Quotes from National Signing Day Press Conference
2/7/2007 7:00:00 AM | Football
Feb. 7, 2007
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Opening Statement: "I'm very happy with our class, it fills the needs we have. We pretty much recruited the East Coast. I really feel like our class is comprised of a bunch of kids that are willing to work hard, and have goals in life to be successful. Not only on the football field, but in the classroom and also in life, and that's the kind of people I'm looking for. Offensive line was a major need for us this year. We have a lot of kids returning form last year, but we have three or four of them that will graduate. Offensive linemen are like fine wine, they have to age and mature. We've got a good class in here, and we'll see who's ready to play. The ones that aren't ready to play we'll red-shirt and hopefully they'll be ready to play a year from now. We had seven offensive linemen we recruited, we had four defensive linemen. That's another need. We graduate three defensive linemen this year, so hopefully we can get some of those guys to come in and help us in the future. Wide receiver was another point we were looking for. Basically we went all year with three wide receivers. We have a couple kids coming in from prep school and we have a couple wide receivers that we really like from high school. Hopefully they can come in and help us next year and give us more depth to that position. We had a need at fullback, and we were able to recruit two fullbacks to go along with Cory Jackson and help solidify that spot. We always need to improve our secondary. We were able to get two corners and two safeties to help bolster that position. We got a punter, who we need now that Adam [Podlesh] is graduating. He's in school now and hopefully he'll compete in spring practice. So that also fills a need for us. I'm looking forward to getting them all in here and getting them working."
On whether true freshman will contribute right away: "I'm hoping some of the wide receivers can come in and contribute, but I never promise that. I tell them to come in and do the best they can, and we'll see how that works out. We're still a fairly young team; we have a lot of kids coming back. It gets more difficult to make our team right now, and I think that's a good thing. I've been very pleased with the effort our kids have been giving since they've been back, things are extremely competitive and they're working extremely hard. There are a couple of spots where kids can help us, but it's going to get harder and harder all the time to do that."
On making inroads in New Jersey recruiting: "I've always felt like New Jersey should be an area that's good for us, and I've been a little frustrated that we don't get more kids out of there. With it's proximity to us and the number of good players they have and the type of football they play I think it should be a good area for us."
On how his recruiting philosophy has changed: "I'm looking for kids that really want to be successes in life. Will to work hard academically and in football. This is a major step for them, this is a developmental time. Some of these guys are just focused on football and going to the league. But just one percent of all high school players play division one football, and one percent of division one players play pro football. One percent of one percent. It's probably not the most popular thing to say in recruiting, but it's something I believe. If you can get kids that want to be successful, it makes my job easier. They're willing to work and to persevere to get a degree. I think that's going to be a real factor here with these APR's coming up. One of the things I enjoy is seeing kids grow and become successful and make the transition into society and be successful there. You feel like you have a part in their lives when they do that, and that's the kind of guys I'm looking for right now. I don't really care how many stars they have, the biggest thing is what's inside. We haven't had a way of figuring that out yet, there really is no measuring tool for that. If we could that'd be the first thing I'd look for, what kind of heart they have."
On recruiting players from nearby areas: "That's my first priority every year. I want to recruit the kids in this area, and I've said that from day one. There's more and more people recruiting them now than there was six years ago. We're winning some of those and we're losing some of those, but I can tell you this, the effort has not diminished one bit. Those are the kids I want to get first."
