Head Coach Doug Marrone - Spring Practice
April 10, 2009
What were your general impressions here today? Particularly at the end, it looked like the defense was getting after it.
“I think what you see are areas of enthusiasm throughout the practice. It was one of the things we talked about in our team meeting – enthusiasm. We believe that enthusiasm creates power. It's not at a level where we need it to be consistently throughout the practice and that's what I'm really looking to get out of them. There are some ups and downs, which concerns me. There is some lack of focus with some turnovers or a penalty or really just decision making on both sides of the ball. It's something we need to continue to work on, but I really believe that once we get that, we can make bigger strides in our improvement."
How would you evaluate the competitive instincts of the guys, particularly at this time of year?
“I think it still goes back to what we talked about before. You would like, as a head coach, to have the enthusiasm every time, all the time, and only have certain points where you need to do something competitive to bring it out. When they step on this field, they should have the same enthusiasm. I shouldn't need to manufacture it. If you see when I bring them up, I'm trying to get them back to a level where they need to be. When you see me bring them up, that's not a good sign."
The weather helps. Do you like seeing all these former players and fans in attendance?
“It's great. It was a great day to come out and play football. Again, it should add to the enthusiasm of what we're doing."
Was the purpose today, again, the running phase and the run defense?
“Enthusiasm was the focus today. We were trying to create a more consistent enthusiasm throughout practice. That was the goal coming out and that was the goal in my team meeting with the players. That's what we're looking to do. Just like I said before, enthusiasm creates power. It's up and down. I have to create some situations to create enthusiasm and at times, I know that's my job, but I shouldn't have to do it as much as I am doing right now."
At the end, did you get the enthusiasm you wanted like the play in which Ryan Nassib got in or didn't get in on the bootleg?
“I don't think it's a secret. I think everyone that's out here that's been part of football knows that's the type of enthusiasm you want from both sides of the football. But, you need it for a consistent amount of time out there on that football field. You need it for 75 plays on offense, maybe 62 plays on defense. Right now, we are up and down with the enthusiasm in our play and that's not acceptable. We're not going to win games if we don't get that consistency."
(Wide receiver) Marcus Sales had a couple of outstanding catch today. Could you talk a little about his play?
“Marcus is a good player on Friday and Saturday scrimmages. Marcus has to become a more consistent player on Monday and Wednesday. To think he's going to be able to get on the field and tell me that he goes out there and plays when there are 'X' amount of people in the stands, that’s not it. We need consistency from him throughout the week for him to be able to earn that right to be on the field. But I am pleased. Marcus has a tremendous amount of ability. He's a good football player and needs to improve more to help us win."
Are you excited about the defense on a day like this or anxious about the offense when they get dominated like that?
“'Dominate' is a pretty tough word. I think that to give you a cap of what I saw in the scrimmages, the first-and-10 part of the scrimmage, the offense made a lot of big plays. When we went to the plus-50, the offense moved the ball well. They really did. Then, all of a sudden, we get into the red zone at the 20-yard line and the defense stuffs us. I don't know if there's a dominating part in any of that, but what I see is that we can't be successful with that type of enthusiasm or consistency one side of the ball or the other. We need a higher level of competition and a higher level of enthusiasm. That's what I'm looking for."
It looked like Doug Hogue covered a lot of ground for you out there today.
“Doug's made a good transition in that position, moving to linebacker and Doug's going to help us next year."
How did the offensive line hold up there for you today in the scrimmage?
“I still think we need a lot of improvement from the offensive line. I think we're not close to where we want to be. I don't think the players are close to where they want to be. Having coached that position for a long time, we have to get more out of them through myself and Coach (Greg) Adkins and the rest of the offensive staff and that's my plan."
Do you know how you're going to do the scrimmage next Saturday?
“It'll be a scrimmage. It'll be a controlled scrimmage because the one thing is that we're still in an evaluation period with our players. My thoughts on the future for the spring game will be a game, kind of like it was when I played. We'll split up sides and have a game. It comes into play well for us this year, obviously, with only two quarterbacks, so we'll have a controlled scrimmage much like you've seen here. We're working on a point system so we can have a winner and a loser, I guess you could say (smiling)."
Any idea of how many plays you might run?
“The other day, I believe we ran 72 the last time we were out here. Today we ran 82. I'm conscious of keeping track of what we're doing. Everything's pretty much on a set schedule of how we practice. I'm not sure of how many plays we're to get, but I know it will not be less than 72 and it won't be more than 125. I know that's a big window, but I want to play football and it'll be our last time out. I want to get everything we can out of ourselves."
