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Opening Statement
“I’m glad we made the step. I’m proud of the guys, proud of their resolve. I’m excited for this week. Obviously, an excellent USC team coming in here. A ranked team. We all know the atmosphere that it will be. Excited to get ready for the week.”
On the trainers and the teams' physicality
“We felt like there’s some guys (on the D-line) just watching practice that deserve to play more just based upon their effort in practice and you start to get guys banged up and worn out a little bit. We went the other way and put those guys in. Guys like David Hoffken can get in there and they get pressure on the quarterback. Kade Pietzrak deserves to play more. It wasn’t really these “We don’t really play these guys as much,” it was more like “Hey, let’s send some waves.” We knew Northwestern was going to run the ball. We wanted to reward guys who have been practicing at a high level. We believe in practice. Our guys do a great job of taking care of their bodies. Drew Hambin, our trainer, Mitch Cholewinski, sports science and all the people that work underneath him. We have these infrared beds that I can’t even get in anymore because there’s a player always waiting. They’re for them, so they should go first, obviously. Our guys are so committed to taking care of themselves. I think they understand that if you let up in terms of the way you practice, you have to be smart, but you lose your edge and we’re a team that needs to have an edge. Where are we at health-wise? I mean we’re down to some injuries at right tackle. Teddy (Prochazka) is done, he won’t be able to play anymore. Gunnar (Gottula) is banged up. We’re going to have them battle through. That’s what every other team is dealing with too, so we need our guys to continue doing what they’ve been doing.”
On Turner Corcoran and stepping in at right tackle
“I thought he did a great job. He went in as left tackle last week when we lost (Elijah) Pritchett with the targeting and flipped over and took no reps at right tackle and went right onto right tackle. People think it’s the same thing, but go switch your grip and hit a golf ball and see how that feels. It’s difficult. Turner is a guy who started here a bunch and he had a really massive injury last year that took a long time to heal. We weren’t even sure he’d get to play. Credit to him. He’s just a winner. Tyler Knaak was ready to play and Preston Taumua, Grant Brix, all those guys have been developing. Getting better and better and better. Their time is coming. We have enough guys.”
On Gunnar Gottula and his injury
“He’s battling through a real injury and he’s trying to play through it. It takes a toll on you and I’m not sure if he’ll be available or not.”
On David Hoffken
“He’s so big. He’s 6’7”, 6’8” that you’re always trying to find where to put him. Should he be an outside player, should he be an inside player? He’s got great length. The thing is that he’s really coachable. One of my big things is, I just want to see a defensive lineman when they have a pass rush, actually use a pass rush move. It sounds silly, but it happens a lot. Guys kind of just go down the middle of guys. David is one of the guys who actually uses his hands and feet. He’s working really hard. He’s been getting some reps. He got some reps the past couple of games and some packages. Now we’ll continue to use him more and more.”