TUESDAY MEDIA DAY COMMENTS FROM HEAD COACH PHILLIP FULMER

Sept. 19, 2006

"Obviously we are well in to the plan with Marshall and trying to put the last game behind us as well as we possibly can. At the same time, we are trying to learn from it and our other two games. It's a time for us to make a really good evaluation of where we are, our assets and our liabilities as we've played three really good football teams.

"We're working hard for improvement. We have seen, if Florida is truly the No. 5 team in the country, that we have the opportunity ourselves to be a good team. But it's only going to happen if we take advantage of our time on the practice field, our time in the film room and our opportunities in the ballgames that we have to play at our best level and prepare to play at our best level.

"This team has been fun to coach. They've been fun to be around. They've been very responsive to what we've asked them to do. The coaches have been into it and been having fun, and there's a lot of energy around this team. You see guys like Marvin Mitchell, Jerod Mayo, Xavier Mitchell and other guys who weren't necessarily talked about as leaders on the team are all of a sudden growing into those kinds of players for us. Or some old heads like Jayson Swain and Bret Smith that are making significant contributions to the football team. They're fun. As long as we can keep our focus in practice and continue to work, I believe we can continue to improve as a team, as well as continue to get ready for Marshall, Memphis, Georgia and all the folks down the road.

"Our passing game has really come on, and we're doing a lot of good things in that area with (quarterback) Erik Ainge and the receivers. I'd like to get the ball to the running backs a little bit more, but I think that we've made some significant strides. Early on I thought we were on the right track offensively to be a very balanced team, and we've got to make sure that we get back to that because one is only as good as the other when you play good teams. So we've got to get the running backs well and our offensive line back on track so we can have a much more in-sync and balanced football team.

"We've obviously spent some time working on our kicking game. There are some areas that are very good, but there are some right now that are not very good. Our kickoff return, you can't help when a youngster slips down on the 1-yard line, and that's going to affect you for awhile from a statistical standpoint. We were better (against Florida) than we had been, and I'm looking for significant improvement in that area as we go through this week and into the game. The punt coverage, after evaluating that after the game, it was almost being over-aggressive and running too fast past the point of the returner. We did a drill for quite some time (on Monday) of running hard, but also of coming under control when we get close. I think the kids are really trying hard to respond to that.

"Defensively, you love their attitude and the way they go about their business. It's really neat to see some of the young guys coming on at getting a chance to play, like a Ricardo Kemp who's been just an unbelievable, unselfish young man. The leadership of the guys is growing, but we've got to be more productive getting ourselves off the field. Guys like Demonte' Bolden, J.T. Mapu, Wes Brown and other guys need to continue to step up in the loss of our two good players (Justin Harrell and Inky Johnson). Those guys, we love them, but they're not there. We've got to get past that and get ready for the next guys to come in and get it done.

"Marshall is a dangerous football team. Any time you have an athletic quarterback (Bernard Morris), an option-attack, it gets interesting. We've not played that real well this year, and we will do some significant work this week to get that up to speed. Their running back (Ahmad Bradshaw) is talented and capable of making plays, and we've got to account for him. Their receiver, Emmanuel Spann, is a good player. They're going to get the ball to him, bubble screens, punt returns, down-the-field throws, all those kind of things that they do to get the ball to him.

"Their defensive team is much like what we've seen, really, in all three of our games. It's an aggressive, attacking, blitzing kind of team. They try to contain you with an eight-man front, and it's kind of the rage right now. They make you execute and pick the blitz up, which we've been pretty good at."