Bearcat Press Conference: QB's, Third Downs and The Black Out

Today's weekly football press conference was Head Coach Brian Kelly and Sophomore tight end Ben Guidugli ( Major: Communications; Hometown: Ft. Thomas, KY).
A number of topics were discussed. Here we will try to break them down into different themes.

Coach Kelly talks about bouncing back from the loss at UCONN Saturday, and how having a short week actually helps the team.

There has been some conversation this week on the play calling for UC last weekend. Coach Kelly takes the blame for not making proper adjustments in the second half with Chazz Anderson replacing Tony Pike. In his defense, he didn't find out that Pike was unable to grip the football until they came out for the second half. Offensive adjustments made at halftime by Kelly and the staff were with Pike as the quarterback. As he said in the press conference today UC got the ball first in the second half so he had all of 90 seconds to prepare any adjustments for Anderson. He spoke about having his hand forced on playing quarterbacks as opposed to decisions made after evaluation of a players performance on the field.

With the problem that occurred at halftime last week every quarterback will be ready to play this week. Yesterday in practice the Bearcat Sports Page staff that was on hand noticed that everyone was taking snaps. Chazz Anderson, Zach Collaros and Demetrius Jones were all under center at one point or another. Here Coach Kelly and Ben Guidugli discuss all QB's getting some work in.

In the last two weeks the offense is "O-fer" on third down attempts. It's something they are working on in practice this week. Here are comments by both Coach Kelly and Ben Guidugli on solving the third down conversion problem.

This is a big week on campus. The students are ready for the nationally televised game and the "Black Out". Black out t-shirts have been on sale at the bookstore and a sellout crowd is expected.

For Ben Guidugli the transformation of Nippert Stadium has been incredible. He has seen plenty of Bearcat home games with only a few thousand people in the stadium. Here he talks about what it was like coming to Nippert to see his brother Gino play, and he talks about what he expects from the crowd this Thursday night.

Thanks to the athletic staff, Coach Kelly and the players for being so cooperative the past two days and giving Bearcat Sports Page .com interviews and discussing a tough loss.