Gary Pinkel talked about DGB's growth, James Franklin's status and several other things on Wednesday. A partial transcript is below and you can listen to the conference above.
On the upcoming game with South Carolina:
“We are facing a really good football team. I am very impressed with the job Steve has done with that program. They are very, very talented on both sides of the football and we recognize that. (It is) our first time playing in Columbia, South Carolina and here is a great, great game day environment and we are looking forward to the opportunity.”
On the offensive line’s development and the importance of them to Saturday’s game:
“It is going to be a challenge. There is no question about that. Their defensive front is really outstanding. We are going to get Jack Minor back, our starting offensive tackle. He had a strained MCL. He played about 15 plays last week in the first quarter and he wasn’t quite ready. This week he is looking really good in practice, so we think we are going to get him back (and) that will help us adjust a little bit. We are young. We played a lot of young players this last game on offense and we just have to keep getting better. That is the most important thing. There is no question about it; that is an area that is going to be critical if we want to have success.”
On having to adjust play calling due to the line:
“We adjusted a little bit. With a first starting quarterback last week, we adjusted a lot. We not only had a freshman guard and a redshirt freshman center and a walk-on right guard but we also had a redshirt freshman quarterback. I thought they competed well against a very good Arizona State team. We have made adjustments, I think you always do. Certainly the players we are going to be playing against this Saturday are outstanding. They are very impressive.”
On James Franklin’s status:
“The medical staff will make that decision as they always do. We expect him to practice today. He wanted to throw yesterday and they wanted him to wait a day, so he is going to go out and throw. He told me he feels really, really good. He is almost symptom free, so we would be excited if he could get going again and be excited to have him back if he is ready.”
On what he has seen from DGB:
“It has only been three games. He is getting better. He is getting better in practice too. I do think that Dorial, the expectation level for him, should be just to get better each and every week and everything will take care of itself. We had several plays in for him this last game, but didn’t use it because of our young quarterback we had in, so we pulled some those new plays out that we had. A couple other times we called plays for him but defenses presented the reads to the quarterback in a different direction. I do think he is very talented. I do think that he will make his mark and hopefully we can get him more involved with our offense as the season goes on.”
On the difficulty of managing quarterbacks that run the ball and keeping them fresh:
“His (James’) problems as far as getting hit, or beat up a little bit as you would say, have not been as much running the football it is more getting hit throwing the football. We are playing some great defensive linemen this week. They take their shots at him. That is where more of his problems have been, not running. That being said, when you run with the football there is a responsibility that you have. Last year he took linebackers and safeties on. He is a tough kid. He is very competitive. This year the talking points to him were that you do our team a disservice when you do that. It certainly is impressive to your team that you are competitive and tough like that, but the next stage in his career as far as running the football is when you get out and you run the football there is a time to go down and you don’t take people on. Now if it is fourth and one or third and one, that is fine you can do that and we understand that. You have to be careful about it. The physicalness of this league is significant and you have to be smart about what you do.”
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