Tre Lamb meets with media through week four of fall practice

It's the fourth week of practice for the Tulsa Golden Hurricane and only ten days out from their home opener with Abilene Christian. There are still a few kinks to work out on the roster, so Tre Lamb talked about the team's progress through the new week.

Tre Lamb opened up the media availability with this statement, "Good practice today. I want to know what day this is, but it's, it's like Groundhog Day. I do the same thing every day, but we're on the grass today for the sixth time, practice in the afternoon all week this week to get in the heat Monday. Really, really got it. Pretty good. Had a good physical day Tuesday. We did a lot of situational work, and today was short yardage. So, we'll take the pads off tomorrow night and get under the lights for the first time at Chapman Stadium. And, looking forward to that. Our first three games are at night, and we got to get used to playing in the lights. So do that tomorrow night. We'll have a walk-through on Friday and then a mock game on Saturday. And then Sunday. We're on to Abilene Christian, a really good ball club. It's been a really good week. We've been healthy this week. We got some, got our legs back a little bit, and then the next three days are critical for that. Taking the pads off and getting our legs back so we can be the freshest team ready to play. "

Q: Where do you think the offense and defense are this week compared to last week?

A: Yeah, offense I feel like really stepped up. Yeah. Offensive line was it's been the biggest pleasant surprise. We're going to be pretty good there. The best I've had and compared to the competition, and we've had a lot of coaches that have coached at this level, and we think we're pretty good there. We're big, we're strong, we're physical. I feel like we can run the football and that's what Kirk needs. Kirk needs a run game. To create some space down the field and on the perimeter for these wideouts to go make plays. Our tight ends, Brody Foley, is 6'5 270. He's almost like an extra tackle on the line of scrimmage. And got Julian Roberts, who is 6'5 265. So we got some meat on the edges. I expect us to play on some 12 personnel, some 11, some 22, some ten. Hopefully, it will be tough to defend when we get our best people on the field.

Q: On the offensive line, how did all of that come together?

A: I mean, just recruiting and development. You know, our weight room has been huge, and I can't say enough about that. I've hit on that and about every press conference of how important it is to actually feed the players, give them nutrition, have red cards where they can eat off campus. We have great food here in and around campus, and our guys are able to go get that on their meal plan, and that's been huge. So they're getting 4 or 5 meals a day. We're giving them a snack every day. We feed them breakfast every day in a facility makes a huge difference, to our competitions, because everybody else we're playing against is doing those things. We're feeding our guys, and we're working out four and five days a week, and they're busting their tails. We're going to put on mass and strength, and we're stronger than we were in January, for sure.

Q: What does replacing Chris Thompson look like at the moment?

A: You know, we took Josh Anglin out of the portal in May. Who was a FCS freshman All-American from North Alabama. He's going to step in there. Will Alexander, who's earned a scholarship, will be in there. C.J. Turner, who's played a lot of football, will be in there. I mean, if there's one position we probably could've afforded a six-week injury was probably there.

Q: Are there enough hours in the day to get ready for what's coming in ten days?

A: Yeah. You know, the good thing about summer is we're allowed OTAs now, so we're allowed to do a lot of practicing with our players, and we're further ahead than that. I expected the biggest thing we got to do this week is fight boredom. You know, it's easy to sit here and watch film and come up with 100 new plays, and we can get them on this, we can get them on this. But honestly, in first games you just want to go in there and do what you do, play fast, let our players play fast, take care of the football, play good on special teams, and see where to see where the chips fall. So this week is all about fighting boredom, fighting boredom next week, and just getting better at our plan and what we have already in. I mean, we worked on Abilene Christian, Navy, Oklahoma State, New Mexico State all summer. We had a preliminary plan done in June and July and in April, when we're here in the office. So I feel good about where we're at. Our guys are executing at a high level.

Q: The wide receiver and corner one-on-ones were very physical today ,right?

A: It was pretty physical. Yeah, yeah. And receivers are doing some good things. I like our slots. You know, we need a playmaker to emerge on the outside. With Tease, Mehki Miller, Josh Smith, they're all three really good. Steptoe, who's a little banged up right now, but he'll be back for the first game. So, you know, some of those guys are going to emerge, and we'll find out more when the lights come on. Who's going to make those plays? But I really like our DBS now. Our corners are going to be tops in this conference. I truly believe that. I think J.D. Drew, Champ Lewis, NuNu Campbell, Elijah Green, those four. You're not going to find four better with that depth of anybody we play against. think they're playing really good.

Q: As the offensive coordinator, what would you like the defense to look like?

A: Yeah. Keep it in front. You know, don't give up big plays, make offenses earn it. Don't get bored. You know offensive coordinator. We love to call all the plays on the call sheet and all our cute stuff. And they're going to mess it up. They're going to mess it up with a penalty or a fumble, snap or false start or a drop ball. Like we want to make them earn it. When we get to the red zone, we want to freaking make them kick field goals. I think games are won and lost in the red area. Third down, we get them third and long. We'll get after it. Certainly want to stop the run, keep it in front, and make them earn it. You know we're not going to be a blitz 50 times a game. That's not who we are. We want to play good sound defense, good sound football. Keep it in front and see how patient the quarterback and the offensive coordinator can be without messing it up. And once we get to the red area, we're going to get stops.