Feb. 3, 2010
Opening statement:
"I think one of the things that is a signature of this class is that we've upgraded at speed. We were looking for that and our athleticism and our pass rush. If some of you are at the recruiting celebration tonight, you'll see from the highlight reels that there are a lot of people that can put pressure on the quarterback. Some of the offensive linemen that we've recruited are very athletic and I think at quarterback, that position is very high-quality. Not only in skill but in character. I'm very encouraged by this class and the type of people we've recruited.
On David Mackall, Javarie Johnson, and Lorne Goree getting here early:
"The interesting thing there is, if you look at our team right now, probably our strongest part of our team is our linebackers. With Demetrius Hartsfield back, Alex Wujciak back, Adrian Moten's back, Darin Drakeford's back. Now, we add some more guys into the mix. We've been here the last couple days just talking about the personnel. I know our mad scientists over there are going to figure out a way to get guys that can play on the field. We just feel like they are another component if they come out and play like we think they should. Obviously, it's a tremendous advantage to have them here, not only in winter workouts, but also in spring practice.
On the overall satisfaction with putting together this class coming off last season:
"I think tremendous credit goes to our coaches. It's been a little different for me, given the fact that we didn't go to a bowl game this year, so I've been out there for the last six weeks. Our coaches are the people that go out and find the kids and evaluate the kids. I'm there at the end. It got better as it went along. Once we got going, it was just a matter of a lot of hard work by our staff. I think we were able to get a very good class together. "
Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator/QB coach James Franklin
On the quarterbacks in this year's signing class:
"We have those guys that we added from last year also. I think they all complement each other very well too. Although Tyler (Smith) rushed for 1,000 yards for his career, Devin Burns is extremely athletic. We have guys that are similar but also complement each other which give us a lot of options. What'd I like to do here on out is sign one quarterback a year and now we are in a situation where we have a legitimate quarterback every year. The message I have been relaying to the quarterbacks is that we have an unbelievable tradition and history here and we are getting back to that. Those guys are going to leave our program where they want to be.
On maintaining recruiting stability while being the coach in waiting:
"That's the whole reason we have a head coach in waiting is to counter that. That's the reason people do it. Whether a coach is coaching conservatively or whether you are getting a coach that is a getting older in years or only has a couple years in his contract. People are going to use that against you. I don't really look at the head coach in waiting as a disadvantage."
Defensive Line Coach/Recruiting Coordinator Dave Sollazzo
On signing local talent:
"We put the same emphasis every single year on getting the local guys. That's our number one target, that's our number one area. Maryland and Washington D.C. and Northern Virginia also, we consider that local for the most part. Everyone has their different reasons for each kid. We get our share of kids that stay home and we are very happy with those kids that are coming here from the local area. You aren't going to get all of them. Obviously, we have kids on our list that are from other states and their state schools tried to keep them in their state. Whether it is Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, or Florida, there are a lot of state schools that tried to keep them in their state. Kids are going to travel, it just depends on the young man and how he feels about his future."
On recruiting after a sub-par season:
"I believe that this was the most challenging class but for whatever reason it really worked out well. We work hard every year...did we have to work harder this year? We probably did. But when you are doing it you don't realize that you work hard every year. There is no doubt it was more challenging coming off the season that we had. But then again I think we surprised ourselves. We ended up having a really, really good group here."
Defensive Coordinator/Cornerbacks Don Brown
On the incoming defensive backs:
"Coach hit it on the head Mario Rowson is a guy we had one-day camp and I had a chance to coach him. He has tremendous length and he's a guy that can match up to big receivers. He can play press. He can get his hands on them and cover two concepts. Physical rerouting concepts and he's a guy that can come back to the receivers. I'm challenging him to do that. The nice thing about corner is the challenge mentally not as difficult as it is physically. The one thing you have to be very, very careful for is you can destroy a guy and he'll never get it back so you have to be very careful with that. We will play it out and see how it goes."
On defensive needs:
"We graduated three guys - Nolan Carroll, Anthony Wiseman and Richard Taylor - in our secondary so that was obviously a need. If you look at the defensive line, Ian Evans is a couple bologna sandwiches from where we want him to be. I'm not worried about his size. I can't coach fat guys. I gotta coach guys that are fast. That's how you get to the quarterback and that's how you stop big plays. The natural maturation in the 4-3 are linebackers that put their hand on the ground."
On the amount and depth of quarterbacks:
"One of the toughest things is to get all those kids the reps, especially in spring practice. We have to try to find a way to do that. There's five of them on campus right now. That's one of the things we're going to have to do a good job with as coaches is to try to get these kids enough reps to evaluate to see what they can do, to see what they can do when they're out there by themselves. They're young."
On the scope of recruitment this year branching into Florida, etc.:
"I've been in Florida recruiting for about 10 years. I know if you're an assistant coach and you don't know the people down there, it's going to take you three to four years to get to the really good kids. Don Brown has been down there and he asked me if he could go down there in the spring. He told me that's where he recruited when he was the head coach at UMass. He went down there and I think he has some relationships there that kids have gone to UMass and been successful so there's a trust thing there. All of a sudden, we started getting these guys up here for visits. Now, they have to go by a lot of schools to get to Maryland, but Don was able to get that done. I think he works very hard and he knows people. That's a good combination."
On focus of landing local talent:
"I always do that. I've been doing that for nine, going on 10 years. You can't always get everybody you want. That's just the nature of this game. Recruiting is very, very competitive, probably more competitive now than it's ever been. I think I've pretty much put emphasis on it since I got here. I think Coach Franklin does a great job in this area."
