Nebraska Football Press Conference - March 21, 2001

"There's a lot that goes into leading up to Spring ball and players are involved, certainly, in winter conditioning, coaches are on the road recruiting. You don't get a chance to visit with your players as much as you would like to...because of basically recruiting. We wanted to visit with some players about the possibility of making some position changes, looking at some players switching from offense to defense, defense to offense and we need a time to really visit with those guys because it's one thing to have something set in your mind as a coach and to move forward with it."

"We're going to look at Trevor Johnson as a rush end. We feel he might be an outstanding rush end prospect for us. Josh Davis is moving to rover. We feel that Josh could also play for us as an I-back, but he really felt that it might be in his best interest to make the move. Junior Tagoa'i, we've moved into the offensive line. There's been rumors about that for, I think, months now and we're confirming that. Right now, we're working him as an offensive guard, but as spring goes on, offensive tackle could play very well into that...he's a very physical player, he's very quick off the ball, things that are needed to know to be a good offensive linemen. Kyle Ringenberg has moved from rush end to tight end. He's a very strong, physical type of player who we feel could fill the bill in terms of really a complete player as a tight end in terms of being a run blocker and also being an excellent pass receiver with good speed and great hands. Phil Peetz also has moved from rush end to tight end. That will be an area that probably will not be a real strong area for him, certainly not in the early part of this move, although he'll get better at that as we go along. What Phil will give you is a guy that'll come off the ball, knock you off the ball. He is a tremendously powerful young man. He's got not only that weight room strength, he's got natural strength. Jack O'Holloran is moved from I-back to wing back...Jack has excellent hands, he's an outstanding athlete, and we feel he might be able to fill a role there as a wing back. Lannie Hopkins has been moved to rover. Lannie...(will) give us a guy with great speed, it'll give us a guy there with a linebacker mentality in terms of...feeling for the run...We will have two players, one will not be involved in spring ball, he's been suspended at this point in time, Randy Stella. Whether he'll be with us in the fall remains to be seen. We also have one player, Thunder Collins, who will not participate in spring ball this first week. Both those guys certainly are missed during the spring and would, of course, be missed in the fall."

"...If you look at where we were last year, we were a good football team, but we needed to be better in some areas to be a great football team. Last season we gave up too many points per game, more than we have for a long time. We were not ranked very high in any of the categories and if you look at our punting game and our punt return game, safe punt was the number two punt for us in terms of using it, so what that meant to us is that we were not stopping people, it was not a three-down and out, people were getting good field position on us. Things have to change there. We know that, our players know that. We have potential to be, I believe, an excellent defensive football team. We have, really, very good team speed. I think we'll have a lot of depth at a lot of positions on the defensive end of it. There'll be some positions that...will be missing a starter and we'll be playing with a guy that has virtually limited or no experience and we're going to have to have some players come through. I think the potential is there to be a very good defensive football team. I think offensively, it's very clear, that we've got to throw the football better. We've got to be a better percentage throwing football team. We put enough points on the board, we move the ball enough, the rushing attack was good enough, but we did not throw the ball well enough. Certainly there's work to be done on special teams. We'll work really hard on all those areas this spring. We were real pleased with what we got accomplished in the first practice. Also...Jimmy Burrow has joined our staff as a grad assistant. We think he'll be a tremendous addition to the program.

(On the rover position and possible back-ups):
"Vedral is a player that has a great deal of experience for us at the Will backer. We have moved T.J. Hollowell...from Sam backer to Will backer. T.J. is the kind of athlete that probably could line up at any one of the three backer positions, and there was some talk at looking at T.J. as a Mike backer, but right now, with Randy not being (involved in spring ball), we're going to have T.J. work Will and then as we get into the middle of Spring ball we may have T.J. work some Mike also. That is a possibility for us..."

(On Eric Crouch's role during Spring ball):
"We want to utilize Eric any way we can. Right now, we can't utilize him with the ball under his arm so we'll certainly utilize him out there in terms of working with our younger quarterbacks. As you know, with the number of players we have, our system is setup a little bit differently. We're not working with just two stations...we really work with three stations. When you try to spread your coaches around to different stations, you get thin at some of those stations. You just don't have enough coaches to be at all of them in terms of a guy per position. Eric will certainly play a role along those lines in terms of helping us coach at one of those stations."

(On whether there is an advantage to having experience on the depth chart):
"Knowing the system is a big advantage. One thing we're always concerned about as a coach on both sides of the ball are mental breakdowns. You can have a great advantage in college football on the football field, but if you have mental breakdowns, your chances of winning the game...really go down. Currently, if you have two guys with equal ability and there's a guy with a little more experience, that guy probably has the edge."

(On Dahrran Diedrick and the I-back situation):
"Dahrran has currently earned the number one position at I-back. He'll be...a very durable back. I think he's got excellent feet, excellent running instincts. Those were obvious to many people over the last two seasons. We expect that he'll be an excellent player for us as an I-back."

Eric Crouch - (On sitting out Spring ball two years in a row):
"It's been tough and it's kind of plagued me throughout my career, kind of taking it off a little bit...it's nothing that I like to do, of course, it's something that helps me prepare to become a better player...there's different avenues that I have to take to get on track. One of them begins in the weight room...extra things as far as rehab, as far as my shoulder goes, kind of help me mentally through it and help me physically also."

(On learning anything last year to make this year easier):
"Last year I pushed myself hard and did a lot of things probably too early as far as my rehab and my shoulder went. This second operation, there's been a lot of things I've learned, one of them is the theory that "no pain, no gain" kind of doesn't work for you and it can hurt you in the long run. This year, (I'm going) to approach with rest and stay on a preset schedule to work through for 16 weeks. It's something I've got to stick to every single day, no matter whether I'm feeling good enough to go further or if I feel worse, it's something I just have to stick to."

(On taking his career to the next level):
"I always think about my career here at Nebraska as being something that I've accomplished that I never thought I ever would. It's something that I think about as I'm blessed and it's something that maybe a lot of people thought that I wouldn't do. It's not so good with where I am now, but...I always want to be better for myself and for my team and my family, so those are things that I would think about. (Also) getting stronger, getting faster for this next season. These are all things that are in my mind right now and when the time comes to think about football after college, I'll think about it then. It crosses my mind once in a while but that's just because it's a dream of mine and it's always been that way. It's also been a dream to win a National Championship in college, so if I take that approach first and set goals for that, I don't want to look past that at all because there's times where, if you do that, then you've done the wrong thing and you might lose a game here, a game there. Then you find out your goals weren't accomplished from looking ahead and not accomplishing the small goals first."

(On his role for Spring ball):
"There's some young freshmen out there, especially quarterbacks, that I can help with reads and with plays. When I was a freshman, I always remember how hard it was to try to pick up the system, getting thrown out there on the first day. There was a lot to learn. Some of the young guys out there really didn't know where to go or what to do and if I can be out there helping the second, third, fourth string guys, that's my job as quarterback whether I'm hurt or not hurt. Just being out there, helping those guys because I've had the experience, I've had a long career here and I know the system pretty well.