Q: Who is your backup at center behind Shaun O'Hara?
A: Richie (Seubert) has played center, Chris Snee has snapped the ball – center/quarterback exchange. Adam Koets is the candidate that we want to get a lot of work this spring in the OTAs and going into training camp at the center position. Adam has been around our offense a few years now. So he is starting to understand our offense and now it is just a matter of him being able to snap the ball and execute the blocks at center. When you play, when you have seven players or seven offensive lineman active on game day, your guards really need to be able to snap the ball because you have one guy that is a back up to the centers and guards and one guy is the back up to the tackle. That is the way you go. We have been around here. Unfortunately we have been in situations where we had all seven guys playing the game because two guys went out. And so with the way they are preparing week to week it has worked out for us.
Q: If you are in a position where you have to plug a guy in, is it better to put somebody in off the bench or is it better to shuffle the guys that you have around?
A: If you have to shuffle them around, you need to. It is always the old adage, 'you want to replace one with one' without shuffling everybody around. But sometimes you don't have that luxury, depending on the chemistry that you have going into that particular week, so it kind of changes from week to week. You like to plug one for one when possible.
Q: So would you like Koets to be like Ruegamer was?
A: I think so. That you would like to see – he is going into his third season right now. He has played the tackle position. He has played the guard position. He has worked at center – none in live action like he has done with the guard and the tackle position. So we are hoping that is going to be an option for us here.
Q: What do you like about Will Beatty?
A: Obviously he is a big guy; he has really good length for a tackle. He has excellent feet. He bends well. He has a type of temperament that you want in terms of finishing. He is a guy that is always looking to finish blocks, whether it is at the line of scrimmage or downfield. And that caught all of our attention. The other thing really that caught my attention at the combine when he was bench pressing his 225, I kind of watch those guys how they are doing it and where they kind of stop and then restart when they get tired. He just kept going – he was consistent with it. For a long-armed guy that was impressive. So he has been in the weight room.
