Ricky Rahne | Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach
Q. You're looking to improve the offense from last year. How did you go about doing that? Who's brains did you pick?
RR: Quite a few people. I mean, obviously, there's a lot of guys I trust in this business, that I was able to talk to and do things like that. There's guys, all the way from guys in the NFL, other college coaches at numerous levels and even some high school guys.
It's one of those things that any time I had an opportunity to sit down and talk ball with somebody, I was going to do it, you know, and we had a chance when we go recruiting. We recruit the best players in the country and they usually come from extremely successful programs.
I didn't drop in and drop out. I talked ball with those guys and a lot of times it might have been just philosophy and things like that. I did a number of things like that. I read a couple books. I did some things like that, too, and quite frankly, at some point, you need to stop and organize all those thoughts and make sure that you've got them going in the right direction.
So I feel really good about where our offensive staff is and where our offensive plan is, and the players had an extremely good summer, so you know, really excited about where we're going right now.
Q. You guys took some heat last year on the offensive line. How is that going this year? Where do you think those guys are at?
RR: I think they are in a really good spot. Coach [Matt] Limegrover did kind of the same thing. We are always going to re-evaluate the ways we are teaching things and things like that, and he was able to do that. I think our guys have really taken to the slight modifications that he was able to make. Excited about the way they look right now. Obviously, we don't get to see them in pads or do anything over the summer, but the way they look, the look in their eyes, just the way they are, even in the jog-throughs and things like that, the way they are seeing things and the communication they have been making, has been great.
Really excited about those guys. We have guys like [Steven] Gonzalez who have played a tremendous amount of football, Will Fries, Michal Menet, now with a whole season under his belt, that's going to be huge for us. C.J. Thorpe, [Mike] Miranda, [Rasheed] Walker, Des Holmes, those guys, experience in practice is going to be huge.
Just excited about those guys, the way they are approaching it and the whole team in general, the mind-set they have gone into this off-season with.
Q. Piggybacking off that, were there specific areas where you felt you did improve or needed to improve in the off-season from year one to year two?
RR: There's obviously plays that you're going to look at that are; that you wish you would have called something else and sometimes they are ones that you guys may notice and sometimes they are not. I think that the main thing for me is going in there, and sometimes it's just mentality and presentation to the offensive players and the offensive staff. I think sometimes that can be a huge part of it. I think the more research I've done on a lot of things, it's about presentation and mentality and those things are two things that you know, you're always working on, always striving on.
It's one thing that Coach Franklin does an unbelievable job on and I'm lucky enough to be able to learn from him. You know, we have got to be able to go in there, make sure our kids believe in everything that we are saying, and they are going to believe in it because it's well prepared.
Q. Can you speak to the differences and the similarities between this quarterback competition and the one a few years ago between Trace [McSorley] and Tommy [Stevens]?
RR: I mean, obviously, there's a lot of similarities to it. You know, we were trying to replace a guy that had played a lot of ball for us, and were going with guys who had not played as much, right and were fairly inexperienced. But they were both very talented and very competitive.
I think that's what we have here, two smart guys who are very competitive. They are very good friends, so they help each other, which I think is incredibly important. We had a quote up today that "we always supersedes me," and those guys, they really buy into that. It's still about the quarterback position playing well, not about fighting each other and making sure that our quarterback position can play well, because ultimately, they are the leader of the offense and where that leadership takes us is how far we're going to go.
Q. You waited a long time to be offensive coordinator and I know it was something that was a dream of yours. What did you learn about yourself in year one that you can apply to year two?
RR: I think the thing that as a general rule, a lot of us, we get to more and more is better and better, right. So, if you're struggling with anything, the answer immediately is I'm going to work harder, I'm going to work more, I'm going to stay later, I'm going to do that.
I've realized that that's not the better answer. It's working more efficiently. It's making sure that you're making decisions quickly and accurately and those sort of things, and I think that's something that's really going to help me in the future.
You know, my natural instinct is just to work harder, and that can't always be the way, right. There's only so much blood in the stone. You have to make sure that you get your sleep and those sort of things and quite frankly, I've made goals for myself on that this year.
Q. What do you remember 20 years ago at Cornell when you were a first-time college quarterback, granted, not the same level as here? What surprised you about being a college quarterback for the first time?
RR: What surprised me? Well, what surprised me, first of all, was my coach was pretty big at running the ball and the very first play was a pass, so that was fairly surprising and he let me throw the ball a lot that day, so that was also fairly surprising.
But the speed of the game. You know, just like our freshmen are going to have to adjust to, the speed of the game, it's all relative. I learned early that day that when you throw an interception, you don't have to go try to beat Ronnie Lott after him, because he's probably bigger and tougher than you. Yeah, good times, good to remember that.
You're going to learn something all the time. I learned something, you know, my college quarterback coach, who was an offensive coordinate in the NFL recently, was up recently, Bill Lazer, he's a great guy and we talked about some of those things, you know.
It's amazing. To me it doesn't feel that long ago but then I look at pictures and it's significantly long ago, and especially with the haircut I had and the nonsense like that. It's amazing how that level of football, you know, you think about it, how many big changes there are but how everything stays the same. It's still always going to be about blocking and tackling in football and being able to create the best angles on blocks and get your guys in space to make harder tackles, that's what it's always going to be about. It was about that then and it will be about that forever.
Q. Curious what have you seen from the addition of Coach [Gerad] Parker with the receivers, and additionally, the transfer addition with Weston Carr? How involved were you with getting him on board? What does he bring as clearly one of, far and away, one of the older guys in that group?
RR: For Coach Parker, start with he's just a tremendous person and I think that's a huge part of it because these guys trust him and he knows that they care. He cares about them, and quite frankly, it goes both ways. They care a lot about him and his family. That's a huge part of it.
He's a great coach. He knows how to simplify things, very complicated things, and he knows how to simplify it so that he can teach it fast and teach it consistently. Really excited about the way he teaches and what he brings to practice and all those sorts of things.
In terms of Weston, our whole offensive staff, we recruit together. We were all very involved in that. The amount of places, you know, the amount of football he's played at the college level is big, whatever level it's at, it's still big in the production he's been able to have. We're excited about what he can bring, his size, he's very smooth and that sort of thing. He brings a different level than anybody some of our other guys.
Q. With Trace you knew what you had, but replacing the quarterback, do you find it exciting, maybe a little challenging trying to develop a certain set of plays to bring out their best skills in the first year?
RR: Both. A challenge is exciting. I got a text message from my son today about how he just got Madden 2020 and he had the Steelers and he scored 109 over the Bengals and I said, you might want to turn up the difficulty there. You know, his mom is patting him on the back. I'm like, hey, how about we crank it up a little there. I told him, having a challenge is exciting. That's what makes life exciting, is a challenge. If you walk through life and everything is handed to you, that's not exciting and that's not rewarding.
So obviously, being around a guy like Trace and watching his development over five years was rewarding, but being able to coach guys like [Sean] Clifford and [Will] Levis and the two young guys, Michael Johnson, Jr. and Ta'Quan [Roberson] and being around a guy like Michael Shuster, who provides an unbelievable amount of value in that room, it's extremely rewarding every day I'm in there. Those guys are very coachable and quite frankly, it been a lot of fun.
Brent Pry | Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers Coach
Q. Where do you think the leadership on your side of the ball will come from? Is it a concern at all?
BP: I was just talking with somebody outside. We may not have as many guys in a leadership position this season. Not as much age and experience, but we have a chance to have longer leadership than we've had the last couple years. I don't think it's about the number of guys; it's about the type of guys and their ability to lead. I think we have a couple of really good candidates right now.
I think camp is one of those; probably the most important time, where that leadership shows itself and guys are put to the test. There's hard conversations that have to happen. There's a lot of adversity and so your potential leaders, that's when they really emerge and have a chance to prove and to earn that respect and that position.
Q. As you looked at the trends from last year, as well as you guys played, at times there were some fourth quarters where things kind of got away from you. Have you gotten your finger on how to fix that and maybe what led to it?
BP: Yeah, we've talked on our side of the football about being finishers. A closer's mentality. Some things that go into that. You know, it's not something that we ignored or pretended didn't exist. We did try and identify why it occurred. Sometimes we were able to, in particular games, and others we weren't. But more than anything, I want to make sure we have the right mindset. To have a lead in the fourth quarter and give it up is upsetting, for all of us.
I think I've mentioned this in the past: Cam Brown immediately following the Citrus Bowl in the locker room, kind of addressed the kids, addressed the team and talked about that type of trait, being a finisher and where we fell short and what we could have accomplished if we had closed out some games. It's been something that has been talked about in our room since the Bowl game.
Q. Here is a question about Micah returning kicks. What's the risk there, because there was a linebacker here a handful of years ago put back there, got hurt and was out awhile, [Gerald] Hodges. So what are the risks of having a player that's that important to your defense, possibly back there on what's one of the more violent units on football, which is kickoff return?
BP: First of all, we want to do whatever we need to do to win games. If Micah can help us kickoff return, and then we want him to do that and he wants to do that, he may be a little more passionate about actually catching the ball than blocking somebody. But you know, he's committed to special teams. We want all our starters to have a role, to be involved on a team or two. I think that's very important.
We emphasize special teams here more than any place I've ever been, and that starts at the top with James [Franklin], and I feel we've got a great special teams coordinator with Joe [Lorig], some of the things he's doing, really has the kids excited. They want to be part of it and that includes Micah.
Micah did a lot of things in high school with the football, returning kicks, playing tailback. He blocked a lot of kicks. He was the first one down on kickoff. There's a lot of things that Micah can do.
It's our job as coaches to make sure we don't just throw him in the fire and we don't put too much on his plate. He's obviously a guy that can rush the quarterback and do things that way, and you know, he had his hands full last year just learning linebacker. As he's able to do more, and have success, then we'll ask a little more of him.
But we're prepared and he's prepared if he can help us in any special teams area, we want to do that.
Q. Is he your punter now, too?
BP: He can't punt. Jan Johnson can punt and snap and play quarterback.
Q. Curious about Yetur [Gross-Matos], if you had much contact with him while he was home over the summer? How has he looked since he's been back?
BP: First of all, we're very close with Yetur and his family, ever since the recruiting process, Coach [Sean] Spencer, myself, Coach Franklin, that's been a healthy, strong relationship for a lot of years.
So I was not surprised to see him back in action yesterday, just, you know, looking like Yetur. He's got an incredible motor. He runs very well. He's got tremendous worth ethic. It was great to have him back.
Certainly we spoke often through the summer. He's an important part of what we want to do here and what we've done here.
Q. Shaka Toney, do you think he can be more of a three-down guy this year? In your reference to leaders earlier, is he one of the guys you were thinking about?
BP: Yeah, I think that's a really good question. Everybody wants to talk about Shaka as a specific-down guy. I don't see that anymore. He's always understood leverage very well, and now that he's put on some weight and some strength and has a little more experience on early downs, I think he's got a chance to be a complete end this year, absolutely. He's got one of the strongest voices in our locker room. The guys really respect Shaka. He's a very intelligent young man, and I think he's setting himself up for a very good year.
Q. Last year, we saw Micah Parsons and Jesse [Luketa] play as true freshman, at linebacker. Do you expect this year's freshmen linebackers to play? What's your thought process moving forward?
BP: Yeah, two talented young guys, both have good work ethic, and have size to play as freshmen. They both early enrolled, which helps that. You know, we have a history here of playing true freshmen at linebacker. Those guys have set themselves up for that. It's too early to tell. We've had one practice, but those guys are both in contention to play as freshmen, certainly.
Q. Your safety position, Lamont Wade, what development has he made in the off-season? Bringing in [Jaquan] Brisker about a month ago, what does he bring to the defensive backfield that wasn't present before he was on campus?
BP: Wade is playing his best football right now. He had a great winter, a really good spring, had a good summer. I mean, he's closer than he's ever been to reaching his potential. He's an enthusiastic player. He brings a lot of energy to practice, and so, I'm super excited about what Lamont is doing right now.
We have a lot of competition at a bunch of positions, and that's one of them. Brisker certainly brings a high degree of talent and length and speed. He's got some corner qualities, but tackles like a safety. You know, it's still early going. He's been on campus for, you know, a couple of weeks and he's had one practice. Being an older guy and playing at Lackawanna and evaluating him as a junior college player gives us a little better idea of what we're getting than a guy straight out of high school.
So you know, we're excited about him. We've got some good competition at both safety spots, and like any of the positions on our defense, these guys, they may be on that depth chart at Sam one day but there may be merit to moving him to Will the next day, just based on putting your best guys out there. We're not going to let positions-specific qualities limit us putting our best 11 out there. We'll have to fix that as coaches.
Joe Lorig | Special Teams Coordinator/Defensive Assistant
Q. Last we spoke to you in June, you were awaiting [Jordan] Stout and now he's here. What has he brought to various competitions? We know he can contribute at place kicker, kickoff duties. How is he shaking up the room? What is your timeline on when you will feel comfortable declaring some starters at those spots?
JL: Obviously really, really early, only being one day in. I think the No. 1 thing that he's brought is character. We've done all the background work or we wouldn't have brought him here to know what kind of person he is. He brings good character to that room, so that's the No. 1 thing that's important to me.
But also the competition. He's a very good kickoff guy, as was established at Virginia Tech. He had 88 percent touchbacks, which was I believe fourth in the country, but he's also a really viable guy on field goals. He was in a head-to-head competition there and he's also a really good punter. With only one day in, we haven't done all that much of that stuff yet so it's a little bit early to say but it's pushed and motivated the other guys.
Just like it's competition, everybody gets better. What I've been proud of is how the other guys have, No. 1, embraced him and brought him into our family and it's not always like that when you get transfers. You know, sometimes there can be some tension in the room because somebody could potentially lose their job. No one has handled it that way and they have actually risen to the occasion.
I thought Rafael Checa and Jake Pinegar, we had a little competition yesterday at the end of practice and we had a little kickoff competition, and they both about the best kickoffs they have had since I've been here by far. They have really stepped up and embraced the challenge, and I think that says a lot about their character and that room's character and it also helped that Jordan is really good friends with Blake [Gillikin]. Blake is very well respected on our football team.
So that made it a much more seamless transition, which is to be quite honest, something that we took into account when we decided whether or not to bring; any time we are going to bring someone into the program, there's a lot of different factors that you have to look at and one of them was how we felt it would affect that room. We felt like it would affect it positively, and so far, we are right. Timeline wise, honestly, we are one day in. Coach Franklin and I have not even had that discussion. There will be a whole bunch of things charted between now and then and you'll see a trend of who is leading in this area and who is falling behind and put them in different situations and there's really not much of a hurry at that position. Not to speak for the offense, but if you're a quarterback or something, it might be to lead that group or something. But this, even though it's for the team, it's more of an individualized thing.
So you can usually, in my experience, make that decision a little bit later.
Q. What did you change regarding special teams about how the guys do everything? How they meet and practice and how they approach special teams in general?
JL: I can't speak to what I've changed because I don't know what it was like before. You know, when you come somewhere new, you don't really, I don't mean to sound rude but you don't really care what it was like before, because you're going to do it the way you're going to do it. That's why you were brought somewhere.
What we do is very unique from anything I've ever seen and that's that we have a lot of individualized meetings. That probably sounds pretty basic to most people. I've never seen it anywhere. We were at the [Philadelphia] Eagles facility a couple months ago and they did it a little bit. I've never seen it done in any way, shape or form before. What that means is, for instance, if we are going to meet on punt, usually the special teams coordinator will have the whole punt unit in there and he will talk through everybody and the position coaches will be in the back and listening and taking notes and those kind of things. How we do it is we break it up by position, just like you do offense and defense.
So if we have a defensive meeting there are times Coach Pry will meet when the whole defense, but it's not the majority of the time. Coach Pry and I are with the linebackers and so on and so forth because each position needs to hear different things and so how we break up a majority of the meetings is positional on special teams just like you do on offenses are defense.
So back to the punt, our left guard and tackle, they have a position coach and they meet separately and only watch the film that pertains to them. Right guard, right tackle, same thing. Snapper and punter, same thing. It's all broken up, which I know, it's different because the players told me. It creates a lot of buy-in. It creates buy-in from assistant coaches as well, because they are in there coaching the position, rather than listening to the special teams coordinator run the position.
In my experience, when special teams are valued and when they are productive is when it's a group thing, and everybody doesn't just look to the special teams guy. Obviously, I'm responsible for it. I'm accountable for it. But it's a group process. It's not about me. It's about us.
Q. In your return game, KJ was the top kickoff returner for the team last year. Are you planning to use him in that role again? How is the group of players for punt return? Could you talk about that competition?
JL: Well, KJ is a really dynamic returner in all phases. I think he will be a great punt returner, also. John Reid is a guy that's been back there. Mac Hippenhammer is a guy that's been back there. We have a variety of kickoff returners. Micah Parsons has helped us there, all the running backs now, Ricky Slade, all those guys, Journey Brown. It will really depends on, I like to keep track of numbers. I want to make sure we're not over-utilizing or under-utilizing guys.
Obviously, KJ will be a major weapon on offense, too. I kind of liken it to like a pitcher in baseball. They have a pitch count. To me, players have rep counts. So I will keep track of how many times a guy is on kickoff to make sure we are not over-utilizing or under-utilizing a guy. Long answer to your question, but I think KJ is really, really good. We want to make sure we don't over-utilize him and make sure we don't under-utilize him, as well. We will roll guys. It won't be just a one-person thing on kickoff return.
And then the return game, we have two goals on special teams. Number one is to own the football and number two is to have no penalties. So to make sure that we are putting guys on the field, and I'm saying this for punt return specifically, that are going to make great decisions. That's more important than a dynamic returner in that phase of the game because the number one thing we want to do is get the ball back to our offense. We haven't had that much time to work live punts in those kinds of situations, so as we progress, I think I'll know more of what the punt return role is going to be.
Q. I saw that Blake came into camp yesterday with a new haircut, still rocking the mullet and Jordan has some, as well. Between those two guys, who would you say has the better hair?
JL: I don't know if I'm a guy that should really be judging someone else's hair. I try to stay away from hair conversations. My hair game is not the strongest. I would say I'm jealous of both of them.
Q. Outside of KJ and the other guys you mentioned, is there anybody else that's stood out in the return game?
JL: I wouldn't say in the return game. Those are the primary guys. Our stable of running backs and Micah in the kickoff return stuff I think have stood out. We've got a bunch of different guys that have a lot of good speed and are explosive. The biggest thing that goes along with that is being great decision-makers, so continuing to put them in situations with practice to evaluate that decision and those decision-making processes.
Q. The situation that Brent Pry has is pretty enviable. He has two five-star signees, Smith and Dixon, waiting in the wings at this point. Are you salivating on having that kind of talent to use on your units? Have you ever been around a program where as a special teams coordinator, the roster from top to bottom was this accessible with top tier talent that you could use?
JL: I'm excited about the guys that you mentioned. I'm excited about all of our different guys.
Absolutely. I think one of the things I've talked about before is that one of the differences with special teams is sometimes people think you can put, well, put maybe a little bit lesser player because they don't have to do different things. The difference in special teams is there's less thinking. I don't have an extensive kickoff cover playbook. If I do, I'm a bad coach. It's real simple. Go kick the ball and go tackle the guy with the ball.
Obviously, there's little nuances, but there's not as many moving parts in special teams, so guys that are younger, who may be aren't ready to play on offense or defense, they can play faster on special teams because they are really, really talented players and sometimes what slows players down is all the nuances of college football. That's why you usually see guys with more experience play better than generally speaking with guys with lesser experience.
If you're a linebacker, for instance, you can get shifts, motions and there's all kind of formations and you mix those with our calls, so it can be quite paralyzing for young guys, where special teams isn't that way.
That being said, I don't care if a guy is five-star, one-star, first team, fifth team, I really don't. We are going to play the very, very best guys. That's what a good special teams culture does. Whether that's Micah Parsons or Brandon Smith, or any of the other guys I could name, the best guys will play.
Our policy here is that starters won't start on more than two. If Micah Parsons is the starting linebacker, he won't be on more than two special teams, unless it's approved by Coach Franklin and then the offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator. To have the right culture, the right guys have to play and they have to see that whoever it is, whoever that guy; you'll play him and it shows that it is important and it's just as important as offense or defense, because when you break it all down, the impact on a game, it is.
Q. Coach talked in Chicago about Micah, being the No. 2. He always thought he was getting the ball no matter what, he had a hard time not knowing it was not his ball to go and get. How are the discussions with him? How did those things go that you're trying to teach him, he is not the primary returner?
JL: I think it pretty obvious by where you line him up. For me with kickoff return, he's going to do it the way we want him to do it or he just won't be on it. I think a lot of that is him joking around. He knows his role, and I've shown him. One of the things we did at the last place I was at is we would move guys around and stack our returners a lot. We had a dynamic returner that no one wanted to kick to, so we had ways to move him around to get him the ball. I've shown the guys that on film.
I think he knows that he can be a great blocker and be a great returner and have added equal value on both sides of it. I think he buys into that. I think sometimes he's just messing with us, just joking around.
