It took us a little while to get that change in, but I think it's a testament to just how supportive the administration is in understanding how important a spring game is to give our alumni a chance to come back and see where the program's at in the transition.

It's a two-fold deal. It's a chance for us to evaluate where we're at going into the fall and establish our two-deep, while letting the kids fly around, have a little fun and bring some excitement to spring football.

August was very good for us, but we lost some momentum in the last few days due to Hurricane Katrina.

We know what we need to do; we have guys who can score goals. They look to us to make sure we don't get scored on.

He knows, like Manny (Ramirez), we're trying to deal him, but there have been no threats made to us about spring training. He's been pretty good on the phone, understanding our situation. He won 15 games and is a very good pitcher, so we need to get a very good deal for him. Generally, the conversations we've had with him have been very positive. He understands that we need to get fair value for him in the market.

We were underdogs from the beginning and we are again. Everyone is writing us off already.