Bobby Petrino preseason press conference (8/20)

Intro Tom yeah so where do you stand at this point in Camp What's the progress been looking like yeah I think this was a really good week for us uh and the week actually started on Saturday um just because of the way we've been doing the schedule with the Thursday night game um and we got into some some game situation prep I guess you would say some of the stuff that you do in a game uh and it was fun to to see our players react to it and learn it and obviously we still got uh another week to get ready for our game but this was really good for for that and how you practice and how you prepare for it so I was excited to see see how we did there it's a big picture question but Arkansas football has traditionally had had to kind of cycle up to the big years and you were part of a cycle up when you were a head coach what goes into that what are the elements to to cycle up and be competitive yeah I mean it's I think it's a little bit different now than there because then you were like you know taking a lot of freshmen and growing them and um you know a lot of development a lot of uh patience uh now it's it's you know with that portal being open and everything like that you got to do it much quicker so I I feel good about the way we've um installed our offense the guys that that learned it in the spring and how well they did with it and then what they did over the summer I felt like we uh have some knowledge of it or a lot of knowledge of it um coming into the this uh fall uh and then the last you know the last week we're in the phase of cutting it back and starting to refine and St to understand who we are and what we do well and um and and kind of putting some some parts aside for later and working on other things that hey we got to get this down we got to just keep working on it and get it down so we're certainly not where we want to be right now um but we continue to improve and the players have great attitudes and are are extremely a Biggest surprise hardworking what's been the the biggest surprise about the offense this fall compared to maybe where you guys left in the spring yeah yeah I've always been hard on the biggest surprise and the biggest this and that but um I think what we've what we uh started when we first started out the thing that shocked me the most was that we were a little bit behind the defensive line as far as how we ended spraying and running the ball and protecting the quarterback and I felt like it took uh four or five days we started getting better came at it uh another couple days we're better uh and I now I feel like uh our offensive line is working together and and uh starting to see what we saw at the end of Spring ball and uh starting to actually go past where I I feel like we were at the end of Spring ball and we're executing and doing both being able to run the ball and throw it you know you got to do both a week out now have you been to think about you know maybe the emotions that you'll feel you know coaching an Arkansas football game again and you know wearing all the the Razer back gear during a game that counts for the records gosh I wish I could think about it but I've been coach been grinding us man I haven't had time to think about a whole lot you know we're here early in the morning and uh getting home late at night but uh you know it'll be fun I I'm looking forward to it I've always enjoyed going down to Little Rock and playing down in Little Rock and um you know I think it'll be fun I can't wait till we get down there Sidelines Sidelines or both yeah I'm going to be in the sideline uh you know you got the the clicker now where you can talk to the quarterback and the earpiece and can't do that from upstairs uh I thought about it I thought I kind of liked it last year upstairs and uh calling the game and and you know being away from all the elements that go down there but I didn't like not being able to see the quarterback's eyes and how they were reacting and you know what what was going on on the sidelines so I think it's the right decision to be down speaking of taon uh I know you've worked with him on a lot of fundamental technique things how do you feel like he has done in that area do you ever catch him reverting some bad habits and stuff and just what are your thoughts overall on on him and his ability to lead the team really excited about how coachable he's been and how much improvement he's made um he's set in the way I want him to set now he's got his delivery uh where it needs to be there's every now and then where he'll drop down a little bit and revert back to some old habits uh but I really like how coachable he is and how much he works at it and um I think I think this week he's been uh as good as he's been uh his accuracy and making all the different throws and he can really throw it down the field but he can also make them medium range throws you have to make to to move the Wide receivers sticks and when we think about your time here before always think about those wide receivers Joe Jerry Greg Kobe those guys um and you've got a good-looking group up here I don't want to compare or anything but do you feel like you have guys that maybe even could play next level type of football I mean is that the kind of talent you have at wide receiv I feel like we do I feel like we definitely have guys that will have the opportunity to play at at the next level you know they got to show it though and they got to prove it um and I think that's what when you look back and you think about those those guys you just mentioned you know they went through some tough times and they uh you know they got hit in the nose a few times and got knocked down and knocked out and um then they just decided um I think the way Joe tells it to me they just decided they were going to go out and dominate every game um like they felt everyone went after them when they were all true freshmen so I feel like our attitudes right with our receivers now and our toughness is getting better and growing uh but it's a game where you know you you have to be mentally tough and you drop a ball you forget about it and move on and it's really what happens the next play whether you make a big play don't over celebrate it or you make a bad play and don't put your head down you just got to play One play at a time and I feel like we're learning How many wide receivers that speaking of the wide receivers how many do you feel comfortable playing in a game I mean how many would you like to be able to go through a game with yeah I think we I think you need to have at least six guys um sometimes five to really rotate and keep guys fresh and use different Personnel groupings uh it would be nice if you could get up there to seven and and then an eighth guy you you felt good about in case something happened um but we're you know we're still working on that too exactly seeing who's in the right spots and who's back and uh you know how how we're going to rotate him in in the when we get to live Patrickcus update action are you able to say if Patrick cus was back at practice and how he was looking he's back doing some work yeah he's back doing some work and that's really encouraging to us and uh I feel good about it and I think coach Pit's the one that knows more about that than I do but he has been back out there doing some work and if he isn't able to play how confident are you in am Maran Harris there very confident am maran's done a really nice job I think that's uh what's helped us a lot in this last week and a half and our Improvement and our confidence together and working together is him jumping in there at that left guard and doing a really really good job by speaking of your receiver Harrison update rotation I know we we we've had a lot of talk about uh Harrison kind of joking about his age and all that but you know going serious ious what kind of Camp has he had where does he fit into the big picture and just what's it like coaching a guy who's who's you know that old yeah he's he fits in really well I mean he's big physical strong guy keeps getting better and better every day his routes are getting more and more disciplined he catches the ball and um guys bounce off of him I mean he's he's got a chance to really help us a lot yeah what do you What do you think about Harrison think about his personality I mean an older guy who's played pro ball made some pretty big money when he signed and he's out here you know as a walk-on yeah I think he's been very humble and and been good for everyone else to be around because you look at a guy that's that's been to the major leagues and been out there in the show and and now he's in here grinding with us getting you know getting sore and um you know understanding what it's like uh just like everybody else and he's been very very humble and works extremely hard uh he does his lead leadership with players on his own you know kind of one-on-one um and is very quiet in practice but goes extremely hard and um Everybody respects the way it FCS vs FBS works you you've been on the other side of this FBS FCS thing at Missouri State and uapb is probably not as good as your teams were but um what what's the mindset when you're an FCS team and you're you're playing one of these big SEC or Big 12 teams like like you guys did yeah what we always just tried to do was go in and and you know play our best and compete and uh try to shorten the game a little bit if we could when we were in there uh I don't I don't really like the matchup I you know I don't think it's I don't think it's really what we want in college football um I've always felt like you know the big conferences should just take the money and give it to the FCS and everybody play a more competitive schedule and uh keep college football going you know and when Mark Rick used to come to all the the head coaches meetings he was the the person that stood up for college football and at every level and he had a lot of really good ideas how we could take care and keep college football going at all the different um levels that there is not just at that very very top so um I think that they you play those games in the FCS because you need it and the one one thing about it is uh football didn't get a lot of the money it took care of all the other sports so uh it's just a necessity for FCS but they could fix it and just give them the money wh what was your assessment of the Scrimmage scrimmage uh last Thursday yeah you know I walked off the off the field not not very happy and you know feeling like we didn't do as well as we needed to and we didn't um but we did start out quickly with the with the first group uh we didn't move the ball we came back had a 70 yard touchdown pass went and moved it again got down there to score again kicked a field goal um the the week before in the scrimmage our two offense did a really nice job against the one defense and didn't didn't happen that way this time you know we got we got dominated a little bit um our threes didn't play as well as they need to uh and the way they have been playing uh but the ones continued to to do a good job we got in the situation part of it I thought we were really sharp actually uh you guys are going to play Oklahoma State in week two you've in there uh what's what's that like and and a Mike Gundy team uh what do you think of them yeah I mean it's a it's a you know you don't want to talk about the game that we played two weeks from now you know but uh having having played them they're going to be very very uh well coached they're going to play hard on defense and their physical defensive team uh and I couldn't tell you one bit about their offense because I haven't even watched their offense talking a bit about Andreas poska uh what kind of Camp has he had how's he looked and how's he kind of you know adapted to his new surroundings he's gotten a lot better I'm I'm really proud of him he you know when he was here in the spring uh he's a very likable happy uh young man but he needed to learn when it was serious and when you needed to get tougher and and U become a better better player and he's done that he's learned that what it's all about the competitive Spirit at this level and what I need to do he continues to improve uh he can not only uh run block and pass protect but he's catching the ball well now too and one of the things we wanted to really emphasize with him was running after the catch uh because in Spring he didn't look good doing that you know he went down way too easy and uh but he's really improved on that also I think he you know in the first scrimmage he had a really big day cut three passes in a row scored on the last one broke broke three or four tackles uh and it gave him a lot of confidence and he continues to improve he'll he'll be a part of our off Bobby first first game is Thursday night and then You' got the 11 o'cl kickoff at Oklahoma State do you feel pretty good about the dep there at your team I mean I know Tor you're not necessarily worried about numbers at quarterback but otherwise you feel pretty good because it could be pretty hot at those games you feel pretty good about the depth that you got to rotate in well I feel good about our conditioning because we've been working hard at that and um since all summer long you know our strength has done an unbelievable job on on the ability to gain strength and size and condition you know it's probably the most running I've been around as far as the way we condition and the way we're practicing now we're taking longer racks and uh going a little uh very very intense trying to make sure that we're in game playing condition uh but you always worry early in the year when you get those hot humanid days and depth does come into play we've got to continue to improve on our depth and and especially especially in certain interceptions positions you last screamage they had eight interception I'm sorry if somebody asked this but I didn't hear it uh you feel like the interception issu has been solved pretty much I mean with eight the last one we don't know who threw them but feel pretty good about that not being an issue going forward uh we're working on it I mean you know we're still learning and developing and finding out what we can do at each quarterback and uh we do we do know that tip balls get intercepted and we've got to do a better job with that but yeah tailon ton had two interceptions one was a tip ball um could have been caught nice play by the defense of back that broke the play up and then another guy made the made the catch so uh and then Malachi you know got a couple of picks against the one defense which uh was unfortunate for him he usually takes care of the ball pretty lucaz well what is it about lucaz that makes him so good I mean he's not extremely big or anything he's it just athleticism speed like mindset what is it yeah I mean first of all he's got great hand eye coordination his ability to adjust his body and make the catch um he's he's very good on his route running and he's tough he's a tough young man he doesn't he doesn't shy away from anything I vars assume we're going to see a lot of 12 Personnel you mentioned poska um but var's gum seems like I he just looked kind of uncomfortable last year and just seems like he's in his element for some reason yeah he's been up and down a little bit um throughout the camp you know you know some of it is the the being Tough Enough every every play to concentrate and focus but he can sure make a lot of plays for us he can run and catch and do that I've been real impressed with Washington you know he's I didn't get to know him at all in Spring he was hurt the entire time and um he's really a young man that's into it really wants to be good wants to learn the game and and know everything about it uh and he's got some size and strength to him that he'll definitely help us also coach you mentioned the uh inh helmet communication helmet communication a little bit earlier for you what have been the biggest benefits and implementing the new system I think I'm still learning about it right now because like the you know the first couple weeks it really wasn't a lot of fun it was it was a headache you know doing doing all that and uh shut this off that shut that off it uh and we're not the only ones that are having those type of problems because you have to be hooked up to two different things one for the the quarterback and then one for the staff um so there's some work to get done and uh we need to be ready for probably not if it goes out in a game but when it goes out we need to be ready for it and be able to handle it when that happens biggest challenge yeah kind of on that note just what has been the biggest challenge in adjusting to that process and and all the different I mean there's a couple of them one is you know understanding the timing of when it clicks off that's probably the biggest challenge and really knowing that and how much you you know can give the quarterback or how much you can help the quarterback and I don't feel like we've had that much experience on that because just the two scrimmages in the stadium is when it really clicks off in practice I just do it myself um and then you know the the ability to focus and concentrate uh when the quarterback can't hear you you know can't get it and being able to stay calm which I'm really good at I'm really going at offensive line that Addison nckl was in here last week and raved about just kind of the freedom that you provide with checks along I guess the offensive line and the quarterback can you kind of explain why maybe offensive linemen like that freedom and why it's important for that to be a part of your offense Addison huh he doesn't really figure it out yet he's got the freedom to do exactly what we tell him to do that's always the freedom we give the quarterback but uh I I'm I've been impressed with our quarterbacks they they understand the Run game and that helps our offensive line a lot and I've always felt like if you go into a game and as a quarterback and you come out 100% in the Run game you grade out 100% in the Run game so in other words we didn't run the ball into a bad play we got out of a bad play into a good play well we have a great chance to win the game so we've worked extremely hard at that and uh for the line it helps some I guess because they don't have to block every single look and they're anticipating and we're telling them sometimes what's what's happening you know hey we're telling you the nose is going to slant to the opposite a gap and certain Communications that we have so I imagine they like that coach you identity mentioned before last time we talked to you you're trying to find your identity on the offense do you think you're seeing it now or there still some elements that you're trying to find that identity yeah I mean we're still working on it we've got we've got some time to work on it but uh I feel better about understanding what we do best in the Run game and you know i' I've always been a a flip the line guy I know everyone knew that before when I was here and uh I quit doing that a couple years ago um mainly for my assistant coaches so when they went and interviewed people didn't think they were crazy like you know they just no one in the country did it um I did it to try to you know help young men um do what they do best and be at a position but so you know run right run left what do we do with the tight end how do we get to certain things we're still working on th those parts of the identity but I think we understand what we're doing in the Run game um our protections have been um pretty solid our communication has been pretty solid on that and then just the aspects of the passing game that we like the best and we're we're getting closer on kicker it which I know you obviously the goal is to score a touchdown every time but it sounds like Shipley's had a pretty good ball kicking the ball how much confidence does it give you as a play caller when you've got a a kicker that's maybe Dependable like that I don't watch I don't watch the kicker you know we just I quit watching kickers after last year's experience I don't watch them at all not in practice not nothing I don't watch I just I ask him did he make it and they say yes or no and that's all I know about kicking the ball um I've been around some great kickers now we had the L Rosa kicker a winner at at Louisville one year and little Arc kedy um and we had a heck of a kicker here when I was here but uh last year's experience made me quit watching don't watch practice um and then hopefully they'll make it in the game but I know this when it's a two-minute Drive we're going to go try to score earpiece touchdown so you have a little bit of superstition in you no none none at all hey U the U the earpiece the quarterback you were in the quarterback's ear I assume when you were at Jacksonville um yeah I know you do it at Atlanta too is it is it pretty much the same thing then it is yeah it's the same pretty much the same exact operation you know you got a button there you push to put you live on the quarterback uh it was a little bit different there because you didn't have um another piece that you had to carry for your communication with the staff it was all tied together so it's a feel like I weigh 30 pounds more when you put all that stuff on and pack around and uh so it's a little different technology was better in 2001 might have been so um I mean like huddling how does that going to work like you see you you guys like getting to the line of scrimmage faster because you got up until 15 seconds before the snap like talking to the quarterback about what you see out there I mean how's that how's that going to be a benefit and is is it maybe one of the biggest benefits that that it'll have in uh college football today is huddling and then the defense not knowing what's coming because there's you know I remember when the Houston Astros had that big uh deal about stealing signs well that crap's been going on in college football for a long time and just as bad um and I think this gives you an advantage offensively by huddling and not having to Signal anything the quarterback hearing you calling the play communicating it to everybody and then going out and having to play football apprciate all right