Question: How well are safety Winston Guy and linebacker Danny Trevathan, both sophomores, playing?
Brown: "They are what you are looking for in the SEC. Both of them have great upside, great potential. It's a matter of gaining experience, playing in games and us as coaches taking lumps because they will make mistakes. Our job is to teach them and limit the mistakes, but they will make them. But they are also going to make some plays because of their athletic and speed.
"Danny was probably a little ahead of Winston because he had played the position some and during the course of fall practice was able to practice at the position. Winston has changed positions (from safety to cornerback and back to safety) but he has done an excellent job of adapting. He has a lot of time. We are looking for them to both do great things for us."
Question: Can freshmen come in and help this year or will you not be looking for that?
Brown: "We are always looking. The thing that we don't have right now in my opinion is enough quality depth at the second and third spots. That's why we are evaluating guys now. If we can spot a freshman that will play, we will use him depending on his physical development and how easy they can adapt to what we ask them to do. But we are always looking. There will be guys we redshirt, but there will also be ones we are counting on to play."
Question: Are junior college defensive end DeQuin Evans and prep school lineman Donte Rumph two of the guys that might be needed to play and add depth?
Brown: "Of course. Rumph has played a lot of football, and so has DeQuin because he's a junior college kid. DeQuin will just have to learn to adapt to our technique and he will be fine. They both have high energy and good motors. They are both physical players. They are different type of people. Donte has played mostly inside. But they both get after it. It's nice when you can see a guy like that and reminds us of a player we had like a Ventrell Jenkins. .That is the mold and model we are trying to establish here as the kind of player we want."
Question: Has senior cornerback Trevard Lindley been that big a surprise here or did you guys just steal him out from under other schools?
Brown: "We saw what he could possibly be. Maybe other people didn't see that. That is the one beautiful thing about coach (Rich) Brooks. He has been doing this forever. He has seen guys maybe under the radar that were maybe not that highly touted and sees the potential in them. We just teach them then.
"When you look at high school players, you basically look at them as pieces of clay that you want to mold. He was easy. He was a running back, athletic and fast. He had really good feet. Plus, he was tall. You don't find a tall guy like that often. I thought if we could do a good job of teaching him and not screw him up, we would be fine with him."
Question: Why does he have such a knack for making big plays?
Brown: "That is just blessed by God. Some guys are very instinctive. Some guys have the ability to make plays. Some guys just have characteristics that you can't teach. You are always telling guys to make plays, but there are just some guys who can and some who can't. He's just a guy who can make a play because he does things so naturally. The more guys we can get like him, the better off we will be."
