Ja'Juan Seider transcript: New Notre Dame running backs coach on spring practice goals

New Notre Dame running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider spoke to the media in South Bend for the first time Wednesday. Here’s everything he said.

On why now was the right time to go from Penn State to Notre Dame

“It was never easy. You’ve been at a place seven years. The type of room that we have built at Penn State, the culture with those kids, it’s time, right? There’s never the right time, you know, never the bad time. Sometimes you’re at the back end where you don’t have any control of it and the staff gets let go and you got to leave. And you’re on a staff where you win and you don’t have to leave.

“But we talked about it, me and the family. It was just like, you say ‘no’ every year. You don’t want to also be complacent either. It was just — it was Notre Dame. It was Marcus Freeman. We built a relationship 14 years ago when we were young coaches in this profession through Gerad Parker, who used to be here. Just went to Purdue, and we were on the road together. We kind of hit it off. It’s almost like, I’m telling my wife sometimes, like talking to myself. I talk to him, I’m talking to myself. And we just stayed in touch. We just stayed in touch.

“We always said that it would take something special for us to leave, whether it’s a head coach, coordinator position. There were some chances with NFL teams, but when this opportunity came, we thought hard about it. We turned the phone off for a couple of days on purpose. Only talked to anyone else a little bit here and there.

“We just said it was time to do something different. Go challenge yourself. Go walk in different shoes. And I felt comfortable doing that because at the end of the season last year, when I met with my two kids that came back, I told them, do not come back to Penn State to come back for me. Make sure if you come back, you come back for your own selfish reason or you leave for your own selfish reason and I will support you in any manner I can.”

On his general philosophy of coaching a running backs room

“To me, as a coach, I always believe you coach the bottom of your roster no different than how you coach the top of your roster. And that’s how you build depth because your fifth needs to become your one, and so you got to prepare like that throughout the week. So I always believe, and throughout the weeks, as we get into the season, try to have four guys ready because it’s hard to get five and six guys ready.

“But have four guys in a rotation where they can learn. They can have a process. If you’re ready to play in the game, because there’s an ankle injury, right? We play a physical game. We are the one position where every play somebody’s trying to hit you, right? And so we have to have guys ready. We have to build depth to get to the championship, which Notre Dame, did. You got to have depth. Injuries happen. I thought one of the greatest things to go play against this team last year, from my offensive point of view, they have a lot of injuries, and you never knew the difference who was in the game. Was the guy injured or was this guy playing all year? It’s a testament to this program and what Coach Freeman is doing.”

On what it’s like being at Notre Dame now vs. when he was a player for West Virginia in the 1990s

“Very different. I was on the winning side this time. We ended up losing that game close. I really didn’t get the chance to feel Notre Dame when you come in as a visiting team, because you just come in for business. You come to play the game, win, lose, go home, right?

“Like Chris [Ash] said, when I got here it was first class. When you come on this campus, you feel Notre Dame. Whatever it is, I don’t know what it is, how to explain it, but it just felt different. You walk different, you talk different, you stand up different, you sit different.

“And I just think it’s from the top. Meeting with Father Bob, meeting with [indiscernible] in academics, meeting with Freeman, him come to pick us up from the airport. It was just first class. You understand why now. You feel the why of Notre Dame. It’s special, and that’s why it’s only one Notre Dame.”

On if he’s thought of coaching Jeremiyah Love, the player who scored a crazy touchdown against Penn State in the Orange Bowl

“Well, you see everything when you compete and there is a game going back and forth. So I really didn’t have a chance to look at it that way because I was trying to make sure I handled the vibes where I come from the right way, meeting with those kids to make them understand ‘why’ behind this decision, right? Because they’re coming back wanting to be coached again by me. And that was hard because they’re not just my football players — they become part of your family, they become part of my kids.

“So once I can make them understand the reason behind, the ‘why’ I’m leaving, the opportunities I have in front of me, I told him them same way — you go to the NFL, you’re gonna leave, right? This is an opportunity for me to step out and do something different. So now, to your point of Jeremiyah Love, I saw that touchdown. It was a big part of the game. But now I get to dive into these kids and kind of see what they do well and areas we can clean up. But they’ve been coached really well. [Deland McCullough] is a really good coach who I had a ton of respect fo.

“So like I told the kids, you’ve been coached well. Now you get to be coached again and now you get to learn something different from somebody else. Now you can add that to your arsenal and make you an even better player.”

On his approach to running back rotations

“When you go recruit these kids and you sit down and you talk to the family, you talk about taking care of the kids, right? You talking about the one position that everybody trying to hit you. All 11, at some point, trying to hit you at this position, whether you run the ball, blocking, you catch the ball so.

“And then there’s a part of us, if we get these high level players that’s going to play on Sundays, we got to make sure these kids are leaving with tread on their tires, right? And you may play 60 snaps a game, but I got to make sure my best players are in for the right 30 to 40 snaps a game. So when I can, you can take Jeremiyah Love and give him a break as he needed to have him strong in that fourth quarter to go win a game like he did versus us in the Orange Bowl. That’s smart coaching.

“It’s like game play; you don’t always call the pass, but you’re gonna mix in runs and mix in screens — it’s the same way with navigating the room. Now, you gotta earn what you get, right? And I believe that if you can go out and show me you can pass protect on third down, because I’m big on— to me, that’s where the trust come in, knowing you can protect that quarterback because you every guy in that room wants to play on Sunday. Well, if you can’t protect Pat Mahomes, you’re not gonna be on the field. So we always are going to start with the foundation of protection because if I’m teaching you how to run, we recruited the wrong guy, right? And I’m an ex-quarterback, so I can kind of tell them and explain what it’s like to play next to that guy, the quarterback. Understand the little things that you do and why you gotta do it.”

On his strengths as a recruiter

“I mean, it’s about relationships. Establishing relationships, establishing trust with the players. But it’s not just the player. It’s the family. Those kids didn’t get there by themselves. It’s the mom, the dad, it may be the grandparent that’s raising that kid. It may be the uncle. It may be that person at the school that you don’t think about, maybe a custodian that’s really close to that guy, whoever that may be. And to me, it’s just finding out the decision makers. Who are they? Who’s helping this kid make decisions, right? Because there’s a transitional world we in right now with NIL and revenue sharing that’s come along, but at some point it’s got to be even, right? And what’s going to separate when Notre Dame can pay this, and Ohio State can pay this, Penn State can pay that? It’s relationships.

“We can all say we got the same thing but at the end of the day, that kid can come to me because I build the best relationship. That’s a little bit of trust. And there’s a little bit, okay, I can trust this coach for development. He’s gonna be there through my tough time. Every kid is gonna go through homesickness, right? Whether you’re 15 minutes down the road, you’re on your own for the first time. Mom’s not there making your bed, fixing you breakfast. So it comes down to relationships.

“And then it comes down to outworking people. If you’re going sit around and not gonna communicate with a kid and a parent, well, somebody else is. And to me, I never change because I’m going outwork you. I take recruiting the same way I take coaching, the same way I play — I want to be the best at it, and I hate losing, so I’m going do everything I can to get my opportunity to win.”

On people who propped him up to become a coach

“Well, it started with parents. Both parents are coaches down in Florida. Doc Holliday, who recruited me to West Virginia, was a big reason why I got into college coaching, because I tried to run from it, and he wouldn’t let me run. He came and got me, brought me to West Virginia. I was married with three kids and had an opportunity to come in and be a GA but allowed to coach the quarterbacks.

“So Doc, a guy named Calvin McGee, who’s not here no more. Big mentor to me as a running backs coach because I never played. I was a dual-threat quarterback but never was a running back. We talked the game and he was one of the best in the game.

“And then I kind of built myself as a coach by the people I’m around. Doc to me, was the best recruiter I’ve ever been around. Relentless. So I take that approach I learned from him. I work with Dana Holgorsen, who I think is one of the brightest offensive lines I ever been around, who made football easy. So I learned Xs and Os from him. You take bits and pieces.

“I didn’t work with [Jim] McElwain long. I was with him for a year down at the University of Florida, but he’s super smart. You just embrace everything he did at Alabama and all the other places. You learn a little bit from him. And then you go with James Franklin, I’ve been there for seven years, who I think in my career at this point was the best CEO ever been around. He just had his hands on everything throughout the program.

“So you learn, you observe from the people in front of you. And that’s kind of how I built myself as a coach. So you can step out in different areas and learn how to handle how to call in plays. It’s learning to recruit. Just learn to run your room because he was big on being a head coach of your room, right? We always believe in high production, low maintenance, and that’s the type of kids I want in my room. If you’re chasing a kid off the field, he’s not handling his business, how is he going to handle it on the field? So we really believe in that, and that’s kind of the foundation of how I coach.”

On Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love, Jadarian Price and Aneyas Williams

“Well, I mean, J Love, he can pretty much do it all. He can make you miss in the phone booth.

“Aneyas for a young kid, just solid. You really watch him play in the game, and the way he attacks blocking, he’s got elite ball skills. I can’t remember what down it was, but it was a man defense, and I saw a middle linebacker run out with him. He catches a 40 yard pass. That was a big part of the game. So a ton of respect for him.

“Jadarian, he’s an explosive kid. Any time the ball is in his hands he can take it the distance. So that’s kind of what I see in the kids. I don’t have a true breakdown on all they can do yet, because, again, I’m just getting into it. I’m trying to learn right and left at this point.

“So I tell you, the kids are really eager. The best thing we talked about right now is being uncomfortable in a good way. I’m uncomfortable, right? This is new for me. I haven’t done it seven years, so to do it again, and the kid being uncomfortable with a different style of coaching, right? I might be playing with their footwork. I might be talking about their hand placement. And I say that’s all good because when you leave here, you go to NFL, guess what? You’re going to be coached different.

“So learn it now. Learn how to adapt. And I think the kids, having a chance to work with them the last two days this week, that’s been really awesome.”

On what former Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker said about being a coach with the Irish

“Really it was more about, for us at this point in relationship, when you work at Penn State, Notre Dame, the demands are the same, right? The expectations are to win at these two places. So to me, I think he was the middle man for me and Freeman. So it was good to just have somebody who understand both of us, who understand Notre Dame and worked at Penn State.

“So when you’re making a tough decision like this, it’s always good to have a friend that doesn’t try to talk you into something. Doesn’t try to talk you out of something. Just listen and kind of go through his experience of what he’d been through and how special he felt Notre Dame stood for him and his family.

“It was easy, not just for me, but for my wife, having [Parker’s wife] to talk to who’s been through this process. So it was a family decision, and we’re happy with this decision we made.”

On Jadarian Price’s jewelry NIL deal

“I was joking with him this morning calling Mr. TMZ. I said, ‘You’re famous already.’ You hook the room up, but don’t tell my wife and kids about this jewelry, though.”

On helping the Notre Dame offense beyond being a running backs coach

“First of all, you got to come in and be a sponge. I’ve been around people, and I never want to be that guy, ‘Hey, Mike, you’re doing it this way but we did it that way.’ Well it ain’t about what I did at that place. It’s about what we’re doing here at Notre Dame. So just trying to be a piece of the puzzle. And if he asks for maybe an opinion or example, ‘Hey, Jay, how do you guys do this at Penn State that kind of fits what we’re doing?

“So any time you can fit something that that’s already similar to the situation, the system that we already in, it’s easy to implement something. I think my value will be to come with the running backs and teach them how the quarterback sees the game. We’re always talking about in our room, playing from the neck up. Just like quarterbacks, you see safety rotation kind of tell you what the defense is doing. Hey, it can be cover two, can spin the cover three, whatever, right? So I need to teach the backs to see that. It’s going to allow them to play smarter, right?

“We’re already talented enough in that room, so we can play from the neck up. We can anticipate the front changes from three down to four down on blitz, and your ID changes because now the shade goes away, the five technique comes inside. So really teach those kids that and make them understand. Now we got a chance to be maybe a little bit more explosive in the area where we weren’t because maybe they wouldn’t train that way. I don’t know that because I’m just learning the kids. So I’m just giving you the background how I would coach it.”

On his goals for Notre Dame spring practices

“To me, you kind of know some of the stuff they do well already. I want to know what they do not do well. I want to know the weakness so I can help them grow in that area. One thing I told them today after we broke this morning, I like for you guys to text me three to five things individually that you want to grow in that area. And a lot of times when you get that information, you may design a drill that may be contact balance. It may be hand placement and protection, but you’re only going to know your blind spots if you really recognize them and you own them.

“I may be a guy who can only run with the ball in my right hand. Maybe I need to work a little bit more with my left hand. So you just try to find those little details and help them grow.

“When I was a young coach, the best thing I did was spend time with O line, right? I want to know why a big guy can kick back and move as fast as he can. He can play on his in-step. A lot of times you go watch backs block, they play on their feet, and they weigh on the outside foot of the toes, right? So you can’t move. Now you’re on your heels, and you get bull rushed. I learned that so I can incorporate it in the room. Little things like that.

“And even offseason, always make the running backs go run routes with receiver. Who runs routes better than receivers? Maybe tight ends? But at least you will learn that part of the game so you continue to grow your game. Because the guys that want to play on Sundays got to be three-down backs, right? That’s the guys who are going to make their money. That’s the Saquons of the world. That’s the kid Gibbs in Detroit. So you try to give examples because that’s who the want to be in the future.”