On Ohio State and the bowl game and finishing outside of the top four defensively
“That’s a great question. I think Coach (Harbaugh) addressed the Ohio State issue yesterday. Am I right? So that’s what I – he’s the boss. That’s what he said, that’s what I’m gonna try to do. He’s the boss. So as far as that goes, I’m getting in line right behind him.
“In terms of the Citrus Bowl, obviously we had the bad play on the first play of the game and then late in the second quarter, we have a key sack and they call a roughing the passer. That was a killer, because we had done a good job after that first series of really stemming the tide. I thought we played pretty darn well in that game now. There’s – I love it – ‘Hey! You’re gonna double this guy, you’re gonna double that guy, you’re gonna double…’ You can’t double them all! And, I also think this: we’ve got good players, okay? We’ve got good players, too. Okay? And I thought we played toe-to-toe with them. What was it: 21-16 in the fourth quarter? So I feel very strongly about at times we played really, really well in that football game. And our guys were certainly up to the challenge and we fell short. I take the positives from it and then obviously we go into the offseason, but in kind of completion to your comment, your question, Ashley, is we took all the pieces of that game that are negative, and I promise you, we’re gonna practice those plays against the sorted looks.
“And we took the same thing from the Ohio State thing, and we’ll be practicing against those plays, too, because in that scenario, again, it’s college football when you’re not successful, it’s 8-9 plays or it’s a group of plays where you just want them back. That’s certainly those scenarios.
“Now, looking on us defensively last year, okay, first off, we played pretty good against a Middle Tennessee team that was a 10 personnel – meaning four wide receivers across the board for the most part – bring in the tight ends and all that. But they were a 10 personnel starting point team. We played Army, and I thought we played about as well as we could play in that football game and won it with a strip-sack. Then we played Wisconsin and we had 4-5 bad run fits, two bad plays in the pass game and we’re out of the football game. Then we play Iowa, okay? Guess what? Iowa’s pretty good. And we had 8 sacks, 14 TFLs and they had one yard rushing and they run the ball like Wisconsin does. So as poorly as the outcome was at Wisconsin, the work that our guys put in going into the Iowa game was obviously well done and resulted in what I think was the turnaround for our season defensively. Then we went on a tear in defense right out to the end of the year, where I thought we played pretty darn well. First half of Penn State, there’s two bad plays, but we hold them to – you go in at halftime, you make your adjustments and you hold them to 72 yards in the second half. That’s good football.
“We beat Notre Dame during the stretch. We beat Michigan State during the stretch. We beat Indiana who was in the Top 25 pretty handily. Once again, the Ohio State game was a huge negative for us. I’m not gonna live in that world. And I don’t want the players to live in that world. We acknowledge it, we move on from it, and hopefully I do a better job. Because I don’t blame players for anything. You blame the old guy right here, okay? I gotta do a better job of getting our guys ready, and I promise you I’m going to.
“I didn’t mean to get heavy there.”
The fan and staff disconnect on cornerback Vincent Gray
“He played all year last year. Was in the rotation the entire year. When Lavert got hurt and did not – I think it was Illinois – he played the whole game. And obviously this is a guy that’s 6-foot-2, 6-foot-3 and I’m just hoping we can hold onto him for his entire career in terms of coming out early. Not that I begrudge that, because I wouldn’t at all. But I think he’s an outstanding player with tremendous range. I thought he did a very difficult thing at the end of the year. When we started to get nicked up with the injuries, he played corner, but he had to transition to safety and do a number of safety jobs that he had to take on as well. And that’s not an easy task now, he’s a young guy! But he did it and did it, I thought, really well.
“I just see a guy whose confidence is there. Thought he really played extremely well. I can think of one corner route against Alabama when he knocks the ball down, which is a big time play. I think it was against Ruggs. I just think the sky’s the limit for this guy, I really do. He’s an outstanding player, and outstanding young man. I just see nothing but good things for him moving forward.
“Him and Ambry, DJ Turner, and we’ve got – I don’t want to talk about anybody moving forward there, because those guys – I don’t want any expectations, those types of things placed on them. We’ve just gotta figure out who’s the fourth guy, who’s the nickel and all of that.”
Anything about the pandemic will make him a better coach?
“I mean, we went through a whole process of what you do well, what you don’t do well. There’s a lot of things that we’ve evaluated in terms of coverage that we can tweak. And we will do so. But at the same time, you’ve gotta look at what you do well now. There’s one of those organizations that puts it out, and if you take the last four years and you evaluate the analytics of it, there’s a lot of things to feel good about. You’re always gonna have the individual game that you don’t feel good about. Obviously Wisconsin last year, Ohio State last year. Those are two right off the bat. And then it comes right down to a handful of plays that gets you from the elite level to the very good level or good level.
“I really thought our guys – I think there’s a lot of good things here moving forward. I think Coach has a lot of things in place that allow our players to become leaders. I think we’re working hard on the development of the mental piece. I’m just excited to get back with the players. It’s nice to be around them virtually. There’s so many things you have to get better at and you have to change your methodology of how you went about coaching. But you’ve still gotta give quizzes. You’ve still gotta test your players. You’ve still gotta watch the tape. And all those things we’ve been doing. They’ve been challenging for all of us. We’ve worked our way through it and feel very good about where we’re at.
“The one thing again that I’ll go to: for the bulk of our players, there’s a good amount of consistency in terms of knowing what to do. I would be more concerned if I was now the defensive coordinator at John Smith University and it was my first year on the job and I had to go through this, because that’s gonna be a challenging scenario for guys across the country that are new on offense and new on defense – even special teams for that matter.”