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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCEApril 21, 2011Al GoldenCOACH GOLDEN: We just finished spring. We had a good spring. I think we have one guy that's going to be questionable whether or not he can make it back for the season. So overall relatively healthy. We learned a lot. Obviously we got our systems in in all three phases. We improved our conditioning, I believe. We had three really good scrimmages in three different counties down here in South Florida. We got out and about in the community. It was an overall good experience for us, and we learned a lot about our team. Q. What are the most significant ways you'll make a stamp on your program this spring? COACH GOLDEN: I think any coach that takes over, it's important that you instill your systems and your core values. So I think for us we know the things that we need to fix from being a disciplined team and being a more conditioned team. So those are two of the thing that's jump out. Clearly we wanted to improve our football intelligence. Obviously we didn't protect the ball well last year, and we didn't do a good job with penalties. So those two things are a big part of the focus in the off-season program, as well as conditioning and the emphasis on trying to allow some leaders to emerge. Q. With you and your coordinators in place, how different might your offense or defense look this fall from last year? COACH GOLDEN: I think it's already -- it already looks different, obviously two new coordinators and a new special teams coordinator as well. So I think all three phases will look markedly different. What we're doing now is thinking players first and then plays. So it's not about the system or Jedd's system on offense or Coach D's system on defense. It's more a function of what is our personnel, and what does this team do well, and what do those guys bring to the table that we can do as good as anybody if not better. So that's what we're trying to focus on right now. Q. Who are you leaning towards as your starting quarterback, Harris or Morris? COACH GOLDEN: I'm really not leaning. I thought both of them did a good job. We had over 300 scrimmage reps, and I think we only totaled five or six interceptions. So I think the emphasis has been finding the check through and making better decisions with the ball. I think both those guys did that. They both showed a better command of the huddle, better leadership. They both made plays down the field in terms of explosive plays. So I think this is going to go right up until the middle of August in terms of who we're going to select at that time and then build our offense around them. But clearly the competition has a long way to go. Q. Coming into a program that's looking to correct the ship, so to speak, what are your goals for your team to show improvement and progress in the season? COACH GOLDEN: All of our goals are internal. We don't share our goals with anybody on the outside. But clearly when you take the Miami job there are expectations there. So we've got to get back to being a really good football team, and the way we do that is obviously eliminating the things that cause you to lose. We were 117 in penalties, 119 in turnovers, so those two things we have to right and we have to correct. That will give us an opportunity to win. We've got to continue to make good decisions in the community, and not have any distractions academically. Because, again, those are all four areas that you can control that either cause distractions or cause you to lose. So I think if we can get that under control and move forward and just concentrate on football and improving this team, we'll be in good shape. Q. When you look at spring practice, can you talk about the couple of things that you were happiest with, that you feel like you accomplished? Or maybe a couple things that maybe you didn't accomplish or get to the point where you wanted it to? COACH GOLDEN: Well, I think on the first thing, it's a double-edged sword, because we improved our conditioning. Because it's not the conditioning and tempo and mental toughness is not where it needs to be. I thought we made a lot of progress. I know that journey's going to be a long one in terms of getting it to where we wanted it to be, but I was pleased with the effort that we made. Wasn't much resistance on the part of the players. They really bought into it, and they really improved. We'll get back out there and do it again here once exams are over in the summer program. So that's one of the things that we made progress in. I think we're a more physical team. Right now I thought we've just changed the way we practice, a little different style, lot more physical, lot more setting. Three very, very good physical scrimmages in the heat and in competitive environments with fans there and everything. So I thought that was good. So we got them in a lot of game situations. Overall, I thought our penalties were down. Our penalties were better. I thought our turnovers were better. Those are all good indications, but obviously we have a long way to go. Clearly some of the things we need to do better are create depth at a lot of positions, most particularly on defense. And we have a long way to go at wideout just because of the injuries that we had. So we didn't quite get a chance to evaluate or improve our wideout position as much as I would have hoped. Q. Wanted to ask you about Lee Chambers on the final depth chart you put out this week. He was number one there at quarterback. I know he started a little late in spring practice, but must have played pretty well for you. Can you talk about him and his development at quarterback? COACH GOLDEN: Just really pleased with him. He's a big, strong, physical kid. For a corner he came on strong and he played strong. He plays physical. I thought he really came on in the last two weeks doing all the things we thought he can do from a physical standpoint and movement standpoint and lateral mobility. He really picked up the defense well. What we didn't know much about him is how physical he was going to be. He really gave us a boost in terms of being a physical corner. Not just in his jams, but also with tackling and he's a good special teams player. We're excited about Lee. We know he's excited about the opportunity. He's got a little poise about him. He's been around the block, so we're excited how that position is starting to take shape there. Q. I was wondering, I know it's been six years since you were in the ACC and your experience at Virginia and personnel have changed, coaches have changed. But there's having some exposure to the league before help you in any way for this coming season? COACH GOLDEN: I think it does. Most particularly the recruiting landscape and the logistics. The absolute logistics of going to Raleigh or going to Chapel Hill or going to Blacksburg or Chestnut Hill. So just the fact that we've been to those places, we know where to stay, we kind of understand the logistics of it helps. Clearly, from a recruiting standpoint not only having been in the ACC, but have worked this corridor in the metropolitan areas in this corridor, I think that helps as well. In terms of the schemes and the systems, so many of the coaches have changed in those five or six years that I don't know if there's much carry over there. We know how Coach Spaziani's going to coach and the approach he has or Coach Beamer and those guys that are kind of mainstays or tenured guys. But there's a lot of new guys on the block as well, so it should be interesting for us. Q. You mentioned that you had scrimmages in three different counties down there. What have you learned about Miami football and just what it means to the people in that area? COACH GOLDEN: Well, it's a passionate fan base. Kind of fans are not just alumni, but this is kind of a pro mentality down here. They're very demanding, and they're everywhere. It's not just people that went to the University of Miami; it's people that grew up Miami fans. It's people that the tickets have been handed down from generation to generation, and it's very demanding. That's what I mean by that pro mentality is very demanding. So it's good. It's passionate. It's exciting. Obviously they've gotten used to it, and demand being among the best in college football, and that's what we have to get them back to. Q. I was kind of working on those same lines about the expectations down there. Can you talk about the contrast of coming from a school where they were delighted that you built a program out of a downtrodden program? Where the expectations are if you're not competing for a National Championship, you're somehow not doing the job down there. That contrast kind of daunting? COACH GOLDEN: No, I welcome it. I think anybody that's in this business, and if you talk to any coach of the 120 Division-1 coaches, they'd all say at the end of the day you want to be at a place where if you work as hard as you can, and execute as well as you can, that you have the resources, you have the assets, you have the recruits and prospects that if you did the best job that you could that your best would be able to get you to a BCS Bowl or get you to a National Championship. I think everybody would say that's a place that you'd want to coach. I'm very happy at the end of the day with the expectations. When I put my head on the pillow, my expectations and the university's expectations are the same. Other than that, other than talking to you guys, there is nobody here walking around talking about anything on the outside. Not media, not any goals, not number of wins, not National Championships, not any of that. We're talking right now about the process and appreciating and respecting the process and just executing on a daily basis. If we can do that, the rest will take care of itself. Q. Is it possible for Miami to regain the status it had in the '80s and '90s. It's probably the most consistently successful program around? COACH GOLDEN: Well, again, do I think it's possible? Let me answer that question, yes, absolutely. But the second part of that question is most people forget the early part of this decade, the early part of the new century here. We won National Championships and played for another one, and we're ranked countless other times fairly high. There are a lot of programs out there that are considered traditional powers that haven't won a National Championship in 20 or 30 years. It's been, I think, nine years and somehow people forget that around here. Q. It may be a bad perception by me, but it seems like a lot of coordinators on the college level now, more and more seem to be coming out of the NFL. Is that an odd circumstance you think? COACH GOLDEN: I don't know. Have you done some research on that, if you don't mind me asking? Q. Just a little. COACH GOLDEN: Or just a hunch? Q. Based on the SEC and ACC. COACH GOLDEN: I don't know. Again, if you remember early in this decade or in the late '90 , there was a trend there to hire NFL coaches. I'm sure someone has done some research on that to see if the NFL coaches coming back to college and how successful they were. I've got to be honest with you. Some of the best coaches that I've been around in college football were guys that came up through the ranks or that were at 1AA programs where they had to solve a lot of problems or do more with less and then they got a shot and they kind of came up the ladder. So it's really not a prerequisite for me. It's not something that I'm looking for. I think coming to Miami and wanting to get back to a pro style offense and going back and trying to go out and recruit the Ericssons and the Walshes and the Testaverdes and the Kosars and the Ken Dorseys and that, having in my mind what I'm looking for and the type of system that we want. I think Jedd was the best fit for us in terms of we wanted to be a pro style system. I think Miami should be a pro style system, so that worked for us. But on the other side, I think Coach D'Onofrio is one of the best coordinators in the country. Just because he hasn't been with the Minnesota Vikings, doesn't mean he's not one of the best. I think he's one of the best. He gets the most out of his players and that is just the way it shook out for us. Q. But for some guys I would think it probably is a little bit of a help for them though because they have a little different perspective on things? COACH GOLDEN: Sure, again, I think it depends on your resources. If you've got a lot of resources like some of the powers do and there is a lot of support, and he doesn't have to be equally a great recruiter, then, you know, I think maybe that would work. I think it just depends on each system. You see some guys coming back to college where all they do is coordinate and they don't recruit as much. There is so much support around them, and the brand is so strong that they can attract the best, those type of things. I think it depends from a professional standpoint. It just depends on what the resources are, what your needs are, and what you're looking for as a coordinator from a head coach's perspective. Q. You're obviously in kind of an unusual situation. There is so much competition in Miami and so forth, and this may sound cliche. But for any new coach in a power league like a BCS league, how important is it to kind of reach out that first summer to boosters and so forth and kind of say here I am? COACH GOLDEN: You mean -- Q. At functions and stuff like that. COACH GOLDEN: Oh, yeah, I think that's important. Certainly it's important here at Miami. We're going to do that. We're not going to do it at the expense of our student-athletes or our success on the field. But we'll do a bunch of it. Certainly we're trying to stay out there so that they can learn more about myself and the staff and what we're trying to do and get an appreciation for how we're trying to operate. We'll also do a lot of private functions. But it is important. Clearly it's equally as important to be out there in the high school community as well. We'll tackle that with our camps and certainly with our assistants being out on the road here this month. Q. You're going to embark on a statewide tour here. Talked to a lot of the other clubs around the state. What will your message be about the state of Hurricane football when you make that trip? COACH GOLDEN: I haven't thought about it. I'll probably do what I've done. Be honest, communicate what I've seen and what we've done, not look backwards, but look forward and be forward thinking. Kind of share with them what our core values are and what our expectations are. Obviously share with them how my thoughts on spring football and the upcoming season and certainly the upcoming schedule. So I think that will be -- I don't have a message so to speak. I try to keep it casual and answer a lot of questions for them and certainly try to avail myself as much as possible to get to know many of them on a personal level. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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