Oct. 20, 2009
Opening Statement:
"I only know one thing, and that's to keep on working and keep on pushing buttons. If you have to make changes, we'll make changes until a light finally comes on and we begin to do the things we're capable of doing. As I say every week, we have had a good practice. Last night's practice, you wouldn't believe it had been a practice after the way we performed on Saturday. It was a good practice. Injury-wise we've been pretty fortunate for the most part. Aside of Martez [Wilson] and Miami [Thomas], we've had basically ankles. Everybody practiced last night with the exception of Jarred Fayson, who increased his workload quite a bit, and Donsay [Hardeman]. I think Donsay is probably questionable right now, but Garrett Edwards should be back. All the guys with the ankles practiced. Corey Liuget was probably the best he's been since it happened in the Penn State game. Hopefully he's getting back to where he was. As we told them last night, it's going to be another challenge. This football team (Purdue), a week ago, felt exactly like we're feeling right now. The light came on, they had spurts, and they've been very productive on offense. They either lead or are at the top of the Big Ten in most offensive categories - touchdowns, passing yardage. Their quarterback is a fifth-year guy that's kind of paid his dues. He's a coach's son. I'm very impressed with what they're doing on offense and obviously they hit their strike Saturday. Ohio State turned the ball over a few times and gave them the opportunity and they took advantage of the opportunity and made some things happen. That's where we are. We have to keep going. We're halfway through and we have to be a lot better the second half than we were the first half of the season."
On what will happen if Donsay [Hardeman] isn't able to play:
"We'll just substitute Garrett (Edwards) for Donsay. I talked to Garrett last night and he feels very confident that he'll be out there and I think he will be. He practiced pretty well last night. I don't want to hold Donsay off. He has a stiff neck, and he had a stiff neck before the Iowa game last year and he came back and played. The good thing for Donsay is that all the tests were negative and the doctors feel better about everything now knowing where he is."
On Jarred Fayson:
"I'd have to list Jarred as questionable although he did work pretty hard last night. We'll increase his workload today and see. The only two guys that didn't practice were Donsay and Jarred, and Jarred was out there. Donsay was just getting treatment, and it's muscle stuff and trying to get that out of his neck. Jarred worked pretty hard."
On who will play quarterback:
"Just like I said last week, and I'm going to leave it at this, we're going to keep pushing buttons and keep making changes and moves until we get this thing where it has to be. At the end of the week, if we feel like Juice (Williams) gives us the best chance to win he will play. I think as a coaching staff, one of the things I've heard from a lot of people and one of my faults among many, is that sometimes I stay with people too long. It's not just Ron Zook's decision - it's a staff decision. It's a coaches decision, it's about who gives us the best opportunity to win. I think Juice knows that and everybody else knows that. Jacob (Charest) practiced last night and he got the most practice he's had in three weeks. I was impressed with what he did. Like I said, we have to keep making changes and moves until the right things click."
On how the players are responding:
"I talk to the upper class guys all the time and Rejus [Benn] and I had a conversation last night about where they're at. They're frustrated just like the rest of us. They want this to turn out the way we all do. They're hanging in there and they're trying to do exactly what we tell them to do and that's all we can do."
On scrimmaging more in practice:
"We didn't scrimmage but we're going to get after it today. We did some things differently at the end of practice yesterday, which I thought was good for both sides of the football. Today, we'll get after it a little bit, a little bit of one-on-one's and two's-on two's. We have to be a little bit careful, but still we have to get to playing the way we're capable of playing."
On Mikel LeShoure:
"Mikel practiced. He gimped a little bit but he didn't miss a thing. In fact, he ran and everything so I think that's a very positive note."
On Leshoure's play on Saturday:
"Yes, I think there were a couple of times if he would have stayed straight down the hatch instead of trying to be a Barry Sanders he would have gotten more yards, but I think for the most part he did a nice job."
On Leshoure struggling with blocking:
"No, if you saw the one time when we were in an 'I' formation, he was actually the fullback and Jason [Ford] was the tailback."
On taking things from the year they went to the Rose Bowl:
"I've already done it. I've already gone back and tried to do a lot of the same things with practice times and the whole bit. One of the things, if you go back and look at that year, is that we had some guys who made some plays and you wondered how they made them. We're not making those plays this year and even to a certain extent we weren't last year either. A lot of that has to do with passion. When our guys are finally tired of this and decide that's it, I'm sick of it, I'm not going to take it anymore, that's when we'll get back on track."
On changing things since this season started:
"Absolutely. Other than time and practice time and things like that, there really aren't a lot of different things. It's chemistry, and I'm not indicating in any way that we have bad chemistry on our football team. We have great chemistry on our football team. All the things that have to go right to have a successful season, and as I told them last night, the Tennessee Titans had the best record in football last year and what's happened - they're basically the same guys and Coach Fisher is a great football coach, but for whatever reason things aren't clicking and that's the nature of this game sometimes."
On the talent on the team this year compared to two years ago:
"Talent is one thing but productivity is another. Measuring productivity is what happens in the game of football and obviously we're not where we were two years ago."
On what made Purdue effective against Ohio State:
"Once again, they had some good things happen with form. I think the first time they punted, Ohio State fumbled the ball on the 12-yard line and they came out with a field goal. Some things happened that they were able to capitalize on and you could see the emotion and energy of the football team take over. It's a good football team. It's a football team that's almost, but not entirely, fifth-years and seniors. It's a veteran football team that's been through a lot. You could see their confidence grow as the game went on and by the end of the game they were pretty good."
On if the younger players understand how hard they have to play:
"I won't put that all on the younger players, but I don't think there's any question, that's why as an older football team, those guys have been through the wars and understand that. We told those younger guys when we were getting ready for the Rose Bowl that they have to understand the level they have to play at for every single play. You could go back through every single game this year and you could come up with a highlight tape and say "Oh man, we had to win," but it's the six or seven or eight plays that start the rockslide, and then it goes from there. First of all, you don't know when those plays are going to be, and that's nothing new, everyone knows that about coaching. You have to play every play like it's going to be one of those plays."
On being happy with the offensive line's performance:
"For the most part, I don't think there's any question. In fact, I was with the offensive guys last night watching tape and I looked at Joe [Gilbert] and said, 'Joe, watching Hugh [Thornton] on practice tape makes you feel a little better driving home, right?' He made a few mistakes and obviously he's going to, but the intensity, the flying around, he's going to be a good football player. He has a smile on his face. He's enjoying what he's doing. The more he learns, the better he's going to be, and a little bit of that carries over to the rest of them. We have to get Jeff Allen back to that. Jeff was like that more so last year than he is this year and as I told him last night - we have to get Jeff back to playing like that, that's how he was. I think the last couple weeks Jeff has begun to step his game up as well."
On recruiting Hugh Thornton:
"The more I got to know him and his background and the type of kid he is, I did say going into camp that he might be a guy that could possibly be able to come in and help us part way through the season."
On getting to know Thornton:
"They're all different, but he has that nasty toughness about him. You look at Purdue's right tackle, that guy is a nasty fifth-year senior and a good football player. He's nasty and Hugh has a little bit of that in him. I think he'll be a player like that."
On Thornton being any different at practice after playing Saturday:
"It's all going so fast I don't think it's caught up with him yet. I know he practiced hard and as I said during the tape, sitting beside Joe [Gilbert], it makes you feel good watching that because he's just going to continue to get better and better."
