There isn’t much information here (as usual), other than that Ahmari Huggins Bruce is currently not on the roster and it’s pretty obvious that Jadon Thompson will be the one first in line to get the chance to replace Caullin Lacy at the slot position.
Jeff Brohm:
Transcript (from U of L):
(Opening speech)
“We’re excited to get the season underway and I think everyone is ready for football. I know our team is ready, they’ve been training hard, they’ve been working hard and they know what’s ahead. It starts with the first game here in front of our home crowd. It’s going to be great to be back at L&N Stadium this Saturday and play football and have a great day. I know all these guys have been working for this and now it’s time to get going.”
(Total depth of the team)
“I definitely think on defense we’ve built a lot of depth on the defensive line. That’s our deepest position. We believe we have a lot of capable young men that can compete at a high level. Our guys have a ton of experience, a ton of past performance, whether it’s here or at their previous schools. We want that defensive line unit to play well and perform. The offensive line lost Lance Robinson in the first practice to a knee injury, which was a blow because he would have been the sixth or seventh man in the game. Other than that, we’ve kept most of the guys healthy and we have more depth than we did last year. We’re hoping to play anywhere from seven to nine guys in a game if we can.”
(In the running back room)
“We like our running backs. They don’t have quite the experience we had last year. We did a lot (last year). Our running backs did a really great job. Our running game was very solid for us. It helped our offense score some points and move the chains. Maurice Turner played a lot of football for us. He’s in great shape and had a great fall camp. Donald Chaney, the transfer from Miami, was injured early in camp but is healthy now. He has some strength and played a lot of football. Then we have Isaac Brown and Keyjuan Brown, two young guys we have confidence in. Keyjuan got hurt a little early in camp but he’s back and healthy. Isaac has been healthy all spring and fall. He has a certain twitch and a certain speed and quickness that is hard to coach and that we want to highlight as much as possible even though he’s a true freshman. He’s done a great job and worked hard. We feel good about all four of those young men.”
(About Austin Peay)
“Coach Faris is a new coach coming out of UCLA. He was at Duke for a while before that. You don’t really know what you’re going to see with a new offensive coordinator, a new head coach and a new defensive coordinator. We’ve studied the history and the past of the people who are supposed to be calling the offense and the defense and what they’ve done in the past. Do we know for sure if they’re going to do that? No, we don’t know. We’ve prepared well. When we compete against ourselves, we’re competing against a lot of different appearances and things, so you hope you can just adapt to what you see along the way and get the picture. But no, we don’t know exactly what we’re going to see.”
(About Tyler Shough)
“Tyler (Shough) had a great training camp. Every day he goes out there and makes plays. He has a great command of the offense and the pocket. He knows how to get the ball up front to our playmakers. We want him to play well, we want to help him play well and we want our guys around him to play well, which will help him look even better. We’re very confident going into the game that he’s battle-tested, he’s played a lot of football, he’s dealt with adversity and he’s going to do a great job.”
(In the defensive line)
“Ashton Gillotte had a great training camp. He’s tough to block, he’s a force, and we’ve got other players around him that have done a good job. We’ve also got backups that have done a really good job on the defensive line. I think you’re going to see some of those guys play. It’s important to keep guys fresh and healthy, win football games and get to the next game where you have as many guys healthy as possible. You hope you have fresh guys in the fourth quarter as well. I definitely think we should be able to do that. We’re going to have a plan to play as many games as possible, no matter who we’re playing. Ashton and our best players are going to get more playing time than others, but the other guys are going to play quite a bit.”
(On the tight ends)
“We have multiple personnel packages where we can use multiple tight ends throughout the game. Where you position them is important and there are going to be times when they split off. We have some guys that are better on the ball while others are better off the ball. We want that position to be a key part of the offense. It’s important that they all be able to do that, from receiving and catching the ball between the hashes, stretching the field and blocking. They do a great job for us. Mark Redman, Jamari Johnson, Nate Kurisky, Jaleel Skinner and Izayah Cummings have all played football to some degree and had a great fall camp. If they know exactly what they’re doing, they can perform and it’s our job to make sure we get them on the field.”
(On the excitement at the start of the season)
“I think our guys are ready to play. We had a good fall camp with some ups and downs, which is good. Some days some guys showed up and if they’re not ready to play the next day, they’re not going to have a good day. We’ve made it clear to our team that that’s how football works. Look at the three major games last week and if you’re not ready to play in college football, you’re not going to win. There were two upset wins last weekend, that’s just an example of the parody of college football. If you go on the field and don’t play your best game, you’re going to lose. That’s what happened to us last year when we were fortunate enough to win some close games. We showed the toughness and strength it takes to hang in there and get it done. On the other hand, there were games that weren’t good for us and we didn’t do the little things and got exposed. You realize it’s part of the game, so you stress to every player and every unit that they have to play their best game every time they step on the field. Whether you’ve won three games in a row or lost three games in a row, you’ve got to have the determination to get things done. The team has to stick together no matter what the score is and play to the end. I think our guys saw that after watching the games this weekend and experiencing it, so you hope they have the preparation and toughness that they need and realize that’s what they’re going to need every week.”
Brian Brohm:
Chris Bell and Ramon Puryear:
