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First day means a lot of general questions. Here’s what Tom Herman had to say.

Opening statement: Good day. Questions?

On what he wanted to see and what he saw: I wanted to see effort. I mean, this isn’t football. I still don’t know why we have to go out there and play without safety equipment. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Really, the only thing you can gauge, because technique, you’ve got to coach it. Technique and the assignments and fundamentals, all that stuff is going to be rusty for the veterans. It’s going to be non-existent for the young guys. The one thing we talk about all the time in this program that is demanded, not coached but demanded, is effort and ball security. I think we answered the bell today. Small victories, right? We made it through stretch in 10 minutes. I think we had one call back. When the defense took the field, I didn’t have to call them back one time. There was very few things as far as effort that had to be addressed.

On if that is satisfying compared to the struggles the team had on this day last year: It’s the reason that we were in all of the games that we were in. We’ve got to learn how to finish. We’ve got to learn how to play smarter. We’ve got to coach better. We’ve got to coach them how to finish and how to play smarter. I can’t tell you how many people said of last year’s team, “man you’ve got them really playing hard.” That is about as good a compliment that you can receive as a coach. To see it carry over and to see the work that coach McKnight has done, and the continual building of this culture was very satisfying to be honest with you. What does that mean? I don’t know. We’ve still got to execute inside zone, we’ve still got to tackle people, we’ve still got to cover people, all that stuff, block people, so on and so forth. From what you can glean from a non-padded practice, I was pleased.

On players that might have caught his attention today: I’m not going to lie to you. Never do. The two young quarterbacks, they didn’t look out of place which was good. Obviously, they screwed their fair share of things up, but they looked like they belonged. The guys that jog out with the first group at d-line and b-backer with Charles Omenihu, Ta’Quon Graham was actually playing nose today, and then Breckyn Hager, then Malcolm Roach at b-backer, that’s a strong, powerful explosive group up front, and they played like it. Again, d-line playing without pads, it’s not a whole lot. I would say all the young guys, all the newcomers. Somebody asked me yesterday in the presser if they’ve exceeded expectations, they did so as well today on the field.

On if he’s told players or assistants what they need to be good at after the spring: No. The two big words of the offseason have been develop and finish. I think we need to improve dramatically in those two areas. Obviously that will continue into the summer conditioning. I also think offensively we’ve got to find an identity in the run game. We’ve got to be more efficient in the pass game. We’ve got to be better on third down. I think those were the three offensive goals.

On what makes him think Sam Cosmi can take another step: He’s raw, but strong and powerful. He’s got length and aggressiveness. Again, even at this level, offensive linemen aren’t supposed to play probably until their third year, until their redshirt sophomore year. I definitely don’t want to put any unwarranted expectations on Samuel Cosmi, somebody that has impressed in the winter offseason and excited about his trajectory.

On Derek Kerstetter’s progress: He looks like a guy that’s played 10 college football games out there. He’s obviously bigger, stronger, more flexible. When he walked out there last year, everything was big and bright and probably a bit overwhelming. Now, it’s a bit old hat. He looks like a veteran out there. I think he’s 302 pounds now. He’s really strong, and he’s not quite as strong as some of the other young offensive linemen, but he’s getting there. He can move and he’s extremely smart.

On if he feels like he has the players to replace Poona Ford: I would be doing Poona and his contribution to this program an injustice if I didn’t say we were concerned about replacing him. That guy, as I told you numerous times last year, probably the hardest practicing defensive lineman I’ve ever seen since Casey Hampton. Obviously, it showed on game day. He’s the Big 12 Defensive Lineman of the Year. Any time a guy plays that well and not just behind the scenes, not just a guy that we laud but maybe doesn’t have the pelts on the wall on game day, that guy produced. I think more than anything it’s going to be can we replace his production up there. Yeah, I’m concerned. I don’t know if that’s the right word. (It’s on your radar?) Yeah, and I’m eager to see the guys that we have tasked with that job to perform their job.

On what practice was like with offensive coaches in new roles: It was easier at wide receiver because the two coaches could parse the field into halves. You coach that side, you coach that side. It makes it a lot more efficient that way instead of one guy trying to run across, and I’m coaching this guy while the other, maybe a GA or something like that is trying to coach them. That was good. With Coach Hand, we’ve been out doing position specific conditioning for the last four weeks. These kids have gotten to know him and his coaching style. There was really no major adjustment there.

On how Herb Hand coaches and what he likes about his method: I believe that position is the most interdependent from a teammate standpoint. I literally can’t do my job correctly if the guy next to you doesn’t do his job correctly. It’s also the most technically challenging. You can be this combine warrior or whatever and be a Greek god, bench press the world, this that and the other, but if you don’t play with technique and fundamentals, you’ve got no shot. Also, if you don’t play with proper technique, fundamentals, and an aggression and physicality, you’ve got no shot. I think coach Hand does a great job of mixing the ‘hey we’re going to do it more better and fundamentally sound than anyone in the country, but we’re also going to do it with more physicality than anyone in the country.’

On if his coaches or his players told the younger players the expectations for practices: I think they (the players) did, because I think we called one young guy back and there was a lot of older guys that were not real happy with that young guy. That put a smile on my face to know that we got through a two hour and some change practice and only one newcomer had to be disciplined for lack of effort or finish. Really, all I had to do was blow the whistle and say his name. The leaders of this group got on him pretty good. That’s encouraging. That’s when you know you’re heading in the right direction.

On when he’ll know if he has a punter: When’s the first game? Seriously, you can do all you want. It’s kind of like kicker. “Hey, we’re going to go 100 percent in practice and he’s going to bang them 45 yards with 5.5 hang time here.” You put however many people are going to be in FedEx Field… Kind of joking but kind of not to be honest with you. We’ll know if he’s got a chance by the end of spring.

On what Family Friday is (Herman was wearing a Family Friday shirt): This is one from the season. Family Friday is our walkthrough on Friday when we go out and we play games with each other and kind of get to know each other, and fellowship. Then we do a walkthrough, then we go to the hotel and there’s no football. It’s all fellowship. It’s all playing cards, playing – connect four is a big thing now? – kids are playing connect four, playing dominoes, we watch movies, we watch coach (Mack) Brown’s game on Friday night and eat popcorn. Just kind of get to know each other. These are the shirts that we wear and it just happened to be the one I grabbed in my locker.

On Herman’s best board game: Trivial Pursuit. I love board games. Can I say Candy Land, actually?

On when they’ll start getting more complicated in the install: One of the things that I felt I could have done a better job as the head coach last year was Todd Orlando is so good at teaching his scheme. It’s why I hired him and why I’m still in awe to this day how he can get so much defense taught. I allowed him to install at the pace that he was used to. I think what that caused was our offense, you get on the board and you install inside zone and you say “okay, here’s your rules versus an odd front. Here’s your rules versus a four down front. Here’s your rules versus bear. But oh by the way, when we go out on the field you’re going to have to know exception a, b, c, d, e, and f because that’s what you’re going to see against our defense. We never really go to get good at a just playing against base defense. This spring, and I hate it for Coach Orlando but it’s what we need as a team, we’re going to slow the defensive instillation down. Today was nothing but odd with quarters coverage. That was it for however any plays we went team. 32 plays, something like that. Tomorrow will be nothing but four-down quarters or man-free. Saturday, there will be very limited blitzes. We’ll progress very, very slowly but we’re going to allow the offense to get at least comfortable. I’m not trying to slant spring practice so that one side wins or the other. I definitely know that we can do a better job of making sure the offense gets comfortable against base defense.

On ideas for backup center: Absolutely. We have been, even through our walkthroughs in winter conditioning, we have rotated Derek Kerstetter and Elijah Rodriguez. Elijah can play right tackle, is playing right tackle, but could also play guard. There’s a good intermingling of those guys at center, right guard, right tackle. It looked pretty good today.