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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 What are your thoughts on Saquon Barkley and how he came out of the Indiana game a9er 33 carries? He has 200 carries for the season. Do you try to manage that the rest of the way? Are you concerned physically how he came out of the game and his work- load? It's more about how we see him and how the doctors and trainers feel. And how he feels. [It's about] how we watch him at practice, how we watch him in the games. We do have depth at that posi- tion. Obviously, it's also hard to take a guy off the field who has a chance to break a play at any minute. He had one play down the sideline where he stum- bled, and I think if he didn't stumble, he scores. He's had almost one of those runs a game where he's gotten the one big run that really jumps his production up. So, yeah, we monitor it. He typically hasn't had those types of numbers. I do like the fact that we didn't abort the run game and kept working it in there. He had a big run late in the game for a first down. That was impressive, and we talked about it aBer the game. But, yeah, it's something we monitor at every one of these positions. Running back is included in that. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but he's nowhere near the guy on the team with the most reps. I think that's John Reid, clear and above pretty much anybody else. How big of a role has Brian Gaia played in anchoring your line with everything that's happened? He's playing well, but I would say where his value has come all off-season and during the season has been his leadership. Obviously, we all know he's the one guy we have who has started all season long. He did a great job in the off-season in terms of preparation. He's like 295 pounds, but I think he's got 12 or 13 percent body fat, which is unreal for a guy that size. He's smart. Football is very, very important to him. It's something we talk about all the time in the recruiting process. There's a way to figure that out. There is a big difference between guys who like football and guys who love football. And Brian Gaia is a guy who loves the game, loves the preparation and loves the camaraderie with his teammates and coaches. I've known Brian and his family for a long time. He's done a great job for us: leadership of the younger players, mentality, organizing film ses- sions and all those things. He's been re- ally good. With us, having a true freshman and redshirt freshman start- ing on either side of him, I don't think you can do that without Brian Gaia at center as a senior who has played as much football as he has. I think you would have a hard time having a true freshman or redshirt freshman at both guards without that type of leadership on the inside. How is Trace McSorley feeling a9er the game at Indiana, and how many practice reps do you think he really requires to be prepared for Rutgers? He's in great shape. He drank a lot of milk and orange juice and took some multi-vitamins. [He has been] living in the new hot and cold tubs. But, seriously, just before walking over here, he was walking through the locker room and he looks great. He's still a young player, so he needs every rep he possibly can get. In practice, we need his leadership. We need him setting the tempo, and he needs to continue to de- velop. All of these guys at this point of the season are banged up and bruised on Sundays. They get a little better on Monday with the day off. Tuesday they're heading in the right direction, and then the most important thing is that we need to be peaking at the right time emotionally, physically and men- tally come Saturday. And we've done a good job of that with all the things that we do. The hot and cold tubs that we have have been huge for that. The nu- trition bar has been huge for us. All the different soB tissue stuff that we do with massages and those types of things, it's helped. So Tim Bream and his staff have done an excellent job. Dwight Galt and his staff have done an excellent job. A lot of the stuff that we're doing in terms of studying sports science and things that we can do in modifying practice, using the experi- ence of the coaches and all these things [has helped]. He's in good shape and he'll be ready Saturday. As far as Will Fries and Michal Menet, how special is it that you would even have two true freshmen who you would feel comfortable playing on the offensive line? Could you talk just a little bit about what might make those guys a little bit ahead of the curve or even ready to do something like this if needed? I think we probably started this last year with [Ryan] Bates. [There was] a lot of conversation on whether we should burn his redshirt or not. It was close, and I think he started that trend. Then, obviously, these two guys this year are continuing that trend. You really want that at every position. We went through that with Zech McPhearson on whether we should burn his redshirt or not. And if you're recruiting the right guys, that's going to happen. Obviously, you have guys who are going to take a little longer to develop who still have a chance to have signifi- cant roles. But [Fries and Menet] really spent a lot of time preparing before they got here. A guy who we don't talk about a whole lot who has maybe improved as much as anybody on our team, and defi- nitely of all the freshmen, is Alex Gellerstedt. He was a little further be- hind coming in than those guys, but he graduated [high school] early and he's made up significant ground. There is a lot of excitement and buzz about him right now. That's turned out to be a re- ally good class between [Connor] Mc- Govern, Bates, Menet, and Gellerstedt. We're excited about those guys and their future. That's kind of the model. You either want to be playing true freshmen or you want to be redshirting true freshmen, kind of going back and forth on how much they can help you as true freshmen and what's the cost-ben- N O V E M B E R 1 6 , 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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