Aug. 23, 2006

Dave Wannstedt

Training Camp Day 16

August 23, 2006

On Shane Brooks' performance in the scrimmage:

Shane Brooks - he earned his scholarship today. He did a nice job. We held LaRod Stephens [-Howling] today [out of the scrimmage]. We held him and [Darrelle] Revis and [H.B.] Blades and [Clint] Session for most of it. We wanted to get a good look between [Shane] Brooks, [Kevin] Collier and Dorin Dickerson. And we basically told them all, hey, it's up in the air. Go after the job. Shane came out today. The thing that he did today that was impressive, he put the ball on the ground early and then he bounced back. I mean he didn't go in the tank and lose his confidence, and he came back stronger than when he started. The thing that's a little bit deceiving about him is he can run on the perimeter which he showed today. He's little bit deceiving. Everybody thinks of him as a between the tackles type of runner, but he has a little bit more shake on the outside than what anybody really gives him credit for. They're all [running backs] going to play. We're going to need them all before the year's out. That's for sure. [Shane Brooks has] got good hands. That's an area all of our running backs need to improve on because for the type of team we're going to be, we're going to need to get the ball out quick and Tyler [Palko] will do that. I thought Tyler had a good day. He was nine-for-eleven. He made good decisions, but we didn't come up with any big plays. But he can't control that. We've got to get the ball into the hands of our backs and receivers and tight ends and those guys will make plays.

On the depth at running back:

[Shane Brooks] is going to play a ton. If we were playing tomorrow, he's second team behind LaRod. We'll take a look at the tape. He might be as good as short yardage and goal-line runner as we have.

On who stood out on the defense:

Starting off, I thought Gus Mustakas up front really made some plays. Doug Fulmer - I think he's kind of got comfortable with that right defensive end spot and made some big plays. Even one or two of the passes that Tyler [Palko] threw way at the end, he was right there in the quarterback's face. I thought Fulmer made some plays. Gus made some plays early which is what we need - our defensive linemen to rise up. I forgot about Tommie [Campbell]. Him and Fulmer set the tempo for the scrimmage. On the offensive drive, not only does [Tommie] cause the fumble, but he recovered it. Then he comes up with a sack later. He's more comfortable every day at that spot. Think about this. He hasn't played in a game yet at linebacker. So he's going to be better every week as time goes on.

On Conor Lee:

Conor will kick tomorrow night, yes. And there's nothing new on the kicking thing. We're just trying to give these guys as many opportunities as we can and make the decision next week sometime.

On the potential starters:

Today we rotated those defensive linemen. [At left offensive tackle] John Bachman's been doing a good job. And Jeff Otah. We've got to rotate some of the receivers around. Again we're giving everyone a fair opportunity but not taking away from what we're doing. We'll have to make a decision in the next day or two which we will.

We played [Jason] Pinkston some today. We moved him up a little bit because he's made some plays in the last couple days. He's getting better every day. He was banged up a bit. [Charles] Sallet was banged up a little bit so we put McKenzie Mathews in there with the second group. I think it's a matter of McKenzie Mathews and Pinkston and Malecki, these freshmen, getting playing time. And they're going to continue to progress. At the same time, I really like what Joe Clermond's doing. Him and Chris McKillop are both having good camps. I think the competition on our defensive line is somewhat better. As a result of the competition, we'll play better. No question.

On the progress of the defensive line:

We're getting closer. We've got a long way to go. But those guys are working and making progress.