Blue White Illustrated

M A R C H 1 6 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 10 So we try to empower all of our assis- tant coaches to be the head coach: to be the head coach of the linebackers, to be the head coach of the receivers, to be the head coach of offense, defense or special teams. And obviously, with Joe being a head coach in his background, he's really done a great job of taking that and run- ning with it. Not only being able to im- plement his scheme, but being able to motivate and lead his side of the ball. And I think Brent Pry and Charles Huff also have those attributes. I think he and Brent have worked really well. We get together and go over all the installa- tions, go over all the 15 practice shells. I remember back when I was at Kansas State and I was the offensive coordina- tor, and Raheem Morris was the defen- sive coordinator and it wasn't about winning spring ball. It wasn't about the defense beating the offense or the of- fense beating the defense. I would go in with Raheem, and Raheem was going to call cover three this play and Raheem wanted me to go four verticals against his cover three to really stretch the de- fense. He wanted me to put the defense in one of the most challenging situa- tions, so he could see how they were going to deal with it. And I think whenever the offensive and defensive coordinators can work together like that, to get the things that they need to get covered, and also to challenge each other, that's really im- portant. I've had a lot of conversations with Joe and with Brent about that. And so far, that seems to be going really well. Considering the upgraded strength-and-conditioning numbers regarding Saquon Barkley – weight, speed – what is the next step for him as a sophomore? I think it's the knowledge. Physically, you look at his size and strength and speed numbers, they are good. They are as good as anyone in the country, col- lege or I would even say the NFL. His numbers are really good. He has the ex- perience now. He's played some foot- ball. He's had some success. He's met some challenges. So that's the next step. How can we continue giving him the reps that he needs to grow and develop? How can we get the game to slow down for him so he can play aggressive and be decisive in his pass protection and things like that, anticipate when things are going to come? And that's really when you be- come more aggressive. That's when you become more physical and that's when you actually play faster. So you see guys who may test at 4.38 but they play at 4.6 because they're thinking too much. Or you see other guys like [Brandon] Smith. You look at his testing numbers at linebacker, and his testing numbers are solid. But when we put him on kickoff coverage, he ac- tually was playing at the speed he tested at, and a lot of times you have guys who play slower. They may run a certain number in shorts and a T-shirt, but we time our guys on kickoff coverage, so we'll time them on how quickly they're getting down the field. Some guys play as fast, and some guys play slower. Very few play faster. So we want to look at all those things. With Saquon, all these testing num- bers are wonderful in the weight room and in Holuba, but how can we make sure they translate onto the field with him, with the scheme, with the im- provements that we're making on the offensive line with their experience and their strength and their size and the depth that we have there? It's also just [a matter of] under- standing football: understanding what cover two means, understanding zone blitzes and where they are coming from and why and really embracing and studying the game. That's some of the stuff that I love. I kept sending text messages to our guys about some of these quotes that Peyton Manning talked about. We talk to our players all the time about controlling the control- lable, and you know, Peyton talked about how there were more-talented guys, there was more of this, there was more of that. But he controlled one of the things that he could control, which was preparation. Nobody out out-pre- pared him. So I think the next step for Saquon is to really become a student of the game and master all those things so he can play fast and aggressive. What are you expecting from Nyeem Wartman this spring? Is there anything he's going to do? And how important do you think he could be to the linebackers in the fall? Nyeem will probably be limited this spring. Not sure how much he'll do. You know, it's interesting, because [Jason] Cabinda has gotten a lot of work at Mike linebacker and he doesn't want to give that up. So I think the battle be- tween him and Nyeem is going to be re- ally interesting, whether it's this spring or fall camp. They both want to be the Mike line- backer, and neither one of them wants to give it up, which is great. Our Mike and our Will linebackers are two box backers. They are interchangeable in a lot of ways, so I think that's going to be interesting and is going to be fun. But I think his experience, he had kind of a share with the team the other day and really did a nice job. He talked about how last year, coming into the season, he had a certain mentality. A@er going through what he went through with the injury, he realized that… his mentality coming into the last year may have been a little selfish in some ways and [he talked about] how he's grown from that experience. In a lot of ways, it might have been the best thing to ever happen for him as a football player and as a per- son. He's been amazing how he's handled this whole injury, to be honest with you. If he's limited this spring, like I expect him to be, I want him back there really coaching the young guys, taking as many mental reps as he possibly can. But it's going to be great obviously to see Cooper, Cabinda, Bowen, Walker, Jan Johnson. [Johnson] is going right from the wrestling mat right onto the football field. Had a long talk with him last night to make sure he was leaving wrestling the right way. I don't want him just, you know, drop and run over here. I want to make sure it's handled the right way. I'm going to follow up with a phone call to Coach [Cael Sanderson] to make sure we're all on the same page. And then Brandon Smith and [Jason] Vranic. It's exciting to see what they're going to do.

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