On being able to tackle more and avoiding targeting penalties
“We spent a lot of time talking about body position, obviously your feet and making sure you keep your face out of it, you know, safety first, I think we all know that. To be honest, over the last five years or so, kids have gotten better because the coaches have gotten better teaching. Ultimately, when you start tackling and tackling at high speed when the lights come on, you hope the kids will revert back to their training because we’re not tackling live every day, more footwork and hand placement. As the lights come on and we have more opportunities to do it, hopefully the tackling will be better. To your point, I think we have done a good job emphasizing safety first, we will have to see what happens Thursday night, but I think those guys will protect themselves and obviously our opponent.”
On finding a signal caller with a new defense
“We put a lot on our linebackers, getting them to help set the front, help reiterate what we are trying to get done from the back to the front. Those guys (the linebackers) have been great with it to be quite honest with you. All of those guys get their chances, whether it’s our MIKE or our WILL, everyone has a certain level of communication that they have to have with the defense. It’s still a work in progress, but to this point Coach BJ (Brian Jean-Mary) has done a great job staying on top of those guys to the point where we are head-and-shoulders above where we were in the spring.”
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