On identifying the issues with Tommy Doman

Continuing to try to change his rhythm up at practice. Him and Hudson are competing at practice every day, doing a good job. Now, you know, he's practicing extremely well at a high level. We just need to translate it from State Street to Main Street now, and I think he'll do that here soon.

On going from Semaj Morgan to Tyler Morris in the second punt return

So, that was a number conflict for us, Josaiah Stewart was on the field. So, you can't have two number zeros on the field. So, both are explosive. They're 1A, 1B, super-talented players. So, having both of them back there, we feel very confident in both of them.

On whether that's something they will continue to do back and forth

Could be. Could be, just depending on schematical advantages and whatnot.

On what gives him confidence that Doman will return to form

Confidence is in him, really. I think he works hard. He takes his craft very seriously at the end of the day. We got full faith in him as a program. Everyone on the team has faith in him. So, the way he works and prepares, there's no reason why he won't perform well. We just need to get his feet underneath him, his hips underneath him, and be able to just get the ball out a little bit more. We've been trying to change up practice to get some of that and change his rhythm up a little bit to do a little bit more of those things during practice. So, he had an extremely great day yesterday. Just looking forward to what he does this week.

On whether there's a chance for Hudson Hollenbeck to take over punts

Yeah, so, for us, in our room, we try to make everybody compete every day, from Will to Tar, you know, from Samaj to Timo. It doesn't matter what position you are, we want to compete. So, that's been ongoing since the start of the camp. So, yeah, every day I think we're trying to re-earn our spot.

On no plans to switch punters

If Hudson punts better, then yeah.

On whether he studies film with DOman

Yep, 100%. Yep, so we have an individual camera on him every day during practice. So, we watch as much film as you would as a DB. There's just only so many punts you can watch at a time because there's only so many punts you can hit a day. So, we go through every one of those to try to find any fall he has. And then, obviously, we work on our mental game outside of that, just physical attributes as well.

On whether he's noticed any differences from him last year

You know, his feet are a little bit different. So, we're working on getting those back into where they were. But, yeah, like I said, he's been practicing extremely well. So, we're just waiting for it to translate over to the stadium.

On the fake punt vs. Illinois

Yeah, I'm going to put that on me. Our players played extremely hard. I made the call of putting that call out on the field. So, that's on me. I got to do a better job of getting us, you know, balanced out in that sense.

On whether he has any fakes in the works

Yeah, I think every week you go into the game with, you know, one or two to three maybe, just depending on what they give you.

On how to practice blocking punts and field goals

Yeah, our guys do a great job of taking field goal blocks seriously. You know, we use our defense, and they do a great job of every day. We have two periods a week where we drill that for five minutes straight, and they do a phenomenal job of that. And obviously, we've made a lot of people miss here at the Big House, too. So, we want to keep that up. You know, it's been a help from the fans, from the guys on the field, and, you know, just them taking to it and doing a good job with it.

On the bad snap

It was a mixture, a little bit of both. You know, as an operation, I got to get them better. I got to get them more detailed on that part. But at the end of the day, we'll continue to get better. And, again, we're pretty good in field goal right now. We've just got to make sure that those little mishaps don't happen.

On the kicking team being consistent

Oh, yeah. I mean, I think it's huge, especially for the psyche of the team. When you know Don's out there to put points on the board, you feel good about it. So I'm extremely excited to have the room we have because they've been money all year. They just need to continue to work hard and keep being detailed with it.

On whether he said anything to Dominic Zvada before his field goal after a timeout

He knows what he's doing on that. He's completely good. And he refocuses himself right then and there. As soon as it happened, we just looked at each other, and he's like, yep, I'm good. And I said, all right, go make the next one. And obviously he put it right down the pipe. So he's extremely mature. He understands his emotions. He's able to control his emotions. He does a great job with that.

On getting more out of punt and kick returns

I mean, I think we've been really close on kickoff return, you're saying? Yeah. I think on punt return, we had a 14-yard return the other day, which is creating a good field position. We would love to break one, especially with the talent that we have back there and the players that we have back there. But on kickoff return, I think we're extremely close. We just need to continue to do what we do. Our guys have been great about being detailed in practice, making sure that all their fundamentals are correct. So we just need to continue on that track.

On practices not translating to games with special teams

Yeah, I think we're practicing well. I think we just need to continue to do that. And then I think it's going to – I think we've been pretty consistent throughout the year on special teams. So I think let's just keep moving forward with it and making sure that the small mistakes that we're making, we just clean those up as we go.

On what it takes to translate from practices to the game

I think it just takes reps. And we're playing with some younger guys on special teams, so at the end of the day, once they get the reps that I feel that they're going to get at this point, then they should be fine.

On how special teams can impact a big game like the one against Oregon

It could be huge. It could be huge. They're a great special teams unit. They're very aggressive. It's kind of like us looking in the mirror at each other. Both teams are extremely well-coached. I think they do a great job. I know Joe Lorig there. He's done a great job. He was at Penn State prior to here. So extremely excited to go head-to-head. I think they're a really good team. They've got really good specialists. They've got fast, athletic players. But I think I'm excited to see where our guys go.

On the philosophy of fair cacthing

I think it's game by game by team you're playing, just to make sure that you preserve field position or that you could try to create an explosive. So it's more schematical than that, I think.

On Zvada being different or similar to Jake Moody and James Turner

So he is a lot like them in the sense that he, mentality-wise, he can't get shaken, which is awesome. He does a great job of just focusing on the moment, just like them. He talks a little bit more than them. They were very quiet. But, no, I love all three of them the exact same. They're all like my kids. I have nothing but good things to say about every one of them. The similarities, though, from a playing standpoint, very similar. All great ball strikers, all clean rotations. Personality-wise, though, they're all similar in the fact that they just – they're in the moment. They don't look too far ahead. They don't look in the past. They just – they're where their feet are.

On whether the mental side is the number one trait he looks for in players

There's no doubt. Obviously, they have to have talent, right, and we wouldn't look at them if they didn't have talent. But at the end of the day, the mental standpoint of a kid is where you want to look the hardest, just so you know that they can handle what's about to happen.

On preparing for unique extra point formations like Oregon uses

Oh, yeah. They've been giving me headaches all week, so I'm excited to go against it, but definitely looking forward to the challenge of that.

On what changing Doman's rhythm means

Yeah, so the way we practice, you know, the types of punts we're hitting during practice, and then also it's technical stuff as well from his technique. But, you know, from a practice standpoint, getting more up-the-field-type punts and less coffin-type punts and changing his rhythm of that sense.

On how you decide on a holder

Yeah, no, definitely. We have multiple people holding throughout the week and throughout the day. So, yeah, we definitely have tryouts. You know, you love specialists doing it because they're always around each other and they kind of know each other as best, better than anyone else on the team. But, yeah, Tommy has great hands, as you can tell from his punt. He's done a really good job with just the operation, and then, you know, he's had a couple bad holds, but we'll be fine after that.

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