Transcript: Petrino talks Gardner, FIU and Wake

Bobby Petrino chatted with the media on Monday for his weekly press conference. He spoke for about 15 minutes on various subjects.

Among the main points:

* Will Gardner's status is unclear.

* Reggie Bonnafon's back with the team.

* The offense still needs a lot of work, but the defense is playing "at a very high level."

Here's the transcript in full:

Opening statement: I would say when we made the trip down to FIU that the mission was accomplished. We wanted to go down there and get us a win and that's what we did. We can take a lot from the game. No. 1 is being able to handle adversity and that when things don't go as planned, you're able to improvise and adjust. We were able to do that with the lightning delay and then playing through a downpour.

Defensively, we're playing at a very high level. We have guys who are excelling on the field and performing at the highest of their abilities. They're doing a great job of communication and they make plays. That's why we're seeing our defense do so well.

Offensively, we're not where we want to be yet. I think everybody understands that. It was a different game for us in the fact that they loaded the box, ran linebackers through gaps, brought guys in two gaps, did just about everything they could do to not allow you to run the ball. In the second quarter, we were able to hit the big plays and make plays down the field that allowed us to get the lead. In the late third, fourth quarter, we still tried to run the ball.

That's on me. I should've just threw it every down. When I look back at it and watch it, I get upset at myself because I wanted to give the running back opportunities, rush the ball a little bit and get out of the game healthy, but basically we should've just thrown the ball every down against the style of defense they were playing.

I'm happy with our special teams. We helped our field position a lot by our punt returns, by the guys blocking and doing a good job and James Quick doing a good job on the returns. Brandon Radcliff had a really nice return on the opening kickoff, just about took it back for a touchdown. If he would've been able to break outside, he would've gone all the way, but he must not have seen that because he stayed right on track, which is great to see. To be a good kick returner, you have to make a decision and then accelerate. I thought he did a really good job, and it was well blocked. That's what I liked the most about it. Our guys were on the right blocks and he hit it at the right angle.

As far as Will goes, I don't know a whole lot just yet. He was in here yesterday. He was sore. There's swelling. We did get an image of it. He's down right now with (doctor). We'll know more. It could be a day-to-day deal. I do know that the exam on the field, they felt like it was stable. It wasn't the same injury that he had before. I do know that he's very sore, so we'll have to wait and see how that goes.

On injured RB LJ Scott: LJ got his ankle dinged. They took him off and X-rayed it. The X-rays looked negative. He actually looked better (Sunday) than I anticipated. You worry when they got X-ray something and it's not broken, you worry about it being a high ankle sprain.

On Michael Dyer's return: Sore. He got in there. He got, what, eight carries? I thought he looked good on a couple of them, looked quick. He'll continue to get better. He was certainly sore after the game but he did run (Sunday night) with the rest of the team.

On QB Reggie Bonnafon: Reggie was back (Sunday). He came in for the meetings and then he went and practiced when the young guys practiced.

On running back depth: It does help us, there's no doubt about it. We're still kind of frustrated about where we're at. You look at the first two games of the year, we felt like we could line up and run the ball and run it on anyone. We took a little step backwards here in the last couple of weeks. We have to do a good job this week in practice of understanding where we're at with the run game and getting our backs the looks that we're gonna see in the game.

On how to fix the offensive woes:

I always worry a little bit about taking away how well the defense is playing. I'm so used to going and scoring points and doing that, but I'm telling you our defense is playing really well, and I don't want to overshadow our defense by our offense's lack of being able to score 60 points a game. We're not there yet to be able to step on the field, execute at a high rate and go down and move the ball and score all the time. We've just not shown it.

A guy makes a mistake on one play, another makes it on another, we miss a block on a third play, we don't read it right on the fourth play. I remember back when I was a young coach, I was telling my dad about that and he said, 'Yeah, that's when you're not really very good.' That's how I feel. We're not very good right now, not where I want to be on offense. We have to get all 11 guys to do their job right every single play for us to be able to go execute and do things the way we want to do them.

The positive thing is, last week we were harping on making big plays in the passing game and we have to start getting the ball down the field, we were able to do that and that helped us win the game.

On pinpointing the problem on offense: We're just not executing at a high rate. We're not focused enough. We're not using our technique enough. We're not playing fast and hard enough. It's all kind of things. That's my job. I've got to do a better job of getting them there.

On James Quick's 50-50 catch: He really made a great play on the ball. That's something we've been looking for and working hard at. It was good to see it show up in the game.

On Gerod Holliman:

I think all three safeties have been playing really well. All spring long, during fall camp, that was always how are we going to do at safety? Holliman's done a really nice job of studying and understanding what passing routes we're going to see and having enough confidence when he sees it to go make a play. Sometimes you see it but you don't have enough confidence to go do it. He sees it. He practices it. Now he has enough confidence that he doesn't hesitate and goes and makes the play. Sample's doing a real nice job. T-Floyd's doing a nice job. Between the three guys, they're playing at a high level.

On DeVante Parker's recovery:

He is, from everything I got yesterday, he's right on track to where he's supposed to be. All the rehab's going real well. It's hard to say. It doesn't affect how we block this or the decision we made because he's not on the field. He might hide some of that at times because of his ability to make big plays but it's still not where we need to be.

On the offensive line:

We didn't play great on the offensive front. We protected the quarterback at times to throw the ball down the field. Again, you'd like to say we should be able to go in and run the ball, but I'll tell you what, you have to take your hat off to them. They attacked gaps. They played some kamikaze defense. They said, 'Look fellas, you're not going to run the ball today. We should've just thrown it more.'

We're going to continue to work that is see how we do in practice. The competition did help us in practice. We have to continue to have that competition in practice.

On how to improve the O-line:

Just continue to get better on our technique and our fundamentals and our effort. Communication -- we had a couple communication breakdowns.

On Jake Smith at center or guard:

I mean, he can play both. It's not always what one person does. It's how all five guys work together.

On Wake Forest:

Defensively they're playing well. They haven't given up a lot of points. They do a good job on third downs. They have a good pressure package on third downs to try to come after and affect the quarterback, so we have to be efficient there with our protections and things that we do on third down.

Offensively, they have a young quarterback who's ... sometimes he's struggled, sometimes he's played real well. I think it's a situation where we just have to get ourselves really prepared for the game.

On receivers' route running:

At times we did. At times we were there. That's where you get frustrated because you see improvement and then something happened when we didn't make the throw there, or there wasn't a passing lane, or the ball got tipped, or the wrong read. It's still all 11 guys working together.

On 'kamikaze defense':

It means they were just coming in gaps. They were firing guys through gaps. Most of the times you have certain gap responsibilities. Most of the teams we play they two-gap the defensive front, but they were sending the linebackers through different gaps on just about every play depending on which personnel group we were in, playing nine guys to the run basically. Sometimes doing things that a lot of times you wouldn't do, where you play three-deep, two-under zones, which you don't see a lot.

On if that style "disrespected" U of L's passing game:

Not necessarily disrespect for the passing game, but more 'hey, we're going to sell out to the run.' When you looked at our stats from running the ball against Miami and Murray State, and that you'd say you need to stop the run.

On Gardner's status:

I'm not even sure we're there yet. We've just got to see where he's at and if he'll be able to get to practice.

On the new grey Louisville jerseys:

I heard about that. I thought they looked pretty good. When we met with Adidas, Tom made it perfectly clear that we wanted to be one of their most innovative programs in the country. It was good to see what they came up with. I think our players will like them and it'll help us in recruiting.

More on Gerod Holliman:

Physically he's what you want as a safety. He's strong and that's a credit to his hard work in the summer. He really improved on his strength and his quickness and his speed in the summertime. He certainly showed a real dedication to doing it. When I checked in with the strength staff all summer long, they would say how much improvement he's made. I remember three or four times throughout the summer they were telling me about it. He has the ability. He's quick. He's got good hands, good vision. He's a good tackler.