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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 L Y P R E S S E R When you were recruiting him, did you see Trace McSorley's composure under pressure and his resilience, and are you at all surprised to see it be displayed so much in a guy making his first five starts? I think it's been helpful that he has been the backup quarterback for two years and didn't approach it like that. He really prepared as if he was the starter. He's a mature kid, he's a disci- plined kid. He's a smart young man. Comes from a real good family. Strong parents. And he's prepared for this. He also is a guy who has been successful his entire athletic and academic career. He expects this. So yeah, obviously you look at the quarterback we played last week, that was an older, veteran guy and he played like that. He looked like that. I think Trace is playing like a guy who probably is a second-year starter. Not necessarily in just all his numbers and stats, but just his demeanor. It's really good. I think I mentioned this the other day: You look at Trace, you look at Saquon Barkley, you look at Garrett Sickels, you look at so many players. What I love about our team right now is, whether things are going good or whether we're having challenges or whatever it is, you don't see the de- meanor change. There's emotion, which is natural, but guys are handling that. Their body language is good. Their demeanor is good, and that's im- portant. That's important for the side- line. That's important for belief. He's like that at practice, he's like that in the games, he's like that in his off- season workouts. There's a lot of belief in our team in Trace, and there has been for two years. I've been telling you guys that. When we would do twos vs. ones in two-minute drill at the end of prac- tice, and Trace was out there with the twos going out against our one defense, you know, he had demanded a lot of re- spect from a lot of guys for a long time. You talked a7er the game about how you had to play Manny Bowen at middle linebacker late against Min- nesota. Do you think he can hold up at that spot if you need him to play there? Also, Brandon Polk showed some big-play ability for you last season, but he really has not gotten going at all this year. I don't think he was suited up against Minnesota. What's happened with him? Manny, we do think has the ability to play Mike linebacker and hold up. The game has changed. So many people are playing spread now. You would love to have that type of athlete at Mike line- backer for you. I do want to give Manny, as well as our defense, credit, and Brent Pry credit. The adversity that those guys have faced this year is unreal. Seven line- backers have been lost for significant time this year. We were hopeful that we were going to have Jason Cabinda back this week. So I'm really, really proud. I'm really proud of Brent. I'm really proud of the defense. Manny is doing a nice job. He's got great instincts but needs to learn how to play Mike line- backer and command the defense. You look at Cam Brown, a true fresh- man, and he's doing a really nice job for us. Koa Farmer is making the change to linebacker full-time. Those guys have done a nice job for us. We expect to get Brandon Smith back this week. That will help us. So we'll see. But yeah, we think Manny can hold up in there. It's just [a matter of] getting him comfortable with playing the position and also the lead- ership component of taking charge of the defense and making the calls. Brandon Polk has not been available. … He's had injuries that have limited him and held him out. You were able to get a couple timely sacks toward the end on Saturday. How would you evaluate your pass rush so far considering that teams are running the ball a lot and that you've had some injuries? I think it's been good, [but] we can be better there. It was great to see Evan Schwan get the first sack of his career at a very, very important time of the game. So that was great. But yeah, I think it's been streaky. We get them and then we kind of go on dry spots. Us being a little bit more consistent in stopping the run would help us there. … I mean, look at what we're doing offensively. Our pass- ing numbers are pretty good, and it's because of the commitment that people are making to stop the run. I would like to see us be a little bit more effective late in the game. I had made a couple recommendations [during the Minnesota game] that we weren't get- ting there, so let's drop eight and rush three. And we were able to get pressure rushing three for whatever reason and then dropped eight in coverage, which helped us a few times, it really did. So rushing, whether you're blitzing or rushing four or bringing five or six is great. If you're going to get there and get the quarterback either on the ground or make him uncomfortable in the pocket and affect his throws, that's great. But if you're not, you also have to look at it and take the other approach and say, let's drop eight and rush three. You mentioned Brent Pry earlier. How has he managed defensive per- sonnel this year to counteract the in- juries and movement, and is there any other potential good news com- ing from that front on defense? Not right now. Like I mentioned earlier, we were hopeful we were going to have good news this week, but we had a set- back. I think Brent and the defensive staff have handled it unbelievably well. There are not a whole lot of moving parts and options out there. I know one of our young players tweeted something out today, and people were buzzing about that, saying, is Shane Simmons playing linebacker because he tweeted out "LBU"? There was a flurry of retweets and questions and things like that. Shane Simmons is a 245-pound defensive end on the scout team doing a great job. So I wouldn't worry about that. But yeah, there aren't a whole lot of other moving parts leB for us, to be honest with you. There are a few little wrinkles that we can do, and you'll see O C T O B E R 5 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 12

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