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TITANS HEAD COACH KEN WHISENHUNT PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT - August 3, 2015**
(on the red zone work)
Good and bad, some good things, some bad things. I mean, it's the first night, our first time of doing it, and we've got a lot of new guys on offense doing it. We had some misses; we had some miscues. We did a couple good things. I thought it was good work on both sides, but that's definitely an area that we have to continue to work.
(on Marcus Mariota looking better in the second red zone drill)
Some of that may have been coverage generated. When they're playing off, sometimes on seven-on-sevens, instead of taking the underneath, you want to make a play, especially on a night like this, when there's a big crowd, so you press a little bit. When you get into a team situation and it's first down at the 20, and you get a six or seven-yard gain, those are important plays in the red zone. When you're in a seven-on-seven, those feel like, 'OK, whatever,' so you want to try to make those plays. It was a little bit of that I think.
* (on Marcus Mariota running the ball )*
I don't know, I haven't really thought a lot about that. After the spring, you know, actually, yeah. If you remember back to the first day of mini camp, he pulled one down and ran past Avery Williamson, so everybody noticed that.
(on Marcus Mariota running into the sidelines and colliding into scout Marv Sunderland)
You know who was his biggest proponent in the offseason. I mean who came in and really sold him as a player, I mean over the top, Marv. And then Marv's going to knock him out on the sideline, thanks a lot Marv.
* (on the fights during practice)*
I mean, it's training camp, right, and everyone is a little juiced up because of the crowd. It was a good atmosphere under the lights. They had a little bit more time off between these practices, so it's not unusual. The unusual thing is that Karl Klug wasn't involved in a lot of them.
* (on what he told them about the day off tomorrow)*
I said they practiced so well I'm going to give them the day off. They didn't think that was very funny. Just take care of your bodies, you know we have to keep pressing. It's weird to get a day off this quickly into training camp, but that's the way it is in the NFL. Just got to make sure we're ready to go Wednesday.
* (on if he was pleased with the intensity tonight)*
Yeah, I am. I think they knew that they were getting a day off. They were geared up, had a good rest today before practice. I've been really pleased with that, especially early when we were doing some run game stuff. We had a half line drill down there that I thought was outstanding, a lot of contact, guys were being physical. It was good.
* (on if he learned anything about this team that he didn't know coming in)*
No, I mean it's really early for that. Lets see how it progresses. I like the way our guys have been practicing, but we've got a long way to go, so we just want to keep working like this.
(on impressions of the running game)
There's been some good. I know there weren't any break-out long runs but it looked like we were getting four, five, six yards a clip which is pretty productive as far as moving the chains.
(on improvement out of Bishop Sankey in his second year)
I don't really compare it to last year. I'm just trying to look at Bishop (Sankey) to get better at what we're doing this year. I think as a whole we're trying to improve, that's an area that we really have to, and they're working hard at it.
(on what Coach Whisenhunt has seen out of David Cobb so far)
I see good patience as a runner. You can see he's got good vision. I think we're going to be very pleased with him with his ability to break tackles and extend the run. He's got good feet, he's really got a good feel. He's got some work to do on protection, not so much from a mental standpoint but from a technical standpoint, but I've been pleased.
(on David Cobb picking up on a nice block during a practice drill today)
We had an idea, he showed that he was a good protector at the Senior Bowl. He has a little sprain of his finger and I don't know if that's bothered him or not, but one of the reasons that we liked him was because he did such a nice job in protection in those 1-on-1 drills at the Senior Bowl. But we'll see. The NFL is a different animal than the Senior Bowl.
(on Anthony Fasano as the ultimate package/ how he has played so far)
He's really a great addition. Good pro. When you talk about (Brian) Orakpo and you talk about him (Anthony Fasano) and you talk about Perrish Cox, those are guys that are really good signings for us, in addition to the ones we got back like (Karl) Klug and Derrick Morgan and so on. You just like his (Fasano's) mentality, how he works, the guys respect him. He made some plays early in camp, some catches, he stood out that way, and then he backs it up with how he prepares. So he's a great signing, good fit for the chemistry of that room too.
(on if signing of Anthony Fasano is expected to pay off well)
I sure hope so. I mean when you talk about free agency and the impact of guys, it's good to be talking positively about them this early on. We've got a long way to go, but the one thing you know about him is that you've seen him do it in the NFL, so that's exciting.
(on if the team felt extra energy under the lights having a night practice)
Yeah it's a little cooler that probably helps. It's good, I think what we're trying to do is change the schedule up, so you don't get into a camp routine. We had a morning practice, afternoon practice, now we got a night practice, so we're constantly moving things around. They've handled it well so far, but the real grind comes when we come back after the day off and getting through to Saturday, and then the next week preparing for that preseason game.
