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PURDUE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 26, 2010

Danny Hope

Q. Coach, how are your guys responding so far to the last game? What has the mood been like, and what's been the approach up to this point?
COACH HOPE: Certainly we've moved on. We have some work to do, and we have to get at it in a hurry because it won't take long for Saturday to get here. You know, we thought we had a heck of a game plan going into the Ohio State game. We weren't able to execute it well enough to give ourselves a chance to compete to win so we have to put that behind us and move on.
We have a great group of young people that work hard and stick together. So I'm not surprised that they came back out Sunday excited about getting ready to play the game again. So from an attitude standpoint or an effort standpoint, these guys will get an A, as far as the letter grade goes. I know that's big nowadays. We'll move on and start getting ready for the next game.
But we're okay. We're okay with that part. We have some mending to do so that we can execute. But from an attitude standpoint and effort standpoint, we're just fine. Thank you for asking.

Q. Are there some similarities in terms of the game at Madison last year, because that one didn't go well, and similar in terms? And you came back last year and won two out of three and finished strong. Can you draw anything from that?
COACH HOPE: The opportunity is similar in some ways. We have more wins now under our belt. Obviously, we learned a lot from the great success that we had in the second half of the season.
We have to get all the parts in place to be able to be successful, and that's a challenge. Certainly we'd like to repeat that great effort and great production in the second half of the season that we had last year, but we have to get all the pieces in the right places in order to make it happen.
We learned some things from last year that we can always reflect back on and hang our hat on that would give us reason to believe that we can do great things. But we have to get the pieces in place right now.

Q. What is the latest with Rob and what happens at the quarterback position if he's unable to go?
COACH HOPE: Obviously, he was injured in the game. It was a freak thing. It could have happened against any opponent. We're optimistic that he might be able to play this weekend.
There was a laceration on his throwing hand, and the infection part is the biggest concern. As long as it's clean and stays healthy, there is a good chance that he'll be ready to go and help us win on Saturday.
Obviously, we're very lean at the quarterback position. That's why I was late. We were having some quarterback tryouts. Just kidding you (laughing). Might not be a bad idea.
But we are getting down numbers-wise at that spot. It was something that we would have never envisioned to happen. But theoretically, we're down to our fourth and fifth team guys based on where we're at with the season.
But the silver lining to it is we have -- we're optimistic that we'll have Rob Henry back this weekend, so we'll have to wait and see. And we have Sean Robinson who is a talented player and a good passer. And we don't have to change offenses if Sean Robinson is the guy.

Q. You were mentioning a little bit about the silver lining and Sean?
COACH HOPE: We're glad we have him. If we didn't have him, we could be in some serious trouble because he's a talented player that we recruited and he's a good passer. He's really competitive. He's smart. He has good football smarts. He's always into what's going on and that helps.
That was one of the messages I sent to the team the other day about how important it is that regardless where you are on the depth chart, you really need to be into it. Sometimes it's easy to get lost in that depth chart somewhere and not be at the top of your game in some ways.
But Sean's a guy who is always into it, so we're very fortunate to have him here in our program and that he's been into it. So the silver lining to it is we still have Sean Robinson.

Q. Then is Justin back yet? Do you envision him being back, and, if so, would he be in the quarterback mix?
COACH HOPE: Well, I wish he was back because we're running out of candidates. He's a good quarterback candidate, but he's not healthy yet, and we're still not sure where that's going to be at.
I was really hoping that he would be further along on Sunday, but it's a day-to-day thing. There is a good chance that we can do some things to start getting him ready. And he's an outstanding athlete. He throws the ball very well, but he didn't play football for a whole year. Then he went through camp and he went through three or four games and then he's been out.
Again, it's a challenge to get him ready. But he certainly is a candidate, as long as he's healthy and we get the green light. We're optimistic that will happen to some degree.

Q. If he's not back and it doesn't work out, you go to the fourth and fifth or sixth, seventh option?
COACH HOPE: Well, we have a young man that is a really good teammate and that is a hard worker that walked on a year ago by the name of Skyler Titus. I have to check to make sure I said his name right. I've been calling him Tyler Skitus up to about a week ago. I'm just kidding with that.
But he's a guy that competes well on the scout team and does some things at the quarterback position. So we'll have to get him ready as well. There isn't anybody else after that.

Q. That's it?
COACH HOPE: Uh-huh.

Q. You're facing an Illinois team that's improved a lot from last year, in particular their defense. Can you talk about that improvement and what the particular aspects of the defense have made the turn around for them?
COACH HOPE: I think their whole football team has done great this year. They have a whole new attitude. That comes with winning, a lot of the same players are back. The new coordinators have come on board and really made an impact. But they're playing with a whole new attitude and they're winning. And sometimes those two go together.
Defensively they do some things up front that can give you some trouble. They're very strong at the defensive tackle position. They're really good at the defensive tackle position. They have linebackers that run really well and they're very sound in the secondary.
They do some things from a schematic standpoint that you have to game plan against, and that you have to be very detailed in order to create offense against. So they have good players. They're playing with a whole new attitude, and they've got some really good schemes that they're executing on both sides of the ball. But you had asked about defense.
Offensively, they have a great running back. I thought he was one of the better players we played against last year. Big back wears No. 5. I thought he was exceptional in our game last year. The guy that comes in behind him is really a good player.
Their quarterback is playing very well. Even though he's only in his second year, he is a big part of what they do. He's a significant part of the amount of yards that they accrue as a runner and a passer.
They run him a little bit different than maybe the quarterback we faced against Northwestern. Where their quarterback manufactured most of his runs as a result of tucking the ball down and taking it off and running with it on passing situations. He did a great job with that.
Their quarterback does some of that as well, but a lot of their run game that he's involved in is manufactured for him. They're designed quarterback run plays. So you have to lineup and have a plan to try to slow down their great stable of running backs.
They're very, very talented at the running back position, and they have an excellent plan to feature their quarterback as a runner as well. He does a really good job of passing the football from a statistics standpoint.
It's not quite as accomplished at this point in the season as the Northwestern quarterback was a couple weeks ago. I think he was leading the nation in passing efficiency when we played against him. But the quarterback at Illinois was exceptional as well.

Q. How confident are you that you can put together an offensive game plan knowing that you have to go with Sean? I would imagine you have to scale some things back, right? That's a big time challenge, is it not, this week?
COACH HOPE: I don't know if we have to scale things back. It is a huge challenge, but that's okay. That's what we do for a living. It's tougher on the position coaches because they're the ones that have to get the teaching done.
It all sounds fine when we go in there and sit down and talk about the master plan. This is how we're going to get it done. Now get those guys and get them ready. But there is some teaching involved.
It's kind of like signing up or enrolling late in a really hard class. You've got a lot of cramming to do to get it done, and it falls on the student and the professor.
So it is a huge challenge for our players and a huge challenge for the position coaches, not just at the quarterback spot. That trickles down everywhere. We've had some attrition in the secondary which came at a tough time. We were without Albert Evans last week, and he is one of our better players and really the only starter we had back from last year.
So we played some new guys, which is okay. They're talented guys and guys that we believe in and we recruited them. I know they can be good players, but you lose some experience back there when Albert Evans is not there. And we lost some experience when Mike Eargle wasn't out there. Those are the guys that have been playing.
Mike has been a starter in some groupings and has been our third corner a lot of times throughout the course of the season, and that's a really important spot. So we take the red shirt off Normando Harris, and he's a good prospect and a physical guy. Really good football player, but brand-new to playing in the games.
So we have to do some mending on the offensive side, we have to do some mending on the defensive side, and then that trickles down to special teams.
One of our goals special teams-wise was to keep many of our top players as we could on special teams. But when you look out there and the last starting corner you have, are you sure you want him fielding every kick and covering every kick?
So we have to sit down and spend a lot of time as a staff rearranging the personnel to allow us an opportunity to win and keep the best players on the field and, at the same time, get some guys on the field that can fill in for some starters that we can also win with.
So there's been a lot of time spent in the last couple of days from a personnel management standpoint with myself and the defensive staff and with the offensive staff, and obviously with some special teams.

Q. Are you worried about Gary Nord's state of mind? At this point he's having to do with one new quarterback after another after another?
COACH HOPE: No, I don't worry about his state of mind. I've known him forever. I've seen him worse off than this (laughing). We've been through some really tough coaching situations together.
But it is frustrating in some ways when you have to start from scratch, not entirely, but you still have to start over again sometimes. We had to do it often in 2010, and it's a challenge.
When I was an offensive line coach all those years, you were always trying to get somebody from the defense to move over to offense. Which one of those defensive linemen was the one that may not be the guy that's going to be your two-deep or your starter next year, and I'd like to have him on offense. You keep fighting for him and fighting for him, and at the last minute they give him to you and they expect you to get him ready to play right now.
If you could have given him to me last spring, I would have had him ready, but now you're giving him to me the week before the first game. So that's kind of the situation he's in. He's having to realign and start over in some ways, so that's a challenge.
I'm not so worry about his state of mind. He can handle it. There's nothing he can't handle. He's been in some really challenging coaching situations, and I think he's one of the absolute best in the business at any level.

Q. It's got to be frustrating because given all the injuries you can never really tell how good your football team could be, should have been, right?
COACH HOPE: You can say that about everything in life. How good I could have been or should have been, you and me and everybody in this room, everything we've been a part of. We can't sit around and focus on that.
Thank goodness we have young people that are having fun. That are sticking together. That are happy here at Purdue. We trust them and they trust us, and we can press forward with a goal in mind.
But you can't dwell on that. Every now and then I reflect and think, boy, this is what the master plan was going to be going into the season and it was a heck of a plan. But it doesn't matter now. We have to take with what we have, and we still have enough to go score enough points and enough players to defend people's offenses and enough players to play good special teams and still win. But it's a challenge.

Q. So by no means are you the coach that sits around and wonders why the football Gods are throwing all this at you and having to cope with some of this?
COACH HOPE: You know better than that. I don't believe in all of that. Every man's in charge of his own destiny. Normally in life you can believe what you can put your hands on.

Q. Finally about Kent State pulling out of their contract. How much of a mind does that put you guys in, and can you bring us up to date on what the options are? Where do you go from here to fill that season opening void?
COACH HOPE: It's a curveball at a bad time, that's all. How's the old saying go? Life throws you a curveball, you adjust your swing. That's what we have to do right now. There is nothing else can you do about it.
We have to go look for someone else to fill in that spot. So we're spending some time on it. Morgan Burke is spending more time on that than Coach Hope is right now. We're trying to get our team ready to play.
He and I meet with our football ops guy on a regular basis and the progress of that. But it is what it is. Bad timing, bad business, so what.

Q. You seem optimistic on Sunday about getting guys Eargle, Kitchens, and Dierking back. Where are you with those guys today?
COACH HOPE: We'll find out more this afternoon when we get them out there and start practicing. A lot of it may be pieced together as we go throughout the course of the week. So I really don't know what to tell you until we get out there.
But my marching order, if you will, as a staff is to take the guys that are relief pitchers and get them ready to start the game. If the starters can go, we'll bring them in on the mound. That's the way we have to go about it right now.

Q. I've seen reports that Henry lost his fingernail completely?
COACH HOPE: What kind of reports?

Q. In other publications. Is that accurate that he's lost his fingernail?
COACH HOPE: This close, parts of it.

Q. Can you not clarify then?
COACH HOPE: I don't want to elaborate. You guys know.

Q. How much of the defense do you play -- do you pretty much play zone exclusively?
COACH HOPE: No. A lot of times based on -- it's the same everywhere. We're no different than anyone else. Everyone does the same things everywhere else, or they have the same choices to pick out of. We call it our own names.
But there is a lot of zone coverage based on formations that certain route releases turn into man coverage, and sometimes it's just straight man coverage. Sometimes it's man underneath and zone behind it. So we play zone, and we play man.

Q. I didn't know with inexperience if you thought you had to play more.
COACH HOPE: Well, you'd think it would be easier if you were inexperienced to play more man, because you don't have to divvy anything up. I got my guy. But we have some manned coverage that's built into some of our zone coverage based on route releases and formations.
So we'll have to do both on Saturday. We can't change entirely what we do. We're optimistic we'll get some of these guys back. But, again, we have to get the relief pitchers ready to be starters right now.

Q. Do you know if Sean Robinson, obviously is from Springfield, was a fan of Illinois growing up?
COACH HOPE: I don't really know. I'm sure he was. I'm not from Illinois, and I'm a fan of theirs, so I'm sure he is or he was.
Any time you go back to your home state and play, it's always a big deal. I don't care where you're from. I remember when I was a player all the way back to 1979 and we went down to Orlando and played in the Tangerine Bowl in the National Championship and a third of our football team was from Florida, and we couldn't wait to go home and play in front of our family and friends.
A lot of times you get a person's best play. And Logan Link sure played great the other day when he went home. So I think that's always pretty novel and unique to a player when he get to go home and play.

Q. Was Sean recruited by Illinois?
COACH HOPE: I'm sure he was to some degree. Sometimes the recruiting process is a little more vague than what everyone assumes that it is because of the early commitments and the early offers and the way the calendar is sped up. You can't sit there and say, well, this guy's a better prospect because he had these offers compared to this guy. That's only one factor in assessing the quality of a prospect.
Sometimes if you're the first one to offer them and they jump in the bowl and that's the only offer they had, then all of a sudden he doesn't get ranked very high. If he held out and had a bunch of offers, he'd get ranked higher. I don't know where they were at in the recruiting process.
Sometimes you recruit more than one guy at a spot, and someone else jumps in the bowl first, so I'm sure at some point in time they were recruiting him.

Q. He talked about after the game last week that he was really nervous when he came in against Minnesota, not so much against Ohio State. I would assume you hope the more reps he gets, the more comfortable he gets, right? Where do you think he is in that mindset right now?
COACH HOPE: I think that's a great testament on his part. You would think he'd more nervous going into a big stage. Like a great team like Ohio State, you would think you can't get anymore nervous than that scenario.
But any time you do something for the first time in life, the first time you get up and speak in public, first time you get married, whatever it is, first time you do everything there is some apprehension involved.
So I can see where he wasn't quite as nervous the second go around. He'll be even more comfortable today. He had some success on Saturday. He stepped up there and threw some nice strikes and he did some good things. I was pleased with some of the things he did on Saturday.
Same way with Rob Henry. I thought he went out there and was a little out of sync early. Lot of speed, lot of heat coming after you. I thought really in the second half he had settled down some, and we were executing the offense a lot better, and he was doing some things better. Felt the same way about Sean Robinson as well.

Q. If Rob's cleared to play and he starts, is the plan still to play Sean as many reps as you can on Saturday?
COACH HOPE: Yeah, and we've been trying to do that anyway. We talked about it ever since Robert Marve went down, we were taking the red shirt off Sean Robinson and we were going to play him.
That is the best way to develop a guy is to get him on the field. Just the timing of it sometimes is a challenge. I know Normando Harrison is a lot better player today than he was last week because he's been on the field a little bit. And the same with Sean Robinson, we have to keep playing him.

Q. After looking at the tape with the secondary, where did the break downs come from?
COACH HOPE: Well, I'm not going to name names because it doesn't really matter. But it was a couple of things. Number one, they're a very good football team. They have a great quarterback. That's why he's a Heisman candidate. They don't just give those out. You have to be pretty good to get on the list. But he's a great quarterback.
We had some new guys in the game that had some missed assignments and created some really big holes. And that was the issue on a couple of really big passes. Where even when we had some pressure on him and were chasing him around a little bit, he raised up and kind of alley-ooped a couple down in the middle of the field somewhere and there was a guy wide open. Those are busts. Those are missed assignments.
Couple of times we had guys on the field that were new, and even though they were in the right spot at the right time, they needed to stick their foot on the ground and get on the ball and rally up and make the play quicker.
It's a game of inches and a game of a tenth of a second sometimes, particularly with really good players.
So I go in and watch the film with the defensive staff and there is a huge gainer. I can see the big hole in the middle of the field, well, somebody's not in the right spot. I'm smart enough to figure that part out. I look at the next play, and there's a big gainer and we're in the right spot.
Well, what does he have to do to defend it? He's got to come off his break a little bit. Because there's not that much margin for error, particularly when we got close to the red zone a couple times. There is very little margin for error down there in the passing game. Those are the two things in my mind.
And we played against an outstanding football team. But guys in the wrong spot, some, because of newness. Then the guys that were in the right spot that needed to get out of the break in a hurry and rally up so an 8-yard gain didn't turn into a 20-yard gain, those two things.

Q. Just with Robert Maci, what has he done recently to earn more playing time?
COACH HOPE: I'm glad that you asked about him because he's a coach's dream in a lot of ways. He keeps going hard. He goes hard. He goes hard all the time. He really understands football. He has a good football mind. He has a good motor. He goes about his business like he's a starter this year, and he always has.
Last year he was our top player on special teams. I believe that's a true statement. I believe he's our top point getter on special teams, so he's got a good motor and it means a lot to him to be on the field.
This year our top player on special teams is Chris Carlino. He's way ahead of everyone else from a point standpoint. He's a guy that wants to get out there and play and set his hair on fire and get after it. That's a lot of big fire. I saw the look on your face. What a torch (laughing). That was good.
But Robert's got a good motor. And Gerald Gooden has not been 100% throughout the course of the season. I feel like he's only been close to 100% a couple of games. He's had an injury that he's been dealing with for a long period of time right now, and sometimes it can negate his performance a little bit. That's opened the door for Robert Maci.
Similar to Danny Dierking in some ways. Because even though when Danny wasn't a starter, he was willing to outwork everyone else. And sometimes he didn't get some opportunities that maybe he deserved. But when his time came, he stepped up and was a hero to our football team.
And I think Robert Maci goes about his business very similar to Dan Dierking. You're going to get his best all the time. You really are, and that's why he's doing well.
He's got good get off. He's a little bigger and stronger this year. He's sure about his assignments and alignments. He's a good football player that's coming on. And he's got a couple of years of eligibility left, so he's going to get bigger and stronger and be a really good player.

Q. What do you have to do on offense to improve the third down numbers?
COACH HOPE: Well, we have to execute. You know, that depends on if it's 3rd and long or 3rd and short, there is a big difference. But we have to execute.
Obviously, that's a challenge when you don't have the same lineup. We're on our third or fourth quarterback in seven games. So that can negate your execution percentage a little bit. And 3rd down is a tough down anyway. It's a money down. So if you're not executing really well, then it's hard to be really good at third down. So we have to execute really well.
If it's 3rd and short, we'll have to execute better. 3rd and long, we have to execute better pass-protection-wise, and throwing and catching wise. But we have to execute better.

Q. You've talked in the past about efficiency on offense, and some of that just better execution on first and second downs so you can get a 3rd and 1?
COACH HOPE: Well, a lot of times, I know when I was here before, Coach Chaney was our offensive coordinator. And every week we'd sit down and come up with what we referred to as the keys to victory, and we still do that. There are a million keys to victory but four or five things that you're really going to hang your hat on.
And he would always bark out the same one every week, First down efficiency. So it was a lot easier to call plays on first down. So his key to victory always was first down efficiency. You know, as a line coach, first down, second down, third down, life's a small picture in front of the other line coach.
But first down efficiency would be huge for us right now. So to be more efficient on third down and keep us out of more 3rd and longs, then we can have our choice whether or not we need to utilize a run or pass.
So first down efficiency would make a huge difference, and second down efficiency would make an even bigger difference, and that would impact the third down efficiency.

Q. Illinois comes in with a very good running back and a younger quarterback. Does that change the game plan on defense at all?
COACH HOPE: I don't think the age of the guys have anything to do with it. They're all X's and O's to us when we do our game plan. The running back is a great player. He's an outstanding player. He's similar in some ways to a really good running back that we faced against Notre Dame. Ironically, the same number, both wear No. 5.
But last year watching the game against Illinois from the sidelines, I walked off the field thinking that their big running back, No. 5, is one of the better players on the field. He's a really good football player, and the guy that rotates with him is excellent. And their quarterback is a really good football player.
It's what they do that you have to get yourself ready to defend. This is a really good quarterback, it's he's a good passer. And one of their objectives is to manufacture quarterback runs, their designed quarterback runs. Same blocking schemes, same theories behind the runs they run with their great backs, but they get themselves into position for their quarterback.
Obviously, they're a big zone-read team. So you have to be sound alignment assignment-wise. You have to be sharp mentally in regards to tendencies of alignments by the offense.
So there's going to be a lot to defend this weekend because they have a heck of a running game, and some great running backs and a quarterback that's really coming on to the scene that is a good passer and a good runner. So there is a lot to defend this weekend.

Q. Going back to Robert Maci for a second. He was a linebacker in high school, and the play he made Saturday with the interception, he lined up standing up on his feet. Because of that background, he's played linebacker. Can you do some more with him standing up on his feet?
COACH HOPE: A lot of people in college football, they drop the end off in coverage, and they'll bring the blitz from the other side. It's a zone blitz, you know. And certainly a guy that was a good linebacker in high school is a guy that could be opportunistic and dropping off into zone coverage.
Watching the film, he's a smart guy. Not only did he drop off into coverage, he got his head around in a hurry to look to see where the potential route runners would be coming prosecute and matched up just right. Fixed his hips and matched up just right so he defended it perfectly.
But maybe because he'd been there before, he understood the significance of looking over there. Like his coach had talked to him about to read the release of the route runner so he could get matched up properly compared to another guy that maybe never played that position, and had never been through that mental part of it. But it's still cropping off into the same zone, but his mindset isn't quite the same.
So you're right. There was probably some carryover from his linebacker play him being a really good zone drop ping in.
He's a good pass rusher, too. Like to have pressure on the quarterback from Robert Maci as well as dropping off into coverage. He's a good player.

Q. O.J. is averaging about 23.5 yards on kick returns. But the fact that you're still down, does that preclude you from putting him back there in the full-time?
COACH HOPE: That's a good question. Obviously, he's an exciting player. We're really excited about all the good young players that we have in this last freshman class, and guys that are coming on the field right now and being competitive and on some big stages and under bright lights. And O.J. is certainly one of those guys.
There is just two parts to being a kickoff return guy. There is the guy that catches the ball, and there is the other one back there that doesn't get the ball sometimes. He's the off returner. And that is an important job too because he's the guy that has to clean up any trash that gets through that might catch your return guy from behind or blindside him.
So we have three or four guys that we're working back there as kickoff return guys. And all of them have to be the guy that we trust to field it, and all of them have to be a guy that we can trust to be the off returner.
So he's probably the most important guy on the kickoff return team other than the guy that's catching it. So all those guys that are working back there have the potential to be the return guy and the off returner.
We got thin some on Saturday, and we wanted to get some guys in the game and see what they could do. Some guys we thought could manufacture some things for us. And we put T.J. Barbarette back there. He's really, really fast. He's been hurt for a long time. He got healthy a couple weeks ago, and we got him some on Saturday as well, and he's really, really fast. He's a good off returner as well.
So we have a handful of guys that we are comfortable with returning the kicks or being the off returner. O.J. is a candidate for either spot. T.J.'s a candidate for either spot. Al-Terek is a candidate for either spot. Danny Dierking has been a candidate for either spot. So O.J.'s going to return some kicks Saturday. He may not get them all.

Q. The only other thing I wanted to ask you about is the guys that came into the season with a lot of linebackers. What has Will Lucas done to set himself apart and carve out his place back there?
COACH HOPE: He makes a lot of plays. He -- sometimes when they come in as a freshman, before you teach them anything, they go out there and they just play football. They lineup and they run the football real fast and they tackle the ball carrier.
He did that right from the git-go, and that is a sign of a guy that can be a really good football player. Then you teach him all the things he's supposed to know and do through the position and you muddy the water for him a little bit, and we call that hitting the wall.
So Lucas came in and he looked like he was a great player the day he stepped out on the field in the spring. Then once we got him ready for the games and get him all the information that we had stored up inside of our playbook, he hit the wall a little bit.
I think the picture is clearer for him now, and he can use the information that we've been trying to teach him over the last several weeks that aid in his performance. But he's a play maker. He makes plays. He sees the play develop in front of him. His keys and reads, they go through his mind fast, and he pulls his trigger and gets there in a hurry.
He can accelerate. He gains speed as he closes on people. Some guys are fast and they do a good job pursuing to the football, and some guys are even faster. As they pursue the football, they have closing speed.
Any time you're watching high school film, if a guy demonstrates closing speed against fast people, that's a good sign. You can be a fast person that doesn't generate as much closing speed as others, and I think Will has really good closing speed.
He deciphers the plays out and he's got some punch about him when he gets there. He's a heck of a football player. There were some plays the other day that he made. It was a reverse or route that he ran at one point in time in the game. I thought man, that was a great play. He ran all the way across the field, and hit him hard. It was right there where I was standing. And I thought it was a great job.
He was locking on the guy man-to-man, and he ran that reverse. He trailed him and bird dogged him all the way there and stuffed him for a small gain. He wasn't in man coverage. He was in zone coverage. He read the play and got over there as quickly as he could have with man coverage. He has a lot of work to do, but he shows flashes of greatness at times.
I would say coming out of the game on Saturday, our top three defensive players on our football team could be Kerrigan, Ricardo Allen, Will Lucas, those are probably our three top players Saturday.

Q. How important is it for the team to have a better game on Saturday and more positive plays, especially coming off of the loss the way it was at Ohio State?
COACH HOPE: It's going to be really important if we plan to win it, obviously. So we have to. We're going to play better. It's a tough opponent.
Worst thing that could have happened Saturday was for Ohio State to get a big lead early. We had several keys to victory. Things that we hang our hat offensively, things that we'll hang our hat on defensively, things that we'll hang our hat on special teams-wise, and also some things we'll hang our hat on as a football team.
And we really believe in order to have a chance to compete with Ohio State, with a chance to win at the end of the game, you need to start off well early. We did last year, and that helped us. Wisconsin did the week before, started off well early and that gave them a chance to compete and to win.
If you get behind by three touchdowns to those guys in the first quarter, then it allows them free wheeling and dealing from a play calling standpoint. Defensively they blitzed, moved, or brought pressure every snap. They didn't have to worry about what if I bring this blitz and they throw it to somebody over there that didn't have quite as tight of coverage.
They were ahead by 20-something points. It's the same thing from the play-calling standpoint. I want to run my reverse now? Why not? I'm ahead 20-something points.
So not starting off well early to aid it to their efforts and it really negated one of our critical keys to victory. The most encouraging part was coming -- any time you get beaten like that, any time you lose badly, you wonder why. Some of the things are obvious. Anybody can see those things.
But you can't wait to get in to see the film the next morning. My biggest concern was resolved Sunday morning when I came and looked at the film and saw our guys playing hard the whole 60 minutes and doing some good things. We were outmanned some. We were down some numbers-wise. We didn't execute in some areas and they had a big lead.
The kickoff was almost out of bounds just tight roping that sideline. We had them down there. They had to go 80, 90 yards. It was almost a great play for us. It ended up being a great play for them starting off on the 40-yard line.
That was the last place I would have put the ball to start that drive if I had my druthers. The next thing you know we have a mucked punt situation that was something no one could control. One of those freak type things that happened.
So now they get the ball again on I think it was the 30-something yard line, plus 30-something yard line going in. So it got ugly in a hurry, and that made it a great challenge for our football team that we couldn't overcome.

End of FastScripts

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