Indiana University Athletics
Assistant Head Coach Bill Lynch Quotes - Spring Game
4/14/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
April 14, 2007
Cream & Crimson Spring Game
Assistant Head Coach Bill Lynch Quotes
Opening Statement: "This spring almost played like a season. The first week, it was so hot, our big guys had trouble with dehydration, and by the end it was like a November game. We experienced it all in the month we were here. It was a good spring. I think that we got better as a football team in a lot of areas. The players really competed in some adverse weather conditions. The ball wasn't on the ground a lot. I thought they got after it pretty well."
On getting the top-50 guys on the team set:
"I think we really have a good feel of it now. There were guys that made really good strides this spring and I feel that they are going to be a really important part of the team. If you stop and think about it, you have a travel squad of 70, and that's what you get to prepare each week, so you've got to find that top 50, because that doesn't count your specialists and the freshmen that come in. We'll have time to evaluate more as a staff, but I think that some of the moves that we made are positive moves, for the football team and for the individuals that did it. All and all, we were real happy today."
On the team's play this afternoon:
"We've got some guys that can make the plays and they made them. I think that both quarterbacks handled the weather conditions well. We went the whole game in those conditions, played three different centers and didn't have a bad snap. I thought that was a credit to staying focused and getting the job done. I think that the kids had fun with it."
On Nick Polk playing on both sides of the ball:
"He's a very, very good football player, and that's why we made the move. He gives us something defensively. I think one of the things that both Mike Yeager and Billy Lynch agree on is how intelligent Nick is. He has great awareness of the game of football, so he picks up things easily."
On trick plays being incorporated more into the offense in the fall:
"I hope so, if they work. Really, some of it is that in the spring game, you really limit the package of what you do. I think we only carried two run plays. We really didn't have a goal line package in, but that's part of when you let every single guy play, you've got to keep it pretty basic. It was just one of those days when it seemed like every trick play we tried worked. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. I think it's no more than putting the ball in the hands of some guys that can play."
On adding depth with the emergence of Terrance Turner this season:
"That's all part of being able to move Nick (Polk) over. The other guy that had a really good spring was Brandon Walker-Roby. He sprained an ankle last weekend and didn't play today, but he's another one that had a really good spring. Andrew Means had a good spring as well. I felt like we had good depth, and with Turner coming on, it certainly made it easier."
On the progress of the offensive line:
"We are so much ahead of where we were at this time last year. Walking off at the end of spring last year, we knew that was going to be a concern, and we knew that we were going to count on a lot of freshmen. We're walking off the field now with depth at just about every spot along the line. Those seven guys that we brought in two years ago that Hep was so excited about - they are all really good players. Usually in recruiting, you hit on some and you don't hit on some, but we hit on all of them. The seniors have been really good seniors. There are student-athletes playing now that at the start of last spring weren't even on our campus, so the depth that we've developed there is really helpful."
