SU Quarterback Brian White Introductory Press Conference Transcript
Openning Statement…
“Thank you. It’s certainly a pleasure to be here. I’m very excited about the opportunity that Coach Robinson has afforded me. I’m very excited about Syracuse. This is obviously a program and institution that is founded on excellence and the tradition is evident as we are standing here in this hallway, it’s pretty impressive. Coach Robinson just mentioned my brother (Chris) and I can say this, it’s a thrill for me to be able to coach with my brother.”
“We come from a coaching family, my dad was a high school coach and ever since I was able to walk I’ve been in a locker room, and Chris has as well. He talked about my academic background but the smartest one in the family is my brother Kevin who’s working down at Wall Street as a broker. We didn’t inherit all the intelligence genes so we ended up getting into coaching. My mom is a teacher so we come from a family of educators and coaches.”
“This is a really exciting day for me and I look forward to being a part of a great program that has a lot of tradition. It’s going to be fun to recruit to and coach here. Just being here the past couple days I can tell you this, the players I’ve met have just been awesome, they are very upbeat and energetic young men. I’ve been sitting in with Brian Pariani and Bob Wylie and that’s been an education there and that’s one of the reasons why I decided to come to Syracuse to be able to absorb a lot of their knowledge. The west coast offense and all the intricacies. We’ve run variations of it and have been able to pick and choose, but to get the nuts and bolts of it and study it rigorously and get every little nuance is something that appealed to me considerably and I’m really looking forward to working with the quarterbacks.”
On the role his brother played in him getting the job…
“I’d like to think that my relationship with my brother is certainly close enough where he wouldn’t steer me in the wrong direction. He has a tremendous fondness for Syracuse and coach Robinson and the staff members and I’ve been fortunate to meet a bunch of them through the recruiting in the spring and the conventions and have a tremendous comfort level with the quality of people and that ultimately, when your in our profession, you better surround yourself with people you want to go to work with everyday and that when you’re in that fox hole that everyone will be fighting the good fight and the right fight and doing it together.
“Chris had talked to me and asked if I’d be interested when Major left and I said absolutely. I met with Coach Robinson at the convention a couple times and went to dinner with him and his wife and my wife and really felt comfortable with the energy, as did my wife. We have two kids who are nine and seven, so this is a family move also and you just don’t make these decisions cavalierly. We just felt it was good and was the right decision and something we could enjoy together as a family.”
On how coaching the position he played in college at Harvard…
“I’ve coached it in college as the coordinator. I certainly feel like when I became the coordinator in 1999, we hired a specific quarterback’s coach, Jeff Horton, who is a good friend, and he had never coached the position at that time and I felt I was very instrumental in coaching him in coaching the position. I wasn’t specifically doing the drill work but I was putting together his daily list of things to do early on. We coordinated very well together and we developed the first two quarterbacks in Barry Alvarez’s era who played in the NFL. The last two quarterbacks he’s had are both playing in the NFL, Brooks Bollinger (N.Y. Jets) and Jim Sorgi (Indianapolis Colts) and the third one right now will be John Stocco, who will probably play in the NFL next year. So I feel pretty comfortable in the teaching and methodology and how we’re going to approach and improve the position.”
On how he plans to improve the quarterback position…
“Well I haven’t studied everything that went on last year. For me to make definitive statements right now…I’m just not at liberty to say that. I do know this, the limited film I’ve seen, Perry (Patterson) is a big strong athlete who has a lot of tools to work with. I’m excited to be able to develop him and work with him. I’ve never sat down in a meeting with him and tried to figure out what his thought process is and how I can change some of his thinking. I do feel very confident that we’ll be able to put together a teaching progression that will be easy to understand and he’ll play with some passion and play with some energy and make good decisions with conviction and that’s what you ask quarterbacks to do, to be good decision makers and make plays when they are called on.”
On if he’s glad he doesn’t have to work against his brother anymore…
“Absolutely. That’s a good thing. He’s established himself as an outstanding recruiter and gets close to young men and it is fun to be working with him.”
On what people think of his coaching…
I’d hope they’d look at my track record as a coach and know that I’ve been able to develop players regardless of which position I’ve coached. Players have understood what I wanted to coach and obviously have been very talented but I can tell you this, there have been an awful lot of talented players who aren’t productive. Then all a sudden they become productive. why? Because of coaching. I feel very strongly that I’ve had a significant impact in the litany running backs at Wisconsin. It just doesn’t happen because they are talented players. They have to be tough, smart, physical and have to understand body mechanics, bio mechanics, leverage and they have to go produce and I’ve been very fortunate to get close to players and make sure they understand what it takes to win.
On coaching for Barry Alvarez…
“Probably the most important thing is that fundamentals win and that you can’t over coach fundamentals and you need to preach them consistently and there needs to be reinforcements, whether it is positively or negatively every snap you’re coaching.”
On changing to quarterbacks coach from offensive coordinator…
“I love to coach. When you’re in this profession you want to be surrounded by good people who’ll allow you to coach and that you’re part of a team. The bottom line is, when you win, good things happen for everybody. That’s the only way you move forward in this business, when you have consistent productivity and when you win games. When you do it with a team it’s even better.”
On how his parents feel about the move…
“They are excited. They have one less trip to take during the season. They’ve always scheduled trips to Syracuse and Wisconsin and my dad went to Notre Dame so his fall is always pretty filled up and now it’s much more consolidated. It’ll be much easier to see their grandkids. Chris has a daughter and one on the way, and we have two children.”
On coaching with his brother…
“I’ve never worked on the same staff as Chris. This is pretty exciting to share this. I’m very friendly with the Stoops family, Mark, Bobby and Mike and they’ve always talked about what an unbelievable joy it is to be able to share what you love to do with your family members.”
