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INDIANA UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 3, 2016

Kevin Wilson

Bloomington, Indiana

KEVIN WILSON: Announcement, not a big deal for you guys, when you're done eating, we have practice today and you guys are welcome to come to it. We'll start practice at 11. On the video side, like I don't want to do any video that just is team, so the first thing we're actually doing is a walk through, so that's kind of team. Just kind of getting them loose.

In your world, I don't know how long, but you're welcome to stay out there for the whole practice today, but we start at 11, and we've got walk throughs and specialists and stretch. We really don't get going until 11:35, and the first two practices are helmets only. We'll finish with skelly and team, but our team will not be against the offense and defense, because without pads, as hard as you've got to play, we think one side's got to taper down or gets out of control.

So team's kind of against itself. So the offense will go against the defense in skelly, and throwing in all that kind of stuff. We'll actually have a couple groups going to make sure all the young guys are getting work, so you're welcome to stay out there. Practice goes till about 1:15, so you're welcome to stay for it.

Video part, you guys would just do the stretching individual which is 11:30, so if you need some shots, that goes 11:30 to 12:00. But you're welcome to stay the whole time if you want to. So you good with that?

So we're here, had a good start yesterday. Getting the media functions right now. The guys are meeting downstairs. We're doing our first practice. First practices are a lot different. Your freshmen are basically all here all summer. They're working out. Quarterback, you don't have on pads and you're not hitting sleds and the coaches cannot be a part of work where footballs are involved, but it's like day one, starting back June the 6th.

So, you know, the parents would drop them off and all the moms were crying and the kids were all whatever, well, that happened two months ago. So it's like the old calendar day one is now it's the first day of official practice.

We've put a lot of time in our preseason formatting. We start school on the 22nd, I believe it is. So getting into the one-a-day mode at that time.

We have a number of practices that we'll do. We've tried to put a lot into working with our team doctors and trainers on building into our contact and how to be a physical, Big 10 East football team, but how to take care of your players and how to be able to tackle and block and play behind your pads and play physical. But how to practice and progress in a way that has long-term, positive effect through this season, through their careers, through their life and still be able to play tough, line-of-scrimmage, physical, offensive, defensive football.

So we'll be playing a lot of guys early in camp because, quite honestly, some of the running volume and contact volume can wear you outcome November. You're playing nine, Big Ten games. We're playing ten games in a row. So we've put a lot of thought process in not just how the plays are going in, but the implementation as we go through practice and be physical and be contact-ready and be smart and get our team ready to play the type of football we need to be to be successful with our schedule and with our conference.

We're opening with a Thursday night game, so that's a little bit unusual. And then you're coming off that playing a game, then it's an early-open date. So we've put a lot of thought as coaches into how to get our team right and not underpractice, overpractice, have the right amount of contact and conditioning level.

Our team is reasonably healthy. Some of you watching practice today, some of our older players, like Dutra coming off a foot injury. Marcus Oliver is a year off an ACL. So some of those guys you don't wear them out the first day. You want to get their bodies and joints, so if you see the guys not working with the ones day one and getting as many reps -- some of your veterans Dan Feeney had a lisfranc injury years ago, so don't read anything into my world who goes first or second.

Again, we played three quarterbacks, year one, year two, two-year, three, three-year four, three-year five, so we're going to give a lot of quarterbacks work, lot of running backs work.

So you guys got a roster. We don't have a "firm depth chart" right now. So excited for preseason. Glad to have you here. Questions?

Q. With (Indiscernible), he was a quarterback last year and then moved to receiver. What's kind of the thought process on that?
KEVIN WILSON: It was him. His thoughts. In my opinion I think he's got the skill set to be a very good quarterback. But I also think last year he was a young man that was coming off a knee injury. He missed basically our summer workouts last year, and so he wasn't ready to play college quarterback as a freshman. He was a good enough athlete and we tried to get him on the field.

His thought as the season ended, he wanted a chance to be quarterback. My thought with him when it ended if he wanted to be a quarterback, he had a chance to be one, but I felt he was probably a year away from really being good enough, and we just had it -- I said, hey, we'll go developmental year and we're going to work on throwing.

He throws the ball well, but we're going to work on passing, and getting the ball to target, and throwing in rhythm, and understanding and all that. We'll go full-tilt all summer, all year. Or if you want to play, you've got the skillset to be a very good receiver, and there's no guarantees you're going to start, but odds are, your skill set, he played last year, and would have played more if he had been healthy and would have been here all summer.

But the thought was I wanted to go into summer. I didn't want to wait until today to make a move because there is so much work that you can do in the summer. So that way, his thought process was -- as a matter of fact, his dad called and said, Are you sure? And I hit him back and said, Hey, your dad thinks you shouldn't be quarterback. What do you want to play? And he goes, I want to play receiver. So that's where he is.

Again, I don't want him going back and forth. He does have a red-shirt if needed. I think he's settled in. He's a soiled 6'4", he's 215 give or take. I think we've got four receivers over 215, 225 pounds, counting Fuchs and Ian Thomas who are athletic tight ends.

So he's a big target, has a good skillset. But to me, Chris Covington was different. Same thing, he wanted to play defense and that's where those two guys are.

Q. Coach, where is this quarterback competition right now and when would you like to have a starter in place?
KEVIN WILSON: Again, nothing new as far as Zander was our most experienced guy, but had a minor deal, but the procedure done, which was a quick recovery and he was full speed end of April, first of May, but he lost his spring practice. So here's a guy that's got the most reps that got no work. You have a junior college player everyone's excited about, but he only has 15 times where I can stand there and watch him throw and give him critique of what he needs to do. Then our meetings that we have in between spring ball when you're watching video, so there's not enough time on task there.

And then we're working with Austin King, Danny Cameron were the two two guys getting the bulk of the work. And we did sign Peyton Ramsey and Donovan wanted to go back to receiver. So five guys are in it. We're not going to be equal, not trying to be fair. Few years ago I tried to be equal and fair, and all I did was make everybody mad, and they got equal reps and equal throws and equal opportunity and everybody was getting mad. We were trying to be so fair to everyone that, you know, ego's got involved.

You know, the comment I just shared to them is the only person they need to worry about is themselves. Years ago is one of the most profound statements I ever heard a player say, a college player say. I don't think I've shared this. I might have.

But we were playing in a National Championship Game and we had a quarterback that's really good that won the Heisman Trophy, and the team we were playing against had a quarterback that won the Heisman Trophy. And our quarterback was asked, Sam, how do you compare yourself to Tim Tebow? Now I knew what I would say because they're both great players but they have different skillsets. And his answer was, "I don't compare myself to anyone. I was raised to to be the best I can be."

And that's what we're trying to get our quarterbacks to do. Just do the best you can. Worry about you. We're going to need a lot of you. And in a perfect world, and again, maybe we need to play more than one. You can sit here and criticize whether you should or shouldn't. Sometimes you need to bring a guy over and calm him down, sit him down a little bit. Let him view it over there. I don't know.

It's going to play out. But the great thing is those guys do not need to truly be the team leader right now because you've got four fifth-year seniors, two fifth-year running backs. Quality receiver in Simmie, quality running back in Devine. Danny Friend, a fourth-year tight end. You've got veterans at every position that the team can be led and the quarterbacks can just worry about themselves and quarterback right now.

The leadership comes with the position and it will come with time. But that cumbersome burden can be lifted off their shoulder and then you just worry about them and playing ball, and that's what we just expressed to them and we'll go. I do think looking at it and based on some things that we've seen in our total work Diamont and Lagow will get the bulk starting, and we'll see between Danny and Austin and the freshman, Peyton Ramsey, the reps that they deserve and what they get.

That's why today we'll do two seven-on-seven drills to get not only the quarterback, because McCullough has a number of running backs. Ian Thomas needs reps, Austin Doris needs reps at the tight end, the young receivers need reps. We'll have a little work today in two groups to get the play volume that some of these young arms and these kids need.

Q. Speaking of Coach Frey, what makes him such a good coach?
KEVIN WILSON: He was a great player. He's very, very smart. He's well-trained. When you start and spend 11 years with Coach Leavitt building a program from scratch, it was about player development, and then you work with Rich Rodriguez for those years. And in our world, my background, I played it. I was very well-coached in college by John Matsko, he's still the line coach of the Panthers. Been in the pros since 1993. Coach Buckner is an awesome coach. Then I GA'd for Bill Stewart who was unbelievably passionate and the late coach who passed a few years back.

So you have those guys and Randy Walker one guy in my background who touched me. Then you throw James Patton in the mix, and even though he's not a line guy, he's the third line coach in our room. And of all those guys, I think Rick Frey is our best coach. He is very demanding, and you've got to understand him pushing you because you can have some push back. But he's consistent in what he does. He's very knowledgeable.

I think he's been able to attract personalities that fit him and fit what we want to do, because there's a personality of not just what a lineman is, but a person that relates to you as a coach. So he's done a great job recruiting.

I know Kevin Johns said this year he's probably the best effort attitude coach he's ever been around in just coaching the effort and the mindset and the development of the position. So he's a tremendous coach and we're blessed to have him. He's got some good support with Coach Patton.

But a lot of people they would tell you the hardest position to coach is the head coach's position, and I'm a line guy. And I seldom, if ever, walk to his drills or walk in his room because I have a great deal of confidence that we're on the same page. And he does things different than I, but, man, his players perform and he gets them ready to play. Same with Deland McCullough. Those are two coaches that they're player driven. They work their players hard. They have a high standard. They don't lower their standard. They push their players to be the best. We have a lot of really good coaches, but those two guys do a great job.

Q. What are the new Twitter rules?
KEVIN WILSON: Yeah, that's a good question because we started putting out at kickoff, and my comment was I'm not putting out because if I miss one one day somebody's mad at me or I forgot or wasn't thinking about it. It's kind of nice, but you've got to be careful with it.

But the kids all think it's cool, I guess. Our thing is we can, by rule, basically like or favorite something they do, you just can't have a personal comment. But it gets scary where you didn't mean to, but you did.

In my world like right now I'm getting a bunch of texts from people saying hope you had a great summer, best of luck this season, and it's just a phone number. If I reply to that and it happened to be a sophomore recruit, that's an illegal text message. So I'm saying like who is this number? And sometimes I get a buddy mad at me because I didn't log him in or a friend or neighbor, and I'm thinking it might be a recruit. Social media is a big part of recruiting, and we started liking a few. It's also more work.

Q. The receivers talked a lot in the spring about being veterans for the quarterbacks and being consistent for them and making it easier as you broke in Richard and the younger guys. But what do you need from that group, particularly those three at the top, as you get into fall camp?
KEVIN WILSON: It starts with those three, but we do need more than three. We'll play 8, 9, 10. So we're going to need Westbrook, Timian and those freshmen coming in it will be nice to see. Because, again, the volume of work that those guys get can be taxing as you go through the year. So it starts with those three. But the first thing is we have to develop the position.

The second deal is just because you've had a good year doesn't ensure you're going to have another one. So for us, the best way for them to have a good year is it starts with consistency and practice, and practicing hard and playing hard without the ball, because if we can run the ball, it gets them one-on-one match-ups. So their ability to block the perimeter, which allows us to run the ball better with our line, tight end and run game can get going. Then if you don't put the numbers to stop the run, you're going to have a really good running attack.

That being said, the more consistent they are and the better they practice and the better they play without the ball, then here comes the passing yards because really you get one-on-one match-ups. Because if people are dropping eight and playing bracket coverage and they're in and out, the windows and spaces get tight. So when those guys want their individual personal success, it kind of starts with daily practice habits. You should have confidence. Not confidence. We've changed the word from confidence to belief. You should have belief. I believe I'm pretty good and I can make some plays.

But if they're not taking care of their body, keeping their legs fresh and keeping their bodies right so they can practice hard enough, and if they don't block the perimeter and play well, if the corner can beat the outside receiver one-on-one to stop those bubble passes, they can load the box to stop the run. And if one guy can beat one guy's block to stop the bubble, then the run game's no good.

So their ability to block and play without the ball creates so much of what we do. If you watch us today, we'll do a little bit more than normal because it's no pads. The first day it's helmets only. There will be more throwing and more perimeter. If you watch us play, Coach Johns will spend about as much time in teaching the fundamental part of staying on a block as he will catching. We're coming out of summer where you practice catching all the time because there's no pads. Without hitting, we've got to get those receivers back into being a teammate and playing without the ball.

Q. Can you talk about what you've seen in Mitchell Paige, and if you want to talk about his hair color, you can, too?
KEVIN WILSON: Yeah, I just said, hey, that's kind of interesting. We introduced him as a new player yesterday. I said all the newcomers stand up and say hi, so he actually started the welcome.

He always was a good athlete. He was an invited walk-on. Initially he tried commenting, hey, we've got the fraternity league player out there from the intramurals over here playing a little tag ball. And no disrespect to fraternities, but he grew for that last year. We were really concerned with Shane Wynn graduating and now J-Shun hurt and that slot has been a unique position.

Even going back, kid from Oklahoma, Ryan Broyles had 133 catches one year. It's always been a spot where a guy did a lot for you, and for him to answer the call last year the way he played was huge. So that helped the team a lot last year. Now it gave him, he's probably got as much self-confidence, self-esteem and self-worth as many players on our team.

He's playing with -- he's really grown. There's some physical maturity, stronger. Just the way when it was time to play, he plays very confidently. He does a great job of taking care. He's a heck of an athlete. He's a tremendous golfer. I think a couple years ago he scored like 46 in an intramural basketball game. He's a really good athlete.

And those walk-on guys have been big for us. We have a number of walk-ons. Actually, with our rules, our walk-on program has gotten good enough that we have several solid walk-ons that aren't here today because we can only have 105. When school starts, we'll get those numbers back up and add 10 or 12 more guys.

I think we scored nine touchdowns the last three games with guys last year that started their careers as walk-ons. We had 17 walk-ons on the bus when we went to West Lafayette of the 70 travelers. So those guys, you talk about all the recruiting stuff, Coach Alvarez said years ago at Wisconsin, don't minimize your state, coaches and coaches association, but what the walk-on players can do. And a lot of walk-ons are in-state kids because they love the school and it's the in-state deal.

I appreciate the way Mitchell plays, but he's in the line of those walk-ons, and I love those guys and appreciate what they do.

Q. As a guy with an offensive background, when you're up against the defense that plays nickel as its base, how does that change what you try to do?
KEVIN WILSON: Quite honestly because we're a spread team, you typically see that most weeks. Really the only thing that's happened for the bulk of what we're doing is instead of saying we're a linebacker team and going to nickel, right now we'll be a five DB team that will go to three linebackers when you go in short yardage or big -- boy personnels or teams that are more traditional with two tights or two backs in a pro formation kind of deal.

The coverage tweaks are minimal. The linebacker typically a lot of times plays a little bit closer even when he's in space. He favors the line of scrimmage. That being said, the safety gets out there on an island, one-on-one. The DB favors the receiver more, which means he's a little more of a coverage guy. That means the safety's got to be the extra guy. So it's kind of like instead of going back or safety, you're going nickel. It's still the same gaps. It's just different responsibilities.

But to me, the real thing as we go through the year and it will be interesting to see, I think with Coach Allen, outside of his ability to lead and communicate and set the standard, I think his package, one, I think having practiced and gone against Coach Freeze at Ole Miss for several years, got a little immune to no-huddle offense. Doesn't think it's stressful.

I call it college football. College football is going fast in zone read, spread out, and here we go. It's college football 101. Used to be I-formation and wearing out pads and just slamming that iso play after play after play. So, to me, his background he just doesn't stress out about the no-huddle, and I think he's got little things in his package the way he can tweak and compliment blitzes and coverages, where I think he's a little more multiple and can get to things where it's not just one-base coverage where you're doing this. I want to bracket this way. I'm going to leverage this way, get you help over top. I'm going to blitz you this side.

It just seems in their mindset, and again, it's the defense that TCU runs, it's not radical from what we've been doing. The radical deal would just be holding our guys to really playing up to their talent level.

Q. Are you looking for different types of bodies when it comes to the defensive line?
KEVIN WILSON: Well, things go in cycles. I felt a few years ago we were getting a little small at receiver, and I think there was a year, not that we had quarterback issues, but we were slight at receiver. And our league is a big play, it's a big game. They have in wrestling and boxing weight divisions. So at the same time, you do have to move.

But we've always this class has a chance to be a little bit more in the bigger bodies as we go through. We still need to balance it out with some skill. Defensively you don't have a senior on the back end. Your only two seniors on the back end will be T.J. Simmons at linebacker and Dawson Fletcher.

So we lost some players last year up front. Same thing, O-line, so it's a little bit more of a big-guy class. Not by design, just the way some guys have developed or not. They're still with us or not, that's just a little bit of a void and you're kind of recruiting a year or two out too now.

Q. Can you talk about maybe this will be a smaller class, are you getting to a point where you might become more selective with the guys you take?
KEVIN WILSON: Again, we're actually sitting today between five or six scholarships in hand, I think for walk-ons for this year. When we give a scholarship to walk-on players for one year, that basically goes back into the recruiting pool. So technically Mitchell Paige and Griffin Oakes are getting their scholarships back. But because there might be an attrition or a guy getting in trouble. When you sign a guy, it's kind of a no-cut contract. But when the walk-on gets unused aid, it's renewed every year, and that makes our walk-on thing very, very competitive, and those numbers can kick into your recruiting class.

Then it will be interesting with some of our young players, sometimes the roles of your fourth-year players, you know, we have some guys that didn't want to play this year or we didn't think the role was or they graduate, so we have every player on a four-year track to graduate. With our summer school, everybody's had six hours in summer as a freshman. And typically you can take 15 in the fall, but a lot of guys will take 12. But 15 in the spring. They're taking 33 hours in a year, so three years out you've got 96 hours. And if you red -- shirted and there's only 20-some hours to take here. Sometimes you have to slow them down.

But we've got our guys on a four-year track. Sometimes you get the fourth-year guys that don't play their fifth-year, whether they're not having a big role. But some of those guys, their bodies are beat up. And the way we respond, we love playing so many freshmen, as hard as you work, it's hard to keep doing that for five years.

So I think those numbers will be close. It's going to be 20s. I don't know if it's 25. But it will be 18, 19, 21, because we can't oversign them. We've got guidelines and things we have to do. But I like the guys on paper, and I feel good about them saying and we've talked about what a commitment is. But there's a lot of water that goes over the dam. I don't know what commitments are. I know we feel good about them and honor them.

We read a quote the other day where a kid committed to the school. He thanked everybody for getting there. He said to all the other colleges, hey, my recruiting is still wide open. Wasn't our school.

But like I just tried to tell the guys, I understand in this day and age you're committing to us and we're going to honor that. At the same time too schools will keep recruiting you. And if you want to look around, that's your right. But then we have the right to look around versus it's a two-way street.

Q. (Indiscernible) reputation. Could you talk a little bit about the playing situation, and is everybody at this juncture (Indiscernible)?
KEVIN WILSON: First thing, and we'll start that today. We will not go today. We're going air because we don't have pads. But in spring we actually went good-on-good, punt against punt team and we basically came after every punt. Because, one the protection up front. We had a great snapper in Dan Godsil. I think he's one of the best in college and we lost a good one and that kid's extremely good.

Our snapper, I think, is a solid player, great player. We're going to work a lot with the team because the pressure and stress. Joseph Gedeon has a large leg. We have three punters in camp. We do have a JC punter coming in and walking on. But sometimes again the speed of the game. What we did in spring and we won't do it until Friday when shoulder pads come on, but when we lineup for punt, it's like ten guys up and they're coming hard, and we stay off the punter's leg. But to me they get rushed.

You go out there and no one's there and you can boom it 50, 60, and Joseph Gedeon has a huge leg, but it's his ability to be consistent and get it off on time. So we're going to put a lot of pressure under him. We have a couple guys behind him that we think -- we have a young man from Center Grove that was a good punter last year, drew Conrad, he's a freshman. He was very good in summer. And Codey Wuthrich was a junior college kid from California that's been with us since summer and he has a chance.

So my thing is we've got to put enough pressure under those guys, same at quarterback. We've got to put those guys without hitting them under enough pressure that they're "game speed ready". Because what happens is they go from the driving range to now the stress of all eyes are on me and here's the snap and it's happening right now. And we ask them to specifically target certain areas of the field so we don't have to cover 53-and-a-third yards. We're trying to pin it in.

Everybody talks about coffin corner, but a lot of times you're covering two-thirds of the field or half the field so you can squeeze lanes. The punter, if he can hang you out to dry, if we're covering left and he hits it right, you've got issues. So there's a lot of stress there.

So kid's got a huge leg. He's one of our more talented guys. He runs about a 4.4, he verticals 38-39 inches. He's a kid out of Columbus North, talented guy, big leg, we'll see if he's going to be a good punter.

Q. Has anyone changed position since spring outside Donovan Hale?
KEVIN WILSON: Well, Clyde Newton was the third linebacker that got into the nickel deal, and I asked if he could play running back. In our world, we'll see. He's over there practicing. We might need him in some of our big sets to play short yardage linebacker. He's played as a true freshman. He's got three. I think as a true freshman, he had 15 tackles in one of our conference games. So he's got a lot of time over there.

I was worried defensively against bigger people. We'll see if some of the other players come through, Zeke Walker and Dameon Willis and Reakwon Jones, and those guys are in those complementary roles. But the thing with Clyde, we'll see if he's a true back or maybe he becomes a big back. Because sometimes in the four-minute goal line, two-minute offenses, maybe we could have a little bit, and we could do that from pistol and shotgun or go under center. Not that he's a fullback. He's it 230 pounds give or take. Same thing with Tyler Natee who's weighing 280 give or take.

Clyde ran for 1900 his senior year of high school, so we'll see, but he wanted to do that for spring ball. So he did train all summer at running back. I look forward to seeing what he looks like today because I haven't seen him since high school playing the position, and we'll use him at special teams. Outside of that, I think that's kind of it.

Q. What's he going to play besides running back?
KEVIN WILSON: We'll see. We'll use him. He and Clyde will both be bodies that can be used on punt protection in that second wedge because you have fullbacks you have to account for and big enough to take on the rushers and cover. We'll use them on the kickoff return on the second deal with the bloop guys. You have a guy that can catch and has enough substance to help you kick return. There will be PAT field goal, and then we'll see.

I mean, Tyler basically played walk-out quarterback. So I'm excited to see, and we won't do it today because not pads, but we will early in practice see what we've got because one of the things that we've struggled with is really sometimes the third-and-short situations, the inside the 20 and 10-yard lines, or at the end of the game when you're running a clock out to have those type of bodies.

So, I'm excited to see him without pads and in pads. And we'll see if maybe they're toys that we can play with. We'll see.

Q. (Indiscernible) the offensive line?
KEVIN WILSON: I think for example, I said this years ago, at tight end sometimes 6'6" gets too narrow because they get so long and they can't bend. A lot of good centers are 6'1", 6'2", nose guards because that guy's so tight to you that sometimes 6'4", 6'5" guy loses leverage. So sometimes it's more about girth and your ability to have flexibility and balance and stay on your feet and your ability to play hard.

So you can be too big if you're in poor conditioning level and you can't play hard. So you can be 6'4" and look a lot of different ways, and you can be extremely long and big at 6'4", you can be narrow and slight and everybody's a little bit different.

But I do think strength and mass is a part of being a big guy. Not necessarily -- a lot of great running backs are 5'8", 5'9", but they're not slight. They've got necks and they've got substance. There are not a lot of Adrian Petersons that are 6'1". They're fast, but a lot of those great backs are 5'9", 5'10", they're not small people. They're just not overly tall.

And Shane, man, he had big hands. The kid had big hands. He had long stride length. Here's a guy you didn't think was big. He had certain things about him. He was bigger than his measurements, and the next kid, the same size wasn't big enough. And you're trying to explain that to a recruit or a parent or a coach what you like. There are different body parts that help make them better than they are.

Q. How did it come about that you were able to add Mark Hagen back to your staff?
KEVIN WILSON: Yeah, I was thinking about making some changes and I saw Mark. And one of my first thoughts was what am I doing at coordinator? And my thing was Mark's more of a front guy and coached linebackers down there. He hadn't truly been a coordinator, but he was in the back of my thoughts. The deal was we had a relationship. He's from here, his family's from here. When I went with Tom I came back and said, hey, I'm going to go this direction. But in the D-line spot, would you want to do this? I can make it attractive for you. No guarantee if Coach Allen were to have an opportunity and move on, that he'd be the next guy in line.

But he's that kind of coach. In my opinion, him having been where he was, because when you're coaching in a place like that and the standard is so high, Mark left here, all his years playing here for Coach Mallory, and then all his years coaching and the great job and working for Coach Tiller who is an awesome coach and the job he did, when he came here he was a really good coach. He came back three years later way better than he left because of the stress and the pressure and the demand and the expectation of playing football at that level.

He's holding our players at a higher standard. He's recruiting at a higher standard. And he left good and came back better. I'm grateful he's here and I appreciate he and his family coming back.

Q. What are you going to be looking for out of (Indiscernible) right off the bat?
KEVIN WILSON: All those guys are back. That is a hard position because for us to play good you don't stop running games without edge players, whether it be corners, nickel backers, outside backers or safeties. Every time you run the football everybody says you want to run this play against this and this and this, and I say I don't know. You tell me. Where are those guys I can't block? And that goes back to Terry Hoeppner of Miami of Ohio where he would put guys where you couldn't block them.

So the idea is could the secondary support the run because if you stop the run, you can be good up front, but you really stop the run because of your support players. Can the support players stop the run and then not get beat deep? That's why it's the hardest job. That's why when they mess up, there's a touchdown. When the right guard messes up, they get the punt.

So it is the most demanding position, and one of the reasons why Coach Allen doesn't coach a position and we've had five coaches over there, and I've suggested in years past if you want a position or a walk around, it gives him the ability to impact every position, and I think the game is played back to front.

So I'm looking for those guys that know where their eyes go, where their fits are, and they can stop the run and not give up the cheap pass. And that's why we have been weak in both areas because we're doing one or the other. The really good defenses and the really good packages and really good coaches, having been with Coach Stoops and Terry Hoeppner was as good a defensive coach as I've been around, their ability to coach the perimeter and the secondary players and how to support and not get beat, and that's the key.

That's Noah and Shelby's charge, but that's Tom's. That's why Bill's got the backers and Mark's got up front, and Tom can go and be where he needs to coordinate and link all those guys together. Because if I'm a corner coach and say, hey, this guy's a good receiver, let's do this. Well, you might stop the receiver, but you're not sound in stopping the run. That's why it's called coordination. You've got to coordinate the group together.

So every time defensively, hey, I want to do this because it will help me stop this play, well, you get vulnerable somewhere else. I'm telling you, the way we are on offense, not just us, but everyone, the hardest thing going right now is coaching defense college football because they make you account for the quarterback. You've got the tempo. You're playing the whole field, and every week it's a different animal. And you've got to stop option attacks, running quarterbacks, power football, play-action pass, tempo, lot of throwing.

Every week they've got four days to get ready. Offensively we're on the same stuff each week. On this defense you run this route. But our plays go in and we use the plays that work. Defensively, you have to adjust. And the great teams can adjust from the back end, and that's what truly makes a defense a defense.

And having everyone back, and I think they have a lot of confidence now in Coach Allen and what they're doing, hopefully that group will be coordinated, and those back seven can play the way they need to play.

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