University of Massachusets Athletics
Q&A With Mark Whipple
October 17, 2000 | Football
Oct. 17, 2000
What did you like and dislike about the Maine game?
I thought we had a chance to be decent on offense. Getting Marcel Shipp back obviously helped. We just have to find away to win and hopefully our guys will get a little better. Seibert played a little bit better, but we also had a bunch of passes dropped in the last two games. We have to change some things on offense and keep on tinkering with it.
What about trying to beat A.I.C. on Saturday?
We have to get some guys healthy. We have practiced very physically the last couple of weeks so it might be taking its toll. We have to just worry about UMass and execute. We have to keep the momentum going on defense. I think the defense has played very well, especially on third downs. We have to continue to play defense on that high level. I'm afraid we will lose momentum from the last two weeks. I think we are getting better but I'm little concerned about losing our momentum.
Is there more pressure on the defense because of the injuries on offense?
I think there is more pressure on the offense to not turn the ball over and make stupid mistakes. Hopefully we will get one of our offensive linemen back. We have made a lot of mental mistakes on offense and we need to be more consistent. Our ability to have big plays is kind of out the window. But getting Marcel back will help us.
Talk about Valdamar Brower's Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week performance.
We almost played him last year because of how athletic he is. He has gained some weight and has great instincts. He wasn't making as many plays earlier in the year because he wasn't used to how physical the game is. I think he has really played into his own. He has great quickness and has gained a lot of confidence. I think he will be a really good player in this league. He has received strong leadership from senior Dan Schneider. Brower was our player of the game, along with Troy Lockman.
Is this Saturday a chance to work on some things?
We need to continue to get better and clean some things up. We have to get all of our bad football out of our system before playing those big four games at the end of the year.
