Highlights from our last batch of interviews before the Spring Game.
DC CLANCY PENDERGAST
--on Biggie Marshall
“Marshall has gotten better. He’s a very young player. He has a lot of technique things that he needs to work on. The techniques that we’re asking him to play are a lot different than what he’s played in the past, so it’s a work in progress for him learning what those things are feeling comfortable with them.”
--on whether pressure on the quarterback this spring has been more of a byproduct of how he’s calling the defense or players picking up what he’s asking them to do
“We’re going to be an opportunistic type defense, whether we’re pressuring or not. I think the guys are being disruptive up front and all three levels of the defense as well.”
--on whether he’s concerned about depth
“Well, they are the guys that we’ve got. We just got to continue to work with them and continue to coach them and get them ready for the season. It’s not a very seasoned group but they’re a group that wants to be good and wants to be led in the right direction. Numbers wise, there are some areas where we’re thin. But we’ll gain some numbers in the fall wit the class that’s coming in an we get some guys back healthy. Hopefully it will be better when August rolls around.”
--on how ready the cornerbacks are with playing more man defense
“We play two types of man, we play off man and we play press man, and they’ve played both a good bit. I think they probably play better off man than press man. They’ll continue to grow the more they do it. It’s a brand new technique from what they’ve done in the past, so they’re adapting to what I want them to do and what the philosophy of the defense is.”
--on who the defensive leaders are
“Still a little bit early for that. I think once we come back and go through fall camp a little bit you can ask me again and I’ll have a better idea.”
--Pendergast reiterated that he really trusts middle linebacker Michael Hutchings and made it sound as though he could have a big role this year. He said Hutchings is smart enough to play either of the two inside linebacker spots, noting that they are somewhat interchangeable and that a lot of the communication carries over.
--Pendergast also said the D-line is having to make a bigger transition in their techniques than when he was the DC in 2013. Apparently, what he’s teaching them is not as similar to Chris Wilson’s methods as it was to Ed Orgeron’s during Pendergast’s first stint.
--impressions of the defense at the end of spring
“It’s a group that works really hard. We got to continue to develop their mentality and get them playing together.”
--on the D-line
“It’s been a real inconsistent group. The techniques up front are completely different than what they’ve been asked to play before. There’s been some good days, there’s been some bad days I’m looking for more consistency from them. They’re buying into what the techniques are, it’s just they got to do it better on a more consistent basis.”
--He said every defensive lineman essentially has “a long ways to go,” while adding:
“They’re guys that are going to have to play for us, all of them, just because of the numbers. Malik Dorton has probably been the most consistent out of all of those guys. He just executes his technique on a consistent basis more than the other guys.”
--on the linebackers
“They’re a receptive group. They’ve taken the responsibility of handling the communication within the defense well.”
--on Marvell Tell
“We’ve played him at a couple different positions in the secondary. He’s kind of locked into one spot now and I think he’s made some strides. He’s getting comfortable being a communicator within this defense because he is the quarterback of the back end. He’ll continue to get better with the more reps he gets.”
DBs COACH RONNIE BRADFORD
--on Marvell Tell
“That kid has great athletic ability. He’s going to be a very good player. He’s doing some things in the spring that I’ve rarely seen from a guy that size. With that type of height and size it’s been impressive. Now it’s about building some consistency. He has the ability to be good soon. I can instill in him the defense. I can instill in him the terminology. Hopefully e can work together to instill the drive and the motivation for him to be that next level guy that he wants to be. He wants to take his game to the next level and hopefully we’re able to do that together.”
--on Biggie Marshall
“I’m moving him around. You don’t want him to get locked into playing just one position, I’m going to be on the right side, I’m going to be on the left side. He’s one of these guys that you got to be able to move around. Halfway through the spring I flipped him to the other side so he could get sued to it. He’s running with it. That’s the big thing. Him, once again, I think he’s on that level where as long as he’s ready to take his game to the next level, there should be nothing stopping him. But he’s got to understand sometimes good enough isn’t good enough. If he wants great, that’s the way he’s got to practice. It’s about preparation. Nobody gets good by just sitting there. You got to put in the work.”
--on what he’ll be looking for in the spring game
“I’m not going to be behind them screaming at them. They’re going to hear me. Now you get to see how they react when they’re on the field by themselves, getting the call, making the checks. I can’t be over there like, get inside. Physically you already know where they are They’re all a little worn down. That’s just the nature of football. You’re going to wear down a little bit. Their legs are a little tired. That’s just part of it. The guys, though, they have not complained, not one bit. These guys are troopers. They come out here each and every day with a positive attitude, and I love it. But we get a true evaluation of how these guys are going mentally, being able to get the defense, go out there, see the formation and make the adjustments.”
--on whether they’re going to employ more man defense this season
“Sometimes our zones turn into matchups. Its not like we’re out there — honestly, and I’m being truthful, if you went back and looked at the times we’ve called true man coverage, its been maybe 10 percent. But a certain point after zone coverage it turns into man coverage. It’s a matchup zone. It isn’t about trust. Man sometimes is the easiest defense to play. We call it “him.” You got him, you got him, you got him. It ain’t that difficult. It’s about are you physically able to keep up with the guy. From a mental standpoint, it’s not that difficult. But we’re trying to figure out things we want the quarterback to think after he takes the snap. If you’re in man all the time, they already know what’s happening after the snap. If you’re pretty good, you make him think after he’s caught that ball (snap).”
--He said he didn’t watch a lot of film from last season aside from 1-on-1 cutups to evaluate them from an athletic standpoint. He also watched USC play Stanford to learn about Stanford’s gameplan.
--on his recruiting philosophy
“I’m looking for the biggest, fastest, toughest guy, it’s that simple. The biggest, fastest, toughest and love football, they have to love the game, you know what I’m saying, and that’s what I’m looking for. There’s no magic elixir, I wish I could say I’m looking for guys that have great hips, and great this, because sometimes, not all the best guys have the best hips. I’m looking for the biggest, the fastest and the toughest kids that love football. If I find those guys, at least you’re starting with a winning recipe, and when I say they love football, that means they’re going to dive headfirst into learning what we’re trying to do, and that’s why I’m like, those are the kinds of kids I’m looking for. I’m not saying that just because you’re undersized, it doesn’t mean that you’re not a good player. But when you’re undersized sometimes you got to be exceptional. I make exceptions to that now. I’ll make exceptions to my rule that I want them bigger, faster. If you’re exceptional, like you might have great ball skills or he’s just got some type of quickness that’s just unmatched by anybody, he’s just doing something so exceptional. You have to say, okay, you know what, that’s who I’m taking. That’s kind of how I’ve always looked at it. Everywhere I’ve been that’s what I’ve tried to do. It doesn’t always work out that way and sometimes you have to take a kid where he’s an exception to what you want, but you have to be careful taking too many exceptions because then pretty soon, you’ll be exceptionally bad and they’ll be finding another coach to coach your exceptionally bad team.”
--on his secondary system
“We’re going to get up in people’s faces and people are going to make some catches and we want to make the tackle. There are times where I need guys where I’m going to ask them to play a lot of special teams. They got to understand, when you got kids like that, sometimes their bodies don’t wear down. It’s a long season now. It isn’t the NFL season but it’s a long season. And when you have a kid that’s undersized, sometimes they start to wear down, that’s why we hold it as a part of their accountability of keeping their weight up. If they put on some weight, that’s where we want to keep it. But like I said, there’s no safety I wouldn’t look at at corner, or corner I wouldn’t look at at safety. If I have a 5-10 safety but he’s coming downhill and destroying people, that’s what I want. I want guys that I feel like I don’t have to pigeon hole, I want guys that I feel like, Hey, if he works out at corner, great, if he doesn’t, we’ll move him to nickel, nickel to safety. Sometimes you go out and get big safeties and they end up becoming linebackers, so you have to be careful.”
DC CLANCY PENDERGAST
--on Biggie Marshall
“Marshall has gotten better. He’s a very young player. He has a lot of technique things that he needs to work on. The techniques that we’re asking him to play are a lot different than what he’s played in the past, so it’s a work in progress for him learning what those things are feeling comfortable with them.”
--on whether pressure on the quarterback this spring has been more of a byproduct of how he’s calling the defense or players picking up what he’s asking them to do
“We’re going to be an opportunistic type defense, whether we’re pressuring or not. I think the guys are being disruptive up front and all three levels of the defense as well.”
--on whether he’s concerned about depth
“Well, they are the guys that we’ve got. We just got to continue to work with them and continue to coach them and get them ready for the season. It’s not a very seasoned group but they’re a group that wants to be good and wants to be led in the right direction. Numbers wise, there are some areas where we’re thin. But we’ll gain some numbers in the fall wit the class that’s coming in an we get some guys back healthy. Hopefully it will be better when August rolls around.”
--on how ready the cornerbacks are with playing more man defense
“We play two types of man, we play off man and we play press man, and they’ve played both a good bit. I think they probably play better off man than press man. They’ll continue to grow the more they do it. It’s a brand new technique from what they’ve done in the past, so they’re adapting to what I want them to do and what the philosophy of the defense is.”
--on who the defensive leaders are
“Still a little bit early for that. I think once we come back and go through fall camp a little bit you can ask me again and I’ll have a better idea.”
--Pendergast reiterated that he really trusts middle linebacker Michael Hutchings and made it sound as though he could have a big role this year. He said Hutchings is smart enough to play either of the two inside linebacker spots, noting that they are somewhat interchangeable and that a lot of the communication carries over.
--Pendergast also said the D-line is having to make a bigger transition in their techniques than when he was the DC in 2013. Apparently, what he’s teaching them is not as similar to Chris Wilson’s methods as it was to Ed Orgeron’s during Pendergast’s first stint.
--impressions of the defense at the end of spring
“It’s a group that works really hard. We got to continue to develop their mentality and get them playing together.”
--on the D-line
“It’s been a real inconsistent group. The techniques up front are completely different than what they’ve been asked to play before. There’s been some good days, there’s been some bad days I’m looking for more consistency from them. They’re buying into what the techniques are, it’s just they got to do it better on a more consistent basis.”
--He said every defensive lineman essentially has “a long ways to go,” while adding:
“They’re guys that are going to have to play for us, all of them, just because of the numbers. Malik Dorton has probably been the most consistent out of all of those guys. He just executes his technique on a consistent basis more than the other guys.”
--on the linebackers
“They’re a receptive group. They’ve taken the responsibility of handling the communication within the defense well.”
--on Marvell Tell
“We’ve played him at a couple different positions in the secondary. He’s kind of locked into one spot now and I think he’s made some strides. He’s getting comfortable being a communicator within this defense because he is the quarterback of the back end. He’ll continue to get better with the more reps he gets.”
DBs COACH RONNIE BRADFORD
--on Marvell Tell
“That kid has great athletic ability. He’s going to be a very good player. He’s doing some things in the spring that I’ve rarely seen from a guy that size. With that type of height and size it’s been impressive. Now it’s about building some consistency. He has the ability to be good soon. I can instill in him the defense. I can instill in him the terminology. Hopefully e can work together to instill the drive and the motivation for him to be that next level guy that he wants to be. He wants to take his game to the next level and hopefully we’re able to do that together.”
--on Biggie Marshall
“I’m moving him around. You don’t want him to get locked into playing just one position, I’m going to be on the right side, I’m going to be on the left side. He’s one of these guys that you got to be able to move around. Halfway through the spring I flipped him to the other side so he could get sued to it. He’s running with it. That’s the big thing. Him, once again, I think he’s on that level where as long as he’s ready to take his game to the next level, there should be nothing stopping him. But he’s got to understand sometimes good enough isn’t good enough. If he wants great, that’s the way he’s got to practice. It’s about preparation. Nobody gets good by just sitting there. You got to put in the work.”
--on what he’ll be looking for in the spring game
“I’m not going to be behind them screaming at them. They’re going to hear me. Now you get to see how they react when they’re on the field by themselves, getting the call, making the checks. I can’t be over there like, get inside. Physically you already know where they are They’re all a little worn down. That’s just the nature of football. You’re going to wear down a little bit. Their legs are a little tired. That’s just part of it. The guys, though, they have not complained, not one bit. These guys are troopers. They come out here each and every day with a positive attitude, and I love it. But we get a true evaluation of how these guys are going mentally, being able to get the defense, go out there, see the formation and make the adjustments.”
--on whether they’re going to employ more man defense this season
“Sometimes our zones turn into matchups. Its not like we’re out there — honestly, and I’m being truthful, if you went back and looked at the times we’ve called true man coverage, its been maybe 10 percent. But a certain point after zone coverage it turns into man coverage. It’s a matchup zone. It isn’t about trust. Man sometimes is the easiest defense to play. We call it “him.” You got him, you got him, you got him. It ain’t that difficult. It’s about are you physically able to keep up with the guy. From a mental standpoint, it’s not that difficult. But we’re trying to figure out things we want the quarterback to think after he takes the snap. If you’re in man all the time, they already know what’s happening after the snap. If you’re pretty good, you make him think after he’s caught that ball (snap).”
--He said he didn’t watch a lot of film from last season aside from 1-on-1 cutups to evaluate them from an athletic standpoint. He also watched USC play Stanford to learn about Stanford’s gameplan.
--on his recruiting philosophy
“I’m looking for the biggest, fastest, toughest guy, it’s that simple. The biggest, fastest, toughest and love football, they have to love the game, you know what I’m saying, and that’s what I’m looking for. There’s no magic elixir, I wish I could say I’m looking for guys that have great hips, and great this, because sometimes, not all the best guys have the best hips. I’m looking for the biggest, the fastest and the toughest kids that love football. If I find those guys, at least you’re starting with a winning recipe, and when I say they love football, that means they’re going to dive headfirst into learning what we’re trying to do, and that’s why I’m like, those are the kinds of kids I’m looking for. I’m not saying that just because you’re undersized, it doesn’t mean that you’re not a good player. But when you’re undersized sometimes you got to be exceptional. I make exceptions to that now. I’ll make exceptions to my rule that I want them bigger, faster. If you’re exceptional, like you might have great ball skills or he’s just got some type of quickness that’s just unmatched by anybody, he’s just doing something so exceptional. You have to say, okay, you know what, that’s who I’m taking. That’s kind of how I’ve always looked at it. Everywhere I’ve been that’s what I’ve tried to do. It doesn’t always work out that way and sometimes you have to take a kid where he’s an exception to what you want, but you have to be careful taking too many exceptions because then pretty soon, you’ll be exceptionally bad and they’ll be finding another coach to coach your exceptionally bad team.”
--on his secondary system
“We’re going to get up in people’s faces and people are going to make some catches and we want to make the tackle. There are times where I need guys where I’m going to ask them to play a lot of special teams. They got to understand, when you got kids like that, sometimes their bodies don’t wear down. It’s a long season now. It isn’t the NFL season but it’s a long season. And when you have a kid that’s undersized, sometimes they start to wear down, that’s why we hold it as a part of their accountability of keeping their weight up. If they put on some weight, that’s where we want to keep it. But like I said, there’s no safety I wouldn’t look at at corner, or corner I wouldn’t look at at safety. If I have a 5-10 safety but he’s coming downhill and destroying people, that’s what I want. I want guys that I feel like I don’t have to pigeon hole, I want guys that I feel like, Hey, if he works out at corner, great, if he doesn’t, we’ll move him to nickel, nickel to safety. Sometimes you go out and get big safeties and they end up becoming linebackers, so you have to be careful.”
