Colorado University Athletics
COACH BARNETT?S PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES
BOULDER ? The University of Colorado held its weekly press conference Monday at the Dal Ward Athletic Center, as head coach Gary Barnett addressed the media about the 2003 season and a look forward to 2004. The following contains quotes from the afternoon press session.
GENERAL?“The Nebraska game ? I don’t feel much differently than I did after the game ? we struggled in pass protection and we struggled on the offensive line. We had some key special teams executions that hurt us as well. Overall, I think the week off really hurt us. Our guys were real excited to play this game, but out timing wasn’t there. My biggest disappointment was for our seniors " that they didn’t get sent out the right way and didn’t get supported the right way in that last game. This season is over and we’ll learn a lot from it. As a whole I felt like we underachieved and we’ll spend as much as we need to, between now and next season, making improvements in every phase, or any phase, that’s needed. I’m not going to make rash decisions at this point in time; I’m going to take an in-depth look at everything that we do in every phase of our program to see where we can improve it and see what needs to be done to improve it. Immediately, I don’t have anything that I know right now that I am going to improve on or take a step towards improving. We tried to take each game one at time and not get caught up in all the other things that are out there. We tried to win each game without looking ahead or doing evaluations of the things that we’re doing right now. But now is the time for me to do that and we will. We’re right in the middle of recruiting ? probably about halfway finished ? so that’s what is most important right now, and that’s what we’ll be spending our time doing.”
ON THE STATE OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL?“I think it has become too much like a business. The difference between college and the pros is that you don’t have the same set of rules. You have a much different set of rules and handicapping in college than you do in the pros. I can understand it in the professional ranks " it is strictly a business. But this isn’t supposed to be a business and this was never established to be a business. Has it become that way? It sure looks that way at a lot of institutions. I think presidents need to decide, and they’re in the process of doing it, whether college football is an extension of the university or whether it’s an extension of some business organization. But, if they’re going to make it a business, then they need to change the rules. They need to let you operate in a way that businesses operate; they can’t handicap you the way that they do. You work under educational guidelines and yet you’re required to tow the mark in a business fashion, which is really difficult. They are not the same. That’s a big statement that Nebraska makes (the firing of head coach Frank Solich). Is that they University of Nebraska making it, or is it the athletic department making it?”
ON STAFF CHANGES?“At this point in time, I have no idea. I don’t know what is going to happen in that regard. This is a period of time when I go in and evaluate everything that we are doing. I look at it and then I decide from there if I think it is appropriate.”
ON THE STATUS OF WR JEREMY BLOOM?“I really think it’s going to lie in the courts and the NCAA. If the NCAA concedes anything in this process, Jeremy (Bloom) wants to play and will play. If there is no concession, then I think it’s a very difficult decision for him and I would have to anticipate that he wouldn’t do it (return to Colorado). It’s probably out of my hands, but I think it’s pretty black and white that Jeremy wants to play all four of his years. It’s probably unrealistic for us to expect that Jeremy would make that kind of sacrifice for another two years.”
ON THE TEAM HEALTH?“Nothing major that I know about. There are some guys that are going to have surgeries that are going to take two, three or four weeks, but (Derek) Stemrich is the only one. He will have micro fracture surgery (knee) and I anticipate him missing spring practice. I don’t think anybody else will miss the spring that I know of right now. (Stemrich) played all year with a lot of pain.”
“Marques Harris (broken leg vs. UCLA) will not be ready for spring drills. He’ll go right down to the wire for fall camp. He may miss a week of fall camp. We’ll probably have to take it easy on him early on. It just takes that kind of time to heal up.”
ON TEAM HIGHLIGHTS AND LOWLIGHTS?“The low was our performance at Baylor and our highlight, for me, is the way our players handled all the adversity " the good and the bad. I was just really pleased with their attitudes.”
ON INDIVIDUAL SURPRISES THIS YEAR?“I think Joel Klatt, obviously, was an unknown " that was a tremendous surprise. Joe Klopfenstein and James Garee had particularly good years in light of everything. Brian Daniels, of course, was a very pleasant surprise. Dominique Brooks and some of the younger guys playing the way they did.”
ON RECRUITING?“It depends on how the recruiting unfolds. Initially when we went into recruiting we felt like there were a couple of areas that we had to get. We’ve taken care of those now in the first half of recruiting " we’re about halfway through. Now in the second half we’ve got to take some defensive linemen. You look at the guys that we lose this year and then the guys that we lose next year, the defensive line has become a real need for us, both the inside and outside positions, and linebackers as well. Probably out of the next 10 that we take, six of those will be defensive linemen or linebackers.”
“Originally I felt like we could take athletes in this class, and probably when its all over you are going to see four or five guys that played one position in high school and get recruited to play another position in college " because they are those kinds of athletes. We’ve committed three or four quarterbacks, two or three of them that will end up playing other positions. And we’re probably not done doing that too.”
“I enjoy recruiting, I like every aspect of it. I especially like being in homes, meeting parents and spending time in the student-athletes’ element or home environment. It tells me a lot about the family and the young men that we are recruiting. I look forward to it. I enjoy the travel. I like the hectic pace. I would get bored if I didn’t.”
“I am going to look into junior colleges. Our issue is that we just can’t, admission-wise, compete with other schools in getting junior college players. For us it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack, but we are looking and we would probably look in the defensive linemen category. But, it’s really hard for us to find that match.”
ON TRUE FRESHMEN PLAYING TIME?“I don’t think it’s expected. The group of guys that we are going to recruit this year, other than maybe at a receiver spot, I don’t see a need to have to play any freshmen. I think we’re to the point now where we are back-to-back with two solid classes that played a lot of freshmen. We got numbers, I think we have experience now and if we can redshirt the group that we’re going to bring in, most of those kids will redshirt. Unless there is somebody that just blows us away after they get here that we didn’t anticipate, but I would imagine us being able to redshirt most of this class.”
ON PLAYERS’ NFL DRAFT STATUS?“I would anticipate both of those guys (Hackett and McCoy) being draft choices. (D.J.) Hackett has had a superb year " I definitely see him as a first day guy. Derek (McCoy) will be right in between the first day and second day " he could go either in the third or fourth round. (Sean) Tufts fits in the category, Medford (Moorer) could fit in the category, (Gabe) Nyenhuis could fit in the category and Marwan (Hage) could fit in the category.”
ON NEXT YEAR’S WIDE RECEIVER CORPS?“I think that’s our big unknown. We certainly have numbers; good athletes and we have some size guys with (Tyler) Littlehales, Blake Mackey and Dusty Sprague. We have tremendous speed with Stephone Robinson. We’ll take two receivers in this group and add that to our corps. It’s an unknown because a lot of those guys haven’t had an opportunity to play, but they’ve (Littlehales, Mackey) been here in the system now for two years, so it shouldn’t be a big adjustment. They just have to go out and make the plays. Spring will be critical for those guys.”
ON THIS YEAR’S REDSHIRT CLASS?“We redshirted on the offensive line, (OL) Edwin Harrison, who is a guy that has a chance to play right away. (TE) Joe Sanders was redshirted because of an injury and I look forward to him. (CB) Chris Russell is a guy that I think can impact us on defense. (WR) Stephone Robinson and (WR) Dusty Sprague could both impact us. (S/TB) Isaiah Crawford could impact us in the backfield. (DEs) Chadd Evans and John Guydon could both contribute this year " I am moving John Guydon to the offensive line this afternoon. Throw (QBs) Bernard Jackson and Brian White into that mix.
ON THE QUARTERBACK SITUATION?“We’re not going to know that until the spring. Bernard (Jackson) is going to give us a different dimension than Joel (Klatt). That’s what spring is about and that’s what is sort of fun about spring ? all the competition. The best way for us to be a better football team is to have more competition on our team, and I am anxious to create that.”
“(When recruiting quarterbacks) the number one thing for us is accuracy and number two is mobility. We’re not going to be in the Ell Roberson kind of football style. I think the ideal guy that is out is the guy at Missouri (Brad Smith). He can do both things.”
ON THE 2003 SEASON?“Things happen to you for a reason and if you don’t pick it up, then it is a waste. Every season that you have, there are huge numbers of things to be learned from it. There will be a lot of positive things to come out of this season.”