — obviously there’s some changes that have occurred. It’s now different. But I think we need to be really cautious and not race to a new spot without real thought.

Q. Nationally, college football attendance has declined over the last few years. Just from a national perspective, how do you get that turned around?
MITCH BARNHART: Yeah, I think clearly there’s some concerns. There’s programs that have incredible success that are down in season tickets.

There’s two pieces to that. There’s discretionary time and discretionary dollars for all fans in what they do, and the other is the way people by tickets in today’s world.

With the way to buy available tickets on secondary markets, people are making the decision to not have a season ticket and just say, I’ll just go ahead buy what’s available from someone else who is not going and catch it on a secondary market.

Well, that changes, obviously, the stable finances for programs that count on season tickets and that stability. Doesn’t mean you can’t tell the ticket, but it has to mean that you are selling it differently.

So everyone is, I won’t say, freaking out, but they go, ‘Oh, my gosh, season ticket numbers are down!’ They are sort of stagnant and down a lot of places and that’s not usual.

Again, there’s programs that have had incredible success that are seeing numbers drop because the ticket-buying mechanism for a lot of folks is different.

Having said that, the game of football, we’re broadcasting it in a lot of ways. You can catch games on TV. So we have to give fans a reason to want to come to the game, whether it’s an experience, a tailgate experience before the game where they can fellowship with their friends, where they get in there and there’s a competitive, enjoyable environment, where there’s music, there’s good play on the field and at the end of the day, there’s a safe way to get home; all those things are important.

So if you’re asking people to invest six, seven hours of the day, you’ve got to make sure that you do it right.

We also have to pay attention to the length of the game. The length of the game, what we are finding is people want to keep it in that three-hour timeframe. If we can keep it in that timeframe – the games can drift a little bit long (with) some of the ways we play the game.

Those games are getting into — some of the games are three and a half, four hours. That’s too long. We have to find a way to make sure the game stays within a certain timeframe, and we know that fans want that. We get that in response.

If you look at some of the popular sports that are out there in terms of television and what people are watching, it is length of game. It matters. Softball, I use softball as an example. It’s one of the fastest-growing sports on television. Why? Because the game is two hours and you can almost book it. You can book it; it’s under two hours.

So sometimes those baseball games can go three, three and a half, four hours and people are turn it off around two. We know the watching span or attention span, we have to understand that. We have to pay attention to all the things in the fan experience and make sure we are understanding the discretionary time and dollars of our fan base is changing.

At the end of the day, you have to provide a really good product on the field but at the end of the day, you also have to be cognizant of those other pieces.

Head Coach Mark Stoops

COACH MARK STOOPS: Before I get started I have a couple updates I wanted to give you. As I reported last week about Josh Paschal and the skin lesions he had removed from the bottom of his right foot, well, I’m sorry to say that those came back as malignant melanoma. So since those results came back, Josh had another procedure this past Wednesday and we’re waiting for those results to come back.

Out of respect to his family, please, you know, don’t dive into this anymore. Josh wanted to be upfront with this. Josh and his family are handling it well. They wanted to be open about this so there was no speculation. They also want this to be a reminder for people to pay close attention to any changes in their skin, and if so, have those evaluated.

You know, within our family, our football family have been very supportive of Josh and his family, and they are very — they are very strong people and they are doing the best they can in this situation, and we’ll help Josh along the way.

The second announcement I have is in regards to coach John Schlarman. He is also dealing with a health issue. He is undergoing additional testing to determine the nature of this issue. He is still coaching with us.

Again, we wanted to be upfront and I will keep you updated with this information as available. We appreciate your sensitive to the privacy of Josh, John and their families as they go through this process.

Again, John and Josh are very strong, very good people; two of the best people we have in our program. Our team will be supportive of them as they continue to battle through these health issues. It’s been a tough couple days in our program leading up to the beginning of camp here, but we — again, our hearts and prayers are with Josh and John as they battle this issue.

I appreciate our training staff. They have done a remarkable job in the discovery of this in finding something on the bottom of Josh’s foot and sending him to dermatology and so on and they have taken it from there and discovered this.

I want to say, as I reported this about a week ago, at that time when they had that lesion removed, the doctors assumed that would be the end of the procedure, and that’s when we sent that off and it came back as melanoma.

So we’re waiting on other results to come back with both of these guys this week and we will update you as I get this information. OK? So just wanted to be upfront about that as they will miss some time here and there. We, again, are sensitive to them and their families.

It’s with a heavy heart that I open that way but I just felt the need. It’s very important and felt the need to address that with you all.

As far as our football team is concerned, I’m very pleased with the work that they have done this summer. The guys have trained exceptionally hard. They are in great shape and I appreciate our strength staff and our coaches and the work that they have done this summer.

Our team is anxious to get started. We have some guys that have quite a bit of experience on both sides of the ball and some talented players and we’re optimistic and excited and ready to get started here this week.

Q. You’re a football coach but you’re also a human being. How do you look at the task ahead of you as far as the season?
COACH MARK STOOPS: I think, you know, of course we’re very close to both of those families. Spent time with the families this week and we’ll continue to do that. We will be supportive and be a family, just much like you would, you know, and we will be there for them anyway we can, be but we’ll continue to do the work that we have to do. And they both want it that way.

Q. Before you knew any of this news back in the summer, I understand you road a bus back from Washington, D.C., to go watch Josh (Paschal). Looking back, are you happier now that you did that?
COACH MARK STOOPS: I definitely do. I think that’s just, again, the human side of you and the personal relationships that you have with these players, and yeah, that’s part of it. It was. My neck was all banged up coming back from D.C. for 13 hours on a bus but it was important because that’s an important part of their life.

In hindsight, yeah, I’m glad I did it, certainly, and being there and supporting them in any way I can.

Q. You lost one of the great kickers of all time in Kentucky (Austin MacGinnis). How is the kicking game looking this year, as Coach (Jerry) Claiborne used to say?
COACH MARK STOOPS: Yeah, we are excited. Miles has been very reliable. A couple years ago when Austin was hurt, he did some kicking for us. He filled in punting for us last year and did a very good job.

Miles (Butler) will have a good opportunity, and of course, Chance Poore, with him coming in, a freshman with a very strong leg. So we’ll see how that plays out through camp.

But definitely Austin was a great player for us and very reliable.

Q. What do you expect to see from Dorian Baker this year?
COACH MARK STOOPS: I’d like to see Dorian get back in form. He hasn’t played for a long time. He hasn’t been full-go in a long time. Of course he’s gone through spring and gone through the summer workouts, but hasn’t played in a game in some time. We expect to use this camp to get him game ready.

Q. Your defensive tackles, it looks like this as strong of tackles as I’ve seen in a long time.
COACH MARK STOOPS: Yeah, I feel good. These guys have played. We have some experience. We have the addition of a few new guys: Guys like Phil Hoskins, Adrian Middleton has played for a long time. You’ve heard me talk about Quinton (Bohanna) and what he brings in the middle of our defense at nose, and Adrian has played a lot of football.

Of course, we had moved Josh inside, and when he’s back, he’ll play inside. And T.J. Carter has played a lot of football for us in there. Calvin Taylor – there’s a bunch of guys.

You’re right, we’re fairly deep in there. Kordell Looney has had a good summer as well, and Tymere Dubose did some good things in the bowl game and hopefully he’ll continue to do that as well.

Q. Kash Daniel is playing well.
COACH MARK STOOPS: Kash is doing a very good job. I talked a lot about it in the spring. I was very pleased with the way he’s taken charge of the defense. He’s passionate about it. There’s no doubt about it. He’s going to give you everything he has but he has good command of the defense. He’s playing very well, playing very confident and I’m excited about Kash.

Q. The guys behind Kash, you have a lot of talented young linebackers. What do they bring and how do you get them involved in the defense? Do you throw them in the fire?
COACH MARK STOOPS: I think there’s going to be some of both, as Jordan (Jones) comes back and how his shoulder is and how he’s feeling, and Jamin Davis, we’re excited (about) him as well, and DeAndre (Square). And Chris Oats, he has everything.

When you just physically see him and you see him moving around, you see the athleticism in him, and of course you heard me talk about DeAndre through the spring because we were very, very pleased with him, the type of football player he is. We’re excited about those guys and see how it goes. We have a lot of practices, so we’ll see how it comes along.

Q. The Mike and Will (linebacker), are they fairly interchangeable?
COACH MARK STOOPS: They are. There’s definitely some new answers. As they get older, it’s easier to bounce them back and forth. Early, it’s hard, so we’ll try to lock them in place early on.

Q. How much is that aided with Courtney Love being on staff tutoring those young guys?
COACH MARK STOOPS: It doesn’t hurt. Courtney, he played it and he understands. That’s real important at times because there may be things that were difficult for him to figure out and maybe he could relay it in a different way and just spend some time with those guys and see it through a different set of eyes. It always helps.

Q. Alex King and Jordan Wright — what are you expecting from them this year?
COACH MARK STOOPS: Yeah, we are excited about those guys. Alex is still playing the inside and he has the ability to play outside as well. We’ll see how he progresses at inside linebacker. We know he’s natural at outside as well. We’ll see where he goes.

And with Jordan Wright, we’re very excited about him. He’s putting on a lot of weight. He’s explosive and he’s very athletic. You know, coming out of high school, he was a phenomenal basketball player. He moves around in space and he’s a good player. So we’ve just got to continue to develop him and got quite a few practices here to get him game ready as well.

Q. With Kendall (Randolph) moving on and Mike Edwards playing the slot corner a lot, do you expect the veterans in your cornerback group to put him more at safety or even more at slot corner?
COACH MARK STOOPS: We like him at nickel. The nickel position is active. It’s difficult man matchups at times, and then it also gives you the opportunity to create some plays with blitzing them and things like that.

If you’ve been in here for a while, you’ve heard me talk about that position, and nickel, there’s a lot of little nuances to it and it takes a guy with good instincts and good feel and a good player. It’s important to have that guy at nickel. So we like Mike at nickel but he’s interchangeable. He could play a sift position or nickel with no problem and he likes jumping in there once in a while at corner as well.

Q. We met Freddie Maggard on this side of the podium. How has your relationship changed with him now that he’s a friend rather than a foe?
COACH MARK STOOPS: I quit yelling at him (laughter).

No, it’s good to have Freddie. You know, he’s done a very good job. He’s – as I mentioned earlier, I thought about that for some time. I just felt like, as I just talked about the nickel back position, that position also is very unique with that because you have to wear a lot of hats and Freddie can do that.

He’s done a very good job so far. He works extremely hard, and I’m glad to have him. Just goes to show you I’m not sensitive because he has said some things about me through the years and I come back and hire him out of nowhere. I’m not as sensitive as you guys are (laughter). No, he’s changed his tune a little bit (laughter).

Q. Your quarterbacks, do you expect to play both those guys early in the season?
COACH MARK STOOPS: Right now, I do. But you don’t know how that’s going to play out. You’ve heard me say it, I’m honest about it, but I think at that position you get a good feel for what you have, but until you get to a game, you’re not exactly 100 percent sure. And that’s not different in many places. Not different in the NFL, in my opinion.

Until those guys get under center and get playing and get those game reps, you’re a bit unsure. I think it’s fair to both of those guys to give them an opportunity because it’s very close at this time.

Q. With the new redshirt rule, do you have a plan for that or see how it develops?
COACH MARK STOOPS: Yeah, I’m going to see how it goes. Because each year, sometimes you come with a guy that jumps out of the blocks and you feel like he’s definitely going to play and he may level out.

Sometimes there’s injuries late in the year, as I mentioned before, much like the punting situation a year ago, but there’s times like that all the time where we may get thin as the year goes on and a guy has developed over the course of the season.

So we will just play it out and see how it goes. There’s still going to be some freshmen, I’m sure, that are going to impress us and they are going to play all 12 games, 13 games or 14 games. So they are going to — we’ll just wait and see and see how we need to do that.

Q. Speaking of punting, how has that situation changed?
COACH MARK STOOPS: The punting situation, you know, with Max (Duffy) coming in, Max was impressive in the spring and did a very good job. He’s the type of guy that’s talented. He’s still learning some American football, but he’s got a strong leg and he’s talented as far as the things he can do and rolling and moving, so we like Max and Grant (McKinniss) is continuing to pursue as well, so we’ll see.

But at this point coming out of spring, Max had won the job.

Q. Does the redshirt rule change the way you use the scout team? Do you prepare guys in the game plan each week in case you need to use them?
COACH MARK STOOPS: Yeah, I think it’s fair to say without going through it that yeah, it will be different.

And I will say, we have done that in years past, even with pulling guys up off the scout team and practicing with us just because we had not had the bodies. We may, if we have a Sam and a Jack, we know we are going to move the Jack to Sam and so on and just bring up the fourth guy just to get him some reps and get him practicing.

We’ve done that each year. I’m not sure how much that will alter that way.

Q. Have you had any experience with a short field-goal kicker and a long field-goal kicker?
COACH MARK STOOPS: I haven’t been a part of that, but I’ve seen it before, and you know, we’re open to anything. Anything that’s going to help us win. So we’ll see.

Q. What do you think with John (Schlarman) potentially missing significant time, have you shifted staff around?
COACH MARK STOOPS: Yeah, we have plenty of guys. That’s the nice thing about our staff is we have a lot of guys that are capable of doing that and guys with background there, and of course, Coach (Eddie) Gran can coach all the positions. We’ll handle it just fine within our program.

Q. Do you anticipate him missing a lot of time?
COACH MARK STOOPS: I’d rather not speculate on any of that at this time for John and their family.

Q. When Mitch was in here, he was talking about the difference in size that he sees in your team. How does that translate in a game? Do you substitute less? Do you feel like you can use a different kind of approach?
COACH MARK STOOPS: Well, I think it’s important. You know that as we’ve been here in recruiting and the length and the size, it’s important. That’s the league we play in. You have to be good across the board. We all know that, but it’s definitely a big man’s game.

If you’re getting pushed around, then really you’ve got no chance. It’s definitely still at the line of scrimmage. I mean, the statistics prove it. I’ve told you guys this before, but if you outrush your opponent by one yard, it’s a high percentage of winning in conference games.

So rushing the football and stopping the run are very important factors to winning games.

Also, as you look around this league and you go line up and play some of these guys, you see the size at the skill positions and that’s what I’m excited about.

We’re starting to get that, of course. In our secondary, we’re freaky big. Our corners are very, very long, very big, physical guys. I think it’s important to have big guys at the skill positions as well.

Q. You’re very intentional about getting the players, the coaches, your staff together at social events. We’ve seen the famous leaks from your pool parties. There was a dunking booth this summer. How do you think that plays into wins on the football field or is that just a part of who you are?
COACH MARK STOOPS: No, I think it’s important both ways. Yes, it’s definitely who I am, and the relationship piece of it is very important to me. I think it also correlates to wins and losses, there’s no question.

You know, I think that’s the key point you made there is intentional about it because it’s such a big operation at times. There’s so many people. I’ve mentioned that to you before. When I was in my own room and coaching the secondary, coaching the defense, it was very easy to get your arms around those people.

As you have a huge organization, it’s hard, so you need to be intentional about that and bringing guys together, and I think our team has done a wonderful job. Our staff has done a wonderful job.

Mitch and our administration is very supportive of those things, the things we’re allowed to do with bringing guys in and grilling steaks on the grill and bringing them to our home and things like that. It’s very important.

Q. Last year, the early part of the season, the offensive line had some moving parts, bad snaps. Having that O-line look pretty solid right now going into the season. Your thoughts on that.
COACH MARK STOOPS: Definitely helps us. As you know, we felt going into last year, much like the year before, we had played with nine guys coming into last year, and so we felt like we could roll right into that, and, as you know, it didn’t translate that way. And losing Jon Toth was a big factor heading into last year.

So yes, I like the fact of having Drake (Jackson) back, and he’s only a sophomore and played very good football for us. Really kind of anchored us there. There’s very talented, experienced players around him and those guys are very good players and we’re excited about the offensive line as a whole. And now we can continue to maybe bring that depth along that we were looking for at the beginning of last year.

Q. Drake is still one of the younger guys amongst that group up front, but he seems to have taken a leadership role.
COACH MARK STOOPS: He does. He’s a guy that — it’s very important to him. We knew that recruiting him since ninth, 10h grade; the game is important to him. He works extremely hard, and he’s intentional about it and he still is.

He wants to help the football team anyway he can, and leadership as well.

Q. On the offensive line, do you think Landon Young is ready to take that jump into the upper echelon or the elite in the SEC on the offensive line?
COACH MARK STOOPS: We’ll see. I’ve very rarely, if ever, said a bad thing about Landon. He gives us everything he has. He’s talented. As he gets older, gets more mature, gets more physical, gets more confidence. He is a very good football player and again, one of those guys that really does everything, tries as hard as he can in everything he does.

Q. This year, looks like a pretty good football year in the state of Kentucky in high school, from what I see. It looks like it’s pretty good. It looks like several kids could come out that had not come out before. It looks like a pretty good crop.
COACH MARK STOOPS: Yeah, I’m not allowed to talk about anybody specifically.

But the state, you know, is always important to us, and it fluctuates, as I’ve said many times. I think the quality is always very good. The quantity is not as many as other states but there’s always good, you know, top-of-the-line players here.

Q. What’s your favorite media day-type question, or least favorite media-day question?
COACH MARK STOOPS: That one (laughter). Probably that question right there (laughter).

It’s all good. You know, obviously starting, you know, the media day with a heavy heart, with the announcements that I had to make, is not fun because you have a personal attachment to these folks and you feel for what they are going through. But the other side of that is, the team has worked exceptionally hard and the staff has worked exceptionally hard and we are excited about is this year.

Q. How hard is it not to overuse Benny?
COACH MARK STOOPS: I don’t think that’s too hard. He can handle it. As the other guys progress as they are progressing, then they deserve the opportunity to play as well, so that will play out.

It’s hard. He’s a guy, this past year, he’s a hard guy to take off the field because he’s going to get you the tough yards. But again, as Sihiem and AJ develop, I’m very pleased with what they are doing.

You know, we always tell kids: Make us play you. If they are doing really good things, then we want to play them.

Q. Is he ever happy taking off?
COACH MARK STOOPS: No, no, you know Benny. He wants — he doesn’t want to come out of the game. He wants to put the team on his shoulders and you love that mentality and that’s good with us.

Q. He has a realistic chance to become the all-time leading rusher at Kentucky. Is that something you want to see happen or do you have to manage that because you don’t want to overuse him?
COACH MARK STOOPS: I would like to see that happen but we’re not going to change anything for that. That’s unfair to Benny and unfair to our team. We don’t want to, you know, go out intentionally trying to do that. We have an opportunity, an obligation to develop all the players on our team and we are going to do that.

Our team, individually, will get the recognition they deserve if we do good as a team. It’s always team first. It will always be that way. But individually, you want to see kid get what they deserve but not at the expense of the program.

Q. If you look at the number of snaps and tempo — with the uncertainty at quarterback and special teams, how much do you see the way that you have to win games changing this year?
COACH MARK STOOPS: We don’t know yet. It changes every year. As you said, we’re breaking in a new quarterback, so we don’t know how that’s going to play out. We may go out there this year and with the addition of some wide receivers and the emergence of some wide receivers, feel the need to throw the ball around a lot more.

You don’t know how it’s going to play out. We want to be a balanced offense. We want to improve in the areas we need improvement in, and part of that is the passing game, at times. We all want improvement in that area.

Q. Being more explosive with the young wide receivers, do you have any players in mind who can do that?
COACH MARK STOOPS: I think Josh Ali, Isaiah Epps, our guys that really did some good things, we think at the end of spring and through this summer. Obviously Lynn (Bowden) having a second year; Dorian Baker coming back is big. Tavin (Richardson) going into his senior year. So those are some guys that really need to step up.

Q. How much do you think it helps coming up against big, experienced defensive backs that you have in the secondary?
COACH MARK STOOPS: I think it helps, it definitely helps. Because depending who you’re playing and the style they are playing, as I mentioned, here, you watch the games, there’s no space out there. You have to earn your space at wide receiver and what I mean by that is that they have to create their opportunities, their grass and getting open. It’s hard to do at times.

One thing about it, one of the reasons why at times it wasn’t — it’s not real easy to just ding and dunk and throw the ball around, nobody plays that way any more defensively. They take everything away at all times. So you have to create your space, and it takes a strength and a maturity to be able to do that.

Q. Talking to Vince earlier, he said this is the best defense you’ve had since you’ve been here. Would you agree?
COACH MARK STOOPS: Well, it should be, because there’s been times we’ve had some pro defensive linemen but maybe not the second and third level. If you just look at the defense as an entirety, it’s definitely the strongest since we’ve been here.

We have to go prove and play better than we have and be more consistent. We’ve done good at times. We need to be more consistent.

Q. How close is Jordan Jones —
COACH MARK STOOPS: Yeah, he’s ready to go. The first two days, because of, we’re not allowed to have shoulder pads on and they can’t strap his shoulder down, will be a little bit hit and miss. After that, he should be good to go.

Q. How much do you feel the need to get some younger guys on the field to prepare for that next year?
COACH MARK STOOPS: I do feel the need for development and bringing guys along and playing them and recruiting them, because it is important because I do think about year two and year three after this in all positions and that certainly is a concern because we need to get some guys and bring them along here.

Q. What do you think Keaton Upshaw and Brenden Bates will bring?
COACH MARK STOOPS: Well, they are big guys. They are big guys and they can run. They are the type of guys we are looking for because they are good line of scrimmage tight ends. You know, they can put their hand in the dirt.

They can get off and use them as the wide-off or fullback as well, but it’s important to have those point of attack guys and that’s what all of them are. That’s the good part is we have four tight ends who can put their hand down and be physical and also stretch the field and give them a big target.

Q. Traditionally, people think of the quarterback being the leader of the offense, but with inexperienced guys at that position and a lot of experienced guys around them, how much is leadership a factor?
COACH MARK STOOPS: It’s always a factor. You know, your quarterback needs to be a leader and these guys are, but you’re right in that, you know, you’ve heard me talk often about defending the quarterback because people around them have to play better. That’s why, you know, we have confidence going into this fall because we have faith in the quarterbacks, whoever is going to win that job, whoever is going to be under center and playing, we have faith in them and we feel strong around them, and those guys have to play well.

Again you’ve heard me talk about it, you’ve watched football, you’ve seen balls go up in the air and dudes come down with it and making spectacular plays and great catches, and we have to have some of that. You have to make some great individual plays at times.

Q. Is there a fine line about the pace of the offense? Eddie (Gran) has said before, we want to go fast, we want to do this, we want to do that, but for the quarterbacks, to slow the game down for them and not get too fast.
COACH MARK STOOPS: It just depends. There’s been times when we have gone at a pretty good clip and there’s been times when we have been methodical and that’s been the best way.

There’s been times when I’ve been in Eddie’s ear about going fast, and he’s just been methodical, thinking things through and setting things up and it’s been very effective. It’s game-to-game, year-to-year, we’ll see how it plays out.

We’ll have a little of both. We’ll be able to go fast and we’ll be able to be methodical as well.

Q. How often are you in Eddie’s ear about going fast?
COACH MARK STOOPS: Not often (Laughter) not often. But there’s been times, yeah. There’s been times, yeah.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
 
Assistant Head Coach Eddie Gran
 
On what younger quarterbacks are learning from the older players …
“I think the speed of the game is the first thing, but we’re going to really be intentional about when we get into our team periods of making it just like a game. We kind of ended that way last spring and it worked out really well. We progressed at the quarterback position the last seven or eight practices. So, Matt (House) and I will just call it from the hip just like a game situation of football and we’re going to do that after about practice five. So, the rest of that, you’ve got about 20 or 22 situations, three scrimmages. It’ll be close, but whether two play or not, you just have to see how they develop. If it’s the best for our football team, that’s what we will do. “
 
On Terry Wilson bringing a lot of speed at quarterback …
“Yes, he does and they’re a little bit different than some of the things that we do, but in all of our run game, we still have all of our read stuff where our quarterbacks need to run the ball and it keeps the defense on edge. They have to account for him. Gunnar (Hoak) can do that too. One is faster than the other. They’re just built different. “
 
On Terry Wilson’s mood after the spring game …
“Well, you know, he was nervous. You’re nervous and you get into a game like that and it was his first time and he wanted to do well. We just said, hey, you’ve got to relax. He did a couple things at the beginning, dropped a snap and he’ll learn from that. You’d rather have that in a spring game than a game that he plays in. He just grows. You’re just gonna keep growing. Just like Gunnar, you look at his first spring game here, he was fantastic. He keeps growing and we are lucky to have four quarterbacks and they’re going to be competing and it will be a lot of fun. “
 
On whether is a misperception that one quarterback is a passer and one is a runner …
“It is. I think they both throw the ball well. I think Terry for sure runs better than Gunnar, but I think they both throw the ball well. They got better in the spring. The biggest thing for me was where are we going to go in the spring and it was a little bit tough in the beginning. But as we grew, we got better. We condensed things a little bit. Our receivers helped them and did what they were supposed to do and Coach I heard talk about getting in that space and making plays and we were able to do that.”
 
On how much leadership will factor into quarterback battle …
“I think always you got to have that guy that’s pulling the trigger to be a leader. They can be different types of leaders. You look at some of the great ones in the NFL that are vocal and get after you some that might not be that way. Stephen Johnson was not a big vocal guy, but he was a leader on our football team. So, at that position, you want to have that quality.”
 
On mindset to utilize having four hands in the dirt …
“We will see how the two young ones emerge and that’s the one thing at that position especially that is such a big part of the run game and the pass game. I think people understand what CJ (Conrad) really has done the last couple of years in our run game. We have been successful for a lot of the things that he has the done and our tight ends have done. As they emerge, I think we’ve two really good tight ends in CJ (Conrad) and Justin (Rigg) and then we will see if we are able to use that third one. Then, the forth one, where we are at, and how our 10 personnel evolves. But you would like to take those tight ends spread it out and have the big bodies and those guys catching some contested balls for you and be able to do that formationally.”
 
On who you throw to on a big third down …
“I think that is the most important thing. We call it the money down. You have Dorian (Baker) back now, so you hope he that brings physicality and experience. He’s been there and Tavin (Richardson) I think at the end of the year last year was one that was emerging and was really our most consistent guy. You got Lynn (Bowden) who is going to be better at that position this year. You have some young guys that got experience last year that are already better. They were better in the spring and they need to take another jump now in the next 25, 30 days and we’re expecting that to happen. “
 
On much more prepared he’s expecting Lynn Bowden to be …
“He’s a year under his belt. A guy that didn’t play a lot of receiver. The technique part of that going against the big DBs we go against every day is good because that’s what he’s going to face. The technical part of the game and really understanding that and the urgency, I think that’s what he’s gotten better at. So, I think you’ll see a huge change and a guy that can make plays for you. He can go up and he can get it and we know he’s explosive when he has it in his hand.”
 
On Benny Snell’s will to win …
“I don’t think that there is any question the day he stepped on campus here, it was one of those young men, kind of old school, gave you everything he’s got. He does it now. He makes you play. I heard Coach say that and Coach has guys come in that want to know why they aren’t playing. It is like make me play. Let’s sit down. Let’s watch the film. Make me play you every day. Come out with an infectious attitude. Come out and compete with a sense of urgency and you will play. That is what he does every snap, every play.”
 
On what he’ll do differently with Dorian Baker …
“Dorian is one of those guys too where it’s never giddy up. It’s always whoa. He wants to go full speed every time and I love that about him. But yes, we are definitely going to have a rep count on him. Make sure he knows what to do and looks great and he is full speed. We just got to make sure that he can get into some of the scrimmages and he doesn’t need 35 reps. That doesn’t make sense. Just get him banged up a little bit, hit and make sure that he can hit so he can get into that first game and hopefully have a nice, healthy season.”
 
On what younger receivers need to do in order to get playing time …
“They have to master their craft a little bit more whether that be getting off the line of scrimmage, whether that making contested catches in those small spaces that Coach talked about. I really do believe that we did a little bit more of that in the latter part of the spring, our second scrimmage. Our first scrimmage was atrocious but the second scrimmage was like night and day. We need to continue from there. A lot of that came from the competing part with some urgency. They’ve got the talent. Now they need to put it all together. Being the second year for some of these young guys, really knowing what to do now, is going to help them play faster. Sometimes, you can see it last year, they weren’t playing like they need to be playing because they weren’t quite sure. They should be now. Especially, this first week, they should know this thing inside and out and that is what we are expecting.”
 
On the coaches believing receivers being fast enough to take the top off …
“Absolutely. We do. I think Coach Ed’s done a great job with them. We’ve gotten bigger, faster stronger. I don’t think there’s any question.”
 
On the staff working together for years …
“I think so. I was at Auburn for 10 years. Everything is good when that happens. Not only the continuity of the coaching staff, but your recruiting, the relationships and the scheme. And it does, it makes it a lot better for the kids and their development. I am excited that I’m going into my third season.”

On CJ Conrad being double teamed last year …
“I think between double teamed and us just not getting him the ball sometimes, I think it was a combination of things. CJ you didn’t have to worry about that. CJ was about winning. I think he is one of the top tight ends in the country because he does everything that he was supposed to do, even in the first year. He learned how to be a blocker. At that next level, you have to be a blocker. I think there are some kids that don’t buy into that. CJ was kind of forced into that role when we got a lot of wildcat. We were pounding people to try to figure out who Stephen Johnson was and I think that’s helped him. We have found some ways over the spring to the summer with studying some different people to single him up and they have got no choice and they can not double him and some mismatched. Hopefully, these things will help him get some more catches for us.”
 
On depth behind the offensive line…
“You never really know about that group until you get into games. Mason Wolfe is a guy that started to come last spring. Lucas Fortner has come miles. He had, I think it was mono. He was out for a while. Lost some weight and came back and you know he looked good this spring. Our tackles, you know, those guys are going to be really challenged this year when we get into the spring, especially with the guys that are rushing us. We are going to find out really quick about that second team. John (Schlarman) will have two or three guys always in the rotation. We’re always going to keep working. Guards to tackles and tackles to guards. I think he does a fantastic job with that. We have to keep developing those guys and we will see how many. A couple years ago, I think we had nine in a rotation. Now, we went down to seven because of some injuries. We will just see how that plays out as we go.”
 
On comfort with the offensive line…
“I think it is huge for a quarterback. I think Coach hit on that. We’re going to have a new quarterback, but we have an experienced offensive line and they know what is going on. We have some receivers that are young that are coming up and they should be better and some older ones that are coming back. We have got, I think at the running back position, we have gotten better. We’ve made Benny Snell better and those guys competing with Siheim (King) and A.J. (Rose). Our tight ends are solid. You can not ask for a better scenario if you are going to have a new quarterback. They have some experience behind them and they are going to be able to help them out.”
 
On Walker Wood’s health …
“He is healthy. Since he’s been here, this is probably the healthiest he’s been. He’s a gym rat, if you will. He comes in, and he’s always studying the game. Just to see him keep progressing no. 1 physically and keep getting stronger and as he keeps learning the offense, develop. That’s what all of them especially at that quarterback position because it’s tough. We’ve got four of them that can throw the football, so it’s going to be fun to watch them.”
 
On the offensive line’s physicality last year …
“When we talk about our standards on offense, no. 1 is protect the football. That’s the team. No. 2, is that we want to be explosive, but no. 3 for us, is being physical. We’ve got to have some toughness about us, and that’s been that since I’ve got here. That’s my mentality. That’s all I know. That’s what I know in this league, and if you’re not tough and you don’t grind it out, then you’ve got no chance. So, I like those big, nasty, physical guys playing the game the right way. You’ve got to have some toughness about you for sure.”
 
On the football IQ of this year’s team …
“I think especially up front we’re really good. I think that’s really helped us in the run game over the last three years. I think when it comes down to the passing game, you can get a little bit too, if you will, thinking that you’re a guru, and you’re going to outcoach people all the time. I think you’re going to have somethings each week that you can add in certain situations, but we got to get great at our base offense, and that’s what we did this spring. We cut it back last year at the end, and we cut it back this spring, and there is no question that we got better. There’s going to be some definite, the game plan is not going to be that big. We’re going to be really really good at what we do. Our quarterbacks are going to know where to go with the ball. They’re going to understand the situation we’re in, when a check down is ok, when the alert might be taking off for a deep play. Receivers and running backs and tight ends are going to understand the situation we are in, we’re just going to be smarter players, and I think that will lead to a better offense and a more consistent offense.”
 
On the team rallying around Coach Schlarman …
“I don’t there’s any question. Everyone’s thoughts and prayers are out to them and just to his family. That’s where we’re at right now.”
 
On his relationship with Coach Stoops on the field …
“He does get in my ear, not very often. He’s the best, and I mean that. I’ve been around it where sometimes you’ve got someone in your ear all the time, and it’s hard. It’s hard to focus. He doesn’t do that. He hasn’t told me to speed up a ton now. It’s been more, ‘Hey, woah, slow it down.’ He gets that feel for it, and that’s what I love about him because he’s a defensive guy. We might be running the ball a little bit, and we’re going, and he can hear me and he knows that I’m getting ready to set something up and to throw the ball, and he’ll come down there, and he’ll say, ‘Don’t you even think about throwing the ball. They’re on their heels, let’s go. Smash ’em. Smash ’em.’ Yes sir.”
 
On having different ways to coach …
“Always. Probably the greatest I ever grew as a football coach was here in our first year. You know, we really looked at what we did at Cincinnati and the style of offense that we had. Then we came here and we got into this wildcat thing and we had 2,000-yard rushers and Mark (Stoops) really helped me through that. We really had to find that. Our staff did a great job and said this is a way we can win games and that is what we did. You are going to have a different group again this year. So, we’ll find out here and it will all come together in the next few weeks.”
 
Defensive Coordinator Matt House
Opening Statement …
“We are excited to start training camp. Obviously, Coach Stoops addressed Josh (Paschal). Our hearts and prayers go out to his family as a team. I know Josh has got a great approach to battle this thing.”
 
On Josh Paschal’s illness and whether it came out of nowhere …
“I don’t think you can ever predict an illness. I think that is out of our control. I think, obviously, our trainers and our doctors did a great job and identified it early.”
 
On how he feels about the defensive line …
“We have kind of talked about this a week ago. That group has had a good summer. We are excited about the depth they’ve got there. We are excited about the good weight gain and the good strength they have put on. I think they have had a good summer. I’m excited to see how that translates in training camp because you stack up a good spring, a good summer and now a good training camp. We’ve got more experience than we’ve had. A lot of those guys have played, so we are excited to see where we go with that group. “
 
On how the players are handling the news of Josh Paschal’s illness …
“I think they’ve approached it the way you’d want them to. No. 1, their thoughts and prayers are with Josh. They’ve been around Josh. Obviously, he has been in the building and we are handling it as a family would. “
 
On what the young linebackers bring to the table …
“Length and athleticism. I think all those guys are long guys. They can run and they’re athletic. It’ll be interesting to see how they take the grinds of training camp. Twenty-five practices in 29 days. Certainly excited to see that.”
 
On the quickness and size of the defense …
“We are excited. I mean, I think Coach alluded to it earlier that there’s a lot of experience. There’s talent. There’s guys that are returning that have taken leadership roles in the spring and the summer. We are really excited about where we can go.
 
On having talented tackles, especially Adrian Middleton and Abule Abadi-Fitzgerald …
“I think we’ve got more death than we have had there before. Those two guys you mentioned, but then we also have guys like TJ Carter that have played a bunch of ball. Kelvin Taylor has played a bunch of ball. Tymere (Dubose) has played ball. So, you got depth. Our league is a line-of-scrimmage league, and you can’t be successful in our league with just ones. You got to have a group. “
 
On expectations for Jamar Watson …
“We are excited about Boogie. I think he has progressed. He played at times and made impact plays in a bunch of different positions. We really like the athleticism he brings on the edge, the ability to rush the passer. So, we are excited about him.”
 
On weight gain of team …
“I hate to raddle off specific numbers because a lot of times you end up being off but I will tell you this, when you see our guys today, you’re going to see guys that are noticeably bigger, broader. I think that does two things for you. No. 1, it obviously lets you be more able to control blockers and win at the line of scrimmage. No. 2, the bigger and stronger you are, the more durable you generally are. I’m excited about that group. I think they have worked hard. I think Coach Ed (Corey Edmond), Coach (Mark) Hill and their staffs have done a great job this summer and just excited about it.”
 
On how Josh Allen is playing different due to putting on weight …
“I think a bunch in particular in the run game. He’s a guy that his lower body has drastically changed. It can’t help but help him set the point and be firm around the edge.”
 
On how Coach Hood and Coach Clinksdale will juggle the secondary duties …
“I think they’ve done a great job of kind of organizing it. They see the game in a similar way, but they both bring different personalities to it. There’s been times within that group where you have to work with those guys together and then there’s times when they broke off and can get into finer coaching points and more detail. With the way the game has gone into a more space game, it’s going to help us having guys back there.”
 
On the safeties…
“When they break up, Coach Clink will take the corners and Coach Hood will take the safeties, but they meet a bunch together. There’s times where they will break up sides too. They will be working on a concept to the field and a concept to the boundary.”
 
On whether there is a third safety that has stepped up …
“You know, Davonte Robinson has had a good spring and a good summer. Jordan Griffin I think continues to improve. Yusuf Corker, you’re seeing growth with him. Ty Ajian, you’re seeing growth with him. So, we’re building some depth there.”
 
On what offensive changes he’s seen in the league over the years …
“I think at the end of the day, there are certain offenses that run the quarterback more, certain that don’t, but at the end of the day, gap schemes and zone schemes, it doesn’t matter how you run them, that’s what you are getting. Whether it’s a two-back gap scheme or a quarterback gap scheme. That is why everybody talks about it’s a line-of-scrimmage league. People are going to find ways in this league to create a numbers and establish the run.”
 
On communication issues …
“What communication issues? (laughing) Yeah, I think, No. 1, you add another coach on defense which is going to help, another set of eyes. But it is something that you rep and you practice. When we have scrimmages, just like the players are practicing simulating a game, the coaches are practicing simulating a game. We’ll go through test runs with headsets and where our eyes are and the chain of communication. So often, the piece that’s missed is the chain of communication. There is an order of procedure. So, we will drill that as a coaching staff just like the players simulate a game in a scrimmage.”
 
On how the demeanor has changed on the secondary…
“Again, I am excited about that group because I think they have had a great summer. They’ve committed themselves. You’ve seen a heightened level of preparation. You see them around the building watching film together. You see them around the building talking about coverage. You see them down in the weight room working. That is the great thing about 2018: 2018 is better than 2017. It’s different. So, I think you learn from the past but you don’t go backwards. “
 
On what impresses him about Benny Snell, Jr.…
“Competitive spirit. Obviously, we all know he is technically talented, but his approach and his competitive spirit. I remember one day this past spring, he might not have had the practice he wanted to and I walk in the building and he’s irritated, and I think that’s what Benny brings. You can’t help but improve around him because you better bring it because he’s going to bring it in practice. “
 
On how much of an emphasis forcing turnovers is going to be …
“Huge. Absolutely huge. Anytime you can create possessions, No. 1, you play less defensive plays, so the opponent’s odds of scoring go down and obviously you are creating the possession, so our odds of scoring go up. Everyday we start practice with a takeaway circuit. Some of that is how you affect the quarterback, but a lot of that also is how you effect the ball carrier and then what you do when the ball is on the ground. You hear all the time us talking on defense about straining to the football and I think a big level of force and takeaways is straining.”
 
On Brad White and what his background has brought …
“He is a great technician and I think he sees the bigger picture. He’s done a great job with those outside linebackers, just teaching them the finer points of the position, how to watch film, how to steal the little inches.”
 
On his expectations for Chris Oats …
“I hate to say anything until I see him with pads on. I think we recruited a great kid who is a great athlete, but we’ve got to see him in a college football practice first before we put any expectations on him.”
 
On the biggest challenge for freshman to adjust …
“Probably the speed and the tempo of practice. I think Coach Stoops does a great job of doing this. When we put the ball down, I mean there is a sense of urgency in practice. There is a sense of tempo moving from drill to drill, rep to rep, snap to snap and I think that is the biggest adjustment coming from high school into college. And then obviously competition. You’re a great high school football player. There may be one or two great high school football players on your team. Where here, it’s a team made up of great high school football players.”
 
On how comfortable he is with Kash Daniel …
“I’m really excited about Kash. I think he’s prepared well for this opportunity. He had a good spring, good summer. He’s a guy who has been here really three springs now. I am really excited to see Kash this season.”
 
On bringing in Tyler Couch from Paintsville …
“Again, that is what training camp is for, to see what we have.”