Highlights of Chris Petersen’s Week 1 Press Conference

Chris Petersen hosted his first regular season press conference of the season. Not a ton of news came out of the weekly meeting with reporters, but here are some tidbits:

• On the importance of the Auburn game, Coach Petersen noted that it was “just one game” and that we can’t “make it bigger than it is”
• Everybody is officially available for this weekend’s game. That would imply that there will be no surprises related to unannounced injuries, suspensions or academic qualification issues. Yay!
• Punt returners are going to be Aaron Fuller and Byron Murphy while the kick returning situation will involve a bunch of guys including (surprise!) Myles Gaskin. Petersen noted that Gaskin has lobbied for this role in part because he loves it (he’s the scout team returner) and, presumably, because he’d like to put some of his skills on tape in advance of next year’s NFL draft
• Shocker ... CCP feels “great” about Jake Browning
• Softy asked about Jacob Eason to which Petersen replied that he has fit in exceptionally well
• CCP was also very complimentary of former UW backup QB KJ Carta-Samuels. Samuels set a Colorado State record for passing yards (537) in a game during CSU’s loss to Hawaii last night
• Some joker asked about the importance to the conference of UW playing Auburn. We discussed this very point yesterday. Petersen could barely contain his irritation at that point
• Petersen made some interesting comments about the “passion” of the SEC fans. I wouldn’t say that it was a thinly-veiled dig at PNW football fans. That would be because there wasn’t anything “thin” about it
• Finally, Coach Pete got a little philosophical about leadership and following the rules. His theme was continuous improvement. He noted with a smirk on his face that he is working on his own coaching style and that he’d like to be more poised and optimistic this season.