Player Quotes
Senior Captain Walter Reyes
On being named captain:
"It's a great honor. I was kind of nervous because there are a lot of other great leaders on this team. When they said the first two I thought there's one more left. Then they said 5'10", 210 pounds, I thought, well, I think that's me. It feels really good that my teammates named me captain."
On his expectations for this season:
"I'm going to try to lead by example with my performance on and off the field. During the summer, in the weight room, make sure everything is going smoothly. I want to help my team get back to a bowl game and try to win every game. As far as individual goals, the sky's the limit. I always set my goals high. I want a legitimate shot to win the Heisman. Everything else will take care of itself."
Senior Captain Julian Pollard
On being named captain and how to be a leader:
"It's a great honor to be chosen by your teammates. I want to just go and help lead the team. It's a huge responsibility, but I want to lead by example. Encourage them, help team morale. I want to watch more film and take every rep like it's the last one. I'm a senior now. I want to play well and get the team going. I'm looking forward to playing a lot of good games and winning."
On who to look out for in the fall:
"Walter is going to have a good year; I like Tarrullo on the line … I like our team as a whole. We have a lot of good guys out there."
Senior Captain Matt Tarullo
Looking ahead, how do you feel about the 2004 season?
I'm excited about the upcoming season. I think that the team has done a great job preparing for the Spring Game. I think that over the summer we are going to make a lot of strides forward to get ready for Purdue and our opening week. I think that we have the know-how and senior leadership to get that done.
Can you talk a little bit about becoming a captain and what that means to you?
It's a great honor to me to be chosen by my teammates to be a leader. I'm very happy to accept the responsibility. I know there's a lot of responsibility, but I think we are going to be very well-off with the people who were chosen as captains. I'm happy Walter's there and I'm happy Julian's there. We are all impact players. I'm very happy that my teammates chose me. I couldn't be happier, to say the least.
What do you see as some of the differences between this year's team and last year's team?
The attitude and the demeanor that our team has right now is really great. I think that we didn't miss a beat from last year, as far as the kind of chemistry and experience we had. We had to fill some spots and we did that Tony Jenkins is playing really well at nose guard Jason (Greene) and Steve (Franklin) are playing well at guard, Quinn (Ojinnaka) is stepping up at tackle. Everyone is pulling their weight. The secondary really stepped up and had two interceptions today. I think everyone is really starting to step up and by the time season comes around we are going to be a well-oiled machine.
How do you think the offense looks?
I think the offense looked pretty good today. We had a few problems here and there, but nothing that can't be worked out. I think from the beginning of the spring until now there have been great improvements. I think that everyone is starting to execute and be consistent on an every-play basis and that's what we need.
Junior Quarterback Xavier Gaines:
How did you feel things went today as far as the quarterback competition?
I think everything went real well. I was really excited and had a lot of adrenaline going. Everyone was playing hard and having fun out there. We were all trying to show everyone what we can do because we are all pretty inexperienced and we all want to get that starting job.
How do you think the team looks? I think we look real strong. Everyone is getting better every day. Everybody has some stuff that they need to work on, but we are working on that. Everyone is working real hard. Hopefully we can be solid next year and open some eyes.
Do you feel like personally you are more solid now than you were last year at this time?
Yeah, after being injured and going through that whole battle. I'm just blessed that things weren't too serious and that I was able to recover.
How do you feel about the team as a whole at this point?
Everybody is really anxious to see how we are going to do. The first game at Purdue has everybody hyped up and we're excited to see how we do there. We are ready to get the season rolling. We know we have some kinks to straighten out, and we are going to try to go out and win game after game and have a good season.
