Colorado University Athletics
Quotes From Colorado?s First Spring Scrimmage
BOULDER ? Coach Dan Hawkins, quarterbacks Cody Hawkins and Tyler Hansen and linebacker Marcus Burton provide quotes after the Buffs first spring scrimmage of 2009.
DAN HAWKINS
On The Offense Line
“Both sides of the line played pretty physical. I don’t know what the stats are; we’re probably not where we want to be running the football. The good news, bad news is in the Big 12, in the old days if you figured you got three yards a crack, you were pretty good. In our league, it’s more like you need to get five yards a crack to be good on offense. We’re trying to set the bar pretty high there and I don’t know that we’ll necessarily meet that, so in that regard, the defense probably got the better end of the deal. As those guys continue, Ryan Miller sprained his ankle but he’ll be back, we get all those guys rolling there and they get some comfort, we’ve seen a progression even with Bryce Givens, it’s like every day at practice you see him get a little bit better. We’ll look at the tape, but I sure like their mentality.”
On The Defense
“The defense is playing faster. You see a lot of subtle things, just in terms of the way they communicate and talk and the way they get lined up. You see the linebackers moving guys around, there’s more cohesiveness with guys signaling to each other. They’re playing at a greater tempo that way. Part of that is just their comfort and confidence with what they’re doing.
On Zero Turnovers
“It was impressive. Again, it’s a good news, bad news deal. Great job offense, not so good defense. When your offense is really on it and really diligent, it becomes hard for the defense because your quarterbacks will never just toss one up and throw the ball in there where you have a chance for things to happen. But it’s great from an offensive standpoint.”
On The Quarterbacks
“They played pretty efficient. We’ll have to grade them out, but they didn’t turn the ball over, for the most part they moved the club. They had a couple of throwaways. We had too many sacks than what we want, although that’s hard when you have them in a gold jersey. The quarterbacks get mad but I always error on the side of the defense. Otherwise, you have a guy on defense who says ?alright, I’m going to blast this guy and get my sack.’ They were pretty efficient, both of them.”
On Running A No Huddle Offense
“We’ll get back into it. We’re going to spend more time with it this week. With our style of offense, we want to be able to do both and shift and motion and formation and personnel groups. That’s more our nature of what we do and be able to utilize our guys versus just going with a less motion, less shifting, less personnel group kind of an offense.”
On Quarterbacks Having Different Styles
“We want to end up having a starting quarterback, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t do some other funky stuff. There’s always a role to work things out.”
On Attrition
“You’ve got two sides of it going. One, the competition bar goes up. You don’t want what a guy does downtown, in the weight room, on the practice field; you can never sacrifice that. That is the ultimate thing. As we continue to get better, you look across the country and you see that. It’s how those things happen. As teams get better and guys compete and they realize ?I’m not going to play’ they look for other places. All of that is not bad. What you can’t do is you can’t sacrifice your standards, you have to have the bar there and guys have to meet it.”
On the Wide Receivers
“We’ve got to get some help from those incoming guys. Scotty didn’t go today; he’s got an arm strain. (Trainer) Miguel (Rueda) wanted to be cautious with him. We’ve got to get some help from those incoming guys. You saw (Jason Espinoza) out here today I think Ryan Maxwell can be very much the same. We get Josh (Smith) and Scotty (McKnight) and (Marques) Simas and see where we get some of those other guys to get in, but yeah we will need some help from the incoming guys.”
On If The Incoming Wide Receivers Will Be Game Ready
“We’ll see (which ones are ready). They have to be mentally ready, physically ready, emotionally ready, and you never know. They’ll get up here and start working in the summer and see how fast they adapt and how fast they pick things up. We’ll push them along as much as we can and if we feel like they can help us, they’ll go and if for whatever reason they’re not they won’t.”
On Speed At The Wide Receiver Position
“You need more (than just Josh Smith). I think we have to find ways to help him out in that area, whether that’s one of the new guys or you do something with a Brian Lockridge or Kevin Moyd or something like that where you can blow the top off it a little bit more.”
On Marques Simas
“All of life is growing up, I think all of you guys (media) are probably still trying to figure out what you’re going to do when you grow up. He’s a good kid, he’s a solid kid and he’s learned a lot and he’s maturing. He’s really good, really solid. He and Josh (Smith) and obviously Scotty (McKnight), that’s a pretty dynamic group of guys. In our conference in this day and age, I think you have to have six, probably seven or eight guys in your posse ready to go.”
On The Kicking Game
“We want to get (the kickers into a game-like situation). Our goal is to be 100 percent in the red zone, which we were not, we missed one and had one blocked, but we’re trying to be 85 percent otherwise and I think he was way over that. (Aric Goodman) has had a good camp, he’s done a good job, we’re just trying to get him as many live pops and work on it both from our protection and get after it.
“I was looking at a stat the other day and in the three years that I’ve been here, opponents kicking the ball in the red zone, they’ve made almost every kick. We had the overtime one that hit the upright here and I think there was one other kick in the three years I’ve been here. It’s got to be both sides down there, we have to have an emphasis to block kicks in the red zone and then we’ve got to make them all.”
On Demetrius Sumler
“He’s fine, he just strained his neck. We’ll probably go light on him on Monday and ease him back in there Tuesday.”
On Matt Bahr
“Matt Bahr, same thing. We’re rehabbing that shoulder and being smart about it. We expect him to be back next week and we’ll see how that goes. We’ll probably wait a little while before we have him sticking his hands out there and putting pressure on the shoulder.”
On Matt Ballenger
“I love Matt, he’s a great kid. We’re having junior day going on and I was talking to the parents a little about how much of a grind this is. It’s hard, it’s a lot of time, it’s a lot of commitment, it’s a lot of sacrifice, it’s a lot on you. Matt is a great kid, I think he’s a good player. He wants to play and have a better chance to play and he’s also thinking about the basketball thing. Back when we recruited him, I know, I’ve watched him play basketball and he’s really good, I was pleasantly surprised when he didn’t play basketball and he played football. We wish him well and however that works out, he’s a great kid and has a great family. It’s part of the nature of the position. Back in the old days we would say you needed five quarterbacks on scholarship, but if you look nationwide, it’s really hard to get three because, even in spring ball if you look at teams across the country, they have two quarterbacks in spring ball because it’s very hard anymore, that fourth guy, he sticks around for a semester and then he goes ?I’m not in the mix, I’m going to roll.” I understand that, I understand the nature of guys who want to play. Our goal is to have four. Will we ever realistically be there, maybe for a semester you’ll be there. We’re always going to try and have four and you see how it goes. As you get better and you get going.”
CODY HAWKINS
“I think the first scrimmage is always nice to get out and play and get a lot of live reps in. Tyler’s doing a great job, he’s come a long way picking up the offense, he’s not afraid to ask questions and he’s really doing a great job with a lot of the checks that we didn’t have in the offense last year. I get along with Tyler great, I always have. People might think it’s funny, but he’s one of my best friends on the team and I’m rooting for him, but I’m rooting for myself, too. We’re both doing a great job of making each other better.”
On His Self Evaluation
“Today I avoided turning the ball over and we were able to move the ball well. We need to run the ball a little better, maybe prevent a couple penalties. I’m not sure how the third down period went, we were a little hit and miss there, but what’s really important for us is taking care of the football and converting on third downs.”
On The Offensive Line
“They’re not totally healthy, but we know those guys are working hard and doing everything that they can. We still have a lot of great guys who are rehabbing, but it’s also great for so many of these young guys to get a lot of good experience. We’re really confident in the experience that we do have there. All these guys are going in, working hard, and coach (Denver) Johnson’s doing a wonderful job with them.”
On The Running Game
“If you look at what we were doing in the passing game, our defense is really focused on taking away the running game. A lot of times when we beat them over the top, it’s because they had nine guys in the box. Anytime you’re outnumbered in the box, it’s going to be tough to run the football and you need to be able to make plays down the field. In the Big 12, a lot of teams are going to that quarter type defense just because it allows their athletes to get in and make plays and be really physical and set the tone for the game. We have to be able to make some more plays in the running game and keep hitting passes down the field.”
On The Wide Receivers
“We have a lot of guys working really hard. We don’t have a lot of big guys but I think our guys are fighting a lot. The way that Pat Devenny and Jason Espinoza stepped up today. With Scotty McKnight out for a bit, that’s tough, but Josh and Marques have come a long way. Marques Simas is definitely a guy that was missed last year, he’s a big receiver for us, he’s always going to make a lot of plays. I’m confident in the guys we have and we’re going to dress things up a bit and put our play makers in position to do what they do best.”
MARCUS BURTON
“As a defense, we have a lot of stuff we need to work on, but I think the first scrimmage was good. It doesn’t matter (that I led the team in tackles). It’s just fitting into part the defense, the line make plays on defense that allows the linebackers to shoot the gaps and I was able to do some of that today.
“Our progress is tremendous. We have a whole new package, but guys are picking it up quickly. We have a lot of veteran leadership that’s helping us improve quickly during the spring.”
TYLER HANSEN
On Staying In The Pocket
“I’m trying to (stay in the pocket longer). My natural instinct is sometimes I want to get out and go, but I’m trying to stay in there. There were a couple of times I could’ve staying in there a little bit but I was kind of moving around.”
On Patrick Devenny
“He’s one of those guys who just works hard. He’s always finishing first in the sprints. It was just a matter of time before it was going to show on the field, and it showed today. He’s doing a good job.”
On Matt Ballenger
“I found out last night, I was eating dinner and I got a text from Cody (Hawkins) telling me that, he just said ?I thought you should know.’ I couldn’t believe it. I wish the best for him, he’s one of my good friends, I actually talked to him earlier this morning. He doesn’t really know what he’s going to do yet, I just wish the best for him, I love Matt and he’s a great guy. I didn’t see it coming. He was a little quiet the couple days before, in quarterback meetings, but I didn’t think anything of it.”