Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboy Football Report, March 24
March 24, 2015 | Cowboy Football
STILLWATER - Dressed in full pads for the first time this spring, the Oklahoma State football team held its fourth practice of spring ball Tuesday at the Sherman E. Smith Training Facility. After the approximately two hour-long session, cornerbacks coach Tim Duffie shared his thoughts:
On Tuesday's practice:
"I thought it was good coming off of spring break. I thought the intensity was good. We were a little rusty tackling-wise, from the standpoint of it was our first padded practice, but the effort was there. We've got clean up some fundamentals, approaching the ball and help our offense get better."
On the competition for the starting cornerback spots:
"We open this thing up on defense to create some competition, because we have some depth and to keep Kevin (Peterson) on the edge; not let him relax. We're confident that he can play in this league. He's proven that, along with Ashton (Lampkin) and even 18 (Ramon Richards), but the one thing that we want to do is take them to another level and compete as a whole and make the group better."
On if he thinks Kevin Peterson is a leader of the whole team and not just the cornerbacks:
"I do, and I think Coach Gundy and Coach Spencer are doing a great job of creating leadership from the guys that we expect to lead, but also some younger guys. To give you a good example - James Washington, who's an offensive guy. We're trying to get young guys to lead too. Kevin and Ryan Simmons and Jimmy Bean and guys like that are helping all those young guys learn how to be a leader."
On the differences between coaching cornerbacks and safeties:
"Obviously, it's individual position technique, but at the same time, within our scheme we're playing man-to-man. Our corners are lining up at the line of scrimmage and press probably 85 percent of the time. Just refining yourself as a coach and getting technical at that specific position has been the challenge."
On his goal for the cornerbacks:
"Our biggest deal is we talk about explosive plays and try to minimize balls being thrown over our head. Obviously, that's the No. 1 goal. We want to leverage the ball in the run game, but the biggest thing for us is to get turnovers. If we can get the ball back for our offense and develop the mentality that we're going to take the ball away from the (opponent's) offense, that's the deal we're trying to do."
