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So he's excited about where he's at as welland his confidence is very high. So we're lookingforward to the competition.

Q. Over the past few years in therecruiting trail, you've gone into the state of Wisconsin a little more. Could you talk aboutwhy Wisconsin, considering the rest of the BigTen footprint and a lot more players in Ohioand Michigan and everything like that?

COACH DANTONIO: Wisconsin isrelatively close to Michigan when you look at it ona map. I know the Great Lakes are right there.But Brad Salem, our recruiting coordinator, thecoach that recruits up there, has done anoutstanding job. He's got ties up there. Goodfootball.

We think we found a little bit of a niche. Trae Waynes will be a outstanding player for us,probably a four-year starter or three-year starterthese next three years. Tremendous athlete. Andwe've won some on some players up there. We'vegot some other guys, like Mark Scarpinato, R.J .Shelton is a guy who has come down

So we've got some guys that I think aregoing to make a mark on our football team andwe're going to continue recruiting the Midwest as alevel-one recruiting area for us that's relativelyclose for us, and if you take the ferry you're 60miles away, so we're good to go.

Q. Why did you decide to bring JimBollman onto your staff? What does he bring

do you think to the table? Number two, as youlook forward into the future, how much of your scheduling is going to be sort of predicated ontrying to be in the mix for the Final Four, so tospeak, as the playoff si tuation changes?

COACH DANTONIO: With Coach Bollmanthis is the fourth time he's been on a staff whereI've been: Youngstown State for five years; atMichigan State, when I first went there the first timearound with Nick Saban; down to Ohio State withCoach Tressel; and now back up here.

So he brings a tremendous feeling of security, I guess, in terms of knowing him as a

person, knowing his credibility and his character,first of all, and then also knowing what he knowsas a football coach. He's been an offensivecoordinator at the highest level.

He's coached tight ends in the NFL. I thinkhe's a guy that brings new ideas and a newdimension. We needed a guy to offset with Coach(Dan) Roushar leaving, leaving as an offensive

line, tight end guy. We wanted to bring the sametype of position coach in, and all of those things,and then just the credibility really as a person Ithink is so important.

So been like a brother to me throughoutmy coaching career. And I trust him explicitly to dothe very best he can and I trust him with players interms of how he treats players and what he getsout of the players. So a lot of experience there.

As far as our scheduling I don't thinkthere's any question that as the years progressthings are going to start to get more and morecomplicated, I guess, in the scheme of things asfar as the college football playoffs and all thedifferent things that are going on in college footballright now.

As far as scheduling, I think we'll play ninegames. We'll always have a big opponent out of conference to play versus our schedule is going tobe strong. And it will always be our hope to chasethe dream as I said, to go to the Rose Bowl, tobecome a champion at the highest level, to get intothe championship format.

And while we were close last year, we lostsome games to some great football teams by verynarrow margins. The two previous years, though,if you look at those two years, we're right where weneeded to be to be in a format like that to be ableto be realistically playing in a game in achampionship venue.

Q. Have you finalized how you'll useJarius Jones and his t alents?

COACH DANTONIO: J arius is a guy thatcan play outside backer for us. He had a greatspring. If you look and you always point, I think, toyour football team you ask yourself who is the guythat's really popped out and really had animpressive spring, I think J arius J ones is one of those guys, especially on defense, weighing 216,220 pounds or so. He's got the ability to go backand play safety. He's got a lot of experience backthere, both safety positions.

He can play what I call the star position,the outside backer, a will linebacker, and he'smade a lot of plays for us.

So he sort of figures right in there with --he or Taiwan J ones playing that other linebackerposition. We'll see how it shapes out in August.

But as I said earlier, we have competitionon this football team. We've got a lot of guys backwith experience, too many to talk about really. The

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defensive side of the ball is loaded with sevenstarters, back with a lot of players ready to maketheir mark.

Our offensive side of the ball, a lot of players back, a lot of experience back at widereceiver. We don't lose a quarterback really. Wedon't lose a wide receiver. We did lose a runningback and outstanding tight end. But everybody'slosing somebody. So we've gotta just pick up thepieces there and get after it, with those guysplaying.

Q. I see Skyler Burkland is number twoin the depth chart at right tackle. How is he? Ishe going to stick it out? And is he the reasonFrance has moved b ack to l eft tackle and Fo toright tackle?

COACH DANTONIO: I couldn't hear.Which guy are you talking about?

Q. Skyler Burkland.COACH DANTONIO: Right now Skyler is

a guy a little up in the air. We'll talk about himprobably next week, see how all this falls out. He'sbeen a guy who has been a starter for us, but he'sbattled some injuries.

Q. Does this year have a slogan or mantra like P4RB, Prepare for Rose Bowl, andwhat would th at be?

COACH DANTONIO: This year's mantra?Chase it.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

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