[Fuller]
How are those young corners coming along?
“Not fast enough.” [/laughs] “Not fast enough. They show flashes. I’ll say this: Lavert has, since his injury, he’s been pretty consistent and you can see him increasing every day and getting better. The other guys, they’ve shown flashes. They just need to grab it. Somebody’s got to grab it and run with it and take it. It’s just not happening. Hopefully somebody will in the next five to seven days because we’ve got to get ready for a game in less than two weeks.”
So Lavert’s responded to whatever challenge you—
“He has. He absolutely has. He came back. He didn’t practice much in the spring. We were very disappointed about that and we expressed that with him. This summer he really worked hard, then unfortunately he gets injured. But he came back and just picked up and the arrow’s going up. The arrow’s going up. Can’t say that about the rest of the guys. Again, you see some flashes. You know they can do it, but they’ve got to do it every single day.”
How often have you gotten to a point in camp where you feel like that and in other years have seen a group, a secondary, come along and do what you want?
“Well, I’ll go back to when I was in Philadelphia coaching with the Eagles. My second year there we had some new faces but they came together and played well. Certainly we’ve got new faces—I guess I can say young faces—and they’re not coming together. I don’t know if they’re just afraid to make plays because, again, they have the ability and they’ve shown the ability and they’ve done it in live situations out here. It’s just for them to understand that it has to be on a consistent basis and that is just not happening right now.”
Is it just a matter of experience?
“Possibly. It could be. It could be experience. It may be. It may just be that they don’t know how to dig a little deeper and to find it. That could be part of the problem, too.”
Is anyone closer? Do you feel like anyone’s making more flashes than someone else?
“No.”
Are you sure this isn’t coachspeak?
“No. No. I’m not—I’m not gonna tell a story that isn’t true. That fair enough?”
That’s fair.
“I mean, we got a game to play in, what, twelve days? They’re working hard, they just gotta work hard more consistently and do the right things more consistently.”
[More honesty (and WR and JKP and Brad Hawkins hype) after THE JUMP]
As one of the guys back there you see Tyree Kinnel quite a bit. What do you see out of him?
“I like Tyree. Tyree, he’s the older guy in the group. He’s pretty consistent. Tyree’s a consistent player. Looking for big things from him this year. He’s the guy that helps people get lined up; he’s the quarterback of the defense back there.”
In what ways does he help the corners?
“Just communication. Motions, all the man we play, all the motions and movement we get, he makes certain calls with certain motions and stacks and to get all those calls out, that’s one of the guys we count on.”
Could you see this as a situation where you’re playing three or four corners in that first game?
“Yeah, you know, coach Brown, he has a lot of packages so there’s going to be a lot of DBs on the field, safeties and corners, at the same time.”
Is that going to be a learning experience for you in that first game just to see who—
“Well, that’s going to be a great indicator of where we are as a secondary and certainly as a team. It’s a big game for us. It’s one we need to win.”
Ben St. Juste: how’s he coming along?
“He’s doing well. He’s just, again, shows flashes of doing some really good things and he’s not consistent doing it but he’ll be fine. Really good athlete. Really good athlete.”
Harbaugh mentioned Ambry Thomas a guy that very likely could see the field early this year. What have you seen out of him so far?
“Yeah, definitely. Ambry, he’s a want-to guy. He’s a guy who’s got energy, has got juice. His inexperience is what’s holding him back now. I think he’s thinking too much. He wants to do the right things so bad that he overthinks things. He’s just got to relax and go play the game and trust the technique that we teach and then just go play. He is a bright spot.”
How challenging are the young wide receivers for your DBs?
“Oh, extremely, extremely. Donovan Peoples-Jones has improved so much in the last two weeks. Tarik Black has improved big time in the last couple weeks. Kekoa Crawford—really, it’s great for us. I love what our offense is doing now in the preseason for us because they’re giving us so many looks that it’s going to help us in the long run. But they’ve been doing very well with the big receivers.”
Do you see one of two things holding David Long or a guy like that back from being that first group?
“I don’t know. That’s probably a question that you’d have to ask David Long because it’s out there. Just go grab it, take it. It’s there. It’s there for the taking. That’s what we’re trying to find out: why is David Long not running away [with it] here?”
Does that seeking of consistency maybe help Brandon Watson or Keith Washington, who have a little bit more experience?
“Well, uh, B-Wat, he’s the oldest of the group back there and he’s played and he’s played well, but for whatever reason he hasn’t taken the bull by the horns, so to speak, and just taken off with it. Really, being the oldest guy back there, that’s what I would think: Hey, I should be in charge back there; I’m gonna take this thing and let’s go. But that’s not happening.”
With your own playing experience and coaching experience in the NFL, do you have to change your expectations for these players at this level or is that something you don’t like?
“No. And I’ve told them, I’m demanding of myself, you better be demanding of yourself. If you want to be great and play at this place, the University of Michigan, just take a step back and look around. Look at all the great players that have been here. Do you want to be a part of that or do you just want to be a flash in the pan? It’s up to them to figure out how they want to figure it out. I’m just trying to give them the tools to make them a better football player.”
Is Keith [Washington] still working just at corner?
“He’s been corner, playing corner mostly, but in other packages you could see him in different spots.”
MGoQuestion: Which of your corners have stood out to you in run support?
“Um, Lavert for sure and you see B-Wat, B-Wat knows how to do that. The younger guys have to learn the technique, but definitely B-Wat and Vert for sure.”
What’s your concern level right now? You sound like you’re really concerned about where they’re going.
“I’m not. I’m not concerned. I have confidence in myself; I have confidence in those guys. I don’t want to sound like the sky is falling, but there is an eclipse! Which could be a good thing! Get some different moxie flowin’ around.
“I just—because I see it in them, I think that’s the more frustrating thing for me. I see it. It’s there. Just do it on a consistent basis and then we’ll be okay.”
But is it concerning that not one of them is really doing it yet?
“Well…”
Or you think someone’s going to finally jump out and--
“That’s what we think. That’s what I think is going to happen. Somebody’s just going to—hopefully someone will read this article. These are the things that I convey to them every day.
“Again, I don’t want to sound the alarms. We’re just trying to get these guys to move along, because you hear the youth thing. Well, that’s no longer an excuse. You’ve had a spring and we’re friggin’ two weeks away from a big game. It’s time to go. I’m very confident that within the next week, one or two of those guys is going to step up.”
How do you like the rest of the defense from what you’ve seen?
“Oh, I dig it, man. On defense, coach Brown, very aggressive. That’s who we are. Love the man, love the trap, the trap concepts of it. It’s a fun defense. One that I would love to play in.”
Are they meeting the hype, the defensive line and the linebackers?
“They’re getting there, man. Absolutely, they’re getting there as well. They’re on their way.”
With you voicing concern like this about the secondary, do the linebackers and the defensive line—are they in a position where they feel like they have to overcompensate?
“No, no, no, no. Not at all, not at all. We are in the third week of training camp, so there’s no panic. No panic and nobody else has to compensate for anybody else. If everybody just does their own job, we’ll win a lot of games. No panic.”
Is Jaylen Kelly-Powell working with your group at all?
“Yeah, he is. He’s been working with the safeties, the corners, kind of all over. A little Viper, nickel. A great addition to the defense.”
What do you like about him as a corner?
“His cover ability. Coach calls him a little gnat; just always around guys, covering them, and that’s a positive thing, especially when you play a lot of man. Really good addition.”
How’s Brad Hawkins—
“Brad! I tell ya, Brad is gonna be a really good football player. He’s got some talent. Very talented. He’s just behind a little bit because he wasn’t here in the spring so he’s got some catching up to do as far as the learning curve goes but really talented kid. I like him.”
And he’s playing safety?
“Yeah, yep.”