Now They Know

COACH PINKEL: Well, first of all, I'm not really into young. I'm not into inexperienced. It really doesn't matter. I think there's an expectation level that I have and the football team has and the program has. Those players, the responsibility goes with it. The responsibility as coaches and asplayers to have a good football team.

I'd say that's a very good observation.

Most are -- every player that's come into our starting defense, all of them have played significantly. May not have started a lot, but played significantly. I think that would be good. Then offensively, I think that, when you lose Chase Coffman, lose Jeremy Maclin, lose Chase Daniel, I think everybody, including you, they look and say, well, what's going to happen now? That's recruiting. We didn't wake up one day and say all of a sudden, gosh, these guys are gone.

I'm glad we had high level players like that. I think we've got a lot of good young players on the offensive side of our football team too. Obviously, our offense, quarterbacks have got to play well. We know that. But also Derrick Washington and the running game, some other things we can do on offense, I think.

We will not do the same things with Blaine Gabbert at quarterback as we did with Chase Daniel his senior year. We'll do the same thing as we did with Chase Daniel his sophomore year. We'll take that kind of approach. Defense has their responsibilities. Offense has theirs. We're getting Danario Alexander back. If Danario had been healthy, he would be one of the top receivers in the league, one of the top receivers in the nation. He's doing well, and we're getting him back. He'll be important to receivers.

I wonder if Gary Pinkel really knows what he's talking about when scouting wide receivers? Giggity.

For more of the Pinkel interview, click here, and we'll post some video later.