Aug. 17, 2009

By Adam Longueville
www.SIUSalukis.com

Daily Camp Blog -- Daily Photo Gallery

CARBONDALE, Ill. - A day after the team's first scrimmage, the Saluki football team worked on fine-tuning the offense and defense. Monday morning's practice included work on short-yardage and goalline situations.

In reviewing the film from yesterday's scrimmage, what jumped out at you?
Well, it's never as good or bad as you initially think. So we saw some good things, and we saw lots of bad things. But, it definitely gave us a good reference point for this week and what we need to accomplish.

In talking to the team after practice today, you mentioned that last week was more focused on the install, and this week will be more about the finer points. Could you elaborate?
You need to able to do the finesse parts of the game. The finesse parts include being able to adjust to the snap count, ball security and other things like that. The minor parts of the game that mean the difference between wins and losses, we need to focus in on that.

How do you balance having enough full contact drills without taking too great a risk of injury?
It's all on gut feel. From my experience, you know you want to push the guys to a high level, but at the same time, we don't want to break them. That's why it's a day-by-day adjustment.

With such good depth at linebacker, how do you manage the playing time between so many talented players?
Well, linebacker is the one position where you can play a lot of guys over the course of the game. Whether it's on special teams or in the regular rotation, you can always play two-deep and sometimes even three deep.

The Salukis also have good depth in the secondary. Do you find that you can rotate those guys like you can with the linebackers?
The defensive backs are guys that you don't rotate in as much. You generally go two deep, as you don't really find a team that really goes three deep at multiple positions in the secondary. Your starters at the corners and safeties, and you find that they play the majority of the snaps.