On making it through first day of spring practice:
We did, we did. Obviously from my end, really good to be back. For our kids, it’s been nine weeks of an off-season which I thought there’s been a lot of growth since we’ve been able to get back. Again we’re such a young team in a lot of ways. I think you see the bodies change of a lot of guys which is certainly positive. To be able to get out on the practice field, we need these 15 practices to continue the growth you saw at times even through the bowl game. So really good day today, day one. But obviously a lot of work for us to do.
On getting all the running backs on the field:
We’ve got to get them all healthy. Kene’s (Nwangwu) still close to being back and ready to rock and roll. Obviously, Johnnie (Lang) the same thing. But it’s a great problem to have. And the reality, there’s a lot of competition in that room. And I think that’s a neat thing about us offensively is you just continue to evolve. You know my theory on it: players, formations, plays. And how do you find ways to get those guys involved in what you do. I think the neat thing for us is we feel really confident that we’ve got four or five guys there that we feel can really do some really special things. Three of them at least, four of them, have videotape evidence to show that they can do it in game situations.
On adding pages to the playbook:
I think our playbook’s probably a thousand pages at this point over seven, eight years together. So yeah, you always do, and you always find ways to better yourself in the off-season. That’s kind of, that’s always been my niche, always what we do. Now we still have the foundation of who we are and what we are, but I think it’s always growing with your personnel.
What would quarterback depth chart look like now:
Obviously it’s going to be Kyle (Kempt) as the number one guy and Zeb (Noland) at two. I think it will be a dogfight from there. But the reality is, and those two guys know it, the great thing is Zeb Noland has played a lot of football for us and has played good football. We said this from the day we got here: my goal in football, and for really great programs, they’ve got great rosters and there’s great competition. So it may look like that today but the reality of it is there’s always competition. Kyle would tell you that; Zeb would tell you that. And so would the rest of those guys on the roster right now. Everything’s fluid, everything’s changing. But certainly Kyle’s earned the right to be the number one guy right now.
On Kempt’s biggest growth area:
Now he goes into spring practice and gets fifteen practices as the guy. I think that’s really big. What you saw last year was kind of a great foundation to what he can do. But I think growing in the offense, taking ownership of the offense. The great quarterbacks that I’ve been around is, you’re not looking over to the sideline for plays. The quarterbacks are the guys that take the game into their hand and they can be almost the offensive coordinator on the field in a lot of ways. I think that’s a really great growth for our quarterback room in general, no matter who that is or what that looks like. But even especially for a guy like Kyle that’s got so many game reps now. How do you apply it and how do you use it to be kind of that field general, that guy that takes complete ownership of the offense.
On using two quarterbacks and younger quarterbacks getting playing time:
I think anything’s possible. I think it was maybe a little different situation with Joel (Lanning) and Jacob (Park) just because their skills sets were so drastically different. But I think the reality is, Re-al (Mitchell), there’s a guy whose skill set is different than those top two guys. So I think he’s certainly a guy that maybe could be an interchangeable part there at times and give you some different things. Brock Purdy’s another guy, when he gets on campus, has kind of got a different skill set a little bit at times. I think all those things are fair game. We’re always going to do what gives our offense the best opportunity to have success to help our team be successful. But I would never say never on any of that.
On Mitchell having an instant impact this season:
I think until we get through the spring it’s really hard to give a fair evaluation of that. The one thing Re-al has is elite athleticism. He’s got elite speed. He’s a guy that is a game-changer in a lot of ways. But until we get through spring practice and see how much he can handle, what he can really do, play with 21- and 22-year-olds, what’s that look like, how’s it feel? I think that’s certainly a possibility because of his athleticism. It certainly gives him a shot to do something like that.
On David Montgomery’s room for improvement:
Oh I think there’s a lot of things David could do to improve. I think the reality for David is, David, whether it’s fair or unfair, David’s got a lot of room to grow because you’re talking about a young guy that was a high school quarterback. You go back to that videotape and I think David’s growth will come as well with the offensive line’s growth. The greatest challenge to this football team is, can this offensive line grow? And can this offensive line become what championship teams look like; and they’ve got championship offensive lines. We’re not there yet; we’re not there today. But there’s a lot of room to work and I think it will allow our running backs to grow. David, a lot of it is improvised, phenomenal athleticism and his ability to do things in space. But that natural running back skill set and talent, I don’t know if we’ve gotten to see that yet, to be honest with you. Because there’s been a lot of improvising because of either scheme or the lack of development – that’s not right to say – but that offensive line just being young and not mature. It’s nice to have four or five guys back that have played on the offensive line so you really hope that maturation process really starts to occur for this program.
On what to watch for from the secondary this spring:
Really, just settling in. Great for Lawrence White, got some really meaningful game reps through the season. Braxton Lewis got some great game reps. Obviously you throw in Greg Eisworth, Keontae Jones, guys that have played game reps. Maybe not all here, but have gotten meaningful reps. And so there’s a lot of competition there. And then you throw in De’Monte Ruth and some of those other guys who can move around and play different positions. There’s maybe as good of competition, as well as with the D line right now, for meaningful game reps in that secondary. Who’s going to play what position and where do those guys sort themselves out. The great thing is we have options and the great thing is there’s certainly right now a lot of competition to figure that out. So I think the first thing we have to do as a team and as a defense is figure out who’s going to play where. And a lot of that is, who can we count on, who can we trust, who gets the bulk of those reps and when? I think that’s our starting point right now at safety.
On players being held out of spring practice:
Carson Epps had surgery after the Kansas State game, so he will not practice this spring. Jeff Nogaj had surgery after the season on his shoulder; Jeff won’t practice this spring for us. There’s maybe one or two other guys that maybe don’t come to mind right now. And then the reality that Kene’s kind of limited until we get him ready to rock and roll here, but he’ll play this spring for sure. Johnnie’ll play this spring, too, for sure.
On giving Nwangwu more and more as the spring goes:
Until you get Kene back on the field, you want to take it slow. But the thing that was really neat for us was he got a lot of meaningful reps this winter during bowl practice. I think the big thing for me is, we were really cautious even at that time of how much we gave him and how much we fed to him. Now you’re coming off a nine-week stretch of winter workouts where he really pushed it and, again, I think you want to slow-feed those reps back to him now as you bring him back. We don’t want to go fast. We’ve dealt with this injury before and I think to ask him to do everything right now is a really big mistake. Both physically and mentally. So I think we’ll take it slow with him. But obviously he’s a really special piece and somebody that can really help our football team be successful in a lot of different ways.
On taking the field without Tom Manning, Allen Lazard and Joel Lanning:
I’ve had ten years of Coach Manning so I’ve got him glued in my mindset. But it was really weird not to have Joel and Allen out there. I certainly miss those guys a ton and obviously those two guys are greatly missed. But I’m really proud of what they’re doing and they’ll both be around here this weekend. Will be great to have them back around campus and back around our football team.
We did, we did. Obviously from my end, really good to be back. For our kids, it’s been nine weeks of an off-season which I thought there’s been a lot of growth since we’ve been able to get back. Again we’re such a young team in a lot of ways. I think you see the bodies change of a lot of guys which is certainly positive. To be able to get out on the practice field, we need these 15 practices to continue the growth you saw at times even through the bowl game. So really good day today, day one. But obviously a lot of work for us to do.
On getting all the running backs on the field:
We’ve got to get them all healthy. Kene’s (Nwangwu) still close to being back and ready to rock and roll. Obviously, Johnnie (Lang) the same thing. But it’s a great problem to have. And the reality, there’s a lot of competition in that room. And I think that’s a neat thing about us offensively is you just continue to evolve. You know my theory on it: players, formations, plays. And how do you find ways to get those guys involved in what you do. I think the neat thing for us is we feel really confident that we’ve got four or five guys there that we feel can really do some really special things. Three of them at least, four of them, have videotape evidence to show that they can do it in game situations.
On adding pages to the playbook:
I think our playbook’s probably a thousand pages at this point over seven, eight years together. So yeah, you always do, and you always find ways to better yourself in the off-season. That’s kind of, that’s always been my niche, always what we do. Now we still have the foundation of who we are and what we are, but I think it’s always growing with your personnel.
What would quarterback depth chart look like now:
Obviously it’s going to be Kyle (Kempt) as the number one guy and Zeb (Noland) at two. I think it will be a dogfight from there. But the reality is, and those two guys know it, the great thing is Zeb Noland has played a lot of football for us and has played good football. We said this from the day we got here: my goal in football, and for really great programs, they’ve got great rosters and there’s great competition. So it may look like that today but the reality of it is there’s always competition. Kyle would tell you that; Zeb would tell you that. And so would the rest of those guys on the roster right now. Everything’s fluid, everything’s changing. But certainly Kyle’s earned the right to be the number one guy right now.
On Kempt’s biggest growth area:
Now he goes into spring practice and gets fifteen practices as the guy. I think that’s really big. What you saw last year was kind of a great foundation to what he can do. But I think growing in the offense, taking ownership of the offense. The great quarterbacks that I’ve been around is, you’re not looking over to the sideline for plays. The quarterbacks are the guys that take the game into their hand and they can be almost the offensive coordinator on the field in a lot of ways. I think that’s a really great growth for our quarterback room in general, no matter who that is or what that looks like. But even especially for a guy like Kyle that’s got so many game reps now. How do you apply it and how do you use it to be kind of that field general, that guy that takes complete ownership of the offense.
On using two quarterbacks and younger quarterbacks getting playing time:
I think anything’s possible. I think it was maybe a little different situation with Joel (Lanning) and Jacob (Park) just because their skills sets were so drastically different. But I think the reality is, Re-al (Mitchell), there’s a guy whose skill set is different than those top two guys. So I think he’s certainly a guy that maybe could be an interchangeable part there at times and give you some different things. Brock Purdy’s another guy, when he gets on campus, has kind of got a different skill set a little bit at times. I think all those things are fair game. We’re always going to do what gives our offense the best opportunity to have success to help our team be successful. But I would never say never on any of that.
On Mitchell having an instant impact this season:
I think until we get through the spring it’s really hard to give a fair evaluation of that. The one thing Re-al has is elite athleticism. He’s got elite speed. He’s a guy that is a game-changer in a lot of ways. But until we get through spring practice and see how much he can handle, what he can really do, play with 21- and 22-year-olds, what’s that look like, how’s it feel? I think that’s certainly a possibility because of his athleticism. It certainly gives him a shot to do something like that.
On David Montgomery’s room for improvement:
Oh I think there’s a lot of things David could do to improve. I think the reality for David is, David, whether it’s fair or unfair, David’s got a lot of room to grow because you’re talking about a young guy that was a high school quarterback. You go back to that videotape and I think David’s growth will come as well with the offensive line’s growth. The greatest challenge to this football team is, can this offensive line grow? And can this offensive line become what championship teams look like; and they’ve got championship offensive lines. We’re not there yet; we’re not there today. But there’s a lot of room to work and I think it will allow our running backs to grow. David, a lot of it is improvised, phenomenal athleticism and his ability to do things in space. But that natural running back skill set and talent, I don’t know if we’ve gotten to see that yet, to be honest with you. Because there’s been a lot of improvising because of either scheme or the lack of development – that’s not right to say – but that offensive line just being young and not mature. It’s nice to have four or five guys back that have played on the offensive line so you really hope that maturation process really starts to occur for this program.
On what to watch for from the secondary this spring:
Really, just settling in. Great for Lawrence White, got some really meaningful game reps through the season. Braxton Lewis got some great game reps. Obviously you throw in Greg Eisworth, Keontae Jones, guys that have played game reps. Maybe not all here, but have gotten meaningful reps. And so there’s a lot of competition there. And then you throw in De’Monte Ruth and some of those other guys who can move around and play different positions. There’s maybe as good of competition, as well as with the D line right now, for meaningful game reps in that secondary. Who’s going to play what position and where do those guys sort themselves out. The great thing is we have options and the great thing is there’s certainly right now a lot of competition to figure that out. So I think the first thing we have to do as a team and as a defense is figure out who’s going to play where. And a lot of that is, who can we count on, who can we trust, who gets the bulk of those reps and when? I think that’s our starting point right now at safety.
On players being held out of spring practice:
Carson Epps had surgery after the Kansas State game, so he will not practice this spring. Jeff Nogaj had surgery after the season on his shoulder; Jeff won’t practice this spring for us. There’s maybe one or two other guys that maybe don’t come to mind right now. And then the reality that Kene’s kind of limited until we get him ready to rock and roll here, but he’ll play this spring for sure. Johnnie’ll play this spring, too, for sure.
On giving Nwangwu more and more as the spring goes:
Until you get Kene back on the field, you want to take it slow. But the thing that was really neat for us was he got a lot of meaningful reps this winter during bowl practice. I think the big thing for me is, we were really cautious even at that time of how much we gave him and how much we fed to him. Now you’re coming off a nine-week stretch of winter workouts where he really pushed it and, again, I think you want to slow-feed those reps back to him now as you bring him back. We don’t want to go fast. We’ve dealt with this injury before and I think to ask him to do everything right now is a really big mistake. Both physically and mentally. So I think we’ll take it slow with him. But obviously he’s a really special piece and somebody that can really help our football team be successful in a lot of different ways.
On taking the field without Tom Manning, Allen Lazard and Joel Lanning:
I’ve had ten years of Coach Manning so I’ve got him glued in my mindset. But it was really weird not to have Joel and Allen out there. I certainly miss those guys a ton and obviously those two guys are greatly missed. But I’m really proud of what they’re doing and they’ll both be around here this weekend. Will be great to have them back around campus and back around our football team.
