Football Fall Camp: Defensive Backs Take Their Turn Under the Microscope
Kansas football entered the home stretch of fall camp with the final week of fall practice entering its second day Tuesday. The Jayhawks conducted a single practice on the fields outside Memorial Stadium Tuesday afternoon and beforehand, members of the defensive secondary fielded questions from the media. Selected responses are listed below.
Quoteables
Dave Campo, Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Backs Coach
On his first thoughts about Dexter McDonald…
“When I first got here, the very first thing I did was I took all the one-on-one tapes from the year before and all the practice tapes from the one-on-one (drills)because I wanted to see the guys that were here. I wanted to see what they were doing footwork-wise and of course Dexter was on those tapes before he left. When I first saw him I asked, ‘who is this guy?’ Then they told me he was dismissed, and I said if we have a chance we have to get this guy back because he’s what you’re looking for.”
On if he has a different plan after one year of coaching at Kansas…
“I think as a staff we have a better plan. We’ve changed things a little bit defensively, we have more guys with more experience, we have more experience attacking the spread (offense). We’ve given more guys more responsibilities, and I think that’s the main difference coaching-wise, everyone is on the same page. We can’t just go out there and practice like the team is huddling, we have to go out there and get these guys scrambling to get back to the line of scrimmage. When you don’t really understand that tempo, you see guys get back there, they might be in the right position, but they’re not thinking. They’re not thinking about what’s going to happen. So I think right now we have a total understanding defensively of the game that we’re playing.”
Dextor Linton, Sr., Safety
On being named to the leadership committee…
“It means a lot because my teammates respect me to that level. Not being a captain, but being on the leadership committee is a big honor too, so I’m just trying to do the best I can to help my teammates and be the leader they need me to be at that time.”
On this year’s safeties…
“As a group we are still learning. I can’t really say how far we are and we haven’t played a game yet, but we seem to be picking things up real quick and we seem to be a smart group. As of now we are athletic enough and we are pretty good, but the sky is the limit and you can’t really tell right now.”
On the offense challenging the defense in practice…
“Practice is going really good. They are throwing the ball around and we have a good running game. Everything seems to be strong right now. I feel like we need more time to mesh and after that we will be fine. It turns into a competition (in practice). It gets competitive and we just want to win. Sometimes they win, sometimes we win, it just goes back and forth.”
Brandon Holloman, So., Cornerback
On what aspects of his game he has focused most on developing…
“I was at a junior college which is a different world than Division I football. I have been focused on maintaining my conditioning and strength, and I have dedicated extra time to work on my technique and improve on my footwork. I am preparing myself to compete against all of the receivers in the Big 12.”
On who the leader of the secondary is…
“Since I have been here, we have all been a tight-knit group. I can’t single any one person out as a leader, I can just say that we are all together. A lot of players are making plays out there. Dexter Linton and Dexter McDonald have been here a little bit longer than me, but we all have had great camaraderie as a unit.”
On what the secondary has focused on to eliminate giving up big plays…
“A lot of big plays happen because of small mistakes. The coaches have been working on footwork and technique and anything that happens before the snap to help get us prepared to limit those type of plays.”
Scott Vestal, Secondary Coach
On the energy level the secondary brings to every practice…
“We elected our captains and the leadership council the other day and a couple of our guys, Dexter Linton and Cassius Sendish, are part of that group. A guy like Dexter (Linton) has been around for a while now; he is the only guy that has played a lot of snaps, other than JaCorey (Shepard) at cornerback. It is about taking our message as a coaching staff, and really taking it to them and letting it filter through the team. We always say, ‘hey you are either a thermostat or a thermometer.’ The thermometer takes the temperature and the thermostat sets it. We need to be the thermostat. We don’t have the luxury of having a bad day. We stress to our players to be a pacesetter and to set their thermostat. Those two guys and the rest of the secondary, Greg Allen and those guys, it is their job to lead us in the secondary inside out.”
On the challenges of blitzing from the secondary with the spread offenses in the Big 12…
“A lot of times, the offenses create so much space that you have to show your cards, and that can be a problem. If the offense knows what you are doing all the time, you are dead meat. When you bring a corner off the boundary, or a safety weak, or a nickel or mike (linebacker) to the field, all of those things we work very hard to disguise but the spread offense does make it tough. We also believe this, disguise is important but we never want to hold our disguise so long that we can’t get to our assignment. There are times you have to show your cards with the spread offense, which has overtaken America, and they do a great job to where we will have to give up our disguise sometimes this season.”
Greg Allen, RS-Fr., Cornerback
On what he learned from redshirting…
“Always at practice, just listen and go the hardest you can at practice. Coach knows what he is talking about, and just take it into game day. And you can’t take any days off of practice and (you) can’t expect to do things different in practice then turn it on in the game. It’s not like that.”
On his transition from safety to cornerback…
“It’s great now since I know everything. If they want to move me from corner to safety if we got there, it would be great since I know all of the positions back there now.”
On his goals for this season…
“I told Bradley McDougald I’d catch more picks than he did last year. I think he caught like three or four, so I’d like to top that three or four.”
Isaiah Jonson, So., Safety
On coming from a Junior College to Kansas…
“I think there’s a big difference. I think everybody just has a faster tempo and the game is just a whole lot faster. Player-wise I think I can say it’s about the same, just a faster tempo.”
On his responsibilities as safety…
“You have a big role in leadership and communicate where everybody is going, from the linebackers to the defensive line. You have to make sure everybody is on check – basically the quarterback of the defense.”
Tweetworthy
CB Kevin Short joined #kufball practice today! #number7inthehouse #jointhechant pic.twitter.com/shkmVgv2Z4
— Kansas Football (@KU_Football) August 20, 2013
Looking Ahead
Kansas will open the 2013 football season by hosting South Dakota on Saturday, Sept. 7 in Memorial Stadium. Game time is slated for 6 p.m. Tickets are still available and can be purchased by contacting the Kansas Ticket Office at 1-800-34-HAWKS or via the web at KUAthletics.com.
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