On how to get players to take pride in special teams

I’m not certain that you really need to do a whole lot of things differently here, just because the guys are the type of players that take a lot of pride in what they do. Whether it be offense, defense, their schoolwork, or the weight room. The kind of players that we have in this program just have a really high internal drive to be great. So it makes it really easy to put them in new roles or ask them to do new things and have them embrace them.

On whether he's had players before who weren't willing to do that

I think there’s a balance and everybody wants to play offense and defense. Most guys are really excited to play special teams and, in addition to that, and I think occasionally when you see a guy who’s like, maybe not super pumped about it, it’s more because they maybe don’t understand it, or they’ve never done it. So there’s obviously some apprehension about doing something you’ve never done before. So I think once guys realize, ‘Hey, OK, this is just like offense and defense. This is very similar to technique-wise,’ or once they grasp, like, ‘Man, this is really fun being on the field for a game-changing play,’ that kind of thing. Once somebody tastes that, I think that excitement goes up. So you don’t see it a whole lot. But you know, I think once they learn how it can help them and how it can help the team and how fun it can be, I think they’re all in.

On the progression of the younger safeties

Those guys are doing a great job. Guys like Keon and Zeke, and Myles and Kody, they’re doing phenomenal and growing and getting better and just really getting comfortable with the schemes, understanding the calls, the adjustments, being able to line up quickly and use their tools in terms of what adjustments they should be playing. So those guys are doing a really good job and taking real pride and their growth from Monday to Thursday, even if they’re not really getting as much action during the games. When you keep stacking weeks like that, it’s pretty, pretty crazy how much better you can get by the middle of your freshman year, the end of your freshman year, et cetera. So really pleased with them.

On Zeke Berry

Zeke is a really instinctive, natural football player. When he is confused about something, he tends to have a very good reaction in terms of finding the ball, taking great angles, hitting and all that stuff. He has a great feel for man coverage as well. There’s a lot to like about him and as he continues to understand the defense. You just see him getting better and better. So I think when it’s his time and when he’s ready to go or called upon, I think you’re gonna see a guy who’s kind of a do-it-all safety that can cover really well in man, can be a good blitzer, good tackler and I think he would be a really great special teams player as well.

On the versatility of the three safeties

Exciting to have three guys like that that are there. They’re similar in the sense that they can all do a lot of jobs, they are all different in terms of their strengths, what jobs they do best, and what matchups are best. But in general, they’re three super good safeties. So that gives you a lot of flexibility to be able to hide certain things coverage-wise, be able to have different guys be blitzers and all that stuff. So the versatility part is the big thing. If you have a guy who can’t do something, it can make it really tough on a defense because your variety of calls is limited or you have to constantly try to find a way to hide that maybe weak spot or something like that and so having a really versatile defense overall on the whole back end helps out that problem a lot.

On what he likes about each of his safeties

They’re really, really well-rounded. R.J. is exceptional with his communication, which is a real skill as a safety in terms of being able to quickly identify and recognize. Super smart player and gets everybody on the same page. Makari really plays with his hands really, really well, block destruction-wise, very physical player. He does great covering tight ends and stuff. If and when he can press guys, he does phenomenal. Rod is kind of a mix of the two. Rod’s a very good tackler, an instinctive tackler. Like he can also play deep in the half in the post really well and he’s pretty good against the run. So, all three guys bring something a little different to the table but are really, really great players.

On what Jim Harbaugh has handed down to him schematically

That’s a hard question. It’s just so much football, I don’t know, it’s hard to pick a specific thing. There’s—you just grow up around the game. You learn the game, you learn from our family’s perspective, what really good football looks like in terms of running and blocking and tackling and playing a certain brand of football. But in terms of specifics of like, scheme, I don’t know if I could say anything that would be insightful at all, I’m not sure I’ve ever really thought about that.

On whether he knew he would be a coach

I did not know and I’m grateful to my parents for not kind of pushing me in a certain direction, I thought I wanted to do something else. Then as I got older, as guys kind of found things in high school that they’re good at—the good kids that are good at writing wanted to go to journalism school, and the math guys do engineering, et cetera, et cetera and I was just kind of like, well, I really like football. I think maybe I was waiting, kind of waiting to see if something else really caught my eye. Being able to watch my dad and my grandpa and the way that they just—the fulfillment they have in their lives doing what they love, the amazing depth of relationships that they built through this game. I think probably sometime in high school, I kind of realized, Hey, this is something that would be, you know, a fantastic vocation for me.

On being a tight ends coached helped him coach the safeties

It’s certainly helpful. The more you know, the better you can be. There’s some occasions where you can watch a play, and you’re kind of, ‘Hey, I think this is what they’re trying to do.’ Or, you know, a lot of times, certain players might not look the way that the offense intends them to look. But maybe if you have a more authentic experience, you can say, ‘Hey, this is what this play is supposed to be like,’ or, ‘This is what they would want to run.’ So it’s helpful in that sense. I wouldn’t say it’s particularly helpful in dealing with No. 84 for them. LaPorta, he’s pretty, a pretty special player, just like our tight ends are. So I would say it’s a helpful thing, overall.

On the importance of playing good coverage against Iowa

Huge, huge. I think just overall in coverage, the more that your linebackers and back end understand what the problems of any coverage are, the better you can be and that’s one of the things that Iowa’s so spectacular at is they have so much consistency and experience in their system, that they know exactly what all the problem routes or the problem areas are. They work together to try to mitigate any issues that could arise. So the same thing would be true for us or any defense if, whatever the call is, you know what the call is good against, what the call maybe isn’t as good against and that’s where your technique and film study comes into play in terms of, ‘OK, how do we not get attacked in this coverage?’ Or, ‘how do we answer whatever they would have been presenting to us?’

On the points of emphasis after Maryland

For us, a lot of it’s just back to basics. We did a lot of really good things in that game from a coverage standpoint and that was a pretty spectacular passing attack. Quarterback has been playing phenomenally, receivers are talented, and there’s a lot of them. Really, really good offense. One of the better offenses probably in the conference and so we liked what we did, there were some things that were probably avoidable. In terms of some things we gave up, if we’d have been just a little sharper in terms of alignments and communication and being on the same page, call-wise, we kind of probably could have played a little bit tighter. So that’s one of the focuses going into this week is just making sure we’re on point with all the little details pre-snap to make sure that we’re playing things as well as we can.

On whether he wants all kickoffs to go out the endzone

We want them all to go right off the returner’s head. That’s why we worked on that a lot. Yeah, it kind of depends on the game, sometimes, you know, you have a wind, and the ball is just gonna travel out sometimes. Sometimes early in the season, you might want to want to cover some kicks to try to evaluate guys in terms of how we’re playing fundamentally, fitting up different schemes and playing blocks and all that stuff. So it’s kind of a mix and it kind of depends on the game plan.