Aug. 10, 2006

P.J. Bill Wagner, what's up buddy?

Q. My birthday is next week. I hope everybody sings Happy Birthday to me.

A. How old are you going to be, 62?

Q. You can give me a present if you want, a new driver.

A. After playing with you in the golf outing you need one.

Q. It appears the red shirts reduced from yesterday.

A. Yeah, they went down a little bit. We got some guys healthy.

Q. That's an amazing recovery for some fellows.

A. I think some guys got better. For the most part I think guys want to get back out there they just need a little encouragement sometimes.

Q. Was Kettani and Hall back today?

A. Kettani practiced. Matt tried, but he couldn't go.

Q. Is it a concern that Matt had an early flare up with his leg?

A. That happens sometimes.

Q. One of the things that I find most interesting each year when we come out here is in the first few weeks you try to slowly ramp it up as far as what you expect out of these guys effort wise. I was always under the impression that you can't teach a guy effort but after watching you I've changed my mind. Do you think you can?

A. I hope you can.

Q. How?

A. You just don't accept anything less. The coaches do a good job of staying after them and we grade effort. We have to play with great effort and our coaches understand that and I think our guys understand that. The key is to teach them what effort is. They all think they're playing hard, you just have to teach them what hard really is.

Q. Do you actually show guys on film?

A. Yeah, the coaches do. We grade effort.

Q. I'm sure they all disagree when you tell them they didn't play with effort.

A. No. They don't disagree with us much.

Q. The veterans you would think have learned it, but I guess maybe you have to teach them as well?

A. I think it's a habit. You have to get yourself in the habit of playing hard. Everybody wants to play hard. I don't think anybody goes out and says, "OK, I'm going to loaf today." What you have to do is get yourself in the habit of playing hard so you don't have to think about it, you just play that way all the time.

Q. Saturday's scrimmage is the first scrimmage of the preseason. What are you trying to get done there?

A. It will just give us a chance to play. We play every day. We play live every day. It will give us a chance to get into different situations and to play at the Stadium.

Q. So after the scrimmage you will grade the film and on Monday or Tuesday you will give Scott an updated depth chart?

A. Probably Monday.

Q. You lost a member of your staff earlier this year (Kevin Kelly) and you had to hire someone else and you ended up with Joe Speed. Was it an open and shut case for you or did you interview a lot of people?

A. What happened is when Kevin Kelly left we interviewed some people and we ended up elevating Danny O'Rourke and when we reshuffled our staff we brought Joe back from the prep school where he had been the head coach and athletic director up there. He is helping with the secondary, recruiting and is the head JV coach. It worked out well.

Q. Did you do other interviews?

A. Yeah, when I hired Danny I did. I interviewed a couple of guys. In my mind I wanted to hire Danny, I just wanted to make sure so I talked to a couple of guys to make sure.

Q. Why did you move Danny from the secondary to linebackers instead of hiring a guy that was coaching linebackers?

A. I think if you're a football coach, you're a football coach. I don't worry about that. Danny had been with me at Georgia Southern and was here and he has done a good job so why not move him up?

Q. You seem to be the type of guy that likes to promote from within if possible?

A. I think if you have a good guy on your staff its nuts not to move him up if you can. The guys that work hard for you and are loyal, you need to be loyal back to them. Certainly Danny was that way.