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Gold and Black Illustrated, Vol 27, Digital 5

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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 27, ISSUE 5 23 intangibles as far as he works extremely hard, he's a ter- rific young man, he's a team player. Now it's about improv- ing upon his weaknesses. Last year, (he threw) too many interceptions, a little bit jumpy in the pocket. Sometimes there's good reasons for it. But it is what it is, we've got to improve it. We've got to make sure he becomes a great decision-maker. We get him completions, we get him com- fortable, we get him in a rhythm to where when he takes his shots, he feels comfortable with it. But he's got to make sure to take care of the ball and be able to stand in the pocket. He's not a big guy in stature, so we've got to find ways to create lanes, maybe move the pocket, whatever we've got to do, we've got to get him to where he's feeling comfortable. "I do think Elijah Sindelar did improve, and I think he's going to be in the competition. When you get into the spring game, unfortunately when you're not running with the No. 1 O-line, it's not easy. It was definitely not easy re- ally for anyone in that situation. So he struggled a little bit there because of some of the things around him, but he made improvements and there are some things he did I liked. He's a bigger guy in stature, he can see the field, he's got a good arm, he worked extremely hard as well. I liked his work ethic, so we've got to make sure that competition is going on. "Jared (Sparks), he's the X factor. He will continue to improve on his quarterback skills, but he can run. He can do things with the ball in his hand and right now we're looking for playmakers, so I think it's important that we make sure to have things that he does well in the package while we continue to improve his quarterback skills and make sure he's ready to go at other positions. But the ball needs to be in his hands some, also. That's how we see it. "I do like the way those guys worked and all the quarter- backs worked and hopefully we can get them game ready. Sometimes it doesn't just happen overnight. We've got to continue to put pressure on them, put them in game situa- tions, put linemen in their face, a rush in their face, make them move, make decisions on the run and hopefully it works." Q: Will you have packages where you can use each quarterback in a different way? Brohm: "Yeah, I met with all of our guys after the spring and all of our quarterbacks know that, as a player, this hap- pened, as a coach, when I coached, we did this, we'll proba- bly play more than one quarterback. Even if we didn't have an athletic guy like Jared who could do a bunch of other things, we'll probably play more than one quarterback. We're not afraid to give a guy a series or two in the second quarter when the game is on the line, not wait until the end of the game when it doesn't matter. What that does is it keeps everybody into it. "Whoever ends up being the starter understands, 'I'm going to have to produce and do things right,' and whoever goes in second says, 'Hey, I'm getting an opportunity, let's take advantage of it.' Lot of times in those situations, if someone goes in and does well, they stay in. But it defi- nitely puts pressure on everyone to perform and continue to work and it gets guys ready in case something happens or somebody goes down and that happened to me when I was a player and it's happened when I've been a coach a couple places I've been and it's been very productive and successful, and that'll be the strategy going into it. It always can change." Q: After the spring game, you said this offseason is going to be about getting creative as coaches about how you're going to maximize the players on this ros- ter. Is that one area you have to get creative, shifting guys around to put them in a spot where they could make plays for you? Brohm: "It is one of the areas I think that we tried to go through the spring, put most of our stuff in, see if the guys can execute football and figure out who can do what and who needs to touch the ball quite a bit. For that reason, spring was productive. And I think we have a pretty good idea right now of who needs the ball in their hands. While there were some guys injured and not out there, I'm not positive on them yet, but I feel some of them can give us something if they're healthy and all-in. I do think they can help us as well. It's really about getting touches somehow, somewhere. It may not be as normal as we've done in the past. Maybe we can't throw the ball quite as much as we would like, but we have to be able to do it enough. We have to be able to run the ball, so when some team tries to take away one thing, we can do the other. I think identifying who could be playmakers for us is what we got out of the spring." Q: What other areas do you need to be creative?

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