Todd Orlando and Tim Beck quotes - 11/15/17

Todd Orlando

On the defense without Holton Hill: Ok. I told Davante (Davis) I thought there was two balls that Holton would probably have picked off. I’m trying to stay away from that part of it, but I just wanted to be realistic. I think he played, at times, some decent technique, but I think at times when he’s been in position to make plays, his mindset isn’t that way right now. That’s what we have to change. You’re there, you’re a big, tall guy, we’re not in the business of just batting down balls. We’re not in the business of just being on guys and saying ‘I covered him.’ We’re in the business of trying to pick balls off. That’s the biggest thing that I’ve expressed to him, and I didn’t do it in a manner that it’s everything just to continue to build his confidence. That position is a lonesome position, but when you have a tall guy that can run, you’d like to see him, when the ball goes up, finish some. I think that’s all just a process. If you look at his game, his game last year I think it was we weren’t even in the ballpark. Now, we’ve got him into the ballpark. Now, it’s to finish plays.

On facing Will Grier and WVU: They’re spreading out people and getting their guys in space. Grier’s been really, really good. I don’t know his actual weight room numbers, but it seems like nobody can get him on the ground when they have good shots at him. He’s really good at keeping plays alive, getting his eyes down field, and they do a really good job of getting open for him. He’s got a really, really quick release. He can read coverages, and the ball is out. It makes those type of guys very difficult. (Jake Spavital), I think they’ve made a commitment to running the football a lot more. I think coach Holgorsen was the same way last year, but they’re running the ball. They’re getting a lot of credit for the pass yards, but they’re opening up their pass plays by running the football.

On why the defense struggled some last week: KU did a good job, too. They came into our place and I thought, schematically, they did a good job. They had a lot of confidence going into it that they could beat us. They just hung around. In my opinion, there were spots in that game where you start to think ‘okay, what’s going on here?’ They did a good job, especially on third down. Our kids, a pick six, we had three turnovers, and there still was some fluctuation in the game. At the end of the day, our second group gets in there, gives up an 80 yard drive, and you’re talking about holding them to 260. Some of the deep passes? Absolutely. We’ve got to get them cleaned up and we will get them cleaned up, but we won the game.

On Josh Thompson: Right now, he’s with us. We’re going to find out in terms of our depth how we’re going to utilize him. It’s a shell game right now in terms of moving him around to different spots.

On depth at corner behind Thompson: It probably ends up being almost me (laughs). No, we’ll roll some guys in like I talked about it before. John (Bonney’s) a guy who’s played that position before and we’ve got some guys underneath. It’s a little bit of a shell game going into it. I’ll do a good job in terms of if somebody gets in there that is a little bit inexperienced, we’ll do a good job of covering him up.

On if he expects Thompson to play Saturday: Here’s what I’ll say about this. The injury parts of things go through Herman. From my understanding, we’ve got everything in terms of shuffling guys around ready to go.

On comparing Grier to Baker Mayfield: I don’t know. Baker is different because of his personality. In terms of skill level, there’s some similarities to it. I’ve seen Baker for three years. From my standpoint, it’s the one thing that I think he can do a job of is keeping the plays alive and being very accurate. Baker can do that, but there’s just, not to take anything away from him, but Baker Mayfield is Baker Mayfield from my standpoint. We’ll see. Time will tell off of this, but from what I’ve seen on film, kind of a little bit of a different system. They’ll spread the ball out. Here’s what he is: great release, keeps his head downfield, and can scramble around just like Baker. There are some similarities to him, but I’m not, right now, ready to wholesale change and say that. This league never gets any easier. To me, it’s like every week we go into it, we’re seeing one of the top quarterbacks in the country. He’s along that mold, and like I said, we’re going to have our hands full.

On how he wants the season to be perceived: I think it will be perceived in what we do in the next two games, honestly. I think that’s what it comes down to. There’s a lot of close ball games that we didn’t come through when you look at those teams that we lost to. Right now, I don’t know how many there are in the top 12 but there’s quite a few of them. I think what we do in the next two weeks will really kind of say what direction we’re heading to. We’re talking about West Virginia, but I know what’s on everybody else’s mind. I get that part. I’m not naïve to think that. It’s going to be a collection of these last two ball games that’s really going to put a stamp on the season.

On guys who have exceeded expectations 10 games in: I would say DeShon (Elliott) would be one of the guys. Watching his games last year, I knew he could make plays but the consistency that he’s played with, the physicality. There’s a couple of really good hits in the Kansas game. I was impressed with that. Up front, I think Poona (Ford) has been a little bit more solid than he was last year. I don’t know if there’s an absolute shocker or head-scratcher like that. There’s a lot of guys that are getting better.

On guys he might be challenging to improve: Absolutely. You can go down the list. It’s every day, and this is no order but I’d like to see more plays out of Malcolm (Roach). He’s a guy. Brandon Jones is another guy that I’d like to see some more plays out of. There’s a handful of other guys where I know what they are. I’ve seen them in practice. I’ve seen them make dynamic plays. I’d like to see them in the game.

On if he’s seeing offenses begin to account for Breckyn Hager: Not right now, but he’s going to. He’s doing some things. He’s starting to make a name for himself. We will see what people do with him. It hasn’t been noticeable on film, but maybe it will start being noticeable.

On what he saw from Jason Hall: That position, we’ve gotten a little bit of a shuffle game in this Lightning deal. We started off with John (Bonney) in the middle, then we moved DeShon in the middle because that’s a really good spot for a guy with good ball skills and a tackler. In TCU we started off with nickel because we thought they were going to run the football and Bonney’s a little bit small to be up at the line of scrimmage. We wanted to be a Lightning team all the way through, it didn’t matter what personnel grouping. That’s when we made the decision that Jason gives us a little more tail up front to be able to hold the run game. That’s what the ultimate decision was to go along that we think, in our opinion, Jason’s more of a dynamic blitzer than John is. We came into it, a lot of the stuff you saw on third down was to get him revved up because he creates some major league matchups because of how big he is and how fast he is. We can also put him in the back end to do some of the multiple coverage stuff. That was the ultimate decision off of that, and (Hall) is such a guy that’s a utility guy for us, too. He’s going to end up playing in like three spots for us. We’ve got to make sure that he’s able to fluctuate and get to other positions if we do have somebody get hurt. Really proud of Jason. I came in and we all thought that he was going to play really well. There was one play toward the tail end of the game in a deep coverage that he could have done a better job, but outside of that the way he blitzed, ended up getting a pick, a lot of things that I thought he did really well.

On emphasizing takeaways in practice: Every Sunday, we do a circuit. A four turnover circuit. Somebody will catch a ball, somebody will recover a ball, strip-sack, and a second guy in strip. We try to get that going. At the end of the day, it’s someone thinking about stripping a ball than it is about anything else. Trying to emphasize it so when you go to a pile, it’s not about throwing forearms and doing stuff like that. It’s literally about ‘hey I’m going after the ball because this is what I’ve been trained to do.’ We’re trying to do that more. I don’t know if it was a result of what happened in the game or not, but I think the more you emphasize the more you get out of it.

On if the defense is playing loose: I think we’ve stayed pretty consistent. I think what ends up happening at this point in the year, you either become a grab-bag defense because stuff isn’t going really well, or you stay the course. I think as long as we can stay the course, I think the kids will have some confidence. I think at the end of the day, they’ll always play hard if they know what they’re doing and they believe in it. This crew has played hard the whole year in my opinion. Even if you go back and you watch some of the plays in the Maryland game, you can say there were some thing that we could have done better. They play for each other. I think they like being around each other. I think there’s a certain type of knowing when we make a call, what is the reality of the call. What is this guy doing? I know what he’s doing. I know how hard it is so they don’t get into a yelling match like ‘come on, what’s going on with this and what’s going on with that?’ They actually know what’s going on. They’re more willing to cover each other up. To answer your question, they’ve been good because I think we’ve kept it pretty consistent to what we want to get accomplished.

Tim Beck

On QB this week: We’re just repping both guys right now and keeping them both ready. That’s about all I can tell you.

On if he’s leaning a particular way as far as long-term QB: Honestly, right now we’re trying to win this game and who’s going to give us the best chance and who, based on gameplan.

On how members of the incoming class will affect the depth chart: I don’t know. Trust me, I can’t remember five minutes ago to worry about what’s going to happen in the off season. Right now, we’ve got to continue. We showed some signs of life offensively last game. We have to build on that. We’re playing a really good defense, a unique defense, a front and coverage that we have not seen all year. We’ve dived in 22 hours a day to figure out the best way to move the football on these guys.

On if Ehlinger is at 100% and if he’s comfortable playing him: I do. I think coach had mentioned it was our intention to put him in. All parties knew our plan to get him into the game early, to give him some reps. Our hope was maybe to get more of him in the second half, but we kind of hit some road bumps and we needed to work our self through that.

On what the offense does best: It’s hard because it’s ever-changing. Coach, what do you mean? We change running backs, or our o-line may change this week. Sam was playing quarterback, moving along, here’s what you’re going to be, nope he’s out, here comes Shane. It’s hard to say ‘this is what we’re really good at’ when the pieces are constantly changing.

On the impact Connor Williams’ return might have: He’s a tremendous player, a great young man, and he certainly is a competitor and a winner. He’s played a lot of football. Coach Herman could probably talk a little bit more about his status and how it is, but anything we can get out of him would be awesome.

On Lorenzo Joe: One thing about Lo-Joe is in my opinion, he’s probably one of the most consistent receivers. He’s where he needs to be when he needs to be. He understand coverage, leverage. It’s funny, he’s not the tallest guy, he’s not the fastest guy, he’s not the strongest guy, but he just kind of seems to always be open and always making plays. Unbelievable catch on the sideline first play of the second half on the sprint out. Open of the game, great move. Got the corner to turn his hips. It was great to see us finally – we’ve called that play four or five times and overthrew it, underthrew it, got pass interference. We did everything. Finally, it was about time we hit it, you know? He made a big third down catch for us, too. Better ball, he probably stays on his feet and gets more yards. I’ve been really impressed and pleased with how he’s played all year for us.

On moving Chris Warren to TE/HB: I thought Chris did a great job. Chris, he’s a very gifted and talented athlete. He can bend and he’s strong. That’s one thing about him. He’s able to get great leverage on blocks. He’s always been a really good blocker for us. He can do a lot of things. He’s got great hands out of the backfield. I think there’s some things for him, it’s just more tools in his tool belt. He can do all those things. We direct-snapped it to him and he scored a touchdown. We kind of use him wherever we need to use him kind of as a utility man.

On how he chooses running backs for each series: There’s certain plays we want certain guys in at certain times.

On Toneil Carter and why he had limited carries despite 11 YPC: He’s got to hang on to the football.

On Daniel Young: I think one of the things with Danny, what he’s doing right now is he’s getting the tough yards. He’s explosive. He’s breaking tackles. He’s moving the chains for us. You watch when he gets hit in the pile, the pile moves and I could think of early in the game, we handed the ball off and it looked like nothing was there. He came out and it was second and five. That’s what he’s been able to do right now.

On how much Young has changed since the beginning of the season: It was never that he changed. He grew up and got smarter in terms of our offense. He was able to understand. They’re still young guys. Ask Coach Drayton. He pulls his hair out sometimes because they still make mistakes, they’re still young pups, they’re still learning. When things are new, this is a new defense, now all of a sudden it’s ‘okay, here’s our protection.’ ‘Well coach, I’ve got this guy.’ ‘No, no, no. Not in this defense you’ve got that guy.’ ‘But coach, you told me I’ve got this guy.’ ‘I know, but in this defense, you’ve got that guy.’ See what I mean? There’s learning curves for these guys still as young players going through when they see things for the first time.

On the differences between Cuney and Shackelford at center: Not much. I think both of those guys have done a great job for us all year. I think Derek (Warehime)’s been rotating those guys in and out. He watches the pitch count a little bit and makes your rotation try to keep guys healthy as much as we can.

On the impact one guy like Williams can have on the offensive line: It’s not necessarily maybe just one guy, but there’s a sense you have all the bullets in your gun a little bit, or a little bit more bullets. Patrick (Vahe)’s played next to Connor for a couple of years. All of a sudden he’s playing next to a new guy. Those guys communicate all the time. There’s code words and all kinds of things. It’s like having your best friend back. Does it mean it’s going to change the whole offense? I don’t know, but I know it’s going to help the guys up front a little bit.

On having a big package for fourth down play calling: No, not really because, again, you try to figure out what’s their philosophy. Some teams are going to all-out blitz you on fourth downs, some teams are going to play it safe because they don’t know what you’re going to do. So you try to get a feel of what they’re going to do and how you want to attack them. As far as, “is that good?,” yeah, I mean it is, but it also hurts your third down percentage. If it’s third and six and we run it for four, to get fourth and two and go for it, then on third down, we’re 0-1. So your third down percentages don’t look as good, although you converted the fourth down because in your mind you knew that’s what you were going to do. Your calls are different. You’re not trying to get the first down. You’re trying to get the fourth and one or two and feel really good. That happened in that game — we ran Shane (Buechele) on a play and he gained three or four yards and we came back and got the first down on the next play.

On Lil’Jordan Humphrey: I think he’s another one of those guys who’s been a consistent big play guy for us pretty much all year. You go back to Baylor, he caught the corner route in the end zone. You go back to TCU, he caught the big, long inside route on the go. He’s made a lot of big plays for us this year. Obviously, we’re trying to get the ball to those guys when they’re feeling it. He’s a big guy. He can run. He’s a tough matchup for teams. Obviously, he played running back in high school, so to direct snap him the ball is nothing.

On balancing the need to use max-protect with getting passing yards: It is. You hope through scouting and breakdowns that you can figure out their philosophy enough to be right the majority of the times. You’re not going to be perfect. Nobody’s ever called a perfect game, nobody’s ever played a perfect game. You sit there and say ‘okay, in this situation they play this defense this percentage of the time so we’re safe doing this.’ Is it going to be right 100 percent? No, and you try to give them ‘if this happens, here’s your out’ so to speak. That’s kind of what you go with.

On how QB sacks affect the offense: It does. You’re not going in the right direction when that happens.

On confidence level of the offense with need to win one game to get to a bowl: Obviously we get evaluated on W’s and L’s. We understand that. I mentioned last week in our program you have to lay bricks, you have to lay a foundation. We feel like we’re doing that. I think our players really believe in that, too. I think they really feel like this is a changed culture, that they can literally go into every game and win. I wasn’t here so I can’t necessarily say that was true, but there seemed to be an attitude here where I don’t know if they really believed that deep down inside. I think that’s changing. That leads into your second part of your question, how do they feel going in? They’re preparing to win the game. That’s what they’re preparing to do. We’re working hard to come up with the best plan. They’re practicing really hard. I think that their mindset is ‘hey coach, what do we have to do to win the game?’ Hey guys, let’s go out there and do this, give our best effort for this game, and let’s be 1-0 this week. That’s it. Just be 1-0 this week. Don’t worry about anything else, just lock arms, let’s go get on an airplane, fly to West Virginia, and try to be 1-0.

On right tackle: First of all, the whole thing with Connor will come down. I don’t know where that is. I don’t know. Coach Herman will know more about that through our people downstairs in the training room and Connor himself, how he feels and all that other stuff. As far as a rotation, I don’t necessarily see a huge rotation. Derek (Kerstetter)’s played really well for us. Not that Denzel (Okafor) and Tristan (Nickelson) haven’t, they’ve done a good job in there for us, and I know they will play. Those guys will end up playing