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46 GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED Building Momentum G reg Hudson likes his defense. It's experienced in the middle of the defen- sive line and at cornerbacks, two areas that can give a significant edge on Saturdays. But to be even bet- ter, the D will have to play to its ceiling in 2015. Gold and Black: What did you like about what the defense did last season that you feel it can build off? Hudson: "Really from the middle of the season on, even when we got to Nebraska on, our MAs (missed as- signments), our missed tackles and our loafs were just low. In order to do that, you've got to understand what's going on. Usually when guys are confused you have missed assignments, lining up wrong, missed tackles. (Those numbers) went down as the season went on. We've got to build off that and just do it better." Gold and Black: Some of the char- acteristics you use to describe this defense seem to have a "blue collar" feel, in that it has to play hard, have discipline, etc. Does the defense need to be blue collar? Hudson: "I think the tag 'blue col- lar' can get a little overused. I've seen some really great athletes and great football players that are first-round draft picks that are as blue collar as anybody in the country. I think that's why they made it. I think the blue collar tag is something that you should want to have no matter what your ability is. We get too hung up on flash plays and the speed of the game when we should be focused on technique and fun- damentals. If you want, call it blue collar, or you just want to say it like they do in New England: 'Do your job' — it's on their Super Bowl ring — to me that's blue col- lar." Gold and Black: Does this defense have a ceil- ing higher than we've seen? Hudson: "Really, we have a bunch of guys, on both sides of the ball, that have a ceiling that they have no idea where it is, and we have to get them to it. It's easy to say (Ja'Whaun) Bentley's ceiling is this high. Jimmy Herman's is pretty high too. I think Leroy (Clark's) is high. I think all the guys. Andy Garcia's ceiling is higher than where he's existing right now. That is what we have to get to. "We had a good conversation as a defensive staff and I used Coach (Marcus) Freeman's unit, the line- backers, as an example. All spring they graded out just three or four points shy of a winning performance in scrimmages, but they were right there. That 3-to-5-percent difference is the exact difference in their ceil- ing. If we can get the 5-percent higher grade — the difference between an 80 and 85, I know that when I brought a report card home, my dad was a lot happier with the 85 than the 80 — it was better. That's what we have to get." Gold and Black: What do you need? Hudson: "Right now, we just need to eliminate the noise and do what we do, be a good teammate. That's one thing I've noticed, guys are prob- ably better teammates to each other, I think they are willing to work for and with each other. You see guys at different positions hanging out with each other. And guys are al- ways here, they're at the facility, they're around. If they weren't here and we had to find them, we'd have a problem. But our guys are here." — Kyle Charters Tom Campbell