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  • Mark Stoops Press Conference

    Opening Statement:

    “It’s been a really solid off-season for us. To this point, I am really impressed with the work that our strength and conditioning guys have done in the weight room. Guys look bigger, stronger and they’ve worked hard. Guys have been moving around, they were in great shape today. For the first spring practice, they look efficient. I liked the way we practiced and moved around, we looked much more efficient than we were a year ago, which is a good sign. Overall, I feel good. We have a lot of work to do. There are quite a few players that we have to replace, but I feel good about what we have on campus and the talent we have here, and their work ethic and their attitude. So I’m very encouraged, we know there is an awful lot of work to do. It’s good that we have a lot of time, 14 more spring practices and look to improve each and every day. We’ll get back at it (Tuesday), quick turnaround here, this is the only time we go back-to-back all spring, so we go right back at it tomorrow. We’ll get two more practices in before spring break, then we’ll have spring break off, and come back and finish up every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, so we’ll have a solid month when we get back. We’ll have a lot of time to be efficient at what we’re doing.”

    On whether a depth chart is prepared or not in the secondary…

    “We do, it’s not worth discussing or telling you who starts. It doesn’t matter, you know there’s going to be a lot of work to do between now and then. They [the players] have a lot of work to do, so there are some guys who have had some experience. With Jordan [Griffin] and Davonte [Robinson], those guys played some quality snaps. Aside from that, in particular at corner, there is a lot of work to do, a lot of inexperience. Same with Tyrell [Ajian], he ended up playing a lot for us last year. I feel good about Yusuf [Corker], and you got (freshman) Mo Douglass in here at midterm, which is good. The corners, they’re the ones that have a lot of inexperience. Cedrick Dort played a little bit as a freshman and ended up getting injured last year. We ended up redshirting him, so he obviously has some experience.”

    On the learning curve for newcomers …

    “There’s going to be a learning curve. We have a lot of ground to make up. You can’t replace that experience in playing. There’s no replacing game reps, however, we have to do the best we can at putting a lot of pressure on them during this spring. I will say, the nice thing for these players and our team, as I mentioned in one of my earlier press conferences, I notice our team, the habits are better. We’re cleaner, they saw what it looked like to have success and I’m encouraged by that.”

    On Jordan Griffin’s position…

    “He’s playing safety, but he can move around a little bit. He’s played just safety, but he always could play nickel as well.”

    On the possibility of letting down after the success of last season…

    “I think it’s pretty easy for us to want more. We lose so many defensive players and offensively we know we want to improve. I think defensively, the hunger is there because these players have a lot to prove. Many of them haven’t done much to this point. They’ve contributed, but not to the point that we’re going to count on them this year. That should be easy for us. It really doesn’t enter my mind, complacency, because we have so much to do. Hopefully, it won’t seep into them and believe me, I’ll continue to pound it through their head, and we’ll be very hard on them, so they won’t get complacent. They have a lot to prove. Offensively, we’re just looking to execute better, we’re looking to throw the ball better. We’re looking for new playmakers to emerge. Weneed that. I am encouraged by what I have seen so far. Defensively, like I said, there’s a lot of guys with a lot to prove.”

    On personnel who are emerging as leaders…

    “I’m hesitant to talk about that yet. We’ll see how we go through spring. I don’t want to empower somebody that hasn’t earned it at this point. There are some guys that are working through that.”

    On Benny Snell setting the tone for the offensive for the past couple years and how it changes moving forward …

    “It comes authentically by guys working and players respecting what’s going on and what’s happening. You’re seeing that with the (quarterback) position, with Terry (Wilson), taking over having a full year under his belt, he’s working extremely hard this off-season. He looks much more efficient already and that’s encouraging. “

    On the coaching changes on the defensive staff and how that affects the defensive scheme …

    “That’s one of the reasons why you look at promoting from within because you want to continue to build on the good things we’ve done, keep that consistency with our staff, with our defensive staff and defensive players. It was a relatively easy transition, because our players have so much respect for Brad (White) and what he’s done and the way he can coach and how detailed he is. It’s a lot of fun. It’s just like when Coach (Matt) House took over, he and I sifting through everything, recalibrating and resetting things. It’s the same way now. That doesn’t mean drastic change with Brad taking over, him putting in the way he sees things and packaging it and the way he teaches it. So, we have a lot of confidence in that and what we’re doing and a lot of confidence in him. It’s been an easy transition to this point. “

    On what is the hardest thing about transitioning for a position coach to coordinator …

    “It’s just making sure everything starts from the inside out. If you’re a great coach, you’re going to work extremely hard to make sure your unit performs. You don’t let down people within the defense or within the team, so you’re working extremely hard to develop your unit. Also, schematically helping, having a big picture mind as I’ve mentioned many times, he has that and he’s done that and has helped this past year with scheme. For me, just because he hasn’t done it, we know what we want to do, and we have a lot of confidence in him and I’m there. It’s not anything we do that I’m not tuned into, for the past two years, with building the defense. I like it when we have coaches where I can be heavily involved in the big picture things, but they can execute it. That’s the way it is now. With Jon (Sumrall), very pleased to add Jon to the staff, he brings great passion, great energy, once again he’s a guy who is a very good position coach but also has big picture ideas and can see the whole field, and we needed that.”

    On what Sumrall brings in terms of recruiting …

    “He brings a lot to the table. Again, he’s a guy that can relate to anybody and you can see that. He has high energy and works exceptionally hard to it. He’ll bring us a very experienced, good recruiter.”

    On if Coach White will have another potential top-five NFL Draft Pick at outside linebacker …

    “We will see, we’ll see. It’s our job to try to develop one.”

    On the coaching staff’s job …

    “We work really hard. We go back and study ourselves last year and break it down and watch all of our cut-ups and things we were efficient at, things we need to improve and things to complement plays that we had. We are constantly doing that and working to improve. I think you all know that, we do that daily, in season we do it, offseason, we do it. So, we’re constantly trying to find ways to be creative, put our players in a position to be successful what that recipe is going to be. Offensively, I feel very good about what we’ve done and how we’ve done it. Obviously, we need to improve in certain areas and but I feel good about the whole system and the way that we’ve already looked at things to complement our team and be more efficient offensively. If you look at Stephen Johnson between year one and year two, the improvement you can make at that (quarterback) position can be very drastic and then after that it becomes gradual. But I think we can make a huge jump just by being more efficient in the quarterback position and I feel very good about doing that.”

    On Landon Young …

    "He was practicing. He was out there full go today. We were just in helmets. We will be cautious with him, but he’s out there practicing and looks good."

    On the offensive line...

    "It is very important. You have heard me talk for years, to be consistent in this league, you have to have a physicality about you. You just do. So, with having a good group of offensive linemen that have played a lot back and with our defensive line and linebackers, our inside linebackers in particular, we feel good about that group. So, that is a good place to start."

    Continued...
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