Orange County Register

 Carroll: Beanie Wells’ situation ‘not a big deal’

QB Mark Sanchez’s post-practice interview Wednesday with reporters: 

On Wednesday’s practice

• It was all right, not bad, light day. We ended pretty early. The defense looked pretty good. We got a couple completions in there. We tried to keep up the tempo. It’s shaping up to be a good bye week. A couple more days and we’ll have a nice weekend to rest and really be into this game plan.

On whether it is too soon to think about Ohio State

• No, not at all. I’m thinking about them everyday. I’m trying to prepare this week like we’re playing on Saturday, like we’re suiting up and playing at 5 o’clock, like we will the week after.
• There’s a lot of film to be watched and next week I’ll just do it all over again and fine tune things. That’s kind of the goal for the whole team, to go through our reps and get our practices in and the next week do it all over with some fine tuning and sharpen things up and be ready to play. But no, not too soon at all.

On whether he likes having a bye week this early

• It’s good because you get the injured guys back for the bulk of the season. It’s a good little break for my leg, too. It doesn’t bother us. It’s just different. These first four games seem like years apart. It’s weird.

On if the bye week affects the team’s rhythm

• I think it’s good for us because Coach Carroll’s track record, when he has time to prepare the team usually plays well, for bowl games, after bye weeks, we usually do pretty well. But at the same time we want to keep playing. I’m going to watching a lot of games this week and wanting to be on the field. So it’s difficult, too.

On the offensive line’s performance against Virginia

• Most the time they did only rush three. I would have expected a little more pressure but they thought they were going to do it with three but the O-lineman did a great job adjusting to that kind of defensive front. I had tons of time in the backfield. It allowed me to really get my eyes on the receivers. The run game also did a phenomenal job.

On offensive tackle Butch Lewis saying Sanchez owes the O-line a trip to Morton’s The Steakhouse

• I don’t know about Morton’s. I’m still on that college budget. But I owe them something, that’s for sure.

On how he’ll have to adjust because he probably will have less time to throw against Ohio State

• I don’t know about that. We’ll have time. They’ll do well. The O-line will do well. They’ll adjust back to our regular defense. We practice against each other every day and we’re running similar things to Ohio State. I’m sure they’ll have another great game.

On if he has had any setbacks with his left knee

• No, I feel great. This off week has really helped in the rehab process. I’m getting a chance to rest it up and really stretch every day and strengthen muscles around my knee, my quad, my calf, my hip.

On going against Ohio State cornerback Malcolm Jenkins

• He’s a Thorpe Award candidate. He’ll be one of the top picks in the draft. That’s the kind of competition you run into going to school here. That means a lot. It’s going to be fun.
• But at the same time I’m playing against their whole defense. They got guys like that all across the board, (linebacker Marcus) Freeman and (linebacker James) Laurinaitis. And their front four is not bad either. So it’s going to be a tough test for us and we’re excited about the challenge. But Malcolm Jenkins is going to be flying around.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.