Ricky Rahne | Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach
Q: What do you make of the quarterback competition and how healthy is it to have competition for guys going forward?
Rahne: Competition is important across the board at every position because that means you're healthy at that position. If you have multiple players that you think can help you win Big Ten games, then I think that's a good thing. We want that competition whether it's at quarterback, punter, nose guard, whatever it is, you like to have that competition.
Q: How much do you think the competition helps Tommy (Stevens), Sean (Clifford) and Will (Levis)?
Rahne: It brings out the best in everybody. When you don't feel like you're being pushed mentally, whether it's by your coach or the opponent that you're playing, then you're never going to reach your full potential so I think it helps everybody.
Q: Were you happy with how Sean Clifford was getting out of the pocket and using his legs today?
Rahne: Yeah, I think Clifford is probably a better athlete than people think he is. He was able to get out of the pocket and make some plays with his feet. Obviously there were a couple times where I wish we would've taken the first read and got the ball out of our hands a little bit faster, but in general, I've been pleased with the way Cliff has moved in the pocket all spring.
Q: Do you think today is indicative of the spring that Noah Cain has had?
Rahne: We knew Noah was going to be a very good player for us. We're excited about his spring. He's one of those guys that shows up in live periods. He's a hard guy to tackle, as you saw today. Arm tackles aren't going to bring him down. He has very good vision and Coach [Ja'Juan] Seider has done a great job of teaching him what he needs to be looking for. Obviously as a young kid, he needs to work on a few things and can make improvements, but I was very pleased with him this spring.
Q: As a play caller is it nice to have a variety of running backs who can do a variety of different things?
Rahne: We have a lot of guys that can do a lot of things. I was really happy with the running backs all spring. I was happy with how every time we got into a live period, they showed up. If you look at the blitz protection, I love how they were sticking their face in there and moving their feet and getting to the right guy. I was very pleased with them all spring. Coach Seider does an unbelievable job with those guys.
Brent Pry | Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers
Q: How did things look on your side of the ball today?
Pry: Good. It was good to see a lot of young guys get a lot of reps and kind of grow into their positions and learn the defense to the point that they were able to play fast.
Q: How has Micah Parsons grown in this year? Where is he now going into his second season?
Pry: He's so much further ahead just as a linebacker than where he was when I think back a year ago. He has a much better understanding of the word linebacker. He's gaining a better understanding of the defense in its entirety. He's trying to master his craft and be better at some technique things that he needs to improve on. He's a very hard worker. We've identified the points where he has to elevate his game to be the elite player he wants to be and can be this fall.
Q: Now you have Lance (Dixon) and Brandon (Smith) who are in that same kind of situation. Can you give us an idea of where those two guys are after their first spring practices?
Pry: I'm pleased with both those guys. They're very talented, have a lot of length and cover a lot of ground. They both are conscientious and want to be right, and that's slowed them down a bit this spring. I think with Micah (Parsons) last spring, he didn't know what he didn't know and in some ways that was a good thing for him. He didn't know when he was wrong. He just played fast and chased the ball. These guys have played linebacker and played more at the back end, so they have an idea of things. Those guys both made big strides this spring and I'm very pleased with both of them.
Q: PJ Mustipher was mentioning that he was working on cleaning up the little things in his technique to take the next step at his position. What is the on-field end result of that for someone with as much talent as him?
Pry: PJ was a guy that thought we wanted to see him make more plays. That really wasn't it. We wanted to see him striking his key, being gap accountable, playing on their side of the line of scrimmage, and chasing the ball better. He emphasized some of those things this spring and improved upon those things.
Q: How much faster is this group that you have this year?
Pry: This is a fast group. They're playing fast. I'm not a big guy on 40s unless there's a question mark like 'is he fast enough?' and you start looking at 40 times. When you put the film on, these guys play fast. I don't know that you really saw that today, but there's a group of guys that have length at end, at linebacker. And they can run. Robert Windsor is a guy inside that can run really well at 300 pounds. Lamont Wade is bringing some explosiveness to the back end. Obviously our corners run very well. I'm excited about the speed of the group and the speed that they play with.
