Indiana University Athletics
Gerry DiNardo Comments (11-12-02)
11/12/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Bloomington, Ind. -
Opening Statement
We are starting Tommy Jones at quarterback on Saturday, and we are going to start doing a little extra work today with the guys that have not been playing. We'll predict they will play this week. I don't know if you know this, but a bowl eligible team has an unlimited number of practices. In spring, you are limited to 15 practices; you are limited to what you wear. On certain days you can be in pads, no pads, certain days you only scrimmage 50 percent of the snaps. Preseason camp is 29 days, so that is 29 a year guaranteed and 15 a year guaranteed in spring practice, but there is no limit on bowl teams. So the bowl teams are getting ready here in two or three weeks to have another whole month of practice. I know we have always used it extensively for our young guys. You get ready for the game, but it doesn't take you that long to get ready for the game. We get ready for a game now in three or four days. So, when you get ready for a bowl game, unless you are playing for a national championship, it is pretty brief. So we used to work the heck out of the young guys. We miss that so we are going to start today and hopefully get seven days in. We are going to try to do it today, Thursday, Friday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday that is seven. So those are two full changes about our operation.
Penn State, I would say their front four, I would say they will be playing on Sundays when this gig is over. They are really good, really good. I was at the Ohio State/Penn State game a year ago, and I want to say that was Zack Mills' first start. If he didn't start, (Matt) Senneca started and Mills came in and they won that game. That was the game that Joe broke the record. I think from there with Mills at quarterback, it really has been the turning point of their season and it continues to be. And then they throw Michael Robinson in there and it gives you, a whole different dimension, not to mention the offensive line with Larry Johnson and is brother Tony and all that. This team, you can put them up there with the most talented teams in the conference. Where they rank 1-2-3, we don't play Michigan or Minnesota, so I can't compare them to those two. I can't compare them to Purdue because we haven't played them yet. I would say this team is as talented as the most talented teams we have played to date without mentioning names. They have a lot of talent.
Q: What reasons do you have behind the quarterback change?
I thought Tommy played his best game last week against Michigan State. I think his attitude has been fabulous under very difficult circumstances. And for those two reasons, he deserves to start. So it is more Tommy Jones-based than it is Gibran Hamdan-based. They are both seniors. No one was the incumbent coming in; it just makes a lot of sense to me. This is the fair and right thing to do for a lot of reasons.
Q: When did you talk to Tommy about starting?
About 15 minutes ago. He said ok, I'll see you at practice. He is an emotional guy.
Q: What are your feelings about the team's effort?
One thing you will never know is the effort. I took all the coaches out of the press box at halftime and so they were on the sidelines. And one of the reasons I did that was to make sure we got the effort. So I told the coaches, go on the field and coach, and let them throw the flags, it doesn't matter. Get them lined up right and make sure they are working hard. And that is what we got. Again, every once in a while there was a lack of effort, but that is a loaf and that is human nature. Nobody went out there and dogged it during the game. So I was happy to be reinforced. I didn't think it would happen with us standing on the sidelines.
Defensively, we just got pushed around. We got swallowed at the line of scrimmage sometimes that causes linebackers problems where to fit. It distorts gaps. But much like I said right after the game, if our offense punts on the fourth down of a drive from their own 20 and we turn the ball over between the 40's, it doesn't give our defense anytime. The national average is 60 percent. They are scoring at a rate of 72 percent. That is what is going to happen and that will continue to happen if our offense continues to go our there at the 20 yard line run three plays and punt into the wind and the opponent gets the ball between the 40's. It is going to happen, Penn State's offense will do it and Purdue's is going to do it. The odds are with them. So our offense has to move the ball, can't punt. We are best when we are dinking the ball, moving the ball around, gash a little bit of a run. That is when we are at our best. Our kick game, actually we had some good things happen to us in the kick game on Saturday.
Q: How is the health of the team right now?
We are as unhealthy as we have been all year. It looks like today we are not going to have Damien (Jones), (Kyle) Killion, Herana-Daze (Jones), Bobby Brandt. I am not sure if we will have A.C. Myler. Chris Jahnke will have a huge cast on his hand, so he can't snap the ball. We are not going to have (Brandon) Hatcher. Hatcher is a shoulder, Damien is an ankle, Herana-Daze is a shoulder, Killion's an ankle. Jahnke's is a broken thumb, he got it caught between two helmets. They have this monstrosity of cast on it, so he can't possibily snap. He could snap lefty, but I don't know that we are going to do that and Hatcher is out. So we lost both of our centers. So we will probably play (Anthony ) Oakley or Enoch (DeMar) at center, we will play Jahnke at tackle because he can play, he just can't play center. And tomorrow we are going to make the cast disappear and see if he can snap the ball, if he can then he will play center, then Oakley or Enoch will be our second center. If he can't, then we will have Oakley or Enoch as our first center. Chris will play in the game, he just may not play center.
Q: Could Myler play?
Myler, well he is still a little tender from that scope. He came back nine days after the scope and probably all this activity has aggravated it.
Q: How about (John) Kerr?
He is banged up but he is going to practice. He has a hamstring that has bothered him most of the year. He is on the kickoff return team. So if he is out there on defense and they score, he has to go back out there on the kickoff return team. It is causing some problems.
Q: Have you ever coached against Paterno?
I never coached against him. The contact when I was young was he turned me down on video and told me I wasn't good enough. Broke my heart, another young Italian kid in Brooklyn trying to go play for another Brooklyn Italian. He said I was too short and too slow. He was probably right. And I just became professional friends with him, never competed against him. I got to know him through the Nike tour and coaches association and those types of things.
Q: What do you feel his legacy is?
I think his legacy will be the academic/athletic side of things. He is probably the last guy to do that, I don't know that there will be anyone else that can preach like him. Paterno did it in a day and age when it could happen, I don't know if it could happen any longer. When Joe was preaching academic and athletics it meant something, it was prior to the big business. So I think that will be his legacy, in my mind that will be his legacy, obviously other than all this wins. He was the last real academic/athletic guy.
Q: What factors do you think have contributed to John Kerr getting a lot of playing time?
It is a little bit of both. I think whenever a freshman comes in there are a couple of factors of if they play early. One of them is the depth of the position that they are coming in at. And that certainly helped John (Kerr), although the two starters from the spring were back, Deonte (Smith) and Herana-Daze (Jones). I think the other factors are conditioning, he is a well-conditioned athlete, he really takes care of himself, he watches what he eats, he is one of those guys into all that, and maturity and how important the game is to you. He kind of fits the mold of the guy who can play as a true freshman. Some guys lack the conditioning, lack the maturity. Not that he is a finished product, he certainly not, please don't portray him that way, and I shouldn't. But he has the ingredients for a freshman to play, he has those ingredients that allow a freshman to play.
Q: Have the field conditions at Memorial Stadium been an issue?
The sand was taken off the turf. I was more concerned when the sand was on there, the sand is no longer on there. It is just a little inconvience as a result of progress. We are redoing all of our practice fields, which is a huge financial investment to redo practice fields. We started over in the soccer practice field and that was working for a while, but the later we got into the fall and the darkness, we couldn't get those portable lights high enough. We were using the track practice field and it just got too wet. I was worried about our safety. And so now, Memorial is safe, it is just not a very good surface. When the sand was on there I was a little concerned about the safety and that is when I wouldn't come on it everyday. I raked it a little bit myself, cleaned it up a little bit. I don't think it is a safety issue right now. It is just a sign of progress. Where would we go? Almost every athletic department has struggled for space. We could have saved Memorial field and then we would have had those unplayable practice fields. Those practice fields were unplayable, that was a safety issue. I wasn't going on them.
I am very interested in looking at this pro turf. The only problem people have had with artificial surfaces has been that they are hard and those types of things. This new surface has appeared to solve that problem, although the product isn't old enough for us to know. But they have talked about this becoming the standardized playing surface. Illinois has it, Michigan is going to it. Illinois has it on their practice fields and on their game fields. Utah has it. I think you will see a lot of people go to them in the next 10 years.
I have never had any discussions about it. It was going to be something I asked about during the off-season and is what I am going to do now. Whose decision is it anyway? I mean we really should be doing what is best for the institution regardless of who is in my job or any other job. It comes down to deciding of whose decisions is it and what is best for the student athletes regardless of who is coaching or administering here. What is best for the student-athlete seven or eight years from now regardless of who is working here? It should be the same as any academic decision; we should make decisions based on the future of the University.
Q: You mentioned practicing the young guys a lot more, does that mean we will see a lot more of them play on Saturday?
Well, you will see the young guys you have been seeing. Just a couple of examples, we think can get a lot of work done with Julius Ware, he is a cornerback who is redshirting this year. All he has been doing is running scout team, Steve Gunter is a cornerback who has been doing the same. Matt LoVecchio has been running everyone else's offense in America except for ours. Allen Webb the same way, he has been on the scout team. Kenny Kendal, who is a defensive end. There are some upper classmen involved as well. It is all those guys who have been simulating our opponents on the scout team. They are the ones that haven't been coached for the last three months. John Kerr is someone who has been mentioned today, and some of the other freshman, they have been coached. The young freshman will go in after practice; this other group will stay out.
Q: So you are wanting to get these guys familiar, kind of get a head start?
Correct, the guys that have not been working with our terminology, with our coaches, working on our schemes. I want Troy Grosfield to kick today; I want (Jason) Cartwright to snap. I want to do all those things. It is not going to be real long, but it is going to be worth it.
Opening Statement
We are starting Tommy Jones at quarterback on Saturday, and we are going to start doing a little extra work today with the guys that have not been playing. We'll predict they will play this week. I don't know if you know this, but a bowl eligible team has an unlimited number of practices. In spring, you are limited to 15 practices; you are limited to what you wear. On certain days you can be in pads, no pads, certain days you only scrimmage 50 percent of the snaps. Preseason camp is 29 days, so that is 29 a year guaranteed and 15 a year guaranteed in spring practice, but there is no limit on bowl teams. So the bowl teams are getting ready here in two or three weeks to have another whole month of practice. I know we have always used it extensively for our young guys. You get ready for the game, but it doesn't take you that long to get ready for the game. We get ready for a game now in three or four days. So, when you get ready for a bowl game, unless you are playing for a national championship, it is pretty brief. So we used to work the heck out of the young guys. We miss that so we are going to start today and hopefully get seven days in. We are going to try to do it today, Thursday, Friday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday that is seven. So those are two full changes about our operation.
Penn State, I would say their front four, I would say they will be playing on Sundays when this gig is over. They are really good, really good. I was at the Ohio State/Penn State game a year ago, and I want to say that was Zack Mills' first start. If he didn't start, (Matt) Senneca started and Mills came in and they won that game. That was the game that Joe broke the record. I think from there with Mills at quarterback, it really has been the turning point of their season and it continues to be. And then they throw Michael Robinson in there and it gives you, a whole different dimension, not to mention the offensive line with Larry Johnson and is brother Tony and all that. This team, you can put them up there with the most talented teams in the conference. Where they rank 1-2-3, we don't play Michigan or Minnesota, so I can't compare them to those two. I can't compare them to Purdue because we haven't played them yet. I would say this team is as talented as the most talented teams we have played to date without mentioning names. They have a lot of talent.
Q: What reasons do you have behind the quarterback change?
I thought Tommy played his best game last week against Michigan State. I think his attitude has been fabulous under very difficult circumstances. And for those two reasons, he deserves to start. So it is more Tommy Jones-based than it is Gibran Hamdan-based. They are both seniors. No one was the incumbent coming in; it just makes a lot of sense to me. This is the fair and right thing to do for a lot of reasons.
Q: When did you talk to Tommy about starting?
About 15 minutes ago. He said ok, I'll see you at practice. He is an emotional guy.
Q: What are your feelings about the team's effort?
One thing you will never know is the effort. I took all the coaches out of the press box at halftime and so they were on the sidelines. And one of the reasons I did that was to make sure we got the effort. So I told the coaches, go on the field and coach, and let them throw the flags, it doesn't matter. Get them lined up right and make sure they are working hard. And that is what we got. Again, every once in a while there was a lack of effort, but that is a loaf and that is human nature. Nobody went out there and dogged it during the game. So I was happy to be reinforced. I didn't think it would happen with us standing on the sidelines.
Defensively, we just got pushed around. We got swallowed at the line of scrimmage sometimes that causes linebackers problems where to fit. It distorts gaps. But much like I said right after the game, if our offense punts on the fourth down of a drive from their own 20 and we turn the ball over between the 40's, it doesn't give our defense anytime. The national average is 60 percent. They are scoring at a rate of 72 percent. That is what is going to happen and that will continue to happen if our offense continues to go our there at the 20 yard line run three plays and punt into the wind and the opponent gets the ball between the 40's. It is going to happen, Penn State's offense will do it and Purdue's is going to do it. The odds are with them. So our offense has to move the ball, can't punt. We are best when we are dinking the ball, moving the ball around, gash a little bit of a run. That is when we are at our best. Our kick game, actually we had some good things happen to us in the kick game on Saturday.
Q: How is the health of the team right now?
We are as unhealthy as we have been all year. It looks like today we are not going to have Damien (Jones), (Kyle) Killion, Herana-Daze (Jones), Bobby Brandt. I am not sure if we will have A.C. Myler. Chris Jahnke will have a huge cast on his hand, so he can't snap the ball. We are not going to have (Brandon) Hatcher. Hatcher is a shoulder, Damien is an ankle, Herana-Daze is a shoulder, Killion's an ankle. Jahnke's is a broken thumb, he got it caught between two helmets. They have this monstrosity of cast on it, so he can't possibily snap. He could snap lefty, but I don't know that we are going to do that and Hatcher is out. So we lost both of our centers. So we will probably play (Anthony ) Oakley or Enoch (DeMar) at center, we will play Jahnke at tackle because he can play, he just can't play center. And tomorrow we are going to make the cast disappear and see if he can snap the ball, if he can then he will play center, then Oakley or Enoch will be our second center. If he can't, then we will have Oakley or Enoch as our first center. Chris will play in the game, he just may not play center.
Q: Could Myler play?
Myler, well he is still a little tender from that scope. He came back nine days after the scope and probably all this activity has aggravated it.
Q: How about (John) Kerr?
He is banged up but he is going to practice. He has a hamstring that has bothered him most of the year. He is on the kickoff return team. So if he is out there on defense and they score, he has to go back out there on the kickoff return team. It is causing some problems.
Q: Have you ever coached against Paterno?
I never coached against him. The contact when I was young was he turned me down on video and told me I wasn't good enough. Broke my heart, another young Italian kid in Brooklyn trying to go play for another Brooklyn Italian. He said I was too short and too slow. He was probably right. And I just became professional friends with him, never competed against him. I got to know him through the Nike tour and coaches association and those types of things.
Q: What do you feel his legacy is?
I think his legacy will be the academic/athletic side of things. He is probably the last guy to do that, I don't know that there will be anyone else that can preach like him. Paterno did it in a day and age when it could happen, I don't know if it could happen any longer. When Joe was preaching academic and athletics it meant something, it was prior to the big business. So I think that will be his legacy, in my mind that will be his legacy, obviously other than all this wins. He was the last real academic/athletic guy.
Q: What factors do you think have contributed to John Kerr getting a lot of playing time?
It is a little bit of both. I think whenever a freshman comes in there are a couple of factors of if they play early. One of them is the depth of the position that they are coming in at. And that certainly helped John (Kerr), although the two starters from the spring were back, Deonte (Smith) and Herana-Daze (Jones). I think the other factors are conditioning, he is a well-conditioned athlete, he really takes care of himself, he watches what he eats, he is one of those guys into all that, and maturity and how important the game is to you. He kind of fits the mold of the guy who can play as a true freshman. Some guys lack the conditioning, lack the maturity. Not that he is a finished product, he certainly not, please don't portray him that way, and I shouldn't. But he has the ingredients for a freshman to play, he has those ingredients that allow a freshman to play.
Q: Have the field conditions at Memorial Stadium been an issue?
The sand was taken off the turf. I was more concerned when the sand was on there, the sand is no longer on there. It is just a little inconvience as a result of progress. We are redoing all of our practice fields, which is a huge financial investment to redo practice fields. We started over in the soccer practice field and that was working for a while, but the later we got into the fall and the darkness, we couldn't get those portable lights high enough. We were using the track practice field and it just got too wet. I was worried about our safety. And so now, Memorial is safe, it is just not a very good surface. When the sand was on there I was a little concerned about the safety and that is when I wouldn't come on it everyday. I raked it a little bit myself, cleaned it up a little bit. I don't think it is a safety issue right now. It is just a sign of progress. Where would we go? Almost every athletic department has struggled for space. We could have saved Memorial field and then we would have had those unplayable practice fields. Those practice fields were unplayable, that was a safety issue. I wasn't going on them.
I am very interested in looking at this pro turf. The only problem people have had with artificial surfaces has been that they are hard and those types of things. This new surface has appeared to solve that problem, although the product isn't old enough for us to know. But they have talked about this becoming the standardized playing surface. Illinois has it, Michigan is going to it. Illinois has it on their practice fields and on their game fields. Utah has it. I think you will see a lot of people go to them in the next 10 years.
I have never had any discussions about it. It was going to be something I asked about during the off-season and is what I am going to do now. Whose decision is it anyway? I mean we really should be doing what is best for the institution regardless of who is in my job or any other job. It comes down to deciding of whose decisions is it and what is best for the student athletes regardless of who is coaching or administering here. What is best for the student-athlete seven or eight years from now regardless of who is working here? It should be the same as any academic decision; we should make decisions based on the future of the University.
Q: You mentioned practicing the young guys a lot more, does that mean we will see a lot more of them play on Saturday?
Well, you will see the young guys you have been seeing. Just a couple of examples, we think can get a lot of work done with Julius Ware, he is a cornerback who is redshirting this year. All he has been doing is running scout team, Steve Gunter is a cornerback who has been doing the same. Matt LoVecchio has been running everyone else's offense in America except for ours. Allen Webb the same way, he has been on the scout team. Kenny Kendal, who is a defensive end. There are some upper classmen involved as well. It is all those guys who have been simulating our opponents on the scout team. They are the ones that haven't been coached for the last three months. John Kerr is someone who has been mentioned today, and some of the other freshman, they have been coached. The young freshman will go in after practice; this other group will stay out.
Q: So you are wanting to get these guys familiar, kind of get a head start?
Correct, the guys that have not been working with our terminology, with our coaches, working on our schemes. I want Troy Grosfield to kick today; I want (Jason) Cartwright to snap. I want to do all those things. It is not going to be real long, but it is going to be worth it.
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