Tom Herman

Opening statement: That was a real one. We pushed the start time back to simulate kickoff for our opening game. The twos, 53 snaps and the ones played close to 50. So right about 100 total plus about 12 or so kick snaps whether it'd be kickoff or kick return, punt, and we were full cover on those. So I was proud of the guys, at the end of the scrimmage they still had a lot of energy but it's that time of camp right now. Practice 12, in the heat, a lot of dead legs out there. But it's for a reason and we're going to take tomorrow off, cryo chambers, massage therapists, saltwater floats, the whole nine to try to get our legs back a little bit. Next week we'll be at Whitaker Fields, just another changeup for them to have to adapt and to change.



On determining team makeup next week: By Saturday, camp is over. Then it's get ready to win a game. Your identity, who you are, your toughness level because you've got to get them back physically, those last two weeks. The pounding, the length of time on the field, all of that's going to decrease significantly after this week and so I think that's fair to say. By the next scrimmage on Saturday, we should know a lot about our team and there'll be a lot of things, whether you like it or not, that''ll be who we are. That is who we are.



On concerns over depth at different positions: The depth at tight end, and what are we going to do there if Andrew (Beck) breaks a shoelace. It's a shame that Garrett Gray has missed a ton of practice because of summer school. He missed all day today because he was taking a final. He goes through individual and then a tiny bit of team during the week and then he has class. It's been really tough to evaluate him because we haven't seen so much of him, so I worry a little bit at that position. Depth at linebacker too, if one of those guys breaks a shoelace.



On Breckyn Hager : He's a situational guy right now, he can really rush the passer in our third down stuff. He's developed a little bit more stamina there at middle (Mike) linebacker playing with the twos. If you'd asked me in the spring, he couldn't have gone about three plays in a row. For whatever reason, he wasn't in really good football shape. But he's been able to sustain drives now, so he's doing good.



On the team's progress: There's no installation left, so we've got the offense and defense in. It's just a matter of repetition and doing it on defense and seeing it versus different formations and different plays. And the same thing for offense, calling a play and seeing it versus different fronts and blitzes. I think that we're where we should be, we're on schedule.



On whether offense or defense came out on top in practice: The defense. It was interesting because the offense was up by five and I actually told Coach (Yancy) McKnight, I said, "Hey, it's over." But we were at the end of a two-minute drill and it was third down or second down. The defense sacked him, which they got two points for that. Then there's four seconds left, tried a last play, didn't get it. So three points for getting them off the field. So that tied it up, so we put the ball down on the two-and-a-half. One play to win, and the defense stopped them. So it was good to rally back from when I thought it was basically over at that point.



On what the defense is showing in training camp scrimmages: We're getting there in the red zone. That was an area in the spring that was a concern for us, but we're getting better in terms of where we need to be. But these guys, so much more so than in the spring, they're running and hitting. Today was one of those, "Give us everything you've got." I know that it's not going to look like you're 100%, but we know what your 75% is, we know what it should look like practice 12 of you giving everything you've got. And they're running around and hitting people with energy and enthusiasm, so they gave us everything they had today.



On the defense playing well: Our defense is really hard to prepare for, it's really difficult. We had one of the best offenses in the country for two years at Houston, probably in spring and summer only won a couple of scrimmages against our defense. So our defense is difficult to prepare for.



On concern regarding the running back group: I do, because our two true freshmen, who we're going to count on, they had a rough go of it this morning. They both got called out of stretch to start the day off and that's never a good thing. They've got to mature quickly because we're going to need them. Am I concerned, no. But again, the Chris Warren question, we've still got three weeks. If we're sitting here a week from now and Chris (Warren) isn't practicing and Kyle's (Porter) not practicing and Tristian's (Houston) not practicing, then I'll be concerned. But right now, not yet because they're minor things. We're not talking about torn knees, broken bones or anything like that, they're things that you should be able to recover from pretty quickly.



On chemistry with Todd Orlando : TO ( Todd Orlando ) is my muscle. TO is the guy I want walking down a dark alley with me on my side, should that occur. We have the same philosophies on how to play defense, how to play football, and how to motivate players and how to develop that culture of toughness. When you see the guy, here's a guy that grew up in the steel town of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and played for Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin early in Alvarez' career and went to a Rose Bowl. Those are some really physical teams. The way the guy was raised is probably no secret as to why his personality is that way that it is.



On progress of the quarterbacks: Sam (Ehlinger) had a good week. Sam made some strides and will continue to get reps with the ones. He was the one in the last two-minute drive that was the quarterback with the ones and led them down to the four-yard line. We didn't punch it in, but he has made a lot of strides in the last four, five practices.



On naming the starter at quarterback by the end of the last week of training camp: I would think so. I do think going in that Monday, we're introducing Maryland, you're going to want the guy that's going to be the guy to be the guy. But I don't know, if Sam (Ehlinger) continues the trajectory that he's on, and it's not that Shane's (Buechele) playing bad - he's not - Shane's playing well, Sam has played better. So we'll see where we are at the end of the week and if it's too close to call, it's too close to call. But you'd like to, ideally, settle into somebody going into that Monday of the next week.