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PURDUE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 8, 2011

Danny Hope

Q. In the aftermath of the Wisconsin game, what are you seeing?
COACH HOPE: We had a great practice on Sunday and a lot of guys stepped up and we are ready to lead and the tempo was excellent on Sunday after the game, and I thought they got right back to work and got back on course. I saw them respond and saw the things that we need to see. We need to make sure we see it every day and then Saturday, that's when it counts.

Q. From a confidence standpoint, when you get beat like that, where are you guys at -- and also maybe alludes a little bit to leadership, where that confidence comes from, to be able to bounce back?
COACH HOPE: Well, a couple of weeks ago, we had played very well against a top-ranked Illinois team and we have had a couple of tough games against some really talented opponents at their place, and tough times, and we lose two games.
We are in the same boat that Wisconsin was just in this past weekend where they had a couple of games where they were disappointed in the outcome and were able to rebound. So we were certainly able to look at Wisconsin's effort this past Saturday and look at that.
We are not that far removed from playing really well just a couple of weeks ago. We gave up some big plays on the defensive side of the ball and we have done some things to compete and thought we made some mistakes against some top-quality opponents and lost a couple of games, but I think our confidence is okay and will be okay.

Q. You have gotten some very good special teams play from Mostert (ph), can you talk about what enabled him to do the things he's done this year?
COACH HOPE: We have had a lot of good special teams play all year long and he has been a part of it, kickoff coverage and plays on the punt return team when we have returned the punter and has done very well throughout the course of the season returning kicks. We felt the last several weeks he was a freckle away from breaking one; and the other guys on the kickoff return team, that's exciting to them when they see that potential on film.
The guys up front that do the shield blocks, they have really done well and fit up on their guys that are rushing down the field and that's been huge. He has a real knack for returning kicks. I think he's a natural kick-returner in a lot of ways. He's very courageous and he's a wide open player, and I think that's part of being a good kickoff return man. And he's very fast, one of the faster guys on our team and would be one of the fastest guys on most people's teams. He has a strong body and runs very hard. Has a lot of redeeming qualities and he is great player that has speed. Sometimes you get a track athlete that tries to play football, but he's a great football player that has great sprinter speed, and all of those things help you be a good kickoff return man.

Q. Facing a freshman quarterback, Braxton Miller, dual-threat guy, I know he has not passed a lot, but what problems does he present for you?
COACH HOPE: He's a dual-threat guy and he has not passed the football a whole lot this season. They are working on their passing game, and you can see what they are trying to expand their passing game. And he has an excellent arm. He has thrown well at times in the games.
And I remember him very well as a high school prospect. He was an outstanding player and he can beat you with his arm and his feet. He's very fast, elusive and has good players around him and has a real strong running game that takes some of the pressure off of him, and he's a threat because he's a great athlete. And when he was the ball in his hand, he can make something happen.

Q. If you can evaluate all aspects special teams?
COACH HOPE: We have done very well. Our punter is one of the leading punters in the nation as far as distance and, our team is one of the top net-wise. Normally if you rank in the Top-10 as punter and net, you have a chance to win top awards, probably a Ray Guy (ph) candidate just based on the numbers. Our punter has done very well and at times has been the very top punter in the nation throughout the course of the season several times.
I think that our punt return team has been good, Waynelle has not taken one to the house but he's had a pretty good production. He's in the top two or three in our league. And the kickoff return team has been dangerous all year long and has the potential to make a difference in any ballgame, given its great field position. And our kickoff coverage team, I think we have done well, and I think Carson has kicked the ball, good ball placement, deep inside the five-yard line and in the corners and allowed us to cover well.
So I've been very pleased with all aspects of our special teams. When it's all said and done when the season is over, we have a chance to be the top special team in the Big Ten, if we are not No. 1, we will be up there one, two or three punt return or kickoff return. But I'm very pleased with the specialists and their performance for the most part, and also with the performance of all of our special teams.

Q. You mentioned after the game and based on some of the hits he's made on special teams this year, are you certain he's going to be an offensive player? Could he play safety?
COACH HOPE: He could play safety but I'm pretty sure we will keep him on offense if he keeps making points like he does. Guys that make touchdowns and score a lot of points, he goes on offense. He would be a fantastic safety, he could play receiver, tailback, kick return, he could play any skill position.

Q. And going back to Ohio State, since they have gotten Boom Herron back, are they getting better now because they have their whole set of guys? They had some struggle early in the year but they have their full team.
COACH HOPE: You're right on. You look at games early in the season and they didn't have all of their players for a lot of different reasons obviously, and the latter part of the season they are getting some of their top players back.
And Herron is a great player. He's a difference-maker in the ballgame, certainly one of the top backs in the league and has to be one of the top backs in the country from a talent standpoint and takes a lot of pressure off their young quarterback.
So they are running the ball similar in some ways. They run the power play and they still run some things they have done in the past, but they are doing some new things, as well. They are in the shotgun some, they are in the shotgun with some backs in the field. They are multiple formation-wise not as power-oriented as Wisconsin and not as spread, they are multiple like we are and do some power football and some spread football.

Q. What do you see out of how Kevin did for playing the first time out there?
COACH HOPE: He did pretty good. He's feeling his way, and that was not the easiest of coming out parties for a guy. When he got in the game more, it was in the second half. We played James Shepherd, has been in the program, senior, has had a million reps and big tough guy and James did very well.
Kevin is very talented and we want to develop him as well. We went with Shep early in the game and later in the game we played Kevin more, and later in the game we were further behind and their defense brought more and that made it a bigger challenge for Kevin. He's a great talent and had a ton of reps last week, and it's going to be a growing process.
He has a great talent and seems to have a knack for doing some of the things he wants an offensive lineman to do and he can see what happens in the front, he needs more reps. I'm pleased with him, he has a great upside and I think he will be a great offensive line player at Purdue.

Q. Any update on Drey at this point, are you trying to determine --
COACH HOPE: I don't know if we'll have Peters back for a while, which means he could be out for the remainder of the season. Very limited right now. Can't do anything right now, Tuesday, and not any better than he was at the beginning of the week last week and was not able to do anything last week. The report is not good.
I'm not optimistic about him being available this week. Any time you are dealing with a back, you never know. So we are moving forward and assume he's not going to be ready and go with Shep and Pamphile and make sure we are getting Cody Davis ready as well, also, because he's healthy now and he was really coming on four or five weeks ago before he got hurt. So glad to get him back.

Q. Your guys have been out there a last couple of weeks --
COACH HOPE: Not too much.

Q. You would like to not be out there as much --
COACH HOPE: At all.

Q. Would you like to roll some guys and especially in the back after of the defense?
COACH HOPE: I think we are going to have to. We have too many good football players sit on the sidelines that can help us, guys like Chris Carlino, one of our best football players. You can put Chris in the game and he can make a difference. We would like to get Joe Gilliam in the games some more and Taylor Richards in the game some more. He's a very good player even though he is only a freshman, he's a very good player.
We have given up a lot of big plays in the last couple of weeks, a lot of big plays and we have played against a couple of really explosive offenses there. They had great numbers coming into the game and we couldn't control them.
So we have given a lot of big plays up the last couple of weeks. A lot of it is the result of missed assignments and a lot of the missed assignments are the result of, because you give big plays up, you have to chase the football further. Those four-second plays to turn into seven-, eight-, nine-second plays and that really can wear your defense down in some ways.
So we have to reduce our number of missed assignments. It's a vicious cycle, give up big plays and you're chasing up the football and you're tired. So we need to make fewer missed assignments and don't give up as many big plays, and that can really increase the performance of our defense significantly. And just do that alone and play some fresher good players, too, in the mix and I think that will make us more wide open and do a better job of tackling and more tempo, so absolutely.

Q. You've played four safeties this year, a cup of younger guys I don't think you've liked their potential. Do you see room, you mentioned Richards, a guy like E.J. Johnson, is there room to get those guys in, or is it a tough balance because obviously you want veteran guys out there.
COACH HOPE: I want both of those guys out there, right now E.J. has not played much in the game at all. He's coming off an injury, but really talented and was a pleasant surprise in camp. Last year he was new and still trying to figure some things out and not sure how far he was at grasping everything. And at camp he looked good, he was fast and physical and looked like a talent out there, and then he got hurt. We'll probably see him some on special teams this Saturday. We want him out there, some coverage kicks and being on the punt return and working his way into playing time at the safety spot.
Taylor has been healthy all along so he has a lot of reps in the games already on special teams and we have worked a ton off scrimmage reps through the course of the season, and we think he's he can play scrimmage or safety or the corner spot now. He can play either/or. We like him and what he's done so far and consider him in our top group of our corners. I don't think he's our 8th defensive back. He's right up in the mix somewhere. He'll play some the next couple of weeks more and we'll start getting the other guy in on special teams some.
But they help us, they are fast and they are good players and then they can help us.

Q. Are you pretty well set as far as the freshmen, you are going to not play this year and keep as freshman or is there still an opportunity?
COACH HOPE: Probably so. It's late now. If I had to do it all over again I probably would have taken the redshirt off Franke Williams because I think he's a really good football player and he could have helped us this year.
We have a couple of senior corners that are kind of stacked at that third and fourth corner spots. When we started to -- going into camp we had gotten bad news on Josh Johnson's foot and not sure we were going to have him and we had already moved Normondo to offense.
So we went from Josh to being our top two corners to being fourth or fifth best corner coming out last year. When we moved Normondo over to defense and Josh's foot held up and we had a couple of seniors stacked at the four corner spot, that allowed us to take the luxury to redshirt Franke Williams.
But if I had to do it all over again, I would probably take the redshirt off him. He's a real good football player, competitive and real scrappy, and I think he might have helped us some in the second half this year. But I know he could have helped us a bunch on special teams, because he gets after it out there. He's one of the better players on our practice field. If I had to do it all over again, I would take Frankie Williams. Hope I don't have to right now.

Q. Frankie had a bunch of returns in high school; do you see those two in the future as a bit of a strong duo on kickoff returns?
COACH HOPE: Along with Akeem Hunt and all of the other good players we have on our team. Hunt has not played much at tailbacks and we have not had as many reps in the game as we would like to have, and he's a special player back there and I really like him back there on the kickoff return team, and he's a class sprinter, also, really tough football player. Very fortunate to have had he and Raheem back there returning kicks for us right now.
Where Frankie probably helps us firepower-wise and maybe at punt returner. He has more of a knack at punt returner than what Akeem does and is a different type of return guy and so I think Frankie can be a different type of punt returner for us and probably could have done some this year for us. We had some guys we wanted to work in there, but again, because of injuries we decided not to put them out there some.

Q. How do you describe Albert Evans' personality and his approach to football?
COACH HOPE: He's a little old school, very direct. I deal with him very well and really like the way he goes about his business. He's a hard-nosed guy and he has one speed, and most of the time it's full speed, whether you're in full pads or shorts. Sometimes you have to back him down, looks like a tackle wearing shots.
So he's a wide-open, reckless guy and kind of old school in some ways as far as just football values goes. He's a real warrior, a real warrior to go out on the field and play with. So I like everything about him as a football player. He's a rational guy, most of the time. You speak to him and he gets the message and spreads the word from a leadership standpoint in the right fashion. I like everything about him. He's a really good football guy. He makes us a tougher football team and a more wide open football team.

Q. With Saturday's game and the way Ohio State has run its offense this year, do you anticipate -- you played a lot of nickel this year. Is this more of an offense that you have to face from a traditional defensive standpoint with four down linemen and three linebackers?
COACH HOPE: It would seem that way just on paper, but when you look at what they are trying to do from a personnel standpoint, they are not really all the time geared up for power football. They will spread the field some and run it and run it with the quarterback quite a bit, and normally you don't load up to run it with the quarterbacks. A lot of times you spread it out sometimes to run it with the quarterback. And personnel groupings sometimes dictates who we put on the field. If they are going to run the football with three receivers in the game, we could have a nickel package out there anyway.
So it will be based a lot on groupings like it always is but it will be a little more run oriented. They have the horses until the backfield and the linemen up front to go out there and play really well running the football, and they have good potential as a passing team and have not done it a whole lot.
And they are similar in a lot of ways to the Penn State team that we played three or four weeks back where they are really dominant on defense. They are a very, very dominant defensive football team just like Penn State. The last five weeks counting this game this week, we will have played the Top 4 ranked defense, 18th ranked, 12th ranked, the top-ranked defense and this bunch here is exceptional. So they are really strong on defense and they hang their hat on the strong running game and can feature the quarterback some as runner, as well, which we don't see that much out of Penn State. They are going to be a challenge no question about it. We have our hands full.

Q. What have you seen out of their passing game that maybe that's held them back a little bit? Are they just choosing to lineup and run the majority of the time?
COACH HOPE: Well, newness. They have gone through a couple of different quarterbacks trying to figure out who was going to be the guy. And I see them trying to expand it. We are not giving up on it. It's not where you can go in the same and say they are not going to pass the football because they are spreading out and taking some shots and taking some attempts, and they have protected well at times.
Some of the sacks that they have given up, you look at the numbers and you say, well, they give a lot of sacks up. But they have protection for a long time and they have got covered or maybe the new quarterback was still figuring some things out. They have potential from a passing game standpoint because he has a very nice arm and some of the passes that he throws are exceptional passes, and they just have chosen not to use that type of play calling because they can hang their hat on the offensive line and a great running back and the players around him. They show the potential, so you still have to defend the pass against these guys, you can't disregard it, it's there; the potential is.

Q. Ryan Russell, 20 snaps in the game last week; you thought he was further ahead than a week ago at this time. As you get into this week, do you expect him to play a bigger role?
COACH HOPE: I think so. I think so. I'm a little more optimistic now than I was this time last week, other than he didn't make it through the game the other day. He only made about 20 plays. But I think he's jogging today and wasn't doing that on Tuesday of last week.
So it's similar but a little better than last week and he's getting better. He's figuring some things out, even though he's young, he brings some redeeming qualities physically to the playing field. He's got some size about him at 6-5, 255,260 pounds and he's really strong in the lower unit. So he holds up well on the line of scrimmage when he does the technical things right you, and see him doing it more often so we definitely need him back, no doubt about it. And I'm optimistic that he can make it back.

Q. Ohio State has been using the pistol formation more and more the last couple of weeks. Is it a little difficult to defend on the sense of not knowing what direction the running play is going to go, or what are maybe some of the challenges?
COACH HOPE: Still in the shotgun, so they are away from the rush and still in position to pass the football, and then they have the back centered up right behind the quarterback. So you can be asymmetrical in your play calling; what you can call to the left, you can call to the right, based on how you're lined up. So it has some advantages.
You defend it like you do a lot of other things with your base defense, and it is a shotgun formation and it is a one-back formation and so it doesn't really change all that much from a defensive standpoint. It may make some of your play calling for the offense, might be a little more comfortable play calling standpoint from that formation. It does create some challenges but it's not a whole lot different from one-back shotgun offense.

Q. You had mentioned obviously that they are not throwing that much, they have 31 completions in five Big Ten games, they have won games with 11 attempts, four attempts. Teams know they are going to run the ball and they are still getting a lot of yards running the ball. How do you explain what they are able to do rushing the ball, and even teams are maybe geared up to stop it.
COACH HOPE: Again, I think they are very similar to Penn State where they have a very good offensive line, a big offensive line and they have a stable of backs, and particularly a feature back that's a top player in his position that you can go out and hand the ball off to over and over again and manufacture a very productive run game against anybody, and they are able to do that.
I think they do some more things formation-wise to spread you out a little bit more, maybe than what Penn State does, and I think that gives them some advantage at times in the running game when you get less guys around the line of scrimmage.
So they have a good plan formation-wise and they have a really good offensive line. They have some good backs, very good backs, a couple of featured backs that are outstanding players. And then they have a quarterback that is a dual-threat quarterback and that stretches you in some ways and forces you to have to honor some things as well.
So they are able to run the ball and win, they don't have to pass, they have proven that and won some big games not throwing the ball a whole lot but they do have potential as a passing football team.

Q. Typically rushing yardage, your team has given up the last two weeks, you would hope your guys would be geared up for another chance at this to slow this down. When you look at the defensive front, we have talked about this before, that you have to maybe mix-and-match guys and put them in different spots that led to big plays, how do you handle that as a coach, knowing you want to try different things but when you have tried them, maybe they have not done what they are supposed to do.
COACH HOPE: Well, you have to look at it and weigh it out. If you move too many people around in too many different positions and it's causing too much trouble, maybe you have to get away from it some, or maybe you have to abort some of the ideas completely.
You know, but there's a method behind the madness. Normally when we go into a ballgame with a particular plan or scheme. We have to -- does it minimize missed assignments, and we have had some missed assignments and it's maybe helped the opponent manufacture some big plays.
They have been outstanding offenses anyway, coming in scoring 30-some points a game anyway, scoring 40-some points a game anyway. And then you don't take care of business on a handful of plays, and they turn those into big plays and pretty soon those are 40-something and 50-something and 60-something point offenses if you are not careful.
So we have to minimize our missed assignments and cut down on the number of big plays. And again, it's a vicious cycle, you give up a big play and chasing the football further, and when you get tired, you make more mistakes. You have more missed assignments when you become tired; and when you're chasing the football and giving up big plays and fatigue can become a factor. So we have to minimize big plays and mistakes. That's huge for us right now as a football team.

Q. We talked about your defense being on the field for a long time and your offense maybe as a result of that some not getting a lot of snaps but you're five of 23 on third down conversions in the last two weeks, part of that has to be the offense just itself staying on the field longer. How do you convert to a better percentage on third down?
COACH HOPE: Do better on first and second down would make a difference. I think we tried to do that some and we have also gone for it some on some short yardage situations on fourth down and having converted on a couple.
We have had some penalties. We played in a couple very tough places from a crowd standpoint, you know, so we probably had a few more penalties pre-snap penalties that we would like to have that negate some drives. If you drop a ball, that can negate a drive. We have had a couple of drops. If there's -- your right to catch the football, is denied in some ways and it's a tough call, that can negate some drives in some ways.
So I think we have done some things. We have moved the football, but we have not converted on third down like we would like to and been our own worst enemy some. And then the quality of the opponent has been awfully good, we have played some top defensive teams in the country who coming into the ballgames, other people are not doing very well on third down, either.
So it's a combination of who we are playing against and a combination of us not taking care of business some, and not taking care of business some can come in lots of different ways, like I just mentioned.

Q. Being 4-1 at home, you guys got through your two tough road games and you guys are coming back home, what's the added comfort level when you come home and play in front of the home crowd?
COACH HOPE: What's big for our football team, the timing of coming back home to Raw State and the big Olympic Mackey weekend, all of the games on campus and the new facility, that's going to create some energy and some excitement.
Obviously we are disappointed in the way the last two games have gone, but we have to move on and I think being back home in Raw State is a difference maker for us right now; the timing is perfect.

Q. You talked about Ohio State's inconsistency the past couple of weeks and the early part of the season, is there a way you can pinpoint and go after that inconsistency?
COACH HOPE: I don't remember referencing to any consistency. Which one?

Q. Like the freshman quarterback or not having most of the player back; how do you plan on going after that?
COACH HOPE: Well, they have most of their players back now. I think the beginning of the season they probably were not that solid as a team. Some of their top guys were out.
So the team that I'm seeing on the field the last couple of games, the one that just beat Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago looks like an awfully good football team to me. They have a freshman quarterback and any time you have a brand new quarterback, you try to cut down on some things, and they are hanging their hat on the running game mostly. But I didn't mention inconsistency, so I didn't reference any.

Q. You know at the beginning of the season, you talked about one of your goals getting to a Bowl game. You have three chances to get two wins, do you feel like the window of opportunity is closing, or do you feel any more added pressure?
COACH HOPE: I think numerically, obviously the window of opportunities is closing some but that might be to our advantage in ways, because you only have so many chances, and you have to get it done.
So, you know, again I think we have a football team that wants to win, and we have grown and developed over the course of the season and we have had some struggles the last couple of weeks defensively giving up big plays. But a couple of weeks ago we were a football team that just knocked off a ranked opponent at home right in the hunt. That's just a couple of weeks ago.
So we are excited about being back home in Raw State, we are excited about the potential of our football team, and we look forward to playing Ohio State here. It's going to be a huge Saturday in Raw State and a lot of fun.

Q. The situation with the Bowl possibility, is that something that they just already understand and go from there?
COACH HOPE: Well, they understand it and obviously you can reference it to the team in many ways. We have three goals as a football team really. One is to make A's and B's, and the other is to have fun playing football.
And one of our other goals, our third goal really, our mission statement for our football team and program is to become champions. So we talk about that all of the time, and theres lots of opportunities to become champions depending upon how many games that you win.
So we are still in position to be champions by winning and getting into post-season play and winning a Bowl game. So all of our goals are still alive. Obviously we can't compete for the very top spots in our conference right now. Numerically the odds are against us. But we still could be champions. We referenced what our goals were coming into the season. Everybody is still making A's and B's, having fun playing football, and we still aspire to be champions. That's how we reference where we are at.

Q. Do the methods to your team change after a game like the Wisconsin game, the magnitude of that loss, versus maybe a loss like Rice in the final seconds, is that different in terms of how you deal with that with your guys?
COACH HOPE: Well, where I think we are at right now as a football team with the key games coming up the next three weeks at the senior leadership, the leaders amongst the team really have to step up, and that was more of my message in the longer room.
You know, the season has come to a critical time, crunch time in some ways, and if you want to be champions, you want to get a ring and you want have a special season, seniors and leaders, you have to really step up. And so that was the message, also, after Rice, but it's even more stronger a message even now, because it's their team and their season.

Q. A couple of things that are a little bit more general. It looked at one point like Wisconsin might run away from the conference, at least from its side of the conference, they lost a couple of games, Nebraska beat Michigan State and then losing to Northwestern, what do those developments say about the quality of the conference?
COACH HOPE: Really strong obviously. Sometimes, there's an old saying, it's not who you play, it's when you play them, and I think it's showing up quite often this season already in league play. It's a very strong conference. I look back to where the conference was at when I came here before, and I was here from '97 to 2001, and then I look and I see where the conference is at now and where these teams are at now, the conference is much better, much stronger than it was when I was here the first time as an assistant coach. I'm not surprised to see everyone in the conference having their opportunities to win.

Q. My last thing is, last year there was a lot of talk about running quarterbacks especially Cam Newton and the zone read and now it's pretty much taken over college football. Has the increased number of running quarterbacks changed the way you recruit defensively?
COACH HOPE: Well, the spread offense has, where you have to recruit some linebackers that can run well enough to defend the spread and still stout enough to come downhill and play the run. That's a tough guy to find.
You have probably more defensive backs and more outside linebacker personnel now on a defensive football roster, maybe compared to 15 or 20 years ago. And you need more guys that can be that nickelback guy or that linebacker that can play in space; where 20 years ago the linebacker, he wore a neck roll when he came downhill, he took on the iso (ph) and the power, and then when the quarterback drooped back to throw the football, then he dropped to a spot and he was a spot-drop linebacker.
It's all changed a lot since then. That type of personnel has changed as well, no question about that.

Q. You talked about Miller being a dual-threat quarterback, how does he compare to some of the others that you've seen this year, because that seems like it's been a week-in, week-out theme for you.
COACH HOPE: Well, he's not as accomplished as Denard Robinson obviously and he does not have the experience that Scheelhaase has. I think he's similar in ways to the quarterback down in Indiana right now, a guy that can run and throw and is a talent that they can put on the field and find some ways for him to manufacture plays. And he's a good player, or he wouldn't be a quarterback, and they were both outstanding quarterbacks in high school.
It's hard to compare them to people that are the Heisman candidates or guys that have been three- or four-year starters. But he's a guy that can reel fast and he can make you miss in space. He's as skilled as any of your skilled athletes on the field, and he can pass the football. And so he is a dual-threat quarterback, but it's kind of hard to compare him to the others right now, because he's young and he's new.

Q. Despite the outcomes of the last two games, you've gotten off to good start in your last two ballgames but have not been able to sustain that. Talk about the importance of getting off to a fast start at home Saturday and then being able to sustain that and get the crowd behind you and get them on their heels.
COACH HOPE: It's real important. We thought that one of our keys to winning at Wisconsin, we would be able to weather the storm at the first quarter. They were a football team that came out and out-scored their opponents I think 90-15 prior to playing us. So we felt like if we could weather the storm of the first quarter, that would be a huge step for our football team, and we were able to do that.
Wisconsin still drove on the opening drive and they had a 50-yard run and scored, and we had a great kickoff return by Raheem and it shortened the field and we scored in two plays. And then they are on the field a little bit and punt and we do the same thing, and they score and we score.
S we started off okay and we got ourselves in a situation two or three times in the course of the ballgame and gave ourselves a chance to compete a couple of things happened that negated those opportunities, we didn't make it a couple of times on fourth down, and then those downs if we had converted, may have given us an opportunity to be much closer point-wise.
And then again every time we answered the bell offensively or come close to answering the ball offensively, if we didn't cash in and score, they were able to manufacturer a big play and produce a score.
So it was one point in time in the game where we had the ball and we had given and it was 13 minutes left in the third quarter and on that drive, if we could have maintained that drive and scored, only been a couple of possession ballgame and then four minutes later they had 52 points, it got away that fast.
So I think we answered the bell some and competed some and the kickoff return team was a big part of that. But we could not keep up with them from a points-scoring standpoint with the amount of big plays that they hit. It was almost impossible at that rate.

Q. Through nine games, how do you think Caleb has played?
COACH HOPE: I think he's done pretty good. He's done very well because he has kept us out of trouble. And a lot of times when you have a brand new quarterback, he's not a freshman quarterback but he has not played in a while; a lot of times they will get you in as much trouble as they do good, and that has not been the case with Caleb TerBush. He's thrown for a good completion percentage. His official stats right now, he's still 61 or 62 percent, his quarterback stats are much higher but he's kept us out of bad plays and has not gotten us in any trouble and that's really important.
There are still some times where he's not as consistent as we would like him to be. The last game there were a couple of times we wished he would have thrown the ball to his progression that was open and he held on to and threw to the second progression, and now the coverage is closer and there's a collision and we don't catch the ball.
A couple of times where he kept a run on into the teeth of a blitz and maybe we have to further check. So he's certainly not perfect yet. But I think he's done very well. I think he's really courageous and he's a tough guy. I think he's a good decision maker and he shows real promise as a passer and throws deep balls and has thrown some accurate passes.
But I think the best thing about him is he has not gotten us in a lot of trouble. A lot of times a first-year quarterback or a first-time-out-there quarterback can get you in trouble. So I like the way he's played so far this year, he's done well.

Q. Ralph through nine games, how do you think Ralph's played?
COACH HOPE: I think he's played really well. We have not been on the field enough for Ralph to have the type of year that we want Ralph to have or type of year that he could have. We spread the ball around some and that's important.
We came into the season optimistic about our offensive line, and I think our offensive line has done very well but we have had to patch it together a couple of times. So we spent maybe a little more time trying to get the ball out on the perimeter, but to do that you have to spread it around a little bit. We have some good playmakers with OJ and Raheem and Antavian and Ralph and Akeem and some of the guys that we have on our team.
So spreading the ball around has been really good for us and it's allowed the defense not to key on one guy. If we stayed on the field more offensively, if we had more possession time, I think Ralph's production would be more. I think he's played really well and he's back to his old self. I don't see any difference between now and before he had his knee injury. He's really tough; to not be bigger than what he is, he's a really tough football player and a really good blocker and he's made people miss and he's had some great runs.
I'd like to give Ralph the ball more. We don't want to give him the ball every down, particularly coming into the season because he has not played football in a while, and we have to keep him into game shape some. Has not played in a while. Were not sure exactly how he would hold upcoming off two knee surgeries. So we didn't try giving him the ball 20 or 30 times a game, particularly Schaeffer is coming on, and he was a physical player. But I think Ralph has done very well and I wish he had more carries and hopefully he'll get a bunch this Saturday and rest of this season and really impact our season because he can.

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