The defensive line and safety are two areas hit hard by graduation. What do you see out of those positions this spring?
BP: I think we have guys that may be a little more dynamic athletically than what we've been. And we have some guys who we think can really do some things. It's going to be interesting to watch their development and how they continue to respond. We've moved some guys around. We have a lot of options in the secondary. A few years ago when we we were in the Big 12, we were recruiting more in the secondary than we were at linebacker, which is why we're a little bit younger at linebacker. We have a few more options in the secondary and guys that can do a lot of different things and play multiple spots, so that helps you.
Is there a whole lot of competition this spring, given how many starting jobs are open on defense?
BP: Absolutely. Like I told our guys, "Don't worry where you're lining up on the depth chart. Worry about taking care of yourself and your reps. Concentrate on making yourself a better football player." At the end of the day, it's only 15 practices. These jobs aren't going to be won or lost this time of year. Now we're going to make some strides, and maybe certain guys put themselves in position to be starters. But there's a lot of football to be played and a lot of practices to be had before we actually kick this thing off at the end of August. So if every guy just concentrates on making themselves better and tries to make the most out of every single rep that we have, then that's going to give them the best opportunity to grow as a football player and be ready to play in the fall.
You're going to be doing more live contact stuff than usual this spring, right?
BP: Yeah. We're going to do a little bit more scrimmaging maybe than we have in the past and really have a nice, good physical spring to try and put guys in position to see who can do it live, who's going to be able to make plays in space. Defensively, who's going to be able to make those one-on-one tackles when they find themselves in those positions? You want to take the guesswork out of it, see that guy, if he was there, would he have finished it off? Well, we're going to be asking them this spring to finish it off and see where they are. It's one of the reasons we went a little bit earlier in the spring than we have in the past, so we can be physical and then split up our spring with the spring break. We'll have eight practices before spring break and seven after, to give our guys a little bit of a break in there so we can make the most out of every opportunity we have.
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