Jeff Brohm Weekly Presser Recap

Another week and another weekly Jeff Brohm press conference. Let’s hit some of the highlights shall we?

Looking ahead to TCU:

[W]e’re looking forward to having a night game in our stadium against a very good TCU opponent coached by Coach Patterson who does a tremendous job, plays football at a high level, and we’ll have our hands full. I think they’re very athletic on defense. That’s been their strength, two really good defensive tackles, two really, really good corners, and it’ll be a challenge for us. On both sides of the ball, we’ll have to step up and play well, and we’ll have to get an advantage somehow on special teams.

On Sindelar’s health:

Well, I think it was a concussion, a slight concussion that we’ll monitor and see how he passes all the tests and go through the proper protocol and hopefully get him back if he’s ready to go.

On Matt McCann’s health:

He’s the one that we’re probably most concerned about, and we’re getting more tests done today. That will give us a further grasp of where he’s at, but yes, we have concerns about his availability.

On the offensive line in general:

The one thing I’ll say, our offensive line goes hard. They work hard, they play hard. They do the best job they can. When you throw the ball that many times and give up zero sacks, that’s an accomplishment, so I’m very proud of their performance and the work they put in. With sacks, everything factors into play, getting the ball out quick, guys getting open, getting off press, good play calling, all that stuff, but they did a very good job. Did we do what we need to do in the running game? No, but it’s not all of them. It’s a combination of me and everything, and we’ve just got to work hard to get better.

On David Bell:

David has done a great job, and we’re trying not to put too much on him, and he responds to everything we do with him. He’s kind of a smooth receiver, doesn’t look like maybe he’s going quite as hard, but boy, he’s smooth. But he’s precise, and he ran some good routes, and even when we didn’t throw to him, he got open on some one-on-one match-ups, and he knows how to go up and make the catch, and I think he can be a tremendous player and has an unbelievably bright future, and his demeanor about wanting to compete and play football we love. He’s a team player. We’re happy he’s on our team, as well, and I think he’s going to be a star when it’s all said and done, and he’s continually been adding to our offense, and we’re going to make sure we keep him in the mix and we utilize him properly.

On if Lorenzo Neal will play this week:

More than likely not. We’re working hard to get him back, but we’re -- he’s probably not ready yet.

On the great imbalance between the running and passing game:

Well, I think the key to winning is score points, so whatever that takes. We’d love to be good in both, but I think if you’re good in both, then you’re probably not going to be high ranked in both, either. We want to score points and win games, and yes, put in all the pressure on the passing game is what we would prefer not to do, but yet at the same time if that’s going to help us score points and win, we’re not going to be stubborn, and we’re not going to force the issue. We’re going to work hard this week and get it better in the running game. We’re going to work hard this week at improving at that. And on the flipside of it, too, I think Elijah is a rhythm -- excuse me, he’s a guy who’s very streaky and can get in a rhythm, and throughout his history when we’ve been very balanced, he hasn’t played as well. When we’ve thrown a lot, I think he’s played better, but yes, we need to get better at the running game.

On Special Teams not being special:

Well, I think that we can continue to get a whole lot better. I think penalties have hurt us and turnovers have hurt us when you look at the two games. I think if you take away the turnovers and the penalties and you have that return and the ball doesn’t bounce up our helmet on a punt return and we don’t fumble another one, we’re doing okay. But the penalties have hurt us. Really the punting in general was not good this past game. I think that we struggled at the punter position. We missed a field goal, but I think J.D. has done a tremendous job other than that, especially on his kickoffs. We still have plenty of room to improve, so yes, we’ve got to get better, and the key was to try to get more yards on the return, and you take away the penalty, we made some strides there. So I think the plan has been pretty good. The execution and the attention to detail has not, and that is something that has to get better.

With Holt coming back to the sideline will he be back there this week?

Well, that would be the guess going into this game. I think that would be a good guess, yes.

On Tario Fuller’s health:

Tario, he’s got to recover and heal up, and this is a long, lengthy process. I don’t have a timetable on it, but it’s not in the very near future.