Blue White Illustrated

Trace McSorley made a lot of plays on the run today. Can you talk about his accuracy outside the pocket ver- sus inside of the pocket and can you see a difference there and if there's anything he needs to work on in ei- ther? Trace is probably the opposite of Tommy [Stevens]. He has the ability to make plays with his feet but he is going to move and keep his eyes downfield the whole way. Tommy does as well, but Tommy's still got some growth in terms of the time and place there. His accu- racy, because it's such a big part of the game outside of the pocket, needs to be really, really strong, and it has been all spring. He showed that today. He's got a nice feel for things, even the play down in the red zone. We ran a naked. It was a defender who could have stopped him from running the ball and that defender was also in a position where he didn't have a clear lane to throw the ball and he just was ni@y. He gave a nice little pump fake, which allowed him to either break contain and run or get the ball around it now. So just little things like that. Trace and Tommy have a really nice feel for being able to operate within the system of the offense. The effectiveness of the no-huddle and the dynamic tempo – what are the benefits you see the most out of that? I think it's a combination of a number of things. We went from having lack of numbers and lack of depth and lack of experience on the offensive line. We went from having nine scholarship players to now having 17 scholarship players on the O-line. We went from being young at wideout to veteran at wide out. I think we have one of the better backfields right now with the combination of guys who we have plus guys who are coming in. Tight ends like Mike Gesicki are really playing with some confidence right now and some of the other guys as well. Also, having two mobile quarterbacks. You bring Joe Moorhead in, he's got a system that I believe in and I think makes sense for our team right now. It's a combination of what Joe is doing and also what we're returning. It's a beautiful marriage at the right time. I'm very pleased with what we've been able to get done. Ninety-five percent of the offense is in. We are going to go back and study the tape and make cut ups and say, "What is going to be our bread and butter? What is going to be our identity? Who are we going to be moving forward? What areas do we need to improve on?" That's going to be very important for us. But I thought the tempo was good. What do you think are some of the things that Tommy Stevens needs to work on and catch up, and did you see that in today's game, especially in those 10 minutes he had for the Blue team? He's got a natural feel, almost like a point guard, to find open guys. He's not always necessarily going through the progression the way he should be or reading the side of the field he should be, but that's just experience and recog- nition of defenses. That's where I think he'll make the biggest improvement. There may be times when he goes to the wrong side of the field on his progres- sion, but he still throws completions. How much better is he going to be when mentally he's on pace with where he is physically? Those are the areas. [He needs to be] a little more confident and decisive. You guys were down quite a few safeties. What did you like about the guys you saw and specifically with Koa Farmer what kind of progress did he make this spring? Is he a guy who can help you make some of this stuff happen? We're very pleased with Koa. He's an interesting guy. He's a 220-pound guy who is dieting to be at 220 pounds. He used to be at 227 pounds at one point. He runs 4.4, one of the faster guys on our team. He can play safety right now, he's really improved. I thought he worked really well with Tim Banks this spring. … I thought he did a really great job. Nick Scott, we tried in the corner to see if he could do it but he's a little bit more natural at safety. I thought Malik [Golden] may be one of the most im- proved guys on our team right now, not just physically but also from a leader- ship perspective and mentally as well. I think safety is one of our deeper posi- tions, especially when we get some guys back who had some nicks and bruises. A P R I L 1 6 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 10 OFFICIAL STATEMENT Franklin talks to a member of the officiating crew during the Blue- White Game. As in previous spring games, Franklin watched the ac- tion from the field, often standing behind the quarterback. Photo by Bill An- derson 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 P O S T G A M E P R E S S E R

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