Tyrique Stevenson blog: We know we have to clean up a lot, but D is coming together ... have to focus on little things

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CB Tyrique Stevenson will have a weekly blog all season at CaneSport.com. In this edition, Stevenson talks about the defense’s play in the opener, breaks down a bust he had and looks ahead:

WE GOT COACH CRISTOBAL OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT

The first game over, it feels great just being able to be back out there. I took a whole spring off, so it was just a great, wonderful feeling to be out there at Hard Rock again. Everybody was just excited, you know? New coaching staff, new program, new everything. Just being able to go out there week 1 and being able to actually practice against somebody else, be able to go out and have a full game. Just I wouldn’t say anxious, but more of an excited, ready-to-go feeling.

Coach Cristobal, it was his first game as head coach, but his only thing is how you do anything is how you do everything. He sticks to that pretty much. He secluded the nerves he had, pressure he was facing by just staying the same person.

By his speech and how we practiced, he wanted his first game to be a big alert that he’s here and he’s here to stay and this team is here and we want to dominate all season. For us as players, it’s really not about them, though. Coaches changes happen at different levels with the coaches, so it’s really about us as a team. We were happy to go out there as a team finally, prove and answer a lot of questions. I think the coaches had their part in it, and we understood where the coaches were coming from. Us as a team, we were ready to go out there and showcase what we’ve got this year.

MY PROCESS LEADING UP TO THE GAME

We go to the hotel the night before, and I don’t even know what hotel it was because I was asleep on the bus, we just rolled up at the hotel. Friday was a long day of meetings, preparations.

The night before the game talked to the DB group, asked them boys how they feel. Everybody was locked in, everybody was ready. We got to the hotel, we chilled together for a little bit. Everybody went in their room and started preparing for the next day.

Everybody, it wasn’t like military style but everybody was in their own land, locked in. You ask if you’re ready, it was more of a mental thing, go over your job, the details but also relax. Get off your feet on Friday, because Saturday it’s time to go to war. So Friday a real relaxed mental day but stressed mentally too.

Then gameday, what goes through your mind is it’s time to get paid. Put in the work all week, all summer, just trying to get paid. That’s the only thing I tell myself up to game day: You prepared for this, you’re ready for it, it isn’t anything you haven’t seen, you shouldn’t be nervous about it. Just time to get paid, all the work you put in, it’s time to go cash it in now.

Get to the stadium, the whole Canes Walk I’m just blank, trying to silence out the noise. I’m here for a job, to go showcase who I am, what I do and put on for my family. It’s pretty much silent until actually we go out as a team. And there’s pregame jitters. Being able to be in this position I’m in, being able to play this dangerous game of football always brings the jitterbugs, but never too much where I’m second-guessing myself.

For me, I prepare for every game the same. I don’t look at it different just because of the logo or opponent. Everybody who I’m playing is coming in to ball, do their thing. They’ve been putting in work, preparing for this situation just like me.

WE’RE CONFIDENT IN THE D, BUT WORK TO DO

We definitely felt confident, but we definitely feel we need to clean up a lot. Even though we had a good game and a lot of good things happened, we still have some holes and areas we need to clean up that down the road some opponents might try to expose. As a defense we’re coming together and we are understanding and taking criticism and will apply it. Great game for us as a whole defense. All of us are ready, all of us played a huge part, did some great things but also have a lot to clean up.

Like their first drive, it was `Let’s lock in.’ New opponent, the jitters is pretty much what it was. So it’s `Let’s get the jitters out, play our game, go through our rules, go through our progressions, stuff we’ve been seeing. This is nothing new, we’ve been seeing this practice after practice. So just pretty much the jitters. And we went into this game knowing they had some athletes. There were guys out there not as blessed as us on this DI program, but nothing is different about it. They had good players, and the majority of their players came out to play.

There also was the play where they got me on the deep ball. I was frustrated about it, the majority of the rest of the game frustrated. But at the same time I can’t blame anybody but myself. Lack of discipline, lack of technique, just a lack of everything on that play and I put myself in that hole. They caught it at the right time, caught me being lazy. And my coach has been on me all spring about it, all summer, all fall camp about it. Just something I need to work on as an individual and happened to get exposed the first game, which is okay, is good. All I’m going to do is take that back to the lab and make sure that doesn’t happen anymore.

That helped me `don’t underestimate anybody’ and don’t ever take a moment on that field for granted because you never know when it’ll be the next time that ball is coming toward you. That’s something coach Addae preaches, he says as soon as you relax the ball seems to find you. And on that whole drive I’d say I was pretty much relaxing due to me not being in the game so much and I got exposed. That’s something I have to work on and something is definitely going to change. Everything is 110 percent from now on, and when I give everything I’ve got, I’ve still got a little more in the tank.

Other than that one drive I did pretty well. Just like everybody else, I know I have to get back into the lab, critique not a lot but some things that can help me be a better football player, a more elite player for this secondary and this defense in all. I know what it is and the coaches told me what it is. I’m just taking that all in and just using this week and the rest of the weeks and season to build on the small things that can help me be a better player.

I STILL FEEL WE’RE BEST SECONDARY IN NATION

I’m very excited about the DBs. I feel we can be the best, feel we are the best secondary in the nation. We just have to keep striving, keep chopping wood, keep showcasing that each game.

I’ll do my part. I tell myself `You prepared for this, you did the hard things and now it should be easy. You worked yourself into this position, now go get it. Go chase it, fulfill what you’ve been planning and what you’ve been working toward.’

I’ll also add that there are things we have to fix as a DB group. We all came in the day after the game, the coaches gave us their breakdown of each player and we took that as a mature group, as – like coach Steele told us – we don’t need to come here and tell you everything you did good. You know you did it good because you went and found it yourself. So  he gave us everything we needed to work on. He wasn’t cussing us out, wasn’t putting us down, telling us `You need to fix this or this is going to happen.’ He was like `Here’s your blueprint, here’s the holes, fix them.’ And I feel like as a defense we took that as a mature group, took that whole entire Sunday working on that, detailing on the little holes we’ve got in our defense.

THE SMALL THINGS MATTER

The only thing I would say, coaches have different types of philosophy on how they go about things, how they do stuff. The biggest thing is the small details, small things that happen and the small things that play a part in the long run. So it was pretty much the smaller details, treating even the smaller details like it was a large detail, making sure everything was always secured and making sure the small details are just as big as the big ones, on one even plane.

An example of those small details: We went into special teams a little bit more and I could just get one detail on special teams. He’s real big on – our special teams coach said give the kicker a yard to get in front of you so you won’t be offsides. And we went out there in practice and some people did it right, some did it wrong, and we kept doing it over and over and over till everybody got to understanding it. Let him get one yard and then you take off so you’re not slowing down. That’s just one example. The thing you probably don’t even care about, do without thinking, he’s on top of it.

And special teams is important. You saw a blocked field goal and extra point in that Florida State game. That’s something Maloof is real big on. Even on field goals, that’s what he wants us to understand. At the biggest time of the game the smallest detail matters. I’m sure LSU, they’ve done that rep a thousand times, he just did it lackadaisical, didn’t put too much effort into it because it’s a normal thing to do. And something bad came from it and they lost the game.

The coaches preaching the little things, pushing us to do that, and then to see another team go out there and do the exact thing they told us not to do and have us see it – it makes you believe in the coaches and what they are talking about just a little bit more. And it might not matter now, it might matter Game 8. You get to Game 8 and you’re not doing it the same, as locked in as you are Game 1 and Game 2, it can come back and bite you.

THE MINDSET WITH SOUTHERN MISS UP NEXT

The mindset now is 1-0. Every day be 1-0 because you never know when you’ll be able to play this game again and just like last week we don’t want to underestimate anybody and put anybody under because they are coming in and they just lost a hardfought game. So they are coming in with a little chip on their shoulder. Who wouldn’t want to beat the University of Miami? So we’re all just preparing like we’re the No. 1 team in the nation.

I also know we’ll be playing against Frank Gore, Jr. I know him from being around some people from the Grove. Met him and his dad one day. Me and him, we’re pretty good friends, you know? He’s got his dad’s blood. I think it runs in their veins. He’s a pretty good back, good athlete. If you watch film he’s out there running Wildcat, out there throwing. He’s a pretty good athlete and I’m happy for him.

For us, I feel like the preparation we’re going through and the small details, we’ll be able to go out there and play our best game yet. Following that we’re going to keep improving.