Cliff’s Notes: Charlie Weis press conference, 8/28/12

By Staff     Aug 28, 2012

Here is the Cliff’s Notes version from Kansas football coach Charlie Weis’ comments at his press conference today.

Full audio has been posted, along with the newest depth chart.

• **KU has to prepare as if South Dakota State’s quarterback Austin Sumner is going to play (even though reports are that he might not play).** If it ends up being backup QB Eric Kline, KU will still be ready to go.

• **Weis thinks bringing back moments from the past are good teaching points.** Weis says he’s always jabbing his players about a lot of things. He talks about both the North Dakota State loss and the Orange Bowl victory.

• **Weis doesn’t think his team will be overconfident.** “We just lost 100 in a row,” he said.

• **Weis does most of his yelling in practice.** Most of his yelling on gamedays is for officials — “because they deserve it” he said with a laugh — and for players who get 15-yard penalties.

• **Jordan Tavai has been one of KU’s best defensive linemen since he got here.** Rather than playing him as a backup, KU is going to put its best four guys out there first. KU will play two deep on the D-line, but Tavai is the one player inside that can play outside effortlessly. Weis talks about building depth and versatility, and Tavai allows KU to have that.

• **Aslam Sterling moved to right guard when Riley Spencer wasn’t able to get back on the field after getting banged up.** Gavin Howard deserves to be in the starting lineup. Sterling has settled in at right guard.

• **Weis isn’t going to play conservative this game.** KU needs to win this game. He’ll worry about Game Two when Game One is over with.

• **KU linebacker Anthony McDonald is a physical player.** When Weis doesn’t believe McDonald can turn it loose, he’s not going to play him. When McDonald can turn it loose, the depth chart will change. His whole game is physicality. Weis doesn’t see him being able to turn it loose now. If this were the last game of the year, McDonald would play this week. But it’s the first game of the year.

• **It’s easier for Weis when his quarterback (Dayne Crist) knows his language.** Weis can’t think of any situation that could have presented itself any better for himself than Crist being here at KU during Weis’ first year. If a certain team doesn’t want to follow its quarterback, that guy has no chance to succeed. Crist was named a captain a few months after arriving at KU, so he definitely has established himself as a leader and should have a chance to succeed at KU.

• **Weis has put a lot of pressure on long snapper Reilly Jeffers in practice on Saturday.** Even with that, Jeffers’ snaps couldn’t have been any better.

• **Weis says he likes having “or” on the backup positions on the depth chart, because that means you like both guys that are there.** Linebacker Jake Love is an example. He has athleticism, and you want him to be in the mix for playing on the defense. You want Schyler Miles to play because he has great instincts. You want Love to play because he has athleticism and can play on special teams.

• **KU will probably have a three-back rotation.** Brandon Bourbon will get touches, and Marquis Jackson would be the fourth guy to get touches if KU goes that far.

• **Tony Pierson can catch the football.** He has good hands and has breakaway speed. Weis definitely wants him involved in the passing game. Not every running back has good hands and is elusive in the open field.

• **KU athletic director Sheahon Zenger, because he’s an old football coach, wants to give Weis space.** Weis will invite him over to his office every Monday to talk about what happened the previous week. Zenger appreciates the fact that he has invited him over.

• **Weis puts boards up with 10 goals for offense, defense and special teams.** The No. 1 goal for all those boards is winning. For offense, one of the goals is no turnovers. One turnover means the goal has not been met.

• **There have been times when Weis has thought, going into the week, that his team was going to lay a whupping on someone, and instead it laid an egg.** Weis also has had times when he thought a team wasn’t ready, and instead, everything fell right for that team and it played well. Weis is ready to see how his team performs. He expects his team to not look like the Bad New Bears. He expects his players to line up right. His greatest pet peeve on offense is a delay of game penalty. Weis says he gets the calls in quickly enough to avoid delay of games. If it happens in a game, Weis joked he’ll take the fall for it in public, but someone else will be ripped for it in private.

• **Trevor Marrongelli is a good short snapper.** Weis is just forcing him to do one more duty now with Justin Carnes out for the first three games because of suspension.

• **Weis said that Sterling is in way better condition.** He’s probably dropped 20 pounds since he got to KU. He’s spent extra time with strength and conditioning coach Scott Holsopple. Sterling probably can’t go 70 plays, but KU has depth to fill in if needed.

• **Weis tries to get to each one of his players in warmups to wish them good luck.** Other than that, he tries to stay out of the way. He also points up to his wife in the box after each game.

• **Weis says his team has done so many things on offense that if someone spied on it and videotaped every practice, it would take them three years to figure it out.** Weis isn’t worried about people spying.

• **Receiver Tre’ Parmalee is going to play.** How much, Weis can’t say. The game will dictate how much he plays. Parmalee’s been one of the most pleasant surprises, according to Weis.

• **If KU plays great, people will say, “Well, it was South Dakota State.”** If KU wins a close game, people will say, “It was South Dakota State.” Weis takes every game seriously.

• **Assistants Clint Bowen and Rod Jones have taught the team an old dance move from back in the day for KU victories.** Weis just stands in the back and laughs. Weis joked that he’s big on tradition, so the guys will do that after wins.

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