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PURDUE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 22, 2009

Danny Hope

Q. The first question was you probably remember Coach Tiller used to talk about the Notre Dame game being a measuring stick for his program. Do you view it that way and do you think your players should view it that way?
COACH HOPE: I hadn't really got to that part of it, you know. It's a great rivalry game. Man, you can get excited about Notre Dame and they're excited about coming here. I hadn't really looked at it as a measuring stick for our football team.
We're rebuilding in a lot of ways. I think every Saturday is a measuring stick for this football team. I think it's a good measuring stick for a lot of football teams. But for this football team, every Saturday is.
It's a great rivalry. The good thing is I think that our players love to play against them. They love to play against us. It brings a lot of energy and a reason to go out there and practice hard, and the guys will be excited.
That's the way I look at the Notre Dame game. I hadn't looked at it as a measuring stick for our program. I think every team is a measuring stick for our program in many ways. I don't have a any problem with that as long as we win.

Q. Do you think this game, because it is against Notre Dame, maybe you've talked about the great rivalry the importance maybe elevated in it?
COACH HOPE: It always is in a big rivalry. It always is. That's what makes them special.

Q. How about, you know, a lot of coaches you always hear it's just one game, and obviously, that's true. But you know better than anybody that fans and probably your players view it as probably a lot more than just one game. Do you as a coach view it as just another game?
COACH HOPE: No, because it is such a great opportunity for our football team. Any time you bring a top-tier program into Ross-Ade Stadium and you have some talented players who have potential to play well, all of those are the game. For our football team right now, every Saturday is a huge game for us.

Q. When you look at the Irish, I'm sure a lot jumps out at you. I would imagine when you look at their strengths you start on on offense. Maybe just talk about their offense, the passing attack, and obviously quarterback Jimmy Clausen?
COACH HOPE: He's a great player. A very accurate passer. He has a high quarterback rating. He throws the deep ball great. Throws it as well as anybody in college football, and he has the players to throw it to.
They have a big tough offensive line and a great big tight end that is a heck of an athlete that can give you all kinds of trouble particularly underneath, like having a giant fullback running down the field with the ball.
So they've got some players on on offense. They've got a quarterback that's really improved. Every year he's gotten better and better. He's certainly an outstanding quarterback. It will be a great challenge for our defense.
But we have some players that are going to be healthy this Saturday. If we can stay healthy this week during practice, we can do some things that will create some sense for our defense as well. So it will be a great challenge, but I think we can match-up.

Q. How vital is it is it that you get some pressure on Clausen and not just let him sit back in the pocket and pick you guys apart?
COACH HOPE: If you let him go out there and have scaly practice, you're in trouble. Because with the rush and everything, he throws for almost 70%. I think he's 66 or 68% on the season. He's up there pretty good against some good competition. You have to manufacture some kind of rush to get yourself a chance. You can't just let him sit back there and have his way, or he'll pick you apart. He can pass the football. Really throw the football.

Q. You just made a comment about having some guys back this week. I assume you're talking about grant and king?
COACH HOPE: Yeah, as long as nothing happens again in practice. That's always a concern when someone comes back on an injury. To keep him healthy all the way till game time. But it's very important to us. It allows us to get back to some continuity back there in the back half. That's very critical at that position on the football team. The offensive line, the secondary are probably two of the most critical spots on the football team was in regards to continuity. That would help us a bunch.

Q. Just wanted to ask you, after three games now, are you pretty locked into which freshmen are going to play the rest of the year? Maybe which guys aren't?
COACH HOPE: No. Somebody asked that yesterday at the luncheon. We have some guys that are really good play makers that were incoming freshmen that can do some things with the ball in their hands. Haven't been ready to play yet, but they get closer to being ready to play every day.
Some of the guys came in and were injured off the bat, Eric Williams, McBurse. Those guys are great play makers. If we were to lose some play makers some of our special ball receivers will catch the football and make a big play out of it, we'd have a tough decision to make. Whether to play someone else that may know more about what to do, but doesn't have quite the big play potential or not quite the play maker.
So we're trying to on get some guys ready in case we were to lose the play maker or if they passed someone else on the depth chart if we were to take the red shirt off of them. We're not saving anybody that can help us win that's ready. There are some guys we can put out to play, but they're not ready. But they are play makers. So they'll develop, if we lose a play maker, red shirts will come off.

Q. What about Kevin Panfil? You talked about him maybe going out there with your depth and what not?
COACH HOPE: He's fourth or fifth defensive tackle. Depending on who is having a bad or a good hair day, you know. Still trying to figure it out some. He's a great talent. That whole group of defensive linemen are a talented group of linemen.
We did some good in a lot of ways. There are some guys in there that can run and hit and play on either side of the ball and be stand-out players. Those are the type of players with the offensive side, and the special defensive line prospects over there as well.

Q. Who is going to be your first team punt returner in practice?
COACH HOPE: Valentin.

Q. You're going back to him?
COACH HOPE: Yep, sure am. Still believe in him.

Q. Just talk about some of your new receivers Cortez Smith?
COACH HOPE: He's coming on.

Q. It seems watching a lot of the plays you've made this year, he's done a good job with the blocker?
COACH HOPE: He's done a good job with everything. He needs to play more. The one punt return was one of the longest I've ever seen. Wasn't the largest yardage-wise from a history standpoint. But if he had to hold his breath, he might have made it. So he was tired when it was over.
The other one he didn't catch, those things aren't refreshing moments. You know, he plays a lot on offense, and we ask a lot out of him. I think he got tired. I think Cortez Smith could have rolled in there and helped him some.
Now Aaron is I think the number two guy in the league as far as total on offensive game, I believe. Y'all would know better than I do. But he does do some work.
But Cortez does some things naturally. We've been noticing that. He does some things very well, and he's a guy that has the desire to play well. He practices very well, too, so we like him. He's going to play some more.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Torri Williams. When you have a guy that's been in a program for six years, does that experience maybe set him apart a little more than other guys?
COACH HOPE: Yeah, he's seen it all, you know. He's seen the good times, the bad times. I think he knows, you know, how to help us bounce back as a football team from an attitude standpoint.
He's very valuable to us in many ways. Not just what he can do on the field, but he's a security blanket. You can put him anywhere and he's kept us alive back there. He's a good asset to our football team. He's always upbeat, and he has something about him. Grown up a lot. We're really pleased with what he's done.

Q. One last guy I have to ask about. If you could talk real quick about Kawann Short, this has been his first exposure to college football. How has he handled it?
COACH HOPE: He's doing great for a defensive tackle freshman first year out there. You know, if you take a look at where Michael Neal was at the same time and some of the other great defensive linemen that you've been around -- some of your top defensive linemen that you've been around -- I'd say he's the head of most of the guys that I've been around. And up there with some of the really good ones.
Now there were a couple were further ahead at the same time. But he's very far along for as young as he is, big as he is and as talented as he is. He could be a big timer, no doubt.

Q. You talked about the Notre Dame offense, can you talk about their defense and the problems they present?
COACH HOPE: Oh, they present you some problems because they disguise their coverages so well. It's hard to tell when they're going to play man and zone sometimes by the way they lineup up. You have to look at it a couple of times. If you have to run it back a couple times as a coach to double check. The quarterback might really be sure Saturday in some ways. He'll have to study a lot of film.
They do a great job disguising their coverages. Their defensive coordinator, John Tenuta does a good job describing the defensive pressure.
They're a high blitz football team. They execute it very well and got some people to do it with. So they're a pressure defense that has some talented and they like to heat it up. So it will be a great challenge for us.
We've played some blitz teams. A lot of teams have blitzed us, and they've blitzed us a lot. So we've had some work against it, so that's good.

Q. When is the key, the offensive line being instinctive to deal with those blitzes?
COACH HOPE: They're going to have to handle the pressure. That's the line and the quarterback as well. Making sure that he can hit on his indicators, you know, to get us in the right check. And then play calling-wise we need to do some things that we think can help the players manage, you know, the blitz some from a play calling standpoint.
But the O-line has the blocked movement. If we're going to establish the run game and blitz all the guys and all the bullets that are coming, you have to get in front of all them bullets that are coming to throw the ball. So they're critical in this game. Absolutely.

Q. Your defense, if you look at the numbers, your defense has struggled some. But have they played that poorly? Is that misleading?
COACH HOPE: Well, I think Saturday's game, you know, as much as they were out there, you know, that doesn't help. You can't be out there six or seven drives in a row. It's amazing how long they were out there.
People wondered why we didn't get route the ball, we weren't out there. We had four or five plays in the first quarter. Just a handful of them. I'd never been a part of something like that.
So four, five six times in a row, you say ball is yours, here it's good territory, too. That's tough on the defense, tough on the numbers. Then with Toledo throwing it so many times, they average six yards an attempt. Threw it 70 times there's 420 yards in passing offense. Really if you tackled better, the numbers would have been a lot better. But it's still not an inordinate amount of yards when you threw it 70 times.
So a couple of Saturdays in some rare instances has padded the numbers on. But we're not playing as well as we can or need to on defense. No question about that.

Q. You want to put pressure on Clausen, but when you have a quarterback that might be gimpy, I know he hurt his foot. Are you more aggressive defensively because the quarterback might have a little bit of a mobility issue?
COACH HOPE: I can't tell you the whole game plan today, you won't go to the game Saturday. What do you think?

Q. Right, and I understand?
COACH HOPE: We'll probably come after him a little bit.

Q. But the point wasn't to get your game plan. But you've become more aggressive when the quarterback is less --
COACH HOPE: We're going to have to pressure. We're going to have to play aggressive healthy or not. He doesn't have to be mobile in order for him to throw the football well. He has a good enough arm, strong enough arm. If they give him the pocket, he's going to make a lot of plays. He's an outstanding quarterback. You'll have to you are pressure him whether he was mobile or not.

Q. Thank you.
COACH HOPE: I was just kidding you. Putting a little levity on this thing.

Q. I know. It's probably not your number one concern headed into the week. But are you a little surprised there are so many tickets still available for this week with Notre Dame coming in?
COACH HOPE: Well, I haven't thought a whole lot about it until just now. But ticket sales were way down before the season started. I thought we had a nice showing last week. We increased our attendance from our first home game to our second home game. And we have more tickets sold now than what we had in the last game.
So it's not sold out, but it's an upper curve. So it's a great game. I know the people that really love Purdue football. I understand that we're excited about the program. I don't expect a big difference attendance-wise. It may not be sold out, but I haven't given it many thought. I think they'll show up though.

Q. Just wanted to ask you about Joe Holland. Seems to me he's playing a little different position maybe than he was last year? Little more in coverage or things. How do you think he's responded to doing that?
COACH HOPE: We didn't have as many linebackers last year, so we had to put the guys that we had where we needed him at. But we're able to play him outside the box more this year than we did last year. Some it has to do with the people we're playing against and how they're lining up. It's not a whole lot different than what they're doing last year.
He's a guy and Werner's a guy that you can use them interchangeably. You can move them left to right. So those guys can get moved around some.
But, in my mind, he's playing the same he played last year. He's been an outside player a little more is some because of the groupings that we've seen.

Q. Do you think he's made some step forwards?
COACH HOPE: Again, we're out there too much. He never comes off the field. I think he's made a lot of progress. You don't go through that many reps and experience without making progress.
You'd like to say every time I got a rep I can always get better. That doesn't always happen that way. But he puts in a great effort and gets a lot of experience. I think he's better playing in that position, no question.

Q. I just wanted to ask you about Jeff Panfil too. He had that stinger last week. Is he making progress coming back?
COACH HOPE: He might be able to come back to play this season. He won't be back this week or next week. It's going to be a little bit. It's not as bad as we thought it was. I don't anticipate him being back here in the next couple of weeks.

Q. When you're playing against an inexperienced center at home, is there anything can you do to take advantage of that? Or do you rely on your crowd to be loud and try to throw them off a little bit?
COACH HOPE: The crowd affects an offensive line particularly if you're in the shotgun. So you don't know what they're going to do if they get under center and run their plays understand center. It might help an experienced center out in some ways. But any time you're in any kind of center and the shotgun it's loud, it's a little harder.
We've tried in a lot of different ways over the years to handle noise. Three or four ways that are popular. We've tried them all. We have our preference. They have theirs.
Certainly it should be a challenge to the new guy in the center position. I think the center position is the is second hardest position to play on the football team. Quarterback is the hardest, the center is the second hardest. You're at war with handcuffs on. It's a whole different ballgame up there.

Q. You mentioned their tight end, Rudolph. Do you feel more comfortable having, if you have to cover him with the linebacker because you have guys who are good in coverage, and were safeties? Or is it something where you want the strong safety to come down maybe?
COACH HOPE: Well, I think we have the people at the linebacker spot that are athletic enough to match up with most people's tight ends. He presents a problem for whoever you put out there because he is really big and really athletic. So he's a personnel match-up issue anyways.
But we have nickel defenses for certain types of groupings of people that are on the field and formations that they may run. We have our regular group. In our regular group most of the time it's just because of the tight end. The little guys that bring it into the game get up on him. But he's a challenge from the potential standpoint.

Q. They're obviously out of Michael Floyd who was a huge receiver for them had. Who do you think is your best cover corner?
COACH HOPE: Well, right now it's Pender, because he's the only one that's been playing. David's very fast. He's a really good cover corner. Brandon King does very well himself.
Probably Pender I would assume would be our best cover corner. He's the most experienced guy, and probably our guy that is the fastest guy we have.

Q. Do you change anything then to maybe put him on Tate? Or do you just say okay, you're always playing left side of the field?
COACH HOPE: Well, you can, but that would be referring to the game planning. So we might, we might not. Let's wait till Saturday.

Q. I walked into that.
COACH HOPE: Yeah, you did. I'm trying to be nice, man. We've got to win, all right. You guys aren't helping us.

Q. Jason Taylor didn't seem to get too many snaps on offense last week. Is that just a product of not having very many plays?
COACH HOPE: Yeah, he figures into the game plan and he's one of our play makers on offense. He did a great job on special teams. He really did. I always heard about Jason Taylor is a great special teams player, you know. He's played some running back for us and played on special teams.
But he took it to another gear on Saturday. It was really a special special teams player on Saturday and really wanted to win. But we didn't have the ball very many, and that was a result of that.

Q. He's been really productive in the red zone, 10 of 11 with nine touchdowns. Any special key there?
COACH HOPE: It's closer to the goal line.

Q. I think sometimes that gives the defense advantage because they have tighter space?
COACH HOPE: Well, I think our running game has helped us. I really do. I think it helps you in the red zone. We did a lot of red zone practice in camp. We were successful with it. We have some confidence down there. The closer you get, the better it looks. You can run the ball some.

Q. Are you looking for a sign out of your team this week or later in the week that will let you know that they're past what are haunted them at the end of last week?
COACH HOPE: Well, not any one thing in particular. I don't expect anybody to give a battle cry that changes everything in one particular moment, you know. But I think the way they came out to practice and the focus they have in practice and how much they're into it is really a great indication of the direction you're going in.
You can work or work and really be into it. Or you can read a book and read a book and really be into it. Football practice is the same way. You can practice, and practice and really be into it.
I would anticipate our team to come out to practice and really be into it. I don't mean from a cheerleading standpoint, but a focus standpoint. Really perfect the details of their lineups and assignments. They're very detailed.
The sense of urgency -- if you're looking for something more generic to write about -- it's sense of urgency, obviously.

Q. Brian asked about Kawann, but Nick Mondek plays in that position, too. Are they getting equal reps?
COACH HOPE: Kawann plays more.

Q. Right. But is Nick still factoring in?
COACH HOPE: Sure, he's a factor. He's a 30 tackle. We don't want two of them out there the whole game. But K.K. is playing a little better. So he's the starter, and Nick's number two, and he's competing. If he's played better, he could be number one.

Q. Back in '97, you were on the staff. You guys beat Notre Dame here. What do you remember about that game? How much did that game jump start you guys for the rest of the year?
COACH HOPE: It did a lot. It was a spring board for the season, and spring board for Purdue football in a lot of ways. We opened up with a loss to Toledo, and nobody knew much about our team. Weren't predicted to do a whole lot. Gave us some confidence.
It was a huge win in a lot of ways. Lot of fun. Brought some fun back to the stadium. Certainly all those things could happen again Saturday with a win against Notre Dame or a win against anybody that's on our schedule but Notre Dame particularly.

Q. You mentioned after the game joey checked out of that fourth down play. Do you reel him back in as far as the checks that you aligned to do? Or does he still have the same freedom?
COACH HOPE: We're going to train him, put him out there and let him play. It may or may not have been the best check. In his mind he may still think it was. I still don't, you know. I thought it was something a little easier to get to.
But we trust him, we put him out there, we train him. Did he make a bad decision or decision that's not our first choice. There's usually some rationale behind it. If there's not, you try to train them better.
We're not going to cut back the reins on him. I'm not disappointed in his play. It's a great effort. Certainly isn't perfect, but he gave gives great effort and he makes some plays.

Q. You touched on this a little bit, the win over Notre Dame kind of spring boarding what you guys were doing. And I think pillar's talked about it. What could this do for you and the first year with a win, and what could it do for this group?
COACH HOPE: The same thing.

Q. In terms of the season?
COACH HOPE: I think it would be a great springboard opportunity for our football program, and our football team. Bring some national attention to our program immediately. We won big against Toledo, played very well. Showed some great promise at Oregon, and a win this weekend would look good for our football team. It's a great opportunity. That's what I like about this schedule. It's a great opportunity for our football team, and we've had some great advanced training. We really have.
It's great advanced training going into conference play. It's going to help us to compete. Help us compete against the top teams in our conference.

Q. The game being at night on ESPN, as far as national attention that Notre Dame will bring to you, what kind of impact did that have in recruiting or just in general as far as the presence of Purdue being the night time national game?
COACH HOPE: It's a great opportunity to showcase your program. No question about it. Everybody's going to be watching it. We have a bunch of recruits coming in. It's going to be a lot of fun.
It's big time football. Purdue is Big Ten, and Notre Dame is all big time football. So we have to make sure that we get ready to play, but we certainly want to seize the moment or there's no sense of being in this. We're going to have a good time with this thing. We're not going to play tight. We're going to go out there and have a ball. It's Purdue versus Notre Dame. It's primetime.

Q. We're doing a story about colt's first play last night, 80 yards to start the game. The first play from scrimmage, they ran play action 80 yards and scored a touchdown. Have you ever been a part of a team that did that, first play, went 70, 80 yards for a touchdown?
COACH HOPE: Yeah, I've been on both sides of it. I scored on the first play, and I've been scored on the first play, too. They're both very exciting.

Q. Can you describe them a little bit?
COACH HOPE: Lot of fun. Create some momentum. You've still got another 75, 80 plays to go. It doesn't put you on a plan or anything like that. It's pretty unique. It just happens. It's kind of like a hole in one in some ways. We have a better chance of scoring -- I know I do. We have a lot better chance of our team scoring on the first play than I have of getting a hole in one which is kind of unique.

Q. Do you remember the details of either one?
COACH HOPE: I remember we played Kentucky, head coach at Eastern Kentucky. We spent years trying to get them on the schedule, our fans and their fans. We took several thousand fans down there and traveled very well.
They came out and had a great team. They were ranked that year and beat LSU and all that. And they scored the very first play of the game, very first play of the season for us, I think. So that was an eye opener.

Q. Can you just talk about this game as far as rivalry is concerned?
COACH HOPE: All rivalries are fun. If you're an aggressive person. And most coaches and players and fans are. That's what makes them fun. You go out there and raise cane. Yeah, we don't like each other. That makes it a lot of fun.
We're close by, that makes it a lot of fun. I've been part of great rivalries. The Wyoming-Colorado State, the border wars, that's a fierce rivalry. Oklahoma played against Texas, fierce rivalry. Eastern Kentucky and Western Kentucky. Coached at Louisville, and it was UK. So rivalries are a lot of fun.
This is a great rivalry. Everybody in the state will be on pins and needles over it. It's got some of the mid-western flair of the Hatfields and the McCoys in a way because we're both in Indiana. It's a great rivalry. Great rivalry.

Q. The first time this season you guys have had your backs against the wall. It's a situation where you're coming back from something that maybe didn't go as expected. How are the guys handling it right now?
COACH HOPE: We'll know when we get out in practice. It's not the first time we've had our backs up against the wall. We weren't predicted to do so well from the very beginning. So, as I said, we're rebuilding, not reloading.
But I would expect our team to respond. You know, a bad half of football doesn't take away years of effort and the other football that's played and the great opportunities that are in front of us now. We've got to keep things in perspective; okay.

Q. You said last week you couldn't get upset with the defense because they were giving their all?
COACH HOPE: I didn't say I couldn't get upset with them. But they were in a tough situation. They really were.

Q. Do you feel the same way after the Northern Illinois game?
COACH HOPE: You know, because, again, I don't think it was a lack of effort. We want to be the team that hits the hardest. And we want to be the team that makes the fewest mistakes, and we don't want to quit. We didn't quit. We went out and played hard.
I don't think we were as emotional as we needed to be. Not quite on the cutting edge in some ways, you know. But we didn't play soft. We made a lot of mistakes. You can't do that against a football team. They didn't make very many mistakes. They played football very well Saturday, and they were a determined football team.

Q. What do you see as the main difference between Jimmy Clausen that you guys played against last year and the one you're seeing on film?
COACH HOPE: Performance. He plays better. Last year they really went to the run game in the second half and had a lot of success he. They won with Jimmy Clausen and right now, passing the football. They can hang a game on his passing ability and what they can do throwing and catching the football. He's really matured as a player. He's a very good quarterback. Very good quarterback.

Q. Joe Elliot's performance, step forward, step back, lot rale step? What do you think?
COACH HOPE: Sometimes you keep putting out different kinds of fires. He's resilient. I like the way if things don't go right he gets back up swinging. That seemed to -- rough sledding doesn't seem to bother him much, and that's a great sign at that position.
The mistakes that he's making aren't the same mistakes. He ran the ball well and made some good decisions when he took off and ran with it. We talked to him about taking advantage because they were doing some things on passing downs to drop a lot of people into coverage.
But he made some good he decisions and kept some drives alive. So I thought he made some progress in that area. I don't think he had as many mistakes as he did that was a major factor in the game as he did in the Oregon game. He had just two picks in that game that could have been avoided. That wasn't quite the same. So I think he made some progress.
We didn't help him much around him. We didn't really establish a run game. That takes some pressure off of him. We put him in some tough situations. So I thought he handled those well. Didn't make the same mistakes that he made the week before, so I think he made some progress.

Q. You mentioned that Ralph wasn't 100% last week. What was wrong with him and how is he now?
COACH HOPE: He's fine. He's ready to go. Something flared up. You know how it is. You get out and practice hard, and run into each other and things happen. Next thing you wake up next morning and something's flared up on you. We were concerned about it.
He's been practicing for a couple of days. Didn't give him a whole lot of opportunity on Saturday. Made some good plays. We got him the ball. But he'll be ready to go this Saturday.

Q. Werner seems to be all over the place. I know he's a good player. What makes him special?
COACH HOPE: I don't want to say his attitude because he brings a lot of physical attributes to the game. I think his focus. I think he stays focused. He makes some mistakes Saturday. He took a couple guys on with the wrong shoulder. I looked at the film and could see how he deciphered it coming at him.
But he stays focused well. He's very intelligent. So when you practice and talk football with Jason Werner, he gets it. That's part of him. Some players you talk to them and they get it for a minute. It's kind of like algebra. You understood it when they put it on the board, and you walk away, and later you forget it. Football's like that. You put it on the board and he remembers it when he walks away from it. He really does. He's got a good football mind.

Q. Did you ever hear from the Big Ten on the last play of the game?
COACH HOPE: Which part of it?

Q. The late hit.
COACH HOPE: No. No, but that's obviously something that everyone's aware of. We'll wait to see where it goes. I haven't heard from the Big Ten, no.

Q. You talk about Michael Floyd being out. How different are they because he's not available for them this week?
COACH HOPE: Well, won't know until Saturday. I don't know if they have to be any different. They still have their quarterback and still have a lot of great players there. They'll put someone else out there and probably call the same plays and probably have as comparable of a player. If we don't take car of business, they will become as accomplished as a player because they've got other good guys in place.
But I don't see a change in their game plan, I'd be surprised if it did. They have some other good players there as well.

Q. I was going to say, do you look more at the second half of Michigan State, or do you still evaluate what they've done all year with him not there?
COACH HOPE: We'll evaluate all of it. That's the most recent stuff we have on them. They do a lot of the same things they did last year. So we have some idea what we think they're going to do.

Q. If they were going to do anything, would you prefer they do it today as far as the Big Ten is concerned?
COACH HOPE: I haven't really given that part of it any thought to be quite honest with you. Saw what happened, and it didn't look like a whole lot to me. Obviously, something that they want to and need to review, but we'll just wait to see.
It's kind of like the clearing house. Which by the way today Dave Holmes got cleared. It's the clearing house. You've got to wait to see. They're not in a hurry based on your calendar. They've got to take care of business where they have to take care of business.

Q. Do you prepare somebody else in case later in the week they decide he can't play?
COACH HOPE: Well, we hope. We have a third guard, Rick Schmeig who used to play a lot. They get the same amount of reps in practice. We'll take Rick, and play left guard, and take Rick and play some at right guard or play at center.
But in practice he's got as many reps as any one of the ones have. So I don't think it's going to change the practice reps up. I don't see any reason to because we have a third guard that can play and he plays well. If he didn't, then you might want to get him out of there and get somebody else ready because you've got bad news, but I don't think anything to change in practice.

Q. Dave Holmes got cleared? Is he going to join you now?
COACH HOPE: January.

Q. Is that frustrating at all that you had to wait as long as you did?
COACH HOPE: No. No, I don't get frustrated on that.

Q. Following up on Cortez Smith. How did you find him recruiting? You signed him in spring, that's kind of atypical?
COACH HOPE: I don't know. It came out of nowhere. It might have been the want ads or the yellow pages or something. I don't know (laughing). We came on out in spring and said we need some help. We had some young guys coming in. We weren't sure who all was going to make grades and how ready they'd be and the whole bit.
We thought we better get Keith. We decided we needed one more. Somebody got a clue on him. We liked him on film. Brought him in. Seemed like he was a good kid.
He's from the same place that are Gerald Gooden is from. He might have, but he came out of nowhere. Then didn't know that many about him. We need a knee need for him, and we thought that guy's pretty good. He kept catching the eye, and he's into it. So he was ready to go. He's a good kid. Really good kid. That was a good question.

End of FastScripts

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