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BOSTON COLLEGE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEAugust 6, 2019Bill SheridanBoston, Massachusetts Q. Coach just talk about developing some new edge rushers. You lost two really good ones in Jack and Wyatt Ray. Are there some guys in the pipeline that can kind of take that up? BILL SHERIDAN: You know, just for the guys that are returning, right now the guys that are running in the two deep at the defensive ends is Joe Luchetti, freshman going to be a sophomore here, Richard Yeargin, the grad transfer we got from Clemson, Brandon Barlow, Marcus Valdez. Those are the four guys that right now, if we had to play today, those would be our two deep right now. A lot of those guys are still developing. Some have more natural talent than others, just exclusive edge pass rushers. We do have young guys that have come in, some freshmen, they're four days into camp, but a couple guys that are easy to get excited about based on what they've done the first four days. That's definitely something you need. We have a void there because of the graduation of the guys you just mentioned, but we're still developing here. Like I said, I think maybe you'll see some young guys showing up. They have already in the couple days in camp. Q. I know you lost some good players in the secondary, but Brandon has played a lot. What's his leadership role been like so far both in the spring and this camp? BILL SHERIDAN: That's a good question. You know, he's -- you know, it's not like he's a fifth year senior. He's still got some playing time ahead of him. I grabbed him the other day. I say this often to a lot of players. The greatest form of leadership is performance. So I don't think you have to be a guy who's barking all the time in practice or getting in a guy's face, or I don't think you have to do that to be a leader. His challenge will be to try to play better than he did a year ago. He had a very, very honorable season for us. He started for us. He's the lone returning starter in the secondary. Like I say, I told him, you don't have to do anything else other than your normal personality. Your greatest contribution will be your performance, and if you do, the young guys will see how you practice, how you perform on Saturdays, how those two things tie in together, and that's the leadership we need from you. Q. Just in terms of developing these guys, just in terms of the secondary, getting new starters this year, can you talk a little bit about how the culture has helped in that regard. Other guys have graduated, and now there are new guys stepping in and maybe even the next crop for these younger guys to help out with? BILL SHERIDAN: I'm going to kind of answer that in a two angled way, and tell me if I'm answering your question or not. First of all, the one nice thing about the way we practice is we run tempo offense, right, if you've ever seen us practice. So in normal practices, we run at least 100 plays in practice, you know, more than you would in a conventional game. So we're able to rep minimum three deep into that, right? So even Johnny the freshman is getting 30-some reps every single day in practice. Versus a lot of people doing practice with the tempo that we do, they don't get that. They might be getting 15 reps a day, or your ones may be getting 30 or 25 reps. But we run so many plays, the young guys have a chance to show in camp am I worthy of a two-deep spot? And obviously, the guys who are fighting for the solidified ones and two spots, it's all out there in front of them. Between now and when we get into game week with Virginia Tech, we'll run over 1,000 plays on offense and defense in camp. The other thing, kind of like what you were saying -- and, again, I'm hoping I'm answering your question -- is guys like Tate Haynes who's been here for a while, but this is his first chance to solidify a starting position, right now he'd be running with our ones. He is running with our ones. A guy like Elijah Jones, who came in as a freshman and has a lot of talent. We have a lot of young freshmen corners coming in. And in the secondary, even more so, as far as veteran guys. Mike Palmer, obviously, Mehdi last year is a go around guy, and he's never been an every down starter for us. These guys have all played, but guys like Mehdi and Mike Palmer and Nolan Borgersen, they have a chance to be starters, you know what I mean? And they're at the end, and this is a first shot for them. So it's been very, very competitive in the spring. Even a guy like Jahmin Muse, who's played for us but hasn't been an every down starter, these guys see a chance that they can be the guy because obviously they've been playing behind Will and those guys for the last couple of years. I hope I addressed it. Q. Perfect. BILL SHERIDAN: Okay. I thought that's what you were asking. Q. When you were in the linebacker room last year, how did Isaiah McDuffie all of a sudden emerge? He was behind Kevin Bletzer, and all of a sudden, he's just this phenomenal outside linebacker? BILL SHERIDAN: That's a good question. First of all, Ricky Brown, our special teams coordinator, he coaches that position, that Sam position. That's the first and second down nickel position. When we go on third down, Eric Lewis will be coaching that position, but on first and second down, that Isaiah McDuffie position, we call them the Sam, and Ricky Brown coaches them. He did a fantastic job with them. You know, it's like a lot of young guys. He has talent, obviously. He's a very good player. He's definitely one of our best defensive players, and it's just a matter of time of him getting on the field and getting reps and getting comfortable with the calls. Sometimes -- and our freshmen right now are experiencing it -- you get a little paralyzed when the volume of the installation starts mounting up on you, and it's already -- we're four days into it, and there's freshmen out there right now that are swimming. But for Duff, we just needed to get reps and get out there and get familiar with how to play the techniques, and his natural ability took over. Again, Ricky did a good job of giving him an opportunity to do that with Kevin, and he ended up sky rocketing out of the position. Q. I know he's been hurt, but -- and he's behind a lot of guys, but in general, what have you seen from Jason Maitre? When he came into the program -- I know when he first got here, he was making some plays at practice and stuff like that, but what do you see out of him in the future? BILL SHERIDAN: That's a good question. I'm excited. And he's been practicing. I know you're saying he had been nicked up, but he's out there right now, and he has talent. No argument there. He's got genetic talent. He's young in all kinds of areas of being young -- inexperience on the field. As he matures from the neck up and just volume of playing, he's going to get better and better because he has talent. He'll contribute this year for sure. You kind of lose track of a guy like that when they get out for a while with an injury. They're out of sight, out of mind kind of, but he's done a nice job in the first couple days of camp. He has a talent, and I would foresee him contributing this fall. To what extent will be up to him honestly. Q. I know it's been only four days of camp, but what are some bright spots for the team so far? BILL SHERIDAN: Outstanding coaching (Laughter). You should come to practice. The coaching is incredible. No, that's a good question. Because we're so familiar with the guys that we have all the time, like the guys we had in the spring, unless one of them is just significantly different from what during the spring -- I mean, they have all gotten better. Our guys have trained their tails off in the spring, so we're a thicker, bigger, stronger looking team just as we walk out on the field. But, you know, their improvement is not going to be as pronounced as a guy maybe we haven't seen, like a freshman when they come in. So most of those things have been with the freshmen, which you see them on high school film, you recruit them, and you get them to come here, but now that you have them on the field competing against other ACC players on our offense, there's guys really at every level, secondary guys. I don't have a young guy, neither does Ricky, but we have a whole boatload of young defensive linemen and a couple of true freshmen defensive back corners in particular, and we're excited. We're like, yes, we did a good job. These are the guys we should be bringing in here. Again, whether they contribute this year or a year from now, they're good recruits. They're quality football players, and none of them disappointed, and a lot of them are like maybe this guy will contribute this year. You know, it's early in camp, but that's a good question. We have a good freshman looking class. Those are the guys that stand out because the other guys you do -- I know it sounds nuts. You do kind of take them for granted because you're around them all the time, and you've seen them for spring ball, last fall, you know what I mean? Q. Do you get the sense from Rich Yeargin that he's kind of embraced this last opportunity that he has to prove himself as a football player? BILL SHERIDAN: You know, I have. You never know. We met this guy in the interaction of actually trying to get him to come here, but you never know. A guy could come in and be on his own program, too cool for school and all that. But he has been a 100 percent polar opposite. He is a fantastic man. He's a great team guy, and that's -- you're hoping for that when you've got a guy coming in for his last year of eligibility, but he has been the exact opposite. He has been fantastic. Q. I know it's kind of just an interesting scenario where you're still working with Jim Reid, who was defensive coordinator last year and has been the D coordinator here. Can you just talk a little bit about working with him and taking the coordinator position this year as well for you? BILL SHERIDAN: There couldn't be a better guy to handle that whole transition than Jim Reid. The guy is the most team oriented, egoless person I've been around. All he wants to do is help kids get better and be better men and better players. I can't say in the 30-plus years or 35-plus years I've coached that I've been around a guy who's more daily devoutly dedicated to the players and to his job and to me. It's gone without one glitch. And how we talk to each other across the table in our defensive staff meetings when we're putting stuff together, it's the same way it was a year ago. I guess I just get to write the scripts out for practice, and I get to call it on Saturday. It's a collective effort, right? Like I say, somebody's got to call the defenses on Saturday, and I'll do that, but the relationship really hasn't changed. Again, you couldn't have a better guy to make that transition with than Jim. He's a gem. Q. I know this is test shades of the season, but what do you think could be improved so far? BILL SHERIDAN: So far -- that's a good question. I would say, just jumping into my head when I hear you ask that is -- and it's not going to be critical for us because we're not relying on a bunch of these guys, but the freshmen, like I mentioned, they're just insulation is starting to mount up a little bit, and they're moderately dysfunctional right now. They couldn't line up and play. If we had to play, we could line up and play one or two calls because that's how they're executing. It's just swirling around in their skulls right now. Because early in camp, there's a little bit of volume going in, as far as scheme stuff. You would whittle it down during game week, of course, and we make it very doable for all the players, but that will be one thing for the young guys. Until they're functional, they might look good running around and pass rushing and covering guys man to man and all that stuff, but you start getting into schematic stuff and playing offensive schemes and executing defensive schemes, you have to have some execution on that kind of stuff. Other than that, it's all the basic stuff. We can always get better at perimeter run support and always get better at pass rush. You're not really seeing a finished product out there because we're not tackling in practice. Everything is stand up, and we're servicing each other. It's very physical, but nobody gets tackled to the ground. We're not sacking the quarterback or any stuff like that. But those would the first things that come to my head when you ask that stuff. Young guys really got to learn -- they got to get their playbooks in. And they will. We walk through stuff and rehearse it over and over. Two weeks from now, they'll be light years better than they are right now, but right now they're having a hard time getting lined up sometimes. Q. If you could take your defensive mind to Tyler Vrabel in practice, it's very clear the other coaches are excited about where he's at. Why do you think that is? BILL SHERIDAN: He's big. He's athletic. Good football acumen, competitive guy. I mean, he's a talent, and he's a giant human. So all the things that you look for in a good offensive tackle. I know, he's an infant in his college career, so he's only going to get better, but he's got talent, and he's a large man. He's a good run blocker and hard to run around in pass protection. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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