Feature Article on Dennis McKnight

http://www.silive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/Sports/1192708803272500.xml&coll=1

SIA = Staten Island Advance (Thank you Tombo for finding it!)

Note: McKnight is in the Staten Isle Hall of Fame and went to Susan Wagner High

About coaching their OL to protect Colt, McKnight said:
"There's no special trick," said McKnight. We don't have any unknown techniques (for pass blocking). We just emphasize it more. We do more drills for it and we prepare for it.

Brennan is our boy. It's our job to keep him standing, but at the same time, he makes our job easy. He's so accurate and so quick with his reads, as quick as anybody in the country. So you do what you do. Same as if we were to line up with two tight ends and two backs and pound it 40 or 50 times a game." (SIA)

Note: UH has give up just 11 sacks in 7 games.

SIA Note: "McKnight brought that workman attitude -- honed by years in the NFL with the Chargers, Lions and Eagles (he was a 1988 Pro Bowl alternate) -- back to the Warriors last season when he returned after a six-year absence.

McKnight was the special teams coach and offensive line assistant, but left after the 2000 season to look after his California-based car-washing businesses. Less than a year later, in 2001, he caught the coaching bug again and worked at St. Augustine HS.

After moving to the junior college ranks at Grossmont College, he caught on at San Diego State in 2005 under Tom Craft. But when that regime was ousted, McKnight found a new home at his old one last year."


About his second tour at UH, McKnight said:
"I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do then and wasn't sure I could make the commitment. But, I guess it's just my calling." (SIA)

SIA Note: "It seems to be working out for the No. 17-ranked Warriors, who last year graduated three offensive linemen who are now "collecting NFL paychecks," as McKnight likes to say."


About how McKnight has helped him, sophomore center John Estes said:
"He's outspoken, especially at the start of games. He gets us fired up. I can feel a difference in my play. I started at guard last year, before moving to center. But I think I was still playing like a guard. He's showed me the different techniques and different things I can do to get better. He's a technician and he demands for you to be technically sound every down." (SIA)


Feeling they do not get enough respect, McKnight said:
"I don't think that we get a lot of credit in the media. I think people dismiss us as a gimmick and don't realize how efficient we are. But I tell our guys not to think about it and just control what we can control. And that is, if we're fortunate enough to go 12-0, we want to go 13-0.

Do we deserve a chance (at the national championship) if we are fortunate enough to go 12-0? Absolutely. I'd say we'd earned it then. Look at Boise State from our conference and what happened last year. The BCS put them in against Oklahoma and probably said 'Let them go out and get killed and those non-BCS schools will never cry again.' And look what happened." (SIA)