Page 31 - Toledo Football Media Guide - 2012

2012 OUTLOOK 31

With Coach Campbell

Campbell: Right. Danny Molls and Robert Bell are the foundation of our defense. Those two guys have a great nose for the football, they understand the game and they bring that attitude to our defense. Danny is a sure tackler and a leader. He’s exactly the kind of guy you need as a middle linebacker on your football team. Robert has been making players since his freshman year, but he really came into his own last year.

I’m also excited to watch some of the young guys develop, guys like (sophomores) James Gordon, Ray Bush and Dawalyn Harper. Those guys certainly have the ability to become consistent football players.

At star linebacker, our outside linebacker position, we have two solid candidates in (sophomore) Junior Sylvestre and (junior)Vlad Emilien. Theywere neck-and-neck coming out of the spring. Vlad is a transfer fromMichigan who sat out last year. Both are really talented players who have the ability to play safety but are big enough and physical enough to play linebacker, as well.

Q: You have a lot of experience at safety in seniors Jermaine Robinson and Mark Singer.

Campbell: If you say defensive line is an area of strength, then I’d say that safety is, too. I could not be more proud of Mark Singer. As a coach, you love his unselfshness. He had to sit out with an injury all of last year but he remained a great leader in our football program. It’s a tremendous boost for our programtohavehimback. JermaineRobinson

brings us many of the same intangibles as Mark. Jermaine has a smile on his face and comes to work every day. He knows how to compete at a really high level and expects to be successful. He’s a guy that other players rally around because of the energy that he brings to the practice feld every day.

We have very good backups at safety, too. (Junior) Ross Madison was bothered by a knee injury last year but he’s healthy and back to playing at a very high level. Ross will be pushing for playing time. Another player we are watching is (sophomore) Cheatham Norrils, who we feel is one of the best young football players in our program right now. He’s a guy that can play safety and corner. He continues to show us that he needs to be on the feld.

Q: You’ve got two starting cornerbacks to replace. That has to be a concern.

Campbell: Cornerback is one areawherewe are young but we have a tremendous amount of competition there. We moved (senior) Byron Best back to cornerback from the star position. He started at corner as a freshman, and we feel it’s his natural position. Byron gives us some experience at the corner. Some of the guys who will be battling for a spot are Chris Dukes, who redshirted as a freshman last year, (sophomore) Keith Suggs, and (sophomore) Kishon Wilcher. Kishon hurt his shoulder in spring practice but he should be ready to go this fall. We feel he has the ability to be a great corner in our program. We will be looking at some other players in training camp, too, like Cameron Cole, a junior college transfer, and Jordan Haden , who sat out last year after transferring from Florida.

Q: Talk about the kicking game. Is Jeremiah Detmer ready to take over all the kicking duties?

Campbell: I think we tried to ease J.D. into the position as much as possible in his freshman season last year, where he handled the kickofs and long feld goals and Ryan Casano handled the shorter kicks. J.D. proved himself and is ready to compete for all the kicking duties. He will be pushed by (sophomore) Clay Simpkins. Also (sophomore) Brad Dunavant, a junior college player who we brought in to punt, will be competing to handle the kickofs. At punter, Bradwill be competingwith (junior)Vince Penza, our starter from last year who had a great bowl game. He’s punting with a lot of confdence now so I think you will see a great competition between Vince and Brad. The guy that I think is as important as anybody on special teams is our long snapper, (junior) MattWall. Matt was extremely consistent last year, which is what you want from a long snapper.

Q: Can you summarize your feelings about the upcoming season?

Campbell: We have a great mix of juniors and seniors in leadership positions on our team. I think we are a young football team in a lot of areas, but we have great talent and great leadership which gives us an opportunity to be a really solid football team. I am really excited about how our coaching staf ismeshing, too. It’s an exciting time inour program and we look forward to taking the next step.