Indiana University Athletics
Cam Cameron's Big Ten Kickoff Press Conference
7/26/2000 12:00:00 AM | Football
Cam Cameron's Big Ten Kickoff Press Conference
Chicago, Ill.-- Opening Remarks
Obviously many of you have been writing about Indiana in the
last few months, and I wasn't gong to relay this message, but
I will anyway. Coach Knight asked me to make sure that each
of you (the media) know that he says "hello" and that
all of you will be receiving a letter in the mail inviting you
to his barbeque that he will be having at his home this summer.
He and I were in Ann Arbor at Bo Schembechler's golf tournament.
Just a quick story to tell you the kind of relationship that
he and I have. He's a high school football player; the guy loves
football. He watches football every Saturday, every Sunday,
and every Monday night. He really knows quite a bit about football.
So were having a discussion about Ohio high school football.
Of course many of you know that my stepfather coached a state
championship at Massillon, Orville is right near Massillon.
So we're talking about Ohio football. We get into this discussion
about Paul Brown. I was a big fan of Paul Brown's. I read all
of his books and got an old copy of one of his play books and
studied it. I told Coach Knight how much I enjoyed Paul Brown
and I really looked forward to some point in time, when I get
to heaven, to tell Coach Brown how I really feel about him and
how I appreciate how much he did for football. And Coach Knights
right away pipes up and asks, "What if he is not in heaven?"
Then I said to him (Knight), well then, I will let you tell
him.
About Indiana Football. First, let me start with our staff. Some of you may not be aware of this, but we've got a situation going back to the last third of last season where our offensive coordinator/assistant head coach Pete Schmidt was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer. He did not coach the last few games last year, went into treatment this summer and thought we had it beat but it reoccurred. He coached through the spring actually and again thought we had it beat. It reoccurred. In the last eight weeks, he went through a stem cell bone marrow transplant. He is now ten days out from that treatment and feels extremely good. He feels as well as one can probably feel but he will not be coaching with us this fall. But, I think that the prognosis is good. Our anticipation is that he would be completely recovered by the spring of 2001 and we will get Pete back on the field. What we have done in the interim is hire an old veteran coach, Tom Harp, who will help coach our kicking game this year to take Pete's place. That is our deal on our staff.
As far as the team goes,s I think it's just what Barry (Alvarez) said, it's all about personnel. From a personnel standpoint, as you look at our roster, I think that the one thing that you will notice is changes. What we are trying to do is what everyone else is trying to do and that's to get the best 22 football players on the field. From our standpoint that is what we are trying to do, but more importantly when you are not ranked in the top 100 on defense you are going to have to make some changes on the defensive side of the ball. We moved Kris Dielman, who started for us at tight end part of the season last year, to defensive tackle. We moved A.C. Carter, both of these guys played as true freshmen last year, from tailback to corner. What we tried to do offensively is get some more athletic ability on our offensive line. We moved Craig Osika from tight end to our starting center spot. We've made some major changes. We moved A.C. Myler to offensive tackle. He was a 330-pound defensive tackle. We thought with his athletic ability he would be better suited as an offensive tackle. So, we've got a lot of changes. How the new guys will help us I do not necessarily know. In all likelihood, freshman Ryan Hammer could be our punter.
You all know about Antwaan Randle El. I am sure I have had a chance to talk to each of you about him. Most of you have been through over the summer or called and I think that we have talked enough about him. Without question we have some individual talent. But I think that everybody knows that when it comes to competing in this league, individual talent will get you to a point but then it is looking at the team that you are going to be. I think that we have come a long way with how we feel about ourselves as a team. We've had more opportunities than any team in this league to win games and we have not taken advantage of those opportunities. I would just say it is time for Indiana and Indiana Football to step up and take advantage of the opportunities that are there in front of us and we anticipate that happening.
On Tommy Jones and Antwaan Randle El playing on the field
at the same time
Tommy Jones is our back-up quarterback who is an excellent quarterback.
We had talked about that a year ago but then he broke his index
finger on his throwing hand prior to our North Carolina game
so that did not materialize. What I have done is challenge Tommy
Jones to put himself in a situation where he is one of our 11
best offensive players and I have told him that if he is one
of our 11 best then we can move Antwaan to flanker in a heartbeat.
If that is what is going to give us the best opportunity to
win­­the best opportunity to move the football­­then
that is what we will do and we will not hesitate to do that.
There is no question about Antwaan's ability. The question
is if Tommy Jones can come in in the shape that needs to come
in at, be ready, stay healthy, and play to a level that we can
win with him at quarterback. If he does that, we will ready
to play him in certain packages.
On getting over the hump and taking advantage of situations
I am like any other coach. You take a look at your program top
to bottom. You take a look at what you do well. There are some
things that we feel very good about and some things that we are
disappointed with. You do not need to go any further than the
three or four games that we lost in the fourth quarter last year.
Losing three games in the last three minutes in this league
is the difference between 4-7 and 7-4 and that is obviously huge.
But, does that mean that your entire program is not where it
needs to be? We just need to take another step. I have never
been one to look at media pressure and how that affects my life.
I look at things from a spiritual standpoint. I look at it to
see if I am doing everything that I can do to lead to this program.
Then you see what happens with the outcome of games and bowl
games and you take it from there.
On Craig Osika
First of all, we are talking about a guy that played as a true
freshman at tight end and started most of the games. I think
that from my standpoint that (Osika moving to center) is a good
indicator of what our team is like at right now. Our team wants
to win and they are willing to play wherever they need to play
to help us win football games. I think that tells you a lot
about the character of Craig Osika. He is6-4 1/2 probably, came
in as a freshman at 225 pounds. He is close to 290-295. He
is a guy that runs a 4.75-4.8 in the 40. Now you take a 295-pound
guy that can run like that and put him at center. We have not
had a center like that since we've been here. Any coach would
let you know that playing without a center is very difficult.
We feel good about how he is going to be able do. To jump in
and play at a high level it is going to take some time, but we
feel if any one can do it Craig Osika can.
On Antwaan Randle El
You are looking at a guy who can run the ball extremely well.
He is extremely bright. He gives you a lot of flexibility.
He can throw the football, physically, as well as anyone I have
ever been around at either level (college or NFL). He does not
throw it as accurately or as consistently as we would like.
Still, as well as Antwaan Randle El has played the last couple
of years, from a quarterback standpoint he is nowhere near where
he will eventually be as a quarterback. There are a lot of great
quarterbacks in this league. If you look back over the last
30 or 40 years, I think that there has been a great tradition
of quarterbacks in this league.
Looking back on his first three years
I am not a guy who looks in the rearview mirror. We all make
mistakes. I try to take an approach to get up every day and
look what I've done and try to improve on it, period. I'm not
real concerned about mistakes that were made two or three years
ago. My job is to not let guys repeat mistakes.
How does the team feel about itself
The only way you can get to the point where you feel good about
what you're doing in everything is just flat working at it.
There is no substitute for understanding what it takes day, after
day, after day, just working at the game of football. I think
that our guys are starting to see it. By far, this is the fastest
team we've ever had. We're so much faster it's scary. We're by
far the strongest we've ever been. We're not necessarily any
bigger. I don't know how big we'll ever be. But I know we're
getting faster and getting stronger and when you work hard you
start to see the benefits. You gain in self confidence. I think
we've got great character on our football team. A lot of coaches
talk about that. That's what it's all about. I enjoy being around
every guy on our team. I think if you get enough guys together
who feel good about one another, see each other working hard,
you have an opportunity to go out and win every game you play.
But as Barry (Alvarez) said, the bottom line is Saturday. That's
what we're going to find out for 11 straight weeks this year.
On the decision to move the Penn State game off campus
to the RCA Dome in Indianapolis
Indianapolis is our largest market and some of our greatest supporters
are in Indianapolis. So, from that standpoint, it's really a
way to say thank you to people in Indianapolis. They came and
recruited us to come to Indianapolis. We did not go out and look
for this game. They sent a group of people to visit with (Athletic
Director) Clarence Doninger and myself and I came away from that
meeting extremely impressed and then we started talking about
it. So, one, they wanted us to play there. Secondly, that's where
a majority of our support comes from. You have to balance that
with how it affects the local community. Having played seven
home games last year for only the second time in the history
of Indiana football, I felt this might be the year we could get
away with it. We almost got away with it. Initially, there were
some people who were unhappy but I think now they understand
that if there's 53,000 people sitting in Memorial Stadium we
won't go anywhere. We're coming to Indianapolis also to capture
more of that market to come to Bloomington. If you go around
this league, we broke the all-time attendance record again this
year. If you go around this league, every week there's a packed
stadium in which you have to compete. We're sitting here at 75
percent capacity and as a head coach that's an issue. That's
not a small issue. That's a huge issue. If you go into in Ann
Arbor and put yourself in position to be in a good ball game,
in the last half of the game you can't communicate because they're
so loud. Or if you go to Madison, Wisconsin, or anywhere in this
league...Penn State, you need to create an environment in your
stadium where your opponent has as much disadvantage as possible.
That's what we are trying to do and I think everyone understands
that now.
On players competing as freshmen
We had five true freshmen compete last year and, of those five,
I probably would have predicted three of them (earning playing
time as a true freshman). It's still a guess. There's a need,
as I mentioned, for our punter to come in and play. Ryan Hammer
just competed in the Florida-California All-Star Game. So, we'll
have to wait and see. From a personnel standpoint, we don't really
need anyone to come in and play this year. Henry Frazier, a newcomer,
is a junior college transfer who is the faster player on our
team and will, in all likelihood, play as a wide receiver. But,
for the other freshman, this is the first year since we've been
here, with the exception of punter, that we don't need a freshman
to come in and play his first year.
