Blue 19, Orange 17
Q. You've made it through the spring healthy. How does it feel to be going into the fall healthy for the first time in a while?
DEVIN MOORE: It feels amazing. Really, like, I'm lost for words. Just being able to continue to compound all the practices, the reps, the gains I've made in the weight room with the strength staff. It's just a great feeling just being able to continue to build on that and just being healthy overall.
Q. How much progress do you think you made because you were healthy this spring?
DEVIN MOORE: Oh, a bunch. You can't make up -- you can only make up for the lack of reps so much. You can always take mental reps, kind of develop, but the only way to fully maximize it I feel like is to get on the field, get in that live fire and take those practice reps, see it a bunch of times, get coached by your coaches and just continue to develop.
Q. Where do you think the secondary has made the most progress when you think back to where you were this time last year?
DEVIN MOORE: I feel like between communication and tackling I feel like open field tackling is something that our coaches really emphasize this spring. You can see it throughout every scrimmage, throughout every practice, throughout the spring game.
Also, communication. Just being on the same page, being overly communicative. What's about to come, what motion is about to come, what coverage are we going to on the motion, just things of that nature.
Q. You guys had a couple of young guys playing in the star position. What have you seen from Sharif Denson (off microphone) this spring?
DEVIN MOORE: Just the hunger. Every day those guys are in the facility trying to learn, doing all the extra things, working hard in the weight room.
There's not that many subs at that position, so the amount of reps they took and the amount of things that they were able to experience this spring and just learn and develop from it, it was amazing to see.
Q. Jacob asked you about the secondary's growth as a whole. I want to ask about the defense as the whole defense. What's giving you confidence from what you've seen through spring that things are going to be better on that side of the ball as a whole?
DEVIN MOORE: Just the whole vibe and energy. Whenever somebody makes play, everybody is getting turnt. It's great vibes. Like I said before, the communication. Even at DB we communicate with the D-linemen sometimes and just making sure the whole defense is on the same page. Even if we're not even in the right call, if we're all on the same page, then that can be a right call. Just being able to communicate and trust in one another.
Everybody is out there taking reps with each other and just being able to develop that trust knowing, okay, that guy is going to take care of his job. I have to do my job for him.
Q. Napier was saying but for you that there's more depth on that side too. Do you agree?
DEVIN MOORE: Yeah, for sure, 100%. In every position room there's a bunch of guys that can go, and the newcomers are continuing to learn and continuing to develop so they'll be able to go too.
Q. I just want to know what was it like going against Tre today? Obviously he had a great game and is someone that is going to get a lot more reps this year with Ricky gone. What was it like going against him?
DEVIN MOORE: It's fun. Every time I see 3, matching up against 3, I know it's going to be a battle. He is going to bring the best out of him. I'm going to bring the best out of him.
You know, you have to switch it up versus him because he's very shifty and very explosive. Every time I see him, yeah, it's on. It's going to be a great battle.
Q. Just what are your overall thoughts going against the Blue team offense with Tre and with Graham? What were your overall thoughts on how they did?
DEVIN MOORE: I think they did good today. They had a bunch of explosive plays. That late game situation being able to trust the coaching and drive down the field, make those throws in critical moments and be able to win the game overall.
Q. Are there areas where you guys have identified or even in your own opinion that you still need to improve on the defensive side? What is the focus over the next couple of months in order to put yourselves in the best position possible to succeed this year?
DEVIN MOORE: I kind of say it's like a double-edged sword. I talked about our communications and tackling and improving, and I feel like those are two areas we can always improve in no matter how good you are.
You can never over-communicate. Then you can never work on open field tackling too much and just tackling overall. I feel like that's definitely going to be a main focus for us.
Overall just being able to go out there and play and not think.
Q. It sounds like you had quite a few turnovers, picks this spring. What's the difference? What do you think has enabled more turnovers, and how much of an emphasis has that been?
DEVIN MOORE: I think it's a combination of everything really. The coaches put us in great positions, the disguises they coached us on to be able to create those turnovers. Really the main thing is just everybody flying to the ball, being able to showcase that effort. Being around the ball, you're going to make plays. We got D-linemen running to the ball. Big Dez, they pulled up a clip of him running to the ball in the stack. That definitely creates turnovers.
Q. You didn't have to tackle Jadan Baugh today, but what we saw today, was that typical of this spring in practice and stuff?
DEVIN MOORE: Yeah, he's a very hard runner. He's definitely been coached very well and just his frame and for a guy that big too, he got some juke move and stick to him too, so you can't just come up there and cut him. You have to make sure you wrap up and make the tackle.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports