Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Post-Scrimmage Quotes
08/12/2010 | 12:00:00 | Football
Aug. 12, 2010
By Adam Longueville
www.SIUSalukis.com
Head Coach Dale Lennon
On the offense
"The big thing, offensively, is that No. 1 it is all about execution. And when its not completely there, they can look a little out of sync. We were just out of sync today. It wasn't a crisp scrimmage like you would like, which is almost expected, but then again you're still disappointed that we weren't a little bit sharper than we would have liked."
Could some of the offense problems be from still learning the new system?
"It could be a little of that, it could also be that we are battling the warm weather. Not that that has an effect, you're a little limited in what you can do for preparation. Today was good for the fact that we know now what we need to work on to take the next step. Next week when we scrimmage I'm looking for marked improvement, hoping our clock management will be a lot better and overall execution should be better."
What'd you think of the defense
"Defensively, the thing I was most impressed with is that there was a lot of young players running around and making plays. Especially when you get open field tackles being made, we tackled very well. There weren't any missed tackles. For the most part, our assignment responsibilities were very good and where you would hope it would be, at the same time some of the young guys stepped up."
What do you do to improve the offense from here on out
"You want to have that give and take, and when it's not there, like today, I tell the defense to keep bringing it. It should make the offense better, because if they eventually don't man up and answer, they're going to be beat on. That's how you make the other side better, is you just keep playing against a pretty good squad defensively, which should make the offense better."
Thoughts on the running backs
"I think we have a good combination of running backs. The one thing we found is that we need to break in our field a little bit more. That will come with time too, but we need to practice on the field a little bit more to get used to the surface. But overall, I thought the running backs did a good job and going live, there is no substitute for that."
Junior defensive end Chance Coda
How'd you feel out there today?
"It was good to get out there and get back in the flow of things today. We were in the pads and just got after the offense. It just feels good to get back in the flow of things and get the mesh back together with the defense and all the defensive players."
Were you pleased with how the defense performed?
"Yeah, it was pleasing. We still have a lot of work to do, so we can't get complacent out there. But if we keep going the way we are going, continuing to build the trust between players, I think we can do a lot this year."
Talk about the new guys stepping in at nose guard
"That is a very good thing to have at the nose. In a 3-4 defense, we need to have a strong nose in there and I think these guys are coming along real well. We're building trust, that's the big thing. Trust between the defensive line, linebackers and all the people on the defense."
Senior quarterback Chris Dieker
Thoughts on Thursday's scrimmage
"We got a lot out of today. The offense struggled a little bit early, we've got a good defense who did a good job today coming out and sticking their nose in it playing hard. But we learned a lot of stuff today, even going back and evaluating film we'll see the mistakes we made and we'll get better."
Are you guys going to go no-huddle at all this year?
"We haven't quite worked on it yet, it's still early in camp, but it's something that we worked on in the spring. I think we'll break that out here not before too long."
