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C O A C H S P E A K | E X C E R P T S F R O M J A M E S F R A N K L I N ' S W E E K LY P R E S S E R How do you feel Geno Lewis has re- sponded since you had that meeting with him a few weeks ago? I feel good. Geno's got a lot of ability. He's got obviously really good hands and leaping ability. What we need to do is we need to be more disciplined with everything we're doing, and that's not just Geno, that's a lot of guys. That's making sure that we're reading the cov- erages the same way so the quarterback and the receivers are on the same page. It's the depths of our routes. It's the timing. It's knowing when we're hot. It's all the little things that are impor- tant. I think Geno understands that as well as the rest of our guys do. The consis- tency is the important thing. We've got to make sure what's happening a little bit on o1ense and really on our team in general is you've got one or two guys per play that aren't consistently doing their job. So it's not just one guy, it's multiple guys. But I think Geno has been good. I think it's helped that we've got young guys providing depth there with [Chris] Godwin and Saeed [Blacknall]. I think some of the tight ends, [Mike] Gesicki and some of those guys have been com- ing on as well, so it's been helpful. But we need Geno to have a big role in this o1ense. He has the ability to do it, and we need him to consistently have a big role and make the plays that he's ca- pable of making. You don't have a lot of seniors on this team, but how have they im- pacted this group this season? I would say in a lot of ways maybe [they've had] even a stronger impact. Don't get me wrong. We'd love to have 30 seniors right now, but when you don't have 30, the few that you have, have to have really strong voices. We've been fortunate to have that. Where it's been magni4ed is we have some guys that haven't been with us. Not having [Ryan] Keiser in the last couple of weeks, his leadership has been unbe- lievable. Not having Die1enbach all year long. So I actually think it makes their role even more important than if you had 30 because you can kind of spread the wealth a little bit there. Are you expecting to have Donovan Smith this week? I would hope so. Again, we don't know. It's not really our decision. It's up to the medical sta1. We were hopeful that there was a possibility that [he would play] last week. It didn't happen. Obvi- ously the chances and the likelihood go up a little bit this week. We'll see. I know sometimes you think I'm not being completely honest, but I just don't know. He didn't practice on Sun- day; I'll tell you that. We'll see what happens [Tuesday]. He's going to have to get reps in practice to have a chance to play well on Saturday. We want to put him in a position to be successful. So I'm not sure at this point. What's impressed you most during the summer and preseason camp about Nyeem Wartman's work ethic? Nyeem's not really a loud, outspoken guy at practice. He just kind of does his job. What I notice is Nyeem is probably the one linebacker that we've got that really has some lead to him. He's a big, thick, strong guy. When he hits you, you go backwards. So he would make some plays. Mike Hull would do it because of a combination of traits, his speed and how aggressive he is, and how quickly he makes decisions. He hits you and knocks you back because of all of those traits. Nyeem has those traits as well, but he's 243 pounds or something like that. When he hits you, you feel it. You really do. I think obviously him being slightly limited with [an injury to] his wrist, getting a little bit more mobility back in that hand, I think has been helpful for him as well. But again, I see him growing. You're not asking him to come in and be the man from day one. He could kind of fol- low the man in Mike Hull, but also be able to make a name for himself and make some splash plays as well and kind of grow into this role. I see him growing into the role real nicely. We think he's playing at a very, very high level right now and very fortunate that he's here with us on our side. You've had some situations this year on kicko1 returns where some- body brought it out of the end zone instead of just taking a touchback. What are the riskreward factors that go into those decisions, bringing it out of the end zone when somebody N O V E M B E R 1 2 , 2 0 1 4 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 13 Tim Owen SEE FRANKLIN PAGE 14 DEEP THINKING Despite having only 12 seniors on the roster, Franklin said their leadership role is "even more important than if you had 30," because with more, "you can kind of spread the wealth."

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