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PURDUE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 20, 2009

Danny Hope

Q. Wanted to get your thoughts and comments on Jason Werner's play. He's a kid that struggled through a back injury. Leads the team in tackles, had a fantastic game on Saturday and wanted to get your thoughts on his play and as a team leader?
COACH HOPE: He's an excellent team leader. Obviously he's one of our captains and we think he's pretty special. He's played very well this year. Not surprised. He has a lot of talent. You know, he has not played for a while, and that can take its toll on new some ways but he has a great nose for the football, he's got good size, he's a physical tackler. I think he does a great job of deciphering plays. I think he's unique in some ways as far as reading plays and seeing them develop and having a nose for the football.
He's playing very well for us right now and he can play even better. He's done a good job managing his back. We've had some other nagging injuries that he's done a great job of sucking up and managing, so very proud of the way he's played this year and particularly proud of his role as a leader for our football team.

Q. How did we come through the game with injuries?
COACH HOPE: We did good. I don't think there's going to be any difference from an injury standpoint this week compared to last week. I think we have all the same guys ready to go.
We have done a good job as a football team managing ourselves and allowing ourselves to stay relatively health even though we have been banged up some, we have not lost a whole lot of par parts on game day and we have done a good job keeping our guys fresh and that's difficult to do sometimes when you don't have an open week and when your ones get almost all of the reps. So we are in pretty good shape and intend on staying that way.

Q. Are you preparing for two quarterbacks on Saturday?
COACH HOPE: What do you mean?

Q. Given Illinois's situation --
COACH HOPE: They are shotgun formation, they can get on either center, they can do all of the things you can do out of the shotgun as far as the run game goes and all of the quarterback option stuff and they will spread the field and throw it with either guy. We don't know which one is going to be in there, but we'll have a game plan to defend what Illinois does with the football. I think that covers both of them.

Q. How do you think your guys will handle the success they enjoyed Saturday, and how do they have to handle it?
COACH HOPE: Well, we don't really have any options. Better handle it well, because we've got to keep winning. I think that success is good for our football team. It certainly added some fuel to the fires and fed our souls in a lot of ways. That's good. We needed that. Everyone needed that.
It was a great experience and those are the ones you work and live for but obviously we have two wins and that certainly keeps us grounded. We need to win again this Saturday.

Q. Is one of your challenges this week and your coaching staff to keep these guys' feet on the ground, because they have to be pretty sky-high after what transpired Saturday.
COACH HOPE: Obviously they are still excited and hope that it manifests itself in momentum for our football team, but I don't think there's going to be an issue as far as being grounded. We have two wins, and we need to win again this Saturday.

Q. Could a win like Saturday be just what the program needed in terms of giving you and your players and the fans that positive energy needed and will maybe really springboard you for the rest of the season and perhaps in the future?
COACH HOPE: I think our actions the last several Saturdays have indicated that we are on a mission, regardless of not always having it our way. Our football team has come out every Saturday and played hard and ready to play. They have been excellent in practice. There as fine a practicing football team as I have ever been around.
I think it will springboard the program in a lot of ways. I think it will add some energy to our football season, 2009 season, but regardless of the outcome, the same football team has showed up on Sundays and Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Thursdays and Fridays and getting ready to play and played hard on Saturdays. So I have confidence in them it regardless of the outcome on Saturdays.

Q. How many congratulatory e-mails and calls have you received? We heard from Joey Elliott before the game, he got a text message from Drew Brees. Anything you would like to share in that regard?
COACH HOPE: Nothing that I want to share but thank you to everyone that sent their congratulations and particularly thanks to the ones that were sticking with us when things were tough.
That's a great thing that's happened this season is it's very easy to find out those that are closest to the program and the ones that are closest to the program understand what we are hanging our hat on and they have been very supportive.
So it's been a good experience all the way around but had tons of e-mails and text messages, have had to clear the phone every couple of minutes of text messages and that's a lot of fun. Certainly more than I've had the last couple of weeks added together.

Q. Do you think getting your preparation for Terrelle Pryor helped you maybe in preparing for Juice Williams, yet another athletic quarterback you'll face? Do you defend those two guys in similar fashion?
COACH HOPE: Well, there will be some carry over for the game plan and a transfer of training. I think what playing on Saturday will do, it will help reinforce what we are trying to hang our hat on; as far as some of the keys to victory on the defensive side of the ball, one of them is contain. Contained is not always in the passing game; quarterback scrambling. It can be on the option. Containing to the quarterback could mean a lot of different things, and we did a good job on Saturday, and it wasn't excellent, because he did get loose some.
So I think it reinforces what was one of the keys of victory last week against Ohio State will certainly be one of the keys to victory this week is you have to contain their quarterback because he's a great athlete and if he gets outside or if he gets loose, he can be gone.

Q. There are two freshmen who saw their first action on Saturday. Do you think you are done with that, or is it possible anybody who has not played yet might still get out there?
COACH HOPE: It would depend upon injuries. We accrued injuries at some spots, so we don't have enough guys on the No. 2 spot right now that we would put into a game. So if we accrue some injuries we might have to pull the redshirt off some other players, but I don't see any changes for this week. I don't see taking the redshirt off anyone else this week.
We have been fortunate. We've had guys banged up it and hurt us some early in the season, particularly the back half of the defense when we had to rotate them around so much in the secondary, it showed up with tackling and some issues, but we have been very fortunate and done a great job of managing our guys and keeping them fresh.

Q. Speaking of the secondary, that's kind of what you -- Saturday was kind what you saw coming into this year with all of the experience back there. Seemed like they played very, very well.
COACH HOPE: Well, they played very well this past Saturday, and lots of credit goes to those guys back there, a veteran group and they love to play and they love to play to go. They really have a lot of fun. We are very lucky to have them on board and have an experience with them.
A lot of the credit goes to the front in the rush. The front and the rush kept them off balance and they are the one that is helped them manufacture some disjointedness, keeping their quarterback off balance. You get their quarterback out of sync, anybody's quarterback out of sync, if you can get anybody's quarterback having to throw off balance; I mean, off-balance, I'm talking about their body, their gyroscope. If it gets off-balance, it can manufacture poor throws. I thought we did a good job of getting their quarterback off-balance in some ways with the front, and that helps the secondary have a big day behind him.

Q. In past few games Keith Carlos has struggled; important to get him going again?
COACH HOPE: Well, he's made some plays, and we think he's getting better. We see him seven days a week; y'all see him one day a week, and he's doing a great job in practice.
You know, he was slow coming on, like a lot of junior college transfers, and we have put a lot on him since Royce went down, his playing time has increased, and we see him getting a lot better as a football player, particularly in practice. He has some want-to about him and he works very, very hard and he comes to practice with the intention to get better. You know, some guys show up -- some guys show up with a purpose, and I think he shows up to practice with a purpose, and we think he's getting better as a player.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Carson Wiggs, and obviously he's taking field goals, he's punted and doing it all. Can you talk about him?
COACH HOPE: He's a good football player and he's an aggressive guy. I think that's good sometimes with a kicker. I think he's super competitive. Really got to know him well in the recruiting process and he has some real intangibles about him. He's an excellent leader. He's one of the kids on our football team that has been earmarked by our athletic department as one of the future leaders for all student athletes here at Purdue. He's an excellent leader. Has a strong legs, has confidence, he's very competitive in practice, he's very competitive in his pregame warm ups. He's a heck of a kicker for us. He's a good punter.
You know, I don't know that we'll have him handling all of those duties for the entire season. I don't know that I want one guy having to handle all of that. I've been in that position before and we have here at Purdue before with Travis, and it can happen and they can do a great job with it. We don't have to force it in that direction.
We'll have competition at the punting position, but very pleased with Carson, and he's a heck of a place kicker and a heck of a specialist and sky is the limit for him. He's getting a lot of attention on the pro watch and he's certainly deserving. I don't have any reservations in most scenarios in lining it up and letting him take a long one. The one other day, 55-yarder was into a pretty good head of wind and I thought that was one of most impressive kicks I've been around.

Q. How far do you think he can kick in a given situation?
COACH HOPE: That depends on the game situation. If it was the last play of the game, I would kick it off from the other end zone if I had to. The other day was three points, the big three points, and we came out in the second half and manufactured a drive and scored.
So all of a sudden we were out there in two scoring possessions before they got the football back so he's a difference maker for us and we can nail them a long ways.
It would depend on the wind and the field position, if it was a dry track. He's got a great range. I communicate with Coach Gibboney regularly throughout the course of the game when we have the football, move it, and we'll know down and the distance and he'll know where we need to get to where the ball is placed on the field that's right within Carson's range.

Q. And Mike Neal, you've been doing a lot of double-team stuff. Talk about the way he's played.
COACH HOPE: I think he's played very well all year. I think he's really advanced himself and taken his game to another level from where he was at a year ago. We have a NFL scouts come through here daily to come out and watch him in practice. The thing that he does right now is he's big and strong and he can come forward and knock the front backwards, and that's his first and foremost job or responsibility. He's also athletic enough to get singled up.
You have defensive tackles, some that you refer to as nose guards that you need to play with a center and you have some that you refer to as three techniques that you think you might want to get singled up on a guard, and I think Mike Neal can do both of those; a lot of the scouts coming in think he can do both of those. He's a heck of a player, leader of our football team, the guys look up to him, he's extremely loyal and hard working. His work ethic at practice is really advanced and he's getting better as a result of it.

Q. And the fact that you were named Football Writer Association of America Team of the Week, you've generated some national publicity for that victory. Thoughts on that?
COACH HOPE: We got great exposure this past Saturday with the big win like that and the great celebration on the field in Ross-Ade Stadium. Certainly caught the attention of the entire nation, obviously when you're recognized as the national team of the week, we'll announce that to the team today. It was announced after we met with them on Sunday. Most of them probably already know but we will announce it to the team today and we'll clap and celebrate for a few seconds and we'll get on to Illinois.

Q. You have a couple of freshmen quarterbacks who are playing a lot on special teams. Would you like to see an opportunity arise, whether it be late-game situations, to get those two a little bit of experience back there in the secondary, as well?
COACH HOPE: I would like to see that scenario, that late-game scenario rise where we can put guys in there and play them for experience, I sure would. There are guys on our football team that have worked really hard that we would love to get into a game right now. Those guy the are important because they bring some speed and physicalness to our football team. They are helping us on special teams. I would like to see them get some more playing time other than mop up footballs at the end of the game.

Q. What do you like about those two guys, maybe from a defensive standpoint in practice that we have not seen.
COACH HOPE: Josh Johnson was the furthest ahead when we started camp out of the group because he was the only one that was healthy. The others were injured at some point in time in their high school careers and probably did not rehab it like they needed to and it's a lot different here where we can take them and mandate the rehab and schedule it for them and get our experts in on a daily basis. Josh was the only one that was healthy.
Right now Ishmael Aristide is almost a 100 percent, and Chris Quinn is close. So we have been working with Josh all along because he is what we had. He was fast and athletic and here all summer long and prepared himself and he was the guy who is the next most-ready guy.
Chris Quinn is a guy who has caught our guy in practice. We have some scrimmages with our younger guys on Sundays and he lights people up. He's a tremendous hitter. We play him at both the corner and the safety position. It's kind of small for a safety and he hits like a truck and he has good speed. He does good in school so he has a good aptitude about him.
So we felt like some of the injured guys or banged up guys we had on special teams, Wolf has been banged up and couldn't go some; Jason Taylor has been banged up, not sure what he could do. We thought he was the next fastest, hardest-hitting guy we had. So we pulled the shirt off him and will also get him some experience before we go into the next season, as well.
We did the same thing last year with Dennis Kelly. We had originally thought he was going to be a redshirt, didn't think he was going to get big enough and he comes in, 6-8, 270 pounds when he reported for camp and midway through the season he was up to 285, 288 pounds, we were limited offensive line from a number standpoint and pulled the redshirt off him right in the middle of the season unexpectedly. It helped us last year, we played better at the end of the year because we had another offensive lineman to play, a talented guy and it made him prepare a lot better for this season coming up. So similar plan and similar reasons for Chris Quinn.

Q. Do you anticipate teams having to make a decision here eventually whether they are going to double up on Mike Neal or pay a little bit more attention to Kerrigan, and can you see that being a challenge?
COACH HOPE: It's a challenge, because if you try to double-team both of them, you'll run out of people. The rest of those guys are turned loose, so they will have to make some tough decisions and we have some other good players, as well. We are doing a good job of bringing some pressure from our linebackers. We are timing that up a lot better and guys are hitting it a lot faster and we are more efficient from a pressure standpoint.
So they can choose to double up whoever they want. We have got a plan to get someone loose when we come after the quarterback, and you double-team Neal, that's a good plan, and you've got some other guys that can play out there, you double-team Ryan, that's a good plan. But you have some other guys out there that can make plays. Can't double-team them all. Have to pick their poison at times, but can't double-team them all.

Q. What you've seen of Illinois's offensive line so far, I think they have allowed like 19 sacks and last week they started a true freshman right tackle. Does that get you excited knowing how well your defensive line is playing to go against an average guard?
COACH HOPE: Yeah, those are numbers and that's without looking at the film. They have a big, strong athletic offensive line. Sometimes you have to put it all together and they are certainly capable of doing that.
We think we can pressure anybody's quarterback or anybody's offensive line with what we have on the defensive side of the football from a talent standpoint. We have some talented players. They are not all, Mike Neals and Kerrigans. If we were like that we would be the Patriots. We have some good players over there and we do a good job as far as pressuring people's quarterbacks and obviously we'll try to take advantage of any opportunity we have this weekend, as well.

Q. What does Chris Summers have to do to become the No. 1 punter again?
COACH HOPE: Well, how do you know he's not the No. 1 punter right now? We don't post the depth chart until practice. We will go out there and practice hard and give him an opportunity to compete.
I would look at him in the same light that we did with Aaron Valentine. Aaron Valentine is a playmaker and a good player. He had a couple of tough plays, and we didn't give up on Aaron Valentine. He was a difference-maker for us this past Saturday, and we won't give up on Chris Summers, and he'll have an opportunity to go out there and compete and we'll make a decision as the game goes on. We may employ a plan of which punter we use in what specific circumstances or situations; there will be a game plan thing, but I wouldn't say he's not our No. 1 punter right now.

Q. What happened on those two kicks? Was it a wind issue, drop issue?
COACH HOPE: Drop issue. That's a huge part. You know, he's not the most powerful guy. He's a little bit slight of build so if he doesn't hit it right and he shanks one, it may not shank as far as someone else that shanks one. To be quite honest with you, there are a lot of shank punts out there. His are shorter. He's not quite as big a guy as some punters. He's got to hit it right just like a golf swing, no difference. You have to hit it right.

Q. How is Royce doing?
COACH HOPE: Royce is doing very well. Don't anticipate him back this weekend. Maybe soon, but not this weekend. But he's doing very well, great worker. He was in probably the best shape of anybody on our football team, so he'll bounce back quicker.

Q. What did you do Saturday night after the game, anything different than your normal routine?
COACH HOPE: We had a bunch of recruits in here, a bunch of our top recruits, and obviously we fought our way through the crowd on the field and had a blast with that; and celebrated in the locker room with the team; and then went to the press conference and drove home. Showered, shaved again, put on a different shirt and tie and grabbed Sally and took the recruits to dinner and entertained the recruits and the parents and spent Saturday evening with the recruits and Sunday morning with the recruits.
So there wasn't a whole lot of time for celebration. I know talking with Coach Tiller last year, the year of transition, he had talk about that, about that's one thing that really changed in football was at this level you is don't get much opportunity to celebrate the win. In the old days we would go to the head coach's house and celebrate until the wee hours of the morning and it was a great thing, great bonding time and great celebrating time and rewarding, and that opportunity is not there in modern day football because of the recruiting calendar with the expediting of the commitments and all that. So we worked.
We'll have more of those great events on the field because we recruited hard on the field after the game, you know.

Q. We watch Ryan Kerrigan on Saturday, very impressive performance. What did you see when watching film? What stood out about what he did?
COACH HOPE: He keeps getting better and better. And he's getting better and better as the competition rises, as well and he's not a finished product as well. He'll continue getting better and he's really strong and comes off the ball, very physical, very fast.
He didn't come out of the game last Saturday, played the entire game on the defensive side of the ball and I believe maybe the two Saturdays prior to that and that's a real credit to him because he practiced himself into shape. He goes hard, close to game speed in practice and it allows him to play at that tempo in the game.
So he's relentless from an effort standpoint. Doesn't make a whole lot of mistakes and he has the ability to beat you with speed and athleticism and he has the ability to overpower you as well and there's a lot of guys that don't have both. He has both. He can beat you with athleticism and he's extremely powerful. You don't realize how big he is until you get up on him, he's proportioned so well. He's got a great body but you get up on him, he's close to 6-5, 265 pounds, 270 pounds, that's a good-sized defensive end.

Q. I think it was probably around midseason last year where he really caught his stride. What is it about him that once he gets a few games under his belt, he seems to get rolling?
COACH HOPE: I think every football player is that way. The team is that way if we stay healthy. We are getting better right now in every phase of our game. We are the best we have been right now all season long on offense. We are the best right now we have been all season long on defense, and we are the best we have been right now all season long on special teams.
We came in here last week and we talked about we had lost and there were a couple areas of our game that if we could focus on those areas and improve some, strive for excellence in just a couple small areas that would impact our play on Saturdays, it would be hard to beat. We did that this week. We earmarked some areas, some areas that we wanted to strive for some excellence in, just a little bit, and it would make an impact on our football team that would be hard to beat. We are going to do that again this week. Same plan. Maybe some different areas, but the same plan.

Q. You talked about Illinois's offense but just talk about the two quarterbacks, and do you see them as similar-type quarterbacks or just talk about their strengths, what they bring to the table?
COACH HOPE: Well, obviously we have seen a lot more of Juice Williams. He's a great athlete. A lot of the things that we have had to defend throughout the course of the year, not every game, but different times throughout the course of the year, different games or things they featured in their offense with him and the same thing with their other quarterbacks.
So we are comfortable with the game plan that we have. There will be some carryover. They are both athletic and both have the potential to pass the ball well. One of them is -- Juice has played a lot more and is a more accomplished quarterback, and he seems to have a little more confidence about him on the field.
The other guy is new, kind of like Joey was new at the beginning of the season. So that would be probably the difference, one is probably a little more seasoned, if you will.

Q. Last year Tyler was your Terrelle Pryor; as a scout guy, does he become Juice Williams this week?
COACH HOPE: We'll see what we have out there. He doesn't have quite all that much magnitude to it. Whichever one that can run, advance and throw it good we will stick back there to give a defensive look.
We have two types of practice regimens. Sometimes you're going against a scout team, and Najee Tyler is on the scout team right now. That's the time to line up, run the other team's plays using the scout team, and you can stop and coach and teach and walk through some things and make sure they are on the same page.
And then we also at times go our No. 1 defense against what we refer to as our 1-As, the next best group of guys we put in the game running those teams plays. So they will get some looks from Najee Tyler and the scout team and they will get some looks from the 1-As. So we will be able to manufacture a good look for our defense and our offense this week.

Q. The decision to take redshirts off at midseason, is that a discussion you have with your coaching staff on a daily basis throughout the year? How do you evaluate when is the right time to take a redshirt off the freshmen?
COACH HOPE: You know, like one of the doctors, based on need. We have one time where we had need for guys that can help us special teams-wise and that's why we originally originated the discussion on taking the shirt off of Chris Quinn. And then we get out there and start watching them practice, and one guy is out there knocking the lights out of people making plays all over the field, and you say, that guy might be able to help us right now.
And same thing with Al-Terek. We practice him all the time. Our backs get banged up, Al-Terek gets a lot of the reps and he's exceptional in practice and guys have a tough time catching him and he makes them miss and he's an extensional runner with the football. We try to improve his physical part of the game, not the finish and run part, but I can picking up the blitzes. I don't mean his manly-hood but I'm talking about the fitting up, the physical part of the game; he can help us win now.
So it's based on need. Those guys can help us now and obviously some experience for those guys to make a big difference for next year, as well.

Q. Is this something that you go to the players and say, okay, here is what we want to do, are you okay with it, or do you say here is what we are going to do go do it?
COACH HOPE: I can do either way but always take the first approach, first. Talk to the staff. I told the staff, this is what I see, and everybody thought it was a good idea. We have -- it's not a dictatorship. We have lots of open discussions as a staff. I certainly want their input constantly, probably more so than most head coaches but everyone thought that it was the thing to do and brought the players in and talked to them why we were doing it and I think they understood. I think the analogy towards Dennis Kelly kind of tells the story in a lot of ways.

Q. Obviously Joey has been playing well, but also Drew Brees had a great game on Sunday and Kyle or ton had a good game last night. Have you had a chance to watch those two at all, just the way that these Purdue quarterbacks are playing right now?
COACH HOPE: No, I haven't watched them any this season but obviously I'm a Orton and Brees fan and was here the whole time that Drew was here. And he's just an unbelievable guy, fantastic teammate.
And I was here in part of the recruiting process with Kyle Orton and had been around him some and followed him some while he was here at Purdue and not surprised to see those guys being on the cutting edge of their position in the National Football League. We are really excited about Joey Elliot. I think that the e-mail from Drew Brees was something really special, and if you know Drew, it may not surprise you. It sounds just like him. He's always put others first.
When I was here last time coaching, I was in charge of community services and he couldn't tell anyone no and now that he's at the next level he had to hire someone to tell him no for him. He really did, I'm serious. But I'm not surprised about the text message.
But Joey is playing really well right now, and you know, we have talked about him being like a coach out there on the field and he understands what we are talking about and what we are hanging our hat on just like a coach would and he has played very well this season. He certainly has not played perfect and lots of times it has not been excellent but he's played very well in many phases of his game. But we earmarked some things that he could do that would make him more efficient at quarterback that would impact our football team tremendously and he corrected those things in practice this week and as a result, he played exceptional on Saturday.
He was very sure with his throws and very true to his reads and he did a great job of staying in the pocket when he's protected and getting the ball out of his hand in a hurry. He played very well on Saturday and anticipate him continuing to improve. He's a good quarterback and he's getting better by the day.

Q. That goes into right what I was going to ask you. Based on what you've seen at this point, do you think he belongs in the conversation for post-season honors?
COACH HOPE: If he continues playing like he's playing and he continues building momentum and we win, absolutely, absolutely. He's playing very, very well right now. I haven't looked at the stats as you guys probably have, but I think he was leading the league in passing going into the game and threw for just about another 300 yards, benchmark game in a lot of ways, and he's starting to accrue some of those, just like he's accruing some 100-yard games, and I think that's a sign that you are on track to receive postseason honors, no doubt about it.

Q. Started to play a little differently now that the passing game is starting to emerge?
COACH HOPE: Hope so.

Q. Not to this point though?
COACH HOPE: Well, in some situations, you know, we got behind in some games and we had to throw to catch up. We spot people a couple of touchdowns and put ourselves in catch-up mode and that's mandated us to go out and maybe throw the ball a little bit more than what the game plan had originally planned. But they defend us passing-game wise, opens up the running game for us.
We're okay either way. We'll try to take what the defense gives us, that's always our plan. That's the one thing about being one-dimensional that can really hurt you because if you're one-dimensional then they have to really only execute one plan and if you're one-dimensional you have to have someone that's very, very special at it. If it all you can do is run the football, you have better have a great running back and if all you can do is pass the football, you'd better have a very, very special quarterback. Being two-dimensional is what's best for our football team right now.

Q. Al-Terek; what are the chances that we'll see him maybe get should time in the backfield and not just as a return guy?
COACH HOPE: Chances are good. I don't want to take the shirt off a guy and have him get six snaps a game. If we were going do that then we wouldn't take the shirt off of a guy. Doesn't guarantee him playing time, he's going to have to earn it in practice and he's going to have compete and earn that playing time, but I think he's on course to do that. He's an exceptional runner with the football in practice, he really is. He's an outstanding runner.

Q. With regards to Aaron Valentine, can you talk about how he's handled the ups and downs this year and his confidence level?
COACH HOPE: I think he did a great job with it, better than most people would, and probably better than most of us would that's in this room right now, the way things went. And I think he showed a lot of courage, he showed a lot of character, and then obviously he's a heck of a player.
And you don't put a great player on the shelf, you keep working with those guys but was really proud of Aaron because he came out and competed in practice and he botched up a couple plays along the way. But he still leads the league in I believe all-purpose yardage, still way up there, leads the league in punt return stills as far as the average goes, he's a great player and certainly won't give up on a guy that's a great player that's willing to come out and work as hard as he can work. I think he's an A-plus as far as an effort guy goes. So he's handled is very well. Very, very proud of him; he's a winner.

Q. As far as his physical attributes, can you talk about him being able to do a lot of different routes for you guys and are you able to do a lot of different things with him as a receiver?
COACH HOPE: He needs to continue working on being more detailed in his route running. Sometimes he creates some of his own routes. He needs to be more detailed in his route running. All of our receivers do. That was one of the things we earmarked last week, you can look up your notes from last week; we talked about being more detailed in our route running and would impact our production on offense and it would impact our chances to win.
He needs to continue being more detailed on his route running. But he's an aggressive receiver and he goes after the ball, he's strong, has very strong hands, he's very sure handed, he's fearless in a lot of ways, he's a playmaker, he can make you miss, run you over, run by you, he's a lot of redeeming qualities as a receiver. He likes to play. He likes to play football.

Q. Is there a chance we may see him as a full-time punt returner or do you at this point want to concentrate on what he's doing now?
COACH HOPE: I want him to return punts, too. He's one of the best. Again, you want to put him in a situation where he has the best chance to be successful. We put him back there some, I believe we had him back there some the other day on kickoff returns, that was our intention, maybe not as a primary returner but we want him to be in position to return punts for us, may not be all of them, but we are certainly going to get back out there to return some punts, absolutely.

Q. Can you just give us your thoughts on Albert Evans' year so far?
COACH HOPE: He's really gotten a lot better as a player. He's an A-plus as far as a teammate goes. He pays a lot of attention to his coaches. He's a high-energy guy. I don't mean he's a cheerleader but a high-energy guy, doesn't wear down much in practice. He practices most of the time at game speed. Doesn't make many mistakes. He's very smart. He's a good tackler, very good tackler. He has good speed. He's probably faster than I really thought that he was, and he's getting better every week.
To me he's a starter to me, whether or not he opens the game up on Saturdays, but he's a major part of the game plan every Saturday. If he's the only one we had to play with back there, I would still be comfortable with that, as well. I think he's a very good safety.

Q. Illinois trying to stop a skid of their own --
COACH HOPE: We are all in the same boat. They have a target on us and we have a target on us. Everybody wants to win and needs to win right now. I don't assume they will take us lightly. They have a very good football team. I've been saying that every week, we have a great football team but just don't have a great record. We played very well on offense at times this year, surprisingly well. I look back in the spring, and we couldn't throw individual routes versus air with our quarterbacks and receivers, and hit 50 percent.
So I see us doing full pads against some of the best teams in the country is quite an achievement for our offensive staff and our offensive players.

Q. Looking at the linebacking core and the inexperience they had coming in, how have they matured over the last few games?
COACH HOPE: It's worked out good because you have the two young guys that are getting to play, and are playing well and they are helping us and keeping the other linebackers fresh some, and the young guys bring some energy and their players, too. It helps us in practice because we get those young guys, I'm talking about Higgs and Dwayne Beckford, referring to those two guys, they get a lot of reps in practice, as well, with the ones. So that keeps your No. 1 linebackers from wearing down.
So I think we are getting better at the linebacker position. I think the two young guys emerging has helped us get better.
I think that Joe Holland has really improved his game. He had his best game this past Saturday. He was a very short tackler. He played a lot faster, was a lot more sure about where he's going and why he was going in that direction and I think Chris Carlino was getting better as well and we are very fortunate to have Jason Werner back and so I think that position is getting better as the season progresses for a lot of different reasons. I think the young guys that played last year, Carlino and Joe Holland, I think that they are taking their game to another level right now, starting to take their game to another level. They have some experience from last year and played some at the beginning of the season and did some good things and had to learn and had to grow and develop. But I see them getting a lot better here last four or five practices.

End of FastScripts

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