Skip Holtz Press Conference Quotes
September 21, 2010
USF Athletic Facility - Tampa, Fla.

On Guys Stepping Up...
"Right now a couple of the guys have really stepped up and I'm really pleased with their progress, one Stephen Bravo-Brown is really doing a great job he's really starting to come along, really feeling more comfortable in the offense and what we're doing.  A guy like Faron Hornes is a guy that is really starting to mature show a lot of progress, he's one of those guys you start to say, you know with his speed and athleticism he's a guy we got to find a way to get him on the field a little bit more in turn and get the ball in his hands."

On Offensive guys Developing...
"Andreas Shields continues to develop as a receiving tight end for us, Virgin continues to develop and those guys being bigger bodies that have a chance to control the middle and again at Florida, we took Shields and spread him out he caught a couple of passes out, as an outside receiver and at 6'5 250 pounds he's a big body standing out there and it's something that we've kind of developed and worked on a little bit more as we've come around with it.  B.J. Daniels had a good week, Marcus Shaw had a good week, a lot of the younger guys they got an opportunity to get a lot of reps, really had a good week last week and pleased with the progress we made and I thought we made the most of the open date with where we were on the offensive side of the ball."

On the defense...
"Defensively, Ryne Giddins really did a nice job last week, he's really starting to come around, again as young player red-shirt freshmen who is really starting to come around and do some good things for us.  The linebackers, I keep talking about a lot of the young guys but you talk about a Barrington and a Lanaris who right now are sophomores and a Dede Lattimore who is a freshmen, those guys every rep that they get they keep getting better and better as they really start to understand the concepts of what we're trying to do as a defense."

On young players...
"We as coaches when you decide to play a young player, you out them in you say 'boy if we can start to get them some reps and work them in early he's got a chance to be a pretty good player by the time we get to the conference' and a lot of these young players, I thought last week was really productive and I know from my standpoint a lot of the assistant coaches standpoint it starts to give you a little bit more confidence to put them in there in the game type atmosphere and put them in more of a bigger role."

On the team practice...
"Last week was very productive for us; I thought it was great use of our time from an open date standpoint.  We went Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, we gave them off on Friday and Saturday to give them a chance to get away from a little bit, and they really haven't had much of a break since camp.  I thought they really came back Sunday, I thought they were fresh, they were into it, mentally its game week I think they are excited to play again, nobody likes camp mentality when you get into it, but I thought they had a great Sunday..."

On Western Kentucky game...
"We got a great challenge for us this week, I think Western Kentucky is an excellent football team when you sit down and look at them and I know people want to talk about 'well they've lost three in a row when you look at the score and everything else', I just look at the progress of this football team has made.  I think obviously, Willie Taggart has done a great job there as a new football coach, he was instrumental in what they did at Stanford and the development of that running game and he has really brought that into this football team and he's really doing a nice job.  He is coming back h9ome along with twenty other players that are from the state of Florida on that roster and so for him and some of their coaches and players, I know this is a game that they have starred and having the opportunity to come back to Florida I know they're really excited about it and I think they've made an awful lot of improvement.   When you look at this team, you can't look at this team without looking at the tailback, or talking about the tailback.  You look at the games they have played, playing against teams like Nebraska, Kentucky, and Indiana, and yet they have the fifth leading rusher in the entire country, 148 yards a game, he rushed for 184 yards on a Kentucky defense that's a southeast conference caliber defense, he's strong, he's low to the ground, he's durable, he's a power runner, I think he is just an excellent back, and I think they're offensive line has really done a nice job.  ... I think Bobby Rainey is impressive, he's averaging 6.1 yards per carry, again well you go 'look at who he's played', well again he's played three really good defensive football teams and he's still averaging 6.1 yards per carry, they're completing 60% of their passes, I think this is a very good football team."