Defensive tackles coach Jim Panagos talked about his group and what he has seen from them in spring football.
Panagos likes the depth and talks about replacing Devin Phillips from last year. Transfer Javier Derritt has shown explosiveness and several players are battling for position on the depth chart.
How have the defensive tackles looked this spring...
It's an interesting group right now. It's pretty exciting because we have some older guys in there right now with Keenan and Caleb and Tommy and DJ. And then we got Javier. We brought Javier from North Dakota State. We have Marcus and Blake. So it's a really good niche of experience, unexperienced. And right now, they're working really hard. Really pleased.
What have you seen from Javier....
He's explosive, he's got twitch, he's got really light feet. And with most transfers, it takes time learning the system. His previous school was this system. Now our system is our system. But every day he's getting more comfortable. He's got really light feet, he's got some natural things you can't coach. So those are two things that really flashed out his explosion and his light feed and his pass rush ability.
How are you replacing Devin Phillips....
He controlled the A-gaps, and he would take two or three blockers off, and that goes unnoticed. That's a really hard job we actually did last season. But we're looking to replace him, and we're working to get better every day, but we're gonna miss that.
Devin started a lot of football games. But we played a lot of guys here, so I feel really comfortable. Tommy, DJ, Caleb Kenean, they all played a lot of football. Javier played a lot of football in his previous school and sort of working to keep developing and Marcus and Blake.
Any players who have stood out...
I've been really pleased with Marcus and Blake. They have the ability now just getting the repetition, you know, you can see it when they stop thinking. We've got to get them to stop thinking. Right now they're trying to be perfect and try to do everything perfect. And football is not about a game of perfection. We're all trying to achieve perfection, but I've never had a player grade 100% or a coach grade 100%. We're gonna make a thousand mistakes. We just need to get their national ability to show up. But there's been flashes like, Blake had a great scrimmage last Saturday. I was really pleased with him.
You like to rotate a lot of players, how do you feel about the depth....
I feel great right now. We're going to play whoever earns the right to play. It's about earning the right to play. If it's seven, we'll play seven. If it's five, it's five, it's earning the right to play through their actions.
To see everything Panagos had to say watch his interview below.
