For Relaxing Times... | by Jay

If you're going to watch only one camp presser, make it this past Saturday's. It's great. Charlie talks about his defense being faster...and with more intensity...with a devilish twinkle in his eye.

on game day excitement...
I feel excitement on Mondays when we're game-planning because that's when I play. I don't play on Saturday, the players play on Saturday. I play when I'm developing the game plan; that's where my usefulness is...when you get together with the coaching staff and analyze the opponent and figure out what you’re going to do. Because I learned a long time ago that people pay their money to watch the players play. They don’t pay their money to watch the coaches coach...

on the improved secondary...
...for the guys that have been playing already and now feel more confident and know what they are doing and they are in good shape. Obviously, Ndukwe is in the best shape since I've been here. So now you have them in good shape and they have a pretty good understanding a year into the system which has been simplified on top of that. They’re playing with confidence because they at least know what to do. And when you know what you’re doing in football, you play it at a much higher speed than when you have to think about what you have to do

on road trip protocol...
We are very good in the hotel; we are very disciplined in the hotel. It’s not a very loose ship. I issue warm-ups and they wear them around the hotel. We wear coat and tie when we make the trip. Their attire back from the trip depends on whether we won or lost. If we won that game, they’re in sweats. If they lost, they’re in coat and tie...

I always explain the best part of going on the road is not the game itself; the best part of going on the road is when there is about three minutes left in the game and their fans start to leave and all your fans get behind your bench and they are the only ones you hear now. All those guys that were screaming at you the first three quarters are all heading for the exits. There’s no better feeling in the world than that.

on defensive expectations...
Everybody’s always telling me how bad the defense is. I guess we’ll just have to wait till next Saturday night to find out. We’ll see if we have any speed or not.

By the way, this was the official end of summer camp this weekend, and now we begin the first "game week". Tomorrow Charlie will have his Tech preview.