|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
PURDUE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCEAugust 31, 2010Danny HopeTHE MODERATOR: Welcome to the first teleconference of the 2010 season. We'll get started. Q. This may be common knowledge. How did it come about that you're opening the season with Notre Dame? Is that something you wanted or something that fell into place? COACH HOPE: Well, a little bit of both. I inherited the schedule with Notre Dame as the opener. For this football team, I think it's best for us. I think there's been a great sense of urgency for our football team to prepare all summer long because of the quality of the opponent, the magnitude of this game. I think it creates a great sense of urgency. Certainly everyone committed, into what's happening. In the long run, I think it's a real blessing in disguise for this football team. When we came out of spring, we had a good spring, but had a lot of developing to do. I think the Notre Dame, being the first game on the schedule, created a sense of urgency for our football team to prepare. Q. You're probably more familiar with Dayne Crist because you had to play against him some last year. Your thoughts on him? COACH HOPE: Well, we don't know a whole lot about him because I think he only played a few number of snaps last year throughout the course of the season, not a lot of throws. He's a strong-arm quarterback that has good size, a smart guy. He obviously reads a lot of press releases that come out of their camp from their local media and seems to be the right guy for their offense. A big guy with a strong arm that appears to have all the intangibles. Q. Anything new on Ralph? How is he doing? COACH HOPE: Well, Ralph is doing fine. I can't tell you how far along he is or isn't. He's going through a little bit of stuff in practice, warming up and going through a few drills about half speed. Everything is modified. I certainly don't see him making a difference anytime in the near future. Q. How is Rob Henry performing in practice? How ready would he be if he had to play? COACH HOPE: He's done very well. He's as ready as he is. We have a couple more days to prepare for our opening opponent. Rob got the bulk of the reps throughout the course of camp. Our spring game, we went live on Rob. He really shined. He's a heck of an athlete. A natural leader. Popular on the football field. He's a great athlete. We're comfortable with where Rob is at and very fortunate to have him in our program. Q. When you face a team that has a new coach like this, how do you prepare? How much time do you spend looking at the team that you're facing from last year and the coach and what he ran at his previous program? Is that more of a challenge to have to look at both of those things? COACH HOPE: I don't think that it was all that great of a challenge. Obviously he had great success at Cincinnati. I don't assume they would change a whole lot. They won 12 games I believe last year running a certain offense, defense and special teams. Dance with the one that brought. Might have screwed that saying up (laughter). But that's what got him here. I don't see him changing a whole lot. If they do something different, a lot of it is what we do anyway. If they were to come out and run an even front instead of an odd front, we face an even front. We'll well-versed against both. Same thing offensively. We run a spread offense. We can run a no-huddle, tempo-setting offense. We prepared against that for our own selves. We run the ball against ourselves, different formation. If they give us something different, we've probably worked on something similar to that in camp. Q. Danny, your team last year played really well in spot-like games, at Oregon, at Michigan. When you look back, what were the keys to such good performances in hostile environments? Talk about the opportunity of going to South Bend and playing well up there, too. COACH HOPE: I thought our team rose to the occasion in some of the big games last year. I would assume that our guys will be excited about the quality point, the magnitude, potential magnitude of a game like this, the national recognition. So it certainly is something to get excited about. Going to Notre Dame is a hostile environment. It will be a noise issue, if you will. Those are things that are kind of mind over matter, if you will. If you don't mind, they don't matter all that much. We have a plan that we think will allow us to be successful regardless of whether we're at home or on the road, a plan to deal with noise. We have to perform well. The team that plays the best on Saturday is going to win, not the one that is facing a certain zip code or area code, but whichever team plays the best. Q. In prepping for this game, was it a game that you've watched tape from last year's game as well as some tape of Cincinnati games with Brian Kelly being there? COACH HOPE: They'll manufacture their own game plan. I'm sure they'll look at last year's game and see some things that may have been successful or not for Notre Dame. But they have their own game plan, their own offense, their own defense, special teams. Obviously we'll look at last year's tape, a few of our personnel. We'll look at a lot of Cincinnati film to get a sense of scheme and game planning. It's really pretty simple. Q. When you look at your team, what are you most confident about with your guys? What do you feel best about going into the opener with? COACH HOPE: Potential. We have the potential to do very well. We have to execute and perform. It's a big game on a big stage. We have a lot of young guys that haven't played in games like this or haven't played at all. So I'm excited to see how our team performs, really excited. But we have great potential. Big game. One game never makes a season. But preparation for this game could make our season in a lot of ways. I want to see where we're at as a football team. I really am proud of the commitment and the energy and the effort our guys have put in to prepare for the season. I'm excited to see them play, see where we're at. I like the potential of our football team. We have a lot of young, talented players that haven't played a whole lot that are just going to get better and better. Q. What are you most uneasy or unsettled about? Is it an area of your team you're most concerned about, offensive line, secondary, runningback? What has you a little on edge? COACH HOPE: The same thing that has you on edge every opener. First-game blunders. Both teams will have some. End result, the turnover rate is the greatest indicator of success. You can't weather too many first-game blunders unless they create a bunch themselves, even it out. You have to take care of business, take care of the football, execute to some degree of excellence on a consistent enough basis to win the game. Really pretty simple. Q. When you look at the Purdue-Notre Dame game, can and should an argument be made in terms of Purdue that this is Purdue's number one rivalry game when you look at the history of this series? COACH HOPE: I don't feel that way. I think our number one rivalry game is IU. Maybe I'm out of line with that comment. It was the year before. They're rivalries, a lot of fun. That's what makes them rivalries. That IU-Purdue rivalry is huge. The storied program, going in to compete against a storied program, a tradition like Notre Dame has, is always a big coup when you win. It's exciting. They're both great rivalries, a lot of fun. I would say Purdue's number one football rival is IU. Q. Knowing what you know about Notre Dame's offense, do you see a lot of similarities with the offense you ran with Drew, they'll sort of take what the defense gives them, they're okay with methodically moving down the field? COACH HOPE: If you look at the routes that they run, the formations they use, progression of the quarterback's read, they're very similar offenses. Spread offense that takes advantage of the whole field, an offense that can change its tempo as far as how fast they line up, huddle up, whether they do either one at all. They keep you off balance from a tempo standpoint. I think they're very similar in a lot of ways. Q. Can you talk about where you see your secondary heading into this game. COACH HOPE: I'm excited about these guys. They're much further along than I could ever have imagined. I give credit to their position coaches, Coach Anarumo, his graduate assistant Drew Adam. The real credit goes to the young guys. There's guys that have talent, they're exciting to watch practice. They're very competitive. They're aggressive. They run well. They have a knack for sticking close to the receiver. They'll get snapped off a couple times, someone's going to get open. That's the way it is when someone throws the ball a lot. You don't really stop the pass, you defend the pass. There's no way to stop it if they're executing. You can defend. You get pass defense. I think we can defend the pass with what we have up front to manufacture pressure with. I like our secondary. I think they're a scrappy group of guys. They have a lot of pride at their position. They have a great spirit amongst their group. I've been really pleased with them and think they've come the furthest of any group that have come along in a long time. They'll give you all they've got. That will be good enough. Q. The challenge that Michael Floyd presents? COACH HOPE: He's big, fast, really good. Fortunately we have some good receivers of our own that's been a challenge for our young secondary to line up and match up against. We have some other guys that have big bodies and good bodies that run well, that have gained some experience. Justin Siller has developed into a good big receiver. Keith Smith was already a good, big receiver. I think that will help us in some ways. But he's a very special player and he's going to make some plays. No doubt about it. Would be shocked if he doesn't make a play or two. Q. Your offensive line? COACH HOPE: We improved a lot. Some areas of our offensive line, we've gotten stronger at. I think our left tackle has improved a lot from last year. Dennis Kelly grew a lot, fast. When we first recruited him, our concern was he might not get big enough. We weren't sure if we were going to bring him in in the fall. We originally planned to bring him in and gray shirt him. We were limited numbers-wise with offensive linemen. Brought him back, ended up playing his freshman year. He's 6'8", 300 pounds now. He's much improved from last year. We have Kenny Plue back, started half of his freshman year two years ago. Experienced offensive guard. 6'7", 340 pounds that has some experience, knows where he's going. He's got a lot to get there with. We have two big offensive linemen. Peters Drey has good numbers in the weight room, good body. One of our better football players on the O-line. Not really experienced at the center position. We moved Nick Mondek over from defense. There was some rough sledding in his development. He was trying to get in the defensive stance to play offense out of. On offense you have to go forward and back up out of the same distance. On the defensive line you go forward out of one stance. Some real transition, challenges for him. He's a great talent. Really I think in the last four or five practices, he's probably made more progress than maybe the first 10 or 15 practices. He's very talented. 300 pounds. Really strong. Benches well over 400. He runs good. Just didn't have a lot of game reps, but he's a talent. We're not going to ask him to do a whole lot from a tactical standpoint and assignment standpoint. We have Justin Pierce at left guard. Fifth-year senior. In and out of the starting lineup throughout his career at Purdue. He's an experienced player. I think we've made a lot of progress. It's a position where continuity reaps benefits and we're just now starting to develop some continuity on the offensive line. We're about 6'5" and some change, about 320, and we have some redeeming qualities. Q. After winning four of six last games, how big an opportunity is this to sort of continue the streak that you ended on last year? COACH HOPE: Well, I think it speaks for itself. It will be a huge win for the program. We feel good about our opportunity and our chance. We feel we match up with them very well in some areas. Some areas we're going to have to make up some, if you will. It's an opportunity to springboard the program. It could be a difference maker for us in the very first game. I think the expectation going into this opener is the true difference maker for our team in 2010. Q. What do you like about things you've seen out of Logan Link that have vaulted him up the depth chart since the spring? COACH HOPE: You can trust him. I don't mean that the others have a defective character. That's not what we mean in football. He's a smart guy that has been around the program for a while. He knows what to do. He does it to the best of his ability. He has some talent, has a good body, good size and good speed. He will hit you. He'll study his film, know his alignments and assignments, give you all he's got. That's how he emerged as a starter coming out of the spring. He has a lot of competition. We've done a good job in the recruiting process. He is competing. He'll be a starter in our opener. I like the fact he'll line up right, give you all he has, has the ability to get it done. Q. Was there something that opened your eyes, that you suddenly saw? COACH HOPE: Opportunity knocked. We didn't have anybody else to line up back there in the spring. It was either him or me. I didn't have eligibility left. He had an opportunity to shine because there was no one else there. He did a great job. He was awarded with a scholarship. He's competing to be a number one. Whether he plays a lot, he'll help a lot. He's a good special teams player. Q. How is Justin better than when he was a receiver in training camp? COACH HOPE: He's a lot different. When you sit out of football, it really take its toll from a stamina standpoint, a change of direction standpoint. You can do all the off-season training that you want, it's not the same as playing the game. That's why we have camp. I think he's come a long ways. He didn't play as fast as he was when camp started. Most of the guys that I've been around over the years that have moved to the wide receiver position, they get gassed first. That's the first thing they experience. They cannot believe how much they have to run. Never had a guy that moved over to the wide receiver position that didn't shake his head after the first couple days and say, I don't know if I'm going to make it. He's in good football shape now. I think he's getting his pads down lower. Certainly has a lot more arm swing as he shoves off the ball with his route running. He was high coming off the ball, wasn't sure in the beginning of camp. He's trimmed down some. He was 223 pounds when camp started. He's down to the mid or upper teens. Five pounds makes a big difference on a racehorse in a big race. He's trimmed down some. He's in good shape. He's a play-maker that's come a long way since camp started. Very pleased with Justin. I don't think anybody will be surprised. He's a player. Q. What challenges do a 3-4 defense present? COACH HOPE: Probably the biggest challenge is you don't see it as often as you do the 4-3. Someone asked me that question yesterday. I remember, seems like yesterday, two and a half decades or so ago, everyone's base defense was a 3-4. You can pull out the playbooks from the 1970s and '80s, all the offensive plays were drawn up against an Oakie front or 3-4 defense. As teams passed the ball more, people put more guys with their hands down, allowed them to get a field to create a pass-rush. Over the years, people have changed with the spread offense. Now you might need more guys to play up on two feet to defend the spread. The return of the 3-4 is the result of the emergence of a spread offense, the groupings and personnel changes. Completely opposite of what you normally see. You normally see the guards covered and the tackles uncovered. Now you have the center covered with a head up, the guards uncovered and the tackles covered. Most of your rules on the offensive line are based on covered or uncovered rules and principles. Covered I do this, if I'm uncovered, I do this. Doesn't matter whether it's a guard or tackle that's covered or uncovered, they have a rule that applies. Probably lack of familiarity. Usually you'll see an Oakie passing situation in a 3-4, against different spread offenses. But this is their base. So we've worked against something that's different than we work on against every day. I think it's going to help us down the road because everyone is going to use it some and we've done a lot of work on it already. We've had advance training with regards to the 3-4 or the Oakie front for the new season. It's a good thing. Q. New center, he has to make calls. What is his role going against this defense? COACH HOPE: Obviously, you got to take care of the snap. Someone asked me earlier in camp about the center's role, making the calls. I think football has changed a lot. Because of crowd noise and all the different types of things that the defenses will present to an offense, from a challenge standpoint, schemes and looks, you have to try to minimize the amount of thinking that you have to do. I remember when I was at Purdue here the last time, I don't know how we went about protecting the quarterback, what schemes we used, what rules we applied to get that done. We still have the same schemes, but different rules to apply in order to get it done. We simplify it. There's a lot less thinking in this offensive line play now in Purdue's offense, even though theoretically it looks the same to you guys, it's about the same in 85% of the system. It gives us a lot of liberties. But I think the fact that we've simplified it the last six or seven years, that was one of the things I had to do when I left Purdue and went to Eastern Kentucky, with this Joe Tiller spread offense, different types of people to work with. I don't see the calling of plays to be a challenge for Peter. He's got to get the ball to the quarterback and then block the guy over the top of him. That's the challenge. That's enough, okay? Big, good nose guard. Q. I didn't know if they would blitz more and he would have to be responsible or telling the rest of the line. COACH HOPE: We don't have time for all that. There's going to be a lot of noise. It's going to happen in a hurry. Their rules will allow them to take certain sets on alignment and assignment. Every defender they can possibly bring, if they apply their rules, they're efficient with it. If someone runs through there unscathed, that means someone didn't apply their rule properly. I'm seriously. Q. You'll know who it is? COACH HOPE: We'll know who it is (laughter). We'll tell you that one in a hurry. The quarterback has to have someone to go to, get himself in a different protection, whatever the plan might be. We'll make some mistakes up front, but I'm not worried about a paralysis-to-analysis situation that's there. He's got to execute well. Q. You may have talked about this in camp, what are the responsibilities for the coordinators? Is one up in the box, one on the field? COACH HOPE: We'll have Coach Emanuel on the field and Coach Landholm up in the box along with some other coaches. That's a great situation for us. I really like the potential that we have from a résumé standpoint on the defensive side of the ball where we have enough strength résumé-wise to do a better job with our advanced scouting reports. I think we're further ahead and will be further ahead in preparation for our opponents because of what we have from a résumé standpoint. Q. Will one guy prep most for that or is it combination what your game plan will be? COACH HOPE: We have been practicing what they're going to do in the game. Coach Emanuel is ready to serve his role on the sidelines, and Coach -- Q. I meant sharing game plans up to the game. COACH HOPE: It's not a coordinator thing. All of the coaches are part of the game plan. The actual play calling on Saturday, is the least cumbersome thing of them all. It's getting ready to call the play. When I was here before, we had a great staff offensively. Jim Chaney was our coordinator. We do it the same way now. We didn't have a play on the call sheet that everyone on the staff didn't feel good about. If you weren't all on the same page, it didn't go on the call sheet. There are plays that are called out based on down and distance on both sides of the ball that I could put you up in the press box, tell you the down and distance, you could put your finger on there. Any one of those choices we feel good about. It's not near as complicated as what you think. The decisions are made way before game day. We're practicing those decisions now with the idea we'll become excellent at that and execute them in the game. Q. I would assume you would play some nickel coverage because they're going to throw the ball a lot. Do you know who the nickel back would be? COACH HOPE: Nickel, dime, we got it all in, absolutely. Q. Do you know who would play? COACH HOPE: What kind of question is that (laughter)? Q. Will you share? COACH HOPE: I got nickel and dime ready. Absolutely we know. Q. Who will be in those packages for you? COACH HOPE: We haven't released our final depth chart yet because they're still competing at some spots. We'll release it here in a couple of days. We have a host of defensive backs back there. From a rotation standpoint, playing some nickel and dime, 50 cents, all the way up to the dollar, allow us to get more guys in the game. That's going to be a big part of the plan Saturday, we'll play a lot of guys, that we need to get experience, that we can win with. We can't keep them on the shelf and improve as a football team. That's exciting to our players. Everybody getting on that bus has a chance to play Saturday. Q. The last time you opened at Notre Dame stadium was in 1980. Where were you? COACH HOPE: 1980, I was wrapping up my senior year in college, just married Sally. No telling what was going on. Long time ago. Q. The number of true freshmen you have on the depth chart we have in front of us, about five. When you started camp, did you see that as a possibility to get that many freshmen on there? COACH HOPE: That and maybe more when it's all said and done. Freshmen are new guys. We have a couple junior college guys that can fit in, obviously will fit in. So new faces. When I say 'new faces,' there's a bunch. But certainly a possibility of five true freshmen. Q. What eventually has separated some of these guys in the secondary? Is there a common theme that has happened with this group that these four or five guys have kind of separated? COACH HOPE: Consistency of performance is usually the bottom line. But staying healthy. We had guys that missed practice some as a result of a minor injury or two. That can set a guy back a little bit. Again, when the competition is tough, opportunity knocks, a guy can cash in. So consistency of performance in practice is number one. Then, again, some of the guys that got the most reps at certain things, further along at certain things. We're going to play them all. We need them all to get it done. That's going to be fun. Q. What is your expectations for Robert on Saturday? Played his first game in Florida at the Swamp. Do you not worry about his nerves or anything come Saturday because he's been through a similar situation? COACH HOPE: There's nothing I can do to help him once they kick it off. He has played in some big games. It's important that we have a package put together for Robert that he's comfortable with. Can't go in there with the whole playbook. It's too much. We're going to do the things we're good at and try to do them to some degree of excellence, better than our opponent. There's some things he does very well if we take care of Robert, if we have enough skill people on the perimeter for him to get the ball to, we have a chance to win, win against anybody. We'll go as our quarterback goes. That happens a lot. The opponent is in the same boat. First game, you know, interesting in some ways because, again, that's when there's a lot of these first-game blunders. We have to get Robert in position to be successful. That's up to the coaches play-calling-wise and scheme-wise to get him in a position to be successful. If he's successful, our team is going to be successful. Q. Have you ironed out the return game who will be back on kickoffs? COACH HOPE: We have two or three different guys that we're looking at back there. We like Al back there, Danny Dierking, O.J. Ross, Antavian Edison. We got some guys that we're comfortable with returning kicks and punts. We'll make a call here the next couple days. You start looking at what you have to go against offensively and defensively and personnel-wise where you might utilize different guys throughout different times of the game, if you feel like one guy can be playing earlier in the game because he's been out there before, ease someone into it, you might rotate those guys on special teams some. But all those guys are good skill players that can manufacture good plays in a return game. Obviously, special teams will be a factor Saturday. Q. Do you have an emergency kicker in case the kicking world falls apart and you have to turn to a good athlete on your team? COACH HOPE: Well, we have our punter. Cody Webster, he kicked off in high school, good kicker in high school. Most of those guys are referred to as combo guys. They can punt and place kick. In our recruiting process, we like to recruit the combo guys. It makes a difference in how many specialists you might take on the bus or the airplane. If you have a guy that can do both, it make a spot available for another position. Obviously, Carson Wiggs is an outstanding specialist, outstanding field goal kicker, done a great job kicking the ball off. He's a very good punter as well. Cody Webster is a very good punter. He boomed them in practice. Even the one he shanked has gone a good distance. He's also proficient at kicking off. Not where Carson is at. Cody has only had a week to start polishing off his kickoffs. But we have two specialists that will get on the bus to travel to South Bend that are capable of doing both, so we're okay. Q. Staying with true freshmen, staying with the secondary. What was it at camp that impressed you about Ricardo Allen? Did he back up everything you thought about him? COACH HOPE: And more so. A lot of times you see a film on a guy. Anymore it's all highlight tape. You have to evaluate so many. 25 years ago you wouldn't look at highlight tape, you want to see the real film. You didn't recruit near as many to get what you have to get now because of technology, numbers, explode in the recruiting process. The pool size is phenomenal when it starts off. If a guy is not good enough on the highlight tape on his best plays, you move on for the most part. You could miss a diamond in the rough, a developmental player. If you don't like him on his highlight tape, he's probably not going to get the first offer. Ricardo had a great highlight tape. A lot of times freshmen will come to camp, they're an outstanding player. He has shined since the day he got here. Most of us that have been around here for a while think he's one of the better ones we've been around as a freshman. He's tough, likes to hit, fast, doesn't wear down very often, really pushes himself. He loves football. Has unbelievable passion. He studies it on his own. Drives people crazy around here in the summertime. 6:00 in the morning waiting for the other guys to run an hour and a half later. He's a guy that loves it. He's a very good player. He's done everything you would want a corner to do freshman or veteran. He lines up right, executes the details of his assignment and alignment. Very good player. Very good player. Q. Would it be a great way to describe him that he plays big? He doesn't have the great size for a corner, but everybody talks about how tough he is. COACH HOPE: I guess. I any he plays great. Doesn't matter if you're a 6-footer or 5'10", get the measuring tape, he's a great player. He's an outstanding football player. One of the great players on his position in our football team, in our league, possibly on a national level. He's an outstanding defensive back prospect. He has a knack for some of those things that you want. Very tough position to play. Sometimes having a knack for things goes a long ways. He has a knack for some of the things we want him to do. Q. When you face an offense that plays at the sort of tempo maybe it sounds like Notre dame is going to play at, one of the challenges has seemed to be applying pressure on the quarterback. Is that something that's going to be especially important on Saturday? COACH HOPE: Well, we have pressure that we can utilize with No. 94 and No. 2. We don't have to call a play to get him in a game. Those guys carry pressure without a blitz being called. You want to give them different looks so you'll have some checks that are built in based on what they present that you can go to. But that's one of the reasons why people like to run that high football (indiscernible). It can limit the number of things you can signal in or arsenals you can bring in from the sidelines. You have to have a plan. We know what they do. They're in the same boat. We could run the exact same offense. We can crank them out as fast as the next guy or slow them down. Nothing novel. It's part of football, something we deal with on a regular basis. Q. In your runningback equation, you've been asked a lot about Ralph and Al, very high in your praise for Reggie. What do you enjoy about coaching Dan? COACH HOPE: Everything about him. He gives you all he has. He's got a great attitude. He's a good football player, don't misunderstand me. He's fast, tough, catches the ball well. He's one of our best blockers on our football team, one of our special teams players. He's got the same smile on his face regard he is. Whether he's practicing for three hours or three minutes, he gives you all he has. Exceptional work ethic. Team first type guy. You can count on him. If you have Dan in the game or in the huddle in practice, you call a play, odds are he's going to get the job done. That's what I like about Dan Dierking. But his attitude is contagious. It rubs off on the guys around him. Great blue-collar work ethic about him. Always has a smile on his face. Loves practice. A lot of guys don't like practice. He loves practice. Rubs off on the guys around him. I can't say enough good things about him. He's what coaching is all about. Q. On the defensive side, is there a player that is similar to Dan in any way how you just described him? Is there a player that has his kind of mentality? COACH HOPE: Off the top of my head I wouldn't want to single anyone out. Not off the top of my head. It would be an answer that I hadn't put a lot of thought into. I wouldn't want to give you one of those if you don't mind. Q. You talked a lot about Carson. As strong as I saw his leg last year, is it even stronger this year? How is that possible, if so? COACH HOPE: He certainly has a stronger leg. Sometimes people equate that with weight lifting and size and girth. Kind of like coming back a year later, playing golf with a guy, saying, Man, you swing the club so much longer. The guy hasn't been in the weight room one time. He's more efficient at kicking. He's kicked some long ones. He's been five out of six on his field goals over 60 yards, which is good. He's kicked some further than I've seen anyone kick ever. I remember we lined up I think for a 67 yarder the other day after he made a 62 and a 64, I believe. 67 yarder, which I believe is a record. Someone asked how far it was. Coach Gibboney said, What does it matter, he kicks it the same way. It's the mechanics and the efficiency level. The mechanics has improved. A kickoff is different than a field goal. I think last year that's where he fell short a little bit in his performance was on his kickoffs. I think he's improved his technique, which will allow him to kick it off further, affect field position drastically, and accrue some touchbacks as well. His leg is stronger. He's better at it now. He's done really well. We attempted a 70 yarder. He had plenty of room. Just barely missed the uprights. Over to the right a foot or two, it would have been 70 something. So he can nail them. Q. You said you're excited to see where you're at going against a tough opponent like Notre Dame. What will that first game tell you? COACH HOPE: Where we're at, things that we have to work on. There's an old cliché in football: win or lose, you'll hear it after the game Saturday, you never improve as much as you do from the first game to the second game. That's very, very true. The further along we are when we open up against Notre Dame, the further along we're going to be when the game is over. I think it will give us an idea of where we're at and what we still need to work on. I think we have an idea going in. We watch our guys all day long on film in practice. I think we have an idea on where we need to improve the most. We're training them to put them on the big stage here Saturday. Seeing where they're at is exciting. We have great potential as a football team. We're very young. We're inexperienced in some areas. But I like what we have to work with. Q. You also mentioned somebody that goes on the bus will have an opportunity to play. COACH HOPE: 'Everyone' might be an overstatement. Most of the guys in the two-deep, defensive side of the ball, will have a chance to see the field on Saturday. Skill-wise on offense, those guys need fresh legs. Skill-wise I'm sure we'll go into the two-deep. We'll try to rotate some other guys at some other spots. Just at the two-deep will have a chance to play on Saturday. You might play two guys at the same spot an equal amount of time, might come out with a clear-cut starter for next week. It's a work in progress. We're getting better daily. Q. You said between week one and week two there's that biggest difference. You said the tempo and the urgency of practice this summer has been different. Can you go into the details? What has been different? COACH HOPE: I think the commitment from our guys all summer long. We have almost 90 guys here involved in summer school. They have to be in summer school now because we have an academic reform mandated by the NCAA. We have a certain amount of progress towards your degree or you can't play. There are a lot of guys already here for summer school anyway. But the number of guys that showed up when it wasn't mandatory to work out, guys that showed up to throw and catch when it's not mandatory for them to do so, guys that stepped up as leaders when guys weren't showing up and got them involved. I thought we had a great summer preparation coming into camp. I think the fact that we're opening up with Notre Dame created a sense of urgency which created some commitment and energy for our football team. We asked each guy on the team to try to lead by example. I thought that was a good marching order for our guys because we came out of spring ball not sure where we were at from a leadership standpoint, not many seniors coming back, a lot of our top guys out for spring. I thought our guys did a good job of keeping their noses to the grindstone and our leaders have emerged. Q. You said how big it would be to win at Notre Dame. What would it mean to win that first game and start the season right? COACH HOPE: I think it could do some of the same things for the program that the big wins from last year did for us. It rallies up all the Boilermaker Nation. Gets national attention. Bring great proving credibility to the development and direction of our program. Certainly a huge coup, if you will, in the record books. There's a million things to gain from a win and a million things to gain from appearing to win. We can't lose Saturday, we can't. Q. What's the hardest part of that Notre Dame? They beat you 15 of the last 16 times in South Bend. What makes it tough to win there? COACH HOPE: They have a lot of great players. You get a bunch of great players over the last two or three decades, those numbers might be different. We talked to the team the other day. You can't pay a whole lot of attention to the numbers. We had a team that came in here last year, 16 road conference games, went 20 games without beating a ranked opponent here at Purdue. Had one at Ann Arbor since I was six or seven years old. Those numbers you're talking about don't seem that big to our guys. It's mind over matter, if you don't mind. Q. Going into Notre Dame, you've seen a sense of urgency in your practices because you're opening at Notre Dame. Is it true you'd rather open with a big opponent than ease into a schedule? COACH HOPE: As long as they don't have a game before ours, as long as it's even. If they had a game before we played them, I'd have concerns. I've been in that boat before. That's really tough because they've already weathered some of their errors or first-game blunders. It's Even-Steven we have a new quarterback, they have a new quarterback. They got some great guys, we got some great guys. Whoever plays the best is the team that's going to win. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much. COACH HOPE: Thanks for being here. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|