University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Training Camp Transcript: Day 11
8/17/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 17, 2010
PITTSBURGH -
Opening Statement:
"I thought today was our first practice that was just okay. I think the players let the `middle-of-second week' training camp mentality creep in a little bit. We weren't as sharp as what we had been, we didn't have as much energy as we have had and we need to get better. I thought today was just a very average practice.
"We have the scrimmage tomorrow, so we'll practice tomorrow as well. It'll be important. We have a lot of guys that are still looking for a way to win a spot whether it's a starting position, a back up or just part of the travel squad. Tomorrow is an important day, and it's going to be important that we bounce back and have a good practice."
On Wednesday's scrimmage:
"I think it's going to be very similar to what we did on Saturday. We are going to have a full Big East crew here tomorrow. They're going to come in tomorrow morning. We'll have a meeting with the officials and staff and we'll talk about rule changes and points of emphasis for this upcoming season. We'll have the officials in some meetings with players describing what, and how they see certain penalties so that we're real clear. They'll obviously officiate the scrimmage tomorrow, and we'll make it a very beneficial day for our football team."
On Saturday's practice:
"Saturday is going to be a little different. You have to start from when we kick off and go backwards, from the standpoint of scheduling. Being that we play on a Thursday, not a Saturday this year, there's a couple day adjustment period. Last year, we wrapped things up with a big scrimmage on Saturday. There's going to be a little more of that tomorrow.
"We will have live work on Saturday. It'll be a combination of controlled contact, scrimmage and practice as compared to just total scrimmage."
On Greg Romeus:
"He had a really good practice today. He practiced yesterday and came out today. He was okay. We just have to keep working him and keep letting him make progress day-by-day. I'm not concerned about it."
On emphasizing turnovers:
"The defense has come up with a little turnover system. You've seen those defensive players doing extra pursuit drills in the morning when they don't make their quota from the day before. We have a big board in our defensive room this year that is updated every day, so there is more of an emphasis on turnovers, and I think players have responded to it."
On the focus of tomorrow's scrimmage:
"I think consistency, offensively, is a point of interest. The offensive line, we're still working through some things there. In the secondary, we're still trying to figure out who's definitely corner number three, corner number four, safety number three and so on. We've had a few of the starters out with Andrew Taglianetti and Dom DeCicco being out earlier.
"We're doing some evaluating at two or three positions still. Some of the guys that are locked-in starters, we're looking for a solid performance out of them. We're looking to stay healthy and build some depth.
"I anticipate everyone working tomorrow, with the exception of Ray Graham. We have gotten healthier this past week. It's been good for the guys who got banged up."
On Andrew Devlin:
"He's okay. He just had a little bit of fluid in his knee and got it drained. He was somewhat limited today."