Kansas Football Continues Preparations For 2011 Season
Aug. 26, 2011
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas football continued preparations for the 2011 season here Friday, practicing in the afternoon on the fields adjacent to Memorial Stadium. The Jayhawks worked out for just over two hours, focusing on individual drills, specials teams and some situational downs.
Following the practice, Kansas Recruiting Coordinator/Running Backs Coach Reggie Mitchell met with the media. The following is the transcript from his interview:
Recruiting Coordinator/ Running Backs Coach Reggie Mitchell
On how the carries will be distributed among the team’s running back corps:
“There are going to be different things that we do in the offense that will get guys the ball. We are going to run the ball more and it is going to be by committee. So we just have to find the things that guys do best and go with it that way.”
On having depth at the position:
“Running backs are a lot like tires because they only have so many hits in them as tires only have so many treads in them, so someone may get dinged. Really you are never going to have all four at the same time. One week it may be three and then you may have two, so it will balance out. The guys will be happy because they all know their roles and they are all unselfish too.”
On if anyone stands out right now as the lead player at the position:
“James (Sims) is probably the most complete guy we have but we have some other guys that bring other things forward, so we will try to make sure we feature them too. With that said, I think that if a guy is hot we will kind of go with him.”
On freshman running back Tony Pierson:
“He is a guy that is very explosive and out of our running backs he is the fastest one we have. He is someone that for us can just take it and do some things. To use a baseball term, we have some guys that are like singles and doubles hitters and he is someone who can hit a home run for us. That is why we have to find a way where we can put him on the perimeter and get the ball in his hands more.”
