Miami Football Wraps Up Two-A-Days
8/20/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 20, 2001
Miami University's football team concluded two-a-days Monday. The RedHawks have the day off Tuesday, because it is the first day of classes. The team originally had planned to start prepping for Michigan on Wednesday, but the coaching staff decided they had progressed to the point where they could start on Monday.
From Head Coach Terry Hoeppner
On implementing the initial phases of the Michigan game plan this early in training camp: "It's the soonest we've ever done it in a camp I've been a part of. You want to try and get to it as soon as possible, but a lot of times you're still trying to work on basic fundamentals. You've got to worry about your own team before you start worrying about another team. We're far enough along, at least with the starters, that we can go ahead."
On his take on Saturday's scrimmage: "If you took away five plays on offense and five plays on defense, we had a great performance. Ryan Hawk had an outstanding performance, with over 220 yards of total offense. Our mistakes were glaring, but once you see some of them in context they're correctable, which is good. Our kicking was really not good. We've got their attention now, and they've kicked better since Saturday."
On tight end Matt Brandt, whom Hoeppner says has been one of the biggest surprises so far: "He came here as a quarterback, then we moved him to wide receiver, then we moved him to tight end. I told him his next move would be to tackle. We'll just keep moving him further inside."
On providing the upperclassmen with watermelon at the end of practice while the freshmen ran a final sprint: "The freshmen are always fooled. They never know it's coming. We ran them at the end there, and the upperclassmen knew there was a reward waiting. The freshmen had no clue. As with a lot of things, they're clueless. We send them down to the other end of the field, and we're all eating watermelon when they turn around."
Offensive Report
Offensive Coordinator Shane Montgomery
On what he intends to do with the offense over the next few days: "We know Michigan's going to be good up front. We're getting to where we're starting the game plan. We have to go through our package and see what's good out of what formation. We need to look at their tendencies and try to condense our offense a little bit, so we can work on things we're good at."
On the quarterback play in Saturday's scrimmage: "The biggest thing it showed is that Ryan Hawk is pretty versatile. If he's not the starter, we plan on getting him on the field in some capacity. We think he gives us another weapon, because he's one of our best players running with the ball. Ryan had one of his best days of the spring and fall camps. Ben (Roethlisberger) threw the ball well pretty much all day. He tried to force the ball at times, but I think he played pretty well."
On wide receiver Corey Kirkpatrick, whom Montgomery says has been the biggest surprise on offense so far: "He's a guy who showed some signs in the spring that he'd be good a player, but he wasn't as consistent as we would have liked. He's had a great camp. He's got a lot of speed, he's more consistent with his route running, and he's caught the ball extremely well. He's pushing for a starting position. Any time you have that from a back-up guy, it gives you more depth."
Defensive Report
Defensive Coordinator Jon Wauford
On halting Michigan's ground game: "Our focus right now is figuring out a way to stop Michigan from pounding the ball down our throats. There are many people that go into Michigan Stadium with that thought in mind and don't get it accomplished."
On why the coaching staff decided to put in the game plan for Michigan earlier than expected: "You can't start working on your opponent until you get yourself ironed out. On Saturday, they showed me they were ready to do it. We've got our defense in and we're executing it with as few mistakes as possible, so we were able to go to (the game plan) sooner than we have in the past. Quite honestly, I could use another three weeks to get ready for those guys."
On linebacker Matt Robillard, whom Wauford says has been the biggest surprise on defense so far: "We were concerned with whether he'd be physical enough to be a linebacker for us, having moved from safety. We're impressed with his physicality, his lack of mistakes, and what he gives us in our pass coverage. His being a former safety is a real advantage when we put him at linebacker and make him cover people."
Injury Report
Linebacker Chad Rohrer tore his anterior cruciate ligament in Saturday's scrimmage and will miss the entire season. Running back Jim Hanna has a mid-foot sprain. He will be out for up to four weeks. Wide receiver Robert Blackmon has a contusion on his knee and will miss the next two or three days.
