First off in this week's version, I'm not going to be able to provide the full-blown report from the Big Cigar because, quite frankly, some of his answers are in-house stuff that would hurt the program if it got out.
Let's just say the staff is disappointed in the way some of the kids handled adversity, yet were impressed by those that answered the bell when the game was out of hand. You'll be able to figure out who goes into which category by snap allocation going forward this season. Every other part of the interview is fair game and publishable in our opinion. As for the overall tenor of the interview, and you can probably pick up on it, El Cohiba was in no mood to chit chat.
JS: Ummm, so what happened?
BC: A young team got smacked in the mouth and didn't respond to adversity. There was some finger pointing by players on Saturday, but the coaches are upbeat and coaching hard and they know they can turn this thing around. Let's talk about OSU.
JS: Okay, where do we go from here? Where's our focus?
BC: There will be lots of power run game worked on in practice. They're trying to be more physical because we think we should be able to overpower the Cowboys for yards. Like I said, I don't think the team was ready for getting hit in the mouth like they did last Saturday, but they still seem confident and know it's behind us now. The guys seemed to be more focused in practice Tuesday, after some finger pointing in the locker room in Dallas. Emotions were touchy on Saturday but unlike last year's squad, this team looks like it's going to bounce back if practice this Tuesday was any indication.
JS: So what's going on in practice based on what you've heard?
Ash should start this week or at least get starter's snaps. They think it's time to get him ready and the reps taken in Tuesday's practice bear that out. I heard he got 80% of the reps. His time is now and we're going to see how he responds.
Also Sedrick Flowers will play a lot more this week one way or another. Walters is dealing with some nagging injuries and Flowers will slide in if Mason can't go. If Walters is affective, then Flowers should steal some snaps from Snow.
Look for Onyegbule to get more of the game plan as well. We need a big target and he seems to be Ash's security blanket at times in practice. Darius White is awol and it's looking more like his future is as well.
JS: So if we get embarrassed by OSU are we going to implode?
I can't tell if they are going to implode because I didn't see it coming this time last year. I think they are OK but I personally believe we need to sink or swim with the young kids. Some of the players we were counting on certainly didn't respond like we needed them to vs. OU, so someone else needs to step into that leadership role. Also, I'll add this, and this is something you can publish, the coaches aren't going to say it publicly, but they think there are still too many prima-donnas on this club and they'd like to get some new blood in the program.
JS: Any other important notes that we can post?
BC: Yeah, this is a touchy dilemma for the coaches but I think you can post it. On defense they're going to try to get more experience for the young athletes in the secondary soon if things don't improve. Thompson is supposed to be one of those guys along with Evans. They need someone who can cover back there when we go nickel and dime vs. spread teams. The problem is that Thompson's snaps at QB should increase this week and gradually will go up from there. The coaches may need him to take snaps in the near future so it's going to be tough to rep him at safety. Evans and Turner will need to step up in that case.
Your Asset fella may know more about that though, if he watches practice. I've been told some things that lead me to believe Thompson will be needed at QB at some point sooner than we anticipated. It probably won't be this week however, because we know we'll need to pound the rock against OSU. We'll see. But that's all I've got for now.
JS: Thanks.