8/12/2002 - Football
Navy Football Practice Report Day 6, Practice 2
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Head coach Paul Johnson
Q. You talked about the lack of intensity on Saturday, have you seen a difference the last couple of sessions?
A. I think practice has been better the last couple of days, it was better Saturday afternoon. It has improved.
Q. The line play, is that something that will improve in time.
A. I hope so. I think that always takes the longest to get their timing down and learning to play together. We have been playing without our two starting tackles (David Walsh and Derek Jaskowiak) on offense and I think just putting them back in there will help a bunch.
Q. Those guys I imagine will have a lot to make up.
A. Well, they had spring practice. The big thing about them is at least they know where to go. If you go to the right place, at least that gives you a chance. If you don?t go the right way you have no chance and we had a lot of that on Saturday, turning guys loose and not blocking the right guy, those kind of things. They have some work to do like everybody else, but they have both played a lot of football, they are both seniors.
Q. In this scheme is the center the guy that normally makes the line calls.
A. We don?t have to make a lot of line calls, but the center is important, there is no question about that.
Q. Is the defense ahead of the offense generally at this stage?
A. I don?t know, I think if you pick your practice you can say either one of them. They probably should be. If you watch practice one 10-minute period, the offense can?t get to the line of scrimmage and the next 10 minutes they will be scoring at will. It is hard to say.
Q. Are you able to evaluate the defense at the same time or are you concentrating on the offense?
A. I watch the tape, I see them all play.
Q. Are you pleased with what you?ve seen on the other side of the ball?
A. I?m not pleased with either side of the ball. We have to get tons better. It?s not like one side is just billowing the other one. Both sides give up way too many big plays and stupid plays. The thing that you have to do when you watch in general, it can look like, you have to look at the scheme of things. I mean it?s not hard to make plays if nobody blocks you. What I look for are guys that can make plays when they go to the right people. That?s what you have to look for, that?s what you got to have, because when you play the game, they aren?t going to turn you loose. You have to read your keys and do what your supposed to do. You or I could make the tackle if we lined up at end and nobody blocked us and we just ran in there, but I don?t think that?s going to happen that often in the game.
Q. Are you starting to prepare for SMU or is that immaterial right now?
A. We are just working on finishing camp. Once we finish camp and start practicing once a day, we will start putting in a lot of the SMU stuff, but we are going to run our offense. That part of it is a little more for the defense; they will have to change gears a little bit. But offensively, we are going to run our plays all year. There?s not a whole lot of difference
Q. It goes back to what you said in the spring then, you hope that what you have been running all year will be better than what a defense is doing for that one week.
A. You hope. That?s the philosophy behind it. It doesn?t happen every time, but you hope so.
