Spring Practice Presser 3/11/16: Greg Mattison Comment Count

Adam Schnepp

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[Barron/MGoBlog]

Playing three different positions in three years isn’t usually the recipe for success, but what about defensive end works for Chase Winovich that you think he’ll fit better there?

“Well, Chase has had a very good spring. We saw that in the bowl practice, and that’s why bowl games are so important. I’ve always felt—I recruited him, and I always felt he had a real high motor, he’s a very, very tough young man, and he can really run. When we got a chance to get him back on defense we just put him in in practices and I would have played him in the game. I would have put him in the bowl game at the end except our offense did such a great job of controlling the ball I didn’t have time to get him in at the end. Then this spring, he’s added some weight. He’s got a lot of learning to do with the technique but he’s willing to, and I think you’re going to be—you know, he’s got a very high ceiling and I’m excited about it.”

How about Bryan Mone? Is he at full health?

“Yeah. Bryan’s, you know, he’s rusty; you don’t take a whole year off [without rust]. But every practice you see it getting more like the guy when he was a freshman but older, and he’s working really hard. I’m very pleased. Obviously he’s very hungry. You know, you take a year away from a young man, it’s hard. And he seems to be really excited about what’s happening, and he’s getting a lot of great reps.”

On the other side of the ball, can you talk about what you see in practice from Chesson and Darboh and Butt in terms of they’re so experienced and so talented that whoever the quarterback is how much they’re going to help that guy?

“Yeah, again, you’re talking about three guys that are veterans now. They’re very talented. I don’t follow our offense. You know, you’ve got so much to do with your own side, but they just have such a great attitude and they seem to be the ones that make the plays. And they’re leaders. They’re leaders by how they play, leaders off the field, leaders in the cafeteria. They’re big-time guys and it’s fun to be on a team with them. I’m really excited about what they’re going to do this next year.”

You’ve talked a lot over the years about how you remember coaching Chris [Wormley] and Hurst when they were really young. Now they’re old. This is the most veteran line you’ve had. Are your expectations, I assume, that much higher?

“Yeah, very high. You know, they know me that if a guy shows that he has talent that I’m going to expect him to get all the way to the top of that talent, and so sometimes things that might be acceptable some places are still not acceptable. I’m always after them for perfection. I want them to be as good as I know they can be, and that’s hard to do in a four-hour practice but they’re being pushed to do that.

“You see those guys, you know, Glasgow, he can’t go right now but he’s doing some things that he wouldn’t get injured with. But all those guys, Taco, it’s four years for them now and you’ve seen them. It’s funny because when you see a Shelton Johnson or a Carlo Kemp or Winovich, you see a young guy and you remember that’s just what they looked like, so you want to get them there faster so they can be up with them. But it’s good. The bar is very, very high for this defensive line.”

[After THE JUMP: If tickets for the Rashan Gary Hype Train weren’t already sold out…]

You obviously won’t practice with him until next fall, but talk about your excitement and anticipation to work with Rashan Gary.

“Well, you know, in recruiting—and I’ve done this a long time—you see a lot of guys that are really, really talented and you never know. It’s just like the NFL. When you draft a guy very high, you have very high expectations. You’ve obviously put your name on him and obviously said, ‘Yeah, this is one of those guys’ and now it’s a matter of what’s he going to be like when he gets here, you know.

“The thing that’s so exciting about Rashan is you can watch a highlight tape and then you can watch entire games and it’s the same thing. The reason a highlight tape is called a highlight tape is because they pick out the best plays. Well, you can see a lot of good players doing that, but this young man is really consistent on trying to play the way you want him to play. He’s also very intelligent, very high character, so he’s—we always have looked here, I always have, like the NFL: a freshman is just like a rookie. Play the best players. It doesn’t matter.

“So when practice starts, they all go in there together, they’re all the same whether a kid’s been a fourth-year player or a freshman, the best players play and whoever can help us win. We’re very, very excited about him.”

Where do you want to play him? Or where do you want to start him at, anyway?

“Well, he’ll play defensive end. He’ll play the defensive end position. He can also play the defensive tackle position. He’s got the size and the strength to do both, so it’s wherever he plays the best and wherever we need him.”

So you think he’ll start out at defensive end and then see?

“Yeah, he’ll definitely start out as a defensive end.”

MGoCutOff: Do you prefer him--

---this group has. Is this as deep of a group as you’ve ever had here?

“Yes, it is. This is a very deep group of guys who’ve played a lot of winning football. You’ve got a lot of guys who’re going to be able to compete, and you know our philosophy has been to try to play two groups or play a lot of guys. In today’s football it’s so critical to have a defensive line that has depth because the fast pace and the no huddle, that’s made a lot to try to tire out a defensive line, to make an experienced defensive line become average. When you have the ability to rotate another player in that has equal ability, that really helps you. And the injury factor, also. But yeah, it is a very deep group.”

MGoCutOffAgain: Do you envision--

--mentioned Shelton Johnson. I mean, on the roster he’s listed at 6’5, 212. How much bigger do you need him to get and where-

“He’s 229. He’s 229 right now, and he’ll always look thin. He could be 235, 240 and he’s gonna look thin. But he just needs to continue to keep lifting and with our strength program get to be as big as his body will allow him to be and not lose that quickness, because the one thing he has is very good athleticism.”

You talked about getting the young guys there faster. How do you do that? Is there a substitute for the experience some of the older guys have?

“No, there’s not a substitute for experience, but the way we practice, the way we split practices it gives you a chance to work very close with a young guy where if you’ve got a regular practice you’re concentrating more on your older kids, the ones you’ve already seen. This has given us a chance to really work with the younger kids.”

How different is this defense under Don Brown from what it was last year?

“I mean, it’s an exciting defense. It’s a very aggressive defense. You know, there’s a lot of similarities but then again there’s a lot of little things that people will see a difference. But it’s a very good defense. He does a very good job.”

What’s unique about having worked with [I can’t hear the end of the question but it’s about Don Brown]?

“He’s a great coach. He’s a very, very good coach. He’s very passionate. I think the thing that really helps him be successful is, like I said, he’s very passionate. He believes in his system. He also is very intelligent with the backend and the linebackers, working his way down and so he’s got the whole scheme of things.”

MGoGoodThingThere’sSpringPracticeApparentlyI’mRusty: Do--

--said that the bar’s very high for the defensive line. Last week in Florida they were saying that they think they’re going to be the best defensive line in the country or they could be. Do you like hearing that from them or is that premature?

“I don’t pay any attention to it. The thing I would say to them is let’s just show it on the field, let’s not talk about it. Let’s let somebody else decide that. We’re going to go out there and play the best we can and when it’s all done, when the season’s over and everything’s done, then let’s judge this defensive line, but let’s not talk about it a year before we play.”

You’ve coached some really good ones before, though. If not here, then other places. Can they be the best in the country?

“There’s a great deal of talent, a great deal of experience, and I’m very excited about it, you know. With that excitement goes the expectations for me and for them and for us. If you want to be in that elite group, if you want to be considered at the University of Michigan one of the top—who knows, who ranks ‘em, who cares—but if you want to be—they know what the top is, they know what’s expected of them—then let’s do it. Let’s work to do it and let’s look the practice tape. We’ll go back today and look at it; ‘Okay, where am I going? Where am I? Am I getting closer to that?’ We’ve got a lot of work to do yet.”

With this event here and then across the street tonight [AA Pioneer HOF induction ceremony], what do you think this day is like for Jim and John?

“Oh, I think it’s very special. And when I listened to them talk up there just before this, what a family. I keep thinking I’m one of the lucky guys. I’ve had an opportunity to work with all of ‘em. And what you saw up there and the stories they were saying, that’s them. That’s them all the way. They are a tremendous family and tremendous coaches.

“Obviously Jim—Jack was one of my favorite coaches I ever worked for, and then John was at the very top. I mean, we’re very close. They’re just such great coaches. Things that they were saying on the stage right there is them. And a lot of times guys get up there and it’s a show and everything. It’s not. I’m telling you, everything they said, I was laughing listening to those stories. It’s just what they believe in and that’s how they are.

“I mean, Jack was that way. I remember at the Ravens John, I remember the Ed Reed deal the whole way. [Ed. A- John Harbaugh told a story about how Ed Reed didn’t embrace the coaching staff when Harbaugh first got to Baltimore. They’d go weeks without talking, but Harbaugh made it clear to Reed in the beginning that he loved him. He then talked about how all players on your team need to feel that. Video of the story is here.] I mean, I was in charge of him and I’m going, ‘Wow!’ and that’s just how he was. Just tremendous that way about loving his team and them knowing that, and that’s different.”

Jack’s enthusiasm, everybody got to kind of see how that trickled down, yeah?

“I could see him doing that with both of them in a car with snow pants on. I could see it like I was there, and I wasn’t, you know. [ED. A- Jack shared the genesis of his infamous ‘enthusiasm unknown to mankind’ phrase: a snowy Iowa morning while driving Jim and John to school. He didn’t like how slow and mopey his sons were being that day, so he turned around and told them they were going to attack that day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.] That’s just him. And the head of the family, he’s exactly right: Jackie is a star. I mean, she is the leader of that family and she’s something special.”

One thing they discussed was the progression in coaching from high school to college and how it’s changed. How have you seen it change as well? You’ve got high school coaches on your support staff.

“Yeah, I had the same route. I took five years as a head high school coach and then into college. It’s the same thing Jack was saying; I was a graduate assistant and the whole thing.

“What Jim is doing with bringing in very successful high school coaches to have a position to then work their way or show what they can do is tremendous for the profession and also tremendous for us. I mean, you’re talking about when you bring in Rick Finotti, who’s one of the best coaches in Ohio at Cleveland St. Eds, and then you bring in Partirdge, I mean, you can go on and on. That’s unbelievable. That’s a very genius idea to have guys come and say they want to be college coaches, well okay, here’s a position for you. Work this, do this as well as you can, and then when there’s an opening why go look for someone who hasn’t been here when you have ‘em here already? It helps both the profession and it helps the program.”

And it helps recruiting?

“Oh, no question. I mean, you got another person all the way. You got another guy that’s talked to ‘em, that knows people.”

Speaking about recruiting, you’re a guy who’s always loved recruiting, I think. When you see Jim doing the sleepovers, kind of taking it to a new level, did you imagine that kind of recruiting?

“I never imagined that happening but when I saw it, again, I thought it was genius because it’s not a show. It truly isn’t a show. I mean, when we went to a home and he was gonna sleep over and we’re sitting in the living room and he goes, ‘Okay, I’m doing this because I don’t ever have enough time to be with the family. We’re going to talk and talk about football and talk about whatever and talk about life. I’m gonna sleep here on the couch and in the morning we’re gonna get up, we’re gonna go to school, [and] I’m still going to be with the young man.’ They get to see who the head coach is other than a salesman. You know, a lot of people look at it and they go, ‘Ah, what are you doing?’ He’s doing that to be able to show them this is who I am. If you don’t like this that’s fine, but this is who I am. Everything coach Harbaugh’s done when I’ve been around him is him, and his love for Michigan, his love for football, it’s real.”

When you were coaching down south would you have been irritated if you saw a school like Michigan coming down to Florida?

“Yeah, I’d have been irritated just seeing what Michigan’s doing in everything they’re doing. You know, I mean, winning, recruiting, yeah. When you’re a competitor and you see somebody coming like this, now all of a sudden you go, ‘Hey, we can’t let them do this.’ And you’re doing it in ways that nobody else has ever done.

“Yeah, I would think—like Jim said, think about it first then. You do it. Like the satellite camps, they are tremendous. You may not get a player out of them. You may get one or two, you may get a whole bunch; who knows. But what better thing is there for football than to take the Michigan football staff to a part of the country, coach young men, it’s not expensive, let them get better at football, they get to know what we are, and then get on a plane or get in a car and go to the next place? I mean, isn’t that really what coaches are supposed to do? Help guys get better. That’s what Jim’s doing.

“Yeah, you might have contact with a young man at that camp and he becomes a player, or you might have him because he liked the coaching staff, you might get him. He’s never going to get to Michigan-- a kid from Dallas is not going to get on a plane and fly here and evaluate here if it’s not a paid visit. Okay, then let’s take it down there to them and let’s help kids get better at football and then get to know us.”

Comments

Magnus

March 14th, 2016 at 2:41 PM ^

I like Greg Mattison interviews. It seems that a lot of the coaches - particularly Tyrone Wheatley on this staff - are kind of standoff-ish with the media, but Mattison is maybe the best spokesperson on the whole staff. I'm glad he's one of our coaches.

JeepinBen

March 14th, 2016 at 2:57 PM ^

Granted I'm not there, but I picture Tyrone in a standard-former-NFLer role, he's not quite here just so he doesn't get fined, but either he loves giving the media a hard time or it's a waste of his time. It's hard to tell from transcripts how jocular the back and forth is.

Mattison just seems to enjoy coaching and enjoys talking about it too.

Benoit Balls

March 14th, 2016 at 3:05 PM ^

I think, as a former player, you learn to distrust the media to a certain degree. Or, at the very least you learn quickly that they dont care a whit about you, so you keep your guard up around them.  Also, keep in mind the NY media wasn't exactly kind to him when he played for the NYG 

SD Larry

March 14th, 2016 at 3:55 PM ^

Imho, he has been a great  coach for the team every year.  He has evolved well with the program and done well at everything he has been asked to do, including being a great recruiter.   I hope he stays with the team for a long time.

jmdblue

March 15th, 2016 at 1:18 PM ^

I think Wheatley just does his best Bo impersonation (which isn't very good) for every question and gets on with his day.  I'm not entertained or informed by it, but I'm not irritated by it either.  

Mattison is so comfortable in his own skin and so confident in the content of what's about flow from his mouth that he actually answers questions in a way that's both entertaining and a little informative.