Weekly Press Luncheon Quotes
August 29, 2005 | Football
Aug. 29, 2005
GREENVILLE, N.C. - East Carolina University head football coach Skip Holtz addressed members of the media prior to this week's game against Duke. The following are selected comments:
Opening comments
"As we're going through this, we have a great challenge this week with the Duke program. I think coach Roof has done a great job of building that program. They are a much improved football team from where they've been as he's been there a couple of years and every year they just keep getting better and better. You look at them and say `they only won two games a year ago but they were about three plays away from winning five.' I think this will be a great test for where we are."
"What is really hard is when you are going through camps, it is a lot like spring practice. You come off the field one day and say `boy, our defense really looks good.' We have a chance to really be good on defense and when you walk in and sit in your chair, you say `you know what, I wonder if we are really that bad on offense.' We might not make a first down and you just don't know where you are. We haven't had a measuring stick except to compete against each other all spring and all fall, but the players have worked extremely hard in camp I think they are really excited and eager to get into this.I'm really excited to stand on the sideline and watch these guys play this week."
"We are extremely excited about having the opportunity to start the season. We have been waiting for this for a long time, eight months of work to finally get here. I'm just ready to start the season and stand on the sidelines and watch these guys play."
On team's offense
"On the offensive side of the ball, I have probably got a few more concerns as I have been saying all along. I think we've got a chance to be better on
defense than we do on offense right now because of so many of the unknowns.
James Pinkney is doing a very nice job at quarterback but missing spring
ball really kind of puts him in a limited role. As far as what he is
learning and what he has come through right now with only having this offense for twenty-something days. You've got to limit what you do with him. I think Chris Johnson is a good weapon for us. I think he has a chance to have a great year. We don't have a lot of depth at the tailback position with experience. I think up front with the offensive line we are trying to
piecemeal five guys who can be solid with us right now. On the edge I think Andre Allison has proven a little bit that he can be a big play receiver for us but we need to find stability with the rest of the wide receiver positions. The real unknown on the offensive side of the ball
is the tight end position because you are looking at a guy like Shawn
Levesque who has just come back and really had a good fall while Sean Harmon really hasn't begun practicing yet. We don't have a lot of depth at the position."
On team's defense
"I think the job Gregg Hudson has done putting this whole thing together. The job that he has done getting the players to buy into the program, what their roles are going to be and why. If everybody does their job, we are going to have success. We need to try and build a confidence, a swagger a kind of arrogance about ourselves, so to speak, defensively. There is electricity in the air on the defensive side of the ball. A large part of that is due to the excitement and enthusiasm of this coaching staff. When I sit own and watch us defensively, there are not a lot of holes."
"When you come into a program, you have to be careful that you don't try and get too complicated, not only your first year, but also your opening game. You have got to be extremely simple and say these are the staples and these are what we have to hang our hat on. Lets make sure we are real good at this before we try to put in all of the bells and whistles with it. I think that is what the defense has done and I think that is why a confidence has grown on the defensive side of the ball."
On Duke QB Mike Schneider
"He is a very poised young man and he has a strong arm. He is a big strong
quarterback. I wouldn't say he is just the athlete who is just going to come in and run the option up and down the field, I think he beats you more with his arm and with his head. I think he I a very heady quarterback. He moves around decently enough for them to utilize any play action. More than anything, he has been there before, he has been under fire and he has the experience. He is poised and he is very intelligent which means he has the ability to hurt you if you give him an opening."
On this past Saturday's scrimmage
"I think we worked out a lot of little glitches with those types of things and trying to eliminate personnel penalties, which are always a problem in a first game.I think it is great for us as a new staff. We put the coaches up in the press box and put the head sets on them and went through a typical game-like scenario conversations in between series. What we are looking for, whose talking, what we need over the head set, information-wise. I think there was a lot of positive things done that way. But I thought it was a great."
"They say the most improvement you make in a season is from your first game to your second game, especially with a lot of new players. We tried to do everything we could to make that a first-game scenario so we could eliminate a lot of the glitches going into our opening game with Duke. We went through the pre-game situation, where they will go on the field, how we go from this to that, just so they understand what to expect so you don't go out there in the first game and guys are confused on the field. I was really pleased with the overall situation, how everything was run and how the players kind of grasped it all it was really positive."
On fan support
"Anytime there is change in a program it creates a lot of excitement so I
think there will be an unbelievable amount of excitement in the stands. I
think the student body will be extremely supportive of this thing. I am
looking forward to running out of that tunnel. I think there are a lot of people that are anxious to see how this team is going to play and have the opportunity to watch them."
On coaching his first game at ECU
"No matter how many times you do it you're still a little bit nervous when
you go out there to start each season. I have used the analogy that every team has a life expectancy of one year and you don't know how your leaders are going to respond. The guys that were juniors last year all of the sudden are going to be seniors and a lot of these players that have never played before that we have got in a starting situation. Pierre Parker, he is your starting safety. He may go out there in the opening game with all of the fans and it is a little different than just running around on the practice field. I am anxious to see this team play and how they are going to respond to it. I'll have some butterflies and I'm excited about it."
"When you put this much time, effort and energy into it especially in the game of football, you only have 11 of these and it makes each one that much more important."
On turnout at the Student Pirate Club event
Last year they said there were about 50 students. This year they ran out of
food, there were students five deep lining this room. They were turning
people away. For me, it meant an awful lot that they were willing to come over here and support the program the way that they did. And I think it is great for these players, for these seniors who have worked as hard as they have to try and turn this program around, to have the support that they do. I think it speaks volumes for the Pirate Nation when you look at the record that this team has produced over the last number of years to have the support that they do now speaks volumes for the loyalty of the fans, which I think, is what makes East Carolina such a special place. They don't just support this team when they win, they are here win, lose or draw. It meant an awful to me and I think it meant an awful lot to these players as well."
