	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 5, 2018

Harlon Barnett

Tallahassee, Florida

Q. We didn't get a chance to talk to you during the spring. How pleased were you with the progress in picking up your system, and the progress also during the summer?
COACH HARLON BARNETT: Very pleased. Like Coach said, lethal simplicity, and I think that's why we mesh so well together. The guys from day one to the spring game, they really picked everything up and the more comfortable they got with the defense, the better each individual looked, so we looked better as a defense overall.

So there's still some room to grow, obviously and some things that we still got to get better at, but very pleased with how they progressed from day one to day 15.

As far as the summer is concerned, like Coach mentioned, we were big on teaching football IQ this summer, understanding certain things about offenses in certain situations, because we are so simple.

The reason we stay simple on defense is so that they are not thinking about their job, as much as: I know my job; now how are these guys trying to attack us or how are they trying to attack me individually.

So that's something we were teaching them, football IQ this summer, and we feel very good about it and we're going to see the results of it hopefully on this week, starting with tomorrow.

Q. What was it like when you first heard from Florida State? Obviously you got a job at a place you love. What made you decide Florida State was a fit for you?
COACH HARLON BARNETT: Well, and I told this story over and over so many times, I got it locked down, but I'll give it again real quick to you guys.

At Michigan State, 2016, 3-9, bad year. Our worst year up there. So we come back, 2017, and we're all focused, ready to get it done, we just changed some things up how we practiced and this and that and the other, go 9-3 in the regular season.

So we totally flipped our record, and then we go out to San Diego and play in the Holiday Bowl and beat Washington State and go 10-3.

That night after the game, I get a text from Coach Woodie. That was one guy I knew on Coach Taggart's staff from when he was a head high school coach in Palmetto. I used to recruit down there and we had a relationship that way.

He text me: "Call me. Important." I still got it on my phone, I'm never going to erase it. "Call me, important."

I'm like, man, he didn't even congratulate us on the win, man, we won -- for get it, whatever (Laughter) this is late at night. This is like midnight because it was late. I was out there in San Diego, Pacific time and the game was a night game. So, you know, it was late.

So the next day, we're set to fly out. We're actually on the Tarmac getting on the plane and so my wife and I get on the plane, and I get the same text from Coach Woodie: "Call me, important."

So I called him. I called him, I says, "What's going on?"

"Hey, man, Coach Taggart would like to know if you would like to interview for the Florida State defensive coordinator job."

What? My mind had already went from shut down, we went from 3-9 to 10-3 and we about to have ten days off, I'm about to go home and relax and now it's back into, whoa, okay.

I said, "Hey, can you have Coach Taggart just call me tomorrow after 10:00 a.m. Let me sleep in a little bit."

Sure enough, Coach Taggart called me the next day. I said, "Yeah, I want to come down to interview." I did so.

And on his way driving me back to the airport, Coach Taggart kind of nonchalantly just said, "Well, hey, what we can do for you is this, this," and I'm like, is he offering me the job? I think he is. It went from there.

I always told Coach D'Antonio that I would keep him informed on every step of the way. I think that's the right thing to do, not that I had to do it, but I think it's the right thing to do. And I told him what was going on and I went back and met with him.

My wife and I talked about it and then I said, Well, I'll have a decision the next day and that night.

I wrestled on it. I'm a spiritual person, so I'm praying on it, nothing, nothing, nothing.

I wake up the next morning, and I'm like, wow, this is tough.

So as I was getting out the shower the next morning right before I was going to make the calls, I reminded of something. I felt that God had spoken to me the year before, and I only told my wife this at this time, and this is how I made my decision.

And he said: Coming year -- this is after the 3-9 year, I felt He said this to me. He said, "This is going to be your last year at Michigan State," and that brought back my remembrance, and that's how I made my decision.

And so I had to let everybody know. Coach Taggart was fired up. He wouldn't even let me call him. I said, "I'll call you back and let you" -- he called me first.

I'm like, "Hey, Coach" -- I told him, I'm coming, and he was fired up, I was fired up.

Then I was going to call Coach Dantonio before him, but he called me before I could call him. And I ended up calling Coach D and letting him know, and I think he was more sad than mad because we had been together for 14 years.

But it was a chance for me to stretch myself. Obviously I was co-defensive coordinator up at Michigan State and defensive coordinator here, and just a chance for me to stretch myself. It was nothing more than that, and then you know, feeling like I was led to be here.

Q. In looking at last year's defensive tape for Florida State, how much have you been able to do and what did that reveal?
COACH HARLON BARNETT: I've been able to watch a lot of it and they are different. They were different than us. They were more of a 3-4 type team. The D-line were more head-up. We go to a 4-3, and that's not a knock. Always say there's only one way to do something, and that's the right way, but there's more than one right way.

That's what they do. They have been successful in that defense before, but we're a 4-3. We're going to get after you. We're going to have our ends on the edge, have our backers reading the plan downhill fast, and if the formation dictates, we'll have our safeties downhill, as well, because the No. 1 thing that we want to do is stop the run.

So I saw, what I did see from last year's defense, is some dudes here. They got some good players here that can execute what we want to try to do, and they started showing that in the spring and hopefully it will continue this fall camp.

Q. Do you notice any differences between having a role at co-defensive coordinator being all defensive coordinator and how is the transition?
COACH HARLON BARNETT: Well, we truly tried to share roles up at Michigan State, Mike Tressel and myself.

Other than game day, I called the defense, but other than that, you know, I picked up a few more duties obviously because we were splitting some of those. And it's not a tough thing. It was just a matter of organizing yourself and getting things done in a set schedule, and preparing yourself the right way.

So got a lot of help here, as well, in our defensive staff that's helping me out and it hasn't been a hard transition.

Q. What can you tell us about Coach Snyder, what made you want to have him on your staff here?
COACH HARLON BARNETT: Coach Snyder is a veteran coach. As he mentioned to us, he said over the break, over the vacation break, his wife mentioned to us, "Hey, you about to go into your 29th year coaching." And he brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the game. Obviously been a coordinator at major Division I schools and a head coach.

So what he did, one of the big things for us flipping that season from 2016 to 2017 at Michigan State was he came in as our linebacker coach the first two years and then we moved him to D-end coach.

So you've got a D-end coach and a D-tackle coach, same way we're doing it here. And Tressel went back to linebackers, and I totally believe that changed our whole season, our whole defense around. And he does a great job of getting to know the kids and teaching them the entire defense.

Like the defensive ends, they not only know their spot. They know everybody. They know the coverage. They know everything. They know about how everything fits and that's a testament to him and how he coach those guys.

Q. Kind of a traditional defense, they lost seven starters off last year's team but there are a lot of young, talented guys. What have you seen from the sophomores, Hamsah, Stanford and Cyrus, what did they show you this spring?
COACH HARLON BARNETT: They show me that they have a lot of great ability, man. Great ball skills. They can run. They are tough, physical and that's what we are looking for. And so my job is -- because you mentioned DBs, all three of those guys are defensive backs, is to get those guys to play with technique consistently, bent knees, looking at the right thing and that's my job to get that done, and I think they appreciate that, as well.

So I'm going to be hard on them, as hard as I can be on them to get them to execute that part of their game, to elevate their games in that way. They have the natural ability. Now it's doing all the little things right, the fundamental things and that will be the main focus this fall camp.

Q. I know you said you had a chance to look over a little bit of film before you got hands-on with the guys, but is there something once you got to be with them over the spring that surprised you that maybe you didn't expect out of your group?
COACH HARLON BARNETT: You know what, as we went through spring, I'm like, man, there's some dudes here, man. No disrespect to Michigan State, not at all. Obviously it's my alma mater.

But there's some dudes down here, man. Guys that jumped out at you and had really good springs: Brian Burns, that's a dude, man, that's a dude. Still haven't seen Josh Kaindoh yet, and you know he didn't go through spring but I'm hearing how much of a dude he is and that's just one guy -- I mean, there's multiple guys.

As you know, Robertson really stepped up his game, according to what others have said about him, because we're hearing all this stuff, and I'm seeing other things. I'm like, I know what y'all are saying, but this dude is a good player.

Kyle Meyers, good player. A.J. Westbrook, I mean, I could go on and on. D-Jack, good players. A lot of good players that really bought into what we were asking them to do, and I think they appreciate the simplicity of our defense and being able to not only know what they have to do, like I said earlier, but understand how the offense is trying to attack us.

Q. One of the hallmarks of your Michigan State defense seemed to be the way that players swarmed to the ball. How important is that aggressiveness of getting 11 guys to the balance to what you do?
COACH HARLON BARNETT: Extremely important. It helps cover up mistakes. If someone misses a tackle, I mean, they have guys on scholarship, as well. You've got a another guy that's coming to clean it up and our main thing is, if something like that did happen, if you miss it the right way, understanding leverage and things of that nature.

But flying to the ball, there's no substitute. That's the hallmark of a defense, I think, and you can watch it -- and we should be flying around to the ball. We want them getting hats to the ball and making the offense say, hey, man, I do not want to run the ball.

Q. When it comes to your defensive philosophy and the spring, how much of it is what you learned from Mark, or how much as Nick as a player, coach, or from Belichick, also?
COACH HARLON BARNETT: All of it is kind of intertwined to be honest with you. I try to take pieces from the difference places I've been and the different coaches I've been around, but the defense itself, Pat Narduzzi, the head coach at Pitt, D'Antonio put us together in 2004 at the University of Cincinnati, myself, Mike Tressel, and at the time our D-line coach was Ted Gill.

We all were from different places and we came together with Pat, and this is a defense -- and we made it fit to how we do what we do and to where now you're seeing the product that's out there.

We've been able to, you know, have successful defenses because of it, and you know, we always focus, our No. 1 thing is to stop the run. That's the No. 1 thing for a defensive football team is to stop the run and I think Walt would say the No. 1 thing for the offense is run the football.

So we are going to focus on that and try to make them one-dimensional and after that, you go from there. But it's a defense that was formulated over the last 14 years of us running, it seeing all the ins and outs of it, and understanding, you know, people try and attack you this way or that way; we figured all that stuff over the last 14 years.

Now, there are going to be other ways that people are going to try to attack us down here, I'm sure, and we'll figure those out, as well.

Q. What is Jayton Whiping's (ph) football IQ and can he make an impact even as a freshman?
COACH HARLON BARNETT: It's extremely high. His football IQ is extremely high and it's not so much of what he had already known but because he put so much hard work in.

He's so diligent in everything that he does. He's raised it to a level that -- because you know, I didn't know that -- he knows it now and you'd better believe he knows it. You ask him, he'd say it's better than what it was before he first got here and we want to continue to take him to that level.

He's one of those guys that he can't get enough. He can't get enough of football. He can't get enough. He's a goal-oriented person and you would love to have a team full of that guy.

Q. Going back to the car ride to the airport with Willie, how did you determine, yeah, he did just offer me the job?
COACH HARLON BARNETT: Because actually when I got back home that night -- again, that's two times I said, "I'll call you" and he called me first.

So I got back home that evening after leaving here, and he called me, and then he started talking more specific in those terms, like to offer you the job, see what I'm saying -- good question, but he got more specific with it, and it just went from there.

Q. You've had a chance to peek a little bit ahead to some of the opponents. How are the ACC different than maybe what you saw in the Big Ten, and if they are a little different, how may that change how you approach things, schematically or philosophically?
COACH HARLON BARNETT: Well, a lot of these teams, offenses across the country, even in the Big Ten, there's some type of thought process towards how Big Ten football is, but there are a lot of teams that try to do some of the things that are done in the ACC believe it or not.

A lot of teams are going to what we call blue personnel, or 11 personnel. You know, one running back, one tight end, three wide receivers. A lot of teams are going to that and we saw that in the Big Ten, as well. You see that with Penn State, Indiana, Ohio State, and people going fast and all that kind of stuff.

We've felt like, now, the defense has gone against these type of teams over and over over the years and feel like we've got some answers to the things they like to do.

It's great that our offense goes fast because that's the thing that everybody tries to do now and wear you out. At Michigan State, we had to get our scout team to understand: This is fast, because we didn't go that fast, right.

So we had to get our scouts -- now when we go scout teams, they understand the tempo of it, so that will really help us. That will serve as an advantage to us, I think, this year, just because it's what we already do here.

Q. You mentioned 4-3 is your kind of base. Is it free of what we would consider traditional linebackers, or one may be more of a hybrid? And are you like a cover three kind of guy in terms of what you guys are going to run, basically?
COACH HARLON BARNETT: I wouldn't say cover three. I say that anybody that knows us, they would be laughing saying, he's lying.

That guy -- that guy is what I tell people all the time, the star linebacker for us. He's like an old school strong safety, is kind of what I think. I think the old school strong safety doesn't exist any more, not in the type of defense that we're trying to run. You know, the big O guy, the David Fulchers of the world, Steve Atwater type guys, because everybody has to be able to run, cover and tackle, everybody, in the secondary, I believe.

So when you talk about, is he playing corner, are you recruiting him as a corner or a safety, I'm saying DB now. That philosophy has changed since being here. You have got to be able to run, cover and tackle everybody.

And so we look for guys do be able to do that, and we feel like we've got some guys here that can do that because it's such a big space game nowadays. So you've got to be able to cover yourself in space. Hopefully I answered your question.

Q. At times last season, the season before, once this team had a turnover or mishap on defense, they started to pile up and they started to lose their confidence a little bit. When these things happen in camp and during games, what are some things that you're going to do to try to bring them back to square one?
COACH HARLON BARNETT: We'll talk about it prior to. We've been talking about it, adverse situations. When adversity hits, how are we going to handle it.

So handling adversity: And we've been talking about it, talking about it, talking about it, talking about it, over and over and over. Obviously in camp is one of the most adverse times for everybody involved. It gets to be long. It's long days. It gets to be day ten -- this is something I've always said since I've been coaching.

Day one, everybody fired up, flying around, looking good. Okay.

You get to day ten, you've got a fingernail hurt, an elbow sore. Who is still going to be showing up now?

You get to day 20, who is still showing up getting it done? And some of these injuries that you have in camp, you have for the rest of the year in football, and I remember that as a player.

So what are you going to be able to do to push through and that's how we've been talking to them, just handling adverse situations. I'm sure Coach Taggart will be putting us in adverse situations where our guy think he made a play and he says, no, it's really a first down offense, how are we going to handle that.

So we talk to them about it so they are prepared, and everybody don't get to whining and complaining to one another, and just line up and play.

Q. The linebacker position lost all three starters from last year. What did you think from that unit in the spring and how excited are you for the young guys?
COACH HARLON BARNETT: I think as a unit, it doesn't have a lot of depth right now but it has really stepped up. They understand, they hear all the talk about linebackers this, linebacker that, so they have taken it as a personal challenge I think with a chip-on-their-shoulder-type thing and they are coming to play.

They know what they need to do to get it done and so I'm excited about the guys, all of them, I really am, and again, because of how we play, and their understanding of the defense, it allows them to play fast, physical and aggressive.

Q. Taggart talked about having Coach Bowden around and he didn't see it as a negative having a former coach around and Mickey Andrews is a legend around here, as well. How is it talking to him and meeting him and what do you look forward to from that relationship?
COACH HARLON BARNETT: Wisdom. I love it, man. First time he came by here maybe in February or something -- first thing I said, "Coach, give us some wisdom." I glean on that type of stuff, and I just wrote down -- I'm not going to share what he said, but I wrote it down and I got it in my notes.

So when this came about and Coach Taggart said he wanted to bring him on, I said "Awesome. That's awesome."

There's nothing like getting that wisdom. I'm always trying to pull wisdom from older people that have experienced things that I have not, and because you can learn from their mistakes and their successes. So I think it's big time. I'm fired up about it. I really am.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297