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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 19, 2018

Bobby Petrino

Greensboro, North Carolina

BOBBY PETRINO: I thought we had a very productive spring. We had a lot of teaching and a lot of learning to do, a new quarterback. With that goes different things that you try to do offensively, and really get him comfortable in what we're doing. We have a new defensive coordinator and lot of young guys and inexperienced guys on defense.

But I do like the ability that we have over there. I think we're bigger, and stronger and faster than we were a year ago, so that's a good thing. But we have a lot of work ahead of us. We have to carry over into the summer what we did throughout the winter program and spring ball, and continue to improve all summer long.

Q. With the 10th assistant, what was the process you went through in deciding what you wanted out of that spot? And what does Grady bring to it?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, we actually started on the 10th assistant about a year ago when I brought in Mike Summers as our offensive line coach. I have normally had five of the assistants on defense, and four on offense, because I work on offense. But I decided to take a gamble that they were going to allow us to have ten assistants, and brought Coach Summers in to work with our offensive line. Then.

We actually ended up doing a great job getting Grady here. He's a very, very good coach, a very good technician. I think our players really relate to him, and he's done a great job of coaching our corners.

Q. How has Pass developed through the spring practice period, and how might the offense look any different to fans with him at quarterback this year?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, he had a really good spring. We put a lot of pressure on him, and we wanted to see what exactly he could do. He's been here for two years, so he does understand the offense. He had two really good years learning behind Lamar Jackson. He always paid attention. He always wanted to know what we were saying to Lamar. He was always prepared to play. When he did come in to play, he performed really well.

So he can throw the ball, he's big, he's got good vision. He's also fast, you know? He's not as elusive and cutback type of runner that Lamar Jackson is. But he's 6'5", 230 pounds and can run 4.6, so he's got good speed. He just needs to continue to work and get better.

Q. On the other side of the ball, how much would the defense be any different with VanGorder as the coordinator, and what his philosophy is?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, Brian does a great job of teaching and getting our players to understand the concepts and responsibilities. He's really demanding on their assignment football. I like the way we run to the ball, and I thought we tackled well in the spring.

Obviously, there is a lot of complexity to the defense, and we have still a lot to learn. But we went slow with the installation in the spring and wanted to get the base defense down, and then kind of expanded it the last couple weeks. That will be something that we'll have to do here early in August is make sure we get everything installed.

Q. I know that we've spoken on Lamar Jackson a lot, but just what can you say about what an NFL team is getting from him, and spending so much time with him, what he brings immediately to a team if they are to draft him?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, well, the first thing that stands out with Lamar is he's a different athlete than most quarterbacks out there with his ability to run and play so fast. But he's also a great thrower. I think that's the thing that stood out to me from the first practice that he got here is how he could snap his wrists and the ball came out, the accuracy that you have on the different throws.

So I'm excited to see how it all goes for him, and certainly wish him a lot of luck.

Q. I know you touched on it a little bit, but just what you can say about coming through this spring and what's impressed you at the quarterback position moving forward accident and what you've seen as far as growth there?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, like I said, Jawon is a guy that's been here for two years. He understands a lot of what we want to get done. He's very coachable. He's got a lot of skill as far as playing the quarterback position, and a lot of confidence. I think that's the one thing that I like is he really believes that he's going to be a great quarterback. Then also Malik Cunningham had a really good spring for us.

Malik would be a little bit more in the Lamar style as far as he's extremely fast and can really run and cut back. But he did throw the ball really well. He ended up 13 of 16 in the spring game, and also rushed for 52 yards and we made it live tackle when he crossed the line of scrimmage, and he showed how explosive he could be.

Q. How did you see the running back position develop this spring? Because I know you've talked about how this season you'd like to have more production out of that position?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, we had a good spring there. Tre Smith did a great job. He's been with us now for three years, and he's a real, physical runner. He breaks a lot of tackles. He does a lot of good work inside the tackles and running the football.

Tobias Little is a running back that's 6 foot, 250 pounds, big. He learns how to play faster. He can catch the ball out of the back field. We were really impressed with him. Had a couple guys that didn't go full go in spring. Dave Williams who is another big back for us, a 230-pound guy that came back last year and played well at the end of the year.

Came off of an injury. We weren't really expecting him back. He healed fast and got back on the field and really did a nice job for us and helped us win some games down the stretch.

Then Colin Wilson is a young man who, as a true freshman last year, got himself in a position to start playing. He's probably the most talented of the group as far as his size, and speed and agility. But he's coming off of injury. He did get to dress for the spring game, went out and went through warm-ups and looked really good, but we didn't let him play in the game.

So I think there will be a lot of competition, and a lot of guys that are striving to get reps and get carries.

Q. Do you anticipate with everyone being healthy in fall this being more of a running back by committee, or would you like to have one kind of leading the way?
BOBBY PETRINO: Normally you'd like to have one guy that you can hand the ball to and say he's going to get 20, 22 carries, and five or six catches a game. But the one thing that's unique about running back and linebacker and safety is they're the groups that take all the hits. So you have to be able to have running backs that play throughout the year. Whoever is the healthiest and the fastest and the hottest in that particular game gets those carries.

So, they've all got to be ready to go, and they all know that it's a long, long season now.

Q. Going into spring, did you have a major goal and did you achieve it?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, I mean, you have a lot of goals going into spring. You sit down and first you make them individually for each player and go through those and what they need to get done and need to accomplish. Then you sit down and have objectives for offense, defense, and special teams. You know, it's a big game. It's a team game where you have to put all the parts together.

So that's kind of how we approach it and we evaluate it on an individual basis. That's the fun thing about spring ball is in the end I get to sit here and have an individual meeting with every player on the team, and go back through that and how they did and what they accomplished. Then we do it on an offense, defense, and special teams basis.

It's really just trying to get the improvement at each position.

Q. What is the hardest position to develop during the spring?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, you've got to develop them all. I've never been one on the hardest or biggest. I think what you try to do is first get better as an individual player, and then get better with your group and take pride in your group. The D-line, the linebackers, the secondary. But they're all important and they all work together.

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