Transcript: Bobby Petrino speaks, we listen, transcribe

For those who might want some reading material, here is the (almost) complete transcript of Bobby Petrino’s 35-minute, question-and-answer session with the media Saturday at Arkansas’ media day. The following was transcribed by myself, Bob Holt and Tom Murphy. (Update: 12:44 a.m., Sunday)

Opening comments:

Great to see everybody. Media Day’s always a lot of fun for our players and assistant coaches.

Four practices now, two with vets, two with, we call them the newcomers. Mostly newcomers. It’s been fun. We’re obviously ahead of where we were a year ago. We’ve had great carryover from the spring and all the work our players did over the summer. When I say that, I’m talking about physically, our size and strength. I feel like we’re a fast football team right now. So I’m excited about that.

Our understanding of schemes, what we’re trying to do offensively and defensively at least three of four practices have been very good. Newcomers yesterday, when we put a lot of new plays in, because that’s what this is kind of all about — you know, they blew a gasket there for a little while in practice yesterday. I guess that was expected. It always happens.

The good thing about splitting practices is they’re getting a lot of reps. More reps than they ever would get.
Plan for them was to have them lift weights then come watch the last of practice. Ended up sending them into the meeting room.

All the receivers and tight ends and running backs got together with the quarterbacks, and Brandon Mitchell and Jacoby Walker were teaching them the offense. That was a great experience for everybody.

I think it’s been good. The coaches are holding up in the practices. So that’s a good thing for some of our older staff members. I’m proud of them, they got in shape and are full speed.

The expectations are something I put right out in front of the team. Told them it was great to have the expectations, the excitement is good. It was a great motivating factor throughout the summer.

But now what it’s all about is work. Getting out here at practice and getting better on a daily basis, and really what we’re trying to do is, No. 1, perfect our technique and fundamentals on an individual basis.

Second thing we’re trying to do is be better students of the game. Understand our schemes better and understand what the other side of the ball is trying to do. The better we understand football, the better we know … We’ve got a lot of guys playing, this will be their third year in the scheme. We should be at the point where we really know the ins and outs of what’s going on inside of our scheme. I think our players have worked hard at that.

The next thing we have to do here in the next few weeks is become a more physical football team. That’s always the balancing act. How do you work it, being physical and hitting and banging and making sure you stay healthy.

Football is a physical game, I think it’s like tying your shoes. You get up every day and you tie your shoe.
Well in football, you get up every day and you hit. We have to understand that it’s something that we do. We have to get better at it and be more physical. … I think that’s something we identified over the winter.

We have to put a huge emphasis on being better and more physical up front to win the close games in the fourth quarter.

Final thing you work on is, and this is a continual process, is coming closer together, tighter as a football team, working on our team chemistry. That’s something that has been taking care of itself. You’ll have fun being around our players today. I think you’ll see we have very good leadership on the team and we have good attitude.

Petrino on sophomore defensive end Tenarius Wright being on the media guide’s back cover. High expectations for him?

I think sometimes you guys put too much into who’s on the pictures. But, Tenarius played very well for us last year. I’m proud of him because he came here with his heart on being a linebacker, and that’s something he really wanted to do.

He trusted us that his best position was defensive end. He went out there and really learned the position. I thought he had a very, very good year last year. He gives us a little extra speed off the edge, and plays with tremendous effort.
He’s a leader on our team by example.  He doesn’t say a lot right now, he’s young.

You always put the video on and watch him, and he’s playing as hard as he can every play. He’s back from the injury. Unfortunate he missed spring ball, but he’s 100 percent now, and he’s bigger and faster than he was a year ago. I believe he’ll have a good year for us.

Petrino on Jerry Franklin:

Jerry’s made a lot of plays around here for two years. He understands our defense, I think, as far as the linebacker position goes, he understands our defense as well as anybody. He’s very, very athletic and big. He’s one of our guys who can really cover in pass defense. He’s done an excellent job with that. He fought through the shoulder. He understood we were trying to get him stronger and to be a better football player. So his attitude has been good working through that. We need him to have a big year.

Petrino’s reaction to Hogs being ranked 19th in USA Today coaches’ poll:

Yeah, we’ll take it. We’ve got to go prove it now.

Petrino on Hogs struggling on third downs last season:

Yeah, we didn’t execute very well on third down. There’s a lot of different causes for us not having success. Some of it was early in the season. Sometimes when you get behind the numbers, the stats don’t ever come back. We had some games we were good at it.

What we need to do first of all is get in better third down situations. Get to third and short, third and medium and our stats were pretty good. We had way too many third and long situations, and third and extra long. They’re caused by not being consistent enough running the football on first and second down. And taking sacks and penalties. That’s what gets you behind the sticks.

What’s real important for us is we don’t move backwards. If you can go through a football game and you’re always going forward — not getting penalties, not getting negative plays and your quarterback is not getting sacked, then third downs are pretty easy to convert.

But when you force yourself behind the sticks, with penalties or negative runs, where you miss a block, third downs become a lot harder.

Petrino on the strength and conditioning staff:

Our strength and conditioning staff has done an excellent job. One thing we try to do is build strength during the year. One of the things that Jason (Veltkamp) and his staff is doing a great job of now is understanding that we’re in camp right now, it’s not about maintaining. That’s a word I don’t like. It’s about getting better. So, we’re still working on our strength and our speed.

What we always try to do is figure out for our players, what is the weight they can carry and be as fast as they can possibly be. It’s kind of a balancing act between eliminating body fat and getting stronger and faster. And we take it on an individual basis. Our players take a lot of pride in the workouts.When you see the attitude we have in attacking those workouts, it’s something our strength and conditioning staff has done a great job of.

Petrino on freshman Jatashun “Big Tex” Beachum and what the plan is for him:

A little smaller than he is right now. We need to have him as Small Tex. We need to get him to Small Tex. Right now he doesn’t look real good in that uniform. But, boy he is an athlete. To be able to move and do some of the things he can do at that weight — catch the ball, open his hips — he’s just a guy that has to continue to work on reducing that body fat and getting stronger. We’ve got to wait and see how it plays out. He’s certainly a guy who we’ll probably redshirt.

Petrino on comparing the 2010 team to ones from the past:

I’m not big on comparisons. Every team is different. Every team’s personality is different. And we’re still going to find out what is our personality? it certainly isn’t going to be like last year’s team, because it ends up being different. What is our identity? That’s something we’ve got to find out in the next four weeks is what is our identity. What are the parts of the offense we execute well and we’re going to hang our hat on. What are the parts of the defense we’re gonna execute well and hang out hat on. That’s one of the fun things about coaching, is to find that out each year. The quicker you can find it out, the better you’re gonna be.

Is this the longest you’ve gone through a press conference without a Ryan Mallett question?

I’ve never thought of it.

Ryan’s done well, he’s done real well. It’s fun to have him back out there.  Mentally he’s been very sharp. He really knows the offense and where to distribute the ball. I think he has a luxury in the fact that he’s got good weapons around him. What you have to do is just read the defense and distribute the ball according to the defense. You don’t have to force anything to a certain receiver or a certain tight end. You just let it work. I think he’s understood that. He’s executed well. He’s been sharp with his throws and his decision making.

You know we chart everything, so like yesterday in practice he was 79 percent completions, which is very, very good.

Petrino on the role of running back-turned-receiver De’Anthony Curtis:

I’m excited to see how it plays out. When we moved him from running back to receiver in spring, he had great hands and can catch the ball in a crowd. That’s the one thing playing inside like that, you’re not always going to be wide open. You’ve got to be able to catch the contended pass. He can catch the ball away from his body and do that. He’s improved a lot on his route running, lengthening his stride, being more precise on his cuts. So there’s no question he’ll contribute. What the funny is we’re talking about him a couple of nights ago when we;re watching some of our installation tape that we made from last year’s season. He made a lot of plays for us out of the backfield. The role that he played out of the backfield last year, he was very, very productive. He’s one of the guys you go out there every day and he’s got a smile on his face and works extremely hard. There’s no question he’ll contribute.

Petrino on the cornerbacks doing well in practice batting balls down:

I think they have a much better understanding of what we’re asking them to do. I think they have to continue to build their confidence in playing tight coverage and I think that’s probably what you’re seeing hands on the ball. We’re playing tighter coverage, they’re going against good receivers and their confidence should build. And I like the speed that we have back there with Rudell (Crim) going to safety. He’s faster, he reacts, he does a nice job at it. I think we’ve seen Elton Ford and Juice make a constant effort of reducing their weight over the summer and working on speed and reaction time. They’ve been playing faster out there.

One of the things about football is, you always talk about playing fast, playing fast, playing fast. Well, it’s not just your 40 time. You’re understanding of what the scheme is, your understanding of the other side of the ball, your football instincts and your football intelligence, which we call your FBIs, allow you to play faster. With our experience, we should play much faster on defense.

Petrino on team captains:

They’ve done a great job. It’s up to them to lead the team and I was impressed the other night. Doing this two practices, when we get off the field, most of the time you meet before you go practice. So you go out there with your group that you met with, but doing the two practices you don’t have an opportunity to meet. You just go practice with the vets. They all got together as a team, took the field together as the team broke and went down. There wasn’t one coach who had any input in to doing that. They took over and just did it themselves.

Petrino on having Isaac Madison back and a year of experience from Darius Winston at cornerback spots:

The competition in practice every day will make them all better. On the field side, you’ve got Madison and Winston competing hard every day. Into the boundary, we’ve got Ramon Broadway and (Andru) Stewart, and I think Jerry Mitchell is trying to get himself in to position where he can compete and play there.

Gatson is a guy who has tremendous speed, has one of the highest vertical jumps. And his confidence in movement has really improved. So I know he wants to get in the mix, too.

The competition in practice is what’s important and your performance in practice is something that the players get to determine what the depth chart is, not the coaches.

You left the spring with some concern at linebacker. How do you feel now?

Still concerned. I’m still concerned. It’s one of the areas where we don’t have as much depth. When we go out there right now and some of our personnel groups. Jerry Mitchell is going to be in there along with (Jermaine) Love and Freddy Burton. In some personnel groups, Jerico (Nelson) is the hybrid. He’s a nickel, outside linebacker, rover, whatever you want to call him. He’s a cross between a linebacker and a safety, and we all know he’s a very, very good playmaker. At times he’ll be in the game with Jerry and Freddy, but we need to have some guys step up for the depth.

Ryan Powers is a young man who has really changed his body, his attitude and his speed. It’s something we need to take a look at and see if he can help us and contribute. He’s been around here for a long time and he’s much stronger and faster.

Petrino on offensive coordinator Garrick McGee handling new job as a father:

Well, it’s definitely it’s a balancing act becoming a new dad and football. He’s real excited about it. One of the things we do try to do is include the families, have them up for dinner at times as much as you can. It’s a tough profession when you’re away from your family that much. Garrick is excited about being dad. I think he understands a little more about life right now, so that’s good for him.

As far as the transition to being a coordinator, it’s been very, very easy. Because we’ve worked together before, here, I coached him, I’ve got complete trust in anything he says. One thing Garrick always has is what’s best for the player. That’s how he approaches everything and that really helps and builds trust within the player-coach relationship.

He’s a guy that will definitely have a future as a head coach. I’m hoping it’s not for a while and we can have him here for a while.

Petrino’s thoughts on special teams and Alex Tejada:

Well, there’s going to be a lot of competition there. That’s what I’m most excited about, when you go out and you have two guys that are kicking that have to compete every day. We’ve got guys competing for the kickoff spot and the punter. That puts pressure on you to perform every day, gets you used to the pressure and it should make everybody better. It’ll be fun to see how it plays out and ends up being the guy. We have much more talent there than we have in the past.

Petrino on leadership making a difference on teams:

I’ve always felt like the leadership within the football team determines whether you have a special team or not. Certainly it makes the coach’s job a lot easier and I think what it’s done for me is I trust the players. I trust the leaders that we have on our team. They dictate a lot of times of how we’re going to practice. They’re able to go out there and correct other players and their communication back and forth. I think they feel a much more a part of it and they’ve taken more ownership over the team. And that gives us an opportunity to be a special football team.

Was Ryan Mallett able to lead this summer with his foot injury?

Ryan can lead any time. That’s one of the things that’s special about him. He steps in a room, and it doesn’t matter what room that is or what’s going on, in 10 to 15 minutes he’s going to be leading the room. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing. That’s just something that is a gift that he’s had, something he’s done his whole life and he’s very focused right now and has done a nice job.

Petrino on freshman defensive linemen Byran Jones and Chris Smith:

Both of them are very talented. Byran is very physical, has great movement, is big, is a good learner. I’ve been impressed with his ability to learn and he’s out there, getting lined up right, right away and not waiting for other people to tell him what to do. That’s what I like. He knows the calls and he gets himself lined up. A lot of times a young guy will be listening for somebody to tell them where to go, what to line up, what to do and Byran just does it on his own.

Chris is very, very talented. His speed of the edge, his hips, his long arms. If there was one guy you would compare to Chris that I’ve coached would be an Elvis Dumervil, where their arms are longer than their body. And that helps you be a pass rusher, that distance that he can do with his arms and his ability to bend and change directions. Before it’s over with, he’s going to be a real special pass rusher.

Petrino on the newcomers at receiver:

They’re a talented group, a very talented group. In the first couple of practices, Julian Horton and Herndon have done a really nice job of going through the practice and understanding what’s going on, well-conditioned, never missing a beat, they both can run good routes and catch the ball in their hands.

Marquel Wade is going to be a guy that’s very explosive after the catch. His hips and his movement is something that can be real special.

Maudrecus Humphrey is the fastest of them all. He has struggled a little bit on his conditioning here in the first couple of practices. I think he’s been a little bit sick and has fought through it, but he really hasn’t been able to show out yet because he’s getting tired and not being able to go full speed full time.

What will it take for someone to become the feature running back?

I think it’s going to be what personality we take over in our running game and who can be consistent. I think they all understand that your amount of plays is determined on your ability to protect the passer.  If you don’t know what you’re doing, and you don’t use your technique in pass protection, then you’re not going to be in there as much.

You can’t lose a quarterback because a running back doesn’t know the protection, or he gets beat on his technique.

They’ve all made a great effort at learning that, and doing that.

When we get the pads on here, it will become more and more important.

But the mix is a good mix, with the big powerful running back, Dennis (Johnson) who you can’t tackle. He has no legs. He can run fast with no legs, so it’s hard to tackle him. You can’t get to him.

Then the two youngsters, Ronnie Wingo that’s big and fast, and Knile (Davis) I think is a guy that’s really said, I’m going to do anything I can for this football team. If you want me to line up at fullback, I’ll line up at fullback. If you want me to block, I’ll block. If you want me to catch the ball out of the backfield, I’ll catch the ball out of the backfield. But I still like playing tailback and running the ball. You understand that. He wants his runs, he wants his carries, he’s very good at tailback. But he’s kind of said, ‘hey, I’ll go do all this other stuff. for the football team, too, and do it very well.’

He did a really nice job in the spring blocking and being fast through the hole. And any time you get a guy that’s fast through the hole, it helps you at running back.

Petrino asked to evaluate Hogs’ three threats (Joe Adams, Jarius Wright, Greg Childs) at receiver:

Well, we’ve got four of them. We’ve got four guys that I feel like did a really nice job for us last year. Greg Childs is bigger and stronger, can be a dominant player. Again, Greg needs to understand he needs to be consistent all the time. And that’s what he’s working on, is his consistency. Catching the ball at practice on a consistent basis. Mentally approaching practice the right way on a consistent basis.

Joe Adams is faster and bigger. He’s been very impressive in the first couple of practices with his footwork and his route-running. I think he’s really taken a step forward in the hard work he did in the summer. Because his ability to get off the line of scrimmage and run routes, I’ve been very impressed with him the first two practices.

J. Wright is kind of the guy that leads the group. He’s always going to go hard, he’s always going to be do what we ask him to do. He’s very, very fast, and he can catch the ball in his hands.

Cobi Hamilton made a lot of plays for us last year as a true freshman. He’s big and fast, and might have the best hands of the group as far as catching the ball away from his body. Cobi just needs to really get better at his technique and his fundamentals, because his size and speed allow him to get open. He needs to be more of a student of the game and really understand it.

How impressive is tight end Chris Gragg on the field?

He looks good out there doesn’t he? He looks like he’s gotten taller. … Chris is a guy that could really help us. His speed down the middle of the field, the matchups we could get with him. …. I think one thing Chris needs to do is keep learning the offense, keep working it. He’s got really good hands, and he’s been able to be the receiver part of the tight end and the H-back, if you all want him an H-back back. We call him T, but H is OK with me.

He’s a guy that could really contribute, and he’ll be competing for playing time.

Petrino on why Ryan Mallett is listed at 6 feet, 6 inches and not his previous height, 6-7, in the media guide this season:

Did he shrink? (laughs). I think you’ve got to blame that on the guy responsible for the press guide, huh? … I didn’t know that. I got asked a question before about the press guide, and I have to tell you, I have not read it. I’ve not even opened it up. I’ve seen the cover there sitting there every day, and Ryan’s picture on the cover, but I haven’t even opened it up yet. I don’t think he’s shrunk.

Petrino on combining the newcomers and veterans at practice this coming Monday:

I’m not sure which way that step is going to go when you mix them all together. The one thing that will happen Monday is you’ll put full pads on, you do a regular practice. What we’re doing this year is a little bit different, and I think you’ll see better execution on Monday because of it.

We install practice No. 1, we’re installing practice No. 2, practice No. 3, practice No. 4. And now when we’re coming back together on Monday as a team, we’re going back and doing practice No. 1 over again, practice 2, and practice 3 and practice four over again to try to help us be better at what we do.

I’m looking forward to seeing how it pays off. I think it will be really good for us. I know it will be good for the young guys, and I think we’ll see a lot of improvement  in understanding what we need to do.

You guys always talk about pace of practice, is that something you picked up from another head coach or when you became head coach, said, we’re going to pick it up?

It’s something I’ve carried over from working with John L. (Smith) and practicing fast.

One of the things I really don’t like doing — and I know the players don’t like doing — is running sprints after practice.

When you look at big, 300-pound linemen, I never felt like you got a lot of out running down there and touching that line and running back. So I would prefer to practice fast, practice at a fast tempo practice at game tempo, move from drill to drill, work hard during practice, and then you don’t have to condition as much as far as things that don’t help.

A lot of times when we do condition, we do position specific conditioning … Like a conditioning drill the other night, was offense doing no huddle up and down the field, and the defense doing a hit circuit. So we’re working on certain aspects of football because that’s something I believe in.

Do your conditioning in football.

Sometimes we’ll do a screen drill for conditioning.

But the faster tempo you can practice at, the more you can move around … going way back to when I coached with my father, was coach on the run and do your talking in the meeting room.

You don’t want any sermons out there on the practice field. We want reps, reps, reps, and then coach it off the video.

Petrino on the bevy of tight ends and possibility with redshirting some:

There’s a possibility. I think that’s something that’s going to have to play out over the next 12 to 13 practices, is who do we believe is going to play as freshmen and who’s going to redshirt. I like both of them. I think they’re a great match for each other. (Garrett) Uekman is an unbelievable athlete, can run, change his body, catch the ball in his hands. Very, very smart.

(Brad) Hefley is a big, physical on the line tight end that’s really strong and will be a very good blocker for us. So the combination of those two being freshmen is a good combination.

The other thing you’re looking at is, who’s going to help us at the fullback position, because that tight end also has to always know fullback, and who can lead block, who can run through the hole quickly, keep their knees bent. That’s something (Austin) Tate did a lot of in the spring. And we need to see those two guys do it.

Petrino on Wade Grayson:

Wade’s been good. He’s had a very, very good summer. He’s bigger than he’s ever been, and he’s stronger, and his percent of body fat’s down. I think we’re going to find out where he’s going to play the competition of him at guard and center, and who’s going to be the starting guard, who’s going to be the starting center. We feel like we have about five or six guys that are going to really compete for it. So we’ll see how that plays out.

Petrino is asked if he is willing to share how he voted in the USA Today coaches’ poll:

Are you kidding me? Is that one of those questions you just have to ask? Now when I go in and vote for president or whatever, we get to close the curtain and we vote in private, right?

You don’t come out and say who you voted for. Well, some people do I guess. That’s what they call the exit polls, right? There’s no exit polls in coaching of football.

Petrino on the new Nike uniforms:

They look good. I like them. We’ve got a number of pants that we’re going to wear.

Nike came in, did a lot of designs, and we’re excited about it. I’m excited about the material, because it’s the best material I’ve ever seen. It’s liighter. It won’t hold water, won’t sag, won’t get heavier as the game goes on. It’s really unique. I think that’s the best part of it, and again, when you talk about uniforms there’s three things you want to always talk about — No. 1 is how our players feel in the uniform. If they feel better, they’re going to play better. No. 2 is, how does it help our recruiting? And Nike has already helped our recruiting, no question about that. Kids like Nike. They like the brand, they like the shoes. The shoes are much better for us. I’m excited about that, because I think that will help us a lot as far as staying healthy and being faster.

Then the third thing you talk about with uniforms is tradition and trying to hold onto tradition. We understand those things.

I think it will be fun to see how they all look.

Make sure to check out WholeHogSports.com and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for more coverage. You can also follow us on Twitter for breaking news updates with @bmarcello and @wholehogsports.

— Brandon Marcello