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PURDUE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 23, 2010

Danny Hope

THE MODERATOR: Okay. We'll go ahead and get started. Welcome to week 12. The Boilermakers will take on Indiana this Saturday at noon at Ross-Ade Stadium, 86th annual Old Oaken Bucket game. Pete, why don't you start us off.

Q. Hey, Danny. First question, can you talk about the maturation of Rob Henry, the development he's shown the last game, despite all the injuries, the way he's progressed.
COACH HOPE: He's really gotten a lot better. When you look at the outcome of the season, I think any one of those quarterbacks that they could have been our guy all season long. We'd have been in a lot better shape, you know, whether it had been TerBush all season long or Robert Marve all season long or Rob Henry all season long.
The biggest challenge was changing quarterbacks so often and not being sure at that one spot. With a win this weekend, he would have fared pretty good in his four starts. He's throwing the ball a whole lot better in spite of his finger. I think the other phases of his passing game is developing anyway. The finger being injured slowed him down some in what he was able to do, but I think he's still grown and developed significantly in regards to the passing game in the last couple of weeks.
He's certainly a great runner with the ball and a guy that everyone on the team really believes in. He's a very special athlete and an outstanding person. So he's developed into an awfully good quarterback, and he has great potential. And we're really excited about his potential as a passer as well. I think he's showing that he has good arm strength and good throwing motion.
We still have to work on some body mechanics and experience. There's some things that happen in the game right now -- it's only his third start the other day. That's a very inexperienced quarterback for a guy that can be as big a difference maker as he is for our football team right now. I think he shows great potential as well.

Q. With Ryan, obviously, he's had a great season. He's a high motor guy. I'm wondering -- from the high motor standpoint, I wonder, does he have it naturally? Is he a guy that works really hard in practice? Is he a guy that just runs extra after practice? Where does that endurance come from? Because a lot of guys just don't have that.
COACH HOPE: He has great natural stamina anyway, and he has an outstanding work ethic. We try to get ourselves in a position from a practice standpoint, particularly on Tuesdays, to go as close as we can to game speed. That's a big part of being able to practice well as a football team, and I think we really practice well as a football team.
I think Ryan is exceptional in practice, really pushes himself. He realizes that he is going to play almost all the game and that he has the potential to be a difference maker on every play. So he really pushes himself in practice, and he does what we refer to often to our players, but he has really exemplified it, is he practices himself into game shape. He practices himself into great game shape, and that shows up on Saturdays.
He has good stamina anyway, and he has great potential as well. So the high motor part of it is a combination of two or three different things, great stamina and great work ethic that allows him to practice himself into game shape at game speed.

Q. And then the last thing for me, as you look at Indiana in particular, their receivers, what really stands out from your standpoint?
COACH HOPE: Everything about them. They're exceptional. They have a great quarterback. They throw the ball a lot. They're very, very polished up at the quarterback position. The guy is very accurate. A pure passing team in a lot of ways.
The receivers are big. They're very sure-handed. They compete. They fight for the ball. They're very athletic. They have three or four receivers that any team in the league would love to have. I think they're exceptional in the pitching and catching department.

Q. Thanks, Danny.
THE MODERATOR: Dustin.

Q. Hey, Coach. How's it going?
COACH HOPE: Great.

Q. Probably asking some of the same stuff that Pete does just to go off what he asked. About Ryan, I guess he'd already been recruited when you rejoined the staff. What are your first impressions of him? How have you seen him develop? And what was the point where you got an understanding of how special he could be as a player?
COACH HOPE: He's gotten a lot better since I first came to Purdue. He was a guy who had good junior high school film, but they don't have a lot of spring football in Indiana. So we could only evaluate him on the spring film -- I mean, his junior film, and he came to camp and did some great things numbers-wise that really stood out.
So he was a great get in the recruiting process, but coming to camp was a difference maker for him. He was young as a player when he came in, college experience-wise. So every phase of his game that's a standout right now is an area that he's improved in. He's got a much greater motor now. A good motor then, but he's really cashed in on that feature of his play.
He's gotten stronger, and he's gotten bigger. He's gotten a lot better with his hands, a lot better with his hands. He has a very powerful rip move that's an arsenal against the run and the pass. Every phase of his game, I think, has really improved. He's gotten just a lot better as a player, and I think he has, over a period of time, learned what it is to play at the All-American level.
You know, people don't just step out on the field and start playing at the All-American level. I think he's gotten better and better and better and evolved into a guy that plays at an All-American level.

Q. Another thing on him, have you ever been around a defensive end that's been able to affect so much? 25 tackles for a loss is just an incredible number. Have you ever been around a defensive lineman that has that type of season?
COACH HOPE: I don't know that I've been around a defensive player that's impacted our football team as much as Ryan has impacted our football team. We were very young in our football team at the beginning of the season, in the defensive tackle spot and in the secondary. Without Ryan Kerrigan at the beginning of the season, we weren't a potentially dominant defense yet.
He gave us a chance with his play to allow these other areas to develop and grow and catch up some to allow us to be an awfully good defense now. He was even more of a difference maker for us early in the season because we were brand new and neophyte at the defensive tackle spots and also in the secondary. Without Ryan Kerrigan, we might not have been real good on defense early in the season.
So he was a real difference maker for us at the beginning of the season, and he's playing lights out now. So he's even more of a difference maker for us now at the end of the season. I don't know that I've been around one player on any football team ever, defensive player, that has as much impact on the football team as Ryan Kerrigan has had on this 2010 team.
When I was at University of Louisville in 1990, we had Teddy Washington on our football team. He was a one-man wrecking crew and a franchise player that played for how many years in the NFL. Teddy was that way of the Teddy could beat you by himself and impacted every football game. Ryan Kerrigan does that as well. That's the only two that comes to my mind that impacted every football game in some fashion.

Q. Last one from me. Just kind of going back to the offense and the injuries and all that. How many different ways, how much have you guys had to adjust, and how have you done it to just dealing with having to deal with that many quarterbacks, with the injuries at receiver and the injuries at running back? How much adjusting, how much just shaking up have you guys had to do week to week? You know, just to try to get some consistency.
COACH HOPE: Obviously, the most I've ever been around and more than several years put together, several seasons put together would maybe be the amount of reshuffling of the deck with regards to skill players and the way that they went down.
Again, if we'd had any one of those quarterbacks throughout the course of this season, I think it would have really made a difference in the outcome of our season. But losing them and having the turnover throughout the course of the season was catastrophic. At one point in time, we didn't have any running backs. At one point in time in the season, we didn't have any quarterbacks. At one point in time in the season, we didn't have hardly any receivers.
I know joking around with Coach Nord one day, we were trying to make a game plan. We looked at what he had at the quarterback, one who couldn't run, one who couldn't throw, one who couldn't use his right hand. I said, all you need is one who can't see, and you've got a full deck.
But it all goes to the players. We have an unbelievable group of young people who have gone out and competed and given themselves a chance to win in spite of all odds and showed up and complied with whatever we asked them to do in order to give ourselves a chance to win. They've been very unselfish with their efforts. So it's been a lot of great things, but it's been a heck of a challenge.

Q. Thanks, Coach.
THE MODERATOR: Okay, Doug.

Q. Hi, Danny. Tell us why this game Saturday is so important even though both teams are not going to be bowl eligible.
COACH HOPE: Any time you can end the season with a win, it can, you know, make life better. If you can end the season with some momentum and you end the season on a positive note -- you know, it's a huge rivalry game, a lot of pride on the line. It's a really important game for the State of Indiana. Certainly one a lot of seniors take pride in. You want to send your seniors out right.
You can go on and on about the importance of this game this weekend, but it's down to it, it's Purdue versus Indiana. That's what it is. That's what it's all about. Great stuff.

Q. As a coach, you get amped up for this. You have to, right?
COACH HOPE: This is why you compete and play for big games and great moments and great experiences, you know. And you don't always get the results that you want, but it's always a great experience, game day is, and big games are. This is a big game. It fuels your soul. We'll be excited. All the real football fans in the State of Indiana will be glued to their seats or in Ross-Ade checking out the game. It's a huge game.

Q. And you mentioned seniors. Of course, this will be a lot of your seniors -- or will be your seniors' last appearance in a Purdue uniform. Just talk about that group and what they've meant to you and your coaching staff.
COACH HOPE: Well, it's a small senior class, which can be a concern at times. It was coming into the season because a lot of those guys were guys that had not played a lot, and the ones that had played a lot were not healthy or available to practice in the spring.
So from a leadership standpoint, there weren't many numbers-wise. When you start looking at the quality of the guys in that senior class, the Ryan Kerrigans and the Kyle Adams and Dan Dierkings and Jason Werners, those are some outstanding individuals. They weren't real vocal leaders unless they had to be. They weren't cheerleaders. They were blue collar guys and set the standard from the work ethic standpoint.
That's really, really important to this football team because we're so young. We have our top 42 players, whatever it may be. We've got 20 of them when the season's over are going to have three years of eligibility left. And we've had guys out there that are A-plus in regards to work ethic and how you prepare yourself to win and laying it on the line and putting the team first, with guys like Kyle Adams and Dierking and Kerrigan and Werner and the seniors that we've had. It's a really good senior class from the standpoint of leading by example, and the timing of that was really important.
This young group of guys, we used some guys to show us how to do it more so than just talk about how to do it. And I thought that's what the senior class was about.

Q. You mentioned Kyle Adams, and he, along with Joe Holland, were recently named Academic All-Americans. That's a pretty -- it's the biggest achievement you can get as a student-athlete. Talk about that.
COACH HOPE: It's huge. And honestly, we're very proud of the performance of our football team, particularly from an academic standpoint. When the school year began, we were carrying -- we started the season off with a 2.92 cum for a football team. That's really important, and those guys are great ambassadors.
It's really hard to become an Academic All-American. You have to be a good player, and you have to be an almost perfect student. I think Joe Holland was a second teamer, and he's had one A-minus or B since he's been at Purdue. That's how hard it is. It's harder to become Academic All-American than just a player that's an All-American. It's huge for our team and program and really proud of those guys. It's just exceptional. Outstanding.

Q. I read an article about a month ago about the possibility of 5-7 teams, in fact, getting into bowl situations with the thought there wouldn't be enough six-win teams to fill the 70 slots in the 35 bowl games. What can you tell us about that? Is that something you're thinking about? What do you know about that scenario?
COACH HOPE: I don't know anything about it. But, you know, right now with an experienced Rob Henry, another game under his belt, we could be a pretty good football team by the time the season ends. We've had guys that have developed at the deep tackle spot, at the secondary spot. Now we've got a quarterback now that's got three or four games he's won, if he continues on that course.
I think we're a good enough football team to go play and compete. We've played while handcuffed offensively and competed very well against Wisconsin and Michigan State, Michigan's offense, which is on the cutting edge nationally in a lot of ways. I think we're a very competitive football team right now. We've really been handcuffed from a point-scoring standpoint. I think we can compete right now at that level and would love to have that opportunity but don't know anything about that.

Q. Something that kind of jumps out about your stats over on defense is that your two starting corners have combined to make about 110 tackles. Is there any kind of schematic reason for that that those guys have been so active? Or is that just on them?
COACH HOPE: A little bit scheme-wise, but those guys are really good football players, very active. We've done some things to include them from a schematic standpoint but not to be featured as tacklers. A lot of it has to do with other guys doing their job and spilling the run out east and west rather than allowing the run to get vertical on you in a hurry, where your safeties have to make the plays.
But those guys are really good football players. They're very active. They're really quick. It's exciting to watch the films. If you look at the scoreboard at the end of the game, at times you can feel really good about our football team because we show some speed and some quickness and some toughness and some real redeeming qualities as a football team. Those two guys are good players.
I don't know there's a better corner in the league than Ricardo Allen right now. And Josh Johnson is one of the better players on our football team. He's really grown up. He's always been a good player, a good prospect, but he's really matured and grown up the latter half of the season. It's a huge challenge. He manned it up particularly the second half of the season. Both those guys are really good players.

Q. Do you think Ricardo Allen could be All Big Ten?
COACH HOPE: I think he is. I think he's the best corner I've seen on film this season. You know, and I don't know -- you all know more about the stats than I do right now, but I think he has 60-something tackles, which is a lot of tackles for a corner. If he had more picks -- maybe one person in the league might have more picks than him. Does anybody have three picks? A couple guys. Ricardo has two or three, and somebody has one more than him.
If he gets one more this weekend, he'll be tied for first. Not on a national level, I think he's second in the nation as far as yards per return and the type of plays he makes, where he bursts and closes and disrupts passes, and all the opponents he's matched up against. We've matched him up against their best players in some of the big games. So I think he is. I really do.

Q. Jason Werner specifically -- obviously, you mentioned him in that group of seniors. Now you're going to have a couple guys essentially who will be sixth year kind of guys with Tory before him and maybe Keith after him, but just to want to come back and go through that grind more and more and more, what does that say about Jason specifically that he's really battled through those back injuries specifically?
COACH HOPE: It says he's a football player. It really does. Only a football player would want to do that. There's 40,000-some great kids on this campus, but there's only 100 football players. We have a saying in the confines of our meeting room, which is our sanctuary, that says we're all here because we're not all there. That's a really true statement.
He's a tough guy that likes to tackle and likes to play football. He wanted to be part of a special experience. He's a football player.

Q. What kind of intangibles do you think he's brought to the team?
COACH HOPE: He brought some maturity to our football team, which is really important with so many freshmen. What I mean by that, you know, is somebody that knows when to be cutting up and screwing around and somebody that knows when to tighten up and to be serious. Sometimes the younger players -- and there's a time and a place for all of that.
Sometimes the younger players have a difficult time in differentiating when, and a guy like Jason Werner and the seniors that we have on our football team knew when. He brought some real maturity to our football team, and he brought some physicality at the linebacker position. Particularly made a difference in the Wisconsin game when they were a team that was going to come right at you with smashmouth. They have a big physical linebacker to come downhill.
When I first came back to Purdue and was coaching the offensive line, he really stuck out to me. You know, I thought that he was definitely an NFL prospect and thought that he was one of the better line prospects, total linebacker prospects that I've been around because he's much bigger than you think once you get up on him. He's about 6'3" and about 230-something pounds without any fat on him at all. And he had great instincts, and he was really fast and just made great plays in practice. I thought he was one of the better linebacker prospects I'd been around.
A couple of surgeries later, there's a little different change in direction-wise, but he's still a very physical linebacker that can come downhill, and he was really instrumental and a difference maker in a game like Wisconsin. They don't have as many linebackers as big and strong as Jason.

Q. Does he have a chance, you think, to play at the next level?
COACH HOPE: I think he does, but any time that you have a history of injuries, you know, it sometimes can reduce your percentages. But they'll come back. From a football player standpoint he does, and from a size and athleticism standpoint, he does. Most of the seniors we have that played this year will have some opportunities. People will come back and try them out.
Any time that you have a marquee player on your team, it really bodes well for the other seniors that's on the football team because there's more guys coming around to try him out. I think all the seniors that played a lot this year will have some opportunities. No lock. No sure-ins other than Ryan probably.

Q. Just to follow up on what Doug was asking you about. It probably goes without saying, I assume, if you got to 5-7 and there was an opportunity to play in a bowl --
COACH HOPE: Any kind of football. We'll go and play afterwards if they let us even if it wasn't a bowl game. Any kind of football, any kind of postseason play we'd love to be part of.

Q. Did you have to coach the guys up this week, or did that, being a rivalry game and the last game of the year, does that sort of take care of itself?
COACH HOPE: We'll make sure that they understand. A lot of it becomes obvious, you know. You don't have to bang the drum so loud the very, very first day. You want to gain some momentum with all that as you approach the game. But they'll understand the significance of the rivalry before we suit up.

Q. You've been pretty encouraged all year by the folks who have come out to Ross-Ade to watch your team. Are you concerned or hopeful this weekend that maybe, despite some factors working against you, like Thanksgiving and things, that a big crowd will come out?
COACH HOPE: It might be. It might work against us, but I think we have enough people that live close by, enough people that love Purdue football, and I think the sun is going to be out. It's Purdue versus IU. I think plenty of people will still come out to the game. I have no idea what the numbers look like, but I have been excited about the fans that have been in the stands, and particularly the students. I don't know what the numbers are, but I like the involvement part of it.
From a tempo standpoint, I think it has picked up some, and I really like what the student body is bringing to Ross-Ade on Saturdays. They're there by the droves waiting for us and have really impacted it significantly.

Q. Just a quick look back to Michigan State. I didn't actually see this, but people have been asking about it. What happened on Rucker's interception? Some people say he appeared to step out well before where they marked it.
COACH HOPE: I think it was ruled correctly. I didn't study it all that much. All the coaches looked at it, and if they thought it was incorrect, they'd have brought it to me. We do a report and send it to the officials whether it's a penalty that should or should not have been called for or against us. So to help out all the officials, particularly the head official, who's exceptional. I really think he is. But to help them out on calls so there can be some consistency. I don't remember that being of any issue at all.
I know some fans have brought that up, but it hasn't been brought to my attention. All the other close calls, I've sat down and looked at. We filled our report out and sent it in like we do on a weekly basis.

Q. Any chance you get O.J. Ross back this week?
COACH HOPE: No. It's unfortunate, but he's going to be fine. You know, it's just going to take him a little bit longer. It's a bad shoulder sprain, but he's fine. Doesn't look like it's going to be anything too extensive. If we had a little more football to be played, then he would be playing. But not this weekend.

Q. Talk about the progress and what the offensive line has done this year. They've stayed intact and haven't had an injury. But you had Mondek, who was learning a new position, and Peters Drey in the first time.
COACH HOPE: I could go on and on about those guys. It's always a position, having coached the offensive line, I look at closely position-wise and film-wise. They're a lot better than they were at the beginning of the season. Having Dennis Kelly and Ken Plue back was huge because they've always proven good players on Saturdays.
The difference maker was Peters Drey coming in at center. I think it's one of the hardest positions to play on any football team, particularly any more because there are shotgun snaps and a lot of things the defense does, from a physical standpoint, it's very difficult to play. It's a really tough spot. And Peters Drey has played the position really well.
He's probably the only guy on the offensive line that could play for us or start for us at tackle or at guard or at center. I haven't been around many offensive linemen through all the years at this level that could start for Purdue or a big time division I-A football team at tackle, guard, or center. I think Matt Leicht could. I don't think Colby could stand out at tackle and play. Brandon couldn't have stood out at center. I think Drey could.
Peters Drey could start at any spot in the offensive line. Particularly good weight room numbers. The fact he was able to get it done for us this year was huge for us. If he hadn't gotten it done, we wouldn't have been strong at center. It's really important with what we do run game wise and passing game wise. Him coming through was a difference maker for our offensive line and a difference maker for our football team.
And so was Nick Mondek. The difficult part about Nick Mondek's development was putting him over there when camp started, and that was the first experience he ever had had at playing offensive tackle. He played on defense, and it's entirely different. You know, from what they train them to do as a defensive lineman when compared to offensive lineman when you look at pass protection.
He struggled tremendously at camp. I wasn't sure going into the Notre Dame game whether we were going to play him or Foy. Foy was much better playing the position, but Mondek was along further physically. We eventually had to get to the point where we wouldn't put him up against Ryan so he could get his hands set and get up on somebody and give him a chance.
But he came of age all of a sudden. Just a couple of days before the game, he started doing it right finally. I can't believe it. He's finally getting it done. And he's ended up being an awfully good player for us this year and has a real bright future as an offensive lineman. So I think Peters Drey coming through and Nick Mondek coming through was a difference maker for us on that offensive line.
The guard position was pretty much intact, and so was the tackle position. Pierce has been around here for a while. He's a fifth year senior. He should be able to step in and play guard for us. He did a good job. Best he's done since he's been here. They did a good job of protecting the quarterback. It's been a work in progress throughout the course of the season, but I think that center position and right tackle position self-actualizing really impacted our football team.

Q. Talk about the corners on defense. Just Albert and Logan Link have really helped out in those safety spots. With all those guys coming back next year, obviously, you don't have the concern going into this year that you didn't have any experience. But you're going to feel comfortable with the experience you're going to have in the secondary.
COACH HOPE: Absolutely. Not to reflect back, but when we started the season off with Robert Marve at the quarterback position, he hadn't been settled in the pocket very often, and that was because we weren't very settled up front. You know, and there's some games throughout the course of this season, if you had an experienced quarterback throwing all season long with protection that we had the second half of the season. Like I said, we had Robert Marve off to a shaky start. He did a little bit, hadn't played in a long time, but he had a shaky offensive line in front of him.
All the way up to the first game, second game, snaps going all over the place. Not sure if the right tackle was going to hold up. It was a real crash course in development getting ready for the first game. I told you last year we weren't reloading, we were rebuilding.
And to get on with the question about the secondary position, we've come a long ways in that spot. We still need a couple of key players to come through for us. This year's recruiting class will be very important to us. We need to find another guy that can come on board as a secondary guy, another guy or two that can come on board and be the difference makers like Ricardo Allen has and Josh Johnson has.
We feel good about what we have in place. We're only losing, I believe, two seniors on defense that played. Ryan Kerrigan is one of the best defensive players in the country. So we won't fill those shoes. Tell you that now. And then Jason Werner. I don't believe there's another senior that plays on defense of any significant amount. We're going to be okay.

Q. Coach, you have some very promising first halves the last three weeks. Second half, it's been a struggle. We know about injuries. The common threads that you've had a chance to notice over the last three weeks that have led to the struggles in the second half for you.
COACH HOPE: I think it's been different. I think that in some of the other big games that we were competing in to win, the Wisconsin game, for example -- in the Illinois game, we were so bad offensively early. You know, but the Wisconsin game and then the Michigan game as well, I think it became evident to the opponent, you know, after the half, that our passing game was really limited.
You know, I think that really minimized our play-calling efficiency, or our play-calling potential. And we were trying to deal with injuries that were happening in the game and quarterbacks that weren't there, that were there, and you know how that unfolded.
But just the fact that we became a little one-handed as a football team really made it difficult. More difficult in the second half because people would come out, and they weren't sure, so they'd play it safe. By halftime, they were pretty sure we weren't going to accrue a whole lot of passing yardage, and it made it tougher to sustain drives and feature the quarterback as a runner.
Now that we are balanced again offensively, I think if last Saturday shows what we can do again. I think it surprised some people last year. Even with an inexperienced quarterback like Joey Elliott, we still came out and had lots of offensive fire power and were very balanced, run and pass. There were some games we passed the day lights out of it and were exceptional. And some days we ran for more yards on a consistent basis.
But being balanced is just huge for our football team and huge for our offense right now.

Q. And you develop this program and you look back at the last three weeks, what matters more to you? The strong start or the disappointing finish?
COACH HOPE: Say that again, please.

Q. What matters more to you as you develop this program? The strong last three weeks or the disappointing finishes? As you look at the direction you're going in.
COACH HOPE: I think there's a lot of great things to take from the season. There's some things that don't show up on the scoreboard that are huge for us. Number one, as we showed up every Saturday believing we could win, that's huge. That's just not shop talk. We played against some of the best teams.
And the fact that we're able to line up this year and defend a run -- I don't know where we're at right now. You guys probably know better than I do -- against Big Ten competition. I think we're probably ranked decent run defense, third, fourth, fifth in the league. We've been rock bottom in the league in run defense for a while around here.
I think we've become a much more physical football team. Fans say that. People that are -- that look for a silver lining will say, well, we're disappointed in this part, but it's the most physical we've played around here in a long time. We've got some corners that play at a certain level right now, and we like the size, not getting pushed around up front defensively, like maybe we have some times in the past.
So I think that from a defensive standpoint, we became more physical. Don't get pushed around quite as much. We still have to make more plays. Everybody's offense makes plays if they're healthy and have good players. They'll have to make more plays and still play better. We're more physical on the defensive side of the ball. And we've fared pretty well against different types of runs. The power and some option stuff and some premiere run teams in the country.
We shut down Michigan. We're one of the top offensive teams in the nation. And we were able to establish the running game when we didn't have the passing game to hang our hat on. Even though the opponents knew that in some ways. That's made us a more physical football team.
We've competed against some great football teams on our schedule. When we were handcuffed and limited. So I like the spirit of our football team, and I think there's a lot of young rising stars on our football team. So whether you're talking about starting fast or finishing strong or anything, I can't really reflect on that because it's been a challenge. But I think there's a lot of great things out there.
And our guys are great. We've got some outstanding young people on our football team. They're a lot of fun to watch and a lot of fun to coach.

Q. Indiana's offensive line has allowed the fewest sacks in the Big Ten. Your defense has generated the most sacks in the Big Ten. What's going to be the key to that matchup on Saturday?
COACH HOPE: It's going to be a great matchup. I think down and distance could have a lot to do with it. If you could force them into third and long and force them to take a deeper drop, it increases your chances of getting to the quarterback. They do a great job of manufacturing some quick passing game, and they have a deep threat as well. They have excellent receivers, and the quarterback has an excellent arm. But he always has an outlet for someplace to go in an emergent situation. He does a good job of putting the ball on the money.
So you have to match up well with him because he knows where they're at and he can get the ball to them. And you have to really do a great job up front. We hope that we can do some things scheme-wise that can give us an advantage and hope to do some things match-up wise to give us an advantage. But they do a great job of getting the ball out of his hands in a hurry, and they've got an excellent scheme that he's mastered.
He understands their offense, and he's mastered their offense. Last week in the second half, we didn't get to the quarterback as often. I thought that impacted game some. And they maxed out. They had a couple of big-time receivers. I don't realize the quality of receivers that Michigan State has, but a lot of the draft experts feel like they're first day draft picks. So they could max out protection-wise and match up pretty well outside, and Indiana can as well.
But the quarterback is exceptional. He really is.

Q. Is there kind of an extra spring in everyone's step because of how you played?
COACH HOPE: We want to win. We haven't had to coach effort, not one time with this football team have I had to coach effort. I think that speaks volumes. We won't have to coach effort again this week, particularly being IU week. They'll be excited to play, and this is a huge game, but it's particularly a huge game for our seniors. It's senior day. We've got a great group of seniors. Our guys will be ready to go. I don't have any question about that. We want to win.

Q. Coach, obviously, you're focusing on this game, but how excited are you for next year? You're only graduating six senior starters. Have you been looking ahead a little bit next year? Because you have the possibility of getting back Keith Smith and Ralph Bolden and Robert Marve. You've got to be excited.
COACH HOPE: We're always excited about the future. We feel we've made great progress in every phase of our program the last couple of years. There are things we could talk about for hours and hours. We feel like we've taken some steps that's going to help us produce a championship caliber football team on an annual basis.
I'm going to meet with you guys again next week, or be available, I think, on Monday, to talk more about the future and looking ahead. We have to look ahead some just because we're going to go on recruiting pretty soon, and we have to start looking at areas where we need help at and areas around that and guys we're going to shift around.
Other than that, haven't put a whole lot into next year. We have a lot to deal with on a weekly basis right now. Won't talk a whole lot about the future, if that's okay.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much.

End of FastScripts

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