Head football coach Lee Fobbs sat down with the media following Saturday's Blue-Gold scrimmage and discussed the events of the day.

Coach Lee Fobbs on safety Brandon Ringgold who was injured during the scrimmage:
“I was just telling our coaches, I think we’ve found our starting free safety. You hate to see that happen to a young man who comes out here and works hard, but unfortunately it happens in our game. The last word I heard was that he was moving his hands and his feet and he is responsive. That’s good news. We just have to keep him in our prayers.”
 

Fobbs on his quarterbacks:
(Herbert Miller) came in and was focused. He really read the defense well. Wayne didn’t handle the blitz well. I know him. He wants to make plays no matter what, but I’m not going to sit here and make excuses for him. If you make a bad read, a bad throw then you made he mistake. We have to get him to the point where he doesn’t make those mistakes.

Fobbs on the Aggies 3-man defensive front:
“We’re kind of using a combination of things because we don’t have the kind numbers we want along the defensive line. We still are going to use a 4-down scheme. But we’re kind of moving guys around a bit trying to find different things that work. .There were times we put their backs against the wall and I thought they responded well.  

Fobbs on the style of scrimmage the Aggies played on Saturday:
I’m big on situations. I think if we come out here and just let these guys play without putting them in all sorts of situations we may not see if we play a full game, I think we waste a day. I know you different coaches have different philosophies, but we feel like this style is best for us when finishing up the spring. We had a purpose today and because of that we saw a lot of things we wanted to see.  

Fobbs on the Aggies offensive line:
I was not happy with the offensive line. We still have a ways to go. We still have work to do in that department.  I think the guys have really trimmed up, I’ve been satisfied with the work they’ve put in, but we’re not where I want us to be right now. That’s why I always say the summer is so important. We are encouraging those guys to be here this summer, so they can continue to workout here. They all know what want to see from them and they know we are nowhere near where we want to be.

Fobbs on the defensive line:
They are progressing a little faster (than the offensive line). They are running to the football and doing the things we want them to do which is creating chaos upfront. If they’re causing havoc upfront for the other team’s offense, we can live with that.

Fobbs on his wideouts:
“I’m really excited about Giorgio Lowwrance. He made a couple of good catches today that were really impressive. He had really good spring , where he made some impressive catches. Michael Caldwell is a gutsy kid from right down the street at Dudley. He does what you ask him to do. We love him. He’s no bigger than a gnat, but he goes where you ask him to go and makes tough catches.

Fobbs on the running backs:
We’ve added some speed in the backfield and I think you saw that today. There were two kids we didn’t play today. We held out (2006 leading rusher) Michael Ferguson. There is nothing wrong, it was just my choice. I just wanted to give someone else a chance, we wanted  to make sure we got to see certain guys. We will have to wait and see on Brandon Sweeney (2005 leading rusher who missed the ’06 season with a kidney ailment). We don’t know if he can gain that year back. We have to wait approval from the NCAA.

Fobbs on the scrimmage as a whole:
Today was a good day for us. We knocked each other around for 13 days and from what I saw it paid off today. We flew around today. Andre Thornton (2006 leading tackler) was out today. He had a sore foot today so chose not to use him. We were missing two or three linebackers, but we still looked strong, which is encouraging.  

Fobbs on coming back after an 0-11 season:
Well, one thing is for sure, there is nowhere to go but up. I sat in press conference after press conference and answered the same question every week. How do you keep these guys up and my response was the same – it’s my job to keep them up. If you have philosophy and you believe in that philosophy, the way you teach it, the way you present it and how you live it, but you’re shaky about it, how do you expect you players to go along with it? I believe in what we’re doing and I believe our kids are making strides. If you make excuses, the kids will make excuses.