4/13/2002 - Football
Spring Football Report #12
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Spring Practice Report #12-Post scrimmage press conference
Senior fullback Bryce McDonald
Q. Looked like the defense got the better of it today.
A. Yeah they did.
Q. Why was that?
A. They practice against the option every day, but the offense didn't come out too crisp today. There is a lot of room for improvement.
Q. Was it in terms of getting off the ball or was it the way you were running the plays.
A. We all know what to do. We can't go into the season and play like we did today. We won't win any games if we play like we did today.
Q. Coach Johnson prides himself on putting together an offense that is crisp and is going to pick up yards, I guess he has a high standard that you guys need to get up too.
A. Coach Johnson has a high standard for everything and when we get there, we will be a complete offense. We are striving towards that right now.
Q. Bryce, what's the difference between this year and last year as far as the coaching staff?
A. It's the whole mentality. Most of our practices have been in full pads; he wants to see who can take the heat and who needs to get out of the kitchen. He's a hard guy, a great leader.
Senior defensive tackle Josh Brindel
Q. From most peoples perspective the defense dominated the offense today. Some of the offensive guys are pretty down, but from your perspective it has to be a positive.
A. We tried to come out and run to the ball. We tried to be intense. That was our main goal, coming out here. You can make up for a lot of mistakes by going hard and running to the ball. I think that was one of the main things we wanted to focus on today and I think we did a pretty good job of it, but there's still a long way to go.
Q. The last scrimmage the offense moved the ball a little more crisply, do you think you guys stepped it up this week in practice?
A. I think this week in practice we had kind of a gut check. We needed to come out today and prove to ourselves that we had it in us. I think we are getting a little more comfortable with the scheme and we are starting to move around a little bit inside and tried to throw off some of their reads. Really today I felt like most of the defense was flying to the ball. We had linebackers flying to the ball; we had defensive backs flying to the ball. We are just trying to breed toughness on the defensive side of the ball.
Q. That has been one of Coach Green's emphases this spring is to run to the ball, is that message getting through?
A. If not, it will soon. We have up-down drills, he calls them loafing drills, before we start practice and we do as many up downs as we had loafs in the practice before. If it doesn't get through we are either going to be in the best shape of any team in college football or good at up-downs, one or the other.
Navy head football coach Paul Johnson
Q. Paul, your thoughts today on the scrimmage.
A. I thought early on the defense played okay, played with some intensity and flew to the ball. Overall, I was very disappointed with the effort, just in general. I thought, although they started well, that the defense tanked it at the end and just got in the mode and I'm not sure if the offense ever really tried to compete. I'm just not talking about execution, I'm talking about breaking the huddle and sprinting to the ball, getting lined up, just those types of things. Like your excited to be playing instead of looking to get it over with. My take on it, at least for the offense for the whole day and for the defense the last half, it was kind of 'how long are we going to go, we have been here long enough.'
Q. Which is not what you would expect this far into spring.
A. You wouldn't expect it in the last scrimmage in the spring (not counting the Blue-Gold game) in your home stadium, I wouldn't expect it. It's disappointing.
Q. Next week they are going to be out here in front of a large crowd, I assume you don't want to see that again next Saturday.
A. I don't ever want to see it. All we can do is talk about it, coach them harder, and try and get them to understand. They understood at the end that it wasn't acceptable.
Q. Offensively what was going wrong, beyond the fact they weren't competing as hard as you want?
A. Offensively, it's hard to go 70 yards on offense if you get penalties, if you drop snaps, bust assignments and turn guys loose, we don't have the speed and the guys that can break big plays. We ran 160 plays out there today and I think our longest play was 30 yards. You don't have guys that can break long plays so you better do it right. It's going to be small chunks at a time and you can't overcome when you drop a snap or get a holding penalty or line up in the backfield. You don't have guys that can overcome that.
Q. So what are you going to do next week.
A. Take the film, try and correct and see if we can get a little better.
Scrimmage Statistics
Team Rushing: 128 carries for 556 yards (4.3 per rush), 6 TD's
Passing: 12-32, 136 yards (4.3 per pass play), 0 TD's
Total Offense: 160 plays for 692 yards (4.3 per play), 6 TD's
Individual Rushing: Aaron Polanco 21-112, 3 TD's; Bryce McDonald 14-75, 1 TD; Andy Michalowicz 9-54, 1 TD; Scott Lieng 2-45; Adam Wood 2-43, 1 TD; Kyle Eckel 11-37; Eric Roberts 5-32; Brad Tepper 3-31; Donnie Fricks 4-25; Tony Lane 4-25; Michael Brimage 4-21; Billy Meraz 9-20; Ryan Barry 4-15; Lord Cole 2-11; Larry Jones 3-11; Craig Candeto 18-5; Ryan Moody 10-4; Mike Pasternak 1-2; Cale Goodlow 1-(-4); Amir Jenkins 1-(-8);
Individual Passing: Aaron Polanco 4-6, 49 yards; Andy Michalowicz 2-5, 33 yards; Ryan Moody 3-9, 32 yards, 1 INT; Craig Candeto 2-11, 14 yards; Billy Meraz 1-1, 8 yards.
Individual Receiving: Brandon Rampani 3-26; Ryan Barry 1-25; Brad Tepper 1-21; Aaron Weedo 1-17; Larry Jones 2-16; Tony Lane 2-14; Cale Goodlow 1-8; Ryan Yarbrough 1-7.
