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ROSE BOWL GAME PRESENTED BY VIZIO: OREGON v WISCONSINDecember 29, 2011Mark HelfrichPASADENA, CALIFORNIA Q. He always comes to practice and hangs out with you afterwards. Does he always want to do stuff? MARK HELFRICH: Yes and no. He's kind of a‑‑ he's a little bit more serious and analytical type kid. But, yeah, he loves running around and playing around, but he'd rather‑‑ he's not really into football yet full swing, per se, but he loves running around. And just being a kid. Q. Were you into football when you were his age, do you remember? MARK HELFRICH: Yeah, definitely. I had an older brother, so I think he's the first kid, so that's a little bit different. But, yeah, I loved football since I can ever remember, yeah. Q. When you were a kid, did you want to be a coach at some point? MARK HELFRICH: No, I always wanted to be a player, and I wasn't good enough to do that on multiple levels. But my design this life was I was going to be a doctor, and I was kind of angled that direction and then ended up by really chance becoming a graduate assistant at Oregon after coaching a year at Southern Oregon where I went to school. Just kind of lucked into that part of it. Q. Looking at Wisconsin's defense, what do you think they do really well? MARK HELFRICH: They're unbelievably disciplined. With Coach Bielema's background and the Iowa background, they remind me of we played the Iowa team at Arizona State that had like Bob Sanders and Greenway and there are three linebackers still in the NFL, and just relentless, but at all times incredibly disciplined. They're very, very, very sound. They've got counter punches to everything. They can lineup and play base to most everybody pretty well, and then they can blitz you from all different angles, whether it's field boundaries, strong, weak, all kind of answers. Q. Obviously not taking away from any other player, but do you think (Inaudible) is their star on defense? MARK HELFRICH: 53 has more on tackles just by sheer numbers. They're very close. They're both 10‑plus tackle guys. I mean, they're both excellent. Their linebackers definitely jump out at you as wow. But that also happens because the D‑line is doing their job. They do a good job of cancelling gaps up front and occupying two offensive linemen to let those guys run free. Like any great defense, that is a team deal. For a guy to make a play in the C‑gap, there has to be a guy cancelling the B‑gap or take care of his blocker. So just that goes back to the soundness of their deal because their D‑line, if it gets back to them, however that works out, they do a good job. Q. What do you make of this idea that the offense is as successful as they are? Their record seems to suggest that 5 out of 6 of Chip's losses, you talk about discipline and trying to get a lot out of that. MARK HELFRICH: I'm sure it does. Any opener, there are going to be maybe certainly for our opponent, there is going to be an emphasis on conditioning to begin with, and then there would be an extra emphasis on some things that LSU did to simulate that during their preparation. Then, oh, by the way, LSU's pretty good. So those things, yeah, I'm sure if nothing else, it's a confidence builder for the other team of, hey, selling that part of it. Hey, we've got extra time, and we're going to do this and this and this, and that's going to be the difference. If that is the difference mentally to them, then that was the difference. When you look at some of the things we've done in the LSU game there were some turnovers that you can't turn the ball over four times against anybody, let alone the team playing for the National Championship. Then going back to the National Championship, we just play catch on the flat in the first third down of the game we're rolling. Who knows why that doesn't happen. I don't know. I don't know if it's the layoff. I don't know if it's Nick Fairley. Those things, the issues in the LSU game, the issues in the Auburn game, the issues in the Rose Bowl before and then the issues in Boise State are all completely different. It's not like we can sit down‑‑ in my opinion. I'm not writing the story, but they're all different. It's not like it was the quarterback every time, it wasn't the line every time. It wasn't the coaching every time. It wasn't this every time. So it's good that we're talking about that few situations and that few losses. But we, you know, we certainly want to win one. Q. Do you think it might be the quality defenses that change the pace? MARK HELFRICH: I think all of those lines were very talented. I don't think that was the difference in all of those games. We certainly, again, put ourselves in different negative situations and different ways. But I think our guys again are confident. I think our offense is confident, our defense and special teams are not sitting here going here we go again, we have a layoff. And I'm not even trying to be facetious. I think our guys believe in what they're doing. They're on the right trajectory here to be ready to go. Q. Is it a legitimate question? I mean, is it something that you guys think about internally that maybe we had to do something different? MARK HELFRICH: If it was, and that goes back to my previous answer. If it was every single time the same thing, I, you know what I mean, it's not the old, if you're doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. Well, we aren't insane. Well, there is probably debate on that too. But they're different games and different situations. You know, we've come off a bye week and played great against really good teams. So that's certainly a valid point because we've lost two huge games in the postseason and obviously the two openers were, again, against very good teams. One opener was completely different than the other. The Boise State game was a 180‑degree polar opposite from a lot of other situations. Q. What have your guys talked about feeling the pressure to win a BCS game? As an offensive coordinator, do you feel pressure? MARK HELFRICH: I don't feel pressure because of that. Of I think we feel pressure to win every game. I think we feel pressure to win, and it sounds stupid, but every practice we've done that. That's been our calling card as being prepared, being ready to go. At the end of the day, then that has to show up on game day. But we don't sit around and go, we're going to be incomplete if we don't win this game or whatever. But at the same time, we're competitors and we want to win the game because it is a game and it's against a great team. We want to be perceived as a great team and to do that, sure. I understand that that perception that we need to close the deal on these. Q. Try another theory on this. Especially on the Stanford game, it seemed to be a key factor, all the time stoppage. And then you seemed to be standing around a lot more (Inaudible). Is that a myth or is it a reality? MARK HELFRICH: I think it's something you deal with. We simulate that in practice by kind of how we practice. Then if you look at a lot of those like ESPN network games, the game day game or like the Pac‑12 Championship, for sure, it's the same kind of whatever it is, 4‑4‑4‑4 or however the timeouts are distributed. But that's something that we try to simulate. Our guys have been in enough of those games that they're used to that, and now we've just got to charge it ask go. Q. Can you simulate hanging around and not doing things? MARK HELFRICH: Just the intervals of you're on and then you're off and you're back on and then you're off. That's how we've always practiced for that reason. So we just have to know that when that ball is chopped in, we've got to go. Q. What is the wackiest remark that you've heard the defense does? MARK HELFRICH: I didn't get the first part. Q. The whackiest thing you've heard that the defense tries to do to keep up pace? MARK HELFRICH: The whackiest thing? Q. I heard they had them turn around backwards? MARK HELFRICH: Yeah, I heard that one. I heard maybe it was that story of laying face down, and having the offense set, and having to recognize the formation, like an up‑down to turn around, identify the formation and go. That's pretty good. Then the two‑huddle thing, people have done that for a long time for lots of reasons, to get a lot of reps and I'm sure to simulate a no‑huddle type team. There are so many team that's go no‑huddle now, I think that's not necessarily that as much as it is Kenjon Barner and LaMichael James and De'Anthony Thomas and those guys. We've caught some people off guard for sure this year at various times. But I don't think that's going to be the trump card against these guys. I think they're just too good and too disciplined and they'll be very well prepared. Q. So pace isn't the thing that necessarily triggers the chaos? MARK HELFRICH: That's what I mean, it can sometimes, and that's how these guys are built defensively they don't have to make a ton of adjustments based on your formation. Again, that's something where if we get in the game, we get something rolling and identify that. It could happen. That's the part that you never know how a team's going to play us. Team's play us differently than they play people on film, and that's part of the fun of game day is trying to identify that and go. Q. Talk about time of possession? MARK HELFRICH: In terms of when you look at the stats that define winning and losing, turnover margin is the number one thing. Sacks are the number two thing. All that stuff that we keep track of and talk about and educate our players about are the exact things that matter in recruiting. We don't talk about 40 times. We talk about character. It's what we define. When you look at the best teams out there long‑term in the NFL, we try to look at how do those scouts identify players? We try to do that in a scientific manner. And, again, time of possession just isn't one of those things. Our defense compensates for a lot of it by how they substitute. Again, fresh horses run‑fast‑type philosophy. We're not going to change too much of how we do it. We want to score, and we're trying to win. There have been times in the last few years where we have slowed it down against various teams and for different reasons. But time of possession wasn't normally one of those, and these guys are extremely talented on offense and are playing a different style. But that's not something that we sit down at the end of the game. Sometimes we'll be joking after games that this is the first time we've ever won a time possession and people were mad. But, no. Q. (Inaudible)? MARK HELFRICH: It could be different reasons. It could be something that maybe is a physical thing. It could be trying to identify what they're doing on defense type of thing. When I say physical, it could be their issue or our issue. It could be a personnel thing. There are a lot of things. It could be trying to kill the clock. We have a few different type of modes that we'll employ. Q. As you've been on the staff the last couple of years, has your role evolved in terms of game planning and game calling and things like that? MARK HELFRICH: Yeah, we collaborate on everything as an offensive staff. I don't think there's been any changes of note. I think the only thing that we've done better is get to know each other better. So we're kind of in a completing sentences mode. We've had a great relationship, and I think that's just gotten better. Q. What's it like to be an offensive coordinator in his offense? MARK HELFRICH: It's awesome. Our whole‑‑ he's a great guy to work for. We've got a great team of guys to be around. Our team is different, both athletically and just guys to be around. They're a great group of guys to be around. They're very, very good adjusters when we do make changes during the game, which is a big deal. Kind of going back to how teams show up on film and they play us a little bit differently, maybe. Guys have to be able to adjust, and that's something that they've been great at. That goes back to our staff chemistry of guys. Gary Campbell has been here since the 1917 Rose Bowl, and he knows that when we're communicating everybody just kind of knows what everybody wants. That is a huge deal. Q. Could you talk about the BCS game. Fair or unfair, the question keeps getting asked of Chip until he wins one. Do you think he needs a game like this to validate his record? MARK HELFRICH: Me personally? No, I don't. I think Chip is outstanding. Was Marv Levy a good football coach? I think he was a good football coach. Was Bud Grant a good football coach? Was Charles Barkley a good NBA player? Well, all those things. Again, it's the pinnacle type deal, and do we want to win this game? Absolutely. Do we want to win this game for Coach Kelly? Maybe, but it's not to legitimize his career. It's because we believe in everything that he stands for, and we believe in our players in every way. It's not, gosh, I hope he's thought of as a good coach, that kind of deal. We want to compete. We want to win, and they do too, I'm sure. Q. Being seen as a head coach candidate, is that flattering, disturbing? MARK HELFRICH: Yes. I don't know. It's good in terms of that means we're being successful, and this time of year I think we've talked about this before. Your name is brought up in one of two ways, and it's better that way than the other way. But all that, again, is due to Chip, it's due to our team. The negative is you get a lot of phone calls and text messages from other guys, and it's a realistic part of this business, the dark side. Q. You've been asked about winning BCS games. Two years ago when (Inaudible). Did it occur to you during last year's game where it happened the year before that your number one back was coming up injured? MARK HELFRICH: That's why you're the best. No, we're always in the moment. I joke about you guys, but we're always about what we have. What if you don't have this or you're going to miss this guy, it doesn't matter. You have what you have. Q. (Inaudible)? MARK HELFRICH: Well, after the fact, sure. You're going to analyze everything and go, well, it would have been nice to do this. But at that point, that's when the questions turn into what's wrong with you idiots? And we have to answer that too and that's fine. But, yeah, we have to deal with what we have. And you know in some of those things a timeout would have helped type of deal. It's not going to get better in a 3:00‑minute period. But that's just, again, part of how we practiced, part of how our guys are conditioned. Mentally conditioned as to what do we have right now? What's the condition right now? That's really all that matters and that's all that we can control, and all that we can affect. Again, they've been a pretty darn good with that formula. Q. (Inaudible)? MARK HELFRICH: Sure, sure. That's if, now. No, I don't want to make it ‑‑ no, I think LaMichael, there are so many different ways to approach that. He can improve a bunch in some areas. If he did come back, I understand the running back position is a short career, a short career in the NFL. There are a bunch of different ways with that. But you see smaller guys being successful, whether it's his returner, a receiver a change‑‑up type back with a‑‑ I'm trying to think of an example. Ryan Grant, is he still in the NFL right now? But a big back, little back. A Darren Sproles, counter punch to a bigger guy. It just takes the right situation. But there is no question he physically, mentally, psychologically has the ability to be very successful. Q. Did you hear about Mark Asper? MARK HELFRICH: Yeah, somebody asked that in the other room. It's unbelievable and very believable at the same time. I'm surprised he wasn't doing the play‑by‑play in Spanish and playing the piano with the other hand while rescuing the guy, because that's Mark. The guy is incredible. A really good football player, great person, and he's a renaissance guy for sure. Q. Can you talk about the little thing that's Darron does that maybe a lot of people don't see that's helped you get to this point? MARK HELFRICH: He runs the show. In practice he's been awesome in practice. That's something we talk with those guys about that there is no off position on the quarterback switch. Those guys need to be on point 100% every day in practice because that makes everybody else better. That builds confidence in that guy. That makes the right guard play better, makes receivers run routes. All those things he's done fantastically. He's been a tremendous practice player. From his leadership standpoint, he gets all those guys lined up. All the younger guys that are in progress, a guy like Anthony Thomas isn't able to do those things by accident. He's done a great job, and Darron has certainly led that charge. Q. What are some of the things about Chip that you find impressive? MARK HELFRICH: Oh, gosh, lots. The first thing that flashed through my mind is just his integrity and his ability to deal with the players. When I say deal with, just the daily little things. How he gets those guys to focus on the moment and spin almost everything in a positive manner. Just a very, very smart guy, very positive guy, a funny guy. A great feel for the players, too. If guys are gassed or they need to be patted on the fanny or kicked in the fanny, he's always got the right clutch on that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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