April 4, 2002
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COACH WILLINGHAM: My thoughts on practice, let’s not talk about it, let’s try to go get everything in place — an exciting time. For me, the main focus of our spring practice will be, first of all to try to make sure that our gentlemen understand that it’s necessary for us to communicate in all areas: Offense, defense and special teams, and then try to produce an environment that will allow us to be successful in the spring, and hopefully during that process, identify the young men and put them into right places to help us be the football team that we would like to be.
Q. Can you explain how this spring practice will be compared to your last few?
COACH WILLINGHAM: It’s different from the standpoint that you walk in with a basic knowledge about the personnel and the system and how the system will interact with those personnel, in most cases. This will be, for lag of a better term, virgin territory for me going into this particular spring. So that will be a new adjustment for us, but one that I think we will adapt to relatively quickly.
Q. You mentioned putting the people in the right places, I know that it’s probably difficult to make switches, but are you hoping to do some position switches as you get into this spring practice?
COACH WILLINGHAM: When I say open, it means that we will be having a constant vision to make sure that we have got young men in the right places, and as we take a look at them here, we will figure it out, figure out whether there are some adjustments and changes we will need to make.
Q. Do you know if there are at this point people that will not be able to participate?
COACH WILLINGHAM: We will have, I think several guys that will be limited to some degree.
Q. Could you share those?
COACH WILLINGHAM: I don’t have a clue right now —
Q. How much advantage is it to have a staff of assistants, many of whom have worked with you, and also what has been you relationship with Bob Simmons?
TYRONE WILLINGHAM: Yes, they do. Our coaches and I go back quite some time. I think my earliest recognition of our relationship was we coached against each other while he was at the University of Toledo and I was at — I think what I remember — I think it ended up in a tie for the conference. So it goes back that far, I think it had to be in the late 70s — so we had knowledge of each other, and since then we have had a lot of contact throughout our careers.
Q. How much is it a factor or the fact that he was a previous head coach — how much did that play in your decision, did you see that as an additional asset?
COACH WILLINGHAM: I think it is an additional plus. Because if you’ll notice within the core of our staff, we’ve got our coordinators that are position coaches that have that experience. We have the knowledge of a former head coach. So all of that really is good for the young men that they have that kind of experience, that should make us a much deeper staff in terms of our relationship, in terms of our experience.
Q. How many senior candidates will be participating and fifth-year understanding that because they participate this spring doesn’t necessarily mean that they going to be on the team in the fall?
COACH WILLINGHAM: That is a correct statement.
Q. Do you know how many of the seniors will be participating?
COACH WILLINGHAM: No, I don’t have that number in mind.
Q. How would you characterize the offseason conditioning program that the players went through?
COACH WILLINGHAM: I would say the beliefs of our program are something we are very comfortable in doing. It is an agility program designed to develop quickness and explosiveness.
Q. What are the specific assets of the conditioning and strength training that you will emphasize now that perhaps the players were not accustomed to?
COACH WILLINGHAM: I’m not sure. I don’t know if I looked at it from that perspective. I’m sure it’s a program that I’m comfortable with doing and that really benefits our young men to, one, get together and work as a team, and two, work on the agility, work on developing quickness, agility and explosiveness.
Q. What is your philosophy as far as contact this spring? Would you characterize it as heavy contact, middle of the road, will you take advantage of every second or every practice or minute that contact is allowed, or how would you characterize that?
COACH WILLINGHAM: I would say it depends on who you talk to. If you talk to an offensive lineman, defensive lineman they will probably say there’s contact every day. If you talk to a quarterback, he will probably say there’s no contact every day. So it’s somewhere between there is where we’ll fall.
Q. What is the philosophy on a spring game that you had — it seemed that more schools are getting away from a spring game. Would you prefer not to have a spring game, per se?
COACH WILLINGHAM: No, I think a spring game is a great thing. But I think what most coaches are in tune with are injuries and how that relates to one’s ability to have a spring game, and hoping not to create injuries that impair their ability to have success during the fall.
Q. How do you strike a balance of having a preconceived notion about the players —
COACH WILLINGHAM: My scale is probably tilted more toward not having an evaluation. Because I think it’s difficult to get them all on — if you have done a pre-evaluation of — inaudible — have confidence in them.
Q. How do evaluate your receivers when so few have played much in games?
COACH WILLINGHAM: I think the way you present it makes it very clear that we should — last year — inaudible — adjustment in your evaluation. So we will be very open to our receivers and looking at them.
Q. Do you see Jordan Black as a tackle or at guard where he finished last year?
COACH WILLINGHAM: I think right now we probably have got Jordan at tackle to start with. But we’ll find out the best position for Jordan and that’s really very important and positive.
Q. Defensive backs appear to be one of you strengths…
COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, I certainly hope it is, but we’ll find all that out as we go through spring.
Q. Did you have an overall outside perception of what the personnel was like and has that changed at all since you’ve taken on the job, and any players that you are looking forward to seeing on the field because of what you’ve seen on film?
COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, I’m looking forward to seeing all of them. That’s really the joy of trying to get to know your football team, is now you have the opportunity to get out there and get to know them.
But I said this earlier. I said that in terms of having an evaluation of the team, as an opponent, there are two different pictures that you can get. One is what I call on the outside looking in, where you look at certain things and you think you can do this. And now I have an opportunity to get the internal look at the football team, and that’s what the next 15 days or so will provide.
Q. How different is this for you and how much are you worrying about establishing personality — see you as a coach — inaudible – -how concerned are you of getting an idea about your coaching style —
COACH WILLINGHAM: I don’t worry about that. I’ve always said that it’s very easy to say things and have people try to respond to them, but what I want to do is have our young men judge me on what I do, and that takes time. So it will be a period of time before they will get comfortable and feel like they really know a coach, and I will give them that time.
Q. You talked about the winter conditioning program and developing speed, explosiveness and quickness and so forth — can you evaluate how you see the team as a whole, with those objectives?
COACH WILLINGHAM: I think it is a learning concept. I thought they began to understand what we were trying to accomplish with each session that we went through, and in the future, they will get even better at understanding and knowing the execution.
Q.Will those be drills you’ll use in summer conditioning as well?
COACH WILLINGHAM: They are, first, football drills — so yes, they will be a part of everything that we do.
Q. How about your comfort level with the whole structure now, do you feel like, “I’ve got my teeth sunk into this right, I have a good feeling for the program?
COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, again when you talk about caliber, again that’s something that I don’t take over focusing on.
Q. Wondered how this compares to your first season at Stanford where you were implementing your ideas and so forth?
COACH WILLINGHAM: I am, as a person, farther along than I was eight years ago at Stanford.
Q. Specifically, in what way?
COACH WILLINGHAM: My own knowledge. My own comfort with what I’m doing.
Q. And tell me if I’m wrong, but you seem to not want a lot to go out to Maryland and the others about what you’re doing. Obviously you see this as an advantage of people not knowing what you’re doing?
COACH WILLINGHAM: I hate to do this, but how do you see it? (Laughter).
Okay. I think you’re saying it’s an advantage to someone doesn’t know what you’re doing, that that’s an advantage.
Q. But you know what you’re doing.
COACH WILLINGHAM: Yes. (Laughter).
Q. I wondered, too, when you start thinking about the team in the fall, when do you start talking about Maryland to your team, when do you start thinking about Maryland, specifically?
COACH WILLINGHAM: It kind of depends on the year. Usually the first year, your focus is more for yourself right now, that would be our concern. See, if this were another year, you might be adding little pieces of that puzzle in your spring doing certain things to look towards certain teams, or maybe with all of the teams.
Q. Do you have a time table of objectives of what you hope to accomplish as far as getting into the spring, a depth chart and what not?
COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, of course we have already basically laid out our plan for the spring, in terms of what we will do and what we hope to do. Now, how much of that we will be able to accomplish, our young men will tell us. They will set the time table for us.
So what we will have to do is coaches adjust as we go, see what we can do and if we can stay on track, or if we have to stop and slow down.
Q. Is there a minimum level of accomplishment that you need to achieve?
COACH WILLINGHAM: I don’t think so.
Q. You talked about the focus is mostly for you. How much different do you anticipate this spring being for your players?
COACH WILLINGHAM: It will be dramatic, I think, if that’s the right word, simply because if you look at the numbers alone, you are talking about roughly 70 guys that are learning a new system this spring, as compared to maybe 20 guys or so. And they will have the ball when that happens. So it’s drastically different than any of the other springs that you’ll go through.
Q. Is your system, especially offensive, difficult to pick up?
COACH WILLINGHAM: I don’t know. It’s hard to compare that. I think the players may be able to give you a better gauge of that, how difficult one system is compared to another.
Q. Is it important for you to get a look at the quarterback situation fairly quickly, is one maybe more suited than the others?
COACH WILLINGHAM: They are all on a level playing field, and they will tell us who the guy is and when the guy is. And I’m very comfortable with that decision until I make it, I think it is, August 30, is that right.
Q. What are your plans for having a spring game?
COACH WILLINGHAM: We will try to do as close as possible to a spring game. But the first thing I always qualify, as I stated, injuries, that limits a great deal of what you can do. So we’ll try to play a game, but if we can’t, we’ll adjust.
Q. With the quarterback candidates that you have — is there’s any quarterback possibily playing another position, that could become part of the mix as well?
COACH WILLINGHAM: I think we’ll stay starting with the guys who played the position last year.
Q. Just wanted to follow up on the quarterback question. You had some interesting choices in your quarterbacks at Stanford. What are the attributes that you are looking for in a quarterback in your system?
COACH WILLINGHAM: Great mind, great arm, great speed, great everything.
Q. Any plans on naming captains during the spring?
COACH WILLINGHAM: No, I’ll be learning our young men until they identify themselves to who the captains will be.
Q. What in particular are you looking for in a captain?
COACH WILLINGHAM: A leader.
Q. Can you expand on that?
COACH WILLINGHAM: A true leader. (Laughter).
Q. I’m thinking my question will probably be longer than the answer —
COACH WILLINGHAM: It probably will be. (Laughter).
Q. Can you give an overview of your staff and what’s going to help you go through this transition?
COACH WILLINGHAM: One, I think it is an experienced staff. If you look at the coaches and the opportunities that they have had, I think it is deep. Yet, at the same time, I think they bring a youthful personality to the program and the interaction with our young men, which I think is always a plus.
Q. Can you talk about the defense, do you get a general sense of fundamentals being important and other coaches talk about different attitudes —
COACH WILLINGHAM: In a very general answer, I am concerned about all of those. I don’t think you just focus in on one area. I think you want great attitude on defense, you want great execution on defense. I think you want all of those. I think you almost want all of those in every area. So to say you just want to concentrate on fundamentals, yes, that’s important, but all of the other things are also equally important.
Q. Offensively, something you need to add between now and the end of spring practice allows you to do the things that you want to do — is there one thing that you are focusing, whether it’s the quickness of the line or the depth of the backfield — I know you’re going to say it’s all of those —
COACH WILLINGHAM: Thank you.
Q. So where the focus will be?
COACH WILLINGHAM: You hit such a nerve with your answer, and I do — and believe me, I’d like to give you a great deal more, but that’s the truth. We want to be good in all of those areas, and they are all important. Do we want that? Gosh, yes, we want that. We want it all.
Q. You talked a few months ago as to recruiting, you mentioned the people you had and people that are committed, evaluating what you have you have to do this spring to get to the fall, any areas that stand out as priorities in recruiting?
COACH WILLINGHAM: I think I said one, we need to go out and continually get the defensive backs because that plays such a heavy role in what you can do as a football team. And so looking at our numbers from last year, I think linebackers is also one of the positions we need to do more work in. So those are a couple.
Q. Have you noticed an attitude of the players, over the winter they talked about how they were getting into it working hard in the off-season?
COACH WILLINGHAM: Yes, but again I kind of defer to our players, to them, to answer that question and their approach and how they feel going into it. But is Coach Willingham excited about our guys and the opportunity we have this spring to become a better football team? Yes.
Q. Wondering whether or not, Coach, you mentioned in the quarterback situation, you said that you were looking for a great mind, a great arm, great speed, great everything. Are you confident that you have that?
COACH WILLINGHAM: That’s what the next 15 days will tell us. We’ll find out exactly what we have, or shall I say, we’ll get closer to it. But again, I remind you as I answered somewhere else this afternoon, the young men that we have, all of the young men we have, we’ll do a great job trying to coach those young men to be the best they can be.
Q. In a more general sense, I’m just wondering I know you are a couple of days from your first practice, but have there been any aspects of the job so far that are surprising or different from what you’ve dealt with in the past at Stanford and other places?
COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, I think in all honesty, I think that this is a different university than Stanford. It has a different location than Stanford’s. It has a different mind set about the university as a whole.
So I don’t think it’s surprising, but, yes it is different, and, of course, that brings about different dynamics.
Thank you.
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