Iowa State Player/Coach Dan McCarney Quotes from 2006 Press Day, August 5 at Jack Trice Stadium

08.05.2006 | Football

By: Iowa State University

AMES, Iowa --

Quarterback Bret Meyer

What are your personal expectations or goals for this year?

“We haven't set our personal goals yet but definitely I will be the best quarterback that I can be from week-to-week.”

Do you feel more pressure on yourself this year now that the offense may have to pick up some more of the slack?

“No, our defense is going to be fine. I don't care how many guys we lost, we still have too many guys that can make plays for us to put all the pressure on me.”

What are going to be your offensive strengths?

“I think we will be strong in all areas but we just need to be consistent. We have a lot of weapons. We are going to be able to run the ball and throw; we just need to be consistent on what we do.”

Talk a little bit about the schedule. Do you think about it much?

“No, not really. Right now, we are just focused on trying to get better everyday. Once we get into our game plan we will concentrate on that. The schedule is there and people can talk about it as much as they want, but we aren't focusing on that.”

How are things different for you this year with all the national attention you are starting to receive?

“I guess it kind of feels good, but you have to take it with a grain of salt. All of that stuff doesn't do me any good during the season.”

Defensive Tackle Brent Curvey

What are your thoughts about the season?

“We have to take one game at a time. Naturally we will look and see who we have as opponents and see who is up next but we have to take one game at a time so we don't lose focus.”

Building on last year, what did you do during the off-season and what are your expectations?

“Expectations are high just like last year. We want to be a dominant defense, one of the best in the Big 12. As a team, we want to do better than we did last year and go higher places than we did last year.”

Is it tough to say good-bye to all the guys from last year?

“It was, but I've gotten over it now that they are gone. There is not much more that we can do now that they are gone. We just need to work with the new guys now.”

Do you feel like it is your role to lead the resurgence on defense?

“I'm a senior now, so I feel like the responsibility has been handed down to me a little bit. I just need to do the best I can to make sure that we do what we need to do to be successful.”

What are you guys going to try and do on defense? How are you going to surprise people?

“I think a lot of people doubt the defense this season. I think we will surprise them. We lost eight guys on defense so naturally people will doubt us. I think people will see a strong unit out there.”

Iowa State Head Football Coach Dan McCarney

“Thanks to everyone for coming, we have a beautiful day for media day. We got our fourth practice in this morning. We had to move indoors due to the rain obviously, but we still got a lot done. Just 26 days until Toledo and we still have a lot of work to do. Two weeks left of camp until we break for classes.

I think so far we have gotten a lot done and there has been real good retention, whether from the upper-class veterans or the new guys. Obviously, the new guys are real coachable kids and I like this group overall. I wrote down a few guys that have really caught my eye so far. Now, this doesn't mean that they are definitely going to play or that they won't be redshirted because we don't know that. We haven't even had full pads on yet, and that time will come on Monday. Clearly, these guys have caught my eye already as guys that are really off to a real good start.

Lee Tibbs on the offensive line will be pushing for a No. 1 spot on the line, no doubt about that. Austen Arnaud at quarterback is a real special player; you can really see why he was the Gatorade player of the year right here in Iowa. Alexander Robinson and Josh Johnson, both running backs, and whether or not they are good enough to beat out the top three backs we have I don't know yet, but those kids are off to a really good start. Matt Purvis, our deep snapper, is really doing a good job and clearly is the best snapper we have on campus. Now, can he do it with speed and accuracy when there is heat coming on him and under the lights on game day and in the scrimmage, we haven't seen yet, but he really has some talent. Defensively, a number of kids are off to a really good start.

Devon McDowell, Drenard Williams, Rashawn Parker, Zac Sandvig, Freddie Garrin, Nate Frere are all doing well. Nate Frere came in at 295 and is still in pretty good shape. He is a guy that wasn't on anybody's list and doesn't have any stars behind his name but watch his career because he is going to have a really good one here at Iowa State. Kris Means and Bailey Johnson are a couple more that have done well. As far as injured players that are doing a good job and we are happy to have them back after they weren't with us for the spring game, Scott Stephenson, Jon Davis, Milan Moses, Jason Scales, John Machado, Ryan Baum and Eric Schultz are all back that were not with us in spring ball. Jordan Goos won't be back for a while, he has the same injury that Jason Scales had last year and Jordan won't be back with us until later in the season. Joe Conklin can hopefully rejoin us by the first day of classes still coming back from foot surgery.

Leadership is strong. I like this team so far and the way they are working. We will elect captains on Aug. 18 but there are a lot of potential leaders on this team that could end up being captains and I like that part of it. We have the decal in that we are going to honor Cris Love with and it turned out real well, so we are going to honor his memory and his legacy here at Iowa State. There is a “C.L.” on there and a number 16.”

Talk about having four Iowa guys as your quarterbacks. How special is that?

“Yes, the intangibles are so important at that position as you know, and whether they all play or don't play they are all special guys. I know this much, if you watch Austen Arnaud out there, you will see that he is every bit as far along as Bret Meyer was as an incoming freshman. Now, does that mean that we are going to redshirt him like we did Bret, or will he play, or challenge Kyle Van Winkle for the number two spot, I don't know yet because it is way too soon. But (Arnaud) is 219 pounds and strong, athletic, and smart, and we are really, really impressed with him. But we knew all that when we started recruiting him a long time ago. What else do we need to say about Bret Meyer? He has had two great years in front of him and has two special years behind him and I think he is better right now than at any time in his career at Iowa State. Nate Mechaelsen is a real unselfish quality young man. He isn't going to beat out Bret Meyer and probably not Kyle Van Winkle or Austen Arnaud, but he is very valuable to this team and we are very proud of him. I think it is real meaningful to have kids that play that position that have character, integrity, and leadership, the ability to handle success and adversity and here they are all from the state of Iowa. I think that really says something about the quality of the football played here in this state.”

What are the questions or concerns about this year's defense?

“Well, there are a lot of them. One is who are going to be the playmakers? You take the heart of our defense away from last year's team -- are all in NFL camps, three of the four at least. (Nose guard) Nick Leaders was a four-year starter, and (linebacker) Tim Dobbins, was a two-year starter and is now with the San Diego Chargers. Both safeties were around forever and (Steve) Paris is now in an NFL camp. Every defense is built from the inside out and three of those four are in NFL camps and all four are gone so there are lots of concerns when you have so many new guys. But the work ethic and attitude is really good, and we have three starters that have played football against every team on our schedule in the past and we have six or seven guys that have played some collegiate football and then clearly some newcomers are going to be in the mix in our depth in the next couple of weeks as things move along. We are not as good now as we were at the end of last year and I think that is pretty obvious, but I'm not going to sell these kids short because we made a lot of improvement last spring and we are going to have to do that during camp between now and when we play Toledo. Toledo is going to come in with a confident and quality football team. They are defending bowl champions and we are going to have to play our best. You have to have a system that is tested through time and been successful and it is. Also, you need a defensive coordinator that knows what he is doing, and I do in John Skladany. Number three, you better have kids that really play with energy and enthusiasm, and passion and heart, and relentless effort and I think we are getting that so far from our kids in practice.”