March 10, 2003

On Terrence Curry~

He's been through a lot. He's had a remarkable attitude since he's gone through his rehabilitation.

The remarkable thing has been his leadership with the young defensive players. We had a lot of redshirt players last year. You see that, and you see a guy who's overcome a very severe injury. A lot of kids don't go through that. They don't want to go through that. They don't want to go out there again with a chance of injuring it. So, you take all that and you are just so happy to see him play. He's aggressive. He's got a great attitude. It's exciting.

On what Coach looks for during Spring drills~

Position wise, you look at the fundamentals of each position and of how our guys are playing. We've made a lot of strides in our strength, speed, and quickness. We've had our player development system in for three seasons now. Now, you want to see all that, the speed and quickness and all that, apply on the field. You want to see your team run faster and hit harder and use their strength.

You analyze each position on how well each player is performing. The bottom line is performance. I don't care how well a guy runs or what he does. You compete at a high level. You play at a high level, and you are accountable.

On Damien Nash~

Damien is doing real well. We just have to hold him back. He's had a little bit easier time on the grass, which is normal. I've been very pleased. He has a knee brace on that prevents him from locking and extending his knee. That is by design.

So, if you see him out there practicing and he's limping around, don't think that there is anything wrong with Damien Nash. He's doing exactly what he's being told to do. He doesn't like it. He doesn't like to have a knee brace on. He doesn't like that he can't fully extend his knee, but he's doing fine. We are very, very pleased with his progress. He's doing a lot more than I thought he ever would.

On Zack Abron~

I would expect for Zack to have a great year this year. He's been a starter in this program for three years now. I was talking to him yesterday, and he's in such a comfort zone. He knows the system. He should be able to teach Damien Nash. Zack knows everything. I think that is a very comforting feeling for a player to understand all the blocking schemes. He understands everything we're doing every single run and every single pass.

He got his 40 down to the 4.5's, and the guy is 232 pounds. That is the fastest he's ever run. I think he's real excited, and I expect him to great things.

On moving Shirdonya Mitchell to corner back~

Shirdonya actually ran a 4.29 forty, which is pretty remarkable. And, I always felt that he was an athlete that was not real consistent catching but a great athlete, like a lot of corners. We are very confident he is going to get another year back, so he's got two years left. So, I felt that if he would go over and he would be a good corner, and we feel very, very good after three practices. The great thing he has is recovery speed, as all great corners do.

On some of the young players on defense~

Emmett Morris really has played well. He's a second year player, and a player that is very physical. If you watch him in practice, he really hits hard. We had pads on for the first time on Saturday, and he did some great things there.

Derrick Ming, who is a redshirt sophomore, is doing some good things too. He has remarkable strength and speed. He's a great athlete. He's a very smart player. We're putting a lot of pressure on Derrick.

Derrick is a guy who ran a 4.5, benches 380 pounds, and squats 600 pounds. He weighs 242 pounds. This guy has all the numbers. Now, we have got to see the numbers on the field. We have got to see him produce. He's a player we're putting a lot of positive pressure on. We need to get him playing.