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mat1992

More from RA on CAA Media Day

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On being picked second

"Internally, it doesn't matter at all. What it does do, I jokingly said this about previous national rankings, that it really won't matter until a month and a half.

On this year and last year

"We knew we were good. All these parts were here last year, save for Tom. His play made a huge bit of difference. Those guys last year were fighting for respect. They were fighting to get to the playoffs. They've already earned that. The more challenging goal is taking something that is good and making it better. They do it pretty good."

On Tom missing part of the spring due to baseball and hamstring injury

"Physically, it didn't matter. It actually helped him. There are things he did playing baseball and that will probably help him in football. Throwing mechanics and strength behind it. As far as schematically, Tom is one of, if not the smartest players on the team. As such, conversations are quick, intelligent and he gets it."

On returning top receivers in Allen and Leatherbury

"Speaking from experience playing quarterback, if you've been back there, and you have weapons. You come back the next year and they are bigger, faster and older, that's a very good feeling."

On WR corps

"There are six guys with game experience. Probably nine that are in the conversation in terms of starting. There is a lot of talent behind the veterans. There will be some names that we'll be talking about after the season in terms of awards that we aren't talking about now. That means this year will be good and next season (in terms of receivers)."

On other receivers

J'Alen Elliott had a solid spring but is having a hard time staying healthy. Street has a lot of talent. Gifted and natural hands. I have big guys with speed that has great hands and he's one of them.

On Daniel Thompson

"He had an exceptional spring. He's learning that Division I football is a year-round activity. The older guys are teaching him."

On backup quarterbacks

"Second string is up for grabs. Everybody is a player. When you have a good quarterback, you'll have a chance to win. But in the NFL, you better have two. Peter Athens is the winningest single season quarterback in the history of the school.  But we went to the national championship because Connor Frazier was ready to play (in Eastern Washington game). The quarterback position is a way of living."

On spring

The way we did it, you use the celebration of spring football because it's too cold that day. For what we wanted to get done, we wanted to get bigger, faster and stronger. We wanted to start sooner so we took practice off the plate and spent the rest of the time being bigger, faster and stronger. The overall size and strength of this team? This one of the biggest we've ever had."

Competitions on OL

Lots of talent, lots of brains and physical abilities. Some unknowns. Piecing that together will be the offensive challenge. Bryant (Temple transfer) you would have thought he was here since high school the way he interacts with the players. It's really kind of odd. Tuiasosopo is not officially here yet. He has incredible strength, size and feet. He's an explosive human being. He loves football. He's going to helps. I hope he opens a door for other (Samoans) to play. Great people.

On Quashon Alexander

Highly-talented. His declared teams coming out of high school were Notre Dame and Michigan and he ended up in Nebraska. Jersey kid. Highly talented. Very intelligent. Has a huge upside. He'll be there somewhere. Too many bodies. God help you if you get to third down because everybody can rush the quarterback. Bryce Carter. There's no chance you have a beat on who where going to line up and where. Maybe at the end of the year.

On Robert Heyward

"I know where he's going to end up. Where the ball is. It's how he approaches the game and how he loves it. You can count on him. That's a pretty rare statement that you can count on him all the time."

On D-line last year

"We were thin. Not good enough against the run. A lot of new bodies with a rallying cry that were successful without doing this. Imagine how successful we can be. Gibbs, Bowman, Alexander, Vinny are all new and will have a chance to play on Saturday. Bryce Carter is 255 and very strong. "

(They are discussing whether to move one of the offensive linemen to defense since they have 19).

On performance of the secondary

"Competition everywhere. Gillette is the starter right now. The other three spots? I can't tell you. Everybody is healthy. I'm excited to see how well we will do. On Topps, the safety from Kansas. "He's incredibly long and tall. No more free fades to tall guys. He can block kicks and he likes it."

On running backs

"Outside of having a 225-pound downhill, it hurts to tackle tailback, we have every aspect of potential talent. It's kind of like having a great bullpen. You have all different kinds of skillsets that help you win."

On special teams

"Replacing Pat (Toomey) is going to be difficult. Return game. Shane is one of the best in the country. Kind of hard to taking the ball out of his hands. If we had to, we have a bunch of guys that can return."

On defining success this year

"Bare minimum is making the playoffs. It's time to make a run. It's time to make a mark again. This place has changed in 10 years. I'd like to get this to the conversation where we are in the conversation for historically good teams."

On improvements

"Have to play better defense. Better on third downs. Better in the red zone on defense. If we stay the exact same on offense, we'd achieve the goal. But this time, we're not surprising anybody. We have to hold the bar and go higher."

On schedule

"Brutal. But what else is new. When the conversation of the Florida game began, it would have been a decent game to schedule. Thank you Dan Mullen for not making it a decent game to schedule."

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