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How does a healthier Devin [Gardner] expand the offense a little bit, and what does that give you?

"Obviously any time you have a healthy quarterback that's a good thing, and having the week off has allowed Devin to heal up a little bit and that's really good. Excited about- obviously when you have the type of guy Devin is with his ability to run the football it creates options for you."

 

Aside from his ability or inability against Northwestern to move and really create with his legs, what were the issues in having pretty good field position a lot of times but not being able to cash in?

"Yeah, disappointing. Had lots of opportunities there to score points. Didn't get it done. I think you look at a couple key statistics we talk about all the time: third downs we were 1-of-12. That's not good enough. A number of things. We turned the ball over three times. Had the two turnovers and then a turnover on downs. We put the ball on the ground one time [and] were able to recover it. Once again it goes back to consistency. Getting 11 guys doing the right thing on every play."

 

Drake Johnson gets a second chance [against Northwestern]. Saw him balancing carries with DeVeon. What would you like out of Drake and what are you looking to do with the two of them for Maryland and in the future?

"Well, obviously we've said all along we're going to play more than one back and the way the season's played out with Derrick's injury, and he continues to get more healthy as we go on here- you've got DeVeon. Drake's done a nice job. Justice Hayes has been banged up a little bit so that's limited him a little bit. Obviously we said we're going to play multiple backs and we kind of play the hot hand at the time and rotate them. Some of them are scripted by play because we feel some guys run different plays better than others. Others are by kind of possession and who has the hot hand, so to say."

[After THE JUMP: The kids are alright (according to Nuss)]

Was the pass protection against Northwestern as good as it's been all year, and how have they progressed in that area?

"I thought that our offensive line probably arguably played their best game of the year against Northwestern when you look at what we were able to do at the line of scrimmage. You look at back-to-back weeks where we didn't give up a sack against Northwestern and really feel like we shouldn't have given one up against Indiana so two weeks in a row felt like as a group offensive line-wise protected very well. The backs played a big part in that. Did a good job picking up third down pressures and those type of things."

So I guess when you talk about all 11 being on the same page was quarterback the problem against Northwestern? Or one of the bigger problems?

"Was the quarterback the problem? I wouldn't say that. We had a lot of issues. Obviously I've got to take responsibility in it too. Everybody's got responsibility in it and I've said it all along, it's hard to pinpoint. You don't put it on one guy unless you can arguably say that everybody else is doing what they're supposed to do all the time."

 

Brady mentioned a couple of the younger guys you got a chance to look at during the bye week. Are there others than we maybe haven't seen as much that you are seeing progressing?

"Yeah, definitely. When you talk about as young a team as we are, I mean 14 of 19 guys we're playing are freshmen or sophomores and then talk about the kids that are redshirting and you look at the roster development [and] we're very, very excited about where this group is going. When you look at [it] we're young up front. Not going to lose an offensive lineman [and] how that group's started to gel together. You look at the emergence of Amara Darboh. You talk about Mason Cole and what he's been able to do. The backs are young players. They're not veteran guys. When you look at our scout team guys and some of the things they're doing you see improvement, and then when you're able to get them into your system and let them play with plays that they know that aren't on a card and those type of things and let them go out and play it's really encouraging."

 

Brady had mentioned Wilton [Speight] as a guy who really stood out in the scrimmage. What do you like about him? You've seen a lot of quarterbacks. His strengths?

"Wilton's done a really good job, I think, of grasping the system. He continues each and every day to want to learn more. He's very eager. Talk about a prototypical drop-back passer; he understands the passing game. He understands concepts within the passing game. What type of throws to make and when to make those throws and [I] really was encouraged by what he did. Obviously had some mistakes and things he knows he needs to correct but one of the biggest things when you start talking about a quarterback is they're going to make mistakes, especially when they're young. Can they process those mistakes? Understand why, what happened, and then self-correct moving forward."

What's his ceiling? Can he make all the throws?

"I don't think you ever know a guy's true ceiling when he's redshirting and you're talking about week 10 of a redshirt season but I can say as a coaching staff we're excited about what he brings."

 

One of the things Brady Hoke mentioned after the Northwestern game was working with Devin Funchess to work to cut down on drops, things like that. In what ways have you seen him improve throughout this bye week?

"Well, it goes back to- you talk about Devin Funchess, [and] we know Devin Funchess can catch the football. Obviously he's had some opportunities that he hasn't converted on. So I think what happens, as with anything else, [when] you don't have the success you'd like maybe you start to press a little bit, maybe you're over-thinking things, maybe you're making things more difficult than they are. Devin's done a really good job, obviously. He goes out every day, gets extra balls on the Jugs [machine]. He's practiced extremely hard, not that he hasn't all season because he's actually prepared extremely well all year and it's just one of those things that we've got work our way through. It's like a hitter that's in a slump. You just keep slugging away and it'll come back around."

 

You talked again, I think, week after week about lack of consistency. Can you talk abut how hard it is from your perspective to bring in a new system? Devin's been through three coordinators, and how hard it is to make that transition as a coach and as a player, if you could speak to that. 

"I talked about the youth, the development. When you see the things that we see week in and week out, they're encouraging. And it's frustrating- I won't say it's frustrating. At times you want that instant success, that instant gratification. That's not the way football works, and at this level against the quality of players and coaches that you're going to play against you've got to be on point in everything you do or you get exposed. When you're just a little bit off here or there it makes things not good, so we've got to continue to preach and we've got to continue to coach and practice perfect and run perfect plays. We talk about that all the time. We can't have 10 guys doing the right things and one guy just a little off. And when you look at can you pin it on one position or one player you can't do that, so we've just got to continue to develop, continue to get better and better. I know we're improving in certain areas and at times it's disappointing because you don't see the result that you want."