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Q&A WITH JOHN FOX
How many wins, coach?
Panthers coach John Fox was the guest speaker at a Charlotte Touchdown Club luncheon Wednesday. Here are some of his answers to questions from the crowd, or from emcees Mick Mixon and Jim Szoke of the Panthers' radio network. Some answers are edited for brevity.
Q. What were your priorities before the draft? We wanted to get more physical on the offensive line. I was tired of going for it on third-and-1 and then it being fourth-and-2. People would be critical of me for sometimes not going for it on fourth-and-1. But, I'd think, "Wow, why in the heck would I do that if we can't get it on third-and-1?"
Q. How many games are you going to win? For those of you who do not know the gentleman who asked the question, that's Cammie Harris. He's actually a (ownership) partner with the Panthers. That's one of Cammie's annual questions. I'll give my standard seventh-year answer: If we stay healthy, you'll be happy.
Q. Are we going to make (opposing defenses) not double-team Steve Smith? He is a top-ranked receiver -- if not the best, one of the best in the league. We've been trying to do that for some time. Getting Moose (Muhsin Muhammad) back, signing D.J. Hackett, hopefully Dwayne Jarrett is a year further along. Those kind of things, and being able to run the football That's a huge, huge part of getting that coverage off of Steve Smith.
Q. There seems to be a lot of excitement about rookie safety Charles Godfrey, a third-round pick from Iowa. Is there anything you can say now to add credence to that? We put him with the first group to start with (at minicamp). He adapted well. It didn't look like it was too big for him. He fit in well. Our players liked him. Maybe one of the good (things) was Steve Smith said, "Man, that (number) 30 is pretty good." Smitty doesn't give out a lot of compliments.
Q. About Spygate, how do you think (New England's illegal videotaping practices) affected our Super Bowl (against the Patriots in 2004)? Wow. I thought I was getting softballs here, but I got a changeup. It's something that the league is dealing with. When I went swimming as a youth, they always told me to stay in my lane. So that's not something I feel free to comment on. It's hard to say. There was no hard evidence that did occur, so we'll just leave it at that.
Q. How are you going to use (rookie linebacker) Dan Connor? In just a three-day look at him (at minicamp), there's no question he's a fine, distinctive football player. Right now, he's on the second or third tier as far as the depth chart. But I've seen those guys blast up that depth chart fast, and I have high expectations of him.
charles chandler
