April 14, 2009
What is the value of having two distinct leaders when you have so many new guys on both sides of the ball this year?
Sean Lee will be back. He had been a leader and unfortunately he got hurt. That's a question of developing some kids. Daryll Clark will be fine. Daryll's been doing great all throughout spring. Sean, well they won't let him do anything yet, he's out there everyday in pads, when we're in shoulder pads, but we don't put him in any contact drills. Leadership is something you develop as you come along. We have some kids that eventually will be leaders. Right now I'm a little concerned about it because we've been addressing our attention not to the kids who are coming back, but to the positions that we have to re-establish. We don't really have the "team" concept that hopefully we can get in the next two weeks. We have two weeks to go and have made some progress, although not as much as I would like. I'm concerned a little bit about the leadership, but I think that will develop.
Can you clarify what happened to Chaz Powell? There are reports out there that he got injured during practice this week.
He didn't get hurt. He practiced all day yesterday. He may have gotten knocked down and didn't like getting knocked down. You guys hear too many stories in the dorms. He's fine.
Can you talk about the possibility of Bobby Bowden losing those 14 victories due to the NCAA thing?
I've thought about it. I just think it would be a shame. Bobby has won all those games and coached all those kids who were out there. He and his staff did the job they had to do to win them. To be honest, I would hate to see them take the wins away from him. This business about who wins more games than the other guy; I don't care who has the most wins. I just hope we do a good job here and win as many games as we should with the kind of people we have. I'm sure Bobby probably feels the same way, so I hope that doesn't happen.
If you wind up with the most victories, would it feel the same without him having those 14 wins?
I think Bobby's entitled to those 14 wins. I don't think you should start putting asterisks next to guys' names. That doesn't make any sense to me. He's got those 14 wins. He earned them and took what he had. I don't think he was much involved in what happened with Florida State. I'm not even sure what happened. Knowing Bobby, I'm very, very fond of him and admire him very much. I just don't want to see it happen. I think it's foolish to take those games away from him.
At the start of spring practice, you had talked about developing a secondary that could stand on it's own feet because you had lost four starters, how have they progressed since the start of spring practice and do you like what you have seen from some of the new guys?
Not yet I haven't. I've very concerned about it. A.J. Wallace pulled a hamstring the other day. I had hoped he'd been one of the outstanding kids there. Drew Astorino has had a good spring. We have a long, long way to go to be a good secondary. We're not even close. But, they are working hard at it. Before we get to a first game in the fall I think we'll be adequate. Whether we'll be really good or not is up for grabs.
A lot of people are looking at your non-conference schedule and saying that it's unusually weak. Without slighting any of those teams, do you wish there was a team on there that could help you get some more national recognition that can help you guys if you beat them?
I haven't got the slightest idea how good or bad some of the people are going to play yet. I haven't had time to worry about anybody but our squad. To be honest, I probably couldn't tell you who the second game is who we're playing. I've tried to discipline myself to take of what you have to take care of day by day and worry about things when it's time. I know Akron is on the schedule and the reason I know why Akron is there is because they brought Walt Harris in there has been some publicity. Walt having been at Pitt the last time we played Pitt when Walt was there and they beat us. Other than that I can't worry about what's down the line, how good somebody is going to be. I just hope I can get our team to play as well as they can possibly play and get them zeroed in on which team we're going to play week by week.
What role do you have in helping to choose the non-conference schedule?
They'll say, "how about this or how about that?" Our problem is we have to play a lot of home games. We get over 100,000 people and we're committed to eight Big Ten games. The people who do the scheduling, they don't put anything on my desk and say, "hey, this is what you've got to do," they'll ask, "what do you think about this club?" We thought Texas Christian was going to come here. They backed out. They decided that wasn't in their best interest. I said, "do you want me to call Gary Patterson?" because I like him and he's a good friend and I thought it would be a good game for us. Little things like that come up, but overall in the big picture, no.
Navorro Bowman had a pretty up and down season last year with some emotional issues off the field. Can you talk about how he's played this spring?
I think Navorro had a really good year last year. He ended up at the end of last year a really fine linebacker. He had family losses and things like that. He's done well. He'll be a fine linebacker for us. He's tending to his knitting in the classroom. I think he's solid right now.
How much emphasis have you, Jay, or Galen placed on Daryll Clark and making sure he stays healthy and out of trouble (in practice) given the lack of experience at quarterback?
Daryll has been fine. He's been a good student, a good leader and a good person. We try to protect him. He's the only guy on the field with a red shirt on. That means don't hit him. That doesn't man he doesn't get shoved around once in awhile. Obviously, that is something we are concerned about right now. Daryll Clark is a fine, fine quarterback. He's throwing the ball really well, he's great in the huddle. He everything you want in a quarterback. He's great in meetings. He's a big league quarterback and you would hate to have something stupid happen in spring practice where you lose him. So we try to protect him. That doesn't mean that he goes back to throw and he hits a soft spot and twists his ankle or something like that. You can't protect him from everything. We're concerned about that and we try to protect him as best we can.