Head Coach Doug Marrone - May 18, 2009
Press Conference Trancript - May 18, 2009
Opening Remarks:
"It's been a great little run we've gone through here with the Spring Tour, getting out into the surrounding areas, and just recently coming back from the West Coast. The enthusiasm of the fans and the enthusiasm for the program have been received well. I'm looking forward to going out again tonight in Scranton, which has always been a good area for us in a lot of different sports, including football and, obviously, with Gerry McNamara and the basketball program and the fans who have come up and watched him play here. We're excited to get them back and on board. Basically, the tour has been to create enthusiasm for our program and it's been received well, so I'm excited about it.
“(smiling) I've learned a couple things. I've learned that I don't believe I could ever be a politician. I don't know how they do that and I have a tremendous amount of respect now for our politicians by going out there and speaking consistently from a standpoint of breakfast, lunch, town meetings and meet and greets and any night agenda. I have a lot of respect for them now, more so than I ever had before. I'm sure people have a lot of questions from the tour, what phase of football we're in with our program right now and with the Greg Paulus situation."
Were you able to bite your tongue (as a Bronx native) when you were at Fenway Park (for the Spring Tour visit)?
"I'll tell you, it was a tremendous venue. I mean, it was impressive. I've been there before as I've coached at Northeastern University. It was a tremendous turnout and we have a lot of alumni and a lot of support in that area. (smiling) The only feedback I've gotten from a negative standpoint was more personally from my immediate family, not including my wife and kids, but more so my Mom and Dad asking me what was I doing up there. I was happy to be there and it holds a tremendous spot for me being in Boston for a couple reasons. One, I coached there at Northeastern and two, my wife is an graduate of Boston College. Also, having played Boston College in my four years here as a player, I'm looking forward to playing Boston College in the future."
Have you been able to see any tape on Greg Paulus or gotten any feedback from the (Green Bay) Packers?
"The only feedback I had gotten regarding his throwing ability was from an NFL workout. It was basically just a correspondence that he threw the ball very well. Those were the exact words that were told to me. From a standpoint of actually seeing him throw the ball, I have not seen him throw a football. The only time I saw Greg throwing a football was the tapes of him in high school, so I have not actually physically seen him throw a football with my own eyes."
So the Packers did not share a video?
"No, they did not. This correspondence was with a scouting professional in the NFL."
Do you have any trepidation about this situation in not seeing him throw?
"There's always a bit of unknown, but you have a lot of things to base your decision on and a lot of it goes back to when he played high school football. A lot of it goes back to the type of person that Greg Paulus is from the standpoint of leadership, maturity, a two-time Academic All-American and competitiveness. There is a lot more that goes into football than just skill and the ability to throw the football or manage a game or hand the ball off. That's what we do, not only with Greg but with everyone we try to bring into the program. We want to know who they are from a character standpoint and how important getting an education is, which was important in Greg's decision. Obviously, the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications played a tremendous role in getting Greg Paulus to Syracuse University. It doesn't just stop with Greg. Our University does that with a lot of the athletes who we recruit with the Whitman School of Management, the Law School, the Maxwell School of Citizenship, Human Ecology, Architecture, Engineering; it goes on and on. Syracuse University is a very strong academic institution. When you're a football coach, it's important that you have the responsibility of bringing in the right type of kids and also from the standpoint that football is important to them, too, so they can perform well."
What is the overall plan to try and integrate Greg Paulus?
"We have only 20-25% of the offense that's actually been installed from Spring practice. We haven't had a lot of access to our players from a coaching standpoint of being on the field with them. When Greg comes on campus, we'll obviously get him caught up to speed on the management and the knowledge of the plays. Then, he'll be in the same phase as our football team as far as what's going on right now. Right now is probably the most critical part of our program in getting our players bigger, stronger and faster. We have statistics that we've shown the players as to where we were as a football team when we were winning games and going to bowl games consistently. We're not close from the standpoint of where we need to be and the players understand that. This is a critical point of getting those numbers better so we can go out and compete on Saturdays. So, Greg will be implemented into that program, that phase of our football program, once he gets started on campus and all the paperwork is completed."
What do you see as the risk/reward balance of bringing in (Greg) Paulus?
"I don't know if I would say 'risk', myself. I just think that anytime you have the chance to bring someone into your program who has a chance to make your program better you do it. Obviously, Greg has a lot of other things that come into play with leadership and competitiveness that will really just go throughout the football team and help the football team. Anytime you can bring someone in who can win football games, I think you're helping the football team and Greg has that ability. He's done it before, now it's just a matter of seeing it and evaluating it with our own eyes on the field. I'm excited about that process."
Could you talk about the intangibles about bringing in a hometown guy from Christian Brothers Academy who is a proven winner and will hopefully create some excitement?
"To me, that's a natural decision. You bring someone in who has had great success. We always try to surround our program with people who have been successful. Not only on the football field, but in business, we bring back a lot of speakers to talk to our football team, alumni and letterwinners. Greg, obviously, has a lot of that and to be able to come back and be part of the team is even better. I'm excited about that situation. I know that in my mind I was not thinking of all the other aspects of being local and doing those things as far the decision to recruit Greg. My decision was to bring someone back who can help us win football games."
How far along is (Greg) Paulus in the waiver process?
"There are no problems at all on anyone's end. In other words, sometimes with waivers, some teams don't feel good about it or letting their players go. You've seen that happen in college football where he's only released to 'X' amount of teams, but Duke has been great in working with us. It's basically just a matter of the letters getting in to the NCAA and they are aware they are being received or will be received shortly. The grant-in-aid has obviously been signed and that's why I'm able to speak today. The application for admission to the graduate program has been filled out and that is up there right now or in the process as we're speaking. We've had a lot of heads-up and we were ahead of the game and we had all the paperwork ready. Everyone knew what the process had to be so right now there are no snags going on at all as to what's going on with the process."
Is he actually here in the building?
"He's here right now going through the steps of the process."
When will he be able to meet the coaches, workout with the team and engage in team activities?
"I think a lot of it is going to be the introductory phase of meeting everyone that he had not met throughout the course of his official visit. I am going to Scranton today, but I've talked to him briefly this morning as just a 'Hey, hello, how's it going – good seeing you here, now let's get down to work'. There is a lot of work to be done. It's a process and I think we're just going through it as normal. There's nothing different about it. We're waiting to get all the approvals regarding when the next phase he's allowed to go into and that'll start with the waiver."
How do you see his training with Duke basketball different than how you expect him to train and get ready for a football season?
"I've always said this and I told it to Greg, 'I really am ignorant on basketball.' I really don't know how basketball players train or how they process information or how they're coached. I've talked to Greg throughout this recruiting process and stressed that we make sure we do a good job communicating. He is 22 (years old) and understands his body more than an average freshman, in his maturity and physically. I told him we want to make sure we don't do things to overextend muscles that may help us compete. To make sure we develop them and make sure we get our conditioning back in our muscles that we need to perform on the football field. Let's make sure from our body standpoint in what people might have told you before, let's just make sure we do things naturally as we go across in this weightlifting phase or conditioning phase of our program. Let's not try to reach certain numbers or certain goals where you'll have a better feel of where your body is. A quarterback is a little different than on offensive or defensive lineman or any defensive position. A quarterback is a little different as far as it's a throwing motion. Quarterbacks are specialist, almost like kickers. Those muscles need to be strengthened and stretched rather than combined like you do in some other positions."
Has anything changed in regard to whether or not Ryan (Nassib) is the starter with Paulus in the mix?
"Ryan (Nassib) is our starting quarterback and I want to make sure to educate everyone on this. Part of opening up the Spring practice and to let everybody come in was to make sure that people saw once we made a decision as a staff that there was separation between players, not just quarterback but any other position, that we would be able to put somebody in the starting rotation. What you do when you put people in the starting rotation is they get more repetitions than someone else. Part of the problem we've had here in our program has been in the last four years is that we've played the least amount of football games in our conference. We're the only team that hasn't gone to a bowl game so we actually have practiced less than the teams we're competing against. This whole process for the staff and I was to make sure that we can evaluate as soon as someone separates themselves and then get them the repetition and get them caught up as fast as we could during spring football.
“When you come into this next phase, we have a freshman coming in and we'll have four quarterbacks. I think what we'll do is manage the repetitions probably a little bit tighter with Charley (Loeb) and Greg Paulus coming on board. Even though Ryan (Nassib) may get a couple more snaps with the first-team, they might not be as many as they were in the Spring. Everyone will have a chance to compete and that's not only at the quarterback position, that's at every position. To sit here and say that the starting line-up when we print this post-Spring depth chart is locked in stone is ridiculous. A lot can go on between now the start of preseason from the standpoint of has everyone reached their goals, how much have they worked to get better? Have they gained weight and if so, good weight or poor weight? How's their conditioning and how's that going? There's a saying that says 'You can eat your way out of a starting job'. Being a lineman, that was always told to me.
“People can put themselves in a better situation to gain a starting role and then when you start the pre-season, there is a window opportunity for everyone on this football team for everyone to compete for a starting job. You don't put a certain date in your mind as a coach and say the week before 'X' game, we're going to have our starting line-up. What you do is you go out and practice and you see if any separation occurs at any position. If there's any type of separation, you go ahead and you make decisions and move people and they become starters. For each position, the decision might sometimes be clear and may happen faster like in the first four to six practices. It may happen in the third practice. It may happen before we even step on the field because somebody didn't do what they were supposed to do in the offseason. There will be a certain point when you say this is what we have and this is what and we have to get these players ready to play our first game."
How has Ryan (Nassib) handled this situation?
"He's been good. Like I've said, this program is all about communication. We're going to make sure we communicate with our players. When we made the decision to recruit Greg Paulus, the first thing we did is we spoke to Ryan (Nassib) and then we spoke to Cam (Dantley). We said we're going to recruit this player and our thought was that this player would help this football team and he would come in to compete for the quarterback position. You should accept that and any athlete loves competition. I know that when I sat in this chair, I was told by the coaches each year they're going to try to bring in a better player than me every year to try and compete for my position. Well, that made me and my teammates work harder to make sure that we weren't going to lose a position that we had worked so hard for. I've always believed in competition. It is the key to being successful. I think you look at any major athletics team, I don’t care what it is, if they're successful, they have competition and they have leadership. Ryan was great about it, Cam was great, and if they had any other questions they have not asked me about them. It was good, open communication with those players and they welcomed Greg to our football team."
Given Paulus' one-year situation, do you actually see him playing or possibly winning the starting job?
"I haven't seen him throw. Am I against someone coming in and playing for one year that's going to help us win? I keep reiterating that my job is to win football games. That's why I was brought here. I will put the best players on the field, the players who I respect the most and who we all respect. The players who we want to represent our University and all the other great things about it. At the end of the day, I have to win football games. That is my job. My job is to win. I will put the players on the field who we need to put on the field to win. That's just the bottom line."
