Aug. 21, 2009

PITTSBURGH -

On tomorrow's format:
"Tomorrow will be a scrimmage. I look back on what we did last year and we did not go as much on Saturday as we did this past Tuesday. A year ago, we came out the day prior in shoulder pads and shorts and it was a mild practice the day before the scrimmage. Today, we did full on short yards. It was a full speed practice. We made a decision last night that we needed the practice time; we needed to work and take advantage of the heat a little.

"Tomorrow I would expect a majority of the players to get around 30 plays. Some of our starters, the Greg Romeus', the Mick Williams', the Dom DeCiccos' will be limited as to how much time they get. We did that a year ago with (Scott) McKillop and that whole crew. We'll do some situations tomorrow, we'll put the ball down tight in the red zone, we'll put the ball coming off the goal line. We're going to try to create a few more situations, a live situation as compared to putting the ball down on the 30 and whatever happens, happens."

On the scrimmage being an opportunity for players to win starting positions:
"Yeah, we'll scrimmage again the following Wednesday, but it will be controlled. Tomorrow is going to be a good day. We have a crew of Big East officials here today and we're going to meet with them tonight as coaches, talk rule changes and then they're going to do our scrimmage tomorrow. So this is a nice opportunity for our kids to get as close to a game situation as we will until they play for real. So we have to try and take advantage of tomorrow.

"We'll do kicking tomorrow. We'll punt in the middle of the scrimmage, kick extra points and field goals. Again, trying to create a game likeness, but also trying to evaluate the two kickers while we put them under a little pressure."

On practicing at Heinz Field:
"No we haven't done that yet. We'll probably do that at least twice before we open up the season."

On Lucas Nix, Dorin Dickerson and Nate Byham:
"Lucas worked through individual drills today. We're hoping that he can do more of that tomorrow. He's doing good, he's doing great.

"Dorin came out today and did individual and we'll see where he's at tomorrow.

"Nate came out and worked yesterday, and felt okay, and today came out and was so-so, so we held him at the end a little bit.

"We're getting back. We've got a lot of guys fighting through little things right now, but again we got in a good two and a half hour practice today in full pads and got out of here pretty clean so I think we're making progress, slow but sure."

On open positions:
"At the safety position, Andrew Taglianetti, because (Elijah) Fields missed time, has made a move there so we've got to look close at that. The fourth receiver spot is open too. I probably would have said that after the first week (Mike) Shanahan had the upper hand. Now he's hurt, so you've got Aundre Wright, Aaron Smith and Cam Saddler battling it out. At backup tailback, I'd be pretty comfortable saying that Dion's a starter if we're playing today. The backup tailback spot is a battle right now with Chris Burns making some serious headway."

On Aaron Berry:
"He's had a good camp, a really good camp. Aaron really has been about as serious and as focused over a long period of time since I've been with him and he wants to have a great year, and I think he will. I think he's preparing himself to have a great year."

On Jarred Holley:
"Jarred Holley is a guy that wherever he's at on the field, he gives you confidence. He's going to be a heck of a player for us, whether it's a corner or safety I don't know. Right now we have him working in the first dime package and he's alternating in with the second group, some at corner and some at safety. He's on all the special teams. Jarred Holley is going to be everything we thought he was when we recruited him."