[Bryan Fuller]
[Wheatley sees Ty Isaac on the opposite side of the desk in the lobby/Towsley Museum]
“I’m about to talk about you. You know that, right? Wanna listen to it? Wanna come listen to what I’m about to say about you?”
[Isaac laughs and walks away]
With Chris Evans, he seemed to have the most productive day at Iowa. What were the things that stood out about him that maybe he was doing different than other guys?
“You said it. It was production. Certain games and certain backs—it was a penetrating front and Chris was able to hit some creases and go for it and be productive, so that was pretty much it. With guys we go to who has the hot hand and who’s productive and that was it. Chris was hitting creases.”
Were you guys trying to get him more as the game went on? I think he ended up with eight carries. De’Veon seemed to get carries down the stretch.
“Like I said, at that point whatever play is called and whoever’s doing well at that point in time, that’s who’ll go in.”
With so many guys that can go for you, what’s the room been like from a keeping it light but also keep--
“Chaos, man. They hate each other. [laughs] You see the bags under my eyes? Gray…I look like Barack right now.
“Nah, the room is great. The room, the tone has been set in camp. They understand the task, and the task is to win the Big Ten and then hopefully from that point on, as you know, the little gold trophy. So, the mantra for this university has been ever since the big man was here, ‘the team, the team, the team.’ So, it doesn’t change. You kind of put yourself to the side and put the team in front. The room is great. Guys are absolutely a treasure. I mean, a treat to coach and a treasure for me to have, so the room’s been great.”
[After THE JUMP: how to gain Wheatley’s trust, the secret to the Hammering Panda’s success, not noticing QBs in practice, and a quick injury update]
How challenging has it been for you during a game to continue that rotation based on whatever it is you base it on, because you’ve got four guys and a lot of guys have two?
“I guess…what makes you think it was? It’s not.”
It’s not challenging?
“No, it’s not. It’s not a challenge at all. Doesn’t present a challenge at all.”
What makes it easy?
“What makes it easy is because you have four guys to choose from, so whatever a defense is giving you, whatever the game flow is going, you go with the guy who has the hot hand and whatever the defense gives. Like I said, different guys play differently well against different defenses, so at that point you go with the guy who’s doing well at that time, so it’s very easy.”
Do the things that De’Veon does outside of running the football get undervalued sometimes?
“Oh, very much so. Keeping the quarterback clean, making the offensive line right every once in a while, being able to pick up protections that certain guys can’t see, all those things. That’s one of the reason that he gets the majority of the reps is because in certain situations, especially tough situations and critical situations, you want a guy in there that you can trust.”
Though it didn’t work out in the end zone, is that why he was there? What was the logic there?
“You think too much. It’s really just, the logic behind the end zone at that point in time, De’Veon’s the guy that goes in at that point and that’s what it was.”
So it’s his complete game that’s more mature than--
“Yes, more mature, as you said, more on-the-field hours of doing certain types of things. And it’s not so much [?], certain guys, it takes them some time to get. You look at guys across the board, there are certain guys that play well in certain situations and certain zones of the field. There are certain guys that can block and certain guys that can’t block. It’s not just in college, it’s not just in our room, it’s across the board in football.
“Yes, he has grown quite substantially in that area of being able to pick up the blitz and catching passes. There are many places that you need to be able to trust them.”
A little bit of quarterback uncertainty this week. Is that a rallying cry in your room to kind of carry the weight of the offense any more?
“No. The thing of it is is we don’t look at the quarterback going down as a rallying cry. Every week we go in, week in and week out, we always look at what is our job. What is our job, first and foremost. Then we kind of go over the overall gameplan. Hey, O’Korn’s going to do well.
“We don’t look at it as a drop off. We don’t look at it as anything different. It’s the next guy in. Game normal. We don’t look at it as, hey, now it falls on us. To be honest with you, hell, it always falls on us. That’s the way I always like to look at it. It’s nothing different. Nothing different.”
How long, in your experience, does it take for a young running back to start to become an all-around back like you were talking about?
“Well, especially the way we do it—and I’ve played in a system like this with Gruden and also in New York—it was kind of that way when I was here. We had four guys and sometimes three guys, and it forces a young guy, absolutely forces him, to get his game where it needs to be faster.
“I’ll give you a prime example. I’m not mentioning any players, but say, for instance, there’s a third-down call and the guy might want to run that play. I’ll say, ‘Look, you know I can’t trust you on third down.’ So, it’s either A) I want a coach to be able to trust me on third down or B) I stay in that same position and not play on third down.
“So, he gets it into his head, like, hey, the urgency of getting better, the urgency of third down, the urgency of pass pro and all those things, it expedites everything. It speeds it up because everybody’s vying for playing time. So, he wants—the screen pass that Chris [Evans] caught. Everybody’s like, ‘Man, that’s an incredible play! I want that play!’ Well, work to get that play. So it pushed everybody, it pushes the learning curve and speeds everything up.”
Why do you think Khalid’s [Hill] still having success when everyone kind of knows he’s getting the ball in those situations like short yardage?
“Oh, it’s the big boys up front. Just the big boys up front. I mean, you can see it. Those guys do a great job of moving the line of scrimmage. Sometimes Khalid gets the ball and he only has to fall maybe a yard, and he has to push another yard. If it’s third-and-two or on the goal line, goal-and-two, they push the line of scrimmage one yard and all he has to get is one more yard. Attribute that to the guys up front. They’re doing a heck of a job. I mean, these guys are moving guys off the ball. It’s violent. It’s a beautiful thing to watch.”
On Saturday overall they weren’t good as they have been. That’s not on them?
“No, that’s not on them. I mean, it’s just, hey, those guys on the other side get paid, too, you know? [Ed. A- he doesn’t mean literally, it’s just an expression he uses often] There’s some great coaches there. There’s great coaches and coordinators across the board. You’re going to have those prototypical three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust games. You just have to grind it out and be happy with a win or, in this case, we got a loss, so you don’t look at it and say, ‘Well, we lost and the numbers wasn’t there.’ It’s just like, hey, Iowa did a great job and we had chances in there. Dropped ball here, something there, but we had a chance to win that game. You don’t go back and look at the numbers and say, ‘Hasn’t been this way all the through.’”
Chris [Evans] said last night he’d like to gain weight to be stronger in pass-pro. How much would you like to see him gain?
“You know what, for me, I’d like to see him naturally, you know, let the weight grow naturally in the weight room. As he gets more mature, maturation in the weight room. That’s more or less with him and Coach Tolbert. I like to stay out of that one.
“Only time I like to get in is if the guy loses lateral movement. Like, if Chris loses lateral movement, the weight has to come off. But, you know, that’s a question for Coach Tolbert. I’d like for him and Coach Tolbert to sit down and discuss that, but that’s what he feels.
“It kind of goes back to what I said before. He wants to be in on third down. To him, he feels he needs to be stronger and bigger to pick up the pass rush. It gets guys thinking about where they need to be and the things they need to get better to be better. That’s a great example.”
But you think he needs to be stronger, don’t you?
“I wouldn’t say stronger. I played with guys, I mean, Charlie Garner was maybe 5’9.5”, 185. Charlie would light you up. It’s just the technique and mind-set going into pass pro overall more so than being big guys. I’ve see big guys get run through on pass pro. It’s not about the weight. It’s about the mindset and the technique that you carry out through the pass-pro and blocks. That’s what Chris needs to get better at. Just understanding.
“You have to understand, you come from high school, maybe one, twice pass-pro. Now it’s ever day. Big guys, strong guys, three or four years under their belt weightlifting, perfecting their craft beating guys off the edge and up the middle. It’s quite a task. It’s very overwhelming to a freshman.
“I remember my first year, I got hit in the facemask like, ‘What in the hell happened to me?’ It’s a mindset. He’s getting there. He’s getting there.”
O’Korn looks to run a little bit more than Wilton. What have you seen from him in practice? Does he look to use his legs a little bit more?
“You know, to be honest, I’m not saying this just to say it, [but] you get so focused in practice on your group that you really don’t know what’s going on with the other guys. To be honest with you, from Wilt to O’Korn, I’m in practice watching my guys, concentrating on what I’ve got to do, you really don’t notice the difference in quarterbacks that’s in there. I’m sorry I’m no help to you that way, but I really didn’t notice.”
So you don’t see a drop-off is what you’re saying, just a change?
“No, it’s just a change. There’s little idiosyncrasies to how they call the play in the huddle, the cadence, those things might be a little different to the guys, but to me watching my players and watching my guys do their job and handle their business, it’s not like you’re saying, wow, it’s such a difference in quarterbacks that it’s that noticeable as I’m watching my group that it’s such a drop-off or such an increase.”
Is the handoff just a standard thing where one guy doesn’t go it differently?
“Plug and play. Fwip-fwip-fwip. Just gotta go in.”
Jim said last week that Drake [Johnson] would like to come back for another season. What would that mean to have Drake, a veteran, with this group?
“Heh, Father Time. As I’ve said before, Drake is awesome in the room. He’s incredible with the younger guys, so it’s like having an assistant coach in there. It’d be great to have him back. A security blanket, so to speak. I mean, it’s not that he’s going to be a security blanket; he’ll play, he’ll do some things for us. It’s always just nice to have a guy you don’t have to really worry about. Just keep sharpening his toolkit and getting ready, but at the same time he’s helping the younger guys get better. And at the same time, like I said, he’s a security guy that, if something happens, he can go in without a flinch.”
Where’s Kareem [Walker] right now?
“Developing. I mean, both Kingston [Davis] and Kareem are still developing. They’re still growing. Some guys just take a little longer than others.”
Is Kingston healthy?
“Knee. Not for sure exactly what it is, but he’s getting there.”