Over the weekend several of the assistants and positional groups met with the media to talk about the first few days of camp. Tim Grunhard, Clint Bowen and Rob Ianello took their turn along with their respective personnel groupings and touched on a variety of topics. Here's some video courtesy KUAthletics as well as some highlighted text from the transcript.
Tim Grunhard and the Offensive Line
Tim Grunhard On position battles during camp:
"I think our three fifth-year seniors are pretty much settled. On the right side we have some guys that are battling for some positions with Gavin (Howard), (Riley) Spencer and Aslam (Sterling) coming in. It's a great healthy battle between those three. On the other side with the fifth-year seniors, they're good football players. They're smart and really want to win. They've done everything they possibly can this summer to give themselves an opportunity to go out as a winner. I applaud them for how hard they've worked this summer. They're very, very excited to go out and compete against some of the teams that have, quite frankly, given them a hard time the last couple of years."
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Clint Bowen and the Secondary
On how the secondary rotation is coming together in his eyes:
"In the secondary we obviously feel good about our first four guys. They all have experience. Bradley (McDougald), Lubbock (Smith), Greg Brown and Tyler Patmon all have experience. We really feel good about the first team. We want to create that competition to see who can get into the two-deep out of the young guys and we're giving them a lot of opportunities. They're getting in there and getting their reps and as things keep progressing we're going to find out as quickly as we can, how good is Tyree Williams? Greg Allen? Tevin Shaw? Where can they fit in there? We had a chance to see the other guys in the spring time so we're just working at getting us all at two-deep."
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Rob Ianello and the Jayhawk receiving corps
On what it takes to move up on the depth chart:
"You need to continuously develop as a receiver. You need to be able to get open in tough press coverage, which our defense is going to show us some here. You need to continue to develop your route running, you're knowledge of the offense and just be a complete receiver. We've talked about from our first meeting that complete receivers run good routes, complete receivers block, complete receivers have runs after the catch, complete receivers know what to do, complete receivers are in great physical condition. That's what it's going to take for guys (to get playing time). There's a line (of where we need a receiver to be) and you want to get as many guys as you can above that line that can play in a game and perform for you. We're working every day to try to see how many guys we can get above that line. We're three days in, so we're in no way, shape or form to determine any of that. It's just a consistent battle every day, in a positive way, that we're going out to work and try to get better. I tell the guys all the time that you either get better or you get worse, you never stay the same. We're trying to be better today than we were yesterday."