Indiana University Athletics
Cam Cameron: Media Day 2000
8/15/2000 12:00:00 AM | Football
Head Coach Cam Cameron addresses the media at Football Media Day 2000.
Well first thanks to all of you for coming. You can feel the excitement from our guys, we are ready to play. But before we get into the media things for today let me give you an update on Pete Schmidt. Pete has been admitted to the Bloomington Hospital. I just came from down there. His spirits are up he is optimistic because they are going to start a third round of chemotherapy and the doctor's down there and his entire staff are doing everything they can to work with Pete. As we all know Pete has been battling this since the end of last season. We felt good at the end of spring paractice, Pete had an opportunity to coach the entire spring. He had a reoccurance after spring practice and he went through a second round of chemotherapy and it was probably six or seven weeks ago when we really realized there was no way that we was going to be able to coach the way he would have liked to coach this fall. So I would just ask that you all keep Pete and his family in your prayers. He is at Bloomington Hospital and we can keep you updated on him if you need and you can get that through myself or with Todd. He went into the hospital on Saturday night. The other night I actually heard that he will be released here in the next couple of days, we are just taking it a day-to-day at this point.
"We've talked to this team about really doing three things, going back to the spring. We wanted to get stronger. We've done that. And, obviously, when you get stronger, you get faster. We've addressed our speed issue through strength and conditioning, and also through recruiting. Having Henry Frazier coming in at midyear, for example, is a case of our elevating our speed. And we've talked to them about the mental toughness part, and that starts when we leave for Marshall tonight.
"I'm really pleased with the effort our guys have given this entire summer. I thought we got off to a nice start this morning with our conditioning runs. Now we go to Marshall and, when we get back, we'll have two weeks to get ready for North Carolina State. And then we've got 11 straight weeks. I think we're one of two teams in the league (which don't have a bye week).
On having a longer stay at Marshall:
"A little bit of it is just the way the calendar has fallen. We were opening up a week later, and so the camp was available right away. In the past, we couldn't go up any sooner, because they were having other camps there. So part of it was just scheduling, but I also wanted to go up there and stay a little longer, anyway. We've been going five, six or seven days before, and now we'll be there for 10 or 11. I think it's been real good for us. It's a fabulous facility. You have more practice fields. The housing is better than we would have here. The food is pretty good, too, if you would ask the players. We get their undivided attention. I think you need that, especially with the number
of new people. I think we have 35 new players coming into the program, and to get their undivided attention really gives them the opportunity to get off to a good start. As you know, with school starting in the next week and a half, there can be some distractions around here.
On his reaction to several football players from schools around the country passing away during training camp this fall:
"It's a concern for every football coach in America. Your No. 1 concern is safety. We talk about it every single day. You owe it to every football player to put them in as safe an environment as we can have."
On confidence:
"I don't think there is any short cut, no magic wand, to give a guy confidence. It's a matter of us, as a team, collectively, working as hard as we can possibly work and then bringing the team together. And then putting enough pressure on these guys so that they understand there is an expectation to make plays in critical situations. That's the difference between us being 8-3 and 4-7 last year. We all know you can go back to four games and it's four plays. If we make four plays differently, we're all sitting here in a completely different situation. If we just make two or three plays, we maybe go to a bowl.
And that, to my mind, is a mental-toughness aspect, and I think our guys are starting to understand that. You go back to those fourth quarters a year ago and it wasn't physical mistakes which hurt us so much as mental mistakes. You can call is a lack of confidence, a lack of mental toughness or whatever you want. We've got to develop a toughness to where we THRIVE in those (crucial) situations.
On Antwaan Randle El:
"Any team would tell you their quarterback is critical to their success, and we're no different. In our offense, where we ask our quarterback to do even more than most offenses, then he really becomes the key guy. The one thing that we've talked about was him giving us some flexibility to play some other places. That's not really related to him so much as Tommy Jones and Gibran Hamdan. But he gives you some flexibility. If these other quarterbacks come along, you could see him doing some other things. But if the other quarterbacks don't come along, his role will be the same that it's been, which is obviously very important.
On how much time Antwaan may see at another position:
"We'll find out, starting tomorrow morning. Antwaan could help us at about five different positions, but you're not going to move him out from underneath center unless there is another quarterback we feel we can win with. We'll find out in the next 20 days just how far Hamdan and Jones have come along. I believe that if a guy is good enough to play, he should play. The days of asking guys to just sit around and wait their turn look like they're about over, if you look around the country. And it could be an advantage for us, to get as many people involved as we can. If our young tight ends don't come along, you could very well see a Gibran Hamdan playing some tight end. We just have to get our best players on the field, and not just expect our second and third team quarterbacks to sit around until the starter graduates.
On the diversification of the offense:
"I think we're going to become more diversified, but most good offenses have a talented quarterback and we don't get these guys for 10 or 15 years. We don't sign them to a long-term contract. We get them for four years - to play. And you want to utilize the guy as much as you can, over that four-year period, if the the guy is a talent. But, yeah, Levron Williams is going to be able to help more. Our fullbacks are going to help diversify the offense. I think you'll see, with our receivers, we'll be able to spread the ball around more.
On Antwaan Rande El and his improvement:
"He does the big things so well. He throws the ball up the field so well. He makes all those exciting plays. One thing I've really talked about is just doing the little things. You go back and look at our tapes, and he'll throw for 350 yards and he'll just miss on about 150 more just on `gimme' completions. If there is a 12-yard curl which is open, let's just hit it and move on. He makes a lot of great decisions, and always has, because he's extremely bright. But sometimes when he takes off scrambling, there was an easy completion right there in front of him and he just has to take it.
On Randle El's leadership abilities:
Today, I saw something I thought was interesting. We're running our mile-and-a-half. Patrick Thompson, who is a freshman quarterback, was running it pretty well but then started to fall back. It was at the far end of the track. Antwaan, who was to run in the next heat, and I don't know if anybody else even noticed it, just kind of snuck down to the end of the track and encouraged Patrick all the way around. He's just so unselfish. He really is one of those outstanding individual players who truly cares more about others than himself. It's not a put-on. And if you meet his mom and dad, if become real clear why he's the way he is. You love to have guys like that in your program.
On the improvement of the defense:
"I was very pleased with what I saw this spring. I've been pleased with the attitude of our defense throughout the summer. They're responding to not only James, but also to Dick Flynn and Ron Burton and our entire defensive staff. I'm very happy with the response of our players, and he's the man leading that group. Our goal is simple on defense, and that's to be the most improved defense in the country. If we'll do that, that's going to take us a long way.
On the simplification of the defensive scheme:
"In some ways, it's more complex, because it's got some flexibility. But the key in coaching is to take something that really is complex and be able to make it simple enough to teach. And that's the thing I liked about (Bell) as he talked to me, during the interview process about his defense. From an offensive perspective, his defense looks complex, but when you listen to how he teaches it, he has a way of simplifying it, and, to me, that's what is important.
On the difficulty of the schedule:
"Every team in the league is going to go through the same thing. Wisconsin was, I believe, the only team in the league to go without a bye, and all they did was win (seven) in a row. As it relates to the championship, which is what everybody is shooting for, that's really all you need to know. Obviously, it can be done. Our focus, obviously, becomes North Carolina State. And then a lot of things are going to happen by the time you get into the Big Ten schedule. We'll see if all those teams are still as highly ranked, but they're going to be good, I know that. Every team in our league has to go through, basically, the same sort of schedule.
On the depth of the 2000 football team:
"Aside from the offensive line, we have more depth at every position than we've had, so that's an improvement. Offensive line and punter would be the only two areas we probably don't have the depth we have had. Other than that, it's better. Our skill positions, we've got some depth. Our defense, we've got some depth. And we've just got two or three guys on either side of the ball who are in their last seasons of eligibility. So we're getting our numbers up, and are building some depth.
On the offensive line:
"The first guy is Osika, because it all starts with your center. There is no question he'll have the talent and ability to become an All-Big Ten center. Now, how much time that will take, we'll find out. Enoch DeMar and Jamarkus Gorman returns. We have to get both those guys 100 percent healthy, but they're both pretty close to that now. The key becomes the two tackles. And that's A.C. Myler at left tackle. We'll see how he comes along. And we'll see if Brett Taylor or somebody can solidify the right tackle spot. Taylor would start out as the right tackle. I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of these young guys don't fit in there. Chris Jahnke has really impressed us. Clay Stuart has impressed us. Jason Fryar came in at 6-foot-8 and 310 pounds and ran a 7.21 mile. That's pretty good. And, of course, he was the heavyweight wrestling champion in Indiana last spring. We didn't anticipate him playing that early, but he may wind up in the two-deep. You never know. The other two guys who could really help us would be Sione Ohuafi and Anthony Oakley. Those two guys are physical. They're tough. They're both redshirt-freshmen and if they can come right in and help us, that would be a big plus.
On the team's attitude:
"Our attitude is fabulous, but they haven't really been tested. We'll see about the attitude over the next seven or eight days. But I think some real indicators are: "Most players spend some time in summer school, because we try to keep our players on a four-year track (to graduate), and we wound up, as a team, with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 this summer. That tells you a little bit about their attitude, and what we're trying to get done. The mile-and-a-half times and mile times were pretty good, too. Those were indicators. But football - you have to be able to put on a uniform and be able to hit. That's when you find out. There are a lot of guys who can run around out there in shorts and a helmet. But when we put opn the pads (full pads, next Monday), that's when we'll find out how good our attitude really is.
On the overall state of the team:
"Everything we're doing, we're moving in the right direction, whether it be attitude, speed, strength. All those are positives at this point.
On Levron Williams:
"It's been fun to watch him develop, in stages. He started out as a split end, then as a tailback who was primarily an outside runner, and now he's got to be able to develop the ability to run inside. He weighed in at 220 pounds, as opposed to the 190 when he came here, and I think you're going to see a guy who's going to just become more and more physical. "A guy like that gives you some flexibility. You don't have to substitute as much. You don't have to run receivers out there when you want to throw. You can move him around on the field. No question we'll use him and Brian Lewis, both (in the passing game).
On Pete Schmidt and his battle with cancer:
"Pete has certain wishes. I'll be in contact every three or four hours, which is what we've done. We'll get through it. It's something none of us want to go through, but we love Pete. We'll have VCR in his room and he can watch tape, and get in contact with me. He can just work based upon how well he feels.
On the defensive talent:
"I think we've improved. You don't really replace a guy like Adewale Ogunleye, an All-American who unfortunately we had to play without the second half of the season. But on the defensive line, we're the best we've been. At linebackers, we have the most talent we've had. When you line up Devin Schaffer, Justin Smith and Joslin Goodman, that gives you three pretty good linebackers to start with. Then you've got Herman Fowler, and Scott Genord, and maybe two or three of these young guys fitting in there. "In the secondary, I think you'll see Bethel and Gonzalez a lot. I think you'll see Johnny Anderson play extremely well. So we feel like we've got three good safeties. At corner, we'll see how that plays out. You've got Sharrod Wallace and O.J. Spencer returning. We've moved A.C. Carter over there. Duane Stone is a guy you haven't seen who brings a lot of speed and quickness and can potentially be a good player. So we're better than we've been. Now we have to go out and play better than we've played.
On the newcomers contributing:
"Ryan Hamre and Greg Blazak could possibly help us, obviously. I would think that Aaron Halterman, if he can stay healthy, is a guy who without question is going to help us at tight end. He's REALLY impressive. He's 6-foot-4 or 5, 255 pounds, and I would imagine he'll be the fastest tight end we've had, and he can catch. We know he's tough. Sounds like a pretty good tight end to me. Again, we have to test him a bit. I like the interior linemen, again. Rashon Myles is a big, physical tailback. He has the body to play early. It's just a matter of seeing how he comes along. He weighs about 225. I would think he has a chance to help us. Another Texan, Brandonn Baker, has really been impressive at linebacker. It's not going to take you long to figure out he might be a player, just looking at him. I would think Brandonn Baker and Steve Williams would have a real opportunity to help us. We've been impressed with the two young receivers - Travis Haney and David Lewis. Dan Phillips has kind of banged up his knee, but he's been impressive. We've been impressed with all these freshmen, really. If you want to get excited, you should have watched the freshmen as we put them through drills Monday morning. When you watch that many guys do as many athletic things as we saw, that was exciting. This is an OUTSTANDING freshman class. That I know. Whether any of them play this year or not. The good news is that we don't NEED that many of them to play. But this group, without question, is an outstanding recruiting class.
On preparation for North Carolina State:
"It's probably a little more difficult than it would have been if you have a bunch of tape to look at. But you look at Brigham Young tape, which is where their offensive coordinator, Norm Chow, is from. You're looking at Florida State (where Amato was assistant head coach). You're looking at North Carolina State personnel, Florida State scheme on defense and BYU scheme on offense. "We didn't wait till this week to figure that out. We've been going on that pretty well for a while.
"We won't get that (Arkansas State) tape. We'll just have to go over the preliminary gameplan, then adjust in the first and second quarter as we see what they're doing. "And, from our standpoint, we're going to be an attacking, explosive offense. We're going to do everything we can to dictate to the defense. We're not going to let a defense come in here and dictate to us. That's our philosophy. We'd like to think they're going to have to adjust to us a little bit. And, from our defensive perspective, it's the same way. We're not just going to sit back and just wait see what they're going to do. We're going to make sure they're going to have to adjust to us a little bit, too.
On recruiting the state of Indiana:
"It's encouraging. It really is. We made that an emphasis when we first came here. The numbers aren't necessarily there to base a really high percentage of your recruiting class on kids from Indiana. There just aren't enough Division I players in this state. But there are a few. And if you have an Aaron Halterman, you do your best to make sure he finds his way to Indiana. And you've got kids like Jason Fryar, who basically no one knew about. We were the only school to offer him a scholarship, early. And then he wins the state heavyweight wrestling championship, and everybody's saying, `Who is that guy?'
"You can name a lot of players from the state who are really going to help us, and who are key players for us. We recruit every Division I player in the state. That's our first priority. But you're not going to find 20 or 25 of those per year. We're not like an Ohio State, or a Texas, where you look at their roster and 95 percent of it is from their home state. We're just not in that position. But, yeah, we want every kid from this state we think can help us win a championship to come here.
On David Lewis:
"We had him in camp, here, the same year as we had Marquise Walker, the kid who is at Michigan. And I think that opened David's eyes up and by the next summer, his sophomore year, he had made a huge leap as a football player. He'd always been a track and basketball guy. But working out with Marquise really opened his eyes to what he could become as a football player. "He's gotten bigger and stronger, and he can really run. We're really excited about what we've seen from him so far. I mean REALLY excited. This guy, I think, is going to be really good. "That's not going to happen overnight, though. Don't go back to Terre Haute and tell everybody he's going to start this year. We do have three senior receivers on the squad. But he has the ability you're looking for.
On Justin Smith:
"You're talking about a guy who played corner in high school, came here and moved to safety and started at strong safety for us, and then we move him into linebacker. He's gotten up to 220 or so pounds. He's played well for us, but I don't think we've ever really given him a chance to get comfortable and, last year, he played with a broken wrist the entire year. So I think this year, if we can keep him healthy, you're going to see him step up to another level. "He's going to be comfortable. We're not going to move him again. He's got two years to play, and a year behind him (at linebacker). He's a guy who has high expectations of himself as a player. He's Academic All-Big Ten, and his goal is to be Academic All-American and would like to be a Rhodes Scholar. He can spread himself a little thin at times, but there is no question he has the talent to be an All-Big Ten football player.
On Dan Phillips:
"He's going to be out seven to 10 days. He's got a bone contusion. He just hit his knee in drill, and had some swelling in it, so we put him on crutches for a couple of days and will just see how it responds day-to-day. One thing about him, though, is he's tough. I would be surprised if he's not back out there pretty quick. "He's going to be one heck of a football player, I can tell you that. I think everybody who saw the (Indiana North-South) All-Star game this summer would agree with that. He was the MVP of that game on defense. He will be a heck of a football player. "I don't know about this year - whenever I say that sort of thing, I'm talking about over there career. But he's a 6-5, 255 pound linebacker who is tougher than tough.
On the schedule at Marshall:
"We're in what we call half-pads, what we call it with a helmet and shoulder pads, for three days and then we'll go full pads on Monday.
On the new defensive scheme:
"It's a completely different front package, and a completely different secondary package. As I've said several times, I think it gives us some flexibility. Defenses today have to be more flexible than they've ever had to be in college football. One week, you're facing an option quarterback, and the next week you're facing a quarterback in the shotgun throwing it every single down, and the next week you're facing a quarterback who's going to be handing the ball off to a 240-pound tailback, like a Ron Dayne. "I like the idea we can be anywhere from a six-man front to a nine-man front, depending upon what the other team features - whether they're a running team or a passing team or somewhere in-between. So I like our package. It gives you flexibility from a scheme standpoint, and in terms of personnel. If you've got someone who does one thing extremely well, the system allows you to ask that player to do that. If you have a great pass rusher or great blitzer, you have the ability to utilize that. And that's going to be important to us, as opposed to some places where you can just recruit across-the-board. We're going to get a guy here or a guy that, and be able to highlight what those guys do best. James has been able to do that everyplace he's been, and that's what I liked about it when I talked to him.
On the state of the program:
"The way I look at is that we're four or five plays away from where we want to be. If we can go out and play as well as we're capable of playing, then we're going to be able to do the things and achieve the goals that we've set. "Last year, we had a goal to go to a bowl game. If you finish in the top seven of our league, you're going to a bowl game, whether it be the Rose Bowl or a BCS bowl or someplace else. We came up two or three plays short of that. We were four or five plays away from having just a fabulous year. So we're not that far away from where we want to be.
"We've got to get into the upper half of this league, first. Once you do that, then you can start to see the championship. And that is the ultimate goal - for us to win the Big Ten championship. If that becomes pressure for me, then I'm excited to have it. I want to have the pressure, as the football coach at Indiana, to win the Big Ten championship. "We didn't come here, as a staff, to have a program to just win six games and go to a bowl. We're trying to improve every year, to get us closer to winning a Big Ten championship. And I expect to have pressure put on me until we win the Big Ten championship.
Thursday, August 13
Thursday, August 13
Tuesday, August 11
Tuesday, August 11