On Tuesday morning, Pat Narduzzi recapped Saturday’s scrimmage and talked about standout players and more. Here’s the full rundown of what he said.

Narduzzi: Pretty intense scrimmage, some really good things on both sides of the football as you can imagine. Still, focusing on all the details on both sides of the ball. I wasn’t as happy with our punting game, just the consistency and how we’re punting it. Had some dropped balls. I’m focusing on the negative.

Really good stuff on offense. Defense, missed tackles, angles, all those things that come up in your first scrimmage naturally. We expected to have a crisper scrimmage but I was happy with where we came after the scrimmage and we’ll move on today.

We had a Sunday night practice. The kids had off yesterday. We got in a little bowling over at Arsenal and had some fun.

Anyone in particular stand out in the scrimmage?
Narduzzi: Deslin Alexandre. You look at Deslin and, Rashad Weaver goes down, somebody steps up - that guy played his tail off. That’s a guy that really stood out to me up there. Maybe the focus is there. But without mentioning anybody else - I’ll leave somebody else out. Again, there were good plays and bad plays. I mean, everybody’s got them. We’re trying to eliminate all the bad plays. But Deslin was a guy that stood out to me as far as just details and just more than what I’ve seen. That’s what you expect, when something like that happens, for somebody to step up and take over. And he really did.

How encouraging is that to see that?
Narduzzi: It’s very encouraging. That’s what you expect to happen and it naturally happens. I think sometimes people kind of go, ‘I’m not the guy, Weaver’s the guy, Pat Jones is really good, everybody’s talking about 91 and 17.” All of a sudden, you see a window open and you get a new breath of fresh air to go, ‘Let me inhale this and let’s go with it.’ So you expect to see it happen and it did happen and not just him: John Morgan did some really good things as well, Haba has gotten even healthier, so it’s going to be a battle. It’s certainly going to be a battle.

Will you and Charlie coach those guys a little harder because of what has to happen?
Narduzzi: I sure hope not. I don’t think we change our tune. I think you coach the way you coach. I don’t think we need to add any pressure to anybody’s plate there. We don’t coach them any different. I think maybe they have a little more urgency because they look and to, ‘Woo, I could be the guy.’ I think it gives guys a little more juice.

Do you have a one-on-one conversation with them?
Narduzzi: Some guys you do, some guys you don’t. There’s probably a guy or two that I said, ‘Hey, let’s go, you need to get your tail going.’ Sat them down and said, ‘You need to put more effort into it.’ And I’m not talking on the field - more effort in the classroom, knowing what you’re doing. Because once you know what you’re doing - that word knowledge up on the back of the room there - that word knowledge allows you to play faster. If you’re out there playing slow because you’re not if I’m supposed to do this - there are so many different defenses and you apply that to how many different formations you’re going to see on offense and the different plays, it’s like, there’s a lot of things going on. A lot of moving parts. So you play faster when you know what you’re doing. I think some of the urgency has opened up for some of those guys.

You mentioned the punting in the scrimmage. As far as special teams as a whole, how do you feel about that unit?
Narduzzi: I feel really good. Kess’ is really kicking the ball like we expect him to. Like I said, Kirk, I expect more out of him. He’s not a rookie anymore. So we have to get him a little bit more consistent. He’s had consistent days, but when it’s game day and it’s scrimmage day, we expect you to wake up that morning and feel good and punt it well. But he’s got an explosive leg. Cal really snapped the ball well, as far as holds and all of that. And we’re moving along and trying to find a holder as well. So special teams have been sharp.

What’s your distance trust factor with Alex right now?
Narduzzi: 72, 74? 50? I mean, who’s going to kick a 60-yarder? But if he can kick 55, that’s good and that’s where it is.

When you talk about the knowledge and recognition on the field, is that the biggest learning curve for your linebackers where they don’t have as much experience?
Narduzzi: When I look at what our linebackers are doing right now, there’s some talented guys in that room. But their knowledge is pretty good right now. You try to match it up to the older guys - you know, Zeise and Seun and Quitnin - they know like they do; they just lack the experience. So I don’t think it comes down to the knowledge part of it. I think the knowledge is there. It’s just them going on game day, making sure they do what they know how to do. But I think they know what to do as good as our guys did last year. They can run, they can make tackles. So it’s just a matter of doing it on game day. The lack of experience, that’s the only thing; I think the knowledge will be the same.

You said the coaches would gather and talk about the true freshmen; who do you feel confident about?
Narduzzi: You look at some young guys that have popped and say, ‘Hmm.’ Like, Vince Davis had a heck of a scrimmage, played hard. Vince Davis is a guy that you’re going to really look at for four games. And we talked in our staff meeting prior to the scrimmage, you know, who has a chance and what do we want to get done? He was one guy that really stood out. Who were the other freshmen? Matthew Goncalves has done a nice job. He’s an offensive lineman, is he going to play this year? No, but he’s done a nice job of picking stuff up and kicking and pass-protecting really well.

You mentioned Kyi Wright last week?
Narduzzi: Kyi Wright had a couple catches. He’s done a nice job. Gavin Thompson from Central Catholic, a walk-on, made some nice plays. The guy’s a football player. Going over the defense, Calijah Kancey’s done a nice job. I probably should mention, Leslie Smith has done a nice job at the linebacker spot. We had him in camp and what you saw in camp, you see out there. He’s very smart, he’s picked up the defense and I could see him playing four games, maybe five maybe six, seven, who knows? The guy’s a football player. Probably, just as a rookie, he’s got to finish plays. I would say his big thing is he’s got to finish. But he knows what to do as a young guy.

With the four games, other than offensive linemen it would seem like everyone is on the table.
Narduzzi: Oh yeah, there’s everybody. But even offensive linemen are: they can be a guard on the field goal team, they can be a wing; you can put a guy in a different jersey number and have him be a wing if someone else is banged up. And Brandon Hill’s obviously got a chance, too.

Is Kirk the leader in the holder derby?
Narduzzi: I would say Kirk’s probably the leader, but we have other ones there, too, so we just have to - I don’t want to anoint anybody. I want to make sure it’s thought out. It’s a long season and it’s an important spot. And my thought is: I want to make sure - Kirk’s got his job to do, I don’t want him to worry about two things. That’s my fear there. Because Kirk can do it. We know he can do it. He’s got great skills. I just want to make sure we don’t have too much pressure on the guy.