Shane Patrick Good Quotations

Fundamentals are the key. Defensively, we work on tackling and block defeat. Those are the two things we have to work on every day. Any good defense does those things every day. Offensively, we have to work on blocking and protecting the football. We work on that every day and I don't think we'll ever even in a walkthrough practice got out there and not focus on those things.

I thought at times we showed we could move the ball. Our passing game looked good at times. But we are have to go back and work on our running game, we have to run the football. On defense, I saw some things. Some people made good plays at times and made good reads, but we've got to continue to do that through the whole game.

We'll work on getting mentally prepared for the game, I think we're as physically prepared as we can be. I think we're in pretty good shape. Our guys who are young and having to play are stepping up. Our kids know what to do, they know what to expect. It's just a matter going out and executing every Friday night. I think our program is in good shape. Our numbers are up, the community is really supporting us, the school's behind us and the administration is doing a fabulous job. The odds are in our favor to go out and play well.

We knew Duke was going to be very good this year, there is a reason they are No. 1. I really think we are on track. We're still training really hard. I feel like we ran well. We never peak early so we're a long ways from where we want to be at the end of the year, but I feel satisfied that we are in the right place.

Defensively, it's just going to come down to tackling. When it is all said and done, that's the basis of defensive football. If we do a good job of tackling, then we'll do well.

Hopefully, we'll find out some good news in the next few days about William Dyer. Maybe he'll be back with us soon than expected. We just don't know yet. Other than that, we're fairly healthy.