[Upchurch]
Did Ty [Isaac] earn a start with his play Saturday?
“We’ll see.”
Thank you.
“Nice try.”
A couple of the running backs said this week that you take a really interactive approach to coaching: a lot of dialogue, a lot of back and forth, the Socratic method, if you will. How does that help you as a first-year coach? How does that help your players?
“Well, it sounds like you asked them how it would help already. For me, they’re an extension of me on the field so it’s invaluable to hear what they’re seeing and what they feel and then try and use that to make corrections or adjustments over the course of a practice or the course of a game. So, good information from veteran guys that you can trust is really, really crucial.”
Can you think of a particular moment where there was a dialogue like that or you were like, Oh, a light bulb went on?
“Yeah, there’s parts of the game where a few series in [it’s] ‘Hey, what do you see? What do you feel about this run?’ ‘Oh yeah, I think that’ and then we can bring that and then talk about hey, maybe let’s call this because that’s what the guys are seeing out there. Sometimes they’ll feel certain things on the field that you can’t really discern from the sideline quite as well or sometimes hey, you think you have a thought and they say, ‘Yeah, that sounds really good.’ Just that back and forth, open lines of communication is always a good thing.”
[After THE JUMP: a good deal of RB coaching philosophy]
What did you like about Ty’s game on Saturday?
“I loved that he was playing fast. He was playing at his full speed, he was decisive, he was great after contact—I think he had like 80 yards after contact, which was huge—and he played with the physical presence that he has and that we needed him to play with. I was excited about all those things.”
Chris [Evans] seemed to stumble a few times over his feet. Do you think he was just a little anxious, a little ahead of himself for one game?
“Could be. I mean, the turf was a little bit different. He tripped one time but the second time he did stumble a bit. I think he was pressing just a little bit too much; probably could have been just a little bit more patient.
“Funny things can happen in the first game and we trust all those guys, and I think that going from week one to week two, all of them will be better. And just in general with the whole team, tremendous improvement from week one to week two is typically the case, so we’re hoping to see that.”
How do you feel like they did in pass protection?
“Great. We had one mishap that was unfortunate and hoping to rectify in the future but Ty had a nice pickup, Chris did a nice job, Karan had a few nice pickups, so it was good but it wasn’t great. In the pass-protection world we expect to be perfect, so the standard is really, really high. We weren’t perfect and that was unfortunate, but we’re hoping to get there this week and we’ll be challenged because Cincinnati likes to bring the heat and they’ll test the discipline of your eyes and your reads, so we’ll have to be at our best.”
What did Ty do to earn you trust on some of those off-schedule, longer runs?
“I’m not sure I understand the question.”
What was he doing to gain your confidence on third-and-long to think he’s the guy to give it to?
“Ty arguably might be our best protection guy, so in some of those situations it makes sense for him to be in there anyway. There are certain runs that he had one those third-and-13s—there were two third-and-13s—he runs particularly well. Karan also does. Sometimes you like a certain guy for a certain type of scheme, but that was why on those couple plays.”
Do you want those guys to have packages or roles that they own or how interchangeable do you want them to be there?
“I’d love them to be totally interchangeable because then you could stay away from predictability in terms of, hey, when 22 comes in expect this, when 12 is in expect this. That can be problematic as you go throughout a season, so interchangeable parts is really the goal but inevitably certain guys are going to better at certain things. It’s all about putting guys in position to succeed.”
You only have one game film of them under Luke Fickell to look at. How much can you see the stuff that he did at Ohio State that he wants to do? Obviously not the same players but things he wants to do scheme-wise for Cincinnati?
“You see a lot of carryover schematically and certain problems that they’re trying to create for an offense. It’s a lot of the same things. We’ll draw from their game against Austin Peay as well as his resume from Ohio State and put those together and then understand that there’s going to be a new wrinkle or two or three and that he has has different players, it’s a different team, and there’s going to be something new, and trying to prepare for that and be able to adjust well to that is going to determine our success.”
You mentioned ‘interchangeable’ with those three, but none of them run exactly the same, they all do something differently, they’re not the same back. How much of an advantage is that to you guys in terms of rotating through?
“I think it’s a great thing. They’re all different, they all have unique skill sets. I think that makes it a little bit hard on a defense when you’re getting different guys thrown at you and they have different styles and different type of moves and different ways of hitting certain runs. It is what it is. They’re not the same so you can’t treat them all the same but ideally if they all have the same amount of competency then they are interchangeable, they’re just going to hit certain runs in their own way if that makes sense.”
In the past those guys have talked a lot about how they didn’t care who was getting what. Everyone wants carries but at the same time it was a competitive thing but they’re one together. Have you seen that carry over in terms of the mindset and approach?
“Yeah, they’re certainly competitive. Every running back’s going to want the ball. They’ve done a great job being unselfish as a group, rooting for each other’s success, and still taking advantage of their own opportunities. I expect them to want the ball more. As a coach, you’re just going to assume that everyone’s going to have a healthy discontent with their role because they think that they’re the guy. And if you’re recruiting the right guys, that’s going to be the case. They’ve done a really good job balancing that, that kind of natural selfish instinct as a back, and balancing that with, hey, I’m a team guy, this is a team within a team, I want my brothers to succeed and do well as well.”
In many ways who starts doesn’t matter, I assume?
“It matters in terms of for that guy it’s a great thing to start a game and have the confidence of your coaches and your teammates but in terms of roles throughout a game, things change tremendously throughout the first quarter all the way to the fourth quarter. In the big picture, who starts isn’t terribly important.”
How did all the fullbacks grade out in all their roles: carrying a little bit, pass blocking, run blocking, routes, everything.
“They graded out well. There were certain things with both of the guys who played that could certainly be better and, again, looking for huge improvement from week one to week two. But they did a nice job and are on track to have tremendous seasons like we expect.”
Looked like your backs were open in the flats on safety valves a couple of times. Not being critical of anybody but could there be some communication there between the quarterback and the backs to let them know?
“Yeah. A couple of those times the backs were open we hit deep shots or attempted deep shots, which you’re going to. I mean, you’d love to hit those. You’ll take the 50-yard play over a check-down. Yeah, as we move forward and the quarterbacks continue to get comfortable and in a game rhythm and feel for how the protection side of things is unfolding, they’ll find the backs more and more. I think they’ll continue to be there for them when the quarterbacks need us and they’ll probably get some more opportunities in the check-down world in the future.”
Distribution of carries: is that determined on a week to week basis?
“Yeah, we’ll see.”
Didn’t see Kareem Walker against Florida. Is that someone we could see this week?
“Uh, we’ll see.”
You mentioned earlier about how you’d rather have three guys that think they’re The Guy, but how do you personally manage that and make sure that it stays a healthy relationship between the three of them?
“The relationship between them is kind of on them. You hope as a coach that the guys that you have, at their core—regardless of how much they want to succeed—are team players and that nothing’s more important to them than walking out of here a winner when they come back and get dressed after the game.
“That’s the main thing is what motivates them? If they’re motivated by team success then it’s all going to work out. I do want guys that want the ball because if you’re wired up right as a competitor then you want to be the guy to make the play to help the team win. So, it’s kind of a strange paradox, I think, but our guys do a really good job of it. Probably better than most places because at their core they’re unselfish guys. They’ve handled through spring and fall so far splitting carries and splitting roles. They’ve handled it really well.”
Four guys got carries last year. Do you have room for four in terms of splitting them up? You only rotated three but is there room for four?
“I think so. I think it’s going to kind of depend on in the course of a game, who’s running well. If two guys are running really great then maybe it’s only two. If they’re not then there’s a third and there’s a fourth. Also, maybe there’s a three-back rotation and there’s a fourth guy who runs a particular run really well, then you’re going to get him an opportunity and maybe he hits it and if he’s hot, he’s feeling it, then keep him going.
“It’s much more fluid than I think maybe an outsider would imagine in terms of being, hey, 22, these are your runs; 12, these are your runs; 32, you have these. It’s a little bit more fluid and that’s because we have confidence in all of them. That’s where that stems from. We don’t feel like there’s any runs Karan can’t go in and perform on, same with Ty, same with Chris.”