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COAChSPEAK |EXCERPTS FROM BILL O'BRIEN'S WEEKLY PRESSER How do you improve in the red zone? Number one, it comes down to coaching. There were things that we did in that Virginia game that we can do better, like limiting the length of the play call and simplifying things for Matt to get us into the proper play. Then as far as the players go, just, when they get out there, once we do simplify things, just executing it better. Wherever I've been, we've always prided ourselves on being a good red zone team, so we're going to spend a lot of time on that this week, and hopefully we'll see improvement. How is Donovan Smith doing physically after the first two games? How important is it to get a full four quarters out of him? It's very important. He's an excel- lent young player. He's a left tackle who's athletic and big and tough. He's had some bumps and bruises over the past couple of games. He's day-to-day right now. Hopefully he can play, and we'll know better as the week goes on, but we want our best players out there for four quar- ters and that's important. What does your running back situation look like this week with Bill Belton and Derek Day being at least partially injured? Those guys are day-to-day. So I'm not sure if they're going to be able to play. So it'll be [Curtis] Dukes. You'll probably see [Zach] Zwinak in there. [They are] two big guys, and you may even see Michael Zordich do some things. So that's who we're going to go with right now. We've got a lot of depth there. We've got six guys there who all can play and run the football and protect and catch the ball in the backfield. So that's not a position that's lack- ing for depth. I thought that on Sat- urday Derek Day ran very, very tough. Curtis Dukes went in there and ran tough. Zwinak did some good things. So that's a pretty solid position, and we just have got to keep grind- ing away with those guys. S E P T E M B E R Tim Owen You mentioned about Paul Jones' move, at least partially, to tight end. How has Paul taken that move, and is there any thought that he might not be happy with it and could leave? Where are you guys at at this point with how he feels about it? No. Paul and I have a very good re- lationship, very honest relationship. We've had a lot of discussions about his role on the team. He's a 260‑pound guy who is athletic and loves to play football. We feel like right now the best thing for us to do with him is to try him at this F position. Now, the F position is not really a true tight end. It's somebody who can play out wide as a wide receiver. It's somebody who can play in a wing position in the formation. It's somebody that's a move guy, somebody who can line up in the backfield, and Paul came out [Monday] and played that position. He's also still a quarterback. So we're asking him to do a lot of differ- ent things. He's got a package of plays at quarterback, so if we needed him, he can do that, too. So we're just trying to get our best players on the field, and he's certainly a guy who we've got to play. And that's on me to get him into the game. Given that these are college kids and Sam Ficken is 19 years old, there have really been a lot of vi- 1 2 , 2 0 1 2 12 cious comments toward him on Twitter. Do you guys have to talk to the kids about staying away from that, and how do you feel about people really making some pretty vicious attacks on these kids? Obviously, I think it's absolutely ridiculous, not just because it's a 19‑year‑old college kid. It's just be- cause – I mean, it's anonymous in some ways, and in other ways it's not. But at the end of the day, you know, these guys are really playing hard, giving great effort for us. To go on whatever – spacebook or tweeter, whatever it is – and put stuff on there is just absolutely ridiculous to me and very cowardly, to be honest with you. But that's just my opinion. If people really knew these kids and understood the effort that they put forth and how hard they play and how hard they train and how much it means to them... I don't know. I don't know what type of people do that. But I don't know any people who do that, personally. How is Matt McGloin doing? Do you expect to limit him in practice this week because of the elbow? He looks all right to me. He's a tough kid. He looks all right to me. He didn't throw [Monday]. He took [Monday] off from throwing. He handed off and things like that. But he'll be ready to go. He's a very tough kid. B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M BACK OFF O'Brien said some of the nasty comments made toward kicker Sam Ficken after the Virginia loss were "absolutely ridiculous" and "very cowardly."

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