Head Coach Randy Edsall
Opening Statement:
“Good afternoon – it’s great to be here. The guys are excited for the first game and they are really looking forward to getting the season going. We have a tremendous opportunity and a really good opponent in Richmond coming here, so we just need to continue to have good practices, stay healthy and play the type of game that we are capable of playing.”
On quarterback Perry Hill being the starter:
“Perry had been working with the ones pretty much throughout the last half of the preseason so it was not anything new. The players see what’s happening on the field, and they understand when they’re in the huddle what’s taking place. They expected it. The guys have done a good job and I think they always know that it doesn’t matter who is there; everybody has the responsibility to play to the best of their ability. It makes no difference if somebody goes down, the next guy has got to step up and play as well or better than the player they’re replacing. Its football; he (Perry) won the competition and they know he’s our starting quarterback as we go into this game.”
On the offense’s potential:
“We have guys that have the ability to make plays at the wide receiver position, we have guys that can play at tight end, and we have running backs and fullbacks that can make plays. We have a quarterback (and quarterbacks) that have the understanding that they have teammates that can execute plays and do what they’re supposed to do. They have the ability to make things happen. They understand their job. It’s the matter of every single guy going out there and doing their job well, and that’s what’s going to make us successful and be the kind of offense that we want to be.”
On the progression of the defensive line:
“It’s always been my philosophy to have enough defensive linemen where you can roll some guys in there. Some need experience, and we hope to give them some, but not at the expense of our success. If the ones (first team) need a blow, then we’ll get them one and put the younger guys in there.”
On the wide receivers:
“They have performed pretty well and have gotten better. They understand what the expectations are, and they know we have confidence in them. DeAndre [Lane], D.J. [Moore], Levern [Jacobs], Malcolm [Culmer], and Taivon [Jacobs] all have to be ready to go. Now it’s a matter of them going out and doing the things that we’ve been practicing for the past three weeks. They now have a chance to be on center stage and show everybody who they are and their abilities.”
On changes within the offensive line:
“You take the people that you have and you design the offense around what they do well. With all three of our quarterbacks last year, we had to have two different types of offenses: one for C.J. [Brown] and one for the other guys. This year, we can have one offense that can fit all three guys and that highlights the skills of our running backs, tight ends, and receivers. You have the ability to utilize personnel to aide in making us the most productive we feel we can be. We have a chance to be more versatile offensively this year than what we were a year ago based on all of these factors.”
On the linebackers:
“You don’t like to see anyone go down and I know Abner [Logan] was looking forward to the opportunity of being a starter. Jefferson [Ashiru] is a guy who has played before, he’s started before as an inside linebacker [at UConn]. He has handled it the right way and has picked things up pretty well. I know he’s anxious and ready to get playing.”
On Perry Hills’ growth:
“People never thought that he had a chance to be the quarterback. It’s a great thing about sport – a great thing about life – to not believe what other people say and to control what you can control. Perry worked very hard through the spring and summer, prepared for the competition, competed and won the job. If you can’t have respect for a guy that did that when nobody outside of the program thought that he was going to be our starting quarterback, you can imagine how guys within the program feel about him as he went out and competed and won. It wasn’t a popularity contest nor politics – it was good old fashioned competition. He has more knowledge and more experience than what he had before. He is a competitor, tough, and I think he really understands what we are doing offensively and that’s why he has grown.”
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