Spring Practice Report 3/30/21 – Grant Heard, Miles Marshall & Reese Taylor

Below are partial transcriptions of Zoom press conferences with co-offensive coordinator/wide receivers Grant Heard, wide receiver Miles Marshall, and cornerback Reese Taylor on Tuesday, March 30.

Co-Offensive Coordinator/Wide Receivers Grant Heard
Q. On D.J. Matthews and Jordyn Williams…
HEARD: They have been a great addition to the room as far as fitting in personality wise. Everyone has surrounded them and taught them the ins and the outs and teaching them about my personality and how I react to things. They are out there learning and battling every day. Just like everyone else, they are out there trying to get better and trying to see how they can help this team win.

Q. On Miles Marshall…
HEARD: He has a complete understanding of what we are trying to do. I feel really good about that part. For him, we are trying to get him to play more physical and let people feel his presence out there on the field with his blocking and 50/50 balls. We are trying to get him to be a true vocal leader in that room because he has been there and played a lot of ball. He is one of the veterans of that room. That is my challenge for him. Every day is an opportunity for him to go out there and get better.

Q. On Ty Fryfogle…
HEARD: We have been able to move him around a little bit more this spring. He needs to continue to understand coverages, how people are trying to play him, and work on his weaknesses. He will get with Coach Aaron Wellman to get a little faster and more sudden. He has to keep developing with catching 50/50 balls. He had a lot of opportunities last year and he made a lot. But in my mind, I want him to make more of them. That is the challenge for him. But, being able to move around, do some different things, and be used in a little bit of a different ways with the skillset he has to offer, and allow him to use it.

WR Miles Marshall
Q. On WR D.J. Matthews…
MARSHALL: He is a great route runner. He is very elusive, very silky, very smooth in his routes. He adds a lot of explosiveness to the room.

Q. On what he has been working on and how his role can expand…
MARSHALL: I hope my role increases. That is up to me. I have to keep working hard. I have to keep getting faster. I got to work on my hands and my releases. I just have to become a better player to get the things I want to do. My goal is to end up in the NFL, so I have a couple more years to achieve that goal.

Q. On stepping into leadership role…
MARSHALL: I feel like I'm learning. I haven't been in a leadership role since I've been here, but now I'm kind of pushed into it. I'm trying to make sure all the young guys stay in the playbook and make sure they are doing all the right things. Whop was a great leader, but he just left. Now it is up to me and Ty to lead the room.

CB Reese Taylor
Q. On the secondary being a strength of the defense…
TAYLOR: This year it is more of a standard that we have to set and uphold. Every practice and any game that we play, we are going to have to set that goal and make sure that we reach it. Us returning, though, is a big part of the team. It's going to help us out a lot. Our defense is making a bigger step to gel together as a whole to play even faster, to play even better.

Q. On how the transition is going with Coach Warren's defense…
TAYLOR: It's going well. It's nothing too major for us to change. A football player has to be a football player, you have to learn to adjust in any type of way. Coach Warren is a good coach, he knows what he is doing. He's a smart guy, he puts us in the right positions, and he's focused on the little details as well. He's always going to be the one to get us riled up to make a play or get takeaways. The effort he makes us do makes us push harder. That's what makes our defense stronger and a lot more communicative.

Q. On mentoring the younger players at cornerback…
TAYLOR: Like I said, it is a standard. They look up to the older guys, so the older guys need to be a step ahead of them at all times just to make sure they are following the right way, the right path. We just have to show them the right way, we can't show them the wrong way or mislead them because that will set them back. Christopher Keys and Lem Watley-Neely, they pick up quick, they learn the defense quick. They listen to us and always make sure they are on the right track. The defense fits to them and makes them play their roles right.

Spring Practice Report 3/30/21 – Grant Heard, Miles Marshall & Reese Taylor

Players Mentioned

Ty Fryfogle

Christopher Keys

Miles Marshall

D.J. Matthews Jr.

Reese Taylor

Lem Watley-Neely

Jordyn Williams

Indiana University Athletics