On the first week of practice:
“The first week is tough. You have a lot of installation. There are a lot of young guys that are still trying to get caught up and figure out what’s going on out here on the field, on both sides of the ball and combine them together. It’s tricky, and on two-a-days you don’t have pads. It’s really an introduction week. I love the energy the guys have had on the field, the intensity they’ve brought and the work ethic that’s kept that intensity throughout practice which I’ve been pretty pleased.”
On expectations of defensive lineman Chris Jones:
“For us we evaluate every single detail. One, is if he is improving technically as a player. Talent will take you a little ways. He did a lot of things that were bad last year. He made some plays because he has some talent. If you want to be a great player you have to be technically sound in everything you do. That’s the opportunity to learn. The biggest part to me is seeing guys really come together fundamentally.”
On Dak Prescott’s leadership of the entire team:
“He’s got to be a leader for us. As a quarterback you have to be a leader on offense. I think he understands what we are trying to do. This is where you start to see him make that adjustment from learning to being comfortable in the offense.”
On retaining skills from spring practice in the fall:
“The biggest thing right now is being able to retain for what we’re going to do on Tuesday. The team has 72 hours off before we install anything else. They have 72 hours to digest and know what’s going on. There’s all different types of learning happening on the field. The older guys are really learning how to master their technique. They’re in graduate school level of football out here. Then, you have younger guys who are remedial and trying to figure out what’s going on. The key is that everybody takes what they’ve learned whether it be in your assignment or technique and never take a step back. You are at a certain level when you finish spring practice. When you come back in the fall, you’re there or better while continually improving. You learn how to become a great player.”
On the revamped offensive staff:
“Offensively we are trying a couple of new things here and there. Brian (Johnson) has been around me so he knows what I’m going to expect. All the other guys have been around so they know what they’re doing. It certainly helps that the other guys have been around each other for a long time.”
On keeping players engaged from practice to practice:
“It’s huge. We’ve talked to our players this spring about commitment to effort. A player that’s a senior may do a drill 5,000 times, but he continues to ask how he can do it better than ever. That’s the commitment to effort. As coaches you’ve got to tweak things. You’ve got to yell and scream sometimes, pat them on the back and celebrate at times. You’ve got to make one little change to a drill to make it interesting. To me, that’s important. Routines are good, but sometimes routines lead you to just go through the motions, and we can’t do that out here.”
On this team’s differences and feelings compared to past teams:
“Every team is obviously going to be unique. You have some experienced, older guys and some pretty good leadership out there. When you look at the makeup of a team, we have a bigger senior class of guys playing their last year of football that really take it to another level. You can add to that with some great, young leadership like Taveze Calhoun, Dak Prescott and Benardrick McKinney, you have the chance to have a pretty special team.