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28 IllustrateD volume 25, issue 1 f Primed For Production? Coordinator likes offense's pieces BY STACY CLARDIE SClardie@GoldandBlack.com J ohn Shoop knows Purdue's offense hasn't arrived. But he firmly believes the unit will be better in 2014, starting by taking advantage of some playmaking options in the backfield and expe- rienced tight ends to go with a potentially deep receiving corps. Shoop spoke with Gold and Black after watching film of the jersey scrimmage, the last practice of training camp, in mid-August. Gold and Black: What signs did you see in camp that showed you this offense got better? Shoop: "We had production. We had an aw- ful lot of production (in the scrimmage). We had some big plays in the run game, and we had some big plays in the pass game, and we need to continue to have those. The No. 1 dif- ference I think is our players have confidence. They have about the right amount. They're confident in their ability to go out and play well, but they know they have to keep working their tails off to get better and better. They clearly understand that confidence is gained through a lot of hard work and a lot of sweat. Up to this point, these guys have done the work." Gold and Black: What still needs to improve before the season opener? Shoop: "I think we need to really work hard on some deep balls. While we've had some big plays, we had some misses on some deep balls. We need to really practice and continue to work on getting the ball deep. That's a lot of different things. That's sometimes mixing up your protec- tion, sometimes a receiver's beating man-to-man and of- tentimes the quarterback's putting it where they can get it. There's a lot of things that go into that. But we're not going to be the team we want to be if we can't get that deep pass. "And, it starts with the quarterbacks, we need to hone in and really work hard on some situations. We're talking about the fringe, when we're in field goal range, and the red zone. Twice (in the scrimmage) we had a tackle for loss that might of knocked us out of field goal range. If we go into play a game now, we have to be really, really conscious of game management, field management and we're going to practice different areas of the field hard. In and of itself, if we have a period for it, I think they're good. But what we need to do is just kind of mix it in and have stronger aware- ness of the situation we're in as the game is being played." Gold and Black: It seemed like the defense threw a lot of different looks at you, disguised some coverag- es, brought some blitzes, during camp. How did that q & a : j o h n s h o o p Tom Campbell John Shoop thinks increased production of Purdue's offense during train- ing camp was spurred by the players having confidence in the system, in themselves and in their teammates.