Nov. 11, 2000

"Willie Parker ran better with his eyes today. He reacted to some slants and things like that that the defense did. He probably got a little tired. (Laughing) We haven't had many long runs this year.

"He got a little tired on that long run. He got a little sloppy. He had the ball low and outside, and they did a great job of stripping it from him.

"Besides that, he made some plays for us. We've needed someone to make some plays for us, something other than five or six yard runs. Willie is getting enough work now that he's getting a rhythm, he's seeing things well.

"He's playing now more like he played in spring practice. Actually, he's probably playing better right now than he was in spring practice.

"On hindsight, I didn't give him enough work in August. I wanted to work some other kids that I hadn't worked with before. Then I was going to catch Willie up the last ten days before the first ball game, but he hurt his back and he missed all that work.

"He didn't talk much about it, but I don't think his back was completely well for a while, because he didn't have that quickness and explosiveness that he's got right now.

"He's our number one back right now. Brandon's (Russell) had a little problem with a banged up knee, and I'd like to get Andre (Williams) a bit more work. He played one series today.

"We're still not quite as physical at fullback as we'd like to be. James (Faison) is coming along. He's had very little playing experience, so that's tough as far as making adjustments during the football game. We're making some progress at fullback, but we're not where we want to be at fullback.

"We've still got to get more consistent and get some rhythym on offense. We just don't have enough rhythm on offense. We had no consistency. It's kind of like last week, we had no consistency, but we made some plays in some critical situations and won the football game."