Clawson kicks off presser season

Coach Clawson held his first weekly presser today, and here are the results, based on my listening, and quoting some media sources.

The lead story is that Matt Schilz is the starting QB.  Coach had high praise for Trent Hurley, who he said "got so good so quickly."  Coach also went on to reiterate that he figures we will need to QBs this year, and not based on any kind of plan to share time, but just based on history.

Coach said it was a very difficult decision.  I'm not sure if this is just coachspeak or not, but here is what he said, as quoted in the Sentinel.

“You can compare all the numbers and all the stats and at the end it comes down to a gut feeling over who gives your football team the best chance to win,” Clawson said. “This was a very, very hard decision. I have been involved in a number of these quarterback decisions ... and this is one of the more difficult ones and it’s for good reasons."

This is a good problem to have, of course.  You have to figure that if Schilz has improved since last year, and I think he showed the stuff to be a good one.  If he gets comfortable in the pocket, it will make  a big difference.  I don't think this is a surprise.  I thought he had the upper hand or at least that our coaches would think he did.

Also, Matt Johnson and Malik Stokes, both true freshman, are also looking good.

At TB, there are still 4 guys competing for the job....and that does not include Erique Geiger.  My observation would be that we are "deep" at TB, but not necessarily good.  The positive is that whoever gets in there will know the pressure is on...and coach says they have different strengths, which means they could be used situationally.

We are strong and deep at WR...and the WRs have been made better because they are getting better balls in practice to catch.  Also, depth is helpful here because these guys are perfect for special teams.

He said we have 4 strong LBs who will all play.  Of course, Woods and Swan were strong favorites to start coming in, and then DJ Lynch and Gabe Martin (both R-FR) are co-starters are the other side.  Coach sounded very pleased with the development of those two players.

The secondary is still playing itself out....he didn't have much more to say about that, except that our players are good but young, and they will be stepping onto the field for the first time (many of them) a week from today.

He said that we only have a couple guys who played in the Humanitarian Bowl against Idaho...and that you don't really want to be looking for payback for a game that was two years ago.  He did talk quite a bit about the Kibbie Dome, which we will look at in the days to come.  Interesting place.