Kansas Football Met With The Media Monday

April 20, 2010

Gill

Kansas football fans can follow the Jayhawks on the internet through KU’s official website, as well as get behind the scenes looks through the official Kansas football blog.

Head Coach Turner Gill

On the spring game:

“It is an exciting week for us to really get prepared for our spring game. It gives everybody a chance to come see what we have. We are going to fine tune some things and get our guys to continue to get better and try to make sure we have a great week of practice because we only have four opportunities now to get them evaluated and at the end of spring we will see where we are and go from there.”

On the quarterback situation:

“There won’t be a complete decision as far as the quarterback spot after Saturday’s scrimmage. We won’t say that XYZ is going to be the starter. It is definitely going to go into fall camp.”

On the team’s progress:

“I think like in most practices you have some good days and some not so good days. How do I define good days and not so good days. From a head coaches’ perspective a lot of times you talk about turnovers and talk about defense creating turnovers. I like to see speed. I like to see aggressiveness. I like to see physicality. I like to see guys running to the football. That is what gets me excited and seeing that we have an opportunity to progress. I have been seeing some of that. I have seen more good days than not so good days. These last four days are really going to tell me a whole lot about our football team as far as how they will work this summer when we are not around.

Sophomore Tight End Tim Biere

On why he thinks he is being mentioned as one of the most productive players during spring practice:

“Well this new offense is great for the tight ends. We get a lot more opportunities to be involved in the offense. We’re out there every play now, as opposed to last year when Kerry (Meier) was here, we had to split time with him.”

On the differences from this year to last:

“Last year I was mainly in the blocking role for most of the season. Towards the end of the season, I got a little more passes to catch, but this year, it’s totally night and day. I get a lot more opportunities to do both.”

On if he sees the depth at tight end being an advantage:

“It’s great because (AJ Steward) and I can be on the field at the same time now – he and the U-Back – both back in the backfield running around.”

On his progression from last year:

“Coming into last year it was different because the first game I had some opportunities to catch the ball, but then I got hurt, and that kind of set me back until later in the season. Definitely with this new offense and Coach (Chuck) Long’s system, he definitely likes the tight ends.”

Senior Defensive End Jake Laptad

On how he views himself as a leader:

“I’ve been playing here for three years now and I’m going into my senior season. I feel like I need to step it up and become one of the more vocal leaders, not just being a leader by example, but being a vocal leader as well.”

On how the team is handling leadership roles:

“It will happen with time. We’re going to have guys step up and become one of those more vocal leaders, more playmaking leaders and all-around leaders. It will happen with time.”

Sophomore Quarterback Kale Pick:

On the spring game:

“Hopefully we will see improvements from our team. Today (Monday) was a big step for us, we had a really good practice. We had a better tempo and our offense was really synching with our linemen and our receivers. But, I think it will be a good game. Obviously, whatever team I’m quarterbacking I want to win. I guess just getting improvement and getting a win.”

On how the teams will be broken up:

“I have no idea. They haven’t told us.”

On how he wants the teams to be divided:

“It doesn’t really matter. If you could mix it up, that would be good. If you could get all the one’s and two’s mixed up, it would make it a little more even. Before I got here, I had some guys like Todd (Reesing) and Kerry (Meier), tell me it has been pretty uneven in the past. I think it would be pretty good if we could even it out as much as we could.”

Freshman Quarterback Jordan Webb

On if he is looking forward to the spring game:

“Definitely, it’s going to be exciting, I’m looking forward to it a lot. I’m really not sure what the format is going to be, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

On what he’s looking forward to:

“It is just going to be fun getting into this new offense, getting to know the new offense in a real game format, and playing with the new guys. The whole thing is going to be exciting. It would mean a lot if a lot of people showed up. We’re out here working pretty hard, we’re pushing ourselves out here – getting some fan support would be really nice.”

On how playing under center has been going:

“It’s actually been going really nice. I was a little nervous about it coming in since I hadn’t done it since junior football, but it’s been different, but it has been good.”