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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 21, 2011

Butch Davis

COACH DAVIS: Obviously this spring was dramatically different than spring a year ago where we had a significant number of returning starters, a lot of guys that had been in the program for many years with an awful lot of experience. This spring was more about going back to basics and to fundamentals because of a tremendous number of young players at a lot of positions.
You know, our coaching staff felt like we did accomplish some good things during spring practice, but we're clearly a long ways away from where we need to be and where we certainly would want to be. I think that probably areas that we felt like that we developed not only some good cohesiveness but some depth were the offensive line and the defensive line, and I think that's certainly a byproduct of four years of recruiting and being able to develop some consistency and continuity in those particular areas.
We're like any program that's making a transition from a prior existing starting quarterback that basically had been the starter for four years, and we're going into uncharted territory with a group of four young quarterbacks that have never played before of any significant amount of time in college. Certainly Bryn Renner is the heir apparent to replace T.J. Yates, and we felt like he had a very good spring. He's talented, he's got skills, but it's a learning experience every day. I love his attitude. I love his hunger to work hard and to get better, and we think that he's definitely moving in the right direction. But like all programs, we've got to develop some depth there. Braden Hanson, A.J. Blue and Marquise Williams are three other young quarterbacks that we've got to develop those guys. We've got to be able to have at least two quarterbacks that we feel like can go into games and we feel like we can win with.
We have a little bit of an experienced receiving corps offensively. We had some seniors on the team last year at wide receiver, so all of those guys return, and I think that that provides us with some good depth and certainly some good competition for playing time. We're in kind of uncharted territory at running back. We've lost Anthony Elzy, Johnny white and Shaun Draughn, and those three guys probably took 95 percent of the playing reps over the previous four seasons, and so we're going through some trials and experimentation with some young running backs, and I think that that clearly will not be settled until we get into training camp.
On the defensive side of the ball, I think we've got some talented first line linebackers in Zach Brown and Kevin Reddick, but I think that clearly we've got to find a third starting linebacker. Darius Lipford is a potential possibility, Ebele Okakpu, Dion Guy, and we clearly have got to find some depth. We've got to find a good backup unit, and that may not come until next year's incoming freshmen get to camp here in August.
The secondary probably took one of the biggest hits of the football team by losing Kendric Burney and Deunta Williams, two guys that had basically started for four years, and Da'Norris Searcy, who was an unbelievably talented player in special teams and the secondary, so the whole secondary has got to be rebuilt, and that certainly will be a work in progress.
But I like the attitude of the team. I like that they've worked very hard, but we've still got an awful lot of area to cover over the summer and certainly during training camp.

Q. How has Bryn Renner improved over the off-season, and what are your thoughts on his performance this spring?
COACH DAVIS: Well, I mean, I think for us the starting point in the development of a quarterback is obviously is there passion to learn and to get better, and in the off-season you're so limited because of the access that you have with the athlete that a lot of that is relegated to how much are they willing to come in and watch film. And I think that Bryn did a very good job. He came in, not only did he watch all of T.J. Yates' games over the last couple of years, he looked at a lot of his own personal practice cut-ups from last year. He's studying quarterbacks that are playing in the National Football League that he has similar skills and traits to to kind of look at how those guys perform and how they play and the way in which they -- the style in which they play.
So I think he's got a great basis from that standpoint. He's passionate, he loves to work, he wants to be good. He's got that certainly air of charisma that when he steps in the huddle I think the rest of the teams believes that he's going to find a way to make that play work.
We're optimistic that he's going to do a good job, but he certainly is going to be challenged from the experience standpoint. There will be a learning curve as he goes through training camp and the first part of the season, but we like what we see so far.

Q. With so many young players getting game experience last season, do you feel in the long run that will help your team's depth in competing for positions?
COACH DAVIS: Well, I think our depth is questionable to be honest with you. We had some players that played last year, they played before they were ready, probably before they even really deserved to play, but out of necessity they stepped in and did some good things. But we've had some injuries, guys have had surgery, off-season surgery, so we've got to get some guys well, and we've got to continue to grow and build those guys.

Q. About the running backs, you said it's kind of still to be settled in the fall camp. Are you looking for one guy to emerge as the workhorse running back or this guy has a certain attitude I want to use in certain situations and I've got another guy that's good at this particular thing?
COACH DAVIS: I think you have to have a stable of running backs to be honest with you. Will you ever -- I don't know that I even want to have one guy that you say this guy is going to take 95 percent of the reps. I think it's a detriment to the kid.
The most successful offenses that I had at the University of Miami were built around the idea that in almost every single game you were playing two for sure and maybe even sometimes a third running back, whether it was the Clinton Portis, Najeh Davenport, Edgerrin James, Willis McGahee, all those guys, if you're going to have 75 to 85 snaps on offense and you're going to run the ball 45 of those times, there's plenty enough work to get two really quality players a lot and maybe a third one if he's got some unique, special skills as a 3rd down player out of the backfield catching the ball or maybe a short yardage go-line guy. Who knows.
But we've got to have more than one running back, and we've got an awful lot of unproven guys. Hunter Furr got a brief little exposure last year at the end of the game in the fourth quarter against Florida State and a little tiny bit in the Tennessee game, in the Bowl game. Ryan Houston comes back from being declared eligible but subsequently red-shirting last year, so he's the most experienced veteran group of that group of people, and then we've got a lot of freshmen players that we've got to figure out -- red-shirt freshmen, what roles they can play to help us.

Q. You mentioned looking for a third starting linebacker and also you might need to look at some freshmen coming in. Travis Hughes, a young man from up in our area, got a lot of notoriety in high school. Might he be in the mix there?
COACH DAVIS: Yeah, I don't think there's any question that we have talked long and hard about what roles Travis could play. I think the one fortunate thing is that Travis is physically gifted enough that he could play any of the three positions. He could be a Sam and a Will on the outside. He could certainly be a Mike, he could be a Mike nickel linebacker, and there's no question that we're going to count on him to be able to come in and play, put him on the fast track to find out how much of a game plan could he absorb and how quickly can he catch up.
Four years ago Bruce Carter and Quan Sturdivant came into the program as guys that were thrust into the role as starters early in their freshman career, and it worked out very well for them. Travis could potentially fall into that category, but we've got to develop some depth. I mean, we've got to be able to play -- ideally we like the idea of playing six linebackers in almost every game, and whether they're starters or whether they're significant second-team players that may play 30, 35 plays in a game. That's a big challenge for this football team this summer and going into the season.

Q. I'm going to shift gears on you here just real briefly. We've had a couple of years now to kind of digest the divisional breakdown in the league, and I know you weren't here when it first started, but I was wondering, it's an odd breakup, and I just wondered that now you've had some context what do you think about how the league is broken up, and is it accomplishing what it's set out to do in terms of balance?
COACH DAVIS: I assume you're just talking about the concept of having two separate divisions?

Q. Yeah.
COACH DAVIS: That's pretty much -- I mean, it's the way the SEC is broken down into an east and west, and at one time the Big 12 was a north and a south concept. I know that the Pac-10 as they've expanded, I don't think that they're going into separate divisions, but I think that the Big Ten as they've expanded and absorbed Nebraska, they're going to break up into separate divisions.
I mean, it almost seems logical that you'd have six in each division if you hope to have a championship and play the two divisions against each other in the final championship game. I don't see any other way that you could possibly do that.

Q. The way it's broken up not geographically, is it just kind of odd the way they broke it up?
COACH DAVIS: Well, I wasn't here when they decided. I understand the concept of having the one natural rivalry in the other division that you carry all the time and you rotate the other schools. I don't know, I mean, it's -- I'm sure when they sat down and they tried to come up with the concept, I haven't heard anybody even arguing about it. It's never been mentioned at any of our meetings that it's unfairly balanced one way or the other. It's kind of the way that it is. I don't think an awful lot about it.

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