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WIU defensive line
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Talking Leatherneck football with...Defensive Coordinator Todd Drury

| By: WIU Athletic Communications
Defensive line coach Jeremy Curry works with his group earlier this camp.

Coach Drury gives an update on WIU defense

The Western Illinois football teams kicks off the season in two weeks at Tennessee-Martin on September 1. With preparation ramping up, Defensive Coordinator Todd Drury gave us insights on the Leatherneck defense as the team winds down fall camp and begins readying for the Skyhawks.
 
Us: You guys had a scrimmage on Monday night. How did things look?
Drury: I thought we did a nice job executing the situations, understanding where we are on the field, making the offense drive the ball, we moved to the ball well, some guys tackled well, we were able to affect the quarterback in the pocket, so obviously, I tend to focus on a lot of the negative things but there was a lot of good out here in terms of the collective group doing what we're asking them to do.
 
Us: How is the defense looking now?
Drury: I think they're right where we expect them to be, we had basically a roster of 50 or so in the spring, a lot of new faces in the room, those guys are coming along very well but you can't rush those things, you have to work through the process.
 
Us: How much do you rely on experienced players in fall camp, especially when it comes to keeping everyone up to speed?
Drury:  That's what we're all about here, pounding the rock, one day at a time, focus on the process, everyone comes in with a different set of experiences, you pull off those quality experiences, some guys have some not-so quality experiences, so you try to build those guys up, so it's on both sides.
 
Us: How are the different position groups meshing?
Drury: We have quality players at all three levels, the big thing now we're trying to accomplish at camp is getting everybody to play together as one and not as levels, trying to get guys to play as one defense, run to the ball, communication in the midst of the play. But we have good players at all three levels and we're excited to see how they come together as one, not as individuals.

Us: Depth is so important throughout a season. How is that progressing?
Drury: We're trying to build that depth, that's what fall camp is so great for, developing, giving guys reps to learn and grow and have success and failures, come back from those, how do we handle success, how do we handle failure, and then how do we come collectively together as a group and handle those.
 
 
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