Presser/Practice Notes 9-17

Editor's note: I asked Tim to ask about shading the coverage to Warren's side and about Renaldo Sagesse's play to date.

On the shade:

"You can do a lot of things. But if you rotate your defense to one side or the other, they can throw to the other side or they can run the football. I thought our defensive coaches had a pretty good plan. They [Notre Dame] made some plays and we didn't. Boubacar didn't have his best game, but he's a good football player, and he's a competitor, and I'm sure he'll come back and play better the next time"

On Sagesse:

"He played pretty well. He didn't get a lot of reps, but he's continuing to get better. He's a big guy that we need to keep progressing because we want to play him more. You know, Greg Banks is a guy that's played very, very well, and we're gonna get him more snaps because he's shown that he's a guy that we feel comfortable that we can give 20-30 snaps a game. And Renaldo, hopefully we can get him to the same spot."

So sounds like no thought to realigning the DL.

Other bits:

• Junior Hemingway practiced yesterday and looked pretty good. Hopefully he'll be moving around better today. He was wearing a green (limited contact) jersey.
• The OL Lineup Saturday will depend on David Moosman's progress. Moosman was wearing a red non-contact jersey and riding the stairmaster. They're trying different right side combinations. David Molk has played well so far, which is exciting because it's just his second year. There's 7-8 guys that will play on OL. Err on the side of caution with all injuries.
• On Jonas Mouton's "punch," Rodriguez said he didn't see anything that he thought was a penalty, and if something had happened, the refs would have called something. There will be no additional punishment.
• Eastern is an intense team, they have good fundamentals and blocking. They almost won their last game. They made a great improvement from week 1 to week 2, and they'll make the same progress this week. They're focusing on Eastern instead of ND. Hungry to prove themselves each week.
• Getting more players in. "Our plan... is to get more guys ready to contribute, and particularly the young guys... If they're not ready, we can't put them in there. It's not fair to them or the team."
• Talking to guys about sportsmanship. "Let me make it perfectly clear. No personal fouls will go unpunished (by the coaches)." It's emotional, and sometimes emotional things happen. Play between the whistles and play fair. Penalties can be due to lack of discipline, but the team is doing OK in that respect so far. Saturday didn't seem to be much chippier or physical than most games.
• Brandon Graham hasn't gotten too much more attention from the first teams than you'd expect. Notre Dame is a heavy max-protect team, so they would probably double him no matter what. He still got some good pressure, and made plays in the run game.
• Denard Robinson will not be a package guy. "We want him to continue to be an every-down quarterback." He can make all the throws, he's just still learning the offense. The college game is pretty complicated. In the walkthrough, Nick Sheridan seemed to be getting fewer reps than either Tate or Denard.
• Troy Woolfolk is very active, and has made some big plays, very fast. Safety is the right position for him.
• The walk-on tryouts went well. 2-3 guys will get asked to join the team for a couple weeks. Looking for a bit of athletic ability, size, or speed. If guys look good, their HS film will be evaluated.
• Vincent Smith is just a freshman, so blitz protection against TAH-NOO-TAH blitz was the main reason he didn't play against Notre Dame.