"Fast, physical, fanatical," said Coach DeRuyter at Thursday's Bulldog football Media Day. "I think you're going to see a team that's going to play with its hair on fire on both sides of the ball. And it's going to be exciting to watch."
DeRuyter's Bulldogs will feature dramatic changes on each side of the ball. On offense, goodbye pro style formations. Hello fast-paced, no-huddle, spread formation football.
"We're going to stress people with our tempo," said Bulldogs Offensive Coordinator Dave Schramm. "I think we've got the athletes to do it. I know we have the quarterback to do it."
"Having coach Schramm come in and learn from him," said quarterback Derek Carr, "I've learned so many new things just from him. Which is amazing."
And on defense, which is Coach DeRuyter's specialty, gone is the traditional 4-3 formation. It will be replaced by the 3-4 DeRuyter was so successful with at Texas A&M.
"We've got to really emphasize takeaways," said Coach DeRuyter. "We've got to be a ball-hawking defense because we've absolutely got to change our turnover margin from the last few years."
And with so many changes on the field, the Bulldogs say they hope for even more off of it, as in more people out at Bulldog Stadium to watch.
"I want to see all our home games sold out, fans going crazy, because we love to have great support out there," said running back Robbie Rouse. "But we're also going to try to put on a show for them. And that's what we plan to do."
Up next for the Bulldogs are 29 fall camp practices over the next four weeks of fall camp, beginning Friday morning at 9:25. Still plenty time, and plenty of work to be done, before their season opener against Weber State, September 1st at Bulldog Stadium.
