Season 2 Week 5 Monday Morning Press Conference

Scene opens to Coach Niumatalolo standing on the Navy practice field holding a mic

Coach Niumatalolo: Another fine morning fellas. Thank you for coming this morning. I'll start off by addressing a few things. First, injuries. Eric is progressing slowly but it's looking like it may be a bowl game appearance at the latest for him. Michael is progressing nicely. The slight tear in his pectoral muscle is healing very well and we are expecting him to be back for the Western Michigan game at the latest. Andre's slight injury in the second quarter on Saturday was nothing serious so we had him back out there and he produced well. He was with the medical staff this morning and there appears to be no residual injuries so we should be good to go there. Second, just wanted to comment on the toughness and football spirit that the players of the Air Force Academy showed out there on Saturday. They are a great team coached by a great coach, as well all know, and I have all the respect in the world for them. We look forward to playing them again next year, as we always do. Thirdly, I wanted to say how proud I am of our football team. We've bounced back from major adversity by going on the road and finishing 3-1 against four very fine programs and part of that credit goes to our coach staff and a lot of that goes to the men on this football team banding together and refusing to quit. So now, let's go on to your questions.

Reporter: Kameron has another spectacular day coach. What was it about his play that made you decide to go with him over Ricky?

Coach Kiumatalolo: Kameron came into spring practice with a fire under his butt and worked very hard. He showed that his ability to read the progressions and find the holes in the zones had improved. He showed that his ability to read the defense pre-snap had drastically improved. Kameron has been working all offseason on his throwing motion and that work is really starting to show. Ricky is a talented player, there's no doubt about that, but Kameron has shown that he's ready to lead this team to unheralded success again.

Reporter: The change in the offense seems to be for the worse for Andre. Do you have plans to put the ball back into his hands more as the season progresses?

Coach Kiumatalolo: Absolutely. Andre is a special player and definitely someone that we want to get the ball into his hands more and we are definitely working on doing that. He has shown a real talent for catching the ball out of the backfield and lined up at the wing position so we have definitely been taking advantage of that and will continue to do so.

Reporter: The defense has really started to show that the front 3 can make some noise this season and get real pressure on the QB. What do you attribute to that?

Coach Kiumatalolo: The scheme has been refined and it's really starting to show production but you can't talk about that without talking about the players. The addition of Mike at the end position has been a real bright spot. Being a freshman, we weren't sure exactly how well he'd transition to our defensive scheme, but he has really hit the ground running so far and it's definitely been a big part of our success. Kori is definitely the glue that holds this whole thing together for us though. His senior leadership has been a big part of our success in the trenches. He's such a talented player and does such a great job of flowing to the ball and getting off his man, it's hard for teams to run right at him.

Coach Kiumatalolo: Thank you again everyone.