Indiana University Athletics
Cam Cameron Quotebook
9/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | Football
On Penn State: "Everyone on that defense is playing extremely well. Every guy. The guys who are coming in are doing the same. They have, basically, a senior oriented defense with seniors coming off the bench. Offensively, it doesn't matter which quarterback is in the game. Because Thompson, the senior and captain, is playing extremely well just as he did at the end of the game against Miami and Casey comes in and plays extremely well. He may be just a touch more athletic but Thompson can make the same kind of plays. We've got to focus on stopping their overall offense and then try to find a way to attack different parts of their defense but I don't see any weaknesses at this point."
On the possibility of not having as much pressure playing against Penn State because of playing as an underdog: "I don't know if the pressure is off. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to play well and we are embarrassed by the way we played Saturday. I think we were relatively evenly matched and to make a critical error in the kicking game that gave them a score (is unacceptable). We're looking to correct mistakes and to develop as a team. It doesn't matter, from our standpoint, whether we're playing Penn State or who we are playing. We've got to, as an Indiana football team, get better at execution on offense. We've got to approve in our alignment and aggressiveness on defense. We've got to get that done no matter who we are playing. We're putting a lot of pressure on ourselves this week to improve."
On Indiana's defensive struggles: "We played for thirty minutes, the first and fourth quarters, pretty well defensively. It was the second and third quarters that killed us. It was the same situation where we needed to make stops and we were unable to make stops. Again, for the most part, there were a couple of plays where Kentucky executes some things nicely but for the most part it was mistakes on our part. Again, I had Devin Schaffer and some of the younger players come through today. I've been around young defensive players and our guys are making the same mistakes that most young defensive players make it's just that some schools manage to sqeak out a win and that overshadows the mistakes a little bit. In our case, the young guys are making mistakes and it's costing us games. Obviously, they take it extremely hard. We're trying to make them understand - the sophomores that are playing for us on defense - that they are having some growing pains. It's just unfortunate that we have to make those mistakes and it has to get us beat every time."
On Derin Graham and the kickoff return team: "I think the most important part is the return team as a whole. I think those guys are getting better. But you have to understand that every team we play is going to put those two plays, the kickoff return last year and the return last week, on film. That's what they are going to show their teams. We're going to have kickoff coverage teams who are going to be extremely motivated against us. We're going to have to be ready for that. I think last year was the first time since 1981 that we had returned a kickoff for a touchdown and now we've had another. We want to continue to get better and better. But, the challenge really starts now. Now that we're entering league play people are going to make it much more difficult. They are going to squib kick more, they are going to pooch kick more. We're going to have to get better at all of those things."
On other players getting the opportunity to play: "There are going to be some opportunities. We're going to have some opportunities at tailback. We're going to play (true freshman) A.C. Carter some this week and we're going to get Brian Lewis back. I don't anticipate playing Brian but he'll be back. We're going to look at our freshmen wide receivers (Glenn Johnson, Jade Pruitt, and L.J. Parker). Derin Graham got hurt at the end of the Kentucky game and couldn't play. We weren't pleased with the production of our receivers late in that game so we're going to look at some of the young guys. On the offensive line Jamarkus Gorman is going to get an opportunity to play this week. We're not completely satisfied with the way things are going up front although there are a lot of good things being done. There's too many mistakes being made on the offensive line right now by veteran players. If we're going to make mistakes I'd rather make mistakes with young guys who are going to learn from them. He's going to get an opportunity. Defensively, you're going to get to see (true freshman) Joe Gonzalez, (true freshman) Michael Hanley. O.J. Spencer will probably play more. At linebacker, you're going to see Herman Fowler get an opportunity and on the defensive line you're going to get to see all of those guys play. Derek Barnett will play at least half of the game and I'll promise you that. He's going to play at least 50 percent of this game. A.C. Myler is going to play more. Sean Nelson is going to play more. Dominique Smith is going to play more. We're going to give more guys opportunities this week so you are going to see more people play."
On the defense and if they are tentative: "I think they are ready to play because they are the same guys who are running down on special teams fabulously. They're coming out ready to play but there is obviously something going on mentally where someone gives us something that we haven't seen that obviously got our linebackers out of focus for about a quarter. I don't want to attribute it all to youth. A lot of that is guys experiencing things for the first time playing a little bit tentatively. I've address it with our defense and I've addressed it with each guy individually. We have got to start turning this thing loose. Because playing the way we are playing certainly isn't the answer."
