Eddie Gran Q&A (4/8): Cats' OC disappointed with his unit
Here's everything Kentucky offensive coordinator Eddie Gran told CatsIllustrated.com and other media outlets following Saturday's practice and scrimmage.
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On what he told offense after scrimmage: “I told them that I was very disappointed and that they were awful. They practiced for an hour and a half unbelievably. They competed, they got after them for one our and 30 minutes, but the last 20, they decided not to compete and they got their tail whipped.”
On if that had been an issue all spring: “No. No it hasn’t. I think they’re drinking some Kool-Aid and it’s bad Kool-Aid and I’ve got to get them to quit drinking. We’ll get that fixed. It was an absolute joke. Non competitive. They just didn’t recover, thought they were going to keep going out there and doing what they were doing, but people are going to change. (The defense) recovered and we didn’t.”
On how much was offensive mistakes and energy levels and the defense playing better: “I’d say it’s everything. You go 12 times, it’s your 12th practice and they know what we’re calling and we know what they’re doing, but it comes down to competing. It comes down to just doing your job. Coach talked about it today -- the third thing we talked about this morning before came out -- just do your job. We’ve got some guys who are just not doing their job. We’ve got to get that fixed. It’s all fixable, but it’s just disappointing when you come out and practice that well for an hour and a half and then you piss away. You know -- you can edit that, please. You come out for an hour and half and then you take the last 20 minutes and you don’t do so well. That’s disappointing. I thought we were above that and beyond that.”
On defense having a good couple of days: “They whipped us. I don’t know what else to say. Their 11 whipped our 11. For an hour and a half today, we whipped them. For the last 20, we got smoked.”
On who he expects to become a leader and speak up in these situations: “All of them. Somebody. Somebody. It’s their offense. Anybody.”
On if he was pleased with anyone on offensive side of the ball today: “No. It was not good enough. We got no chance if we practice like that last 20 minutes. If we’ll practice and do what we did the first hour and a half, we’ll be a really good football team.”
On if it’s about finishing: “Absolutely. I think you have to. And football games can sometimes be an up and down deal, a lot of emotion. And we had a lot of emotion early, and then they had a lot of emotion. You could feel it. I could sense it over there and then I could be over and be a cheerleader and all that. But I’m looking for somebody to be that guy. I’m looking for those people and I didn’t hear a word. So we’ll get that fixed. We’ll learn from it. We’ll watch that film. I think Tuesday will be a different day.”
On what he saw from quarterbacks: “Not very good. There was nobody good. There was nobody good. For the first hour and 30 minutes, to be honest with you, I thought everybody was good. Quarterbacks threw, our receivers caught. We protected. I thought we were really good. We ran the ball physical. Big plays. But the last 20, zero. So however you want to spin that in the paper. OK?”
On wakeup call for final week of practice: “Yeah. Time to drink new Kool-Aid.”