[Fuller/MGoBlog]

Thoughts on how your group’s played so far through four games?

“They’ve played well. They for the most part have done what they’ve been asked to do. More importantly than the games, I think, they’ve shown four weeks of improvement each in their own individual way in terms of what they needed to work on. I think we’re really in position to be playing our best football as a group getting into Big Ten play and then, as you’d like to, in October and November, so I’m excited about that.”

What was the point where you saw Devin Asiasi emerge? He’s obviously right there as one of your top guys so far.

“Uh, last January when I watched his junior high school tape, probably.”

What is it about him, is it that he’s physical?

“He’s a guy who plays fast, he’s physical, he’s capable of playing very nasty. He weighs somewhere around 270 pounds and still moves very well, so it’s a rare physical combination. Then he has a good football awareness about him and he learns well. Once I got a sense of the fact that he’d be able to pick things up fast enough to contribute it was kind of a no-brainer that he’d be part of the group.”

Speaking of playing nasty, it seemed like Tyrone [Wheatley Jr.] had that kind of week last week blocking. Is he becoming that kind of a mauler out there at that position?

“Yeah, certainly He’s definitely improving. Every week has been better than the previous, and looking for that to continue.”

Devin said that you had a big role in his recruitment and getting him here. I know for him it was a lot of last minute stuff and getting hot late in his recruitment. Can you touch a little on what it was like to build that relationship with him?

“Shoot, it was just kind of steady. He’s the kind of guy who could have gone wherever he wanted to go and it was just kind of always being there and building that relationship over a long period of time. I think he might have been the first guy I offered when I got the job here last January or February or whatever it was. Always loved him and it was just a long time, and luckily it paid off at the end.”

[After THE JUMP: pick your punt-return poison]

Was he always your top tight end target?

“Uh, yeah. I mean, he’s special. We’re looking for different types of guys, obviously. Nick [Eubanks] is a different type of guy than him, so you want different types of tight ends. But in terms of the category that he falls in, there’s no doubt that he was the top guy.”

Gentry still with you guys? Is he doing receiver stuff or is he still with you?

“A little bit of both. I’ve said this before: it’s probably not as big a difference as it would seem from the outside because a second tight end, the position that Jake Butt plays, often it’s really a receiver position that’s just doing it as a tight end. There’s flexibility there personnel-wise where the second tight end is really playing a receiver spot, so I would say it’s not really like he’s not a tight end or just a receiver, but he’s really doing both.”

He made progress in the spring. Did he carry that over to the fall, or is there still stuff that he needs to adjust to with the position new to him?

“I mean, there’s carryover. I think there’s always stuff to adjust to as well. No one’s arrived in terms of just being good enough that they don’t need to get better. I think spring certainly helped him, though. I’m kind of confused as to what the question is.”

Is he still adjusting to tight end? You said he was playing both, so the blocking part--

“Oh, yeah. He’s adjusting to both. He’s a guy who went from quarterback, so he’s still in the process of developing as a perimeter player rather than being at the quarterback spot. I think the last few weeks we’ve seen him make plays in practice that are exceptional, and I think we’ll start seeing him make those on Saturdays this season.”

Do you and Chris split up the special teams units overseeing things? How do you work sharing some of those responsibilities?

“It’s all together for the most part. There’s certain phases where one person takes the lead, but it’s all together with Coach Zordich as well. We all work really well together, so it’s a good group.”

Speaking with Jim on the conference call, he mentioned this week that given the field goal problems special teams will continue to be an emphasis this week. What has been emphasized or what will you continue to emphasize going into Saturday?

“In terms of field goal?”

And I guess technique. I remember Jim saying the laces 12 to 6, specifically said the kicking game was kind of off. Was the kicking game the only thing where it didn’t go as planned or are there other areas that you guys are emphasizing?

“Always emphasizing everything. I mean, the kicking game, field goal in particular, there are certain things with the operation that always need to be perfect. The kicker’s got to kick well, and the nature of that position is sometimes you just don’t have the best day, like other positions.

“Kenny approached this week the same way he always has, and maybe we worked on a few things that he struggled with more so but nothing drastically different, no. Same thing with offense and defense. You find things that you have struggled with and maybe you an extra few reps on that specific thing or watch the tape extra close, but nothing too different.”

There was nothing wrong mechanically? Everything’s there? You just chalk it up to it wasn’t your guys’ day?

“Yeah, there were certain specific reps where a snap could have been a little bit better. Our holder is tremendous, so he can typically make up for a snap that isn’t perfect. And then Kenny’s got to kick the way he’s capable of kicking, and we have no doubt that he’ll do that going forward.”

How did you guys discover that Garrett is such a good holder? I don’t remember hearing anything about a holder until this year.

“He has tremendous hands, which you wouldn’t really know except for the fact that he played scout team receiver quite a bit and he actually played some receiver with our ones when we were down on numbers. He has really, really good hands and it kind of made him a no-brainer.

“You want a really, really surehanded guy and a guy who can devote a lot of time to it, and since he was kind of the fourth quarterback or wherever he is, he’s able to spend a lot of time on that particular craft.”

Why is that such a unique skill that you couldn’t just have Amara Darboh go in and do that? He’s got pretty good hands, too.

“You certainly could. The problem is that to get it really, really polished and consistent you want somebody that can spend a lot of time with the kicker. And so part of the problem of having a quarterback or backup quarterback or Darboh doing it is he can’t spend an hour of practice with Kenny. That’s kind of—a lot of teams do it the same way. It’s a guy who maybe doesn’t have a tremendous role in any other spot on the field because the need that practice time to get live reps with the snapper and with the kicker.”

Jourdan almost got killed by the chubby kicker. Did you have a conversation with Jabrill about that?

“Yeah, we talked about it. Would have liked to see something different occur than that, obviously, for Jourdan’s well being. That guy’s surprisingly a very good cover guy. That’s not a new thing for him. I mean, he’s very comfortable filling holes on the kickoff team and there was a huge one, and if we could have got around him it might have been a touchdown. Credit to him, he’s a good, stout cover guy that you really have to account for, which is unfortunate. Usually you like to be able to ignore the kickers.”

Jabrill felt pretty bad about it?

Jabrill making business decisions, without considering involving parties. https://t.co/TiHOfYV0eu

— Jourdan Lewis (@JourdanJD) September 25, 2016

“Uh…I don’t know if he did. I think there was a little bit of self preservation. [/laughs] I think I might have made the same decision, but we looked at it and obviously you hate leaving big plays out there on the field, and I think that could have been a big one. Would at least have gotten out another 15 yards or so. I think possibly more.

“Just special teams as a whole, you look at little things like that when you watch the game on Sunday and it’s like God, if we could have done this little thing different or that little thing, maybe you’re talking about a return that got to the 30 or the 35 and you’re talking about it getting to the 50 or a touchdown. We’ve got to find ways to not leave big plays on the field.”

Because Jourdan proved at the end of last year that he can handle punts, too, and be an explosive guy, is there some thought to rotating them through so Jabrill doesn’t have the total load on him all the time or is Jabrill so good he’s tough to move?

“Yeah, he’s really good at everything. There’s not really a great reason to take him out and that’s kind of one of his trademarks is that he never gets tired. You can keep playing him. There’s merit to both of them being on the field at the same time, certainly, and making people decide who they want to give the ball to. I think both are equally dangerous, so that’s something that we could look into.”
Both on punts?

“Yeah. It could happen. Some teams like we’ll play later in the year spray the ball all around and you don’t know where it’s going, so that could happen. And they’re both in on kick return, as you saw on that play against Penn State. They’re both excellent and it’s a good problem to have, trying to decide who should be returning.”

Did you work with Chase Winovich at all last year when he was bouncing around positions?

“Yeah, I was his coach for spring ball. And then he moved back to defense sometime after spring ball.”

He described himself to us as the player most like your father on the entire team. I was wondering if you saw those similarities or where that comes from?

“I can see the comparison for sure. Chase’s biggest strength is you can make an argument that he cares the most of anyone on the team. There’s a great quote by the UNC women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance who said ‘Never underestimate the power of the one who cares the most.’ I always thought that applied perfectly to Chase because it’s just like he goes hard all the time: workouts, drills, practice, if something’s not right he’ll come in and watch reps of it and try to fix it. He’s always positive. If anything goes wrong he just puts a positive spin on it and moves on. I think he’s solution oriented, he has a high motor, and he loves football, so I would say it’s a fair comparison. I don’t know if he’s the most like him, but it’s definitely a good comparison.”

Does it surprise you that teams keep punting and kicking to Jabrill?

“Uh…not really, because the alternatives aren’t great. I mean, you look at—not to compare him—guys like Devin Hester, for instance, when he had his heyday, and Dante Hall in the NFL and the alternative is just to punt it out of bounds. That’s not a super enticing [thing] and you’re not sending a great message to your team by saying ‘Hey, you guys aren’t capable of tackling this guy,’ so I think it’s typical in football. You don’t see many guys that are altogether avoided, so it doesn’t shock me, no.”