Q: Can you give us the gist of what appeared to be an emotional message to the team?
A: It really wasn't emotional. It was just a series of things that I had made notes on about tempo and how we practice. I gave them credit on how they only had one or two piles, and practicing pretty well together. It's got to be even better. We talked about the guys who made errors. If you're young and you start making mistakes, it builds up. The more complicated it gets, the more difficult it is to play you and get you in there. Those were a lot of the basics. We talked a lot about turnovers. We talked about how the defense can inspire the offense and help the offense while the defense makes a priority to force the offense to get the ball high and tight. We showed a tape last night in which we talked about how to carry the ball. We didn't show it from an advantageous position, we showed them carrying the ball from the worst of positions. We asked them: is this what we teach? It's not easy and it's not comfortable, you have to make yourself do it. When you do get it, it's very difficult to get the ball out.
Q: Talking about tempo, it seemed a little faster this morning in-between plays:
A: I'd like it to be better. A little bit quicker in and out and a little bit quicker switching drills. We had one young guy who missed a substitution, and that won't work very long.
Q: You'd like to get more plays in?
A: Not necessarily. I like the energy level up. It's 70 degrees. It's been 95 degrees all summer and everybody here has sweated their tails off going to work and doing what you're doing. It's nice here and I'd like to see it. We don't have any pads on so it's a good time for us to show some enthusiasm.
Q: Talk about Rhett Bomar's day and how he did:
A: He did a pretty good job today. He had some nice balls. It's always kind of been with Rhett one step forward and maybe a step and a half back so this is a nice start for him. I think there's a lot of guys out there, young guys, and I talked to three or four of them out there. It's not enough to have a good practice, you have to have a camp. You have to be able to put them back to back. If you put them back to back, then we can put together some thoughts of how we can use you. Another guy who is in that category would be Ramses (Barden). If Ramses could put together a really good camp and do something every time he is on the field, that's going to help our football team.
Q: How important was it for Jason Pierre-Paul to be here, especially without a lot of prior experience?
A: Critical, critical. I was very confident all along. Our guys do a great job of getting our draft choices in camp: ownership, Jerry Reese, and Kevin Abrams did a great job getting him in. I was very confident we would get him in. If a guy like that doesn't get in and he gets behind, then you all know the story of the South Florida experience where he was late and the coaches wisely decided there wasn't any sense in teaching him everything. So they just taught him what he needed to know to play. They did. In this case, he gets a chance to make a nice, early start. I was over watching the individual drill this morning and they were going over technique as far as movement with motion and adjusting the technical aspect of alignment, and he did a good job.
Q: Do you think people would tend to forget he only has five years experience?
A: I don't know about forget, but I think it's a good thing. It's a good thing. When you watch him, he was on our punt return team. You talk about a guy, his arms are all the way to the road over there. When he gets his arms up and locks onto somebody, he does a good job of that. He does a good job of a lot of those athletic things. The kid weighs almost 280.
Q: Throughout the spring and here, have you seen the defense feeding off of Perry's energy?
A: Oh, I think they are much aware of it. It is inspirational and they do know what's coming. I think it's a good thing. I've always been in favor of that over anything else. I don't care, even if you're wrong, if you're yelling and screaming, it creates something for you. They respond to it, they've been, and they do a nice of job it.
Q: What about Corey Webster…any strides from last year?
A: Webster is a good football player. You see the type of play he made this morning and what he is capable of doing. Again, it's the idea of staying away from the nicks and staying on the field. Wouldn't it be great to see Corey for 16 games? It'd be something.
Q: Coming off his foot/ankle issues, what do you want to see out of Ahmad (Bradshaw) and what have you seen so far?
A: Well, we have to see over time. He made some nice cuts and nice runs this morning. He caught the ball in the individual drill. I'd like to see first he have confidence in himself, what he can and can't do. I want to see him extend that and fight his way through some of the tough days and continue out here with his teammates without having to take a step back. If you thought you could utilize Ahmad to the full extent, he's a guy who has run kickoffs back and has run punts back. He obviously is an outstanding runner in his own right and used in with a combination with Brandon and some of the other guys that we've got. You see how Danny (Ware) looks just to keep some of those guys on the field. I think that with Ahmad it's just practice, practice, and stay out there and prove to everyone, himself included.
Q: What kept Shaun O' Hara out today?
A: His ankle.
Q: That happened yesterday?
A: I think it happened in the summer a little bit. After practice yesterday, it swelled up on him.
Q: And Nicks?
A: He has a toe, that's a precaution. He's going once.
Q: How important are these first few days of practice in terms of fundamentals and establishing tempo?
A: It's very important, very important. You're not going to be able to go back. You teach fundamentals the first day and the 250th day but you have to get it right, right away. You have to get it ingrained and that's how we started camp. That's why we started yesterday.
Q: How do you think Adrian Tracy has looked so far?
A: Young kid who is learning all the time. He has talent, he has an opportunity to show it here.
Q: When you look at the running game from last year, is there anything you can pinpoint?
A: It's any number of things, but I'm not going to go there. We started alright and we had the numbers for a while, but we just didn't maintain. We're pretty much aware of that.
Q: What do you want to see worked on in camp with the running game specifically?
A: I just want to see us run the ball and be productive with the run. Be able to stay with it and play good defense. Stop the run so we can stay with it and stay balanced. I don't like the situation we were in last year on occasion where there was no way to stay balanced. We can't win under those circumstances.
Q: When you look at Tim Brown as the gunner, what do you think?
A: I'm hoping whatever role we can place him in, whether it's a gunner or maybe eventually a punt returner, whatever role he can fit for us will help him. So, you have a really, really fast kid who has toughness and it's another chance for him to show his ability to be on the field, that's all.
Q: Is Bradshaw going just once a day?
A: Right now he's two.
Q: It looked like Osi wasn't doing a lot out there:
A: Osi is one a day, he'll be out there this afternoon.
Q: All the one-a-day guys will be this afternoon?
A: Bulluck, Boss, Osi, Nicks. O'Hara would be but he's probably not going to go at all.
Q: How are you melding the old defense and the new defense?
A: Melding? It's the New York Giants defense. It's what we pretty much have always believed in, our core defense. It has the added strategy, if you will, or the way situationally we will play based on Perry. So it's just going to be integrated. We tried to keep much of the terminology the same but you couldn't tell that if you took the two books and put them side-by-side. There is a lot of different terminology. As much as we can, we held onto our old terminology. I always put the coordinator in the position where in split second game-time stuff he's not struggling for language stuff. The players learn it and they'll be fine with it. We have a standardized way to view our defensive teams as far as our down and distance situations, the pressure packages and how we play and what we play. We use that as a guideline, and we will have Perry's talent and ability to add to that.
Q: Were you surprised to talk to your team about tempo?
A: No. No. I had one guy over here who thought it was good. He probably went inside and thought it was good. I think it could be better. If you have to talk about it, talk about it now. I'm not surprised about that at all.
