Pitt defensive coordinator Randy Bates met the media on Thursday and talked about the Panthers' defense, the challenge of Pitt's new offense and a lot more.
Here's video and a full rundown of his remarks.
How’s the secondary looking so far?
Bates: So far, so good. We’re only in practice four, or five, but I think we’re coming along good. The corners are playing pretty good. We’ve got Crumpley, Bigelow, Tamon is in from Nebraska - those kids are all playing pretty good. I’m impressed. Now, we haven’t scrimmaged yet. You know, Saturday will be the first time, so we’ll see them live but we’ve done a good bit of live, we did a bit of live on Tuesday and I’m cautiously optimistic at this point.
Rashad had a couple of those “TAKEAWAY” stickers -
Bates: Rashad’s got a couple interceptions. Yep. I forgot Rashad. He was injured so much last year, I forget him sometimes. But he’s out there now competing, so those four guys are getting after it and it should be a good competition. I’m excited to see. Our offense is certainly stressing them throwing the ball down the field.
Why do you think your defense is going to be better this year?
Bates: I think the big thing we have to do is, we have to make more plays. More big plays. We didn’t have as many sacks, as many tackles for loss as we traditionally have. And we just have to pick the ball off when it gets to our hands. Those were the things that we didn’t do last year; sometimes it’s the way the ball bounces, but in this case, a lot of them were our own fault.
What do you mean, your own fault?
Bates: Well, we dropped them. We didn’t get them when the ball was on the ground. We weren’t punching the ball out quite as much last year. This year, we’re certainly stressing it.
Javon and Donovan played a lot last year. Do you see them coming in with a new confidence, are they more certain of themselves in the defense?
Bates: I think we have Cruce Brookins and we have P.J. O’Brien, too, so we’re very deep there. And all of those guys are competing really well. So those two guys aren’t just totally penned in the depth chart; they’re going to have to compete, because there’s a lot of guys in that room who’ve got the ability to play. Cruce Brookins coming up as a freshman has done really well. I’m really impressed.
But, do you see the benefit of all of that experience compared to what those two guys looked like in spring last year?
Bates: Well, sure, but again, we’re so early in spring at this point. Where you see that more is in the scrimmages, so I’ll reserve judgment until after Saturday on that. But yeah, I would expect that.
How is Brandon George doing? Is he going to be the guy with the microphone?
Bates: Well, all of our Mike linebackers have the microphone. So whoever’s in at Mike linebacker will have that mic in. We kind of use it, but with the fast tempo of our offense, we look for the signal and line up anyway. But he’s doing good. He and Lovelace are both doing great. Very impressed with Lovelace, too.
Is he showing the leadership you need at middle linebacker?
Bates: Oh, for sure. He’s a fifth-year guy with a ton of experience, and Lovelace gives him a chance to catch his breath at times, which gives us good depth there, which we’re excited. And we’ll see what the freshmen when they get out there - Jeremiah and see what he can do. Jeremiah Marcelin.
You guys kind of restocked your defensive line room this offseason? How have you seen the younger guys playing this spring?
Bates: Well, we have a lot of new guys; not necessarily young guys. We have some transfer ends. I think we have four new guys, transfer-wise, and four new guys, freshman-wise, in the room along with the kids that are back. So I would liken it to an NFL - it’s kind of like the NFL now with free agency. You walk in and you’ve got some new people. I feel like they’ve come together well and we’ll see how they do on Saturday. At this point it’s just drills and some thud stuff; Saturday, we’ll see if we can make some plays.
How are they gelling with the new position coach?
Bates: Oh, great. Those guys are in there - Coach Daoust is a true line coach, so those guys all came together pretty quick, and being that there’s eight new guys in there anyway, a new guy isn’t as big a shock as it would have been had we had the whole D-line returning. So it’s been perfect. It really has.
You had three sixth-year seniors at D-tackle last year and Jules as well - all of those guys are gone. As you look at just the skill sets - I know the scrimmage will tell you more - but as you look at the skill sets of the guys you brought in, does it feel like the interior will be different this year, might play differently?
Bates: I think we had bigger, stronger guys but less quick, athletic guys, and I think this year, we probably will be more athletic and have better quickness at D-tackle, which I think, at the end of the day, will help us a lot.
Do you get a sense that these guys are excited for Saturday to get a chance to go up against the new offense?
Bates: Oh no, they hate it. They’re not excited at all.
I’m sorry to tell you, that’s kind of a rhetorical question, if you will. But yes, they are. But they get it. They see it every day, so it’s not like they’re going to see it for the first time. They’re excited. I’m excited just to see the whole group go out there without coaches out there in a game situation and just see what they’ll do without us with their foot up their rear type of thing.
How do you plan to get the guys to get more sacks this year?
Bates: How do I plan? Well, we’re working hard with our technique right now. I think that’s the big thing. And we might blitz a little bit. But for the most part, technique will be the big thing during spring ball, and we’ll figure out who the twitchy guys on third down are and make sure we’re getting the right guys on the field.
Do you feel that you didn’t blitz enough last year?
Bates: No. I feel like there were a lot of second-and-fives, which makes it hard to get sacks, because people were running it. We’ve got to get them in longer yardage situations. It also helps at times to be ahead.
You talked about being in second-and-five. There were some games - Cincinnati, Virginia Tech - where teams had a lot of success running. As you look back on the season, did that apply to the whole year? Do you feel like you guys struggled against the run the whole year or was it just spots here and there?
Bates: There were times. There were times. We saw almost 200 more runs this past year than in the past. So they’re going to run the ball a little better if they have that many, and at the end of the day then, you’ve got to be bigger and stronger, and we saw a lot more big people that we saw last year - 12 and 13, two and three tight end stuff. And some of it was the teams we were playing; that’s what they do. And at other times, they were kind of just holding the ball and keeping it away, if you will.
Will you be the guy talking to the guy that we see wearing the green dot?
Bates: We haven’t really determined that. Right now, Coach Manalac is doing it. When we get in the press box on Saturday, I won’t. And then we’ll probably move into that as we go along, just see how it works through several different ways. We’re kind of talking to the NFL guys, how they do it.
Are you looking forward to the opportunity to do that?
Bates: I don’t know. I’ve never done it. It’s the first time. I worry that, based on talking to some NFL guys, it can be too wordy. You can be talking to them and screwing them up, especially playing an offense like ours that’s fast, the more you talk to them, the more they have to hear you. They can’t get ready to play. So I think you have to be really careful how you use it.
You talk to some of the guys next door?
Bates: All over the country.
How much does facing this kind of offense change your approach and how you prepare and what you try to do in practice?
Bates: Well, Coach Bell is obviously a bright guy. They’re running some great schemes that are really challenging us. How we prepare is how we always prepared. We were blessed to play Tennessee twice and Central Florida twice and Syracuse was always fast, so what we did against those guys, it’s what we do. It’s not like it’s something that’s not part of our defense. It’s just something we have to put in earlier because it’s what our offense does. Obviously, if somebody comes out fast, we’ll certainly be ready for it. It’s part of our defense, really.
Do you ever have to say to them, ‘Hey, can you give us one period where you take 20 seconds?’
Bates: We haven’t yet, but there probably will be some that we slow it down a little bit. Maybe teach a little more. Right now, though, I think they’re trying to get that in and we’re trying to get it in for us, too, the way we do it. So it’s really good teaching.
How fast are they going now?
Bates: 8 to 12 seconds. Very fast.
Like Tennessee?
Bates: Yeah. Very similar. If I remember, we had decent success with Tennessee and Central Florida. Other than my first year. That was a bad year.
