Aug. 20, 1998

“To be honest, I am a little disappointed. I relies we are a little dead-legged and that we have gone eight days in a row of two-a-days. I realize we have some guys nicked up. But, I also realize that what we did today isn’t good enough to beat Michigan or Michigan State, our first two games.

“What we wanted to find out was whether we could run the ball, stop the run…when we don’t feel good…when we are beat up. It was a little disappointing. I am not disappointed in their effort. I don’t have any doubt that we want to be a good team, but I am disappointed in the results to be honest. It’s a good thing we don’t play this week, particularly on the defensive line. We’ve good two weeks to get ready, but I’m sure glad we don’t play this week and I think our football team is too.

“I am encouraged with our attitude. They are fighting through it. I knew it wouldn’t be pretty. Anytime you scrimmage after eight days of two-a-days it isn’t going to be pretty. I was disappointed we didn’t have more hits and more collisions. We have two weeks to solve our problems.

“It’s always hard to go against each other. You don’t know if it is good offensive play or bad defensive play. Jamie Spencer broke an inside run 60 or 70 yards. Jamie showed more inside quickness, shows more burst, but it shouldn’t happen against your defense, even if it is your second defense.

“I thought Autry Denson did some good things. I am really impressed with our young running backs…Mike McNair….Tony Fisher…Terrance Howard…all three. I don’t know if its them having fresh legs because they haven’t had as many reps…but they look quick out there. I am impressed with our fullbacks right now. Our kickoff return was full speed and looked pretty good. Our punt return looks good. Our field goal protection, our field goal snapper and Jim Sanson all did well under full speed. Our punt coverage and punt protection look good, I was disappointed in our kickoff coverage.

“I thought Jarious Jackson did some good things. He didn’t do as well in the passing situations as he has done before. I thought Eric Chapell did some good things. Zak Kustok has had a good couple of days back-to-back and Arnez Battle is in there to be the third quarterback. Jarious is ahead of the other three, but I am nervous about our backup quarterback.”