On today’s practice:
“A little sluggish today. Defensively we played OK, but offensively we were sluggish. Hot day, not a game this weekend – probably to be expected. I’m disappointed by it, because I talked about those things and we didn’t get what I wanted.”

On the team regressing or staying the same:
“We stayed the same, and we can’t afford to do that. We’re not in a position as a program to stay the same. Coaches and players alike really have to come out here with a plan to get better. I don’t think we got there today. I don’t think it was a resistance; the focus wasn’t there. I don’t fault the effort, it was the focus. The bottom line is, we have to be better than that.”

On how this team is 3-0 after last year:
“We’re playing better football. We have a little bit of a running game. We’ve got better protection. We’re not turning it over as much. Still, we can make huge improvements in all those areas. And we’re playing great defense and causing turnovers.”

On how last year’s team went 4-8:
“Last year’s team was hit by a lot of adversity. We lost two senior quarterbacks in spring ball, several offensive linemen before we even took the field. It was going to be hard. First quarter of first game, we lost three seniors for extended time. Kyle Bosworth in the second game. We had some adversity, and we grew from it, even though the record may not indicate.”

On the four suspended players working to earn their jobs back:
“Hopefully they feel some measure of responsibility that they left their team down and that they owe great effort to get their spots back.”

On Tuesday’s practice:
“Very happy with this practice. Two days off, usually you’re a little sluggish. It’s like pulling teeth to get kids to run around, and it was anything but today. Not all perfect, but certainly things we can work with. We’re excited as a program about where we are, and frankly, we’re hungry for more. We’ve just got to keep pinning down the details.”

On the goal of first bye-week practice:
“I told the kids today we had three things to get done, No. 1, to improve, we have to improve. No. 2, to create competition – make sure all positions have those kids who are not on the front lines working to become on the front line. No. 3, have some install, the ability to try things out.”

On the running back talent in the Pac-10:
“Everybody understands the value of a running game. Takes a lot of pressure off your quarterback, your defense, the play-caller. It’s a great weapon to be able to run the ball, you can control the ball. There are a number of quality backs in their conference, but that’s not unusual to me. That’s the nature of a very fertile West Coast area to recruit from.”

On re-opening up competition at certain positions:
“You have to get comfortable in competition. Is it good to be challenged in the fourth quarter? Sure, I’d love to win them all handily, but you’re going to get tested. Rather than react like something you’re not used to, you have to accept it. It brings out the best in all players.”

On competition when he played:
“I’ll never forget as a player here, Michael Young and Karl Dorrell battling every day to see who would be starting flanker, trying to bribe me as QB. You talk about two great players, because the competition of the other one was there.”

Opening comments:
“Excited about beginning the season 2-0, excited about a lot of the good things that happened over the course of two weeks. Also excited about the challenge of fixing the things we need to fix. The Tennessee game was a great team effort in a tough place to play, and it was as advertised in terms of an arena.”

On the challenges this week:
“Kansas State coming in this week is a huge challenge for us. I know that there will be people saying that I’m just trying to motivate my team. But it is going to be a very, very important game for us. We have a lot of work to do. We’ve got to break in a new quarterback, at least from the standpoint of this season. Those are great challenges, and ones we are looking forward to.”

On his lack of changing expectations:
“I said before the Tennessee game, whether we win or lose, we have a lot to improve upon. We’d be crazy, absolutely crazy – certify us – if we think we can waltz through anything. We have too many young players, too many things that have to be pointed out and addressed.”

On what he expects from the Wildcats:
“Maybe like Tennessee, they haven’t used their whole package yet, and we were exposed a little bit in our protections and people are going to copy that stuff. Coaching is a very plagiaristic business. There’s going to be a lot of copying the game plan.”