Head Coach Bobby Petrino
Opening Statement
“It was good to get out on the field and get practice in. I liked what our players did today. They did a nice job in the morning in meetings. We had a walk-through prior to lunch and I thought we got a lot accomplished there and then we got out on the practice field and practiced hard. It wasn’t the best practice we’ve ever had. We did a lot of things where we serviced ourselves where we didn’t go offense-defense against each other too early in practice. That’s always hard on me because it slows practice down a little bit, but it is good teaching. Once we went offense versus defense I thought the tempo was good. I thought the focus was good. We certainly have a long ways to go. You can tell they’ve been off for a month and not working together and not changing directions. It takes a little bit of time to get everything back together timing wise. But I do really like our attitude and I like the way practice flowed.”
Q: With all the circumstances that you have to deal with, what about the way guys approached practice today?
A: “They did a nice job. We had a team meeting this morning and kind of put everything out there on the table. I think we have a mature team. We have some guys in the locker room that are very good. We’ve got some guys in the locker room who have been through adversity before, maybe not exactly like this, but other situations and I thought they did a nice job of focusing and getting out there. And we got better. I don’t think there’s any question in my mind that we got better at practice today. But we have to do that every single day.”
Q: Coach, what about you adjusting from college to professional and your first professional training camp workout? How would you grade yourself?
A: “Today went good. I enjoyed it. Certainly the circumstances being here are not the easiest as far as with Michael (Vick) and everything. But it’s great experience. That may never happen again. I’m excited about it. I think we’ll be a good football team. We’ve got a lot of young guys. We have a very good class as far as the draft went and I think we have everybody in now… I’m really happy about that.”
Q: How did you sense your team’s feeling about what has gone down the past week?
A: “We’ll talk a little bit about this but then we’ll move on from this subject. We did have that long press conference the other day. Each guy is feeling something different. There’s no doubt about it. There’s guys that have feelings one way and there’s guys that have feelings the other. I think the biggest thing is to understand the situation, understand the facts where everybody was as far as I knew them. I wanted to make sure the players understood exactly what I knew and was straight up front so they understood everything. Then it’s up to putting your feelings aside and getting focused and getting ready to play football. I think they did that.”
Q: Bobby, did you see the airplane that was flying over (the practice field)?
A: “No I did not. I was told about it after practice by my son.”
Q: How did your son react?
A: “Well, unfortunately for my son, he’s been through controversy before. He probably just thinks it goes with the job.”
Q: How does Joey (Harrington) seem to be? It’s only one practice, obviously, but here’s a guy that came in expecting one role and one week before camp opens he’s in a different role.
A: “Good. Joey is doing a really nice job. He’s very mature so that helps us a lot and he’s been through his own controversy, his own battles before. So I think he’s excited about the fresh start. We talked a lot prior to yesterday about the situation and I think he knows what I want and I’m looking forward to getting to know him better and him getting to know me better because I do think it’s a special relationship between the quarterback and the play caller. We have to try to make sure we get on the same page and understand why I’m doing something and then me understand what he’s seeing out there on the field. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us to build that relationship but he did a real nice job taking command of the team. He’s done that since he’s got here. He knows how to play the position, he knows what it takes. He just needs to get comfortable with the offense and everything we’re asking him to do.”
Q: How is the offense different with Joey Harrington at quarterback?
A: “That’s a good question and really the answer is we don’t know just yet because we’re going back through the same installations that we’ve done the previous two times and, once we do that, it’s up to me and the rest of our coaches to really understand what parts of it Joey executes the best. Then you form the offense around him. Really nothing has changed yet. Certainly each quarterback does something different and (you) try to highlight what they do well.”
Q: The last two years you’ve won games with your backup quarterback. Is your system good enough to win with any quarterback?
A: “I don’t know about that. I think that’s yet to be seen but I do believe that it is a system set up for quarterbacks. You know the way we practice, the drills we do in practice, the way practice flows. My idea of being able to move the football is to do everything to take care of the quarterback and do what he does well and try to do everything you can for him to have success because I do believe that, if a quarterback is having success, then the offense is moving the ball and you have a chance to score.”
Q: You talk about the relationship you have to have with you and the quarterback and I assume you were trying to build that mostly with (Vick) before this happened. How long do you expect it with you and Joey?”
A: “Really with all of them. I spend time in the meeting room with them and I deal with the offense at time, too. I handled all the blitz today – all the things we were going to do against blitz – which I enjoy. I’d like to be in there more, it’s a lot of fun actually. But just getting to know him, getting to know what he does well – evaluating the video, watching it with him. He needs to understand where I’m coming from you know, this is what I’m seeing here. Know why I call the play. I think that comes up a lot when you call a play and he does something completely opposite than what you’re thinking. It’s just the lines of communication and being able to express to each other what we’re seeing and what we’re thinking.”
Q: Bobby, Michael Vick has been synonymous with this logo and this community for a few years now. Is it not a little naive to think that, as his case proceeds, people are going to suspend asking questions about him whether it be of you or the players?
A: “Yeah, I’m not sure about that. Like I said, I had the hour and a half press conference the other day and I would just like to stay on focus with our football team. You know, we all have different feelings for Michael. The Michael Vick I know has been here working and did a great job. Anything I asked him to do, he did. So it’s certainly something… We’re hoping everything comes out good for him.”
Q: What do you see in (Jerious Norwood)? Is he a guy that can step into that role (as starter)?
A: “First let me say that we expect Warrick to come back and come back probably better than he was feeling physically in (organized team activities). I know since they did the procedure it’s amazing the relief that he’s had and he’s really excited about it. Jerious is a guy that you look at, you watch him on video, and you say: ‘Wow, this guy has a chance to really make some big plays for us.’ He can accelerate and cut very quickly and he has a home run speed. He’s a very good receiver out of the backfield so we’re looking forward to seeing how we utilize him catching the ball out of the backfield. He just needs to continually work on his blitz pickup and protecting the quarterback not only from a scheme standpoint, but from technique wise. When you look at a guy like Warrick, who’s not the biggest man in the world, he’s done an unbelievable job protecting the quarterback throughout his career because of his technique. That’s what Jerious needs to do, to perfect his technique to be able to protect from linebackers who are bigger and stronger than you are as they’re trying to come to the quarterback.”
Q: Of all the free agents that are out there, why did you decide to sign a Japanese player out of NFL Europe (Noriaki Kinoshita) and what are your expectations of him?
A: “Well we watched his video when he was in Europe. We needed to bring a guy from that league here, which helps us prepare for the season. He was fast, caught the ball well and was also able to return punts and kickoffs. So, I think that’s the main reason – his ability to do all three of those things.”
Q: To get everybody (signed) before camp so it’s not a distraction, what are your thoughts on that?
A: “It’s great. It’s really a credit to Rich McKay, Billy Devany, Brian Xanders and Nick Polk who I believe were up the entire night last night to get both Jamaal Anderson and Justin Blalock done. It’s important to us because we’re counting on those guys playing right away, contributing right away and it’s amazing how much you miss if you miss more than one practice, two practices, three practices. This is really the time we’re installing everything and, once you get behind, it’s like math – it’s hard to catch up.”
On Alge Crumpler and Grady Jackson
“Well, it’s really exciting for me to have Alge out there. You watch everything he’s done in the past and the way he can catch the ball and move around. But yet I’ve not been able to see him in person practice. He went through more than half of practice, ran around, caught the ball. He understands what we’re doing. I think he did a tremendous job of being out there and mentally taking the reps because he knows what we’re doing right now. Grady is not there yet physically. He did go out and do some conditioning today and once our medical staff feels like he can practice and participate, hopefully as quick as we can we can get him back on the field doing that.”
Q: Anything on injuries?
A: “Nothing that came up today.”
