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Fairchild's goals for spring ball: Establish depth chart, practice tempo Head coach press conference transcript
March 24, 2008
2008 Spring Prospectus | Players to Watch | Spring Practice Schedule Steve Fairchild spring football preview - March 24
Opening statement: As you guys know, we just completed our first phase of the offseason program that we started in late January. We had a rather intense strength and conditioning program where we put our team through that actually ended a week ago Friday and then this last week has been Spring Break, so we've been off. They're back today and we're going run a little bit today to get them loosened up and then start our Phase 2, which is obviously spring football, tomorrow. Our plan is to go Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, obviously weather will be a factor, but this is a little more football specific, obviously a little more fun part of what we do in the offseason. Things we are trying to get accomplished obviously we want to get across to the staff that we want to establish some competition. No. 2 there's going to be a way and a tempo that we expect in the practice act. We obviously won't get that done all in one day. We'll try to establish that starting tomorrow. There are some guys, like Kory Sperry, that are going to be limited somewhat in what they do. That will be a case-by-case situation. On Kory's case, he's been cleared to go through some drills; we'll be able to get him involved on some seven-on-seven, some of that stuff. Having said all that, I'll just open it up to some questions. What did Phase 1 of the offseason entail? A different style of lifting and conditioning than what we've done in the past. We actually had some mat drills that we were doing early in the mornings; some agility, change-in-direction type things. It's just a fairly intense strength and conditioning program that had been taking place since late January. Can you tell us a little about how Kory's doing? He's doing good, obviously he's not cleared for full contact but he has been running quite a bit. He's changing direction on that knee and like I said, he'll be involved but he's not 100 percent. What is Billy Farris' status with his elbow? He's cleared. He's cleared and when I got here that was not necessarily going to be the case. They've done a nice job of rehabbing him and getting it up in terms of totals. They monitored how many throws he had starting in February on his own and that sort of thing. So he's full go. How do you set your quarterback rotation? It's going to be even. He's (Farris) obviously the guy that's played so he'll go first but there is no real order and there's no set rotation. Nick Neuenfeldt is a little bit limited with the groin so he may not be in there at times. But like every spot on the football team, I think we're going to go out there and just evaluate it how we see it and then go from there. So, to say there's a set order, a set number of reps at any position is unfair at this junction. What were you able to learn about these guys' work ethic? That's exactly it, work ethic and attention to detail. Those mat drills at 6 in the morning where you're having to, I guess for a lack of a better way of putting it, touch every line and pay attention to instruction when you're tired, you could see guys, how they compete, how important it is to them. Basically, the way they function under duress and that's what we tried to do. As a group, I'm very pleased with the effort and the attitude that we had this early part of the offseason. And all that's done has put us in a position now to take advantage of the second part which is spring football. Had we not prepared in a way we prepared, it would be all for naught. But I kind of like our outlook. How do you like the depth of the quarterback? Well again, I don't know if I like or dislike any depth at this point because I don't know much about them, football specifically. So, we'll see. When we come out of spring football, we'll have a better idea. Maybe we'll be better at this spot, maybe a little deeper at this spot, maybe we got some guys in this area. But I think right now is not the point in time to comment on it. Not unlike everybody else, I'm kind of anxiously awaiting a chance to watch them practice. What are your goals for spring? Like I said, I think I want to come of spring football with a depth chart, right now every job's open. And I want us to come out with the way I see us practicing, a certain type of tempo, a little up tempo, a little competitive practicing. That's not easy to achieve, but we'll certainly try to get that across. Once we get that established, then we'll improve. You know go out there and compete every day, not just go through the motions. Where we're at, then I see us getting better at that point. When did you finish the playbook? It's not complete. We have an idea, in fact Larry Kerr and I visited this morning about the installation process that we'll go through for these first four practices. And then we'll evaluate it after Saturday's practice and do it again for the next week. But we'll see what we have. We certainly don't want to enforce an immediate offense or a defense. As we see what we have, we'll develop it further but we have a pretty good idea about the first week and then after that, obviously for Week 2 and Week 3, we'll start specifically practicing situations whatever scheme it is. Do you have base sets for offense and defense? Like I said, for the first four days, what we're doing is fairly basic because we're not out there to find out who's the better coach. It's very simple, let's just watch our players compete. Will it be a very standard offense and defense? It will be very standard as far as both sets and personnel groups. Did Billy Farris have surgery for his injury? No. Will Zac Pauga play fullback specifically, or H-back? There'll be some two-back alignments but he's also very capable of playing on the line of scrimmage as well. So, that again is part of the process of everybody figuring out what everybody does, what they do well. Are you going to go back to an H-back? Not necessarily in that term. There will be elements of that. Is there anybody that is changing positions? You know we haven't and there's certainly some candidates we've considered, some guys who might be able to either change on their respective sides of the ball or even go over on the other side of the ball and get into the mix a little bit quicker. Larry and I and Greg Peterson talked about that, that it would be unfair to do that prior to the first week of spring football. We'll just go out and see where they're at and we'll start there. How did the team handle Phase 1? I was very pleased with our attitude. I think it shocked them a bit in some ways but I liked the way they responded. I liked the way they handled the first part of the process. Did you find some guys in that process to come forward and be leaders? Yeah, there's a good one or two I've seen up front and also some guys you'd expect to do what older guys did and you see some younger guys start to develop that type of role. But again all this is just, you know, a phase, we haven't had any pads on or anything so there's a whole other part of it that's about ready to get underway. What about the guys who are not coming back like Michael Johnson and Sedric Patterson? Any chance they might come back? You never want to shut the door on any guy without getting the specifics. These are guys who just didn't take care of whatever their responsibilities were and therefore they won't be out there. You know, obviously we're not just athletes. There's some accountability that has to happen both in the classroom and in general conduct. Obviously there's been a transition. How long do you see that transition being? Well I don't know and certainly there was a transition that had to occur over our offseason conditioning and it did. If you'd seen the first day and the last day, it's almost remarkable to me. The same process now is going to happen again because we're going to go out there now where they're used to doing it a certain way. And it's not going to be that drastic but there'll be some changes and we'll have to look after those changes. What kind of tradeoffs will happen? I don't know. There's a little bit of tradeoff. It's like anything and I'll use the quarterback position to illustrate it. The longer you're repping three or four or whatever it is, even two quarterbacks, and in some ways you're prohibiting the starter from developing as fast as you'd like and obviously the tradeoff is gaining the competition and make sure you are making the right decision. I just want to make it clear to all the players that I have no preconceived ideas that this guy's a player and this guy's not. Everyone is going to have a fair shot to get in on the ball. Do you have a date along the way where you have to have a depth chart? No, obviously we'd like to come out of spring football with a depth chart. But there's not like a weekend or two weeks when you want to have one? It's not going to be anything set. When it's right, it will happen. What do you mean by depth chart? Your 22 starters? Yeah, that kind of thing. When you're holding the game ball, these are the 22 guys who are starting and this is who can do this play, this is our nickel back, this is our receiver, this is our fourth receiver, this is our tight end, you know all those things that you're going to develop as you go along. But how that all plays out and how fast is not really a concern at this point. Will fall football practice be used to still determine the lineup? Maybe. Do the players realize the history of the new coaching staff, like Anthoney Hill? I hope so. You know, you walk down the hall to some of those meeting rooms and see the pictures on the wall. You know, it's one thing to have a good year but some of those teams were, for lack of a better word, special. When you talk about the Anthoney Hill teams and some of those teams in the 90s, they were something, and I think having guys here that were here at that point of time shows those guys first hand on how to conduct yourself and what transpired because those were some special times. And hopefully, we can get back to that. Have things slowed down for you? A little bit. Probably will pick up in a few weeks. After recruiting, did you have a chance to catch your breath? Are the coaches settled? Yeah, after the signing date things slowed down a bit. Obviously we run an offseason program and getting to know all the players and the second the ink is dry on the letter of intent, we are starting for next year. So there was work but not quite at that pace that we had to do in January when we were making up for lost time. Have you guys found a punter yet? I knew that would come up. You know, we have some options; we have some walk-on guys to look at this spring. Jason Smith is one of those kickers that can punt. He is one of those guys that's limited because of an injury. But he's in the mix as a punter. We're still actively recruiting that spot as well. There are some guys out there and we'll keep looking. So the way we'll handle that, I don't know exactly how that is. What's Smith's injury? He runs track and he's got a stress fracture. He'll punt some, he'll be out there. Which foot? You know, I wish I could tell you. It's not his kicking foot. So it's his left foot? Yes. But I know he's cleared. I noticed the green mesh out on the fence. Was that something you wanted? Yes, I like it. It's nice. I always felt that it keeps the distractions out. Our practices will be open in the spring but occasionally in the fall we may close practice. Will that be closed to the media or fans? There will be a couple closed to everybody. Especially the closer we get to that CU game. Have you found that recruiting has changed much? Yeah. It seems like it gets faster and faster. Seems like there's more you need to do earlier and earlier. Is there more competitiveness? Yeah. I think we're more competitive, too, but again, I said this in my press conference and I think it will prove true always, and that is recruiting's a lot of hard work. You've got to cover all of your bases and there's a lot of it that's evaluation and you got to make sure you're bringing the right guys and hiring the right staff. Have you had enough feel to get to know the players? I like our attitude. I like our work ethic so far. We'll know more about that as we get closer to football. Has anyone had a chance to look at film? A little bit, more to get a feel for our opponents rather than our own players. We're trying to keep everyone on the same playing field. Any particular concerns coming out of Phase 1? I'm probably a little concerned in every area until we prove that we've got a guy in a spot that shows day in and day out that he knows how to practice and compete. Right now, I'm concerned with our entire team. I noticed you changed the sign to the practice field... Yeah. It's just something that I believe in. It says, `Championships are won on a daily basis,' and I believe that is true and we've preached that to our team. We're not going to just line up in spring ball and be a good football team or show up in fall and have a couple of practices. The team we wanted to be started in January, we started working hard in January, and when you're going to be a true champion, whenever that day is, it will be because you put in years of hard work on a daily basis. Is there a difference between college and professional football? This job's a little bit different. I think I said this before, in the NFL, it's just all football. I spent seven years just doing year-round football every day. Obviously this job is a lot more oriented with academics and it's the best place in the world to work.
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