USF Football
Spring Game Quotes
April 17, 2010
Raymond James Stadium
Skip Holtz, USF Head Coach
Opening Statement
"We got into it early. We had a couple injuries. A couple guys went down; some guys started getting nicked. So I tried to take some of the pounding off of them and opened it up a little bit more and get a little bit better evaluation of where we were from a passing standpoint: pass, pro and those type of things, and so kind of opened it up. I was really impressed with the job that B.J. Daniels did tonight as a quarterback. We all know he's a great athlete and what he can do, but I think he's really starting to do some good things from a mental standpoint, standing in the pocket. A couple plays in there, he really impressed me by being patient; holding it, holding it, holding it, not running out of there and then making the decision.
(Dontavia) Bogan really stepped up and did some great things tonight. Obviously he had a huge game as well. And this game was suited a little bit more for the offense because we were a little bit more vanilla defensively. We wanted to get into this game, play base defense. There wasn't a lot of moving and blitzing and stunting and twisting and those type of things. I just wanted to see guys line up and play the game. It was a little bit simpler from an offensive standpoint because you knew what you were going to get. There were only a couple things you could do but you still have to go out and execute it.
But I thought there were a lot of positive things in this game. On the one, the injury, it looks like we got some bumps and bruises and Kayvon Webster came back after his kind of a stinger in the neck. And Lindsey Lamar came back after his bump on his leg, and then Chaz Hine came back after his ankle. I mean there were a couple of guys that just had some tweaks but the one I'm concerned about is A.J. Love, a young man who went through a very difficult time. He's already torn his ACL in his knee before and going through that as a senior right now, I'm just very hopeful. I don't know what is it at this point. I'm just very hopeful with all the testing and everything else that it's going to come back that it's something that he can recover from and be part of this football team this year. We've been relatively healthy as we've gone through this spring, so I just hate for it to be right at the end of the game, with four minutes to go in a game like that if it is as serious as I'm afraid it might be. What a terrible way to end the spring practice, especially for a great young man that has worked extremely hard to be here right now.
But I'm really pleased with the team, I'm really pleased with the attitude, the work habits, the way they're playing together, the way they're picking up the offense and the defense, and the things that they're doing. So I'm encouraged with what I saw tonight."
On the way B.J. Daniels started the second half...
"When he came out, in the first four plays, I think he was 4-for-4 coming out throwing the ball; a couple big plays. I think the more B.J. gets experience and starts to see everything, the more everything will start slowing down for him. You know at first you don't know the offense and feel comfortable exactly where everybody's going, and that's why this spring was so valuable for him, to get those reps. Even though he couldn't go live and take a lot of baggage on his shoulder, for him to be able to get those reps - even though he's going in a red jersey - to see everything full speed; he is a special player."
"I thought he came out in the second half very focused. He really has great vision on the field, and we know he's a great athlete but I'm really beginning to become impressed with him. I'm really encouraged with what I see right now. He has a laser arm, but he saw the corner roll up and shot that first touchdown. That was just a strike. You don't teach that. You know, you can put on the board, you can show them what happens when that guy goes there. But there aren't many guys you will see that are as quick as he is and get that ball up and off."
About the offense and defense...
"Well again, it was very vanilla, what we did defensively. We are going to look at ourselves as a defense. We could have played basic defense a little bit better than we did, but we are going to look at what we are going to have to do as a defense. I don't think we are going to be able to line up and play two coverages and two fronts, but we are going to have to more than we did tonight. But I do think I was very impressed with the defensive's physical nature, the way they hit. I thought the way they hit was really positive. I thought that they ran around with the ball extremely well. I thought they hustled around.
"There were some big hits out there, but you have to run good plays against defense. The reason you want to play so much against defense is especially when you get into a game like this where you fall, things aren't going the way you want them to, and guys start reeling a little bit, you want to be able to say, you know what, good invasive defense, get your feet underneath you, keep your shoulder pads square, keep the ball in front of you, don't give up the big play, and obviously we have had a very good stroke of that this evening."
