Head Coach Doug Marrone - Spring Practice
April 15, 2009
How do you assess the practice today? It seemed like the offense rose to the challenge after the up-down drill.
“I am starting to become more pleased with the things we are doing. You're starting to see the competition picking up with some of the players. Am I disappointed that it's the 14th practice? Probably so. But, am I happy that I'm starting to see signs of what we need to do to win? Absolutely. And, it's starting to become more competitive. That's exactly what we were looking for and I think the players are starting to understand that. You see them going after each other at a higher tempo.
"I walked off that field today and there were a lot of good things on that field. We put in our empty package, we held back from an option package. So that won't go in now and we'll evaluate that in the fall. We have the empty package in and we have a young quarterback who made some excellent reads and excellent throws versus pressure and getting rid of the ball quicker. You can see the things he's comfortable with and he's making good decisions. From a standpoint of the receivers today, you know we're starting to get a little more competitive because it's a little bit tougher to come over that middle now. You can just see it in the body language. We have to teach our receivers to do a better job of the quarterback protecting him a little bit and our receivers catching the ball and going down. Today, I am pleased. Now it's going to be interesting to see with Friday when we're not really doing anything how they go about the controlled scrimmage on Saturday. (smiling) I'm ready to go right now."
There was a drop or two there. Do you attribute that to the defense?
“I do. That's what I was talking about. When you start going after it and you start becoming competitive, you can see it with the body language. Now we have to overcome, I don't want to use the word 'fear' when you come over the middle, but if you're on defense you want people to fear coming over the middle on you. Offensively, we have to know we're going to have get in there and make plays. You saw a little bit of how the defense is doing a better job protecting that area of the field."
Is (wide receiver) Mike Williams having that issue? He has been out for more than a year.
“What I spoke to Mike (Williams) about is sometimes it looks like the ball gets on him quickly and that happens quite a bit when you look at receivers. I think we'll just go in and research that more from our end. What you do is, when you see someone come over the middle and it's a tight throw and the head moves back, you start saying, 'Is the ball getting on that receiver quickly?' That's what I see from Mike. I don't see the fear of going in there, I just see the ball getting on him quickly. The ball comes out quick with (quarterback) Ryan (Nassib) and that's something we're going to have to work on and get Mike better at that."
(Linebacker) Parker Cantey's had some ups and downs and then he has a pick-six today?
“Exactly. Again, it goes back, and not to be repetitive, to consistency,. There are times when he has done some nice things on coverage. There are times when he's come in and pressured and done a nice job. But, there are too many peaks and valleys in the way he plays right now for us to go out there and be consistent on every down."
Another guy who has sort of had peaks and valley is (placekicker) Austin Wallis. It looked like he was crushing the ball at times today. Is there any more consistency or are you feeling any better about that position?
“Not with the timing of it, which is key. There are a lot of mechanics that go into a PAT or a field goal or a punt and right now, our mechanics aren't where they need to be. Even though we see the ball going through, we're putting a lot of pressure on the protection."
You were talking about the snapper, too?
“The snapper had some poor snaps today. That's discouraging. Your only job is to snap the ball and the rules, the way they've changed from when I played, is that they can't hit the snapper. If you're a young man out there and you want to make a lot of money in the NFL, you need to go out there and start snapping. (smiling) I know with my son, that's the first thing I'm going to teach him about football.
You know who, if you watch that field today, the person that jumped out at me was (linebacker) Derrell Smith. You can see that he's changing now, whether we want to say he's becoming more comfortable, but I see him playing a little bit different speed now than some other players. He jumped out at me today and I'm excited about that, because he was challenged today. I certainly challenged him today."
In regard to (quarterback) Ryan Nassib, how good is it to have a guy like offensive coordinator Rob Spence who's been with young quarterbacks and had success with them in the past?
“I think what you see from Coach Spence is someone who has attention to detail. He's been there before in developing quarterbacks. I think that's important when you deal with a young player because you always have to be careful of and you always fight against as a coach is that we have probably see things and we want to do more. We see things where we can take advantage of defenses more. We have to remember that the development of the players is really key to how we go about what we install. Just to give Ryan all the little different phases of the system will only help us in the future and not overload him in one or the other."
You jumped into the 'Oklahoma drill' and you've been doing it for awhile. What is the 'Oklahoma drill' and what have you put it into the practice?
“Obviously it started in Oklahoma with the drill and we've changed it to the 'Syracuse drill'. We've done it a couple different ways. The first time we went in there and matched everyone up and they just went against each other. The next time out, we might want to see some matchups and we would call the two players out. Today, we did something a little different where we called the player in and he had the player pick out someone. What we're trying to do, and I've told the players this, we're just trying to create that competitiveness. You're going to play in a football game, having been a player myself, and they're going to get you once, they're going to get you. When I say that, what I mean is if you play football and you haven't been knocked down, you haven't played football. What happens when you come back or how you go about your business on the next play? So here's someone who comes into a drill and here's someone who says, 'Hey, I want you.' You have to pick it up and create that competitiveness and really rise to the occasion. That's what we're looking for and that's why we have the whole team there. We want to get our players as competitive as they can be. That drill does help you do that."
Did you also put it in because you're looking to toughness factor and create a little more toughness?
“Not necessarily those individual players, but in our team. We have to become a tougher football team. We have to become better conditioned. We have to be stronger. We're not going to be as talented as some of the other teams we may play and that's just a fact. So, how are we going to beat them? We have to be tougher than them. We have to execute better than they do and we have to be in better condition. Those are our goals."
Could you go through the process of why you retained Coach (Dan) Conley and Coach (Derrick) Jackson?
“Research. Going back and looking at the research and their backgrounds. Going back to how their positions played, how they were coached, the tradition and how much they love Syracuse University. There were so many factors became involved when that thought process was going on."
Could you talk about the emotions of coaching your first spring game on Saturday?
“The emotions for me get going when I start seeing the toughness and the competiveness that we just started to see today. That to me is emotional. When I'm on the field, it's really all about business for me. How do you get them better? How do we get them in a better position? Going out to the spring scrimmage, I view that as a practice with situations. We are going to put in a point system so we can keep track of it, but I look at it as another practice."
Could you talk about why you retained (strength and conditioning) coach (Will) Hicks?
“Being a former player myself and having been in a lot of different places, I think of myself as, and I told Coach Hicks this, I'm probably kind of dangerous. In other words, I have just enough information where I can be a little bit dangerous. We sat down for a long period of time and went over the whole program and in my mind coming in here, I knew what I wanted. I told Coach Hicks, don't worry about what I want, you tell me what you can do and he sat down, he and Coach Hal Luther, and they gave me a long presentation and it was one that I was very satisfied with. The biggest key for us is really how we develop from our strength, speed and all those things that go on in this offseason because that's the longest period of time where you have to train."
What did they say that really impressed you?
“They pretty much have the same background as how we're going to train that I have. A lot of dumbbells, doing cleans, doing squats and toughness drills. We train well for speed and endurance and it's basically been a lot of the same programs that I've been involved with and had success with."
