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Rice University Athletics
Mike Bloomgren Press Conference Quotes
10/15/2019 3:08:00 PM | Football
Opening Statement
"Coming off our bye week last week, we had a really productive week. I thought it came at the perfect time. I loved having the bye week after six games. It was great for our coaches to really dive into our self-scout. To see what we're doing numerically that other coordinators can see and try to take advantage of it. We made sure we changed those things and also really watch our cut-ups to see what we're executing at a high level, what we need to do more of and what we need to stay away from to put our kids in the best position possible.
I asked our coaches to really go through with our old heads and ask, 'What three things do we want to get better at this week?' We asked our guys to really assess that in practice. For the young guys, it was a different bucket. We got to see them scrimmage live for the first time since August. We had seen them on scout team. Some of them impressed us. It will get those guys a chance to play in our offense and in our defense. Also, in special teams drills where a couple of those guys really made an impact. We're going to see more of them on the football field. They've earned the right to be on the football field for us going forward.
The last bucket would be recruiting. We had coaches out on Thursday and Friday to go see recruits. I got a chance to go see a recruit in Nashville and a chance to go recruit somebody in Dallas on Friday night. So, I'm really excited about where everything's going. All in all, it was a really productive week for us and we're better because of it. Again, I talked about the old heads. Some of them were held out of last week's practices against their will, which speaks to our culture and the fact that these guys wanted to keep going and get better. But, we held them out. We made a decision as a coaching staff and training staff that it would be best for the team to keep them out. There were a low number of those guys. But, a ton of work for the young guys and a ton of great work for the old guys who were able to go on very specific things.
Looking ahead, I think last week will carry over nicely as we go into the Alamodome and play UTSA this weekend. It's our third conference game. Obviously, both teams are in need of a win. That's very obvious. I've known of Frank (Wilson) for years, back to his time at LSU when he was an unbelievable recruiter and a great running backs coach. Some of the guys that he coached, the production that they've had in those systems, you're starting to see it right now. He's getting the running game going. Again, they're going to present a great challenge to us. Sincere McCormick is the latest running back under his tutelage that's really doing a heck of a job. Defensively for them, it starts up front. They have an older group of defensive linemen who are playing good football. They come off the ball and play hard. They don't stay blocked long. Because of that, they were at the top of our conference in pass defense a week ago. I think they're third in our conference right now in pass defense. They're doing a good job on the back end right now.
I think our team is very, very hungry for a win. They're just going to keep working. It's one thing to stay the course and do the things that we're asking them to do. It's a whole other thing to get the rewards in the locker room for all of their hard work. Not just during the football season but dating back to spring ball and all of the summer workouts. I want so badly for us to put it together, play our kind of football and come out victorious this Saturday. It's going to take great execution and four quarters. That is no secret for our team.
With that, we're excited to be back on the practice field. We got a chance to practice yesterday afternoon and we'll be back out there today."
On how the practices were during the bye week:
"(They were) pretty intense. We went live scrimmage in those situations. They had a chance to tackle to the ground and we saw some people really show up. They were short. They were 90-minute practices as opposed to some of our longer practices. But, we got the work in that we needed."
On if anybody stood out during the practices:
"If I were to pick anyone on both sides of the ball, it would be (quarterback) JoVoni Johnson on offense and on defense, it would be (cornerback) Tre'shon Devones. But, there's a lot of guys that are continuing to step up and earn more playing time. Those are two that really stood out."
If there are two or three guys that could break into the lineup:
"I just don't know how substantial that is at this time. There are guys that are going to get worked in on special teams. They have earned the right to do that. As far as base packages on offense and defense, there's guys that we are excited about. I'm not sure we are excited about them right now."
What's the biggest thing they've learned this week that will help them going forward?
"As you look as our team, we talk a lot about situational football. Offensively, I don't know that I've ever been a part of an offense where you're converting less on third and four-to-six than you are on seven-to-ten. That's been a part of our third down woes frankly. We're doing such a better job staying ahead of the sticks than we were a year ago. But, we're just not converting those things consistently enough. I think we're at 26% in four-to-six right now. That number needs to be around 50%. Then everything else goes up. We're doing really good on third-and-one. We're really good at third-and-two to three. Seven-to-ten, we're probably right where we need to be. Four-to-six is an area where we have to attack. We talked about some ways to do that, whether it's through different protections, different route concepts or certain runs that we feel good about in that down-and-distance. Those are things that I thought were really good for us to learn offensively. There's some things, personnel grouping-wise, that we feel like we were becoming too one-sided. I think when you have two backs on the field and three tight ends, you're probably going to run it more than you throw it. Maybe there's a way we can find more play passes there. The same thing is true when we're in ten personnel with four wide receivers on the field or 11 personnel. We need to find a little more balance in running the ball. Those are just things that are always good to see. We do, do it week to week, so we know about them, but there were a couple of them that were glaring that we're going to try to address."
On if the order of the quarterbacks is more established:
"Wiley (Green) is our starter. We're going to use him in that role. We want him to jump in the game and lead us from start to finish. Now, there may be some people that jump in there, whether it's special plays that they may throw better or whether it's a quarterback designed run. Maybe we do that more with one of the other guys than with Wiley at this time."
What's the next step in the passing game?
"Everything starts with a few more third down conversions, as simple as it sounds. I think when we're able to do that, when we're able to convert and get a new set of sticks, I think the shots become more available. We've proven that Brad Rozner is hard to cover. Even though he didn't have a whole lot of production in the last game, he had six pass 15-yard penalties against the (defensive back) guarding him. You talk about flipping the field and making a difference, that makes a difference. So, we're going to give him those opportunities. Austin (Trammell) has done a great job with his run after the catch as well. But also, what Aston (Walter) is doing and the way he's seeing things in the running game right now is really good as well. Again, I can't say enough about Aston with or without the ball. The selfless things that he does play-in and play-out."
On the way that Aston Walter blocks:
"Whether he's blocking in the run game, if he's asked to do that, he's going to put his face in there and move people. He's going to put his fullback hat on. But, what he does in pass protection, in terms of how he studies it week to week, how he's always in the right place and then he does lift those linebackers up with great leverage. We have all the confidence in the world in him. If we could clone him we might put him a guard."
On Blaze Alldredge:
"He has been added to the Bronco Nagurski Watch List, which I think is so cool. I told our team that that just doesn't happen very often. Those award committees, they do a lot of research and have a lot of meetings in the summer. They like to get their watch group then. So, for them to be impressed enough by what Blaze has done on the field to be added to the watch list, it speaks volumes for his play and it surprises none of us."
On what makes Blaze Alldredge so effective:
"If you look at the way from the time things ended last season, we raved about how he cut his body fat from 13% to 7% and gained 15 pounds. That's so hard to do. Anybody who has ever tried it knows that gaining weight and losing body fat is really hard. It's all his work. The way he worked in the weight room. The way he worked at running. The way he was always in the building. But, the thing that people didn't see was maybe the time that he was in the meeting room studying his game and understanding this defense from a next level type vantage point. Scott Vestal made the comment to me in the car when we were recruiting on Friday that he's never seen anybody that can diagnose so rapidly. That comes from studying and being able to process that information quickly. That's what's leading to his tackles for loss. Now, he's got a group of defensive linemen in front of him that are doing their job pretty well too and creating some of those opportunities. A couple of his TFL's, in particular in the UAB game, were because of what Trey Schuman did and he affected the backfield. So, you're starting to see the defense work together really well and it's going to be a great matchup, in my opinion, the way that UTSA is trying to run the football right now with their quarterback and running back against our defensive front seven. I think it's going to be a lot of fun to watch."
On what it means to the program to have guys on watch lists?
"It's really cool. It means a lot. I think those individual awards really are team awards, kind of like everything else. But, to have Brian Chaffin on the Rimington Watch List, to have Blaze on the Nagurski Watch List and we also have Myles Adams on the Campbell Trophy for the top student-athlete in America. That award means so much to me because of who we are here at Rice.
"Coming off our bye week last week, we had a really productive week. I thought it came at the perfect time. I loved having the bye week after six games. It was great for our coaches to really dive into our self-scout. To see what we're doing numerically that other coordinators can see and try to take advantage of it. We made sure we changed those things and also really watch our cut-ups to see what we're executing at a high level, what we need to do more of and what we need to stay away from to put our kids in the best position possible.
I asked our coaches to really go through with our old heads and ask, 'What three things do we want to get better at this week?' We asked our guys to really assess that in practice. For the young guys, it was a different bucket. We got to see them scrimmage live for the first time since August. We had seen them on scout team. Some of them impressed us. It will get those guys a chance to play in our offense and in our defense. Also, in special teams drills where a couple of those guys really made an impact. We're going to see more of them on the football field. They've earned the right to be on the football field for us going forward.
The last bucket would be recruiting. We had coaches out on Thursday and Friday to go see recruits. I got a chance to go see a recruit in Nashville and a chance to go recruit somebody in Dallas on Friday night. So, I'm really excited about where everything's going. All in all, it was a really productive week for us and we're better because of it. Again, I talked about the old heads. Some of them were held out of last week's practices against their will, which speaks to our culture and the fact that these guys wanted to keep going and get better. But, we held them out. We made a decision as a coaching staff and training staff that it would be best for the team to keep them out. There were a low number of those guys. But, a ton of work for the young guys and a ton of great work for the old guys who were able to go on very specific things.
Looking ahead, I think last week will carry over nicely as we go into the Alamodome and play UTSA this weekend. It's our third conference game. Obviously, both teams are in need of a win. That's very obvious. I've known of Frank (Wilson) for years, back to his time at LSU when he was an unbelievable recruiter and a great running backs coach. Some of the guys that he coached, the production that they've had in those systems, you're starting to see it right now. He's getting the running game going. Again, they're going to present a great challenge to us. Sincere McCormick is the latest running back under his tutelage that's really doing a heck of a job. Defensively for them, it starts up front. They have an older group of defensive linemen who are playing good football. They come off the ball and play hard. They don't stay blocked long. Because of that, they were at the top of our conference in pass defense a week ago. I think they're third in our conference right now in pass defense. They're doing a good job on the back end right now.
I think our team is very, very hungry for a win. They're just going to keep working. It's one thing to stay the course and do the things that we're asking them to do. It's a whole other thing to get the rewards in the locker room for all of their hard work. Not just during the football season but dating back to spring ball and all of the summer workouts. I want so badly for us to put it together, play our kind of football and come out victorious this Saturday. It's going to take great execution and four quarters. That is no secret for our team.
With that, we're excited to be back on the practice field. We got a chance to practice yesterday afternoon and we'll be back out there today."
On how the practices were during the bye week:
"(They were) pretty intense. We went live scrimmage in those situations. They had a chance to tackle to the ground and we saw some people really show up. They were short. They were 90-minute practices as opposed to some of our longer practices. But, we got the work in that we needed."
On if anybody stood out during the practices:
"If I were to pick anyone on both sides of the ball, it would be (quarterback) JoVoni Johnson on offense and on defense, it would be (cornerback) Tre'shon Devones. But, there's a lot of guys that are continuing to step up and earn more playing time. Those are two that really stood out."
If there are two or three guys that could break into the lineup:
"I just don't know how substantial that is at this time. There are guys that are going to get worked in on special teams. They have earned the right to do that. As far as base packages on offense and defense, there's guys that we are excited about. I'm not sure we are excited about them right now."
What's the biggest thing they've learned this week that will help them going forward?
"As you look as our team, we talk a lot about situational football. Offensively, I don't know that I've ever been a part of an offense where you're converting less on third and four-to-six than you are on seven-to-ten. That's been a part of our third down woes frankly. We're doing such a better job staying ahead of the sticks than we were a year ago. But, we're just not converting those things consistently enough. I think we're at 26% in four-to-six right now. That number needs to be around 50%. Then everything else goes up. We're doing really good on third-and-one. We're really good at third-and-two to three. Seven-to-ten, we're probably right where we need to be. Four-to-six is an area where we have to attack. We talked about some ways to do that, whether it's through different protections, different route concepts or certain runs that we feel good about in that down-and-distance. Those are things that I thought were really good for us to learn offensively. There's some things, personnel grouping-wise, that we feel like we were becoming too one-sided. I think when you have two backs on the field and three tight ends, you're probably going to run it more than you throw it. Maybe there's a way we can find more play passes there. The same thing is true when we're in ten personnel with four wide receivers on the field or 11 personnel. We need to find a little more balance in running the ball. Those are just things that are always good to see. We do, do it week to week, so we know about them, but there were a couple of them that were glaring that we're going to try to address."
On if the order of the quarterbacks is more established:
"Wiley (Green) is our starter. We're going to use him in that role. We want him to jump in the game and lead us from start to finish. Now, there may be some people that jump in there, whether it's special plays that they may throw better or whether it's a quarterback designed run. Maybe we do that more with one of the other guys than with Wiley at this time."
What's the next step in the passing game?
"Everything starts with a few more third down conversions, as simple as it sounds. I think when we're able to do that, when we're able to convert and get a new set of sticks, I think the shots become more available. We've proven that Brad Rozner is hard to cover. Even though he didn't have a whole lot of production in the last game, he had six pass 15-yard penalties against the (defensive back) guarding him. You talk about flipping the field and making a difference, that makes a difference. So, we're going to give him those opportunities. Austin (Trammell) has done a great job with his run after the catch as well. But also, what Aston (Walter) is doing and the way he's seeing things in the running game right now is really good as well. Again, I can't say enough about Aston with or without the ball. The selfless things that he does play-in and play-out."
On the way that Aston Walter blocks:
"Whether he's blocking in the run game, if he's asked to do that, he's going to put his face in there and move people. He's going to put his fullback hat on. But, what he does in pass protection, in terms of how he studies it week to week, how he's always in the right place and then he does lift those linebackers up with great leverage. We have all the confidence in the world in him. If we could clone him we might put him a guard."
On Blaze Alldredge:
"He has been added to the Bronco Nagurski Watch List, which I think is so cool. I told our team that that just doesn't happen very often. Those award committees, they do a lot of research and have a lot of meetings in the summer. They like to get their watch group then. So, for them to be impressed enough by what Blaze has done on the field to be added to the watch list, it speaks volumes for his play and it surprises none of us."
On what makes Blaze Alldredge so effective:
"If you look at the way from the time things ended last season, we raved about how he cut his body fat from 13% to 7% and gained 15 pounds. That's so hard to do. Anybody who has ever tried it knows that gaining weight and losing body fat is really hard. It's all his work. The way he worked in the weight room. The way he worked at running. The way he was always in the building. But, the thing that people didn't see was maybe the time that he was in the meeting room studying his game and understanding this defense from a next level type vantage point. Scott Vestal made the comment to me in the car when we were recruiting on Friday that he's never seen anybody that can diagnose so rapidly. That comes from studying and being able to process that information quickly. That's what's leading to his tackles for loss. Now, he's got a group of defensive linemen in front of him that are doing their job pretty well too and creating some of those opportunities. A couple of his TFL's, in particular in the UAB game, were because of what Trey Schuman did and he affected the backfield. So, you're starting to see the defense work together really well and it's going to be a great matchup, in my opinion, the way that UTSA is trying to run the football right now with their quarterback and running back against our defensive front seven. I think it's going to be a lot of fun to watch."
On what it means to the program to have guys on watch lists?
"It's really cool. It means a lot. I think those individual awards really are team awards, kind of like everything else. But, to have Brian Chaffin on the Rimington Watch List, to have Blaze on the Nagurski Watch List and we also have Myles Adams on the Campbell Trophy for the top student-athlete in America. That award means so much to me because of who we are here at Rice.
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