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Big Red Breakfast 11/4/05
It felt good to get back to the Big Red Breakfast this morning. I’ve been a
little busy with the addition of our twin girls to the family and haven’t been
able to make the last couple of breakfasts. Today, armed with a solid 2 hours of
sleep, I made my way in to meet Ted Gilmore. I walked by the radio show table
and said my usual good morning to Jim Rose and Gary Sadlemeyer. Gary is always
quick with a responsive good morning, while Jim usually just looks at me. This
morning I arrived early enough to get around a little bit and talk to some
people, which generally proves to be pretty interesting. I managed to get a
little inside scoop that you will most likely find disturbing. There are several
retired refs that go to the breakfasts and every now and then they share some
tidbits. Today I managed to hear a conversation regarding the fact that no play
reviews were called during the OU game. One of the gentlemen that I referred to
earlier was working in the review booth. He said that they have buzzers that
they use to page the refs when they would like to have a play reviewed. The
disturbing part is that he said they were paging the refs but no one answered. I
don’t know quite what to make of that, but it sure makes you say hmmm.
Anyway, today I was lucky enough to sit at the coach’s table and I got to chat
with coach for a few minutes before he got up to speak. Ted is a very mild
mannered man that has a strong presence about him and a quick wit. He’s easy to
make a connection with and it’s understandable how the players can relate and
respect him easily. While we were eating (Ted slammed his breakfast like he was
competing with players for food), I got to ask coach a question that I had been
wondering about lately. I asked him if Colorado or any school for that matter,
would change their plays or the play names some, after losing a coach to a
competing school. He said that they would most not likely change the names since
he wouldn’t be in the huddle. He said that the biggest advantage it gives him is
the ability to be familiar with the players and know their strengths and
weaknesses. That makes sense to me.
Coach Ted Gilmore is a native of Wichita KS, coached for 2 years at Colorado,
and also at Purdue with Scott Downing. He also has assisting coach experiences
at Houston, Kansas and Wyoming.
Coaches comments:
You people never cease to amaze me, the love you have for your Husker football.
When I first came to town we went to diner with Tommie Frazier and his wife. My
wife asked Tommie how is it here in Nebraska and Tommie’s wife said “Let me
answer, it’s a cult, they love their football”. It really makes you feel good,
the power of the red is something. Let me share how I came to take this job.
Coming from CU, you can image it was a heck of a week when I decided to come
here. You have to shut your phone off, man did I get the calls, and pray that
you made the right decision. Coach Norvell and I have a relationship, and Scott
Downing had recruited me to college, so I had a couple of guys I related to
right away. Coming out of the interview, let me tell you, it’s the first time in
my career that the head coach handled the entire interview. He closed the door
and needless to say five hours later it was all over. Five minutes into the
interview I knew it was over. He showed me his hand, his plan for the future and
I knew I wanted to come here. Everyone opens their arms to my family and it’s
great. If you ever get to meet my wife, she’s a great gal, and she grew up in CU
so this is quite a change. The interesting part is that I went from being the
favorite son in law to just a son in law. :):)
Let’s talk about my guys, you have to have young men that can both run block and
pass receive. We had some question marks coming out of the spring, entering fall
practice we talked about personnel about once a week. With Callahan, just
talking about personnel can be an all day meeting itself. So in our early
meetings, coach asks me who we will be our go to guy. I told him that we have 11
young men, and that no one has separated themselves from the other, it will
unfold in the course of the season. I am trying to create competition amongst
the kids and that we will need every one of them over the course of the season.
Coach just looked at me kind of funny. I told him the one young man that I think
has a chance to play is this local kid Todd Peterson. He looked at me like I had
two heads. :)
Let’s talk a bit about Franz Hardy, he is a guy that we got from the junior
college level, he has some speed, and we counted on him to play right away. We
need to get him in the weight room, he’s only 170 lbs soaking wet, and that’s
with all his pads on. If someone is in his path he has a hard time, otherwise he
has a lot of success. Terrence Nunn is a good steady player who I can count on
any time. I have to be careful with him though because he doesn’t have a lot of
stamina . Grant Mulkey is the third guy, he knows what he’s doing, he’s a heady
player, that gives him a change to play, he won’t be zigging when he should be
zagging. There are more guys with ability but they haven’t been able to beat him
out. Nate had Grant’s spot in camp but then he had the injury, he’s a try hard
guy, a tough kid and that’s all you can ask for as a couch. The last few weeks
we’ve been able to see what he can do. You always tell your guys that they are
one play away from going in. The other guy doesn’t want to hear that. I also
have Isaiah, he’s been battling the injuries, been inconsistent, but when he’s
healthy he gives us some speed, one thing I can’t coach is speed, we’re looking
forward to having him back this week, but he’ll have to work his way back into
the rotation. As a coach, competition is my best friend.
Mark LeFlore, I remember my meeting, with Mark when I first got here. He is a
question mark, the great thing about having a new position coach is that I don’t
know anything about you, all I’m going to judge is your ability, action speaks
louder than words. Matt Schroeder, his primary role is blocking this year so
far. He’s a bigger body out there in the front. Dan Erickson is a guy that is
probably the toughest guy I have. All you have to do is say “sick ‘em” and he’ll
go get ‘em. He’s a team guy and helps the defense get ready for the game each
week.
Let’s talk about Todd Peterson. He’s a very bright kid, on an academic scholarship,
he knows every single spot, if somebody gets nicked up I know I can put him in.
Sometimes you look around as a coach and try to decide who you can put in, and
you say “Nah”. :)
He’s a guy that came to us and wanted to play, he would have had to give up a
lot of his money because of the rules. Just to show you what kind of a kid he
is, he said whatever I have to do for the team I’ll do.
Shamus McKoy, he’s done an unbelievable job on the scout team. Chris Brooks, a
true freshmen, highly recruited he’s a perfect example, you bring kids in and
they have had a great high school career, but he hasn’t made the adjustment to
the speed of college football yet. In time he will help us win a lot of games.
The other guys aren’t laying down for him. It’s a fun group of kids, they are
all great kids, yes sir, no sir kind of kids.
Let’s talk about OU, it’s a ball game that we felt we could win. The one area we
need to fix, we need to start faster. It’s tough when you spot these guys these
leads. One thing about these kids is they’re fighters, we always talk about
being an all day fighter. It’s not a situation where guys are pointing fingers,
this is the best sideline group I’ve been a part of. They support each other and
they hang in there. The QB, when you have a young man like Zac, he gives us a
chance. He has put the ball in position for us to make a play of it. He’s pretty
accurate, he’s pretty poised, that kid is tough, he has taken some shots, and
the team really loves him. Harrison is everything we thought he was, he will be
a talented kid, he will be great for us.
Cory, we have gotten a lot out of that little fella. He’s been tested on the
blocking side often, they are testing us on that side and Cory steps up to the
challenge. He’s a very humble young man, I knew his older brother that played at
Kansas too. Did you know his nick name is pork chop? He’s a good young man.
We’re missing a guy like Matt Herian who has that vertical stretch, but we’ve
got some guys that are stepping up. Clayton and JB and Josh, they’re giving us
all they have.
On the offensive line, we have to home it up. Coach Wagner has been challenging
those guys like you wouldn’t believe. It’s going to be tough on guys like Zac
when you open up the game and take a sack. They understand that we go as they
go, we’re homing it up.
On the defensive side, the front four are doing a great job for us. We knew
going in that we needed them to step up and they’ve done it. When you lose a guy
like Steve O, he’s huge, he’s one of the most explosive players we have on that
side and that hurts to lose him. To lose Stewart Bradley too and his leadership,
that hurts to lose. We didn’t know who was going to step up and coach Elmassian
and Busch, I take my hat off to them, they’ve done a great job back there.
Our special teams have been fantastic, we’re happy with how that’s going. The
kids are buying into it. We spent a lot of time on every phase of special teams
and we’ll continue to work on those areas.
Kansas, they are a team that you try to figure out. You look at their record and
you say they are a better team than that. They play physical football on the
defensive side. They don’t give away long drives, you have to earn everything
you get. They have 3 senior linebackers, the secondary, the Gordon kid, he plays
on both sides of the ball, he’s a dangerous punt returner, he’ll bring it out of
the end zone every time. They have two safeties, they are “down hill jessies” I
call them, they’ll come down and hit you for sure. Offensively, they’ve been
inconsistent, they try to feature the back a bit, they changed QB’s part way
through too. They don’t have the big receiving corp like we’ve seen, but they
are quick. I like the match-up with those guys. You can’t take anyone for
granted these days, with the scholly limit there is more parity. You have to
prepare yourself the same way you do for an OU type team. We feel our kids are
ready, we shared something with them yesterday too, an article we found. The KU
coach was telling the fans not to celebrate too much and not to tear down the
goal posts after the game. Our kids said, just said “hmm”. They’ve been
preparing well, watching a lot of tape, we showed them where they went wrong
last week and where they can improve. They are ready for this game.
Question session.
What are you looking for next year in your receiving recruits?
We would all like to have that big fast guy, but I want a football player. One
of the best players that played the position only ran a 4.65 but no one ever ran
him down that I’m aware of. That player is Jerry Rice. We have to have guys that
can make plays, guys that can take a five yard catch and make a touchdown out of
it.
What do you do on gameday?
I’m on the sideline, handling personnel and staying out of coach’s way, that’s
it in a nutshell.
Can Chris Brooks be redshirted?
No, we aren’t planning on redshirting him. He may get in this ball game, a few
more reps, he’s a guy that quite honestly just has not beat the other guys out.
I’m not one of those coaches that will just give it to him.
Who do you see among the younger guys emerging as leaders?
The guy I’m really impressed with is Cody Glenn. His body language, his
demeanor, it’s all first class. When you talk about getting behind somebody,
he’s that kind of guy. Nate Swift is another. Matt Slauson, he’s one of those
guys that they just enjoy being around, he’s a character. Barry Turner is
another, if you get a chance, ask him to do his Stevie Wonder impression.
Harrison Beck, he’s another one that the guys get behind.
How would you compare this receiving corp. to CU?
A lot of similarity believe it or not. We had a lot of unproven guys when I was
there, it’s the same scenario, it’s pretty even now. We felt we needed to
upgrade the talent when I was there. I’m at NU and now and I feel I have the
best receiving corp.
How is Ola?
He’s ready to go.
Franz was the go to guy early on but he’s been quiet lately, is he OK?
Two things have affected him, one is injuries he hurt his ankle in the TT game.
The second is that he’s a guy that I have to tell we’re not playing street ball
anymore. You don’t run your route by turning right at the Chevy. I have to know
where you’re going and the QB has to know where you’re going. He’s a great kid,
he’s coming along, you saw the speed he has. This week you’ll see a new Franz,
he braided his hair. It told him I wanted him to do me a favor. I told him I’ve
been watching him and that we have to do something with that hair. He said “But
coach, that’s my strength”. I said OK, but has it helped you so far? He said
“OK, what do you want me to do”? I said why don’t you braid it. So then I
couldn’t find him in the meeting because I didn’t see his hair. I asked where he
was and he hollered “Here I am coach”. He’s got the braided hair now. He’ll make
some plays for us.
With the lack of pass protection, does going into the shotgun give you more
time?
Yes and No, even if you’re in the shotgun, if you turn a guy completely loose
you’re in trouble. We talked to our guys this week about being disciplined, as
we showed them the mistakes last week, it wasn’t play calling, it was about not
being disciplined. If we are disciplined I think we’ll be better and I’ll have a
better feeling in my stomach.
Who is your main deep threat?
Me. :) Isaah and Franz mainly. We have a couple of guys capable.
Do you talk to the team about the slow starts?
You point out where you went wrong. It’s been slow starts and the kids know it.
But you don’t want to create an environment where they are tense. If we’re
uptight they’ll be uptight, if you do this, there will be bad results. You just
have to point out that if they do this instead of that, it would have been a
different outcome.
Who do we bring in if Zac gets hurt?
At this point it would be Harrison. At this point we hope we don’t have to do
this.
Is the lack of a running game frustrating you guys?
It does, if you look at how the games have unfolded, our offense is at our best
when it’s balanced. When we are in sitting in a game where we are not behind
you’ll see more running.
When the other team blitzes do our receivers go to threat positions real quick?
When we get blitzed, yes absolutely, they are getting good at that, but it
depends on what route they are on. We haven’t seen an all out blitz yet, meaning
the coverage is zero. If we pick up the blitz it’s just a matter of reading it,
we have that ability.
Will Matt play this year?
No, we plan on getting him back next year.
What was Cory’s reaction to his touchdown pass?
Oh he said he wants another one. He’s one for one. It’s a play we put in for
OU’s “cheat technique”. They play inside the receiver at a knife position and
cheat inside, so we put that play in for that. Every time we called it we
watched them to see what they would do. The first time the defender played it
soft. The second time he played in and knifed, so we called the pass on the
third time and it worked!
How will CU be this year?
They will be good this year, they have 16 or 17 starters coming back.
Marlon’s not playing as much, is it because he’s not hitting holes?
It’s 2 things, when you talk about ball carrying, he has to trust his leads, and
the offensive line has to get targeted up. It’s a trust issue on both parts.
What do you think of number 24 on kickoffs?
He’s a wreckless guy, we call him Rudy. You know you’re doing well when the
other team tell you that you’re a hell of a player. I tell him that means that
the other teams are telling him that they are coming for him. When you bring him
into the picture it changes things. Our guys are in a position to block him and
when they reach out to block him he’ll duck under it, he’s vertically challenged
but he has an unbelievable heart.
I didn’t quite catch it, but something about rolling out the QB.
We were looking to throw the deep ball. They went to cover 2, the coverage
wasn’t there and Zac froze so we didn’t execute on the play. The next play we
had Swift on the parameter but Zac tried to hit Terrance Nunn and we just didn’t
execute.
What’s the process that we use to bring up the fact that holding is still an
infraction?
You know they are doing a hell of a job, and I’ll leave it at that.
How is Justin Tomerlin?
He will stay at tight end, he played both sides of the ball, he wanted to start
on the offensive side when he came here. This year we felt our front 4 was going
to be the strength. He was a guy on tape that was a relentless worker, when he
got here coach asked him to start on offense and there were some guys that
wouldn’t just hand it to him. He was a little discouraged at first but he’s
coming along well. He has 3 years to play 2.
Comments while viewing the tape:
As the season progresses we’re going to continue to get Marlon more of a role.
We’re finding out that Zac is a lot more mobile than you give him credit for. We
just have to teach him how to slide.
We try to run all purpose plays on run, so you have somewhere to go with the
ball.
When we’re able to get Cory out on the perimeter we feel we can win that matchup.
Dane Todd, he is an unselfish kid, a 4.90 student, he works hard for us.
We spend more time on blocking punts/kicks than anywhere I’ve ever been and it’s
paying off.
We’re trying to get the ball to Marlon, we’ve been putting him back on kicks, we
feel he has the ability to run one back. We’re telling him he’s a running back
and he’s getting tackled by a kicker, that should never happen. :)
Rigoni has that same nervous energy like coach Busch.
They took some deep shots on us, especially at Courtney’s side, he answered the
bell, he ended up being the defensive player of the week.
“Good things happen when you’re fundamentally sound and gap correct”.
Corey McKeon has done an extremely great job. Everyone was talking about
Octavien and Stu and here is a guy that has had an extremely great season.
Regardless of what side of the ball you’re on, it all comes down to the
trenches.
Between us and them have you ever seen so much shifting?
On KU, they’re running back is not great but he’s very effective. They are very
conservative, what they do run, they count on their guys being in the right
place at the right time.
We don’t know for sure who will be starting at QB so we prepared for both.
Their punt retuner is the most dangerous that we’ve faced this year. Rigoni has
to be good tomorrow.
I just want you to know that we appreciate your support, and I want you to know
that as a staff we are working extremely hard.
That’s about it for Coach Gilmore’s comments. Ted is a classy guy that knows how
to speak to people. One thing that he did differently was to take the wireless
microphone and walk through the crowd while he was talking. He went behind the
podium and immediately started looking to go wireless. He also would go right up
to the table when asked a question. I haven’t seen any of the other coaches do
that before and I thought it was rather cool.
People occasionally ask me why I don’t really talk about the food at the
breakfast so I guess I’ll share that with you now too. Today I had crunchy
pancakes, fake scrambled eggs, mushy hash browns, chewy sausage links, fresh
fruit, Danish rolls and orange juice. Let’s just say that the food is not the
main draw to the breakfasts. :)
Well I’d like to say that I’ll see you at the game this week, but I’ve got other
responsibilities to tend to so I’ll have the headphones on at home instead.
Those of you going to Kansas, try to scream loud and pick up the slack for my
big mouth. Also don’t forget to visit the Sidetrack Band at the Jayhawk Café.
GO BIG RED!
-- Husker Freak
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