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“Alright, let’s get going on this next one. Go ahead, start it right out.”
As far as pass rushing, your guys are getting there. Like Frank [Clark] said last week, they’re not always finishing the job but what’s your outlook on the pass rushing so far?
“Well, you know, I’m happy with their effort. I look at practice. I look at practice all the time and I believe that what you see in practice is what you’re going to see in games and, you know, the ball gets out quick a lot of times. You can’t judge a pass rush based on whether you get sacks or not. The thing that you want to look at is how many times were you hitting the quarterback and how many times are you getting to him. I was happy with how our kids worked. When I look at the film, one of the biggest things I always look for is effort. The effort and the technique that they’re being taught and I think in that game those kids up front worked very, very hard the whole game. Late in the game they were running to the football like they should. Late in the game they were going as hard as they could on the pass rush.
“There’s a couple times the ball got outside of us on a pass rush. The first thing that somebody always wants to say is, ‘Oh, he lost contain.’ You start having guys just run up the field outside to make sure the quarterback doesn’t get outside, you’ll never have a pass rush. That happened to be a quarterback that did a nice job of using his feet when a pass rusher was engaged in a blocker so to answer your question we’re getting better. We’re getting better at it and we’ll continually get better at it.”
You talk about effort and technique on film. What did you see out of Jabrill Peppers at cornerback along those lines?
“I think our entire secondary made strides this past week and I think they have a lot of pride and I think they didn’t enjoy what they saw the week before. We’re all about trying to fix it, make sure we’re competing every day and then get the guys out there that are going to compete and go after it. I think Jabrill showed during the week that he was working really hard at it and he did the same thing during the game.”
With Jeremy Clark, Brady touched on that he’s learned that the physical skills that will get you by in high school won’t work up here and getting his technique and fundamentals down. What have you seen from this year that’s sort of taken him to the level where he’s become a starter?
“Well, the thing- you said it exactly right. He has a lot of physical talent. He’s a great looking young man that can run, that plays hard, that’s a great kid. When you’re out there at safety in our defense things happen real fast, and you have to make sure you’re making the right checks. If you don’t, if you aren’t where you’re supposed to be you’re asking for something bad to happen to 10 other guys so I think that this is a learning process that he’s had to learn from. Jarrod Wilson has done a great job of showing him what he’s supposed to do and how he’s supposed to do it and I think he’s listened. He’s worked very hard at it and he’s just touching it right now. He’s not even close. He’s got time yet and I’m very pleased with how hard he’s working.”
[After THE JUMP: Mattison’s three keys to a good defense]
MGoQuestion: Coach, Brady said that Ryan Glasgow had as good a week of practice from a nose as he’s seen in a while. What are his strengths?
“Excuse me?”
MGoINeedToSpeakUp: What are his strengths?
“Well, he’s a very intelligent young man. He’s a very prideful young man. He’s very strong. I mean, he’s 300-and-some pounds and he’s just a great example of that whole group. You could put them right behind each other and right with each other that they work really, really hard in practice and Ryan is a great example of a guy that last year maybe that wasn’t good enough at times. This year, that last ballgame I was so proud of him, just like Brady was. You could see that every play in practice he was trying to do it right and trying to get better and then good things happen in the game. He’s got a lot of great things going for him.”
A couple of quick changes put you in the hole. Held them to a field goal on one, [but] gave up a touchdown on the other. On the latter, is that sort of a teachable moment that it doesn’t matter what position you’re in?
“No question. That last one, the one they scored on, that’s us all the way. We lost contain. And it was a lost contain in something that you’re supposed to do and if you watch that play again, take a look at it sometime, Joe Bolden’s going to sack him for a 15-yard loss and still gets his legs with the guy running outside the pocket. If we keep him inside like we’re supposed to- it wasn’t even that it was a pass rush moment, it was a technique moment. If we keep him inside we’re sacking him there and we may hold them to no touchdown, which is our goal but we’ve got to learn from it and we did learn from it when we showed the film.”
Can you talk a little bit about Bryan Mone. I know it’s a small sample size but it’s a key position and he’s…
“Bryan- Ryan, again, Ryan Glasgow and Ondre [Pipkins] and you go right down through, Maurice Hurst, they’re all working extremely hard and he has a great attitude and great talent. I mean, the sky’s the limit for him and you don’t think he’s the youngest of all of them. He just got out of high school [and] all of a sudden he’s here starting for the University of Michigan, or playing a lot for the University of Michigan. He’s another one that every day he gets a little better. And it’s not too big for him. I got a feeling that this’ll be a big ballgame for him. Coming from Utah he’s probably played against a lot of those guys. We’re very pleased with Bryan.”
Back to pass rush, I wonder if you have some arbitrary rule or boilerplate rule about when the defensive ends are to level off or is that more holistic depending upon the particular drop?
“You always want to set, based on the type of quarterback they have, how many steps you take upfield before you level off. You see a lot of guys, especially in the NFL, where they’re 10 yards deep sometimes. The whole difference in the NFL in the pass rush you see there compared to college is is you could have nobody up front and the quarterback’s not going to take off scrambling. That’s a huge difference. In college if there’s an opening a lot of times that quarterback’s going to take off. So there’s that gray area or that real fine area where, ‘Do I want to be a really aggressive pass rusher’ or ‘Do I want to make sure that quarterback doesn’t run for yardage’? That’s why we try to get some games, you try to do some things inside to turn some guys loose. It’s a fine line.”
Utah’s averaging almost 60 points per game. Is this a measuring stick game for your defense, and what do they do that’s particularly challenging?
“I don’t know if it’s a measuring stick but it’s a big game. The next game’s always a big game. We’ve got so much that we want to accomplish on defense and this is the next game and it happens to be played against an offense that ranking-wise is tops in the country. They have the yardage, the points scored. They’re a very, very good offense and that’s what makes it a special game and a big game for our defense. It’s a challenge. The other thing you’re going to see in this game is their tempo is really, really fast. I mean, they’re close to Indiana-type tempo. You’re going to have to really be on your game to make sure you’re disciplined, that you get lined up, that you’re not lazy in getting set, all those type of things and so there’s a lot of things that this game brings to our defense to make sure we do what we have to do.”
Brady mentioned that there was a couple missed opportunities to create turnovers against Miami. Does that become a bigger focus against a team like Utah that can put up a lot of points?
“Well, I don’t know if it’s any bigger. Every time you have an opportunity to get a turnover you’ve got to get it, and we left one on the ground that we should have got and then we dropped one right in our hands that we should have got. Any time you play the league we play or the people we play, the schedule we play, you can’t leave turnovers on the ground. You’ve got to get them. I mean, those are so important to our team and so every one is that way.”
Coach, you talked about Utah’s tempo. How do you simulate that in practice? What do you do to prepare for that?
“We’ve always done a pretty good job of that here. First of all, our tempo is so much faster with coach Nuss. I mean, he can bring tempo now. We bring tempo in practice and it has through camp and summer camp, also. But the other thing we’ll do is we’ll have a system set up where you’re bringing a whole wave of guys at your defense every other play, so they’re not waiting to huddle. There is no huddle. The play’s over and we have to run back and another play goes. So we simulate exactly how it is, just with different players. Not like they do where they may keep the same players in there for three plays. We’ll go every play to make sure the speed is there.”
Do you have to shrink the playing group a little bit because of that uptempo offense and it can be difficult to sub, or are you able to do that when they sub their guys in?
“We will always try to have two groups, and really it comes down to who’s your best, whatever it is. Is it these guys who are your best group, or is it a sub or a dime or a quarter or whatever you go to. It’s got to be your best. You’re right, you can’t substitute. You’ve got to be able to keep that group in there and be able to do whatever you have to do with that group.”
You mentioned the work ethic of the defensive line this year. Have you noticed a change in Willie Henry’s work ethic and attitude from last year to this year? Brady Hoke kind of hinted at that last week.
“No question. It’s maturity. It’s not that we’ve worked them harder. It’s not that we’ve pushed them any harder. It’s when a young man that has played at a young age, and all of a sudden he’s a year older [and] it clicks in. He understands [that] ‘I can’t be as successful as I have to be if I don’t work hard’ and Willie’s been a perfect example of that. He’s worked extremely hard and good things are happening because of that for his play.”
With some of the injuries that you guys have had and kind of doing a little bit of piecemeal stuff, do you still think that there’s a large gap in terms of what you think this defense can be versus what you’ve seen thus far?
“The bar for me and for our defense is very high. If I were to say I was happy and satisfied with where we are that wouldn’t be the truth and it wouldn’t be the truth if you ask every one of our players. Where can we get to? I think a lot better. A lot, lot better. The players would say the same thing too. We just have to keep going every day and improving every day and when it’s all done let’s find out where that is. I am very, very pleased with the attitude of this defense. I’ve said this before and I’m going to say it again: they came out and worked extremely hard in this game, they tried to do everything we asked them to do, and they came in after the game, watched the tape, and saw what they could improved and that’s just what we’ll do each week and at the end I’m very excited about this group.”
I know you’re not a stats guy but you brought up the rush defense last week, and I think now you’re allowing 80 yards a game average rushing. Can you talk about that and third-down conversions and also red zone scores? That’s one area…
“I’m not a big stat guy. I think sometimes you can use stats to say, ‘Okay, this isn’t as bad as you think it is’ and that kind of thing. You have to, on defense, be a team that stops the run. You can’t be a great defense if you don’t stop the run first. The second thing you have to do is you’ve got to be good on third down. That’s always for forever on defense. And then I would say the third is something that we have to get better at, and I thought that we were heading in the right direction but we’ve got get some things cleaned up apparently, is the red zone. Thing about the red zone is you can play three great plays and all of a sudden do one bad one and it goes, ‘Oh, it was terrible.’ I think when you look at it we know where we’ve got to improve on that. That’s got to be the next big emphasis but stats are stats. The only stats we care about is let’s win. Let’s win, and if that happens then I’m the happiest guy in the world.”