Chaney And Tucker Meet With Media

UGA Sports Communications

University of Georgia offensive coordinator/tight ends coach Jim Chaney and the Fain and Billy Slaughter defensive coordinator/secondary coach Mel Tucker met with media members on Saturday. They offered the following comments.

Fain and Billy Slaughter Defensive Coordinator/Secondary Coach Mel Tucker

On the makeover of the defense from last season…

“In 2011 with Jacksonville Jaguars, I think we had maybe eight or nine new starters and they were all free agents. Then they were coming off a lockout deal so we had spring training camp which was pretty tough, but every year there are different challenges. Every time you have a new player you have a new defense so we work really hard to develop all of our guys and get them ready to go. I’m excited about what we might be able to do.”

On no longer having a player like Roquan Smith and how that changes the identity of the defense this season…

“We talked to our guys yesterday about it, what’s going to be the identity of this year’s defense. … Obviously Roquan is a great player but it’s next man up. So we’ll rally and we’ll develop the guys that we have and we’ll see what the identity of this defense is this year.”

On the expectation of Deangelo Gibbs and where he fits in…

“He’s playing in the middle spot, our star spot, he’s also looking at safety. The expectation is to go out there and do what you’re asked to do, give great effort, be coachable, and work to get better every day; and that’s the expectation of all of our players.”

On what Tucker has seen from that “next man up” and if they’re capable of replacing an athlete like Roquan Smith…

“I’ve seen these guys mature, they have a better grasp of the defensive scheme. They work really hard in the weight room to develop and have developed good chemistry within that group and I think they’re hungry. They are all going to get opportunities. The depth chart is going to change from day to day and nothing is set in stone and we’re going to play our best guys. We want to create depth and we want as many guys what will help us as possible.”

On maintaining the level of last season given the personnel changes in the offseason…

“Well only time will tell. The standard of performance hasn’t been changed. We’re coaching our players and trying to develop them and teach them in a way that they can reach those standards. We always want to play great defense here regardless of who those players are. There are always going to be changes, there are always going to be new players step in and great players leave so that’s our job to get them ready. That’s why we’ve recruited well and we expect these guys to step in and play great defense for us.”

On the growth and expectations of Richard LeCounte…

“Richard has a much better grasp of the defensive scheme. At this point, it’s about the details. Really, the devil is in the details in our defense. He’s been more disciplined at what we’ve asked him to do. He asks really good questions. He spent a lot of time in the offseason studying and I’ve seen his overall maturity level improve. We’ll see how far he goes in camp but I think the arrow is up with him.”

On using the Second-and-26 breakdown as a teaching tool…

“We learn from everything, whether it’s good or it’s bad. Obviously we study it, we break it down, and we know what we need to improve, we take it with us and we move on, hopefully it will help us down the road.”

On the versatility of the star position and whether it was a revelation or envisioned from the start…

“In this day and age in football, the offenses are so complicated and so diverse that you have to have different ways to defend them. To be able to have different body types in that position, guys with different skill sets for first and second down and also for third down and passing situations that’s what you have to have. We work develop as many players at that position as we can. We want to have depth at the star position so we work defensive backs there, we also work linebackers at that position.”

On what Jay Hayes’ experience can bring to the defense line…

“He’s played a lot of football, he’s a mature guy, he’s a high-character guy, he’s a high-motor guy, he’s a leader, and he’s a team guy. He’s very unselfish. When you can add a guy like that to your roster, that’s like gold. We’ve been very happy with what he’s done so far. I think he’s fit in well with our group.”

On the assistantship of the support staff not only for recruiting but for everyday tasks like practice…

“They help a great deal with practice. It’s all hands on deck when preparing for our practices. Our practices are complicated with a lot of drills going on at one time. It’s organized chaos. We need everyone to be able to pitch in and help us prepare so we can have an organized practice.”

On having a cover corner like Deandre Baker in terms of confidence… 

“We want to play a lot of tight coverage so we have to have corners that can play man-to-man, that can play on top and can make plays on the ball at the catch point. He’s a guy that can do that and he’s proven that. Obviously we want to work to continue to get him better every day. As many of those guys that we have, the better coverage we’re going to have. He does allow us to do some things defensively. Baker is one of the guys I take a lot of pride in and I’m very proud of what he’s done because he’s worked himself into what he is today as a player. He works really hard in practice, he’s developed in the meeting room, he’s emerged as a leader for us, and I’m really excited to see what he does for us this season.”

On where Jay Hayes fits in and what is in store for the nose guard position…

“I really see him in pass-rush situations to be the inside pass rusher. I’m not sure how much Nose he’s going to play. He has the ability to play all those spots up front so he give us position versatility. He’s a team guy, he’s going to do whatever we ask him to do. … We have Julian Rochester, we have Tyler Clark who can play there, we have DeQuan Hawkins-Muckle who can play there, we have Devonte Wyatt; we have guys that can play there. Most of our guys can play multiple positions; a lot of the techniques carry over from In to Nose and vice-versa so we feel good there. We got to develop more guys that can play more inside. Jon Adkins was a heck of a player. He was maybe somewhat unsung but when you go back and watch the self-scout and watch all the plays from last season and you see he did a lot for the team defense. He was a heck of a guy and you always want to be strong down the middle. The standard has been set inside.”

On what position Otis Reese will play…

“I always thought that he could play safety because he’s athletic and he’s got good change-of-direction, he’s got good ball skills and good range on the deep part of the field and he’s a good tackler. I don’t see whether there’s any limitations on what position he can play in our secondary role as a safety and I feel good about that. I’m used to playing with big safeties. I remember a guy named Sean Jones with the Cleveland Browns; that joker was a nice sized guy and he hit you. Otis has done a nice job since he’s been here; he’s picking up things well. He practices really hard, gives tremendous effort.”

On Jonathan Ledbetter’s progression …

“It’s a credit to him. He’s a good kid. He’s a good young man, and he has always been that. So, I think he has learned from the past. We have encouraged him to develop and move forward and get better and better every day — make good decisions, become a leader for our team, become a better football player, work in the weight room — do all those things. We have a program here with our support staff, player development and all our coaches and people at the academic center. We have a program where we expect guys to progress and mature and get better, and we take pride in that. He is a prime example of a guy who was at this point and now he is here because he has bought into our program.”

On Deandre Baker becoming more of a leader and how he has embraced that role …

“He is more of a lead-by-example type, but those type of guys who don’t say a lot, when they do speak, everyone listens, and he is that type of guy. He has a really good feel for his teammates. If he needs to get on a guy in front of other guys he will do that. He may need to pull a guy to the side and do a one-on-one he will do that, and that is the sign of a good leader.”

On if he ever imagined how salaries for coordinators would develop …

“No. I have never been in it for the money, and I really don’t think about it very much. My passion is teaching, coaching and developing players. I enjoy that, and as long as I enjoy doing that, that is as long as I’ll coach.”

On the rushing yards in the first Auburn game last season …

“We did not play very disciplined in that game. We got pushed around a little bit in that game, so when you are not disciplined and not stout as you need to be then people are going to run the ball on you. We made some adjustments. We got on the guys to be able to stop that run, and the next time we played them we played them a lot better.”

On when he saw signs of Deandre Baker’s ability to have success …

“The first day I saw him we were at an offseason program. I saw him doing some of the drills, and I pulled him over and said ‘ hey, I think you could be a heckuva player — you are six-feet tall, you are the fastest guy out here, you have good change of direction, you have great length.’ I said ‘ I really believe that you can do something here. All you have to do is listen, pay attention, do what I ask you to do.’ That is what he did. So, that is a credit to him. We develop players along the way, guys buy into our program… The focus for him right now is to get better each and every day. Work on the details — technique and fundamentals. Doing the things that got you to this point and then taking it up a notch. That’s what we are going to do with him.”

On J.R. Reed stepping into a leadership role …

“J.R. is another guy who has stepped up as a leader for us. He’s comfortable with his teammates. He is establishing himself as a player that can produce on the field. He gives great effort; he does really well in the video room — takes good notes. He is very unselfish and helps other players. His character — he is an impeccable guy. He has a really good pedigree, so he is another guy we are leaning on for leadership. I’ll say this — we tell our guys all the time that you do not have to just be a senior or necessarily a starter. Leadership comes from all different areas. If you have the ability to lead and affect someone else in a positive way then do that. We encourage that.”

On Tyson Campbell …

“Tyson is playing corner right now and right now we are only playing him at one position. So, all the corners on our roster, he is competing with those guys. All of our guys know we are going to play the best players. We give guys lots of opportunities to show what they can do. We do a lot of two-spot drills; we take a lot of reps; we coach every player whether it is a walk-on or a senior. It doesn’t matter. We coach everyone of them the same. We are trying to develop as many players as we can so we have the best football team that we can have. We will see what happens. He will get what he deserves.”

On the star position and having three corners on the field …

“It depends on the situation. At the star position, we have had linebackers there. Then, we’ve had more of a cover star. When it all shakes out our job is to find out who are the best guys to put out there and then see what they can do. We have total flexibility in that. We all also have a starting point and then we go from there. We have scrimmage one and then we have scrimmage two so we can make decisions on who we think can help us. If we need to move a guy inside to a spot we can do that.”

On Tyrique McGhee’s flexibility …

“That’s huge if you have a utility guy like that who is a good player. You do not want to be a jack of all trades and a master of none, so it takes a unique type of guy to be able to play multiple positions and to be able to produce at a high level. We think Tyrique is that type of player. So far he has shown that he can handle that. You could relate him somewhat to someone in Aaron Davis’ role over the past couple of years. Aaron played every position in the secondary for us, and I think good secondaries have those guys who can play multiple positions and be problem solvers and gives you the ability to play the type of coverages you need to play when you are playing.”

Offensive Coordinator/Tight Ends Coach Jim Chaney

Opening statements…

“I’m Jim Chaney, the offensive coordinator. It’s great to see everybody. We don’t get the opportunity to visit very much. I’m excited about the season, as usual. This group of kids has been fun to be around all spring. They worked hard throughout the summer. When you get that opportunity to see them, they’re around, doing their stuff. The leadership’s trying to get better on our side of the ball. I know Coach Kirby Smart has talked about it a lot. We need to continue to increase that leadership. When you lose four of the dynamic players we did early in the draft, it’s hard to overcome. Those kids are strong leaders, and our younger guys are starting to step up. It’s been fun to watch that take place on the football field, just seeing that and watching freshmen come in and just after one day of practice, it’s fun to watch them work through a 90-degree day here in Georgia, particularly some of the boys from up north. It’s always entertaining to watch. But they made it through it, and I’m excited about this group. I think we’re developing good depth at every position, which is ideally what you want as a coordinator. And the kids are working hard. With that, I’m happy, but we have a lot of work to do before we play our first ball game. I’ll open it up to any questions."

On if bettering his personal health was a result of coaching tight ends…

“No, it doesn’t have anything to do with coaching tight ends. I just woke up; I was way too big. I had to do some work and get some weight off of me. Hopefully, that’s something that will help me coach and do better and serve the university a little better, and my own personal health.”

On Jay Johnson (offensive quality control) in the press box…

“Whether he won’t be there, or will be there, we haven’t worked all the details out on the press box stuff, and all that new protocol that we’ve got to look through. But Jay’s a fine football coach. Anybody with his vast amount of knowledge you want to use. I’m real fortunate. We can run through my personal staff here, and I’m as happy as any coach could be in college football. I’ve got good coaches everywhere. I don’t like to use the word ‘I’ very much, but in this sense I will. I’m the one who benefits from it. I’m lucky to have every one of those guys. Our quality control guys, our graduate assistants do a fantastic job.”

On when he heard of sophomore QB Jake Fromm’s injury…

“I got to go fly fishing again. I made it three days up there, before my arm started going numb. So I had to come back and have neck-fusion surgery, so I had a wonderful July. It was fun. And I think that time I was coming home was when Jake got the fish hook in his hand. I don’t know, he’s okay. I’m not worried about Jake Fromm. He’s a tough kid. He’ll be just fine.”

On freshman QB Justin Fields…

“We all know how polarizing the quarterback position can be. Everybody wants to know about that spot. In my particular role, I worry about everybody. And every good football player we have, you try to find ways to get them on the field and utilize them. And right now, Justin’s battling the quarterback spot, as is Jamaree Salyer with the guard spot, as is Luke Ford with the tight end spot. All that young group of kids that we brought in are all competing. 

I love Justin; he’s a wonderful young man, comes from a great family. He’s a competing son-of-a-gun, and he’s also a hell of a good football player. The future is very bright for him. As far as what happens in the future, as far as playing time and all that, all that is going to take place in the next three to four weeks, and all that who plays and who doesn’t play, you know as well as I do, that gets down to Coach Smart’s decision. So I don’t get in to all that, I’m just very glad he’s here, a part of our program and competing for our starting position for our team.” 

On working with the tight ends…

“I never ask them when they walk in, ‘Are you happy to see me or are you not?’ Some of them would probably say yes, and some of them would probably say no. I’m very comfortable at the tight end spot. I’ve coordinated from the coordinator spot, the quarterbacks and the tight end spot. James Coley moving into quarterbacks, it’s been awesome. He brings a good, vast amount of knowledge to that position. He knows what he’s doing there. It’s kind of a fresh breath for those guys to hear things from a different voice. He’s done a great job with them. For me going back to the tight ends spot, I’m very comfortable there also. So, those kids that I’ve got in the room, particularly the older guys, with Isaac Nauta and Charlie Woerner and Jackson Harris, those kids have known me a long time. The transition has been pretty much seamless in my opinion. I think we’ve done a good job in that room. And Shane Beamer had done a good job before. It just kind of worked out that the staff just kind of switched around. It worked out fine. I’m very comfortable with where we’re at right now. I think it’s actually brought it a little energy to what we’re trying to do. I’m pleased with our movement and how we’ve done it."

On tweaking the playbook with the players available to him, particularly Justin Fields’ run game..

“I think you’ve always got to look – it’s a good question, and we think about it all the time. Justin’s ability to run the ball is exceptional. We don’t have a vast amount of depth at that position right now, so when you start running quarterbacks, you’re putting him in harms way a little bit more, so you’ve got to be real conscious of that. I don’t know if you walk out and say, because Justin Fields can run, he is a running quarterback. I think Justin Fields is a fantastic quarterback. He happens to be able to run. So that’s a good thing. Designing a playbook directly because he can run, I think that would be disoriented of who we want to be as a football team. But it does give us some different things we can open in the playbook. It does open some pages to it. As far as strategy goes, it’s another skill set available to us to use at any time we want to.”

On Chaney’s coaching stops along the course of his career…

“You don’t have to remind me. I’m home, baby.”

And if he’s run an offense playing two quarterbacks…

“I’d have to think back. I’m sure somewhere along the years we’ve had that situation happen. You don’t rule anything out. Like I said guys, everybody wants to know about that right now. And I don’t blame y’all for asking the question at all. But we’re so much in a mode of training camp right now, just trying to get every player a little bit better, and cohesively working within our unit, and utilizing our base offense, that the mindset of game planning and putting out two different offenses hasn’t – can’t even think about things like that. My mind is so far away from that right now. I just want him to be all he can be, and let us evaluate him, see what his skill set is, and utilize it to the best of our ability – overall, to help Georgia win football games. And if it ends up being that way, so be it, but that’s a long way in the future.”

On if he’s seen a different Jake Fromm as a sophomore..

“I do, a little bit more, because he’s more confident with the X’s and O’s. There’s no question about that. He’s got that year under him, and he had a fantastic year, and he’s playing good football for us, and he’s playing very confident. But Jake’s personality has always been Jake. Even last year, he was a freshman, he was still Jake. He’s an outgoing guy, he likes to talk to his teammates. He’s positive all the time. So a lot of his personality traits haven’t changed. A lot of it is his familiarity, and he played 900-some snaps of football last year. That’s hard to overlook. He’s a good football player.”

On working together as a staff on each week’s game plan..

“Collecting ideas. It’s not all Jim Chaney. Trust me on that. When we get in the run game, it’s Dell McGee and myself, and Sam Pittman a lot. When you get into the passing game, it’s Cortez Hankton, and James, and it’s Jay and myself. We all collectively put it together, slap it up on the board, see where we’re at. If we’re heavy somewhere else, and someone has an opinion on somewhere else – anybody can bring up anything they want. I don’t care. I worked for a guy named Gene Murphy a hundred years ago – bless his soul, I lost him a few years ago. He told me, ‘Jim, if you ever have an opportunity to hire people, always try to hire people smarter than you.’ THat’s always stuck with me. I’m fortunate on our staff; I’ve had a lot of good people who are a lot smarter than I am. I would be a damn fool not to listen to what they have to say. I try to do a better job of that. Routinely, I like to go at it, for me I’ve got to bring that in and listen even more. I’m trying to do a better job of that, and I think the guys are recognizing that. We’re in it together. I use every bit of their skill set to help us put a plan together."

On Sam Pittman’s comments about Isaiah Wilson’s redshirt last season and his growth…

“You can’t replace his mass and athleticism. What he has had to do is learn the speed of the game and how fast and physical this game is. He’s gotten better. Every day at practice you see him improve. Where he is today and when he walks out of Georgia is going to be an incredible jump, there’s no doubt about it. I’ll also add that from when he walked in the door to where he is now is an incredible jump. He’s done a real good job working his butt off. It’s very important to him. He’s a large body. He can do things wrong and they have to run around a mountain to get to the quarterback. So that’s a good thing for us. We like those big kids, you guys know that. What you have to understand when you go big and you try to develop a team the way we try to do it, we’re physical playing the line of scrimmage, we’re going to try to beat you up up front. With that there are some inherent fleas that come with it. Some quick defensive linemen might give us a little bit of trouble, but we think by the end of the game- beating on you and pounding on you- our bigs will overcome.

Back to Isaiah, I think he’s progressing as planned and he has to continue to learn the game of football, continue to compete and get playing time. I will add this- there are not a lot of positions that are locked up on an individual right now. We have a tremendous amount of competition going on throughout our football team, which I’m tickled with. I can’t wait to watch them compete.”

On the talent at running back…

“I think they’re good football players and look forward to watching them go play. There’s a lot of talent there in that room. Everybody tells me how good we’re going to be, but I still look for those two kids we had last year (Nick Chubb and Sony Michel) walking down the hall and they haven’t showed up yet, they’re gone. They’re history. The kids we have, we like. We think they’re going to be good football players but to go out on the field and perform they have yet to do that. We have to watch them do that, watch them go play. We are excited about it. We’re optimistic about it. 

The rubber hits the road in about a month when we go out on the field and play. We’ll find out where we are at that time. But we sure like those kids. I’d rather be in our position than a lot of other people’s position. We have good talent at that spot with great kids. I’m excited about watching them and being able to utilize their individual skillsets. More pieces of cards we can use to put the puzzle together. I like it.”

On the staff defining explosive plays and how well they did in that regard last season…

“Run game is 12 yards or more. Pass game is 16 yards or more. We were 1 out of 6.7 plays in explosive last year if I remember right. That’s not bad. That’s pretty good for me.”

On the wide receiver core and Demetris Robertson being eligible…

“I don’t even want to touch on that. Right now he’s in here playing and that’s out of my pay grade to let you know if he’s ever going to be eligible to play. When that thing does or does not come through we will deal with it then. Everything else we will defer to Kirby and let Coach Smart deal with that.

The receiving core in general is older, they’ve played a lot. We have Riley Ridley, Mecole Hardman, and Terry Godwin who have played a lot. Trey Blount played last year. Jeremiah Holloman played last year. The one thing about our receiving core you have to remember is- you think about Special Teams. Tyler Simmons, Riley Ridley, and Jayson Stanley all played over 100 snaps last year on Special Teams- that’s a game and a quarter of nothing more than Special Teams. In places where I’ve been, wide receivers hadn’t played that much. That’s telling you a little bit about their character. They care about the team and they’re physical football players. You can’t play Special Teams and be any other way. We try to encourage all of our kids in that room and it’s going to get down to that room. When we walk out on that bus- who is going to be on the bus, who is going to play on Special Teams? If you have a first round wide out? I don’t know, maybe we do, maybe we don’t. I don’t know for sure yet until we go play. In our room they understand of their need to do that (play on Special Teams) in order to get on the bus and that can be said for a lot of positions. We don’t get to travel 110 people. We are going to travel 70. If you want to be on it, go earn that spot. We have enough competition now that the kids understand that. “

On the comparison of Jake Fromm to Drew Brees…

“What are the commonalities? They both have very high FBI, football intellect. They get it. They understand. They both affect other players in a very positive way. They both have proven to win football games. The differences I don’t even want to touch on, but they share those traits.”

On the presumption that because the tailback position has recruited well that they will be able to step in…

“It is to me. It isn’t to a lot of other people. I believe what I see with my own eyes until you go out on the field and perform and play. I’m not trying to be a “Debbie Downer” here or anything. I’m not that dude. I’m excited about that group. D’Andere Swift, Elijah Holyfield, and Brian Herrien have all played a little bit. But in a bigger role than what they’ve played in, they have yet to do that. We’ll wait and see how it all plays out. I hope I’m sitting here when I get my next chance to talk to you guys that we’re able to say yeah we’re glad to have all these kids. And I hopefully will be able to do that.

So much is about recruiting- all the stuff and all the stars and everything. It’s Saturday at 1:00 or 3:30 or whenever you play. The game is what it’s all about. At my age it’s even more profound. How do we perform? My ultimate job is to get them ready to play on Saturday and have a strategic plan that we feel like we can win the game. The group of kids we have right now are working hard and I’m excited about being a part of getting them ready to play and putting them on the field to represent Georgia.”

On the plan to get more than one running back on the field at the same…

“We did a lot of that last year with D’Andre Swift playing that other half back spot with another running back on the field. That’s not foreign to us. We probably did that about 70 snaps last year, which is more than anybody probably in college football. Playing with two or three wide receivers and two running backs on the field won’t be foreign to us. We have the packages to do all that. Now, can you tell me that second running back is better than that second wide out or that third tight end? Who are you going to play? I’m going to put the 11 best players out on that field to win the game. If not Coach Smart will be looking at me like I’m the dumbest man on earth and he doesn’t like really good players standing by him on the sideline. He really doesn’t like that. If he’s one of the best he’s going to be on the field. If we happen to have two of our backs are the best then they’re probably going to be on the field.”

Follow up: have the freshman showed you that’s something they’d be comfortable with doing?

“On tape from high school, yeah. But I have not witnessed anything but more than one practice. It’s premature for that but once again I am very optimistic.”

On the progress and success of the offense over the past two seasons…

“When I was a young coach I once drank that Kool Aid and that it (the success of the offense) was all about me and the next year we fell flat on our face. I learned that lesson the hard way. What happened last year is just last year. What took place last year, is it going to happen next year? There’s no guarantee of that, there really isn’t. You attack that year and try to be the coach you can be. You study during that off season all the time- what can we do better? And that’s my obligation- to go do it. I go in there every year with a great fear of failure. That’s just good coaches. You don’t want to fail at anything. You want to make sure you are on your game. That’s my obligation to this university and Coach Smart is to make sure that I bring my “A” game every year. My name is stapled on this offense and I want it to do well.”