Jinks Presser: EMU Edition

Coach Jinks gave a pretty interesting presser yesterday in advance of the EMU game, especially toward the end.  Here are the parts that I found interesting.

The most interesting part was when he described EMU by saying that he had looked at their roster and they had a bunch of guys for whom EMU was their only offer and that they had done a good job developing their talent and skills.

Which made me pause.  Because my question has been, why isn't that happening for our team?  You mean it is possible to take guys who weren't great recruits and turn them into better players?  That's interesting because the attitude around our program appears to be that you just have to suffer until the Babers players are gone.  Jinks himself has said that the only way to improve players is to bench them.  Apparently, someone has found another way.

And, when asked if the defense had made progress over the year, he said, "No."  He went on to say we don't get pressure and when we try to blitz we don' have the speed to cover on the edge.

Also on Eastern, he said that "they don't ask their guys to do too much on the back end," apparently indicating that there are tactical responses to not having the best players.

I will say this again.  Jinks is honest.  He said he hasn't wavered from his belief in what he is doing, but that at the same time you have to face your "weaknesses."

"That's how we are approaching it now," he said.

One other interesting thing...just one word, really.  When discussing the early signing period, he previously he said that he expected all of our commits to sign.  Yesterday, the answer was "a majority."  Could be nothing but it seemed interesting.

On the early signing, he said that he expects the P5 schools to fill their classes on 12/20, which will mean that when the smaller schools go out in January, they will know who is truly available as opposed to have a Noah Harvey-like situation from last year.  Which I think is interesting.

Coach has put a good recruiting class at the top of his priority list, so all of this is worth keeping an eye on.  I have no inside information, but my guess is that other schools are coming hard after all of our verbals.