March 17, 2003

On expectations for Darius Outlaw and how Coach felt he performed last year~

"Without putting a lot of work into it last summer, towards being a receiver, I felt that he had really matured. Now he's working hard at it. He just had surgery. That is keeping him from being out there right now, but hopefully, he'll be back in April."

"Hopefully, he will take his performance to another level, work out at it all summer long and try and refine himself, and work on all the detail things that will make him a great player."

On who will line up as the primary receiver and other comments about the receiving corp~

"I don't know. That is up to them. It's all based on the players."

"We are in a pretty unique situation. We're very young at the receiver position. We had a veteran player like Justin Gage who could handle eight to nine catches a game. I think it would be a lot more responsible on our side and what we would like to do is spread the ball around a lot more."

"We'd like guys to have 60 to 70 receptions rather than one get 90 to 95. I think that also makes a better offense."

"Thomson Omboga has had a very good spring. He played with a little bit of a sprained ankle on Saturday, but for the most part, he has looked really, really good. Then, we have a lot of guys who we don't have back yet like Sean Coffey and Marcus James, and so on and so forth."

"We're going to have a lot of open competition. Time will tell, but we will have a better offense and a better passing team if we can distribute the ball around to a lot of different players, including the tight ends and running backs."

On how much better a player Russ Bell can become~

"I think we are working well with track in how we are getting this to work. He will be with us Tuesday and Thursday of this week. I certainly feel like he could refine his skills. I think with some fundamentals improval, he could be a much better player."

"As I look at it, I wish I would have had him as a freshman. He has a remarkably positive attitude. He fits so well into our program. It was so easy for him to fit into the discipline and structure of the program. For a lot of players, that is tough to do."

"I certainly expect him to become a much better football player."

On how Bell's split between track and football has gone~

"Basically, our philosophy is this. If a player establishes himself as a starter and he has ability to excel at another sport, and I mean not just go in and participate, then I will work with that athlete and that sport, like Justin Gage for example."

"But, if a player just says 'I want to try out for baseball' or 'I want to try out for track' and he's a fifth or sixth guy, I don't want that."

"You have to establish yourself as a starter. You have to take care of business here before we will split the time. I think our players understand that and recognize that."