Below is the transcript from today's Bobby Wilder Weekly Press Conference.
Hey good afternoon everybody, welcome to our season opening press conference. The first thing I'd like to do is say thank you in honor of some warriors that we have here with us today. Each year at our first press conference, we like to honor local military members that have sacrificed and served for our country. We are incredibly grateful and thankful for everything you do. We are all incredibly thankful, grateful and appreciative for all that you do.
We are excited to get going with the season. We just completed three weeks of practice and we feel really good about this team and where we are right now. The number one word that comes to mind is unity. We have developed great unity and chemistry amongst our players. I feel as good as I do as I have with any team that we have had here at Old Dominion.
They are all just really excited to get started this 2016 season. This has been clearly the best competition we’ve had in preseason with the number of players we have returning this season. Forty two guys with a lot of experience, coming back and then the 26 players we redshirted last year that gave us a really good nucleus to work with and created competition but has also created the best depth we’ve had till this point. You clearly see the depth when you start looking at special team with the number of guys that we have that are ready to play and fighting for position.
Starting defensively, we’ll be led by our front four, I put our top four guys up against any group in conference USA, coming out of practice and what they have accomplished. Rashaad Coward, Bunmi Rotimi, Miles Fox, and Oshane Ximines, have all had good camps. They are working to get better, they take a lot of pride in what they do, and those guys know as much as anybody, now it's time to go out and prove that we’ve made a lot of progress there.
We’ve got good depth at the position, we feel like there are 10 guys that can play for us in the defensive line, so I'm excited to see those guys Saturday. The linebackers, led by TJ Ricks who is our leading returning tackler from last year and we feel like we have good experience at that position. Right now there are eight guys that we feel good about, that can play, we have worked them at two different positions to try to add more depth to each spot, but excited to see those guys. On the secondary we are returning three starters from last year. The fourth guy C.J Bradshaw, played a lot of football for us and we also feel like we have really good depth in the back. We’ve got 12 guys at this point that we feel like they can play. It is the most depth we’ve ever had there.
Special teams wise we returned Reed Buce as our long snapper. Reed had an excellent year last year. Bailey Cate, who is a true freshman, will be our starting punter, and with Bailey it is going to be a work in progress throughout the year and we will continual improvement that first time in the game and just continue to grow and develop, we are excited about his future. Chris Kirtley has been recovering from a hip flexor sprain. He started to practice towards the end of last week. This week we will have him kick extra points and field goals for us. Brad Davis will handle kickoff duties for us. He has been doing a nice job in camp.
Offensively David Washington will start at quarterback. David has had a very good camp. We feel really good about Shuler Bentley, and Blake LaRussa behind him. You could possibly see all three of them going in the game this Saturday. At running back Ray Lawry, Josh Marriner, and Jeremy Cox have all had solid camps, we feel good about all three of those guys and the guys behind them. We are developing some depth at the position, which you need in FBS football at the running back position and you will see all three of those guys on Saturday. At wideout Zach Pascal and Jonathan Duhart are the two top returning guys, but we feel like we have got eight guys that can play and play good football for us at wide out, and you will see a lot of guys playing wide out on Saturday. Tight end Melvin Vaughn is back, he is healthy. He had a good camp but it is going to be a continual development with Melvin. He hasn't played a football game in almost two years. So we will work him in and we will develop him but we feel really good about what he can bring to our offense.
Up front on the offensive line, Nick Clarke will lead us, he is the starting center. We have got some veterans players, we have some younger guys that we’ve got to develop that are going to get their first action on Saturday. But we feel like we’ve got 10 guys on the offensive line that we are developing guys that are going to play this season. That position you’ve got to have depth, because generally those guys stay on the field and they don't come off. But we will keep working here.
It is time to play some football. In terms of Hampton, this week Hampton obviously is a rivalry game, our kids know their players and vice versa. In years that we are not playing Hampton, our guys work out together. In summer they do seven on seven together, you know a lot of their players are local, so our guys know them. We know this is going to be a challenge. As I told our football team this is more about Old Dominion going into their first game. Anytime you go into your first game is about you and your preparation. So our theme will be to stay focus on the process of winning and it will be all about of preparation and our execution this week.
When you played Hampton two years ago, J.J Williamson had a pretty solid game. What do you remember about Williamson?
Yeah, I thought he played well against us a couple years ago. We were a different football team a couple years ago than we are now. We anticipating that we will see him, but we know they have got some other option, so we will be prepared for the backups as well.
When I talked to David Washington on media day, I asked him if he was a 100%. He said “no football player is 100%”. I kind of got a feeling that he wasn't 100%. What is your thought on that?
Media day was a couple weeks ago, and we had a little scare with him in one of the practices. But he has recovered nicely the last couple of weeks. I think anytime Scott, when you’ve got an athlete, I don't care what sport it is. A quarterback, football player coming off on an ACL. You have to be really mindful about them. You got to be smart with them. During the game for him to go out and play eighty snaps Saturday is probably not a smart thing for us to do. So we’ve got to be smart on how we prepare him and play him. He is not going to feel 100 percent until he goes out into a game, does everything full speed, gets tackled and gets up and plays the next play. So it is going to be a work in progress for him.
As you said on media day, you expect to use both of them, Shuler most likely see some time on Saturday?
Yeah, we are going into it that David will be ready to play, Shuler will be ready to play, Blake will be ready to play. We’ve told all three of those guys, the presentation has been you could get called on in any time during the game. It doesn't matter what the situation is, it doesn't matter what is going on during the game. That any of those three could be in the game. They’ve all prepared themselves that way, that's the approach we are taking going into this season. Particularly with David’s situation, because we know we have to work David back into it. We know he has to gain some confidence in himself. Based on Shuler what he did last year we feel good about him. And Blake has made a lot of progress. You can see any three of them on Saturday.
People have seen David Washington, they have seen Shuler Bentley, but they haven't really seen Blake LaRussa. What can you say about Blake’s progress?
He has developed consistently since he has been here. He improved a lot towards the end of last season having the entire offseason to develop strength condition wise. Being with Coach Whitcomb all throughout the spring. He has been here all summer, he is committed to it. Generally with quarterbacks from year one to year two there is a major difference in terms of development because they start to feel more comfortable in the system. He has gotten a lot more work, he has gotten work with the top guys. Which he never used to, his work use to be with the scout team and the guys that use to be redshirted. Now he is getting work with the top players. I feel really good about Blake. I wouldn’t be surprise if the first time he goes in, whether if it is this week or next week. That he will perform well, because he has prepared well.
You mentioned this is a rivalry game, sometimes people who left one program and go to another. There have a couple assistant coaches who coached here and players that redshirted here. Does that add a little bit to this game?
What it does is it brings a little more familiarity. There are people that are now in their organization that have familiarity with our organization. We know them, we know who they are, I think it makes it more interesting, makes it more exciting. Whether we are playing Hampton, Norfolk State or when we use to play William and Mary because of the approximately it makes the game more exciting and interesting.