March Coaching Notebook
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ZAK BOISVERT – MARCH 2017 COACHING NOTES Trubisky Rising (SI.com) -“But Coach,” Trubisky continued, “I don’t want to play because Marquise struggles. I want to play because you, Coach [Larry] Fedora and everyone on this team believes that I can help us win ballgames.” -“That really propelled him into that offseason that hey I’m going to go win this job,” Heckendorf said. “We came into the offseason and I told him if you want this job, you have to go get it. He had this feeling that, ‘I’m not going to let this happen again. I’m going to be ready to lead this team going forward.’” How Matt Rhule rebuilt Baylor’s recruiting class from scratch (SI.com) -“I don’t shy away from what happened here,” Rhule told Sports Illustrated in his office Tuesday morning. “I haven’t. What I tell people is we’re not only going to fix the problem, we want to be an example of what you can do in the future. If you want to come here, you can be the change, build a legacy not defined by things that happened before you got there.” -“I really feel that he’s going to be hard on them,” Brigham says. “He’s going to love them just as hard. As strict and tough as he’s going to be on them, he’s going to love them just as hard.” -“It took him a couple years to build the culture,” says Ed Foley, who worked under Rhule at Temple. “But once it’s built, it’s rock solid. Matt left the program in great shape from a culture standpoint.” David Thorpe, ESPN -There’s an energy required to play elite defense. Very few guys can carry the load offensively and play elite defense. -OKC uses the phrase “Stick Hand” when it comes to contesting shots. Kansas football: Tony Hull guiding Jayhawks’ recruiting success (SI.com) - “They don’t have to go to other schools and other conferences and wait two or three years to play,” Hull said. “They can come and make an immediate impact. What competitor do you know who doesn’t want to make an impact and leave a legacy as someone who started something?” DeMarco Murray’s words mean something to Jason Witten (ESPN.com) -Murray, who led the league in rushing in his final season with the Cowboys in 2014, told ESPN he reached out to Elliott after Dallas drafted the Ohio State running back. Murray said he told Elliott to follow Witten. -“I appreciate DeMarco saying those kind words,” Witten said. “We had a great run together. But DeMarco earned that to the year that he had. Zeke’s very talented. You can see that. And he works at it. I think that excites me a lot as a veteran player to see a young guy come in and have high expectations but also to want to surround himself with the right guys and do it the right way. I’ve been impressed with that so far.” -This was specific advice DeMarco Murray offered Zeke Elliott: "From day one, make sure he stays with 82. Everything and everywhere he goes be there by his side watching and listening. He will show him the way on and off the field." ZAK BOISVERT – MARCH 2017 COACHING NOTES Celtics rookie Jaylen Brown already earning Brad Stevens’ trust (CBS Boston) -“I understand that development from an outside perspective is judged based on minutes in games because that’s what everybody sees,” Stevens explained. “Development is based on, to us, how much you’re growing day to day in everything you do. So I don’t consider that to be a huge part of somebody’s development if they’re ignoring the other stuff that really matters, and getting really good. You have to earn your time. You have to bring something to the table that adds value to winning, and there are a lot of guys competing for that.” The unconventional career path of John Lynch (MMQB.com) -“It does,” he said. “I’d caution you, one thing Monte Kiffin always said to us was that the worst three words any football player can say are, ‘I got it.’ I’m right at the beginning stages. We’re right at the beginning stages. We’re taking on challenges every day. But I can tell you, I’m not overwhelmed, each day I come in and there’s a routine.” -“There’s a lot of parallels,” he says, comparing those Bucs with these 49ers. “There’d been constant change, so the thought process as a rookie was ‘don’t get close to the guy next to you, because he may not be here in a couple weeks. Don’t let your wives make friends, because they’re not gonna be here.’ That was the culture. Everybody talks about Tony [Dungy], and Tony was certainly integral. But before that, Rich McKay came in and brought some stability—we’re gonna draft good winning players that have certain traits, and football character. Then Tony came in and gave it more stability—these are the schemes we’re gonna play. We’re not deviating in Week 1 or Week 2 if it’s not working. We’re sticking to them.” -Two pieces of advice stuck with Lynch. First, Elway said “hire some good people around you,” which Lynch now jokes was to Elway’s detriment, since Lynch’s first hire was one of Elway’s best people—new 49ers VP of player personnel Adam Peters. Second, Elway told Lynch that he had to learn to close his door, which seems simple, but relates to time management as a boss. Day 1, all I wanted to do was turn on the tape of the San Francisco 49ers to see what we have,” Lynch says. “And it wasn’t until 4:30 that I finally turned the tape on, because I was meeting people, meeting the trainer, going through the office. But that was very important too. That’s how it is. … You also have to learn to close your door. You need your quiet time to yourself where you can just get stuff done.” -“Part of the interview process was, 10 characteristics of a GM, go 1-10 on what you’d be strongest at,” he says. “And I just followed my heart. Setting the tone and vision for a building, that was 1. Negotiating salary cap and contracts, right off the bat, I had that as 10, because I haven’t done it. So listen, I’m gonna have to rely on some people. But I will learn that, because I think to be good at it, you can’t just say, ‘that’s my guy over there.’ You gotta learn it and be a part of it.” -Getting that alignment was a stated goal of CEO Jed York’s during the GM/coach search, and it looks like San Francisco has that at this early juncture. On Tuesday, Shanahan gave a lengthy, detailed presentation for the scouts on what his staff would be looking for at each position. And that adds detail to the character traits Lynch has talked to his scouts about seeking. One that Lynch calls “critical” is football character. “You gotta live it and breathe it,” he says. ZAK BOISVERT – MARCH 2017 COACHING NOTES How Frank Vogel is making Terrence Ross feel at home in Orlando (538.com) -After the three, Dante Marchitelli, a Magic sideline reporter for Fox Sports Florida, explained the genesis of the call: “During the timeout, coach Vogel told Terrence: ‘We’re gonna run this play, and it’s exactly the same play you ran in Toronto. Every time you ran it against me, you got a dunk or a three, so I expect exactly the same thing on this play.’ And lo and behold: wide open for a three there.” Bob Huggins won’t change who he is, like it or not (ESPN.com) - No one has been sent to the treadmill, Huggins' preferred hamster wheel of torture. The treadmill is set for 45 seconds at 15 mph and designed to help players not repeat their mistakes. "We had a high school kid visiting ask one of our players, 'Tell me what I need to do to train for the treadmill,'' says Larry Harrison, Huggins' associate head coach at WVU and his assistant at Cincinnati from 1989 to 1997. "Our guy says, 'Man, you're missing the point. You can't train for the treadmill. You want to stay off of it.'' - From his father, Huggins not only inherited the three-hour practice, but he also found a deep respect for defense and an intolerance for laziness. The only players Huggins can't coach, he says, are guys who don't care. When his assistants go out recruiting, they concentrate on how a player interacts with his coaches and teammates and how he works in practice as much -- maybe more -- than how he performs in a game. Falcons one step from title thanks to this one-word mantra (New York Post) -Dan Quinn comes from the Pete Carroll coaching tree, so it is not surprising he is loaded with slogans and catch phrases and has a different name for each day of practice. But one of the slogans has stuck, and his players say it is a reason they’ve reached Super Bowl LI, where they will face the Patriots in Houston. That word is “Brotherhood.” -“The best teams I’ve been a part of have been good in the locker room and it’s carried over on to the field,” Quinn said recently.