Kansas Football 2012: Charlie Weis Opening Press Conference

Charlie Weis is meeting with the media as Kansas players report for fall camp later this afternoon. Weis will touch on a variety of topics. We'll highlight those here with live updates for discussion with a full transcript recap in the morning.

Charlie Weis: Kansas Football Press Conference 8.1.12

• Kicking things off with some general housekeeping items. Personnel hiring, departures etc.
• Promotion for Justin Springer on the strength staff. Great move, he's a gym rat, players respect him.
• Jordan Tavai expected in a week. Ty McKinney soon after.

More after the jump

• Saturday August 11th will be open to the fans. Players will be available post practice for autographs. Only open practice of the fall.
• August 20th will simulate a game week script one week prior to the first actual game week.
• Depth chart was set based on what he's seen from players already. Basically he indicated that he needs to evaluate everyone to see who the best player is. Seems as though if you were there in the spring and didn't make the two deep, you probably didn't impress. Further indication that competition is wide open.
• Feels there has been dramatic visible changes in the players physically.
• Asked about measurement of success: Weis said he will start with wins and losses. Did you win the ones you were supposed to and win a few that you weren't. Promises that his expectations are way higher than fans and that's what he's paid for.
  
• Disappointed in watching film from last year and seeing the number of times they 'got the crap kicked out of them". Understands talent discrepancy but to have games get away so quickly by such a large margin wasn't good to see. He would have left at halftime too. He'd like to keep fans in the seats.
• On offense starters are more likely to be in throughout the game. On defense they need depth, need a two deep that can play. Fastbreak league and starters can't be expected to go the full game. No. 1 goal on defense is to find 22.
• Lewandowski second team left tackle because he thinks he is athletic enough to be a left tackle and he's put on good weight. Feels good about the left tackle position with him in place as a backup.
• Moved Keba inside because he has the girth to play inside. Body is transformed. Same with John Williams. Hasn't seen Williams play but his body looks like a different person. Gained good weight.
• Asked about preseason polls: Weis said he doesn't see any reason why someone should pick them anything but last until they prove it. 27 new players, new staff but they have to prove it.
• Talking about media days. Texas players looked at Dayne Crist and asked "that's the quarterback"? Looks the part and he felt the impression of Kansas after media days might have been a little different after seeing Hawkinson, Opurum and Crist represent the team.
• Toben's position is a rush end. Strongside end and weakside end. If teams try to mismatch and go bigger on Toben then he'll slide out to LB and put another end on the field to avoid mismatched. Rush end/Sam position is a bit of a hybrid.
• More motivated than he's ever been to succeed.