Head Coach Doug Marrone - Spring Practice
April 13, 2009
Do you like what you saw out there today?
“Not necessarily. I think when you come off of a long weekend you have to come back and be ready to practice. I don't know, early on, if we were ready to practice."
Was this a lot like Friday's in terms of the offense and defense?
“Inconsistency, yes. I do see that."
Why is that?
“Well we're not consistent enough. We're not where we need to be. We need to go out there every day and continue to get better and fight for consistency from our players. We're fighting that as coaches and the players are fighting themselves to get it out of them. We have to be a much more consistent football team when we step out on that field. We have to be ready to play every time we get on that field, and right now, you see ups and downs. You see some people who are ready or sides of the ball that are ready to play in different drills and at the end of the day, that's not what we're looking for or what I'm looking for."
Is this getting tiring talking of this? Because you've said a number of times this isn't where you'd like the team to be quite a few times. Do you expect to see progress?
“I see individual progress. I see individual play. I see individual competition and I see guys step up to the competition. But, have I seen the consistency where I feel comfortable and say, 'Hey, we are where we need to be?' No, we're not there yet. If someone has a question about an individual, I'd be more than happy to say here's where we're going or we need to get better with him, but I look at it as far as a team, that's my main goal: to make sure we become a good football team. You're only as a good as your weakest link and right now, we need to pick it up at some positions on a consistent basis. There are times where'd you watch the three-on-three drill today and I thought the offense did extremely well and I thought that the defense was ready to play. I see it in the nine-on-seven. I saw good competition. The nine-on-seven drill today was about how I envision football should be. The offense has a six-yard gain, a four-yard gain, the defense had a one-yard loss, a no gain. That, to me, is going out there and practicing with some type of consistency. You see us go in the first-and-10 and move the ball and you see some big plays out of the offense and the defense was a little behind. Then you go to third down and the defense did a very good job. So, basically, that's what I see out there in practice. The nine-on-seven drill was competitive and that's how I think every drill should be. That's what my goal is as the head coach. I think that's what causes me to come out here and say we're not where we need to be and we're not consistent and that’s just how I feel and that's what I tell the players."
And when the coaches got on the players, there was a response.
“Well, I think that's what you see and right now, you see that too many times. Myself calling up the team, me telling the coaches we go and get it out of them. There are times when you go through Spring football and there are times when you go through that in a practice when you're going to need to do that. But you don't want to do that often and I think that's something that I have spoken to the players about. They need to be motivated every single time they step on that football field. That's when we'll start to become a very good football team."
In the three-on-three segments in terms of the running backs, are they running with the power that you want them to?
“Yes, they are. I'm happy with the play of the running backs. I think they go out there from the standpoint of, to answer a question that was asked before, I'm happy with the way they practice. I'm happy with the way they compete. There's a lot of competition at that position and you see players getting better. That's what we're looking at, establishing that at all the positions. We really are."
Do you envision that all three of the running backs (Delone Carter, Antwon Bailey and Averin Collier) will have a role?
“Yes, I do. I really do. I see them all having a role on this football team and being productive."
Are there concrete things in these next two practices that you really want to hit home?
"Installation-wise, there's still one aspect we have to get in on offense before we stop the installation for the spring. Obviously, we saw some things today, installation-wise, on defense, that we're looking to do. You'll see the offense install something on Wednesday and the defense will probably just keep the package going today and grow. Those are my goals before we cease what is spring practice. But, I told the players this part of our program maybe ending, but it never really ends. We have to continue to go on. One thing I think the players understand now is how we practice, the intensity we want during practice, the consistency that we need, has been explained to the players and I really think it's a new beginning for us."
Has there been anything tangible in the secondary that you've liked so far?
“Yes, there has been. I think Nick Chestnut has done a nice job out there. Mike Holmes has done well, Max Suter has done better, both Nico and Kevyn Scott have done some good things. Again, we're not at a point of where we have a lot of offense there. There will be times where we have a lot of raw combinations that they need to play, but they have done some good things out there. I'm happy with the way they're coming along."
