Doug Marrone: Terrel Hunt Back On Team, SU Not Currently Pursuing PSU Players & More

Before Doug Marrone sits down to do a whole lotta interviews on Big East Media Day, he hopped on the phone with The Score1260's Brent Axe to talk about the state of the program. He shared quite a few good and bad news & notes. Here are the highlights:

As Dan noted, Alec Lemon and Marquis Spruill are recovered from their injuries and will be on the field for the first day of practice.

Bad, bad news, that Justin Pugh injury was much worse than expected and according to Marrone he will miss all of fall practice and likely won't be ready to play until "some time within the first month of the season, probably the latter part of the month of September." Yuck. Marrone did say his recovery is going well but the team's best offensive lineman (and possibly best player) will be missed, especially against USC.

When asked who he hopes to see step up in Pugh's absence, he name-checked Kristofer Curtis and Sean Hickey.

Terrel Hunt, who was suspended all spring for his shoplifting arrest, "will be participating. He's ready to go." So that's good.

On the topic of potential Penn St. Nittany Lions transfers, Marrone said "I'm not actively involved with anyone at Penn State at this moment," though he did mention "I think early on, there was a level of interest from some people on the Penn State side." He then mentioned that it wasn't strange for he and Bill O'Brien to hop on the phone during the season and referred to him as "Billy" just in case you weren't clear that they are bros.

In regards to Ashton Broyld, Marrone said he was going to "push it a little bit" in terms of the freshman's playmaking ability so that he can "see how much he can handle." In other words, the amount you see Broyld on the field this season will be related to how quickly he can catch up to the game mentally and physically.

Otherwise it was some coach-speak about the ACC and whatnot about the offense and defense. Plenty more Doug Marrone to come today when he speaks at 11:00 a.m. at Big East Media Day.