Q: Is there anything to give you pause about playing Eric Berry on offense or special teams — aside from the obvious chance of injury?
FULMER: “No. How many plays can he effectively do? So much of it depends on our defense getting off the field. If we can hold the other team to somewhere in the 50s as far as number of plays — and that’s not an easy thing to do when you’re playing a team like Alabama — then I think he can play on special teams and some on offense.
“The difficulty in that is when you plan for him to do some offensive things or spend the time in practice, then the defense can’t get him off the field enough and he ends up wearing down in the fourth quarter, and you want to have a chance to win with your best people in the fourth quarter not being worn out everywhere you can. Our safety position particularly is not a place that we have very good depth at right now. We’ve moved Dennis Rogan back there when we need him some to get some help, but from a complete standpoint of where we are, that’s a little bit difficult to do right now.”
Q: Is it a safe assumption that if the defense were able to get off the field faster that Berry might have already played some on offense?
FULMER: “Well, yes, some. He’s played all of special teams now, so you’re just talking about offense? Gerald Jones was able to give us a lot of the same things on offense. There’s no way to have a crystal ball and know if Eric would have been a little bit better in some way or another. They’re both shifty, fast guys. Certainly, as we’ve gotten this far into the season there are a couple of things that he can do — punt return, kickoff return.
“We’ve been working that for the last couple of weeks, some offensive plays that aren’t going to require a lot of time away from the defense. ... And if you’re not practicing it where your understanding is where it needs to be, you may get a play on offense, but you may give up one on defense if you’re not fully prepared. We’re far enough into the season where that should work out.”
Q: Do you envision him at quarterback on offense? Or some place else, like wide receiver?
FULMER: “I don’t know why I would actually say that right here today on Tuesday (laugher). But it’s a good question. (more laughter).”
