Tuberville talks challenges, likely to start 7 true freshman
On Tuesday, Tommy Tuberville explained to a crowd of Texas Tech fans that his team still has a long way to go. Tubs pointed out to his supporters exactly what his team had to overcome last year. He also talked about the immediate challenges for this year’s team.
According to the Midland-Reporter Telegram, Tuberville stated, “It's still a growing experience. We're not close to being the team we need to be to win the conference. We're going to have the capabilities of beating anybody, but being able to put things back to back is going to be difficult because we'll probably start six or seven true freshmen on this football team."
"Our entire recruiting class this year was based on offensive and defensive linemen and speed at receiver, running back, linebackers and on defense. We don't have much. It was tough this past year. Everything that we earned, we had to earn it the hard way with long drives. We had very little big-play capabilities.”
Of course, Tubs knows his team has to become more physical at the line of scrimmage.
"We've got to get more physical in terms of third and short, in the red zone, goal line and that will help us defensively. We weren't nearly as physical enough defensively to stop some of the teams like Oklahoma, which ran the ball right at us and we couldn't stop them."
The Red Raiders have fininished spring practice. We didn't even know it started and we certainly can't remember a Tommy Tuberville led team talked so little about in the off-season.
Texas Tech opens with Texas State. Following an open date, the next three games are at New Mexico, Nevada, at Kansas.
Al Golden: Here's how I want the depth chart set...
After having a couple of days to digest the film of Saturday’s scrimmage, Al Golden shared his thoughts today.
Summarizing the scrimmage, Golden said, “No turnovers in 111 plays, so that was good for the offense, obviously not as good for the defense. Overall, we are not in condition that we need to be. We don’t play at the type of tempo we need to play at. Clearly, not the type of energy we need to play at…too much of the survival type mode.”
Golden added, “That is the challenge for us this week. Can we prepare? Can we play with Miami toughness and will we start to play with energy and passion?”
“I want the depth chart to reflect performance, not potential. A lot of coaches get fired based on waiting for someone with potential to develop.”
“We have to get more ownership from the units and positions.”
In an interesting statement, Golden told SI.com writer Andy Staples earlier in the week, "I know this -- we have a better chance of filling our stadium than Gainesville has of putting an international city right outside its city limits. The expectations here are high, but if you're a coach, you want to be associated with a program that believes in winning national championships. That's what fuels us as a staff right now -- the yearning, coming to work every day knowing there's something absent."
Lane Kiffin talks about legitimate NFL players and slappys
Following Tuesday morning’s practice, Lane Kiffin talked about his biggest concerns heading into the Fall.
Alright, he didn't use the word "slappys," but Kiffin explained, “We do have some star players, some legitimate NFL star players, but there is such a game between those guys and not just the bottom of the roster but some of the lower starters even.”
“Right now, we wouldn’t be a very good team if we were playing. We have some really good players, but we wouldn’t be able to put it all together because where the numbers are at. It will be exciting in the Fall for all the new guys coming in.”
“(In the Fall) 24 new guys, plus a bunch of these injured guys coming back…we have a whole lot of work to develop into a team.”
“Nick Perry (DE) is a really good player and ran a 4.6 this offseason. Two of our defensive ends ran faster than two of our tailbacks. It’s pretty neat thing to have on that side of the ball.”
“The biggest question mark we haven’t answered yet is the offensive line right now. We have one legitimate college player playing there right now.”
Video: Western Kentucky coaches play an April fool's prank
Willie Taggart, one of the most positive and enthusiastic head coaches in the country, agreed to go along with a little April fool’s joke during pre-practice the other day.
This morning, we received the video and it’s pretty funny.
Dooley would likely have a heart attack.
At this point, Willie T is the only known coach to fringe upon Pete Carroll’s original idea to video a prank, stunt, or April fool’s joke and then upload it to YouTube.
This one is pretty darn funny, so we’ll give props to the person that came up with the idea. As you can tell, it drew a funny reaction from several players.
If this doesn’t make you laugh, please push in your keyboard and call it day because you're definitely not in a good mood.
Here's the evidence:
Chip Kelly says Oregon has broken a new practice record
It’s official. Chip Kelly says the Ducks have broken a new University of Oregon record.
Following Monday’s practice, Kelly told a reporter, “I know Saturday’s practice was the most reps we’ve ever had in the history of the University of Oregon, despite you said we were going slow. We were pretty close (again) today.”
So coach, are you adding anything new? This is an experimental time, isn’t it?
Kelly responded bluntly, “No. We don’t have an experimental time. We practice. We are running our offense. We decide what we’re running and we run it. We put it in during the first five days and by then we’ll start refining it.”
College football is back. It’s only the second week of spring practice in Eugene and Chip Kelly is in mid-season form. Beautiful.
Oregon vs. LSU is only 152 days away.
In other pace related news, Kevin Sumlin says Houston scrimmaged 100 plays in under an hour on Saturday. Think about that. Meanwhile, Rick Stockstill says MTSU got in 154 plays in just under 2 hours.
Meanwhile, we heard the GA's at one SEC program threw back a case of Bud heavy in just over an hour on Saturday night.
UPDATE: We have received information from a loyal viewer that says Chip Kelly needs to watch the film of the third practice of 1978 spring ball under Rich Brooks. A lot of reps there, we're told. It could be close.
Holgorsen talks about WVU talent, developing players, and Blackmon
West Virginia offensive coordinator / quarterbacks coach Dana Holgorsen believes his system can help develop an average player into a great player.
This spring, Holgorsen is putting an emphasis on evaluating talent and developing players.
Asked to compare the talent at West Virginia against the talent at the previous schools he has coached at, Holgorsen admitted, “I don’t know yet.”
“One thing this offense allows you to do is develop kids. You take a guy like Joel Filani, who was a 2-time all Big Twelve first team receiver his junior and senior year, went to the league and played a little bit, he was absolutely terrible for 2 straight years. So guys do develop. This is the beginning product. I mean, I think the talent is fine, but the way guys develop is what is most important to me.”
“Last year at Oklahoma State, Justin Blackmon was the third best receiver about 2 weeks into camp. Just based on development and maturity, ended up being pretty good.”
“Maturity is the biggest thing. He (Blackmon) was 180 pounds in high school, so you don’t know how kids are going to develop from ages 18 to 22. He absorbed a lot and was really dedicated in the weight room.”
Geno Smith returns at quarterback for the Mountaineers.
Holgorsen said, “We’re playing at a fast rate. I’m force feeding Geno (Smith), too. They (the quarterbacks) stare a hole through me sometimes because they don’t get it. They get it, they turn. They don’t get it, they stare at me. That bothers me at times. I get aggravated, tell them to hurry up, go, and yell at them. We’re teaching them. I’m doing that on purpose.”
One thing Holgorsen doesn’t worry about is arm strength.
“I don’t care about arm strength. That’s about #9 on my list.”
West Virginia opens with Marshall, Norfolk State, and at Maryland. In week #4, LSU travels to Morgantown. The game will undoubtedly be nationally televised. We’re hoping to see Holgorsen crush a Red Bull just before kick-off.
Skip Holtz pretty blunt after 5 turnovers & 16 penalties
South Florida held a scrimmage on Saturday. Following 5 turnovers and 16 penalties, Skip Holtz started his post-practice media session with, “You had to be a football enthusiast to enjoy that.”
Holtz said, "It was ugly to watch."
“Right now, we’re not playing base defense. I don’t mean this negative, but we’re not good enough to play base defense. That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing. We’re not good enough to play base defense and hold a gap. We’ve got to create confusion.”
“Move, twist, stunt, stand up, drop, zone, blitz, man…that’s what we’re going to have to do to be good.”
On the flip side, Holtz continues to worry about the Bulls’ ability to throw it and catch it.
“Offensively, I worry if we can run it against a good team that runs base. It’s hard for us in turn to get that because that’s not what we do defensively. Same thing, it’s hard for us to get a really good feel for the secondary because we can’t challenge them offensively. We don’t throw it and catch it well enough.”
Translation…Dr. Lou reminded Skip to tell the media how God awful his team is performing. South Florida travels to South Bend to play the Irish in 5 months. It's the season-opener for both teams.
Who will Dr. Lou pick? Do you care?
Muschamp in a bind for Saturday's spring game
Will Muschamp says the Gators are down to 7 total bodies on the offensive line.
This should make things interesting for offensive line coach Frank Verducci.
Speaking of the Gators’ offensive line, check out the up close video of 1 on 1 pass rush from this weekend’s practice.
The Gators will hold their spring game this Saturday. The SUN Network will broadcast the game at 12 pm EST.
Other spring games on TV this Saturday include LSU (4 pm EST on ESPN), Clemson (4 pm EST on CSS), and Mississippi State (6 pm EST on CSS).
On April 16th, you can watch several more spring games including Georgia (CSS), Michigan (BTN), Notre Dame (Versus), Arkansas (ESPN), Alabama (ESPNU), Auburn (CSS), and Ole Miss (CSS).
