April 11, 2007

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell opens its 2007 spring practice on Friday, April 13 as 72 players will gather for the two-week, 12-session spring practice schedule. Spring practice will culminate with the annual Spring Game on Saturday, April 28 at 1 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field. Head coach Jim Knowles '87 talked about the upcoming practices and what he'll be looking for over the coming weeks.

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Question: Spring practice is important every year, but with the returning core players, most have at least two years left. How does this change the way you are approaching this spring?

Coach Knowles: We're coming off a season where we proved we can play with anyone. We won some games against some ranked opponents, but we didn't do it on a consistent basis. I think, looking back, we could contribute a lot of that to our youth and inexperience. A good number of our returning players have two years left, so we have to take this spring to really focus on being consistent with a high level of play.

Question: Where do you expect to see significant improvements from the fall?

Coach Knowles: We need to improve our run defense. For a few years we were number one in the league in that category and last year we dropped down. We had a problem with missed tackles, and so that will be a focus this spring. Improving our tackling will in turn help our run defense. I think with the switch that has been made on offense, we will focus on continuing to upgrade the passing game. I think the running attack has been solid the last couple of years, but the passing game needs to produce more big plays and more scores and more points.

Question: How happy were you with the offseason workouts?

Coach Knowles: It's been great. We have a small senior class, so we need to get additional leadership from the underclassmen. We instituted a system where we had different leaders every week in an effort to promote leadership from the underclassmen. I think they responded extremely well. Along with (head strength and conditioning coach) Tom Howley, we reinstituted 6 a.m. workouts this year after two years on and last year being off. That is more a toughness and a mindset. We have some new coaches in, and they were all impressed by the enthusiasm and excitement of our kids.

Question: With all the returners on the two-deep, what is your philosophy in terms of winning or losing a job in the spring?

Coach Knowles: I think whether you are returning or not, every college football player who has spring ball has to look at it as a time to earn your job. When it comes to preseason, you are getting ready for an opponent. Spring ball is a chance to showcase yourself to the coaches when you aren't worrying about game-planning or changing things around to attack your opponent. We try and make things open and give everyone an opportunity to compete in the spring.

Question: What is your personal favorite part of spring ball?

Coach Knowles: I don't know how much players like spring ball, but coaches like it. They don't get to play a game, but we get a chance to coach up the players and teach the fundamentals of football. We don't need to be as concerned about game-planning or scheming or going week-to-week in the grind. Here you get to spread out the practices out a little bit and you get a lot more time to focus on the fundamentals.