Head Coach
Bill Callahan
Opening Statement
"All in all, we had a great day today. I was really pleased with the performance of a lot of players. We felt very good about how Sam Keller and Joe Ganz performed. When you look at some of the numbers they posted today, it's pretty impressive, and I was really pleased with everything they did. You look at Patrick Witt and what he brings to the table, and I thought he did an excellent job. Sometimes it's not really fair to evaluate a guy like Beau Davis or Patrick Witt because they may not have had the best offensive line behind them. That's not criticism of the second offensive line, but when you get into scrimmages like this, the first team is going to be a little bit better and stronger than the second team." <?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>
On the quarterback situation
"I'm going to continue to evaluate our quarterback situation. We're going to remain consistent about where we're at in terms of their status, and we won't name any starter until we get into the end of training camp prior to the season. And with all that being said, Zac Lee is still in this equation, so I don't want to dismiss his opportunity to compete for the position."
On the running backs
"Our running backs I felt played well. Marlon (Lucky) and Cody (Glenn) ran the ball extremely well and (were) physical. Marlon's injury doesn't seem like anything that's going to be career-ending or anything of that nature. I think he had a medial sprain of his knee, and they're going to MRI it. We'll have a little bit more information about where he's at after they conclude the MRI and all the assessments and evaluations."
On the receivers
"I thought Todd Peterson and Maurice Purify really stood out today, as well as Nate Swift and J.B. Phillips. That receiving corps is the strength of this football team, and we're going to have to rely on that heavily throughout the course of the year. It's great to have wide receivers that have been in the system, and that have experience and have knowledge of how to get open and how to make plays."
On the crowd
"We had a great crowd, I think we had about 55,000 fans. I can't thank them enough for their support of the program. This is all about the fans, and we're really excited about having the support from our fans, and hopefully they enjoyed the day. We certainly enjoyed their support."
On the pros and cons of going into the offseason without naming a starting quarterback
"I don't think there are any cons. It's positive that players continue to compete on a consistent basis. I think it provides for a great atmosphere of competition; players will be challenged with different situations during the course of practice in the offseason. I wish I had the crystal ball, but you can't make determinations too soon."
On the status of offensive lineman Lydon Murtha
"He's going in for an MRI right now for his ankle. I don't know if it's a high ankle sprain, but I know that they took an x-ray and there were no fractures, so that's positive."
On the disparity between the first and second teams
"I think that's the nature of college football, there's that natural fall off. We have some young players who are still learning the game and still trying to get better. It's pretty hard in this day and age of 85 scholarships to go out there and do what we did today. There is a number of schools that can't even scrimmage because they don't have enough linemen, so we're fortunate that we have the numbers that we do."
On the White team's performance
"I thought Menelik Holt and Chris Brooks had real nice games. Chris made some good grabs, and he got himself open which is attributed to his play making ability."
On the touchdown celebrations
"We told the guys to have fun today, and we told the officials that there is no excessive celebration penalties today. We wanted our guys to have some fun and enjoy themselves."
Quarterback Joe Ganz
On coming into the game
"It was awesome. When they announced my name the crowd cheered. It was just an awesome feeling going out with the first team and not going out with the backup role or anything. It was pretty cool."
On his performance
"I'm happy with this spring game. I had a pretty good game. There are a couple throws here and there I wish I could take back but that's just the nature of the game. I'm pretty happy with my performance."
On taking advantage of his opportunity
"The only thing I couldn't show was my ability to scramble too much because I wasn't live. I couldn't make anybody miss. But other than that I think I took advantage of everything that we needed to take advantage of today."
On diving for the end zone
"It was the endzone. You have to. The guys gave me a little stuff about that and said I would have been down, but I don't think I would have been."
On wearing the green jersey
"It's nice not having that (getting hit) in the back of your mind; just knowing that nobody can touch you. It's nice but I like to take the green jersey off and mix it up a little bit, but they wouldn't let us do it."
Quarterback Sam Keller
On playing his thoughts of the game
"I think I graded out pretty well as far as what we were trying to do. We were trying to just be efficient and manage the team down the field. I graded out at probably an A- or B+, somewhere in that range. The coaches will have the final grade, but I feel good."
On the importance of the first touchdown drive
"It's really important. You always want to start off on a high note, so being that that was the first drive and the first time I was in front of a crowd since 2005, it felt really good just to get things going and get the crowd behind it."
On the wide receivers
"Any time you can go back and your first read on the play is wide open or makes a play, it's like 'Wow, this game's pretty easy.' Those guys do make it easy. So does our offensive line and running backs. We just have a really good offense. I think everybody here can see that. It's just a matter of managing it and taking what the defense gives you. I don't think you can stop all of our guys. We had a good day today and showed how efficient we can be."
Linebacker Corey McKeon
On playing soft against your own teammates
"You can't because the second you lay off is the second you're not ready for a play or the second a guy rolls up on your knee and everyone's hurt. But you have to go out there and compete. When you're playing against your guys, you have to keep that in your mind, but at the same time you have to know when to go hard and when not to lay one of your own guys out across the middle."
On the positives for the defense
"I liked the hits. I thought the Will (linebackers) and safeties came and made some big plays, (guys like Ben) Eisnenhart on the white team coming up and hitting Cody Gleen a little bit. That's a hard thing to do. I liked the hits. Guys are flying around. They're not second guessing themselves and they've got the defense down so they can just make plays."