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C OA C H S P E A K| EXCERPTS FROM JAMES FRANKLIN'S WEEKLY PRESSER The defense made some big plays in the fourth quarter last week, but it's allowed 68 points and almost 900 yards the past two games. How con- cerned are you? You know, I think it's a number of things. I think obviously the [running] quarterbacks have created some chal- lenges for us, the tempo offenses have created some challenges for us, there's no doubt about it. And we haven't tack- led as clean. We're at a point right now where we're a little bit banged up. We'll modify practice this week fairly dramatically, to be honest with you, from what we've done in the past, that's kind of where we're at. We still have some depth issues, so we have to be smart and get our legs back. We've got to be fresh and we've got to be physical. There are definitely some areas we can improve. We played such good defense around here for the last year and a half and we've got to get back to that. So obviously it's an area that we're focused on. We want to get back to playing the way we're capable of play- ing. How did you think Angelo Mangiro did with the move to guard following Andrew Nelson's injury? How did that look to you? I think with Wendy and Mangiro, it's interesting. I would say they're both centers. They're both guys who can take control, make the calls, get everybody on the same page. I think their size and body types and things like that probably are more suited to be centers. But I also think they're two veteran guys who have some savvy to them and know how to play and know how to play to their strengths. We just think it's the right thing for us to do for our team and have some of that leadership and have some of that vet- eran presence in there. They did good. First time kind of doing it. They'll con- tinue to get better. But I think we'll probably be playing with two centers in there, one at center, one at guard. But I do think the leadership has been impor- tant. I wanted to ask about Trevor Williams' interception in the fourth quarter on a fourth-down play. Do you think there was a teaching mo- ment there in that maybe he could have knocked that ball down and got- ten [better] field position, or was it the heat of the moment that caused him to react the way he did? I don't think there's any doubt that on the fourth-down play, after the fact, you would love to knock that ball down and not give up that yardage. There's no doubt about it. They're the things that we talk about, obviously, when we're talking about situational foot- ball. We spend a lot of time talking about those things. I think in the heat of the moment, you're trying to make a play and just react. So, yeah, I think it would have been a situation where we could have talked that through a little bit more. But I think in the heat of the moment they just wanted to make a play. How do you feel Saquon Barkley is progressing away from the ball? Ob- viously there are some trust issues there in pass protection, and he faced a lot of blitzes on Saturday. How tricky is it for a true freshman to pick up the nuances? I think he did really good, especially considering Saturday was all blitz cov- erage, almost every down. All cover zero, all cover one, overload blitzes, a lot of different looks that we previously hadn't seen from them. I think in those areas [he did] really well. Another thing I'm excited about is that I think he's going to be closer this week than he's probably been in the last couple of weeks to 100 percent. I think that would be helpful as well. On Saturday, he didn't break the tackle. He probably had two or three opportunities, and in previous weeks he broke those tackles and created some big plays. And I think on Saturday, looking at that tape, he had an opportu- nity to rush for 100 yards again by breaking one tackle, which typically is done. Modifying practice this week, him being further away from when he was out – I expect him to be 100 per- cent or as close as possible. You talked about the team being banged up and needing some rest. Aside from that, have the open-field tackling issues been somewhat sur- prising or disappointing? Is there anything more that you think has gone into those struggles? I think it's a combination of all the things we talked about. It's an epidemic right now in college football. I think a lot of it is that you don't tackle as much, and then you get banged up. You get bumps and bruises, and you're modify- ing practice and it starts to show up. You've got to be so disciplined in every- thing you're doing so that you don't fall into the bad habit of not wrapping up or not closing the distance between you and the offensive player to make sure that you're not lunging and things like that. It's something that we preach every single day, and that we practice every single day. But I think the combination of us continuing to emphasize it in practice and modifying practice this week will help. It seems like Illinois' offense fea- tures much more of a pro-style pass- ing game than you've faced the past two weeks. Is this a much different challenge for your defense than the past couple of weeks have been? Yeah, I think this quarterback and this coach, they know how to throw the ball. And they want sling it all over the field. This is a quarterback we know well. We recruited him to come to the seven-on- seven camp. He's not a runner, but he extends plays and buys time and throws the ball away and does things like that. He's got a real good feel for it. It will be a real challenge. They are big and physi- cal, D-line and O-line. And I think one of the real challenges of this game is their pass protection, O C T O B E R 2 8 , 2 0 1 5 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 14

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