[Fuller]
[Ed. A- I was too sick to make the trip in today, but thanks to 247’s Isaiah Hole I had video from which to transcribe.]
Karan’s [Higdon] been coming on really strong lately. Where have you seen him grow as the season progresses?
“He’s just—he’s running well, he’s running hard, decisively, violently at times. You see at the second level at times there were a couple against Indiana and a Power play to the left against Penn State where he lowered his shoulder against a safety at the second level. That’s who he is. The world’s gotten to see it a little bit more as the season’s gone on. Still looking to improve other parts of his game, as the rest of the group is.”
He was saying that that overtime touchdown against Indiana was kind of just a broken play. Can you explain along the lines of have you seen him be able to create more for himself?
“Yeah, I think that play is evidence that he’s created for himself. That particular play there was a fairly tough look to run the play against, not a desirable defense. He kept his wits about him and ended up bouncing into a big-time play.”
I think Jim said you went back and looked at the yards after contact in the Indiana game and you had 194 or something like that. Is this something you’re seeing in practice, too?
“You don’t see it as much in practice. You get to see kind of where those things would happen in terms of an angle at that second level of a guy coming to make a play but if you don’t tackle you don’t really see it. You could project: Okay, we’d run through this arm tackle or that one, but that’s a thing that’s pretty hard to gauge until you actually get into a game.”
[After THE JUMP: detailed analysis of Kareem Walker, the standard for pass protection, how a back is worked into the offense, and a bit on talk vs. action]
You said he always ran physical but is that something you guys have encouraged him to embrace more?
“Um, no. I mean, we encourage that for everybody. It’s just I’ve seen it lately. I think you’d see the same thing last year and the year before. Yes, it’s encouraged, but I don’t think it’s necessarily a new thing unique to this season.”
Kareem [Walker] had the one nice carry against Indiana. What’s it going to take to see more of him and what’s he got to do?
“Like everybody else, the amount a guy plays is going to be determined by the quality of his reps in practice or his reliability in practice and so moving forward, all things are kind of on the table for him and the other three guys that did get more carries.”
The one run that he did have, have you seen quite a bit of that in practice?
“Yeah, he’s coming along and he’s running the ball well. He’s a guy, like I said with Karan, he runs hard. There’s very little indecision, even if necessarily the ball doesn’t go maybe where it should, it goes there fast and it goes there pretty aggressively which a lot of times works out in his favor. So he’s coming along, doing a lot of nice things, and I expect him to contribute Saturday.”
Is it vision? Does he have to improve on his vision a little bit in terms of seeing the hole?
“Oh, I don’t think so. I think he sees things fine. It’s just a quality of his is that if it’s not there, if he doesn’t see it clearly, it doesn’t slow him down. He’ll kind of just cram his way into something and find tough yards. So it’s not a knock on him necessarily, it’s more of a plus, if that makes sense.”
You talk about playing the guy that’s having the best week of practice. What are some particulars that jump out that you look for like, Okay, this guy is just better this week?
“Yeah, so you’re looking for just reliability assignment-wise for one; running the plays the way they’re supposed to be run; reading the runs the proper way; then pass-protection wise, being reliable and understanding where the protection is going, who they’re responsible for, and then executing the block—the actual physical part of the block.
“It’s not necessarily like, Hey, this guy practiced the best so he’s going to play the most. It’s guys who practiced well, these guys can play, now let’s figure out how to get them in situations where they can succeed, if that makes sense. It’s the kind of things that you go as the week does and certain plays become maybe specific for certain guys, and as the season has gone on certain guys have emerged as being more reliable and trustworthy as protection backs or as receiving backs.”
Your offense hasn’t had a lot of big, long-yard plays. What do the running backs need to do to work with the offensive line to create more of those?
“Yeah, so to do that is kind of just in who those guys are. When a run is blocked properly, there should be one one guy or two guys left unblocked that could potentially make the play, so some of those big-time plays like you saw against Indiana—think it was a 59-yard run or something like that—the two safeties were unblocked and Karan had the speed to split them right down the middle. That’s the kind of thing that just your running has to take care of that extra one or two guys, and they’ve done a pretty good job of it so far. There’s obviously room for improvement as well.”
As a whole the offense has struggled but it seems like the run game, whether it’s from somebody, it seems like someone comes up whether Ty [Isaac] has a big game or Chris [Evans] has a big game. What is the sense of the running backs right now in terms of balance of offense? Do you guys feel like becoming a little more run heavy for the rest of the year, go with what’s working?
“Um… I couldn’t really speak for them on what they think. I know just as a whole we have to be able to adapt and do what it is we’re capable of doing at a high level and do that, you know what I mean? If you’re not throwing the ball particularly well then you can’t come out and throw it 50 times. If the run game isn’t going great then you have to be able to adapt and find other ways to make plays.
“I think that’s in our nature because we’re built to do a lot of different things, so whether it’s run heavy or pass heavy, it’s just going to be week by week and as the season goes it kind of just unfolds based on how certain position groups are playing.”
How’s it been for you so far through the midpoint of the season? First year as a running backs coach; how have you adapted to this and gotten used to your new role?
“Yeah, I feel like I answer that every time I’m up here. Is that ever gonna stop?”
I’ve never asked you that.
“I gotcha. Everything’s good, it’s great, I love it. The guys are fun. They work hard. They take a lot of pride in what they do. They really, really want to win, and they approach a pretty selfish position unselfishly, and that’s huge. Makes it fun to have everyone be together and working together and it also gives you a better chance for success.”
One the unselfish side of running backs, how do you like what your fullbacks are doing right now?
“Love it. I love it. They both are still working to improve, which is great as senior guys, guys that have played a lot of football and have high expectations on them and some accolades. For them to come out and practice the way that they did even yesterday, with a really renewed focus and determination to improve the fundamentals, really get back to the basics of what got them to this point, I think it says a lot about them and their role in the offense. I love all three of those guys.”
Henry [Poggi] in particular said after a disappointment like Saturday it’s important to show the younger guys, to lead by example. Is that something you talked to them about as well or is it just innate in a senior?
“Yeah, that’s who Henry is. I think as a team it’s just kind of who we are, too. You can talk about being disappointed or talk about [how] this needs to get fixed or we got to do better but nothing… nothing… there’s no substance to that. It’s all about what you actually go out and do in practice, what you do in the meeting, the attentiveness, the note-taking, the listening, the actual coaching by us. It’s about action, not about saying you’re disappointed or saying what you’re gonna do. So, yeah, Henry’s like that, but as a whole, as a team, we’ve got to be like that. Otherwise you really have no chance to improve.”
The chop-block call on him, does he get a negative for that? That seemed like kind of a dicey call.
“Yeah, he did not get a negative for that. I’m not sure. I’ve never officiated a game. It seems like a tough thing to do, but I did not give him a negative.”
In pass-pro, how far do these guys still have to go and can they get there?
“I think they can definitely get there. They still have a ways to go because we’re really chasing perfection, where we can stack game after game where the quarterback isn’t getting touched or even times where the quarterback doesn’t get touched but we still weren’t perfect assignment-wise. We’ve got to continue to grow in terms of being disciplined with our eyes and being 100% perfect with assignments. The guys understand that that’s what the standard is and just grinding at that every single day. Will you ever get there? Maybe, maybe not, but if you can get really close to that and keep the quarterback clean, you’re going to be pretty good as an offense.”