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COAChSPEAK |EXCERPTS FROM BILL O'BRIEN'S WEEKLY PRESSER With the QB situation at Purdue, what's the game plan heading into the game with Robert Marve being announced as starter after not starting the last few games? I'm not going to give you the game plan. We're just looking forward to the challenge of playing Purdue. In my opinion, they're a very, very good team, a dangerous team. They have players on both sides of the ball that are playmakers. It's going to be a very difficult game. Offensively, what are you looking for against a Purdue defense that has had its ups-and-downs this year? They have a very talented defense. They have two inside tackles that are really, really good players. It starts there. The linebacking corps is solid. The secondary is very, very solid with big, physical guys. We've got a big challenge. We've got to go back to playing good, fundamental football and we have to do a great job in practice this week of preparing our players. We have to get back out there and compete better than we did as a coaching staff and as play- ers against Ohio State. You guys have been pretty oppor- tunistic most of the season. How big of an emphasis is that after a game where you probably missed some opportunities? Give Ohio State a lot of credit. We did; we missed some opportunities on both sides of the ball and on spe- cial teams. Again, it goes back to this is a great group of kids that came back to practice [Monday] ready to go, they worked extremely hard and are looking forward to the challenge of playing Purdue. How have the guys responded to the [Ohio State] loss over the last couple of days? I think these guys came back to work [Monday] and were ready to go. Again, we have a great senior class and they realize that they have only four opportunities left and it starts here with Purdue. It all starts with Tim Owen that leadership. I believe these guys have put that game behind them, and we all have. It's time to move on, and we started that process yes- terday. How has Kyle Carter felt? His ankle was wrapped up as he was walking off the field [against Ohio State]. I think that's going to be a day-to- day thing and I'll know better at the end of the week. He seems to be doing OK. Alex Butterworth seemed to have a better game with his punting on Saturday. Did you like the improve- ment that you saw? Could you eval- uate the performance of the rest of your special teams? I thought that Alex punted the ball well. He had a few punts that landed inside the 10-yard line that were big plays in the game at that time. I thought he did a nice job; he's worked at it. I felt that our kickoff coverage team was decent. They did a decent job for the most part – good kicks and good coverage. I thought our kickoff return team was terrible. We have to do a better job. We have to coach it better. We have to get going there and do a bet- ter job. I thought that our punt re- turn team was decent. We got a punt block, which is always good, and O C T O B E R 3 1 , 2 0 1 2 13 scored a touchdown off of it. There were some definite positives, but there were some things that we need to shore up. Are you concerned with building confidence in your kicker at this point? I believe the confidence comes from practice. In practice last week he was, I think, 10 for 10. During team situations he did some good things. I talk to Sam [Ficken] all the time. I have belief in Sam. It's just at that point in time I felt good about that play call from the 8-yard line, the hash mark that we were on, the time in the game. I don't think it has anything to do with confidence in Sam. Are you going to stick with the same return guys this week – Bill Belton and Jesse Della Valle? We'll compete in practice and we'll probably decide that Friday night. Does facing offenses like North- western and Ohio State help you to prepare for a multiple-offense team like Purdue? Sure. We've played a lot of no-hud- dle teams this year and we run a lot of that also in practice. Hopefully our defense can get up to speed on the tempo. Hopefully they'll be ready as far as the tempo goes. B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M LOOKING FOR MORE O'Brien said the kick re- turn unit "was ter- rible" against Ohio State. "We have to do a better job," he said. "We have to coach it bet- ter."

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