Skip Holtz Quotations

On the other side, our glaring concern right now comes at the center position. We must have put the ball on the ground 10 times or so today during the quarterback-center exchange alone. This is something we'll continue to address each day until we find the right personnel or combination. I know it's still awful early but it is something we need to get rectified pretty quickly.

I would say we're ahead of where we initially thought we'd be right now, because of how many guys have stepped up and been pleasant surprises. I've really been pleased with the progress. When you feel like you're getting better, you're always going to have a positive attitude on your football team.

He's a great back. He's strong. He's powerful. I could go on and on and on about him. I think he is as good as the billing and the hype.

We take nothing for granted sitting here at 1-0. It was great to win but ... hopefully with that open date we can make huge gains because we made an awful lot of mistakes in that opener.

He is a very poised young man and he has a strong arm. He is a big strong quarterback. I wouldn't say he is just the athlete who is going to come in and run the option up and down the field. I think he beats you more with his arm than his head. He is in a new system and from everything I read, he is very excited about what they are doing offensively.

He has a big body and is very physical. He's very hard to press and he's so tall, he can go up and get a jump ball.

He moves around decently enough for (Duke) to utilize any play action. More than anything, he has been there before. He has been under fire and has the experience. He is poised and he is very intelligent which means he has the ability to hurt you if you give him an opening. He is going to present some problems for us because of his knowledge in the pocket.

James Pinkney has taken himself to another level with his play. He is really understanding the weapons that he has and has a chance to be great.

Our guys understand the challenge we have and it's a good football team that we are going to play. This is a good football team that is starting to put it together. Just as we have been a work in progress, they have also been a work in progress.

Just looking at the big picture, I was hopeful we were farther along than we are right now. But after watching this, maybe I put too many high hopes on some guys that haven't played yet for us.

I think we did a great job of not giving up the big play. There were some missed tackles, but overall I was pleased. I keep telling people that we are going to be solid on defense, and if we can build on today's performance, we will be in good shape.

I think we're a long way away from where we need to be to be able to compete next year. I didn't think our quarterbacks played very well. ... I think across the board, youth and inexperience showed up today.

I thought we made some more progress Friday. We've still got a ways to go to get where we want to be but there were many positives to build on, both offensively and defensively.

Today was a teaching day. We were able to spend the majority of our time on individual work with a corrective mindset. We had the opportunity to throw it around a little more and key on execution.

We really looked flat out there offensively. There was no enthusiasm, and we missed some easy assignments and our handoff exchanges were just not there. On a positive note, the offensive line looked real solid and that was encouraging.

When Chris Johnson runs for three yards, it makes you a little concern. I don't know if we are creating huge holes for them. We have to look at it and try to figure out what the problem is. This is a defense that plays a shell and will make you get four, five or six and say in a 80-yard drive you will shoot yourself in the foot. That worries me because we have had a tendency to shoot ourselves with mistakes.

We're going to treat it like tryouts, and after the week, we're making our decisions and we're going with them. We can't wait any longer.

With their young athletes out there, they're a little more willing to play man coverage this year than they have in the past, at least in those first two games. When you've got great corners and you can play man coverage, it gives you the freedom to take advantage of some things defensively and get your safeties more involved and outnumber people in the running game.

We're improving, but at this stage, we need to start putting the pieces of the puzzle together. We are heading into the second half of camp which is a critical part of the development of this football team.

When you look at the number of yards per carry, when you face a (defensive coordinator) Joe Lee Dunn defense, it concerns me. I have had the opportunity to play (against) him (for) three years when he was at Mississippi State. He creates an awful lot of problems to you as an offense. You can't run a traditional offense against him.

We're playing a lot of players on the back end on defense, and they keep getting better. We've just needed to get better athletes on the field.

Every time that you try to do something to hurt him, (Dunn) has got an answer with something that he is going to do. He plays a high-pressure defense where he puts a lot of pressure on the quarterback, and they try to put a lot of pressure on the offensive line as far as assignments are concerned. On top of that, the athletes that he has running around in that scheme right now make them pretty darn good defensively.

Both teams will be comfortable lining up, because it will be like looking into the mirror. They're not going to give up a lot of big plays on defense. They keep it front of them and make you earn it. We are going to have to work hard at being consistent.

Coming into this one ... I would say I would like to be able to say that we're probably going to open it up a lot more than we did in our opening game, and utilize a little bit more of the offense. I just want to make sure we protect the ball and don't do anything foolish. I don't want to turn the ball over and put our defense in bad field position.

As in any game, one of the first things we have to do is take care of the football offensively. We can't afford to give them (Duke) a short field to work on each time they get the ball.

They put the ball in their best athlete's hands as much as possible. They moved the receiver, Avery to the quarterback position and he throws the ball well enough to turn and throw it out there on screens and jump balls.

Right now, we've got one in a row.

Right now, we've got one in a row. I'm not really a statistics guy. I don't use a lot of that for motivation.

This is certainly an event we all really look forward to. Anytime we have the chance to play in front of the greatest fans in the country, it's a tremendous and overwhelming experience.

The best thing that could happen to Tim is for Leak to have a great season. And Tim can just sit back and learn.

This is a very competitive conference, and that's what makes a conference great. When anybody can beat anybody on any given night, it makes for some terrific games all season.

It's all about making plays. While I was pleased with the intensity, enthusiasm and the physical part of it, this is the stage of the spring where you look for execution and people who consistently make plays and a difference out there. As I've said before, this is a work in progress and changes are part of it.

Everybody blocks a gap and you give it to a back and say 'find the hole'. And they do. They've got great vision, they hit it, they're tough, they're physical, they run hard.

There was some good balance out there between both the offense and defense. Yet, we really have to eliminate the small plays that get our offense off the field and our running game needs to really improve in an overall sense.

They are the best team fundamentally we have faced this year. They will test us in every phase of the game. Offensively and defensively they are very similar to us. Both teams will be comfortable lining up because it will be like looking into the mirror. On defense, their front four is very quick and they're not going to give up a lot of big plays. They keep it in front of them and make you earn it.

It will be a great challenge for us to stop them on offense. I think our defense has a good grasp on what we are trying to do, now it's time to go out and execute in a real game.

We've got a long way to go and we're going to have to learn from this if we are going to play the schedule we have in the fall.

This was a big scrimmage for us today in terms of evaluating players. We ran around 100 plays and came away virtually healthy. I wanted to find out if our players could stay focused when they became tired and hot and not have any mental busts. Our staff wanted to see where we stood heading into the preparation of Duke. It's safe to say that right now our defense is well ahead of the offense.