Aug. 14, 2008

In Attendance: Bill Wagner (Annapolis Capital)

Wagner: What happened to Ricky Dobbs?

Niumatalolo: He got hit this morning and suffered an AC sprain. He will be out for a couple of days.

Wagner: The quarterback position is getting thinner and thinner by the day.

Niumatalolo: Coach Jasper might have to suit up for us.

Wagner: Ricky has been having a pretty decent camp, hasn't he?

Niumatalolo: He's had a decent camp. We are still working on his decision-making. He has made some big plays, but he has to cut back on his mental busts. He's growing. He's gotten a lot better. I'm just bummed for the kid that he got hurt because he needs to take as many reps as he can get.

Wagner: Is reading the option where he still needs work?

Niumatalolo: Just his overall decision-making. He knows what he's doing. You get him in the classroom and he knows what he is supposed to do, but when you have a fraction of a second to make a decision it's a little harder. For some guys it is easy, everything is in slow motion to them. That is why a guy like Tom Brady is as good as he is; the game to him is slow. Ricky is getting better at that, but that is his weakness.

Wagner: I heard you guys are going swimming now, why is that?

Niumatalolo: Our guys have worked hard and we are trying to get them to recover a little bit. We are starting to get some nagging injuries because guys are fatigued so we wanted to put them in the pool to help them regain their legs.

Wagner: Talking about the offensive line, Ashley Ingram said it was unacceptable what happened on Saturday, but for the most part has the offensive line gotten the better of the defensive line just as much as the defensive line has gotten the better of the offensive line?

Niumatalolo: Not this camp. The defensive line has played really well. Ricky Moore has had to battle Nate Frazier and Curtis Bass has had to go against guys like Mike Walsh and Matt Nechak. We have some guys on the offensive line that haven't played as much so it has been good for them. The defensive line has gotten the better end of it, but I'm not in a panic about the offensive line because I know who we have and from a physical standpoint we are as good as we've ever been, we just don't have any experience. We do the same things over and over and we still have 2 1/2 weeks before the first game so our guys will get better at what we are doing. What we are doing right now are the same things we will be doing against Army. I've coached the offensive line here for a long time and we've always had to mix and match guys. From a physical standpoint I know exactly who we are and they have the tools to get the job done. I would be more concerned if we had guys that didn't have the physical tools to do the job. I think we can coach these guys and get them to play well. If they can't do it physically, it doesn't matter what kind of a coach you are. You can coach until you are blue in the face and it won't matter. The best coach in the world can't make me a good golfer. They have the physical tools; we just have to keep working hard.

Wagner: Is it just missed assignments? At times on Saturday it looked like a jailbreak. Is that just from people not going to the right spots?

Niumatalolo: In the scrimmages you are playing a bunch of different people. It is never as good or bad as it looks. After looking at the tape the first unit played OK. When you start putting the other guys in that don't have the experience it can look bad, but it is our chance to see what guys can do. It's how we evaluate. We are trying to get a look at as many guys as we can in different situations.

Wagner: Andre Byrd hasn't made it back yet?

Niumatalolo: Not yet.

Wagner: Is that a hamstring?

Niumatalolo: No, his shin. There is no swelling and the x-rays came up negative. Everybody's pain tolerance is different. We hope he can come back soon.