"He had a different look about him," said Ken Alexander, the perceptive senior linebacker.

As a senior linebacker he recorded 87 tackles and 2.5 quarterback sacks.

As a senior linebacker in 1995, he was one of three captains.

"We never talk about anything like that," said David Mitchell, a senior linebacker.

"There is not a serious problem at all," Jim Nelson, a senior linebacker, said when asked about the lapses.

Scott Kowalkowski, a senior linebacker, said he had not noticed a change.

When Thompson saw the senior linebacker bearing down on him, he attempted to pass, but the ball slid from his hands.

"You can't be satisfied with pretty good," said senior linebacker Ken Alexander.

"We have to look at ourselves as a team," said Brian Sheridan, a senior linebacker.

And Terry Killens, a senior outside linebacker, has been moved up to the defensive line.