SWC75
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The coach’s show is on TK99, (FM 99.5) in the Syracuse area and can also be heard through Orange All-Access on the SU Athletic website. This year it’s 7PM Thursdays- or two days before each game, when they are not on Saturday. They have a link to their “Radio Mailbox” for submitting E-Mail questions on the SU Athletic website. You also can call in questions at 1-888-746-2873 or locally at 315-424-8599. You can also tweet them at hash tag CDMS. The show is broadcast from the Red Robin in Fayetteville.
It can take a while but pod casts of the show are eventually posted here:
http://www.suathletics.com/podcasts.aspx
MY QUESTIONS/COMMENTS
Coach, I’ll start off with some numbers. We’ve lost eight straight games to FBS teams. In those games we’ve averaged gaining 391 yards to 371 for the opposition. Our third down conversions have been 42% to 39%. We’ve had 8 penalties a game for 70 yards. They’ve had 7.5 for 64 yards. The one key stat we are really behind in is turnovers: 19 for us and 10 for them. But that’s only 2 to 1 per game. In the last Pittsburgh game and the Northwestern and Minnesota games, we had 13 turnovers to 2. The other five loses we had 6 vs. 8. We have competed well with these teams. It’s not been the ‘what‘ but the ‘when‘ that has killed us. Our failures and mistakes have come at just the wrong time.
You have been generous with the mea culpas, saying that you’ve got to do a better job coaching the team. But you’ve also said that the players have to “take possession” of the team, the season and their goals. And you’ve said that in the early season the leadership has to come from the coaches but as the season goes on it has to come more and more from the players. In the press conference after the Minnesota game you looked like a guy who had said and done everything you could think of to get this team to play winning football. Is this the time for the internal leadership of the team to step forward and take possession of this season?
COACH MARRONE
(I’ve re-arranged the order of some of the comments based on the subject.)
Matt Park described the beginning of the conference season as a “clean start” for the team. The coach said the team ahs been working hard on doing what is needed to start winning games “The players have questions, the coaches have questions. The players and fans can see where the problems are.”
I called in my question. Coach: “That, (the player’s own leadership coming forward), does have to happen it’s hard to get the team to those numbers and not win. What is the deciding factor in taking the team over the top? I think it could be me. I’ll never stop fighting to get this team over the top. Whatever mood you see, whether I’m smiling or not, I’ll never stop fighting. The kids are fighting….I don’t want to confuse the issue with stats (about the good things we are doing). I just have to do a better job.” Matt said that his “level of accountability is off the charts. Do you feel that only you can fix it? Don‘t others have some responsibility here?” Coach: “Collectively, yes. But at the end of the day, how can you make people accountable under you if you don’t take responsibility yourself? I know I’ve made a difference in the past.” (From his tone I got the impression that his mea culpas are not just a cover for the team or a hint that they need to take responsibility for the results so that he can stop saying that everything is his fault. I think he takes all these losses very personally and feels he’s got to come up with the answers himself.)
"We’re well aware of the stats. I disagree that the turnovers haven’t been a big factor they have. When turnovers are even, you’ve got a 50-50% chance of winning the game. If you are -1, it changes to 33%. I’ll take our team at 50-50. We’ll win a whole lot of football games. We’ve got to play one play at a time. We’ve got to know the situation.” Matt Park noted that Virginia Tech had turned the ball over three times in a row to start the game vs. Pitt. Coach: “The quickest way to lose a game is with turnovers. If we just don’t turn the ball over, we’ll win football games. We work on ball security all the time. But the extra time we have to spend on it takes away from our other drills.”
Matt suggested one way to even it up is by causing more turnovers. Coach: “I want to tackle better. Let’s make sure we can get the tackle before stripping the ball.” Matt noted that in the NFL, tacklers always seem to have one hand they use to punch at the ball to try to get it out. Coach: “When I played in the NFL I gained a greater appreciation of how fast the players are and how hard they hit. If they see you not being physical, they will come after you and there’s no where to hide”
They talked about the goal line offense, or, as it’s commonly known these days, the “red zone”. Coach: “I’ve done a poor job of putting the players in situations where the can be successful.” He noted that the problem really isn’t in the red zone- from the 20 yard line in, it’s the “tight red zone”- from the 5 yard line in. He said we’ve got to be more ‘physical’: “When they see on film that turned your head or shoulder, they come right after you.” He said he’s not going to make excuses, “We were awful”. They have made some changes but he won’t reveal them prior to the Pitt game.
They talked about what it was like playing for Coach Mac. Coach warmed to the subject: “I tell him that everyone says what a nice guy you are. They must never have played for you. He was one tough son of a gun. You can see that in his grandson. Mackey is a tough guy, too.” Matt mentioned that Mackey has another grandson “playing for a school that doesn’t play football in the Big East”. (He refused to say the name of that school.) Coach: “Coach Mac used to stretch with us. But one thing I didn’t see Coach Mac do is ’ups and downs’. I made a mistake in practice where I had the wrong units in the wrong half of the field and I had to do ups and downs because of it. And I did ups and downs.” (His tone was that he was having a bit of fun at Coach Mac‘s expense, not being genuinely critical.)
Coach is excited for the return of Justin Pugh. “He’s very competitive, one of our best players. Justin looks really good in practice….We need his leadership and attitude. He‘s a physical and emotional leader and people feed off of that.” Matt said that his return improves us at 3-4 positions. Coach: “It’s a comfort level. Hickey is going back to his natural position.”
Justin in Syracuse, (I don’t think his last name was Pugh), wanted to know “what will pick things up the rest of the season? What’s our biggest asset in turning this around?”
Coach felt that the big thing is that we’ve got to reduce turnovers. “We’ve also got to work on tackling, winning first down, the tight red zone.” Matt suggested another problem was the “sudden change defense”, although he did note that Minnesota didn’t get a point off of our turnovers. He said that the turnovers “demoralized the offense”. Coach: “We have to do one play at a time. We can’t let the last play effect the next play and the next play after that.. I can understand having a bad play but not a bad game. We have to win each down.”
He felt our biggest asset was that “we’ve got a loot of kids who still have a lot of fight in them and will never give up”. He even said “we’re all Americans and we’ll never give up”. (What if we play a team that also have some Americans on it?)
They talked about Art Monk, who will be honored at halftime. He’s now going into the College Football Hall of Fame. He’s also on the Board of Trustees. He’ll speak to the team on Friday. Coach: An amazing person. I’d heard of him when I came here and It’s an honor to have a chance to meet him. We’re very lucky to have someone like him representing the University.
They talked about kickoff returns. “We have to maintain blocks and get good angles. So often teams that get good kick returns have a really dynamic guy back there. Jeremiah Kobena could be that dynamic guy for us. We’ve missed him very much. Stephen Rene will be back and that will help us. Returning kicks is a one cut thing. You don’t have time to patter your feet or make reads. There are different philosophies but we are just trying to put the best person we can find back there.”.
They discussed some of the rule changes on kick returns. “They were made for player safety. There were too many injuries.” Matt said that the second kick-off after a penalty had proven to be the most dangerous because players have to do that 60 yard sprint all over again and they are more vulnerable when they are huffing and puffing to do it again. Coach said they are also the best time to run back a kick for the same reason.”
They talked about the Pittsburgh team. “They have many veteran players on offense- Tino Sunseri, Ray Graham, Mike Shanahan and Devin Street. Their line averages 317 pounds per man. Their receivers are 6-4, 6-5. Ray Graham gets better and better each week. They’ve been through a lot of coaching changes but Coach Chryst is a great coach. He’s bringing in that Wisconsin Big Ten power game. That gives them the best chance to win playing outside in the Northeast. When I was with the Jets we said that you have to run the ball to win in December. There’s more missed tackled when it’s below freezing.” (It’s a good thing our last game is November 23rd.)
It can take a while but pod casts of the show are eventually posted here:
http://www.suathletics.com/podcasts.aspx
MY QUESTIONS/COMMENTS
Coach, I’ll start off with some numbers. We’ve lost eight straight games to FBS teams. In those games we’ve averaged gaining 391 yards to 371 for the opposition. Our third down conversions have been 42% to 39%. We’ve had 8 penalties a game for 70 yards. They’ve had 7.5 for 64 yards. The one key stat we are really behind in is turnovers: 19 for us and 10 for them. But that’s only 2 to 1 per game. In the last Pittsburgh game and the Northwestern and Minnesota games, we had 13 turnovers to 2. The other five loses we had 6 vs. 8. We have competed well with these teams. It’s not been the ‘what‘ but the ‘when‘ that has killed us. Our failures and mistakes have come at just the wrong time.
You have been generous with the mea culpas, saying that you’ve got to do a better job coaching the team. But you’ve also said that the players have to “take possession” of the team, the season and their goals. And you’ve said that in the early season the leadership has to come from the coaches but as the season goes on it has to come more and more from the players. In the press conference after the Minnesota game you looked like a guy who had said and done everything you could think of to get this team to play winning football. Is this the time for the internal leadership of the team to step forward and take possession of this season?
COACH MARRONE
(I’ve re-arranged the order of some of the comments based on the subject.)
Matt Park described the beginning of the conference season as a “clean start” for the team. The coach said the team ahs been working hard on doing what is needed to start winning games “The players have questions, the coaches have questions. The players and fans can see where the problems are.”
I called in my question. Coach: “That, (the player’s own leadership coming forward), does have to happen it’s hard to get the team to those numbers and not win. What is the deciding factor in taking the team over the top? I think it could be me. I’ll never stop fighting to get this team over the top. Whatever mood you see, whether I’m smiling or not, I’ll never stop fighting. The kids are fighting….I don’t want to confuse the issue with stats (about the good things we are doing). I just have to do a better job.” Matt said that his “level of accountability is off the charts. Do you feel that only you can fix it? Don‘t others have some responsibility here?” Coach: “Collectively, yes. But at the end of the day, how can you make people accountable under you if you don’t take responsibility yourself? I know I’ve made a difference in the past.” (From his tone I got the impression that his mea culpas are not just a cover for the team or a hint that they need to take responsibility for the results so that he can stop saying that everything is his fault. I think he takes all these losses very personally and feels he’s got to come up with the answers himself.)
"We’re well aware of the stats. I disagree that the turnovers haven’t been a big factor they have. When turnovers are even, you’ve got a 50-50% chance of winning the game. If you are -1, it changes to 33%. I’ll take our team at 50-50. We’ll win a whole lot of football games. We’ve got to play one play at a time. We’ve got to know the situation.” Matt Park noted that Virginia Tech had turned the ball over three times in a row to start the game vs. Pitt. Coach: “The quickest way to lose a game is with turnovers. If we just don’t turn the ball over, we’ll win football games. We work on ball security all the time. But the extra time we have to spend on it takes away from our other drills.”
Matt suggested one way to even it up is by causing more turnovers. Coach: “I want to tackle better. Let’s make sure we can get the tackle before stripping the ball.” Matt noted that in the NFL, tacklers always seem to have one hand they use to punch at the ball to try to get it out. Coach: “When I played in the NFL I gained a greater appreciation of how fast the players are and how hard they hit. If they see you not being physical, they will come after you and there’s no where to hide”
They talked about the goal line offense, or, as it’s commonly known these days, the “red zone”. Coach: “I’ve done a poor job of putting the players in situations where the can be successful.” He noted that the problem really isn’t in the red zone- from the 20 yard line in, it’s the “tight red zone”- from the 5 yard line in. He said we’ve got to be more ‘physical’: “When they see on film that turned your head or shoulder, they come right after you.” He said he’s not going to make excuses, “We were awful”. They have made some changes but he won’t reveal them prior to the Pitt game.
They talked about what it was like playing for Coach Mac. Coach warmed to the subject: “I tell him that everyone says what a nice guy you are. They must never have played for you. He was one tough son of a gun. You can see that in his grandson. Mackey is a tough guy, too.” Matt mentioned that Mackey has another grandson “playing for a school that doesn’t play football in the Big East”. (He refused to say the name of that school.) Coach: “Coach Mac used to stretch with us. But one thing I didn’t see Coach Mac do is ’ups and downs’. I made a mistake in practice where I had the wrong units in the wrong half of the field and I had to do ups and downs because of it. And I did ups and downs.” (His tone was that he was having a bit of fun at Coach Mac‘s expense, not being genuinely critical.)
Coach is excited for the return of Justin Pugh. “He’s very competitive, one of our best players. Justin looks really good in practice….We need his leadership and attitude. He‘s a physical and emotional leader and people feed off of that.” Matt said that his return improves us at 3-4 positions. Coach: “It’s a comfort level. Hickey is going back to his natural position.”
Justin in Syracuse, (I don’t think his last name was Pugh), wanted to know “what will pick things up the rest of the season? What’s our biggest asset in turning this around?”
Coach felt that the big thing is that we’ve got to reduce turnovers. “We’ve also got to work on tackling, winning first down, the tight red zone.” Matt suggested another problem was the “sudden change defense”, although he did note that Minnesota didn’t get a point off of our turnovers. He said that the turnovers “demoralized the offense”. Coach: “We have to do one play at a time. We can’t let the last play effect the next play and the next play after that.. I can understand having a bad play but not a bad game. We have to win each down.”
He felt our biggest asset was that “we’ve got a loot of kids who still have a lot of fight in them and will never give up”. He even said “we’re all Americans and we’ll never give up”. (What if we play a team that also have some Americans on it?)
They talked about Art Monk, who will be honored at halftime. He’s now going into the College Football Hall of Fame. He’s also on the Board of Trustees. He’ll speak to the team on Friday. Coach: An amazing person. I’d heard of him when I came here and It’s an honor to have a chance to meet him. We’re very lucky to have someone like him representing the University.
They talked about kickoff returns. “We have to maintain blocks and get good angles. So often teams that get good kick returns have a really dynamic guy back there. Jeremiah Kobena could be that dynamic guy for us. We’ve missed him very much. Stephen Rene will be back and that will help us. Returning kicks is a one cut thing. You don’t have time to patter your feet or make reads. There are different philosophies but we are just trying to put the best person we can find back there.”.
They discussed some of the rule changes on kick returns. “They were made for player safety. There were too many injuries.” Matt said that the second kick-off after a penalty had proven to be the most dangerous because players have to do that 60 yard sprint all over again and they are more vulnerable when they are huffing and puffing to do it again. Coach said they are also the best time to run back a kick for the same reason.”
They talked about the Pittsburgh team. “They have many veteran players on offense- Tino Sunseri, Ray Graham, Mike Shanahan and Devin Street. Their line averages 317 pounds per man. Their receivers are 6-4, 6-5. Ray Graham gets better and better each week. They’ve been through a lot of coaching changes but Coach Chryst is a great coach. He’s bringing in that Wisconsin Big Ten power game. That gives them the best chance to win playing outside in the Northeast. When I was with the Jets we said that you have to run the ball to win in December. There’s more missed tackled when it’s below freezing.” (It’s a good thing our last game is November 23rd.)
