|
| Senior Bowl |
| --Game Day: Saturday, January 30 (4 ET) |
| January 28 -- Press Conferences: |
| 
Jim Schwartz |
Detroit Lions Head Coach Jim Schwartz
(QB Order) -- Drawing straws, rock-paper-scissors, musical chairs, things like that. All of our guys are going to play about the same, so we're not going to make a big deal about the order. These guys have practiced hard and deserve to play, they all will play. Whoever starts and whoever finishes has nothing to do anything other than "paper covers rock."
(On Stafford/1st Round QBs) -- Quarterback is a complicated position, everything from pocket awareness, accuracy, arm strength, escapability, you can go on and on. Things that you really don't see on tape are intelligence and mental make-up. Quarterback is a position where you better have thick skin and be used to being the center of attention. It takes a special person to be able to handle that, [Stafford] was one of those guys. In this game, you're seeing a lot of the same thing. They don't shy away from criticism, that's all important when you look at the profile of a quarterback.
(Mental vs. Physical QB) -- I don't want to say equal, they're all hurdles that need to be cleared. If you have the physical ability and fail in some of the other areas, the physical ability doesn't trump that. You can be the smartest guy in the world and just not have enough talent. I wouldn't say 50/50, they're intertwined, all a part of the same evaluation.
(Measureables) -- You have ideal size. I think you need to have room to consider different players and how they'd fit. Our philosophy is to be a size/speed team, a tough and physical team. Drafting Pettigrew, Levy and Hill last year… Pettigrew 6'6½", 270 pound TE that is a good blocker at the point of attack, with long arms. (Delmas)… bigger isn't necessarily better at safety, you want guys that can move and run quickly. Levy was a 6'2½", 235 pound LB that ran in the 4.5's. Sammie Hill was a naturally big, 6'4" 330 pound man that didn't need to be pumped up to be there. He was a natural athlete and naturally big. You look for ideals but you don't exclude players for being a half inch short or two one-hundreds of a second slow in the 40. You need to balance those. Size and speed are important for a football team.
(Drafting Style) -- You need to fit your profile, you need to recognize tiers of talent, but you can't reach for a need.
(Coordinators) -- The #1 thing we were looking for is experience. We didn't want our coordinators learning on the job. Their head coaching experience, and being around different systems, played into the decision. They had long track records and had proven themselves over time.
| 
Tony Sparano |
Miami Dolphins Head Coach Tony Sparano
(QB Order) -- We're talking about that right now, not sure. We're going to try to get them equal playing time, depends on how the game goes. We're talking about doing it by quarters and seeing where we are at going into the 4th.
(Tebow/2-Min. Drill) -- He looked really good, actually they all did. I thought Tim did a super job, made a couple of deep throws, looked natural at the line of scrimmage, like the other QBs did just coming from the spread offenses.
(Darryl Sharpton) -- He's had a really good week, been very impressed. Flies all over the place, plays with a lot of energy, makes tackles, shows great range. Physical guy, like him in the pass rush stuff. Well coached.
(Dan Williams) -- He's done a good job, been good to get to know these players. Real pleasure to talk to, had a good visit with him. Big, physical kid, has done all the right things. Came into school a little heavy and immediately lost weight, has never been an issue, I see him moving pretty well out there.
(NT/3-4) -- It's critical to our defense, when you look at it the two most critical spots are the nose and OLB positions. They're hard to find, specifically the good ones that are built to last. They take a tremendous pounding every week; that being said, we have Paul Solali who's been a good player for us and has come along, Jason Ferguson has been with us. You always want to have young defensive linemen, we had several situations where we needed that kind of depth.
(Senior Bowl No-Shows) -- It's a case-by-case basis, when I had a roster a couple of days in advance I knew who was going to be here, and for the most part they were all here. It's a credit to the committee here that run the Senior Bowl for getting some of the talent that they have, it's a great evalator for our League. To get a chance to see them and compete at this level at practice all week. The mental part is important (to evaluate), but the physical part is very important too.
(Senior Bowl Prospects) -- It's hard (not to fall in love with these players), it's one of the things we talked about before coming down here, specifically this week. The interaction is still there and you see some things that are really good. You have to be careful to do that… the combine, workouts, or any of those type of things. It's hard to dismiss three or four years (of college). These things all help, but at the same time what they've done in college gets priority.
(Dexter McCluster) -- He's fast and elusive, I've been really impressed this week. His versatility, he can do a few different jobs (for a team). He can run the ball in the backfield, returning kicks and playing special teams, catch the ball as a receiver. This week he's done a little of everything, I'm sure teams will make evaluations at from different positions.
| 
Dan LeFevour |
Central Michigan Quarterback Dan LeFevour
(On the Learning Curve) -- It’s been a lot smoother and it’s progressed through the week, just learning the terminology and some of the guys’ techniques and things like that.
(Transition to Pro-Style Offense) -- The biggest challenge is just going under center and everything that comes with that, from the progressions to the drop and everything and how that all relates together.
| 
Zac Robinson |
Oklahoma St. Quarterback Zac Robinson
(Sr. Bowl Favorite Target) -- They’re all really good. Riley Cooper has had a really good week. Really all of them had their moments and to signalize one guy would be kind of tough. Shay Hodge has been really good, Jeremy Williams, they’ve all had really good weeks and they’ve all had successful college careers. It’s going to be a lot of fun to throw those guys in a game and see how they play in a game situation.
(Tim Tebow Hype) -- We’ve still had great feedback from the scouts and coaches. But yeah, with Tim’s success in college and what he’s been able to do, how can he transition is what everyone wants to see. My agent was preparing me coming in: When you get your reps, just make them count. Jarrett (Brown) and I had a pretty good weeks and it will be fun to compete in a game.
(On Perrish Cox 2 INTs) -- He made a good play on the first one, then the second one my arm got hit and the ball just floated in the air. I didn’t know that was him that picked it off until after practice. He was like, “Yeah man, I got you twice today.” But he’s had a really good week and I don’t get to go up against him much in practice because we go against our 2’s in practice. But he does that stuff to our backups all the time, he has an ability to read routes and hopefully he’ll do that on Saturday.
(On Dez Bryant) -- I think Dez is going to be a great pro. He has all the ability in the world, he loves the game of football and he has a great work ethic. He just loves being around the game, he loves learning the game. It’s a shame that he wasn’t able to play this year because I think at the end of his junior year he really started figuring things out. We were expecting big things from him this year. I know he’s been training hard and he knows that it’s going to take a lot of hard work and discipline and I think he’s going to be ready.
(Offense After Suspension) -- It was a little bit different. We like to focus on one receiver usually. We like to feature one guy and get him the ball as many times as we can. That’s just how we’ve had it in recruiting, we get one premier guy and then a bunch of role guys. That’s how our offense has been since I’ve been there and even dating back to Rashaun Woods, D’Juan Woods and Adarius Bowman. So we kind of have the one guy who’s really good and we try to feature him. So it was a bit of an adjustment, we were still somewhat successful through the middle of the season but then we hit a lump there at the end. It was different but fortunately we were able to run the ball and still score points.
| 
Kyle Wilson |
Boise St. Cornerback Kyle Wilson
(Covering Jacoby Ford) -- He’s just a little, fast guy. It’s hard to get hands on a little guy like that. I think I did well this week and definitely helped myself out.
(On Success vs. Freddie Barnes) -- Just doing my job. Just get out there, he’s a big name. He had a lot of catches all season. I took on the challenge and wanted to really make it hard for him and make him ineffective.
(Pos. in Secondary) -- I came in as a safety and played there in the bowl game occasionally. I played left and right corner for two years and played boundary corner my final two years. I played multiple positions. I played some nickel for a couple years. I know all the positions in the defensive backfield and I think they’re all pretty similar. I have fun playing all of them.
(Covering Slot Receivers) -- Playing from there, the receivers have two ways to go, so it just makes things a little more tough. You try to play leverages, depending on scheme there’s a lot of space in there so smaller quick guys excel with their reads and just getting guys off balance. I like playing in there and I can definitely help out.
(Boise’s Defense) -- I think Boise State will always be known as an offense-oriented school just because we score a lot of points. I think the last few years our defense has really stepped up and really got a lot of notoriety that we really deserved. We took up the challenge a couple years ago and I think we’ve gotten better each year and it really showed this last year against pretty good opponents, and definitely in the bowl game against a very good offense.
(Week’s Performance) -- I came here and I’ve done everything I’ve been expected to do, pretty much doing everything I’ve done all season. This is another big stage just like the bowl game. This is the best competition in the country and I’m out here making plays and showing my versatility.
(Playing with LeGarrette Blount) -- If you’re trying to hint at any hard feelings or anything like that, there’s none there. We really enjoy competing in practice and talking off the field and joking in the locker room. Just like anybody else meeting new teammates out there.
(Playing Different Coverages) -- We played multiple schemes, a lot of Quarters-based which is pretty much man-to-man to the boundary. We’ve done cover one, two, three, four, multiple zone blitzes. We’re used to a lot of different things in a lot of different techniques.
| 
LaMarr Houston |
Texas Defensive Tackle LaMarr Houston
(Colt McCoy Injury) -- I wasn’t worried about anything, just keep playing football. We are blessed with guys who can step up on second and third strings who are just as talented.
(Prev. Positions) -- I think I’m just a versatile football player who’s capable of playing any position and would love to be in any position, but defensive tackle has been the thing for me as of late.
(Preference) -- I’d rather play 3-technique or 3-4 defensive end.
(Increased Stock) -- Just the fact that I kept playing in every game, I’ve gotten better and better. I’ve had a lot of people who are naysayers about my game and just having that chance to improve every game is something that’s been able to help me.
(Closeness of Texas Team) -- Yeah, Coach Brown is like a father figure to all of us. We take care of each other like brothers. It’s like a brotherhood and every player who comes in takes part in the Longhorn tradition.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(May 31) --
Welcome to Sideline Scouting - Season Two! We're glad you're back with us as we prepare for the 2011 NFL draft.
Even with the uncertainty of the 2011 NFL season, there will be a rookie draft regardless and we're glad to help you prepare
for the big day. Over the next couple of weeks the site will be under minor reconstruction as we
shift toward our 2011 content.
|
|
|
|
|
|
