Oct. 20, 2005

Transcript Of Head Football Coach Paul Johnson's Comments Following Practice On Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Q. Rice. Tell us what you see out of them offensively. They have put up a few points against teams.

A. They have kind of evolved back to what they were doing when Coach Hatfield first got there. They still do a lot of stuff, but they have gone back to running the bone and breaking the bone and run double slots like we do and they run some shotgun stuff. Probably their number one formation the last game was the wishbone.

Q. Armstrong isn't a bad looking quarterback. He had some success against you guys last year.

A. No, he's pretty good. I think Rice has some very good athletes. They are young. Their quarterback is a sophomore and the other guy (Clement) that comes in is a freshman, they have some good skill guys, they have two freshmen offensive linemen that I think are really pretty good. They have some good talent, but they are really young. They are like us in a lot of ways. In fact, they might even be younger than us.

Q. Do you feel like your defense regressed a bit last week? The second half of the Air Force game was a good effort.

A. The whole team regressed. I don't think you can single out the defense. Everybody regressed. We played decent the second half of the Air Force game and we didn't play with that intensity or that fire against Kent State.

Q. On either side of the ball.

A. No, not at all. We can play much better everywhere.

Q. Just because the offense rolled up a lot of yards doesn't mean they played well.

A. It's all in what you expect. I expect them to play better. I could say I'm satisfied that we scored X amount of points and had so many yards, but we didn't play well. I know we can play better. We left a lot out there.

Q. Are you surprised at how much Reggie Campbell has progressed? He's really turned out to be a good player.

A. You know, he really has made some big plays this year. What's really surprised me about Reggie is that he has run through some tackles. He's actually run through more tackle than he's juked or made people miss. I thought he would be really hard to tackle on the perimeter from a juke standpoint, but really he's run through more guys. He has a strong lower body. I think he will get to the point, when he gets more comfortable, where you will see some jukes. We are going to have to have some guys make the safety miss in the alley once in a while.

Q. Were you ever concerned about how well he would do because he is so small?

A. You know what the thing about here is? I have learned that you better not base an opinion on anyone until after their freshman year, because it varies. Different guys respond differently to their freshman year here. I've seen guys here over the last four years that as freshmen I wouldn't give you a plug nickel for their chances of ever playing and they end up being really good players, because it takes some longer to get over Plebe summer. We thought Reggie would be a good player. He wasn't probably as fast a year ago as I thought he would be and now he is. I think he got his legs back. There's no question he's a better player this year.

Q. Rice changed their defensive coordinator and apparently they are doing things a little bit differently. Did you notice that? Did you look at the last tape a little more carefully to see what they are doing?

A. You always look at the last games more carefully, but I don't see anything any different. I saw where Coach Hatfield said they were playing more aggressive. They seem to be doing the same things.

Q. They are lining up the same way, aren't they?

A. It's the same alignment most of the time. Seven games into the season it would be hard to make wholesale changes in a week. I'm sure the guy will put his signature on the thing. It's probably more calling the defenses than anything else. It's just like with anything in football. You could have five different teams line up the way we do with five different coaches and they are going to call the game five different ways. They are going to line up the same way.

Q. The other thing Coach Hatfield said was that his secondary was having problems and he wanted the secondary coach to concentrate on the secondary and not worry about being defensive coordinator.

A. They've played some pretty good teams. There are a lot of teams that have had problems with Texas and UCLA. UAB has a receiver that is probably going to be, at least if what I've seen is any indication, might be a first rounder and they have a big quarterback that can throw. East Carolina has good receivers and Tulsa is playing well. They've played some good folks.

Q. So just because they have struggled against the pass doesn't mean you are necessarily going to be able to get them.

A. We are going to do what we do. If we go in there and try to throw we would be in trouble. If we throw the ball 30 times we don't usually win.

Q. The secondary. Are there any more changes back there or did the fellows that started last week show you enough to start again?

A. We have the same guys. There might be some different combinations, but it will pretty much be the same guys. Greg Thrasher will probably start at one corner and Keenan will start at either safety or corner. Ketric Buffin and DuJuan may start at safety. Rashawn King is in the mix. Out of those five, four of them will start.

Q. So you are still figuring it out?

A. Yeah.