Eric Mangini Press Conference: 8/6 - Thu, Aug 6 2009 at 7:03 pm
(Opening statement)- “Hi everybody. How are we doing? Sorry for the delay, I was in a meeting. A couple things on yesterday, we were really focused on, in the second practice, was a lot of situational work. You probably saw that out there. Some of those were last plays from all different areas of the field. You don’t know when that is going to come up. You don’t know how it’s going to come up or where it’s going to come up, but it’s going to decide the outcome of the game so you try to put a plan in place to deal with those different things.
“You probably saw some of the kickoffs right after stretching and the O and D going out. That is to simulate the start of the game. We stretch just like you would and then you go right into the start of the game. That’s called, either by the quarterback and a player on defense, or the coordinators. It varies a little bit. Whatever happens, happens. If they get first downs and continue the drive, it continues. If not, they punt the ball and we continue on with practice. We did the same thing yesterday right after we took the break. We simulate halftime, kickoff again and do the start of the second half. It gets the guys going from that early phase, where you haven’t done any of the drill work, you haven’t done any of those things, into football like you would in a game situation. You’re stretching and you loosen up and then you talk about things, but then you have to go play. Then you take the break, halftime, regroup, go back out, kick the ball off, or receive it, whatever the case may be, and see what happens. It’s also allowing the quarterbacks to call some of their own plays in those situations or some of the linebackers to do that sort of thing. You also get a sense for what they like, what they gravitate towards, and that’s important too.
“Today we’ll be continuing our install. It will be a heavier run emphasis, here, this afternoon. This is the time of camp where each person individually has to push and the group has to push to make sure there is no wasted opportunities in this process for us to get better.”
(On if he ever allows the quarterbacks to call their own plays in practice)- “Yesterday they were able to call their own plays, each one got either the start of the first half, start of the second half, and I do that not only during training camp, but also during the year. We’ll do some two minute drives in a Wednesday practice. The drive itself is conditioning based but it’s all against our D and often times they’ll call that, as opposed to that two minute drive being specific to the opponent.”
(On if they practiced calling timeouts yesterday)- “Yes, we were practicing that. It’s going out to assess what’s happening. If you have a timeout left at that point, what are you going to do with it? They don’t let you carry it over. In our mind, we try to maximize the fact that we have it left to sense what is going on and go back to the sideline and talk about it, see whether or not we like the play. If we do, go forward, if not, change it.”
(On the Brown and White Scrimmage)- “It’s as much like game day as it can possibly be, including a pregame itinerary, coaches in the booth, teams split up, head coaches for each team. The officials come in, they’ll meet with the head coach, and the head coach will address the team. They’ll come out and there will be a coin toss. There will be TV timeouts. It’s full operation across the board. It’s going to be good for all of us to get down to the stadium. There are obviously a lot of people who have familiarity with working in the stadium, but for those of us that aren’t as familiar, especially from the home team’s perspective, to get used to that and to see where we are operationally. The operation is bigger than just what’s going on the field. It’s the trainers knowing where everything needs to be, how it needs to be set up. It’s each part of the organization doing their job on game day to make sure it’s as efficient as possible. It helps the team and then it helps the whole organization. What we’re looking forward to is a large crowd. Ideally, we have to get a lot of fans out there and they can cheer for Brown or they can cheer for White.”
(On if it will be a controlled scrimmage)- “It will be 10 minute quarters. We’ll have NFL officials there. We’ll have a full crew of officials. It’s as close as we possibly can, I cut the quarters down a little bit because of the amount of guys that we have. It’s tough to go the full 15. It’s not full tackling. The officials get to make the decision. They have the final call. Wherever he would have been down, he’s down and their call is final. We’re not tackling the quarterback. We’re not running into the kicker or any of those things. It’s controlled in that sense, but whatever the scoreboard shows, that’s what they have to react to.”
(On if it will be first team against first team)- “It’s going to be all split up. We try to make it as competitive as possible. You want it tight going into the fourth quarter. We want to see what happens. It’s been a great teaching tool.”
(On if it will look like a real game to fans)- “Yes, we’ll have the field goal team, field goal block team, score board. I don’t think we’ll have instant replay. The head coaches do have the [review] flag. If they throw the flag the officials go out. They talk about it. One year we had them talk about it and make a decision. Another year we had them flip a coin. Since we don’t have their ability to go in the replay booth, you may get the challenge, you may not get the challenge. I may decide that I want them to get the challenge or not get the challenge.”
(On if the coordinators will be the head coaches for the scrimmage)- “It’ll actually be Brad (Seely) and Tater, Carl Smith, they will be the head coaches.”
(On if he will be on the field or in the booth)- “I’ll be on the field. I’ll have a headset to both teams, so I can just click and hear what the play is offensively or defensively. The older guys on the staff are the head coaches.”
(On if it is better for the team to scrimmage each other or another team)- “I like doing this against each other, because it still is practice and you still want to be conscientious of maximizing all the situations you have. Creating as much of a reality as you possibly can, but also controlling that process, knowing that we’re going into a four-game preseason schedule and the rest of the season. That’s why I gravitate towards that.”
(On if there will be live tackling during the scrimmage)- “It definitely won’t be taking to the ground. We’re always conscious with the players, we tell them to try to keep guys up. When a receiver catches a ball, you’re trying to defend the ball, but no point do we want to throw the receiver down. That’s a huge point of emphasis for me. Go out, be competitive, show the things you need to show, work on the things you need to work on, but also be smart. These are our teammates. These are people that we care about. You have to have that mutual respect, where everybody can work hard, but also not put anybody in a position where they could get hurt. To me that’s not right, and that’s not acceptable.”
(On if he views the scrimmage as a landmark in camp or just another practice)- “I think it’s another tool in the teaching process. You’re trying to simulate the game. One thing you can’t simulate is the unpredictably of the game. As many situations as you think of, as many things as you go through, there’s countless other ones that’s you could cover. This way here, it gets guys in the moment. It gets guys calling plays in real time. It’s as close as you can get.”
(On if he has to hold back the rookies’ physicality because they are trying to make an impression)- “It’s everybody. It really is, Jeff (Schudel), because when you get a group of intensely competitive men together, who are working to make the team, and all of those things that come with it, there has to be a conscious effort to really protect the group. Everybody is responsible for that. Everybody shares ownership of that.”
(On what he has learned about Shaun Rogers)- “He is really, really difficult to block, really difficult to block. He is incredibly athletic for a man that size, fast, has good instincts and is really difficult to block.”
(On how Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn are throwing)- “What I’m not really going to do is get into a day-by-day analysis of it. To me, it’s all part of the bigger process. There will be days where Brady may be a little bit better and D.A. may be a little bit better in the afternoon practice or segments of practice. What I’m looking for is the person that is going to consistently show that he should be the starter. Right now it goes back and forth. There are different periods where both guys make a really strong argument.”
(On if he is pleased with Anderson and Quinn)- “Yes, I am definitely pleased with what they are doing because of their approach to the process. That is something that I asked for right from the beginning and they’ve been great about it. I want them to be intensely competitive. That part is built in, but they are also teammates and we are all part of a bigger team, so it’s important to help each other and help everybody else out. There are a lot of competitions going on throughout camp. You can have that competition and put your best foot forward while also helping your teammates get better and helping the team get better.”
(On Donte’ Stallworth)- “Nothing has really changed in terms of our contact with the league on the matter, so at this point I really have nothing to add to it. That is kind of where we’re at.”
(On Kenyon Coleman)- “Kenyon, I never heard this nickname in New York, but I’ve heard them call him here, ‘Hercules.’ I don’t know how he earned that nickname. He is a very stout player. He is very physical, plays with excellent technique. He is another guy who is just an outstanding person, an outstanding teammate. You couldn’t ask for a better guy to have as part of this organization. All those things he brings in terms of his physical presence, combined with the intangibles, I’m very happy he is here.”
(On if Kenyon Coleman needs to improve his pass rush)- “All defensive linemen like to get sacks, just like DBs like to get picks and receivers and backs like touchdowns. Everybody plays a role in the process and he plays his role in it. If he gets two sacks, or if he gets ten sacks, he’d be exactly the same guy. He’ll continue to work on that skill set diligently, like he always does, and he has some pass rush ability. That’s what I’m asking for though, is coordinated defense.”
(On if he emphasizes to the team to treat the scrimmage like a game)- “It’s as close as we can get to a game at this point. What I’m looking for is, we’ve done a lot of work on situations throughout OTAs and the minicamps and then we concentrate on that as well throughout training camp. Now, those situations are going to come up, not in a period that says four minute or a period that says two minute. It’s going to come up within the context of a bigger picture. When the different second and one, second and fifteen, all of those things are going to come up, but you don’t know who they are going to come up against. They all have certain elements to it that I want to see an awareness of. That’s what I’m looking forward to seeing.”
(On Titus Brown as a pass rusher)- “He’s got some good power when he rushes. He continues to work with not just Matt (Eberflus), but with Bryan Cox on the pass rush. We mix those guys up, where sometimes they’ll be with the d-line coach, sometimes they’ll be with the linebacker coach in that area. I like his power. I like the way that he’s been working on building his bag of moves. I’m pleased with the way he’s working at it.”
(On how important a lead fullback is to the run game as a lead and how Lawrence Vickers has looked)- “Ideally, in the running game, the F position can be filled by a true fullback or filled by a tight end and they’re able to play both those spots. Now you can build a lot of the runs out of 12 personnel, which is a one back set, with two tight ends, two wide receivers, but you can get to 21, which is two backs, one tight end, three receivers. You can get to that out of 12 personnel. As you come out, 12 says one thing to the defense and should get one style of defense. Then you can come back in and build 21 sets, two back sets and run all those runs. In terms of Lawrence, he’s done well with the scheme runs that we’ve put in. A lot of them do involve the fullback at the point of attack. Some of them involve them at the backside. He’s continuing to work on his hand placement, his leverage, all those things that come along with being a really good fullback.”
(On Branndon Braxton)- “Branndon has some athleticism that we liked for the position when he was coming out of college and we thought that we would like to see that in pads and in the system. He’s done a nice job, like a lot of the rookies, he’s adjusting, but he’s done a nice job with the things that we’ve asked him to do. He has a long way to go, like all these guys do. I see some gains as me move forward here.”
(On what he wants to accomplish from the scrimmage and what he hopes the players get out of the scrimmage)- “One thing I hope, is I hope we get a lot of Browns fans there so that the guys that aren’t familiar with Cleveland can really appreciate what it means to play here and their passion, their energy. How important it is to the fans and what an experience that is. That would be one thing that I’d like. My goal from a football perspective is to see the learning that we’ve done, the teaching that we’ve done throughout this process leading up to this point, in all the different areas, put in to action in a game situation. Hopefully both sides do really well.”
