Opening comments ...
"Roy Manning, as she stated outside linebackers, assistant head coach for defense. Really excited to be here. Have some familiarity obviously with the PAC 12 at two other schools but couldn’t be more ecstatic to be here. Father, two little one’s twins. They were actually born here in Los Angeles, so this is a special place to me. And just looking forward to get going, working with our players and this program, and getting this thing going in the right direction."
We just talked to Brian about his connection with Alex. You kind of have the same background. How has your relationship evolved over all these years and what’s the value of having that history together?
"It’s been great. Had the opportunity to meet Alex six or seven years ago when he took over at Washington State. And from the day I met him, knew a few things about him that he was highly driven, highly motivated, is wired what I would say the right way in terms of a person that players would want to be led by or gravitate towards. Really have hit it off since then. Being able to implement this defense now to be our third stop. Extremely comfortable with Alex and what the schematics and so forth and so on of the defense. Again, looking forward to getting that to our players and getting them up to speed so they can also have that shared vision with what we expect when they hit the field."
We hear the different titles, outside linebackers, nickels. What is that going to mean in terms of sort of the on field and meeting room interactions out of different guys, your interactions to take shape depending on like you can have corners working with you as nickels or outside linebackers maybe altering between defensive line pass rush, just how does that all work?
"That’s a great question. I know people are probably wondering that. At Washington State my title was outside backers just alone but I coached the nickels and the rushes which are two different positions, but schematically the structure of the defense was three four so a lot of the things they did although different positions, there was a lot of carryover as it relates to the coverage aspect of things. But that inevitably allowed me to do was be able to transition as you know the last few years to coach in the secondary as well having that background. Now here we’ve obviously the defense has evolved as the years have gone on and the different things we do with certain positions and all the ins and outs of that I won’t bore you with that but the point is the point I’ve had the luxury to coach three different positions in this defense and so very familiar with the front and back end and so as we work out and figure out who will fit where and what’s the best way to approach this current roster and how that fits into what we are going to do schematically we will iron out specifically players will be with what coach and things of that nature. Confident, just like at every stop, that we will make sure that each one of those positions are being coached hard and that they have the expectation of the standard that aligns with ours. Now I’m looking forward to obviously getting back more into the front like how we talked about the outside backers, specifically the position I played but again we will iron out all the details with the players as we continue to move through this spring who exactly will be working with what position. You got to know it all. That’s one thing I know in this profession."
To kind of pick up where you left off there with the evolution and sort of how that position has changed over the years. You coached cornerbacks and now you are able to bring a lot of the techniques and the things you know from the secondary standpoint over maybe the outside linebackers, those guys. How does that change and what do you see from the offenses that has pushed you to have to put more emphasis on those guys that are on the hash marks?
"The biggest difference is just obviously it's not a unique thing to be a nickel defense in today's game right? So, everybody very rarely do you find teams that play with three linebackers in the box, so we’ve had to evolve as offenses have evolve and continue to challenge you to make plays in space and spread you out and use tempo and things of that nature. Again, more of it is specific to schematically whether you are going to be a middle open team or single high team, you know what coverages and things that direct affects how you play that overhang guy, that nickel. Again, you can call them what you want; outside backer, nickel you know what I mean.
(REPORTER INTERJECTS) What do you call them?
"We call them a nickel. We call them a nickel because body-type wise he would be considered more of a secondary guy out of that corner/safety mold to play that nickel spot. But again if you play a certain team you may want to sub a bigger nickel or bigger body into that position in which typically hasn’t been the case as of late just because of most offenses are heavy eleven personnel, ten personnel where they are only using one tight end and even in that circumstance, that type of tight end is athletic receiving type of threat but again our big thing defensively is we want to be adaptable to whatever we are getting and not be pigeonholed into being out personneled or out packaged by a team. There are a lot of carry over to playing the positions in this defense. I'm sure you spoke with Alex. Our safeties have to know nickel, our nickels have to know corners and etc. So, we do that again so it can always in our minds be an advantage defense."
You have had a couple stops in the PAC 12, couple other places where you have recruited against USC. What was your perception of USC during that time and what have you maybe learned about the school in the short time you have been here?
"Yeah, I was a hater man. I, and again, when you think of the landscape of college football and where each and every team is situated and again having this experience in the PAC 12 has helped me understand that the PAC 12 predominately the schools are in large markets. If you compare that to the rest of college football, that’s literally the opposite as most college programs with some exceptions are in small market, small towns. The thought is when I’ve been at other places, hey USC you are in this major major market and major city, this hustle and bustle. Just a mess of a city so to speak and then you get here and it’s really pretty neat how this campus sits. Near downtown but it's not a downtown field. What they have done with this campus. Obviously, USC village is one of the most unique setups I’d say in college football anywhere. Where you think you are hopping on buses or using public transportation, I mean you literally you are doing quite the opposite. It's skateboard and what are those things called, scooters and things like that and really you don’t have to use those to get around, so I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I think it's an advantage for us now being I guess on the inside and on this side of things, seeing it. You are always going to have that in recruiting where everybody is going to try and look for things where I look at it or we look at it as a positive to be in a market like this where people may try to use those negative things against you but it would be a hard thing to try and beat once someone actually gets here and they see it like okay this is legit, this is a good deal here."
"Roy Manning, as she stated outside linebackers, assistant head coach for defense. Really excited to be here. Have some familiarity obviously with the PAC 12 at two other schools but couldn’t be more ecstatic to be here. Father, two little one’s twins. They were actually born here in Los Angeles, so this is a special place to me. And just looking forward to get going, working with our players and this program, and getting this thing going in the right direction."
We just talked to Brian about his connection with Alex. You kind of have the same background. How has your relationship evolved over all these years and what’s the value of having that history together?
"It’s been great. Had the opportunity to meet Alex six or seven years ago when he took over at Washington State. And from the day I met him, knew a few things about him that he was highly driven, highly motivated, is wired what I would say the right way in terms of a person that players would want to be led by or gravitate towards. Really have hit it off since then. Being able to implement this defense now to be our third stop. Extremely comfortable with Alex and what the schematics and so forth and so on of the defense. Again, looking forward to getting that to our players and getting them up to speed so they can also have that shared vision with what we expect when they hit the field."
We hear the different titles, outside linebackers, nickels. What is that going to mean in terms of sort of the on field and meeting room interactions out of different guys, your interactions to take shape depending on like you can have corners working with you as nickels or outside linebackers maybe altering between defensive line pass rush, just how does that all work?
"That’s a great question. I know people are probably wondering that. At Washington State my title was outside backers just alone but I coached the nickels and the rushes which are two different positions, but schematically the structure of the defense was three four so a lot of the things they did although different positions, there was a lot of carryover as it relates to the coverage aspect of things. But that inevitably allowed me to do was be able to transition as you know the last few years to coach in the secondary as well having that background. Now here we’ve obviously the defense has evolved as the years have gone on and the different things we do with certain positions and all the ins and outs of that I won’t bore you with that but the point is the point I’ve had the luxury to coach three different positions in this defense and so very familiar with the front and back end and so as we work out and figure out who will fit where and what’s the best way to approach this current roster and how that fits into what we are going to do schematically we will iron out specifically players will be with what coach and things of that nature. Confident, just like at every stop, that we will make sure that each one of those positions are being coached hard and that they have the expectation of the standard that aligns with ours. Now I’m looking forward to obviously getting back more into the front like how we talked about the outside backers, specifically the position I played but again we will iron out all the details with the players as we continue to move through this spring who exactly will be working with what position. You got to know it all. That’s one thing I know in this profession."
To kind of pick up where you left off there with the evolution and sort of how that position has changed over the years. You coached cornerbacks and now you are able to bring a lot of the techniques and the things you know from the secondary standpoint over maybe the outside linebackers, those guys. How does that change and what do you see from the offenses that has pushed you to have to put more emphasis on those guys that are on the hash marks?
"The biggest difference is just obviously it's not a unique thing to be a nickel defense in today's game right? So, everybody very rarely do you find teams that play with three linebackers in the box, so we’ve had to evolve as offenses have evolve and continue to challenge you to make plays in space and spread you out and use tempo and things of that nature. Again, more of it is specific to schematically whether you are going to be a middle open team or single high team, you know what coverages and things that direct affects how you play that overhang guy, that nickel. Again, you can call them what you want; outside backer, nickel you know what I mean.
(REPORTER INTERJECTS) What do you call them?
"We call them a nickel. We call them a nickel because body-type wise he would be considered more of a secondary guy out of that corner/safety mold to play that nickel spot. But again if you play a certain team you may want to sub a bigger nickel or bigger body into that position in which typically hasn’t been the case as of late just because of most offenses are heavy eleven personnel, ten personnel where they are only using one tight end and even in that circumstance, that type of tight end is athletic receiving type of threat but again our big thing defensively is we want to be adaptable to whatever we are getting and not be pigeonholed into being out personneled or out packaged by a team. There are a lot of carry over to playing the positions in this defense. I'm sure you spoke with Alex. Our safeties have to know nickel, our nickels have to know corners and etc. So, we do that again so it can always in our minds be an advantage defense."
You have had a couple stops in the PAC 12, couple other places where you have recruited against USC. What was your perception of USC during that time and what have you maybe learned about the school in the short time you have been here?
"Yeah, I was a hater man. I, and again, when you think of the landscape of college football and where each and every team is situated and again having this experience in the PAC 12 has helped me understand that the PAC 12 predominately the schools are in large markets. If you compare that to the rest of college football, that’s literally the opposite as most college programs with some exceptions are in small market, small towns. The thought is when I’ve been at other places, hey USC you are in this major major market and major city, this hustle and bustle. Just a mess of a city so to speak and then you get here and it’s really pretty neat how this campus sits. Near downtown but it's not a downtown field. What they have done with this campus. Obviously, USC village is one of the most unique setups I’d say in college football anywhere. Where you think you are hopping on buses or using public transportation, I mean you literally you are doing quite the opposite. It's skateboard and what are those things called, scooters and things like that and really you don’t have to use those to get around, so I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I think it's an advantage for us now being I guess on the inside and on this side of things, seeing it. You are always going to have that in recruiting where everybody is going to try and look for things where I look at it or we look at it as a positive to be in a market like this where people may try to use those negative things against you but it would be a hard thing to try and beat once someone actually gets here and they see it like okay this is legit, this is a good deal here."
