Aug. 10, 2009

Head coach Frank Solich

On getting started with fall camp:

"I think everyone was anxious to get going. The guys had a good summer. They worked really hard, and their offseason program throughout the course of the year has been really good. It's nice to start practicing and get ready for the season."

On the team's work ethic:

"Last year, we had a very good work ethic, and I expect that this year will be the same. We worked on the work ethic of the team when we first got here as a coaching staff, and we so we've had that in place since the first few months that we were on campus. Our players are willing to work year-round to get better. We're going to have really good leadership from our captains and our seniors, so I don't think there will be any problems this year in terms of work ethic."

On the team's focus for improvement as the season opener approaches:

"We're reinstalling the offense and defense, and we're working on special teams, so there isn't a particular area that we have to focus on until we identify where this team is good and where it's not so good. We have a lot of guys returning who handled the ball for us last year, so we expect that to pay dividends. We're a little more inexperienced in some spots on defense, but we have good talent, and I like where we're at on special teams."

On the importance of starting fast in 2009:

"It's always important to get off to a good start, but regardless of how things go early, you need to make adjustments and strive to get better over the course of the season. We played really good football early on last year, and then toward the middle of the year, we got banged up and didn't play as well. We were able to bounce back from that and really play well at the end of last season. This year, with a more experienced team, I think we can get off to a good start. We have a tough non-conference schedule, and they're going to be close ball games. We're playing good football teams, and that won't drop off when we hit conference play. We play our first two conference games on the road against teams in our division, so it's going to be an interesting start for us."

On the reinforced offensive line that opened camp on Monday:

"We really think that we can have good depth on the line this year. We've got some young guys who are going to have to come through, but we think we've got some really talented young guys. We're going to have the ability to have depth as we go through the season, and we think this unit could turn out to be one of our better offensive lines in that regard. It was great to look over and see (offensive line coach) Keven (Lightner) coaching a lot of guys today. It was difficult in the spring because of the number of guys we had hurt, but that allowed the younger guys in our system to get a lot of reps."

Senior running back Chris Garrett

On the team's conditioning at the outset of fall camp:

"I feel that the team's conditioning definitely improved over the summer. We're far more conditioned at this point this year than we were last year."

On the team chemistry heading into fall practice:

"We're all brothers out here. In the end, we're one team. We're a close group of guys, and when the days get hard, I know we'll pull through."

On his comfort level heading into camp:

"I've got some kinks that I have to work out. It's just a matter of getting after each day. I felt pretty comfortable today, especially since it was the first day of practice."

On how the offense gelled during Monday's practice:

"Until the rain came, we were gelling pretty well. The receivers were catching balls, the quarterbacks were making good throws, the offensive line was making good blocks and the running back group was picking up the new plays pretty quickly."

On the experience that the Bobcats have returning in 2009:

"Everybody's hungry. It's not that we weren't hungry last year, but we were more trying to make our way. We just want to get back to Detroit and win a bowl game."

Junior Linebacker Noah Keller

On what remains of camp:

"Twenty seven days of camp left. I'm not sure how many practices we can stuff in there, but the coaches definitely put in the maximum amount of practices and time you can fit in there. We'll take advantage of it, too."

On what he looks to build on this season individually:

"You always set your goals higher than the year before, not only individually, but as a team. I was second-team all-conference last year. I want to be first-team all-conference this year. I also want to be able to help lead the team to a conference championship and a bowl game win."

On the team's expectations this season:

"The biggest thing is that we want to start out the season on the right foot. We start the season with UCONN, and we want to play well against them and all of our other nonconference opponents to get momentum going into conference. Then, we want to win conference and go to a bowl game."

On the importance of getting off to a good start:

"It's the most important thing we can do. That really sets the tone for the season. Last year, our nonconference losses were really close, and that was tough. I'll accept defeat if we go out there and the other team plays better, but I won't accept defeat if we play better and end up losing. That's what was really frustrating last year. We need to get wins early instead of going into conference looking to get our first win."