Sept. 8, 2015 Jordan Lucas | Senior | Safety
Q. I was wondering what are your thoughts on the possibility of Jason Cabinda or Gary Wooten Jr. starting?
JL: I'm very confident in both of them. I don't know what coach's decision is, who is going to fill that Mike linebacker position but either one of them. They have great communication, they know their assignments and we're just going to rally around whoever it is. Make the best of every opportunity that we have.
Q. How did you feel in your first game playing safety? Talk about your comfort level, what you saw.
JL: I felt great, you know, the first game is a first game. For a lot of people it's working through the kinks, getting through training camp and being very anxious, excited to get out there and play somebody else other than your teammates. But we got rid of our first game jitters, I know I did especially and playing a new position, it wasn't really too much for me.
I'm a football player, I will go out there and just play football.
Q. Jordan, can you take me through the mood of practice, did anybody need to say anything to get this thing regrouped? Refocused? What was Sunday like for you guys?
JL: Sunday was our regular Sunday that we have. The veterans, we know how to handle Sundays, we know how to attack it. Coming off a very tough loss, one of things that the captains did, we brought everybody up after the coaches got off the field and we buried the tape. We buried the tape, actually with a shovel on the practice field right where we walk out, we buried it. It doesn't matter, we dug it up. But I think that's something we needed to do to get moving forward and kind of give us that positive energy back and, you know, have a little fun with this. So we buried the tape, Temple's over and now we are now getting ready for Buffalo.
Q. Talk about the challenge that lies ahead for you guys trying to replace Nyeem at least on the field and may be on the sidelines as well?
JL: Well, first off, I know Nyeem very well. Just because he's injured, just like you said he's always going to be there. He's always going to be that leader for us in the middle, whether he's on the field or not. Just yesterday he was watching film with a couple of the freshman, and you don't see that a lot. He's taking leadership already in the sense that he wants to make sure guys are prepared for the opportunities that lie ahead for them. He's going to be a player/coach for us. I'm actually very excited because everything happens for a reason, and this was God's purpose for him. Maybe not the most positive thing, but he's going to be there for us and we're going to be there for him.
Q. Just curious, who was it that decided to bury the tape, and by doing that what did you guys hope to -- what was the reasoning behind that?
JL: I'm going to go ahead and say it was all of ours. We all decided to do it. [Quarterback Christian] Hack[enberg] brought it to my attention and brought the team up, and we just wanted to let the guys know that, hey, look, we're not going to dwell on the past. We lost the game, it's our fault. We're going to bury this, it's not the end of our season, it's the first game. It's the first game of the season so we have 11 more opportunities to finally get to 12 more opportunities after this.
Q. You're a senior now. Have you ever done that before? Have you guys every buried a tape? This isn't like a normal occurrence, I'm taking it?
JL: No, it's not normal but it was fun for us. We're out there, we have the shovel, we actually buried the tape and we're not going to talk about it anymore. That was it, that was the last that we think about them, that was the last we think about that game and that was it. That's what we wanted to let the guys know. We wanted to let especially the younger guys know that after we go through our Sunday corrections it's over.
Q. As a senior, knowing this is your last home-opener at Beaver Stadium, can you talk about what's going through your head in that aspect?
JL: I actually haven't thought about that, really. It's all right. The only thing I have been thinking about is going out there and just communicating with the guys, making sure everybody is on the same page because that's the most important thing to me. I don't care that it's my last opener, here, at Beaver Stadium right now, that's not on my mind, I just to want make sure as a defense, as a team we're all on the same page and we're all communicating properly.
Q. Jordan, who held the shovel?
JL: A couple different people. There was too many players for everybody to get a piece of the dirt, but, you know, guys like Brian Gaia, you know Saeed [Blacknall], he stomped on it a couple times. A couple different guys were a part of the digging process but it was all fun for us, we tried to make it fun and have very positive energy around it.
Q. On a more serious vein, some former players, some of the guys that were even your teammates kinda got loose on social media after this game. Are you aware of that? What kind of reaction do you have to it?
JL: I'm aware of it. What else can I say? They're passionate about the program, how they feel is how they feel. Whether it's accurate or not, I can't speak on that, I really don't know. All I know is we can control what we can control, and people are going to say what they want to say and at the end of the day our family is our family and we're going to make it happen.
Q. Back to [Jason] Cabinda and [Gary] Wooten, Coach said Jason is an extrovert, very outgoing, and he hasn't heard Gary say more than seven words. What can you tell us about their personalities or leadership styles?
JL: I actually lived with Gary, we were roommates and he does speak! He does have a mouth, but he's a little bit more on the quiet side. Jason is more outgoing, has a very bright personality and he's not afraid to speak up. That's where they're different.
They're both great linebackers, and whichever one is going to be our Mike they're going to have to communicate.
Q. Mark Allen listed as 5-6. In practice is it hard to see him given he's shorter? He's a quick guy, is that a different dimension?
JL: Well, let's think about this. We have, you know linemen that are 6-1, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4, 6-5, 6-6, 6-7, I'll stop there, what did you say? 5-6? I'm not too good with math. But let's think about it, you do the math there. Do you think it would be hard to see him? Very hard to see him.
DaeSean Hamilton | Redshirt Sophomore | Wide Receiver
Q. Did you watch the film or going through the play by memory on that touchdown pass. Did you feel like you had much of a shot at it? Could you have done anything more at the end of the play?
DH: After the game we go back and look at the film. Typically, the ball will have more air on it. There's always plays where you think you could've laid out for it. But that specific time, no I didn't think so.
Q. Jordan told us you guys buried the tape. I was just curious what that was like for you guys, and maybe whose idea was that that sparked?
DH: The captains, Christian [Hackenberg] and Jordan [Lucas] came up with the idea to bury the tape. A lot of guys thought that it was the right idea to do that. It was just so that we could put everything behind us. Just to forget that and not to dwell on it, and to move on.
Q. Is there anything you want to change in your specific game to adjust to what Buffalo is going to try? Did you see anything last week that you thought, I'm going to go ahead and work on this in practice, anything specific or in general?
DH: No, Temple didn't do anything that we didn't already expect or already see in our game plan preparation. There's not anything different that we need to do. Just as an offense as a whole we need to go out and execute. Individually, there's so many opportunities for players. There's not much we saw that was different from Temple. We expected everything. We have to respect Buffalo to do the same type of thing because it's a copycat league. Many teams will probably do what other teams were successful with. We just expect the same thing next week nad we need to execute.
Q. What was it that you guys actually buried. You don't have VCRs anymore. Is it like a DVD? USB?
DH: No, it was the hard copy of the tape, like a DVD-ROM type thing. It was just in a little case, and the guys made a whole and they buried it, and a few guys stepped on it. It wasn't like a VCR tape or anything.
Q. What do you think needs to happen in practice that's going to transition to games?
DH: Well, I feel like the way we practiced before the Temple game, it was the right way to practice. Communication is always a big thing for us, especially with the offense going at an up-tempo type speed, you have to be on the same page at all times. We're just going to do the same things that we have been doing. Game speed doesn't have to change. Obviously our tempo has to be more crisp, and more upbeat, instead of just hanging around the offensive line of scrimmage when we're getting plays from the sideline. Just go ahead, get up and get going.
Q. After a disappointing offensive performance, is it a challenge to the leadership of the offense to be able to regroup, particularly after things unraveled the other day.
DH: We definitely need more leadership on the offensive side of the ball as whole, especially when they see things going sour in the midst of the game. You just need more leadership, and someone has to step up and not just talk about it but actually be able to go out there and make the play for us. Unfortunately we didn't have anyone that was able to go out there and do that on Saturday, given whatever circumstances on the field. Leadership comes into a big role and obviously you see your teammates struggling, and you need someone to rely on to put the team on their back. On Saturday, we didn't do that.
Q. Talk about the excitement of being back in Beaver Stadium.
DH: Being back in Beaver Stadium is always exciting. I remember last year coming in and playing my first home game after UCF, I was more excited than anything. Just getting back in front of the fans and family is going back into a comfortable atmosphere and we're all looking forward to that.