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CAPITAL ONE ORANGE BOWL: ALABAMA VS OKLAHOMADecember 26, 2018Tosh LupoiMiami Gardens, Florida Q. How has this first year as defensive coordinator, how do you feel like you've grown in this first year? TOSH LUPOI: Well, shoot, even today, even this morning, just on a path of a constant improvement, of trying to get better at what I do, and you know, our defensive staff has been a strong staff this season of, I think, keeping to those same goals where we can challenge our players every day and try to continue a constant growth of improvement really overall. Q. You said before the season, the play calling, obviously that was a new thing for you. Where have you come in that part of the year? TOSH LUPOI: You know, it would be the same things, just trying to get better at what I do every day, and I think in the way we practice, the way we prepare and that demand that we put on the coaches and the players, we're in an environment to be able to do that. Q. What is it about Nick's coaching structure that allows assistants to step into coordinator roles immediately? TOSH LUPOI: Well, I think there's a lot of things that go into that, but overall just his consistency, you know, of the constant demand, the constant attention to detail, the focus on preparation, what goes into this thing, not just in the body of the week or in the season but just the entire season, the entire year really of all the different ways we approach our preparation. Q. How much confidence does it give you in terms of letting you add your own wrinkles and things like that? TOSH LUPOI: Well, you know, at the end of the day, we're going to stay within the body of Coach Saban's defense that's had a lot of success over the years, long before I ever came here or any other coach has been here. I think it's a matter of, as a staff, planning and preparing, doing everything we can from an individual standpoint to put it all together, to have collective success. Q. What has Saivion Smith meant to this defense after getting benched and then coming back? TOSH LUPOI: Yeah, you know, I don't know if I'd ever consider him as far as being benched. He's always been somebody that's -- we've asked to play that role at the cornerback position, no matter what, whether he's starting the game or rotating within the game. He's been somebody that has continued to grow both mentally and within the body of his position. It's been awesome to see also his hunger to prepare, and I think that's been something that he's gotten more consistent at is the preparation side of things and not just depending on his athleticism or talent. Q. Even with the talent you have on your side of the ball, in this era, how difficult is it to be a coordinator on your side of the ball right now? Everybody spreading out, so many teams scoring 40, 50 a game? TOSH LUPOI: Well, you know, it's opportunity for us. I think it's awesome. I think it's also -- we're seeing so much new offense consistently, so it's something -- it's exciting for myself and I think for our defensive staff and Coach Saban to be able to do our best to adapt to what you see every week, and from the high tempo and the different variations you get from these offenses that have done such a great job such as Oklahoma. Really it's an opportunity for us to do our best, and sometimes we're able to slow those offenses down and sometimes we're not, and when we're not, we've got to learn from those and adjust and get better from those experiences. Q. The proliferation of the spread and the way people play defense, do you think it's been part of an effort to coach a defense now, that it's more slanted towards offenses than ever before? TOSH LUPOI: Well, it seems that way. I'm not sure. I've been doing this for 13 seasons as far as coaching, and there's been a huge difference from when I started to now, to make -- it seems more challenging, not just from the tempo but all the different variations you see, and the challenge now is not so much the fundamentals, the technique, the things you want to work on with your players to personally improve, now you have to spend so much time in the adjustments, within all the coverages, all the concepts you have on defense to adjust on all the multiple variations that they provide in your body the week of preparation, and then of course we have to stick within the body of the regulations of how much time we can spend with our players, so it makes it really challenging to have to prepare for so much in such a short body of time with, of course, young men that are in pursuit of their degree and going to class every day and all the other different things that come with college lifestyle. Q. Thirteen years ago, obviously you look at score first, but 13 years ago you look at total yards, whatever, what's your metric for success now? TOSH LUPOI: Yeah, we're going to still stay to the standard of Coach Saban and the Alabama defense as best as possible, so we're going to do everything we can not to adjust those standards, so practice a certain way, prepare a certain way, and throughout the body of the season, again, we've had those opportunities where we've been able to answer to that standard at times and been able to shut out some offenses, and at times do some things that we could have done a lot better and improve and learn from those. We're not going to adjust our standards here based off of what the offense is doing and the wave of offenses in this day. We'll try to do our best to try to stay within that tradition and all the great coaches and great players before us that have came at Alabama and do our best to operate to that standard. Q. (Inaudible.) TOSH LUPOI: Well, recruiting is like anything else. Myself and us as a staff, we're going to try to do the best to be our best at it, so to me it's another aspect of the job that we just got to approach with relentless pursuit and attack and preparation and everything that goes into it. You know, trying to do my best as far as not stray away from the necessities of recruiting and creating and sustaining great relationships with young men and their families as we prepare and go into all these games, as well. Q. Do you look at it more like a holistic approach, the entire defense, or do you look at it as again the same positions that -- TOSH LUPOI: Yeah, we're going to start geographically at first, just being responsible for areas, so it all starts there, to do a good job in your area. But of course as a defense, too, try to figure out what our needs are, most importantly with our needs when it comes to graduation, guys perhaps leaving early in the NFL and doing our best then to prepare those individuals that are coming in to replace those guys that are leaving. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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