Notes on Mike Gundy’s Central Michigan Press Conference

Ed. note: My good man Clint Davison has volunteered to take notes on Mike Gundy’s press conference again this season. This is extremely helpful to me and you guys reap the benefits of not having to watch the entire thing. Think of it as a Cliff’s Notes version of the presser. I’ll be editing these but Davison will be writing them. Hope you enjoy.

“We’re back at it!”

No, really, he said that…to start off the 2015 season of weekly press conferences! Great! Coach covers Central Michigan, some good stuff about the RB situation, raves about the defense, talks unis, and gives some great kick-off-the-season, opening volley, Gundy-isms!

Injuries

• “(Kevin) Peterson ought to be back out there Sunday. He’s doing very well. He’ll play if he feels good.”

•“(Brandon) Shepherd had a dislocated finger, but he’ll be back up running Sunday or Monday.”

Central Michigan

• “It’s a long way up there.” Ah, the season of Gundy quotes is upon us!

• “Returning quarterback’s a good player. Have to be concerned about a team with a good quarterback. Quarterbacks control games.”

• “They have a new coach, a relatively new running back. But, there’s still a lot of uncertainty. We expect to see a similar offense to what they ran last year.” (See the Mothership’s coverage here.)

• “In 3 or 4 days, we’ll be ready; but, I wish we had 3 more weeks.” Such confusion confidence!

On the Defense

• Coach was asked if this could “potentially” be the best defense he’s had since returning as HC: “I think ‘potentially’ is a good word. I like where we’re at. We have some depth, some experience. We run pretty well. This could be a good unit.”

• When asked why he thought they’d be better: “Heard people say, ‘They struggled last year, it’s the same guys, why should they be any better?’ We all get better at what we do. They’ve developed their bodies. They’ve played some games on the road. They understand the heat of the battle.”

• Asked about questions answered from 4 weeks ago: “First concern was the defensive tackle spot. Got two guys playing there (Maile and Taylor – see this for full depth chart) who have never played at this level. But, they’ve had a real good preseason camp. Like their attitude, but have no clue what they’ll do in a game.”

Offensive line

• “I feel better about them than I did, but they’re not where we were the years we were winning 11-12 games.”

• “(Brad) Lundblade is doing well. He needs to be up to 290 or so. Moving Paul (Lewis) from center to guard.”

• “I know we’re better. It’s hard to evaluate our tackles because of Ogbah. He just runs everybody over. He’s difficult for us to handle in practice.” Have to say, I think that’s a really good thing!

Running Back Situation

• “Rennie’s getting less touches, but Rennie’s better when he’s fresh. Carr’s made enough plays to make us think he can be productive at this level.”

• “I feel better about the running back situation than I did at this time last year. Carson, a fresh Rennie, and Carr, and actually Raymond (Talyor) can give us those breakaway plays.

• We want those two guys (Carson and Childs) to have about 15 carries, not one guy 25, one have 10. Then Carr will get 8-10”

Just thinking out loud here – he didn’t say anything about Todd Mays at all. Hmmm…

Experience vs. inexperience

• “We all have a pretty good idea what (named several veterans) are going to do. It’s that 2^nd wave of guys that make the difference between 8 wins and 12 wins. They’re the ones that change your season.”

• “Mason’s in that second [wave] He’s started 3 games.” He went on to describe how it took 12-14 games before the game “slowed down” for him as a quarterback. “Mason’s going to go through a learning curve for 5-6 games. But he’s very easy for us to coach. He’s a student of the game, he’s very respectful, very low-key. He’s more like Chelf in that he’s cerebral at it.”

Miscellaneous

• Regarding the size of Jalen McKleskey and Jeff Carr: “Coach (Rob) Glass has helped them get to the point they can compete. He’s the main reason we’re able to have success around here.”

• Coach was asked if uniforms still play a big factor for the players: “Yeah, they still play a big factor. These guys like the bling, the colors, the bright lights.”

Bright lights? On the unis?

• As for his preference – “They got rid of the one I liked, the all gray. They took it away – Nike or somebody!” It was PFB!!!

• Finished with this, when asked if he had time for one more question: “I was going to check, but I didn’t want anybody thinking I was being mean. I know I have to do my television show and they’ll yell at me if I’m late.”