Week One- An Interview With COACH HOPE
THE MODERATOR: We're going to go
ahead and get started here. We'll start out with the
phone calls. Go ahead.
Q. Coach, talk about what you saw on film that you'll see from Notre Dame this weekend.
COACH
HOPE: They're awfully good from the line of scrimmage. They have a heck
of an offensive line. Big and strong and experienced, veteran offensive
line. And I think their front seven on defense is outstanding. They
have, obviously, a lot of great players on their football team.
Tyler Eifert is certainly one of the top players at his position on a
national level. Great skill players, particularly in the backfield.
What really sticks out in my mind is their strength off the line of
scrimmage with their offensive line and the strength of their defensive
front seven.
Q. Hey, Coach. Wanted to talk to you about Frankie Williams winning the
Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors. What do you think about the way
Frankie played, and what do you expect from the freshman this year?
COACH
HOPE: Frankie's a very good player, very skilled. He was highly
regarded in the recruiting process. We recruited him long and hard and
got a commitment from him, and then there was a lot of competition to
hang on to Frankie. He was a guy, who the season was over last year, we
had redshirted, but looking back at last year, if I had to do it all
over again, I would have taken the redshirt off of Frankie Williams
because he was certainly a good enough football player to help us win
last year, not only as a defensive back but also as a punt returner.
He's a high energy guy, unbelievable to be around. Has an unbelievable
personality. A lot of fun. He has great character, and he is a
character. A great addition to our football team. I think he'll be a
real star here at Purdue throughout his career.
Q. And I wanted to get your take on -- I wanted you to assess your
running game from week one and what strides you want to make going
forward as well.
COACH HOPE: I couldn't understand your question.
Q. Your running game, and what did you think of it in week one, and
what do you want to do to kind of improve upon it as you go forward as
well?
COACH
HOPE: I was excited about the way our team showed up and played the
whole game with a lot of emotion and enthusiasm. We had the game pretty
much handled by halftime and challenged our team to come out in the
second half and demonstrate some killer instinct, if you will. I
thought that they really rallied to the occasion. So I was glad that we
were able to start fast and finish strong.
There
were some areas of improvement, obviously. We turn the ball over way
too much. Against a better opponent, that would potentially equate into
a loss. I think we're a much more disciplined football team this year.
We didn't have very many penalties throughout the course of the game,
didn't have any penalties on defense. We didn't have any pre-snap
penalties on offense until the latter part of the fourth quarter.
I
think there's a lot of great signs for our football team. We have grown
up in the church significantly from a physical standpoint. We're an
older, better, and more physically mature football team, particularly
across the defensive front. So a lot of good signs this past
Saturdayand certainly some areas to improve on.
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