Huskers Meet with the Media

Head Coach Bill Callahan
Opening Statement
"Let me start off by saying that we are extremely excited about the start of this year’s training camp. Last night at our team meeting, you could sense how excited our players are to get back on the field. It is a great feeling. Our guys worked extremely hard this summer in their preparation, and now it’s time to get going."

On wide receiver Marque McCray
"Marque McCray is with the Huskers. He rectified his situation and now with our team. He made a complete turnaround in his academics, which was great to see."

"What we saw in Marquis McCray was his return ability. He has excellent burst in the return game. He shows the big play potential that we are looking for in a specialist role. He has the ability to come in as a third or fourth wide receiver. Very similar to a Dante Hall from Kansas City, we would like to use him in different places in match-up situations where we can utilize his speed and quickness and find a way to get him the ball."

On offensive lineman Cornelius Thomas
"Cornelius Thomas will not be here today. He is finishing some academic work and we hope to have him here later this week."

On quarterback Jordan Adams
"Jordan Adams did report and he is with us. It is good to see him in camp. He went though some real major complications with the mono, and it is good to see him back in good health. Although he is in great condition at this point, he is still working hard and we will monitor his progress. He’ll be day-to-day as we go. It is important for everyone to understand that he is not 100 percent yet. He lost considerable weight and it is going to be important for us to get that weight back on him, get him full speed, and to a point where he is 100 percent into his conditioning."

On defensive tackle Matt O’Shea
"Matt O’Shea underwent some clotting of his lower left leg last week down in Texas. He was admitted to the hospital in Texas, and he will not play this year. It has been his doctor’s recommendation that he not participate in the sport of football this year. Hopefully, they can find an avenue where he can get back to the squad, but it will not be for some time. We were really counting on his contribution this year, and it is a blow to our team which really speaks highly of Matt, that he has put himself in a position to have been in the rotation."

On place-kicker Jaret Johnson
"Jarrett Johnson has left the team. He is transferring and we will only bring four specialists into our camp."

On the roster size
"We are at 126 players currently. With the 105, obviously we had to leave off 21 players and those were really tough decisions. We have a lot of good players on this team, and it is a shame that we couldn’t bring those guys into camp. They were here all summer and went through the same regimen as all these guys. Fortunately, we aren’t in camp all that long, and they will be back with the group shortly."

On quarterback Garth Glissman
"Garth Glissman will not be in our camp, unfortunately. But we want to make sure that we still keep him up to speed on what we are doing from an installation standpoint so that he can hit the ground running once school starts."

On the freshman
"It is tough to say who is going to emerge out of that freshman class. They have all worked really hard and reshaped their bodies the way they need to be."

On the depth chart
"Training camp will be very competitive this year, at every position in every phase. We must have a great training camp. We must maximize everything in the limited time we have. Competition is open at every spot. There is a tentative two deep out there that could change on a daily basis. We will not finalize anything until the week of the opener."

On pending player suspensions
"All the discipline will be, and has been decided individually. I deal with that with our team and will not disclose that, but there is pending discipline. At the appropriate time we will talk about it."

On what he is looking for out of quarterback Joe Dailey
"I want to see retention factor and command. Joe’s performance in the spring progressed very well. Now, we all need to take that next step. I would like to see Joe come into camp, take control of the offense, take command of the unit, and proceed rapidly.

On running back Brandon Jackson
"Brandon Jackson is a quality athlete. I think that he is one of the most impressive rookies on our roster. In terms of his athleticism, his change in direction, and his ability to compete. But it is going to be tough for me to project where he will end, but I like what I have seen. The running back situation we have right now is by committee, and we are looking for someone to emerge, to dot the ?I’ and be the guy."

On the state of the program
"The expectations are always high, and our expectations are very high. But I also want to temper where we are at. It is hard for me to project where we are going until we see it live against an opponent. I am encouraged by what I see, but there are still concerns. How our depth comes about and how healthy we stay are both major factors."

On Cory Ross
"Cory is a special guy that is versatile enough to catch the ball in a myriad of routes. He has ability to route run up the field, out wide, work the linebackers, catch the screens and be the outlet guy. He shows that ability, and he runs the ball well.

Also, I want you all to know that Cory Ross is the team NCAA 2005 champion on the Xbox. We had our tournament last week, and he beat our Running Backs Coach Randy Jordan in the finals. And Coach Jordan is a pretty good player himself.

On Western Illinois
"Western Illinois is a great opponent for us. If you look back at their game last year down in Baton Rouge, they played LSU pretty tight. If you watch that film, it is scary. They had them down to the wire. They did an excellent job against LSU early in that game. They are a team whose roster fluctuates a little bit more than most teams. They get players from all over the country and have a really good range of players at all positions. We have studied them intently over the summer. They are a very aggressive team. They lose their quarterback and quite a few starters, but aside from that, they are a quality opponent who has done an excellent job in the past."

On naming a starting quarterback
"I am going to wait as long as I can to see where we are at. With no disrespect to the quarterbacks, I just really want to evaluate them closely and see where we are at that particular time. Things change dramatically on a day-to-day basis when you are in training camp, so it is really tough to say who is going to be there at the end."

I-Back Cory Ross
On the Xbox tournament
"The main thing was beating Coach (Randy) Jordan. He had beaten me earlier, so I had to whoop him for the championship in front of everybody."

On his weight loss and summer work
"I worked really hard with our nutritionist James (Harris), and Coach (Dave) Kennedy ran us harder than I have ever run since I have been here. That helped a lot, and come today we’ll see how it feels."

On the system
"It opens things up and shows that all of us can really catch the ball. For an I-back with this offense, you really have a lot that you can do."

On his move up the depth chart from last year’s fall camp
"I am feeling great about it. Competition is competition regardless of where you are on the depth chart. It is still going to be there. I was down there fighting and I am still fighting up here. There is no set depth chart so I am going into camp fighting.

On Joe Dailey
"He loves me so much that he had to move down the street. Going over to his house everyday was just a walk across the street. He is more focused than I have ever seen. He has so many tapes and cards, so when I go over, I am studying with him. He has it all mapped out, and he is more focused than I have ever seen him."

On Brandon Jackson
"He stayed with me this summer for a little bit and brought highlights. He is going to be good competition. He is a big guy, and he is ready to go, too."

Defensive Tackle Le Kevin Smith
On the upcoming season
"We think we have a great chance to bring it (Big 12 championship) home this year. We have pretty much the same defense coming back and the offense is going to be eye opening. I think we have a great chance to take home the Big 12 crown."

On the front four
"I have a great front coming in with me this year. We have Titus Adams playing to my right, Adam Carriker over there, Jay Moore or Benard Thomas playing on my left and a lot of great backups and good depth backing us up. I feel really good about the group we have. We have a lot of great athletes."

On this season
"This year I want to be more of a factor. I want to be more of a guy who can come through in the clutch and make some sacks and more tackles for losses. More than just ?I blocked my dude.’"

On Coach John Blake
"Coach Blake is the greatest thing that came into my world right now. He is probably one of the best defensive coaches out there. He has been in football at every level - high school, college and the NFL. He knows how to relate to you. He gets out there and shows you how to do it, how it is supposed to be. He has been there coaching the guys that know how to get it done. He has put guys in the Pro Bowl, and you can take his word as golden.

Jake Andersen
On Strength Coach Dave Kennedy and the conditioning program
"A lot of us can run a lot farther and a lot longer than we ever have before. The first couple of times he had us out there, he would tell us what we were doing, and we’d be like ?Are you crazy?’ But then at the end of summer he would say those same things and we’d be like ?Oh, you’re taking it light on us.’ I am in the best shape that I have ever been in."

On the team’s prospects
"We know inside this program that every year we are a contender for the Big 12. That is one of our goals. We feel like this is a conference that has a lot of great teams, and we know that we will have to play really well. No matter what anyone else says, we control ourselves and we want to win the Big 12."

On this offensive line matching up to opponent’s defensive lines
"I have complete confidence in everybody on our line. This is Nebraska - you are not going to have a bad offensive line our there. Once we get the offense down, and we should pretty quick, I have complete confidence there isn’t a team out there that we can’t beat."