Tuesday, August 14, 2007

PJ's Monday Presser

"What's wrong with Kaipo. He has a neck brace on."
-Bill Wagner

"Hell, he hurt his neck. Why do you think he would be wearing a neck brace if he didn't hurt his neck? "

-Paul Johnson

The good news is that he will be ok (stinger), but needless to say the above certainly caught me by surprise when I checked into NavySports.com this afternoon. Par usual, Paul Johnson's matter-of-fact style in golden.

Coach Johnson also addressed the issue of punter with Wagner and Masisak, saying that returning starter Greg Veteto and plebe Kyle Delahooke are "about even." He went on to say that none of the punters have shown the consistency he's looking for, and reiterated that the position is "wide open."

Now comes the interesting part. After more or less discussing the all to apparent fact that the secondary is banged up and Coach Green is seemingly plugging in a different guy everyday, Coach Johnson let slip that senior cornerback Greg Thrasher "may be"" suspended for the first game of the year. Johnson said that their was a "football related" problem with Thrasher, which by my calculations means A) He flat out stinks or B) He broke some kind of a team rule. I don't like speculating into these kinds of things but considering the relative youth in the unit and Thrasher's prior performance in '05, I wouldn't be going too far out on a limb to say it was not choice "A." We'll have to see, I've always liked Greg and with everything going on with injuries I'd like to see him in there come Temple, although I know guys like Blake Carter and Ram Vela have shown promise in camp.

All and all, not the most uplifting of pressers, although Coach Johnson did say that all the "banged up" players in the secondary should be back within the next 2-3 days, including Jeff Deliz and *hopefully* Rashawn King. After all the injuries last year, I don't think Johnson and the staff are willing to take any risks with these guys in camp, and as long as the team is ready for Temple, that's a good thing.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

thank god - all these positive pressers had me more worried than a woop in Mother B during Army week