OPENING STATEMENT
Just a brief statement about spring. There's a couple of things you want to try to do in spring every year. One is get the base offense installed. Very similar to what you do when you open camp.
The second thing is to look at some things that maybe you evaluated in the off season. You studied somebody else's film, whatever. You want to look at those and see if they fit.
But one of the big things is try to identify players that were either red shirted or second or third team in the previous year and see how close they're going to be really to help you in August.
So I think we've accomplished a lot of those things. We're not ready to play. If we had to play Saturday there's still too many mistakes being made. But the kids attitude and the way they're going about it we've been pretty pleased with that.
With that I'll be glad to answer any questions.
Q. Will it look different with C.J. here?
COACH DAVIS: We'll stay with the inside zone and the slant play that Coach Ferentz has run since he's been here. So that won't look a whole lot different. You know, we have done a few things different in the passing game that we think fit C.J. in terms of trying to stretch the field. So I think there will be more of those kind of things. We will incorporate a little bit using his legs because he has the ability to run.
At the same time you don't ever want to expose a quarterback to undue hits, but we will do some things where we feel like we can take advantage of his legs. And I think he will do some things just leaving the pocket on unscheduled runs.
Q. Coach, how have things changed with you with Brian being the running game coordinator, how does that change the whole approach to the offense, does it change?
COACH DAVIS: Not a whole lot. You know, in 40 something years of doing this, the offensive line coach everywhere I've ever been ‑‑ and I think in most universities has a large say in the run game. And so when we sit down and start game planning I have always relied on the line coach for suggestions, his thoughts and those kind of things. So, you know, I don't think you'll see a whole lot different in terms of that.
We are doing a few things formationally. We have tight ends that we feel like can be tough in mismatches, so we're doing things with tight ends and detached formations a little bit more than we have in the past. But in terms of the weekly progression of what we do, not a huge change.
Q. With the running backs, different styles, you get you different looks?
COACH DAVIS: I think that we have more running backs since I've been here in terms of guys that can go in and play. LeShun Daniels has dropped about ten pounds. He doesn't even look like the same guy. He's much more fluid in his cuts. He's running with confidence. Jordan Canzeri is back and healthy. Akrum Wadley has continued to get stronger. And has done a good job in spring training getting the ball. Obviously that was a concern. But he has the unique ability to jump sideways and make a five yard play into a 15 yard play.
Then probably the surprise of the spring has been Derrick Mitchell in terms of the running backs, moving from wide receiver, he has really done a good job picking things up. You never know how a wide receiver is going to react when he sees a blitz, Derrick did no shy away the first time. I think there's certainly a possibility that he could be the third down back. He could be the guy. Anytime you have a guy like that, that also creates match up problems.
Q. C.J.'s ability to go down field, change your running game, does it increase the possibility the running game is going to be successful. And why do you think you struggled last year?
COACH DAVIS: Anytime something is not as productive as you want it's not one answer. I mean there's ‑‑ sometimes receiver didn't get to the secondary, there's always multiple reasons. I do think the ability to fake the hardball run in there and challenge deep will help slow the support down a little bit. And I do think our backs are a little bit more lateral movement guys. And I think all those things will help as we move into the season.
Q. How has Tyler Wiegers developed this spring?
COACH DAVIS: Tyler Wiegers, he got thrown into the deep end. Typically this would be a spring where he would be running with the threes, but he started paddling the minute he got in there. He's extremely bright. And he's done a really good job. Our quarterbacks have a lot on their plate at the line of scrimmage, both in the running game and in protection, and he's done a really good job.
Q. You still use the fullback significantly. How much did it hurt that first Cox and then Macon was hurt in the first of the season?
COACH DAVIS: There's no question it took a hit because of that. I mean anytime ‑‑ you could say the same thing about any position. How much does it hurt to lose the starting running guard? There was a reason he was starting, because he's the best you've got. And we felt those two full backs were really good, solid players. And with the two of them we thought we had kind of an advantage over some others and both of them missed some significant time last year.
We actually took John Kenny from line backer and moved him over. He did a good job. He's moved back now to the linebacker, but he did a good job there. But everything that John saw last year was the first time he had seen it.
Q. Anytime you have a quarterback with a big arm, they love their arm and like throwing down field even though it may not be prudent. I think C.J. was going down field. How has he progressed in this area, through his duration with you?
COACH DAVIS: Well, I think he's much, much further along now. I think he is going to take the shots. When a pass play unfolds typically somebody is going deep. I know you don't all think that. But usually somebody is going deep. Somebody is in the middle and then somebody is underneath. And he's going to take more shots. He's comfortable doing that. We've encouraged him to do that.
At the same time we want him to play within down and distance parameters. It's second and nine and you've got a back sitting there open at five, yeah, you've got a guy one‑on‑one, but the corner's in really good shape. Is that worthy of taking that shot or should we bring the ball down?
He'll grow as he does it more and more, but he's been ‑‑ we've been very pleased this spring at that part of your question.
Q. One of the strengths of Jake it seemed like was his ability to change things at the line of scrimmage when he saw things that weren't going to work. Maybe that was work C.J. needed work on, would you say he's progressing?
COACH DAVIS: Absolutely. Absolutely. In terms of getting in and out of plays and doing the same thing in protections. He's very comfortable right now changing plays at the line of scrimmage and we're very comfortable allowing him to do that.
Q. To go from being No. 2 all season to being 1‑A at the bowl game and being 1 right after the bowl game?
COACH DAVIS: I think at the bowl game we just felt like at the end of the season, as we had said all along, we thought we had really two good players. And so we thought that, hey, we would open it up for the bowl game, which we did. And then they both knew going into the game that we were going to alternate the series. And so after the bowl game we decided that we needed to clear the air, so to speak. And with that in mind we sat down as a staff and decided to go in the direction we did.
Q. I'm sorry, if I wasn't at that particular press meeting with you. But what pushed him over? What made him No. 1?
COACH DAVIS: We just felt like he gave us the best opportunity to win.
Q. What changed over the course of three or four months to make you come to that conclusion?
COACH DAVIS: We just felt like he gave us the best chance to win. It was not like an epiphany. It was just that we felt like ‑‑ they had been close for a long time. And we just felt like that, like we do at every position, who did you think gives us the best opportunity to win. And that's what we felt after the bowl game.
Q. Do you wish you would have used C.J. more during the regular season?
COACH DAVIS: Hindsight is usually 20/20. So I think there's all kind of things we could have said, yeah, we could have done this, done that, but we're happy with where we're at now.
Q. That position had high speculation anyway. What was the separation between the two? Obviously Jake has a lot of intangibles, we've seen him for two years, he's got all the equity in the bank, but is it another upside, is it his arm strength something that makes him the stronger candidate?
COACH DAVIS: You know, I wish I could tell you one, two, three, four. Part of it is when you ‑‑ you have two good players. You have two good players. And we just felt like that C.J. was at a point mentally to the question of getting in and out of plays, that he had cut that gap down. We felt like physically that there was a bigger upside. And we're talking about a guy that's a really good player in Jake.
And so we just ‑‑ we had to make a decision and sometimes it's what does your gut say. In words it's not as easy as this, this, this, this. Part of it is what we've seen every day for the last couple of years and we just made a decision.
Q. Is part of it at all you guys wanted to kind of take the ambiguity out of quarterback, and you guys ‑‑ outside of the huge question that was answered late you wanted to answer that early?
COACH DAVIS: Yeah, you need to ask Kirk that question. But I think that he felt like as the head coach that it was time to make a clear decision. And instead of taking it into spring training. So, you know, we made it.
Just a brief statement about spring. There's a couple of things you want to try to do in spring every year. One is get the base offense installed. Very similar to what you do when you open camp.
The second thing is to look at some things that maybe you evaluated in the off season. You studied somebody else's film, whatever. You want to look at those and see if they fit.
But one of the big things is try to identify players that were either red shirted or second or third team in the previous year and see how close they're going to be really to help you in August.
So I think we've accomplished a lot of those things. We're not ready to play. If we had to play Saturday there's still too many mistakes being made. But the kids attitude and the way they're going about it we've been pretty pleased with that.
With that I'll be glad to answer any questions.
Q. Will it look different with C.J. here?
COACH DAVIS: We'll stay with the inside zone and the slant play that Coach Ferentz has run since he's been here. So that won't look a whole lot different. You know, we have done a few things different in the passing game that we think fit C.J. in terms of trying to stretch the field. So I think there will be more of those kind of things. We will incorporate a little bit using his legs because he has the ability to run.
At the same time you don't ever want to expose a quarterback to undue hits, but we will do some things where we feel like we can take advantage of his legs. And I think he will do some things just leaving the pocket on unscheduled runs.
Q. Coach, how have things changed with you with Brian being the running game coordinator, how does that change the whole approach to the offense, does it change?
COACH DAVIS: Not a whole lot. You know, in 40 something years of doing this, the offensive line coach everywhere I've ever been ‑‑ and I think in most universities has a large say in the run game. And so when we sit down and start game planning I have always relied on the line coach for suggestions, his thoughts and those kind of things. So, you know, I don't think you'll see a whole lot different in terms of that.
We are doing a few things formationally. We have tight ends that we feel like can be tough in mismatches, so we're doing things with tight ends and detached formations a little bit more than we have in the past. But in terms of the weekly progression of what we do, not a huge change.
Q. With the running backs, different styles, you get you different looks?
COACH DAVIS: I think that we have more running backs since I've been here in terms of guys that can go in and play. LeShun Daniels has dropped about ten pounds. He doesn't even look like the same guy. He's much more fluid in his cuts. He's running with confidence. Jordan Canzeri is back and healthy. Akrum Wadley has continued to get stronger. And has done a good job in spring training getting the ball. Obviously that was a concern. But he has the unique ability to jump sideways and make a five yard play into a 15 yard play.
Then probably the surprise of the spring has been Derrick Mitchell in terms of the running backs, moving from wide receiver, he has really done a good job picking things up. You never know how a wide receiver is going to react when he sees a blitz, Derrick did no shy away the first time. I think there's certainly a possibility that he could be the third down back. He could be the guy. Anytime you have a guy like that, that also creates match up problems.
Q. C.J.'s ability to go down field, change your running game, does it increase the possibility the running game is going to be successful. And why do you think you struggled last year?
COACH DAVIS: Anytime something is not as productive as you want it's not one answer. I mean there's ‑‑ sometimes receiver didn't get to the secondary, there's always multiple reasons. I do think the ability to fake the hardball run in there and challenge deep will help slow the support down a little bit. And I do think our backs are a little bit more lateral movement guys. And I think all those things will help as we move into the season.
Q. How has Tyler Wiegers developed this spring?
COACH DAVIS: Tyler Wiegers, he got thrown into the deep end. Typically this would be a spring where he would be running with the threes, but he started paddling the minute he got in there. He's extremely bright. And he's done a really good job. Our quarterbacks have a lot on their plate at the line of scrimmage, both in the running game and in protection, and he's done a really good job.
Q. You still use the fullback significantly. How much did it hurt that first Cox and then Macon was hurt in the first of the season?
COACH DAVIS: There's no question it took a hit because of that. I mean anytime ‑‑ you could say the same thing about any position. How much does it hurt to lose the starting running guard? There was a reason he was starting, because he's the best you've got. And we felt those two full backs were really good, solid players. And with the two of them we thought we had kind of an advantage over some others and both of them missed some significant time last year.
We actually took John Kenny from line backer and moved him over. He did a good job. He's moved back now to the linebacker, but he did a good job there. But everything that John saw last year was the first time he had seen it.
Q. Anytime you have a quarterback with a big arm, they love their arm and like throwing down field even though it may not be prudent. I think C.J. was going down field. How has he progressed in this area, through his duration with you?
COACH DAVIS: Well, I think he's much, much further along now. I think he is going to take the shots. When a pass play unfolds typically somebody is going deep. I know you don't all think that. But usually somebody is going deep. Somebody is in the middle and then somebody is underneath. And he's going to take more shots. He's comfortable doing that. We've encouraged him to do that.
At the same time we want him to play within down and distance parameters. It's second and nine and you've got a back sitting there open at five, yeah, you've got a guy one‑on‑one, but the corner's in really good shape. Is that worthy of taking that shot or should we bring the ball down?
He'll grow as he does it more and more, but he's been ‑‑ we've been very pleased this spring at that part of your question.
Q. One of the strengths of Jake it seemed like was his ability to change things at the line of scrimmage when he saw things that weren't going to work. Maybe that was work C.J. needed work on, would you say he's progressing?
COACH DAVIS: Absolutely. Absolutely. In terms of getting in and out of plays and doing the same thing in protections. He's very comfortable right now changing plays at the line of scrimmage and we're very comfortable allowing him to do that.
Q. To go from being No. 2 all season to being 1‑A at the bowl game and being 1 right after the bowl game?
COACH DAVIS: I think at the bowl game we just felt like at the end of the season, as we had said all along, we thought we had really two good players. And so we thought that, hey, we would open it up for the bowl game, which we did. And then they both knew going into the game that we were going to alternate the series. And so after the bowl game we decided that we needed to clear the air, so to speak. And with that in mind we sat down as a staff and decided to go in the direction we did.
Q. I'm sorry, if I wasn't at that particular press meeting with you. But what pushed him over? What made him No. 1?
COACH DAVIS: We just felt like he gave us the best opportunity to win.
Q. What changed over the course of three or four months to make you come to that conclusion?
COACH DAVIS: We just felt like he gave us the best chance to win. It was not like an epiphany. It was just that we felt like ‑‑ they had been close for a long time. And we just felt like that, like we do at every position, who did you think gives us the best opportunity to win. And that's what we felt after the bowl game.
Q. Do you wish you would have used C.J. more during the regular season?
COACH DAVIS: Hindsight is usually 20/20. So I think there's all kind of things we could have said, yeah, we could have done this, done that, but we're happy with where we're at now.
Q. That position had high speculation anyway. What was the separation between the two? Obviously Jake has a lot of intangibles, we've seen him for two years, he's got all the equity in the bank, but is it another upside, is it his arm strength something that makes him the stronger candidate?
COACH DAVIS: You know, I wish I could tell you one, two, three, four. Part of it is when you ‑‑ you have two good players. You have two good players. And we just felt like that C.J. was at a point mentally to the question of getting in and out of plays, that he had cut that gap down. We felt like physically that there was a bigger upside. And we're talking about a guy that's a really good player in Jake.
And so we just ‑‑ we had to make a decision and sometimes it's what does your gut say. In words it's not as easy as this, this, this, this. Part of it is what we've seen every day for the last couple of years and we just made a decision.
Q. Is part of it at all you guys wanted to kind of take the ambiguity out of quarterback, and you guys ‑‑ outside of the huge question that was answered late you wanted to answer that early?
COACH DAVIS: Yeah, you need to ask Kirk that question. But I think that he felt like as the head coach that it was time to make a clear decision. And instead of taking it into spring training. So, you know, we made it.
