On his birthday, George O'Leary had a gift of his own to give away: A shorter practice.
Maybe it was the playing of Chubby Checker's "Twist" during warm-ups that sparked his cheery mood. More likely, O'Leary liked the effort he was seeing inside the Nicholson Fieldhouse. A little more than halfway through Monday's afternoon workout, the 69-year-old coach blew the whistle. The players then serenaded him with a singing of "Happy Birthday."
"Aw geez," O'Leary said afterward with a hint of a smile. "As I said to them, 'Let's go back to practice.'"
The birthday pleasantries out of the way, he then fielded a few questions. First up, how's the punting game coming along?
"We work the kicking game 20 minutes a day, whatever the special teams is. Kickoff, kickoff return, punt, punt return. We're in the process of finding the right guys that can make a two-deep and know what they're doing. You've got to win the special teams and the defensive game every game. That's two you need to win every game. Offense is going to have their ups and downs with weather and everything else concerned. We work extremely hard. We've solidified the punt team, two-deep. The punters are hitting the ball well. Right now it's getting the returners. I want to work on that there. It's coming along the way we want it to come along."
On the health of the team:
"We're banged up right now which you should be with the 13th day today. We worked well for 12 periods today and then ended practice. We're just banged up. There's nothing serious. Just nicks and stuff we've got to get healthy with."
With four starters departed from the secondary, how's that unit coming along?
"It's starting to. I think there's still people that have to get some work done there. But it's starting to sort itself out. We're going to go to a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday morning practice. Hopefully can beat this weather because we need to get outside. We work the kicking game inside but you don't get any hang time."
Has freshman cornerback Mike Rogers caught on?
"Some, but not to the point of keeping up with the installation. He has to work on it harder. A lot of those freshmen, that's what separates the freshmen from all the kids, just that game experience, the speed of the game and keeping up with installation. That's what they have to do. You're waiting for the light to come on so we can get things done."
Where is Iowa State transfer T.J. Mutcherson fitting in? It appears UCF has been working him at corner, though O'Leary admits he's probably better suited for safety.
"We have him outside, he's more of a safety kind of kid. I want to see if he can play outside. I think he could help us out there, but I think he can help us more inside. That's where he's played his college career.
Nick Patti has drawn rave reviews as a wide receiver - how's he doing?
"I've got to see more of it. He's catching the ball extremely well. We take stats on drops and all that stuff. So I think that's something we look at. Guys that can hang on to the ball in practice. The freshmen have hit a wall, some of them. I'm giving them less and less reps, some of the freshmen. Today was mostly ones and twos getting a lot of reps. But the guys who can hang on to the ball are going to be out there. There's too many kids dropping catchable balls. You can't do that. First couple days (it's expected), but they need to catch up to the speed of the game."
Is Bo Schneider pushing Tyler Harris for the backup quarterback job?
"We haven't made any decisions yet. I think Bo is playing extremely well for a freshman. A very skilled kid as far as learns from his mistakes. All three quarterbacks have had their ups and downs each day. I think it's consistency you're looking for at that position that's really important."
