Below is the transcript of the Bobby Wilder press conference.
Good afternoon everybody. Good afternoon to all our 12th Monarchs out there in Monarch Nation. Three weeks of camp in the books, and now it’s time for some football. You’re always hopeful when you come out of preseason camp. Unlike the NFL that has games they play and at times they have devastating injuries early in camp. We don’t have games where we play other opponents, it’s basically inter squad scrimmages. We’re very mindful of trying to remain as healthy as we could through preseason.
Looking back to years ago we had a couple seasons we came out of camp banged up and injured. One thing I’ve learned is that if you want to be successful, you need to have your players on the field when you start playing games. I feel really good about where we are health wise, other than a few bumps and bruises we should have a full complement of our guys going into this. That’s also good for the players, they’ve worked all 12 weeks this summer they were here. They go through three weeks of camp and then a week leading into a game. That’s 16 weeks they’re prepping for the opportunity to run out of that tunnel and play.
We have 90 players right now that are competing for 70 spots. This is the most depth we’ve ever had. This is the biggest challenge we’ve ever had to put together a travel roster that will continue throughout the week based on the way our players are performing. Right now, we still got to make some decisions on depth, but we all feel good as a coaching staff about the fact that we have the amount of talent and amount of guys competing for spots.
We’ve returned 50 players that have experience from last year, 23 on offense, 24 on defense, and then three specialists that have experience. Whether you call guys returning starters or you don’t call them returning starters I don’t really care about that. I care more about guys that have played, that have experience, and to have 50 players going into it that have that experience makes me feel really good as a head coach.
We announced earlier this morning Blake LaRussa will start at quarterback. Blake has earned the right to be the starter. This is his third year with the program, he’s somebody that came to us initially, he was a walk-on then he earned a scholarship. He earned the backup quarterback position last year during the season. I have a really good memory of Blake last year in a critical situation before the half against FIU when David Washington was hurt.
He came in, he led us on a two-minute drive down the field. He completed 6 of 8 passes in a pressure situation, there’s no more pressure situation for a quarterback than a two-minute drill. You got to run the operation, you got to do it quickly, you got to do it efficiently. Blake did that coming off the bench and did that so I felt good about him from that moment, and what he did in the offseason this summer.
I know our team feels good about Blake going into it. I talked to all the quarterbacks this morning, I met with all four of them and with Ron Whitcomb our quarterback coach and explained to them that Blake’s the guy. Blake’s the guy going into it, but it could be similar to last year when we started the season with David Washington.
David hadn’t played lot of quarterback and we talked to all the quarterbacks about they need to be ready to play. We played three quarterbacks in the first half of last year’s first game, and then David established himself as the quarterback, and went on and had an excellent year. Hopefully Blake will be the guy and go on and have an excellent year, but like we do with every position on the team, we’ll have everybody ready to play. All four quarterbacks know they need to be ready to play and that’ll be the mindset going into it.
Speaking to our opponent, Albany, Albany was 7-4 last year and had a really good year. I’ve watched every one of their games. They play good football, they play in the CAA which is a really good league. I thought they were good enough to be a playoff team last year, and they return a veteran team this year. They’re well-disciplined, they’re well coached. They’re a lot like us in that they don’t turn the ball over a lot, or at least they didn’t last year. They take the ball away. They only average five penalties per game, which speaks to the coaching and discipline. That’s the same number of penalties we averaged last year. I expect this will be a challenge for our football team.
The thing with openers is it’s the great unknown. Every opening game of every season is the great unknown. You don’t have scrimmages, you don’t play other teams. So, you’re trying to figure out not only who your team is, but who the opponent is as well. We’ll hopefully have some success early in this football game. That always builds confidence when you have success early. The last thing I told the team last night in our meeting was we’ll stay focused on the process of winning, which for us is how we plan and prepare during the week, and how we execute it on Saturday with the goal of being 1-0.
Q: Bobby what do you see as Blake’s strengths as a quarterback seeing as it’s his first time starting and he’s been with the program for three years now?
A: Yeah, the number one thing is he has “escapeability”. His ability to get out of the pocket, the ability to move within the pocket. He’s had a lot of practice with that through the spring and summer against our defensive line. That ability to escape, and he can make plays with his feet, he can make plays on the run, and he protects the football. That’s what he’s shown so far. Now in terms of games, we’ll evaluate and see when he gets in a game how is his level of poise. Does he protect the football when he’s in the game, but everything I’ve seen through practice makes me feel really good about him being the starter.
Q: I know you’re usually a early to bed kind of guy, but did you watch Taylor last night?
A: I just couldn’t make it. I was trying, but then they started the fourth quarter and he wasn’t in. He had told us he thought he was playing the fourth but they started with Keenum. His ribs are really bothering him. He’s hurt right now and he’s trying to play through it, which makes that performance last night even more remarkable. If you can just imagine when your rib hurts and you’re trying to throw the ball as a quarterback it’s like getting stuck with a knife every time you try and throw the ball. Ron Whitcomb talked to him this morning, and he knew he needed to play. There’s limited opportunities right now for him to put himself on video. Hopefully it’s with the Vikings, but if not, you’re auditioning for somebody else, that’s what preseason is when you’re in a position like Taylor is. For him to do that, to have that success that was the talk of the building early this morning amongst all the coaches and players. Everybody was pretty excited. Rashaad Coward played pretty well yesterday. Not as glorious, nobody wants to watch a d-lineman in there bucking it up, but it was good to see Rashaad get some reps.