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Gary Patterson was available to the media after practice on Thursday afternoon, and he spent about 20 quality minutes with the group chatting about everything from lawn care to Dan Jenkins. There was a little football talk, too. Here’s are some highlights of the conversation (full video at the end of the post).
On the practice field grass:
“I’m telling you, if you every put grass again in your yard, this right here [gestures to practice field grass]. This will go on the game field as soon as we’re done with spring ball”
“It’s a new Bermuda. It never went dormant.”
On the quarterbacks:
“Compared to last year, we only had two in the spring last year. Justin is moving a lot better, you know you have Max here, and then Alex. Alex Delton is a guy who has played a lot of football, and so he’s not surprised by very much.”
“To be honest with you I think they’ve all done some good things.”
On Dan Jenkins:
“Good man. Dan Jenkins probably changed my life as a coach here.”
“What I loved about Dan is that he always told you the truth. And he had a way to do it that would make you laugh even though it’s like ‘well that’s pretty tough.’”
“He didn’t let you get by with it. We all need someone who holds us accountable. He in his own way held me accountable.”
On the team to this point:
“I really like the chemistry and I really like the camaraderie of this group compared to a year ago. A lot of it has to do with, you know, they all know what we went through [last year] and so we’re trying to not be that way.”
On Alex Delton:
“One thing we knew we were going to get with him is, he’s going to be able to train the younger guys, because all the rest of the guys are younger. You know, coming from a coach Snyder team, the way they prepare and how they do things.”
“Not only are we gaining a lot of stuff on the field, because he’s athletic and can do things, but also we’re gaining how to do things off the field. He’s been a great teammate, he hasn’t come in here with any entitlement or anything.”
On guys who are standing out:
“Well you’ve got Ochaun Mathis. [Adam] Plant is going to be a good player but he’s only on his sixth day as a Horned Frog. You know Ochaun played with our two’s all the time but he could only play four games so we could redshirt him, but he always got the reps.”
“ArDarius [Washington] also took all the two reps but redshirted.”
“It’s really been a blessing having Montrel Wilson back. He’s been able to make it through six practices which has been awesome.”
On new WR coach Malcolm Kelly:
“East Texas kid so he understands the culture of Texas. He’s already started and he’s done a great job recruiting. Kids relate to him, parents relate to him. It’s been awesome.”
Check out Patterson’s (almost) full comments below. The video cut out about four minutes, in which is why it’s in two parts.