Jim Bates Quotations

One of the hidden benefits is you get good word of mouth back on campus, ... That's invaluable because you can't get that with a brochure. I've had a number of people say, 'I'd never heard of CUNA, but my friend had an internship there, and I want to know more.'

He was here all winter, all spring, had a tremendous amount of consistency and made a lot of plays on the ball throughout the offseason. His misfortune was he missed almost all preseason.

He did a good job throughout the preseason of limiting the penalties. He had a couple spells where he had more penalties than he should have had. He has all the athleticism to carry out the technique, the speed to run with the receivers, the toughness. And he had a good camp,

He has caught on surprisingly fast. The one thing he has going for him is he's played in the NFL and started a lot of ball games. So, he understands football.

He's a legitimate starter in our eyes. Thus far, he's done everything we've asked him to.

I was disappointed when I didn't get job but that happens in this business. He applied for the job just like I did and I came in second, I hope I came in second. I'm going to be fine with whatever I choose.

Players don't determine who's the next coach. It's always a positive, I think, that the players believe in me.

Our guys at end don't get the big hits. Jason Taylor in Miami played 99% and was (expletive) off if we took him out. We'd still like to have a good rotation going even with those guys.

I think there's a lot of things that get into it. He's been in the scheme for five weeks. He's gotten a lot more reps through the game experience.

Other than the fourth quarter against Tampa, the group up front has done a tremendous job. If we don't miss those two tackles, we don't have a big run by a back.

We'll make that decision (today). But we'll go on a lot of plays and the total preseason, not just tonight.

You just bounce back. It's part of life; it's part of football. You learn and you go forward. You can't dwell on the past; you can't dwell on what's happened. You put the blinders on, bring it closer together and get back to work. It's too early (to think the bottom has dropped out). If we had that attitude, we'd go 0-16.

You can get more negative plays just by penetrating gaps. You can also be gashed for more big runs. That's the fear we have as a defensive staff.

We haven't given up the big run, the 25-, 30-, 40-yard run. But we have given up way too many for big chunks on early downs. We have to get better, it doesn't matter who's playing. I have confidence we'll stop the run.

We're counting on him to do it, ... That was his best game for us by far this season. We need more of that, because it definitely has an influence on how we play defense when he's playing at a high level and making plays in the backfield and getting some push up the middle.

We're counting on him to do it. That was his best game for us by far this season. We need more of that, because it definitely has an influence on how we play defense when he's playing at a high level and making plays in the backfield and getting some push up the middle.

We have to see, ... He missed all of preseason, he's been a good quality player for the Packers for a long time, (but) I think we have to get into the ballgames before we can say, 'Hey, he fits into the scheme.'

We've got some good flexibility there with the rotation we've been in,

That was by far his best game this season,

We definitely have to improve. Third down-and-long situations have been the one that's been most disappointing. We should be off at a much higher percentage.

We (coaches) will sit around and talk it over, and let the tape soak in and see where we are. We'll visit sometime (today) and be set for Wednesday.

We're still going with the starters we had last week. But Manning is making a move. He definitely will get a lot of playing time because we need to see Roy out there on the field and see how he performs under the lights.

We're going to evaluate every position. We're going to evaluate, see what happened. We'll evaluate as we do after every week.

When you start penetrating and they get up on the second level of the defense, the holes just open like sieves and your defense can be in trouble,

Yes, yes. We talked about what they were going to do, yes.

Well, when you have as many young players as we have, until they put a stamp on the position, it can change. And so nothing's permanent, especially with the young players. But Joey now has the opportunity, he's ready for the opportunity and he had a great offseason.

When you get that opportunity to be a head coach, you have a list of people you've worked with. I wanted to give him the chance to pick those people with whom he had relationships. I didn't want to get in his way.

We did an excellent job until that last drive.

Definitely, when Randy Moss is on the field, special attention has to be spent,

A lot of things have to happen as far as the injuries. We have to get those guys back.

Some people, their philosophy totally is penetrate. Offenses a lot of times get intimidated by those types of defenses and start throwing. But you watch penetrating defenses. When they have their bad games, it's against a team that has patience with (the run) and then they'll hit the big one.

Teams can climb back from the bottom to the top in a year, two years. We can be back there in a hurry. I'm not saying one year or two years, but it won't take long.

There's going to be hard, hard decisions for our coaches and Ted and his staff.

There's a decision to be made there. We wish we were in a situation where we could say, 'This is the group.' But with the injuries and what's taken place here the last two weeks, it's been an unstable position and we're waiting for somebody to put a claim on it.

We just have to sort through that and keep improving. They've shown on the practice field they can do it, but have to carry it to the field. We have to sort this out and get both guys playing at high level.

I'm going to go through the interview process just like everyone else. Me being right here, there's a lot more flexibility. We'll be talking when it's the best time for Ted.

The basic rule is you stay on coverage, but you can't fault him when it looked like (Griese) was wide open to the end zone.

It's very frustrating. No. 1, we did not think he was capable of kicking a 56-yarder. But we shouldn't have even given him the opportunity as far as the 10 or 12 yards they made on that play to even have an attempt at a 56-yarder.

It's disappointing. Guys fought their tails off and deserved better. That's a good offense coming in here, a 2-0 team that had a lot of success, and we matched them. The biggest disappointment was the last couple of series.

It's disappointing. The guys fought their tails off today and deserved better, ... I mean, our players came together and played a darn good football game. I wish we could have given our offense the ball back at the end, that was an important part of the game. That's the biggest disappointment.

He's ready to step in any time we make the call.

He's really had a nice camp. I can't say I'm that surprised because obviously we liked the guy a lot to take him as high as we did.

They've gotten to where they are doing a good job running the football with a controlled passing game, and they've played great defense. They may open it up a little bit. We'll just have to wait and see.

Sometimes when you want inside push we'll use Grady. He's been a good pass-rusher in his career.

Ahmad will get several opportunities in the nickel and he's on the special teams and for us the nickel back is like a starter. Over the last five years, our nickel back has played as much if not more than one of our linebackers because of the substitution.

The guy called it the way he saw it, and he missed it,

It's one of those things. Basically you stay on coverage, but you can't fault him (for leaving the receiver) when it looks like he (Griese) is wide open to the end zone.

It's moving at a much quicker pace than it ever has in its history.

There was progress made last week. We wouldn't have held up against the run as well as we did against McGahee if we didn't play well inside.

There's been a learning curve with him as far as not having Randy, who adds a totally different dimension to the offense. He's made several big throws, and when he gets more comfortable, he'll be back. There's no doubt about it.

It's just one of those things he's got to be on top of. We've got to do a good job of coaching him where he can get back on the field. He's good enough to play in this league, there's no doubt.

A big key to this game is eliminating the big play, and Randy can make the big play.

It's huge. But really, there's ways we disguise it that there's eight so you can't recognize it. But we do a lot of it with seven in the box.

It's been a rough week for practice as far as (who is) in and out. We've had guys miss all week. That's hurt on preparation.

They have some good athletes. We've got to be as sharp as we were against Romulus.

He's improving. He's still learning a position. He's been moved around a lot.