Sept. 7, 2004

EASTON, Pa. (www.lafayette.edu) -
Head coach Frank Tavani: On the season-opener and facing adversity:
At the start of the season, you don't know what kind of personality and look your team is going to take on. We didn't have to face a lot of adversity, so after the first game we still have some things that we have to find out about ourselves, but I like the attitude of this football team and the way they're coming together as a team. We'll certainly be challenged much more in the coming weeks, and we'll learn even more how we'll handle adversity, particularly being on the road. This is going to be the start of a difficult road schedule and we look forward to getting started with a league game. On quarterback Brad Maurer:
We certainly knew Brad could run, you're talking about a kid who rushed for well over 1,000 yards and threw for over 2,000 yards, threw for 22 touchdowns and scored 20 touchdowns himself (in high school) so this is a kid who's out there having some fun and certainly after spending a year running the scout team he's ready to play. I was well aware of what he could do, we knew he's that kind of weapon. He's a bright young man and makes good decisions and knows where to go with the ball. We'll continue to improve our ground game, we just heard their coach say they're going to put 12 up front and zero in on Joey, and we have a lot of other weapons out there. If they're going to put that many up there to stop the run that will challenge Maurer further and he'll burn you just as well throwing the ball. I liked the things I saw out of both of those kids (Maurer and Pat Davis) on Saturday. On the offensive approach against Marist:
I like to do what's working in the game, and being a former tailback I still believe in running the football. We got four tailbacks in the game, I don't remember the last time we were able to do that and I liked what we did. They all showed something and we did the things we felt would be the most effective against Marist. On the running dimension Maurer brings to the offense:
It's second nature to him, we knew he was that kind of quarterback when we recruited him. From a defensive coordinator's perspective, it's a nightmare on third down, on any down, but especially third down to cover all the possibilities and it's like having 12 guys out there. He has the ability to make guys miss, just ask some of our kids who were left in their shoes in practice. He also has to be smart and protect himself. On preparing for Georgetown's offense:
I spent most of last evening specifically on their offense, and it's pretty much completely different than last year. They run spread set sometimes and look a lot like us, they'll go out of the shotgun and fake the ball to the back, they'll run option one way and counter-option the other way. There's a lot of option involved, and in terms of preparation that's what's the most time consuming. They don't spend as much time in the pass game, most of the time it's just one receiver, a single read and they throw it up there.
Offensively, just preparing and getting your scout team ready to run things at that speed is the biggest challenge. We'll use our first team offense to present some of that stuff, this year we're doing a lot more preparing and helping each other, first offense against first defense. Poor preparation is poor performance, so they'll see a quarterback in Maurer doing a better job of running it than what they'll see the opponent run it in the game. I said to our defense that their new offense has a high turnover ratio, you have a chance to create more turnovers since the ball is pitched around, and we'll have a lot more opportunity to create those turnovers which is what we're looking for. On this week's injury report:
I would suspect that Brendon Green's ongoing hamstring injury would certainly put him out for several games at this point. Everyone else will certainly be back, Joe Ungrady could have been cleared at halftime but we held him out. Michael Lewandos had a helmet in his thigh, that's more of a running back injury than a lineman injury (laughter) so he'll be ready to go. Of course Matt Potter, that one looks to be season-ending. I think it's the same knee he hurt before he got here. The seniors on getting ready for Georgetown:
Tailback Joe McCourt: I wish we could have played Georgetown that Sunday after we lost to them last year. All offseason this was a checkmark game. They didn't beat us last season since they were better or faster than us, they beat us since they wanted it more, and that's just depressing. We're going to have a tough week of practice, and you've gotta believe that we're going to come out with some fire and want to kill them. Linebacker Maurice Bennett: Just to echo McCourt, you don't understand how much losing to Georgetown hurt last year. Literally, we were on the field almost in tears after that game. I haven't forgotten that and Joe hasn't forgotten that, nobody on our team has forgotten that loss from last year. This game will be like Lafayette-Lehigh, I don't care if it's on the road or at home. I actually like playing on the road, you get to sleep in a nice hotel, the beds are a lot better than in the dorms, and the food's a lot better than Farinon, so hey, the more road games the merrier for me. But this game right here will be just like Lafayette-Lehigh, it's that serious. On the defensive intensity in practice:
Bennett: This year, practice is much harder. We actually practice against the first offense in our scout preparations and that makes it much better. With the addition of the new defensive line coach (Antoine Smith), he brings a ton of energy to the practice field. That energy he has rubs off on the players. We do a lot of pursuit drills, we want to be a team of tacklers, and I hope I never have a solo tackle this year. I want to have a lot of assists so everybody gets to the ball.