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PURDUE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 9, 2010Danny HopeTHE MODERATOR: Questions for coach. Q. Coach, I was just wondering how much improvement you saw from Sean Robinson last week getting thrown into the situation a couple weeks ago? COACH HOPE: I thought he played a lot better Saturday and certainly has a lot of room for improvement. But I thought he made a significant amount of progress from when he came into the game versus Illinois compared to how he started the game off against Wisconsin this past weekend. There are some things that he did that the normal fan doesn't see. He got us into some really good checks. We had some run plays that were called and they had some fronts that weren't all that good to run the plays against. And Sean got us out of some bad run plays and into some good plays. So he did a good job, I thought with his checks and he was more composed this past Saturday than he was the Saturday before. Q. As you look at Michigan, maybe your thoughts on them offensively? I know there might be some uncertainty whether Robinson will be playing or not, does that change your approach as to whether he's playing or not? COACH HOPE: I don't think it changes anything game plan-wise. Obviously, we've had that conversation, but they were able to run the same offense with both guys. One they pass a little bit more, one they run a little bit more. But they don't change offenses. They have a great offensive plan, and on the cutting edge from an execution standpoint and they have two great quarterbacks to run the offense with. Q. The problems of this offense presents, they're averaging a lot of points, they can run the ball. Robinson is a key component of that, but they can also pass the ball. Just the overall complexity of this in terms of shutting it down or trying to shut it down? COACH HOPE: Well, they cash in on all the opportunities of the spread offense. They get you out in space. They can make it a challenge for you defensively. They're able to accomplish some run game. They feature the quarterback which can spread you thin, some are on the defensive side of the ball and they're also very fast striking in the passing game. So they stretch you from a defensive standpoint anyway that you can utilizing a spread offense. Q. Defensively they've taken some heat because they've had struggles. But from your perspective, what problems do they present defensively? COACH HOPE: Well, they run an odd front which we don't face that often. We don't see it from our own defense very often. We haven't played against much odd front so far this season. And they know how to lineup in it and they know what can give you trouble based on some of our play calling. So the pressure that they can bring from their odd front statistically. You know, they have some struggles this year. But they're like our offense in some ways where they've had some attrition and haven't had a chance to create a lot of continuity in some places on their defensive football team. Q. Kind of the weekly question and the status of Siller, where he's at and where do you think he might fit in this week if he's healthy? COACH HOPE: Well, we're going to go into practice today with Sean Robinson as our number one quarterback, just like last week because continuity at that spot is really important right now. And we're still not sure where Siller or Rob Henry is at. They weren't able to go on Saturday, and that was only a couple of days ago. I don't know how much their status has changed since then. Both did a little bit on Saturday, but were a long way away from full speed. But if Justin's able to do more, we'd like to train him as a quarterback. We have Sean Robinson as our number one quarterback. And Skyler Titus who is a walk-on player and good player to spend in the program right now, the number two quarterback to play in the game with and that is really thin at quarterback. So we'd take Justin Siller and train him at quarterback. How effective he can be right now or not we're not really sure because he still can't run full speed. He's still a ways away in that aspect. Q. Just wanted to ask you in terms of Denard Robinson, he's a talented guy if you just look at the number as loan. But what do you see aside from the speed that everybody sees on Saturday afternoon? Where does he rank in terms of quarterbacks that you've seen over the last couple of years? COACH HOPE: Well we recruited him at Purdue, and spent a lot of time recruiting in Florida and know him well. He's an excellent person, he brings all the intangibles. The things that we see are the world class sprinter speed and the great ability that he has passing the football. We looked at him and thought he was certainly probably the top dual-threat quarterback in the country or one of the top dual-threat quarterbacks in the country his senior year. And know him from the recruiting process, and he's done a great job. We're not surprised. He was a great competitor in high school. He has blazing speed. Very, very competitive, and he throws the ball very well, too. He's perfect for their offense. Q. Skyler Titus is going to be getting second team reps this week. How much of the reps do you imagine he'll get this week? Do you expect he'll play some regardless of the situation? Are you going to try to get him in there? COACH HOPE: We'll stick with Sean Robinson, feeling he gives us the best chance to win right now. The amount of reps that the number two quarterback will get this week depends upon how much we throw Sean early in the week and how many passes we want him to get. There will come a time when we won't throw him as much the latter part of the week, and number two will get more reps. He's going to get the reps that number two normally gets and prepare for the game in case we need to put him in there. Q. I imagine you've obviously looked at the Michigan-Illinois game. Do you allow yourself at all to view something like that as a fan? Just what were your thoughts on that game? COACH HOPE: That was a lot of fun to watch. Really competitive, I thought the players were certainly into it. It was an emotional game and really exciting and good for football. It was a lot of fun. Very competitive football game. Hard to believe the numbers like that, but it was really unbelievable. Q. If you could talk a little about Kawann Short this season. Obviously most of the talk is about Ryan Kerrigan. But Kawann put up some good numbers. Can you talk about what he's done this season? COACH HOPE: He's done very well. And I think he's improving as a player, which is really important. Because you don't stay the same. And he's gotten better. I think our whole defensive front has, particularly our defensive tackle spots. He was the only experienced player we had coming back on the inside. Everybody else that plays the defensive tackle spot was a first year player for us. So Kawann was earmarked as a guy that would have to be a special player for us in 2010. He hasn't tapped out on all of his resources yet. He can still make a lot of progress as a player. I think he can be a dominant player at his position, and one of the top players at his position in our league and maybe on a national level in time. He has to keep taking steps as a player, and I see him taking a lot of those steps right now. He can be physical on the line of scrimmage in regards to taking on the offensive linemen and knocking them back. Obviously, he needs to do that, he and all of his teammates need to do that on a more consistent basis. But he's very athletic. He runs well for his size because he's really big. He has a tremendous lower unit. He has a lot of push potential about him. He runs well for his size, but he's probably more athletic than he is fast. He has really good hand-eye coordination, so he does a good job of batting balls down. He kind of has the knack for seeing the play in front of him as he's taking on the offensive linemen that he's lined up against, and come off and make plays. So he's a play maker and he's a big man. So he has great potential and he's made real progress this year. I think he's playing very well. I think he's second in the league right now in sacks and has really improved from last year. Q. What are the keys to slowing Denard Robinson down and just how dangerous is he when you look at him on film? COACH HOPE: Well, the numbers speak for themselves, obviously. The pickle is that you stay out on the field offensively, you know, and control the clock and stay out there and try not to let their offense get on the field. But that doesn't seem to matter because they don't rank very high in time of possession. But they rank high in points scored. So they have quick hitting drives. They have a three-play drive, a six-play drive. Obviously, you're going to have to make plays when you're out there and defend the spread offense and make plays. You have to make plays. You have to get lined up and do your job and make plays, because if you don't, it's a big hit for them. They have a lot of big plays, lot of huge plays, and he's usually the result or the cause of most of them. Q. O.J. Ross, how is he getting along? Is he definitely out for the remainder of the season and might his injury require surgery? COACH HOPE: Well, most of the news that we've gotten back on O.J. has been good news. He's been out there running around a little bit in practice. But he's really doubtful for this weekend. But we are optimistic that he'll play some probably in the last couple of games. So I don't think he's going to have to have surgery. We're getting good news on him. It wasn't as bad as we thought, and it's nice to get some good news for a change, you know. Q. Talk about this game upcoming and how very, very important it is. A lot of people view it with what lies ahead. But talk about the importance of being victorious in terms of what lies ahead. A lot of people believe this is the game you've got to have to be bowl eligible. What do you say to that? COACH HOPE: Numerically we still have some opportunities in front of us, but this is a very important football game. It's important to be able to build on some of the things that we did well last weekend. Even though we didn't win the football game, a lot of people thought we were down and out and done for the season due to the number of injuries that we've had. But we've gotten better at a lot of different positions on our football team. So we're in position to take a step as a football team. Our offensive line has gotten a lot better. They were a position that we were rebuilding at at the beginning of the season, and they're playing very well right now. Protected the quarterback really well last weekend. Our secondaries are playing well right now. They were all brand-new several weeks ago. I think our defensive tackles were playing better. We have a lot of freshmen that are experienced right now. So we're optimistic that we can still play a lot better than we have, and we're getting better as a football team and we can win this game. We had a chance to win the game the other day against one of the top ranked teams in the country. One of the great football team, anywhere from physicality standpoint to execution standpoint. We rose to the occasion and played physical and played better in a lot of spots and that was encouraging to our football team so we can build on that. We feel like if we can play hard and we can do things better, we can win. So we're excited about this opportunity. It's getting down to the end of the season, and each of these games are critical. So our team will be ready to play. This is going to be a fun and exciting football game. Last weekend was disappointing in the loss last weekend, but it sure was a great game, lot of fun. Q. Do you ever think how important becoming bowl eligible would be to your program? Of course first thing you always talk about the extra practices in December. But can you put into words just how important it would be from that standpoint, but also it would be a heck of a tribute to you and your staff to overcome some of the adversity and injuries you faced this year, would it not? COACH HOPE: It would be a great success story and those are always fun. So I think it would be important for the program from that aspect to overcome all odds and so many key injuries. So it would be a great success story. But I don't feel like it really impacts how good we can be next year all that much. You look at how many young guys we have playing and the number of guys we have coming back, and it's very encouraging. The focus of the impact of postseason play as much as getting this team here ready to play this weekend is a huge game for us. But postseason play would be a great reward. Obviously it would be a great sign of the team overcoming some real difficult situations. But it's not an end all means, I don't believe. I feel really good about the future of our program and our football team based on how we're playing with so many young guys and the great progress we have made in every phase of our program and how it impacts the growth of our program from the big picture standpoint. Q. Few teams have been able to slow Michigan down yardage-wise, point scoring-wise. When you look at this game do you envision probably the makings of a high scoring affair, or if you guys are to be successful, you'll have to match them point for point and with that in mind, it does have the makings of a high scoring game, does it not? COACH HOPE: That's a great question. I sit down and think of all the different scenarios and how we go about our business. We always have a plan. Last week we had a plan. Two or three things we felt we had to do in order to have eye chance to compete, you know. And we were starting off early with one of them. Obviously, this weekend's the same. We have to have a great plan against these guys. This is a team that's been a high scoring football team, and we haven't been. So we'll have to score more points and play better defense. That's what it's going to boil down to. We played against a great football team last weekend that scored a lot of points and had a lot of yards and we played well against them. If we can score more points and take care of the turnover margin a little bit better, we'd have a real chance to win this past Saturday. So we'll have to score some more points and play great defense and take care of the football to have a chance to win on Saturday. If we don't do those things, we negate our opportunity to win. There is no question about that. Q. A couple quick questions about your depth chart? COACH HOPE: Good luck. Q. I understand it. COACH HOPE: I'll do the best I can. Q. Looks like you have Gabe Holmes in as your new tight end. Should we take that that Jeff Lindsay's not going to be available? COACH HOPE: He hasn't been available very much. He's a guy that got lost in the shuffle to all these injuries and players that were accomplished players: The Ralph Boldens, and the Keith Smiths and Robert Marves and all those guys. He was lost in the shuffle. But we haven't gotten much play out of Jeff Lindsay at all all season long. In camp we thought he was a different maker for us in our football team. He got injured and played a little bit in Notre Dame early in the season he was struggling with his shoulder. But he's feeling better now. Gabe has been on two tight ends a couple of weeks. We haven't anticipated getting a lot out of Jeff Lindsay. He hasn't been able to do much in practice. I think he's better now and we think we have a chance to get him back this weekend and he can help us. Q. It looks like Tommie Thomas moved in over Xavier Reese. Is that kind of a product of Tommie Thomas making a little move in practice? COACH HOPE: It's more of a product of Xavier Reese being injured and Tommie Thomas getting an opportunity now. That's where we're at depth chart-wise. We have other guys, Antavian, and Gary Bush and Cortez Smith. And we still have some guys that have been playing all along, we just don't have very many skill guys: We started to devise some trick plays about a week ago and we were running out of skill guys to run trick plays with. Coach Nord's had his hands full personnel-wise. Q. I think the last two games you've been averaging 12 yards per punt return, before that you were averaging one and a half. What has changed the last two weeks on that front? COACH HOPE: A couple things have. Early in the season we played a couple of windy football games and we wanted to make sure we secured the football first based on the way things started out last year and it was a result of ball security. It was windy early, and we felt comfortable with Waynelle back there. He's a shorthanded punt returner, but maybe not the best return guy that we have potential-wise. A good return guy but maybe not the best return guy. And all of a sudden we got really excited about Keith Smith back there. He had a great knack for catching punts. I couldn't believe how good he was at it, and he could make people miss probably as good as anybody on our football team at 220 pounds. So we thought we had a special punt return guy. Then he goes down. So then the result of having an erratic start in the beginning, and we've done a few things schematically against some teams that had big-leg punters in putting two people back there. So we had a chance to field them and that created some space in the punt return and allowed us to manufacture some returns. And Waynelle has stepped up some back there. But the bad numbers in the beginning are more a result of trying to play it safe in the windy days and having Keith Smith being in there and losing him and not being sure who the best punt return guy is for us and making sure we played it safe fielding-wise. And we lose O.J. and a couple of other guys and it changes again. Q. How important and how much did it help you to have Albert Evans back for you last week? COACH HOPE: It helped a lot. He came back healthy and played physical and tough. He's a full grown man out there and really brings a lot to the table as a player and setting the tempo on the defensive side of the football. He's a fearless guy. Jason Warner was healthier, and that was a game where you could certainly use a big, physical linebacker that came downhill. He came downhill and was much more reckless and more physical. So getting Jason Warner back against a team that was healthy. And getting Albert Evans back, the timing of that was really good, and I think that impacted the performance of the game on Saturday. Q. Evans' stats don't jump off the page at you, but does he do more just as far as settling everybody down and directing and leading things like that? COACH HOPE: Well, he's been out there. The guys, all the new guys that haven't been in the program for a long time. So he's more sure about what he's doing. That makes a big difference. Any time you have a guy on the field that is more sure about what they're doing, so he brings that. He brings continuity back to the secondary, and he's a physical player. He's a sure tackler, and he's been in big games and been in some tough situations and he's been there before. So he's a good player, a physical player, he's tough and really competitive. I think the guys rally up around him some. He's one of our better leaders on our football team. It was huge getting Albert Evans back. And playing against a team like Wisconsin, didn't know if you were going to go through a couple of safeties with the physical run game that they have and the physical backs that we have to be banged up at the safety position is not a good thing. So getting Albert Evans back fresh was good and it impacted the game quite a bit. Q. Even though you lost on Saturday, did you feel like Sunday was a little bit different as far as you guys competed on Saturday? And did they come out with a little bit more pep in their step, if you will, on Sunday? COACH HOPE: I don't know. We went into the game to do what we had to do to have a chance to win, and we did that and that was fun. It was good for our football team. The last couple of weeks when we lost the quarterback during the course of the game, that makes it difficult. We got behind early and that's not fun. So maybe the attitude was a little better because they had more fun playing the game and little more good plays on film to watch in the meetings, you know. But we're very disappointed that we didn't win. It was a game that we went out there and laid it on the line. In spite of all odds, we believed we could win the game and then went out there and executed. Really did their very best to execute what we thought were the keys to victory on Saturday. You know, we wanted to be aggressive and start off with an on-side kick, but it was important that we got it. So we on-side kicked and recovered it. Also to make sure if we don't recover it, we'll have to go out there and play defense and try to stop them if they score. So we'll try to start off and get the first punch in first. So everybody was excited about the master plan going into the game, so that was a lot of fun. So losing the game was a huge disappointment. We want to win. Playing is fun, competing is fun, playing Wisconsin was fun. Playing football is fun, but we want to win. Q. Is Mike Eargle still a week away? COACH HOPE: He's doubtful. I don't think we'll see Mike Eargle back this week. Still hopefully maybe towards the end, but I don't think it's going to be this week based on the report this morning. Q. One of the guys that came in a couple weeks ago, I think it was Josh Johnson, mentioned missing Albert Evans specifically against Ohio State because he's kind of a guy who spies a quarterback. I don't know if that's consistent that he's been a spy, or how do you approach that when you have a dual-threat guy? Do you typically assign a player to be a spy? COACH HOPE: Well, you can. But sometimes that spreads you thin in some other spots. You have a lot of zones and areas that you have to cover, so that can spread you thin in some spots. But certain down and distances against certain groupings in formations, if they're a team with the quarterback that likes to take the ball and run with it a lot, like the guy at Northwestern was. At times we have to assign a guy to spy him. He does a good job when he's assigned to that role of making plays. He's been there before. But it doesn't have to be Albert. Q. Sean Robinson hasn't seen, obviously, you talk about the odd front, he hasn't seen much of it either then. Do you challenge him to watch more film this week? From what I understand he's done a really good job of understanding how important it is the last couple of weeks. Do you need to say something to him or is he kind of the guy that will come in and do it on his own? COACH HOPE: He'd be hard pressed to come in more than he does. He's a guy that makes a great commitment. That is one of the reasons he got better. He got a little more experience, and was a little calmer in the huddle taking charge on the field on Saturday. But he pays a heck of a price preparing himself for the game. He really works hard at it. I think that's why the guys rally around him because they see the commitment that he makes. When we look at the depth chart when we started the season, we had some guys, and he didn't get a lot of preparation early in the football season. The timing of it is a challenge for him. Q. Assuming that you have the same personnel on offense this week that you had last week, does the couldn't nude and what kind of steps do you anticipate this offense taking from last week? COACH HOPE: Well, we have to do a lot better at cashing in on pitching and catching. We've been protecting the quarterback pretty good. Our offensive line has made a lot of progress. We have a right tackle that's gotten a lot better. He's a guy that was brand-new and neophyte at playing his position. Now he's a lot better at it. Our center's gotten a lot better. Those guys have played all along together throughout the course of the year. So we're doing a pretty good job protecting the quarterback right now. We need to cash in more on pitching and catching. We have to score more points. We haven't scored very many points in the last three or four games since we've had the consistent turnover at the quarterback position. So we've got to score more points and the pitching and catching would make a big difference. I think our run game has been productive at times throughout the course of the season. Got off track a little bit, but it looked better again last Saturday. We have to cash in more on throwing and catching. We spent a lot of time on that. We came out there on Sunday and worked on throwing and catching. Q. Skyler Titus has to come in the game, have you seen enough of him in practice to evaluate what kind of quarterback he would be for you? COACH HOPE: He would be in the same position that Sean Robinson was in a couple weeks ago. You're going to put him in situations that you think he can be successful in and not open the whole gamut of the playbook at him at one time. We always have a package or a plan for every quarterback that we think has a chance to play in the game. These are the plays that if we went in we'd feel comfortable calling right now. If he got to where he was the only quarterback he had left and you'd have to expand that package. But right now we have him prepared to go in the game and execute the package, absolutely. Q. Who on your team can be Denard Robinson this week to give you that look that you need? COACH HOPE: We don't have anybody quite like that from a speech standpoint. We could certainly use Caleb TerBush down on the scout team. And he's a really good football player that executes the quarterback run game that Michigan uses. He executes it very well. We do some of the same things. We have a good feeling about what they're going to do. He can go down there and run that offense. He throws the ball very well, he's a great football player. He's done a good job with it all year long. We've allowed our defense to get better particularly in the back half so he plays really well. So he'll go down there and play that spot throughout the course of the week. Q. But he's not Denard Robinson. COACH HOPE: No, we don't have one. But he can run those plays and execute those plays. He's about a half a second slower. Tim Taylor runs pretty good. He's a world class sprinter. He was the fastest guy in Florida a couple years agon and faster than most , so we don't have one like him. He can execute the plays that we do, and he throws it very well. So he'll be the guy this week, just a great, big one. Q. You mentioned earlier about guys being more comfortable in their positions and playing better. Does Dwayne Beckford fit into that mold as a guy who looks more comfortable and is making more plays on the defensive end? COACH HOPE: Well, I think all of our linebackers have gotten better, significantly since the beginning of the season. We've done a lot better job with our run reads and reading the plays in front of us, our keys are faster and being more sure and coming downhill faster and it's huge at the linebacker position. I think all of our linebackers have gotten a lot better. They've gotten better as the defensive linemen in front of them have gotten better, too. And they usually go hand in hand. But Dwayne Beckford is making a lot of plays. He really works hard running the football. He doesn't always execute all of the details of his assignment just like any other player. But if he gets caught going in the wrong direction, he'll stick his foot in the ground and pursue relentlessly to the football. He's a great effort guy. He runs to the football and makes a lot of plays and he's strong enough to get them on the ground. He's got great core strength and can accelerate in on tackles. I think he's leading our team in tackles right now. I think he's gotten a lot better and he can still play even better. There's still an even higher ceiling to go. Q. As you see more of these mobile quarterbacks, does it become easier to scout and easier for a defense to prepare for? COACH HOPE: I don't know if it becomes easier, but you start seeing more of the same thing more often. The problem that you get into with Michigan's quarterbacks is they can do the same thing that the quarterback at Northwestern did or does, and it makes a difference in their football team. They can drop back to pass it and change their mind real quick and take off and get you vertically. They can shred you up the middle and get you up field in a hurry right between the rush lanes real fast. That's tough. This guy here can also do the same thing that the quarterback at Illinois does. They have plays that manufacture the quarterback run where he reads different linemen. He pulls and keeps the ball against his face and he's hard to tackle. So there is a challenge there. No doubt about it, there's a challenge there. Q. When you look at Michigan's defense, do you see an opportunity to put up a lot of points this week? COACH HOPE: Well, that's going to depend on what we have personnel-wise offensively. That's going to be, again, as we said earlier, that is two of the main keys of the game. We're going to have to better defense because it's not how long they're out there, it's how often they're out there. When they're out there, they get a touchdown. They're short drives and big plays. So we'll have to play better defense, execute better and make plays. If you don't, they will. And they have good enough athletes that when they make a play, they're gone. So we have to score more points on offense. It will be tough to beat scoring 14 or 20 points. We'll have to score more points on offense, and play better on defense. Where we're at right now, trying to start over at the quarterback position, that makes it a challenge. But I think we have a pretty good plan, and we have some guys to execute it with, and we have guys to execute well this weekend. We have to produce some points. Q. You talked earlier about Michigan having that odd defensive front and being able to bring pressure from different places. Does that make this week's preparation even more hard for Sean or is it kind of the same thing as the last couple of weeks? COACH HOPE: Well, there are a lot of ways that you can approach defensive pressure from a protection standpoint where you can put it on the quarterback and try to recognize it all the time and get you in the right check. Or you can get yourself in a protection that allows you to get the ball out of your hand quick where some of the blitzes don't really matter. You can do a lot of different things. Obviously, any time that you're playing with a young quarterback, you want to try to take as many of those things out of his hands as possible and put them on the play caller and the offensive linemen and the backs to do more protection-wise. I don't think it's going to make it an even greater challenge for Sean. I think he'll come in and understand the fronts and the game plan and go out there and do our very best to execute it. It's just not having a lot of game experience is huge right now. Q. And lastly, anyone going to untie their shoe laces this week to see if they pick up a little extra step? COACH HOPE: I don't know if that makes you any faster or not, you know. You'd think it would do the opposite, but I don't think so. End of FastScripts |
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