Postseason Football Wrap Up

Dec. 10, 2010

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Notes and Statistics in PDF Format

Turner Gill Postseason Press Conference Quotes and Notes

Message to the fans:

“I want to say our fans about why they should be excited about next season. One we understand our team better as a staff. We will have better speed. We will have better depth. Our staff knows how to build a winning program… I have brought people in on our staff who know how to build a winning program.”

On winter signees who will be here in January:

Dylan Admire – “Tremendous offensive lineman. We believe he is one of the best guys we had on our board as far as offensive linemen. We are glad he decided to come here. He is strong. He is athletic. He is explosive. That is a word I have used towards the end of the year, particularly to our football team, is that I want us to be more explosive. All of the players we bring in here need to have some explosive movement. That doesn’t mean they necessarily have to be fast, but we need guys to have a suddeness, a burst, to explode into contact. Dylan Admire fits into that.”

Darian Miller – “Set big class all-time rushing record (in Missouri). He has tremendous speed, tremendous vision and whenever the ball is in his hands he has the ability to take it to the end zone on any given play. We are extremely excited about him and even more excited that he will be here in January.”

On what Kansas is selling to recruits:

“We have a championship staff, who knows how to win and build a winning program. Anyone who decides to come to Kansas will have an opportunity to play. We will be on national television just as much as anyone in the country. We have facilities equal to or better than anyone in the country and our brand of football will be exciting. We talk about the atmosphere at Kansas, as I have learned since I have been here, that this is a prestigious university. You are going to get an outstanding education. There is a sense of pride and tradition here at the University of Kansas. That last thing is you have a true sense of belonging. There is a belonging feel. People want to get engaged and they are connected.”

On special teams:

“I know that we will have better speed and I know we will have better depth and when you have a combination of those two, you will be better off in special teams. The reason I say that is from the guys who redshirted, we will have more speed. Our long snapper is going to be better… I know we have potential to be better at punter and kicker.”

On defense:

“I know we will be faster and we will be more athletics. I see that because of the guys coming back are more experienced. They understand what they need to do and how they need to do it. Toben Opurum is going to be an outstanding palyer for us at defensive end. He continued to improve throughout the tyear. McDougald will stay at the safety position at this particular time. We are going to move some of our defensive ends to the defensive tackle positions to gain more athleticism. We may, as we go into spring, think about some of our safeties moving to outside linebacker to increasae some explosive movement. I think the return of several key players who were injured – Huldon Tharp, having him back will be tremendous. Keeston Terry – having him back will be tremendous. Those things are going to improve our defense.

On offense:

“I think we are going to be more productive. As far as experience, this year we had so many people who had not really played a whole lot of football. You start with the quarterback, with the running back, with the wide receivers – we had a couple of guys. We didn’t have a whole lot of experience at the skill positions. That is going to be better because the guys coming back have experience and we have some young people who we redshirted who are as good and potentially better. We gained physicality as we got into the season. (early in the year) We didn’t have the physicality and I think we saw as we got into the last part of our season, our running game got a lot better. That is part of what I want to see in our football team is develop and have physicality throughout our football team.”

“We showed explosiveness, at least the potential. We just didn’t do it on a consistent basis. You saw in the three wins, offensively, where we could be explosive, where we could make plays, and guys could dominate a game or a quarter, but we just couldn’t get that on a consistent basis. That potential is there. We just need to fine tune that and we will be ok.”

Key redshirts who will impact next year:

“Jimmay Mundine is going to be a tight end for us. If there is one guy this season, in practice, he has what you are looking for. He has explosiveness, he can make plays down the field catching it, catching it on short passes and making people miss and going the distance. Another guy is Nick Sizemore, a transfer from Buffalo who will be a fullback for us. He will help us in special teams and we are going to run more of a two-back because we are confident he can get the job done. He is going to be an impact player for us. The last guy is Darius Willis, another transfer from Buffalo, a linebacker. He has already shown great leadership… This guy was on the compete squad this past season, but already our guys have spoken about him being a leader.”

Players out for spring practice:

CB Isiah Barfied (shoulder surgery)

OL Riley Spencer (shoulder surgery)

RB Rell Lewis (limited recovering from leg injury)

Roster changes

FB/DE Steven Foster (graduating early)

DB Ryan Murphy (graduating early)

DT Darius Parish (transfter)