D_it_up

I'm in total agreement. BRING IT!!!

hagan714

New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams' Oct. 15 press conference transcript
By The Times-Picayune
October 15, 2009, 6:10PM

What did you do during the bye week?

Went back and watched my young son play. He's a pretty good young player, top 10 recruit in the country. He played very well. It was a nice game. I went down to Virginia Tech with him, because that's where he's committed to go, and he early committed, is going to graduate at Christmas and enroll in January. I saw them wallop Boston College. It was fun for me to spend some time with him.


'Have you given Jo-Lonn Dunbar a hard time about that?

I haven't. I talked about the Hokie pride with Pierson Prioleau. He couldn't wait to tell me about that one.

Is he not going to get into the Deion Sanders type of trouble for boosting Virginia Tech with you and your son?

He should pay some of the scholarship for all of the places I have given him (Prioleau) a chance to play.

What is it about the Giants' defense as a defense lover that allows them to be so effective with the four-man rush?

Mike Waufle does a tremendous job there. I know him well. I've tried to hire him a time or two on a coaching job, and the contracts just didn't match up very well. They have very good talent. Anywhere you go, a Tom Coughlin team is going to be a real physical, not-beat-themselves type of football team. It starts up front with this offensive and defensive line, and they're kind of built that way. Antonio Pierce played for me. He earned a spot. He's one of the favorite guys I've ever coached. He's a guy that goes from being an undrafted free agent to making a pretty good living, a pretty good contract in the free agency market and he's done a very good job too of helping set that front and kind of allowing them to understand the tips and alerts that needs to be done with an offense. I can see that when I watch their defense.

Did Bill Sheridan pick up a lot of the principles of the defense right where Steve Spagnulo left off?

Everybody adds their own little twists and that type of stuff, and he has too, but basically that's the principles they live by. They've done a very good job.

Is Kevin Gilbride doing the same things he did when he coached with you and for you?

He's an excellent football coach, both he and Chris Palmer. We were on the same staff in the older days for a long time. Kevin was with me as my coordinator in Buffalo. (He's a) very sound football coach. I know he and Chris have to be proud of how they've brought Eli (Manning) along and how they've groomed him in that system of offense they want done. They're very, very strong in running the football and protecting the quarterback. You don't see them having a lot of schematic errors. They're well-coached. The players are smart. They are a physical bunch. By far it's the most physical team we've played by far. It's the best coached team we've played so far. They're a hard-nosed, physical football team that doesn't beat themselves.

Do you believe in the concept of a measuring-stick game?

No. That's every day. You guys asked me that when I first came here. That's why we grade every rep, every play, every down. I don't think you can rise up or down within a season or up and down within a week. When you step inside the white lines, that's the measuring stick. You have to get ready to go.

Can you learn about your team?

We do that every day. I don't know that you learn anything more about it on the level of a game or the size of a game. These guys are well prepared. Again, I told you Sean (Payton) and Mickey (Loomis) do a great job of getting the right people in there. Our guys have bought in and understand the style and effort and intensity levels we need to play defense, in order to be able to do our part on defense. This will be a good ballgame. I'm looking forward to the game. I know this team, and this team, when I talk about the NFC East, this is an old-fashioned NFC East type of football team. That's the way Tom Coughlin has built it. Both of the coordinators are going to coach it that way. We've got to respond to that and understand we're playing a team out of the division.

You came in here and had a lot of success against the Saints in 2006. Did you feel like you could punch them around and heard accusations of them being a finesse team?

I chose to be a Saint. I had many opportunities to go elsewhere. I wanted to be a New Orleans Saint. This kind of football team has been here all the time. They just had to say let the dogs out and it's been fun to see that approach being taken in our run game. Our offensive line's had to defend themselves out in practice. All of a sudden our offensive line's pretty nasty. They're finishing and it is what it is. It's a habit that you teach every single day. It's an attitude you teach every single day. I get way too much credit for X's and O's. It's a culture, it's a philosophy, it's a foundation. It's an effort level, those types of things. When you have the right type of people you can trust. We've got a quarterback you can trust. We want the ball in his hands and we've got some guys on defense that I want them to call the game. I don't call as much of the game as they think I do on Sunday. Jonathan (Vilma) and Darren (Sharper) and some of those guys in the back end and some of the guys up front, have some latitude up front in what we do. The fans are real important to that too. In order to get a home field advantage you have to have a raucous crowd. In order to win your division you have to win your home games. That's comes a part of playing defense, a part of playing defense is to have an intense defense that the fans love coming to see watch play because they're going to jump on hand grenades, knock as many people down along the way is they can, play hard-nosed, full-effort football. The fans appreciate that and they've become a part of our third down attack. They've become a part of our first down attack, a part of our goal line, red zone, attack, because that adds another 12th, 13th, 14th defender out there when you're making them have a tough time communicating.

How much has Eli improved since the last time you played him?

A lot. I was going against him from the time he was a rookie until now. You see so many similarities in the body mechanics and the body mannerisms between both he and Peyton. You can see they talk ball and talk football a lot in the offseason among each other. He's grown quite a bit. Kevin Gilbride and Chris Palmer are trusting him more with making the decisions that a quarterback has to make at the level and putting him in the right kind of play selection. He's grown a bunch. He's playing well.

Has his development made the Giants more balanced?

It makes them more balanced. They've always wanted to be an extremely physical football team, but then you have to be able to make the plays to keep the chains moving, making accurate throws and not taking sacks and doing things I see his brother doing. A lot of times we might beat a protection or we might beat a person or a protection, but they still get the ball off. Both of those guys get the ball off pretty quick. We have to do a lot of different things to disrupt the timing of the play. We may not get to them on a sack but there are things we can do to disrupt the timing of the play and those are the things we have to try to get done.

Is there any pair of backs more physical than Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw?

They're pretty physical. Again, I have a lot of respect for both of them. You have to have your chinstrap fastened and your new mouthpiece in and all your cheek pads ready to go. You better have your shoulder pads strapped down tight when you're ready to play both those guys. They're both tackle breakers. They're both physical runners. They're both good on yards after contact. We pride ourselves on being a good tackling team on yards after contact, so that's going to be a good head to head battle this week to see where we measure up.

Do the backs have some speed too?

They have very good speed. For 265 pounds, Brandon Jacobs can run. What you'd like to not do is let him get head of steam up. You'd like to catch him before he gets going really good. That's easier said than done at times, because I think they're very well coached on the offensive line. I think Pat (Flaherty) does a very good job of coaching the offensive line and they're a solid football team, top to bottom a solid football team.

Have you seen growth in Corey Webster too, admiring him from afar?

He's done very well. He's made a nice transformation.

What do your linebackers do on gameday that the average fan might not be noticing?

The things our linebackers have to do, and that's a real smart group of guys. Joe Vitt's done a great job of coaching them and we allow them heavy latitude into checks and audibles. I was an old quarterback a long time ago and I always said if I ever got the opportunity to coach defense, I was going to do it from a quarterback's eyes and with a quarterback's decision process. I'm not afraid to let the players on the field make the decision choices. You can't. Our linebackers trigger a lot of that. Our linebackers have to be smart, not only to put themselves and not be selfish with themselves, but also put a lineman or a db in the right position. All three of those guys, really that whole group, there's not one guy in that whole group who isn't a pretty cerebral football along with being tough. It's fun to watch them coach and grow. It's been fun to watch them improve and start to take liberties on their own now. Again, one of my strengths is I'll reign them in if they take too many liberties. I'll reign them in, but I want them to not be afraid about making a mistake and I want them to live on the edge. I want them to look over the edge and I'll pull them back before they fall, but let's go and those three linebackers that are playing a lot and (Marvin Mitchell) Mitch. Mitch is now playing quite a bit more too in our 3-4 package. All those guys are getting some playing time, making some good choices and making some good calls out there.

When you talk about liberty, are you talking about alignment?

The big thing is there's a game within a game out there and you're playing on the driveway. You're playing in the backyard. They can see what's going to take place before the play. I'm standing on the sideline. I'm guessing. Once it gets out there, they can see. When they see certain things, I have told them to take that and it is a liberty within the scheme of the defense. There's a tools to the trade that they can use in calls every single time they break the huddle. The offense might think they have the last say. If we do the right thing, we have the last say and that's been a fun way of coaching that and I learned that from Buddy Ryan. I learned it from Buddy and I tweaked it a lot to my benefit throughout the years on trying to make it better on the guys playing nowadays as opposed to what we used to do.

How do you explain Darren Sharper's start?

I'm real proud of that. When I tell you that, I can check the films the last three years. There are a lot of people, and I'm not accusing anybody here, but there are a lot of people in the media and a lot of personnel people in the National Football League that thought he was washed up. They didn't think we made a very good decision bringing him here. Look how young he looks and I think as you look and see the plays he's made, the game changing plays he's made, I'm more proud of his tackling. I'm more proud of his contact. I'm more proud of his leadership behind the scenes. It's very important for young Roman Harper to get a chance to play beside Darren Sharper for as long as he can play. I don't know how much longer he can play. It's looks like he can play for quite a while right now. He's out there racing corners. That's why I was late coming over here. He was over there racing our corners in the 40 yard dash. I was hoping he wasn't going to pull up here. Let's not get too young out there racing some of our young boys. That's the fun part of it. Attitude is everything. Pick a good one. He picks a good one every single time he comes in. The more I'm around him, the more I'm going to give him. He's earned it. When I say the more I'm going to give him, the more latitude I'm going to give him. Also, you can ask behind the scenes, I'm probably more brutal on him and Jonathan Vilma than anybody. The guys that are standing up in front and are the behind the scene leaders on our team, everybody needs to see how I treat them and leadership comes with a high price. Decision-making comes with a high price, so I've been very, very, very hard on him and he's responded. I'm very proud of his contact and the way he's tackling. He's done a great job.

Why does he seem not to get beat when he gets beat on balls?

Just like coaches would like to claim that they coach everything, but not coach the bad things, there are so many good things he does, I can't coach. He's born with it. Those are instincts. I like managing people with good instincts. I like to manage the decisions he makes. I like to manage the thought process he has. I like to add to the thought process that he's had. He's learned some good football from us since he's been here; he thought he knew, now all of a sudden we're confirming he knew, and we're letting him do. Make no bones about it, he's not freelancing. It's not a freelance play. He's taking calculated, anticipated breaks and risk that when he makes that decision, it's hard to coach that stuff. It's hard to coach those things. You can't be afraid of making a mistake. He's not going to be afraid of making a mistake. He knows that I know he's not going to make a mistake on purpose. I just have to have him make a better decision. If it's the wrong one, I have to help him make a better one next time and if he makes too many wrong ones than he goes into coaching like I do.

What kinds of challenges as a coordinator does the wildcat bring?

Those are things. Everything's a fad. Everything's a scheme. Everything's a play. It's really no different than the run and shoot, it's no different than the option, it's no different than the power game. It's just another part of the game. The ball has to be advanced, and you're trying to align and prevent the advancement of the ball. It's just one more scheme. It's one more thing and the things you have to be prepared to do. It's the same thing defensively.

Do you think it's a fad, or it's going to stay?

Now it's pretty successful. They were doing that in the 40's and 50's.

Is it different than the single wing?

It's different than the single wing. It always grates on my nerves when you guys call it that. It's not the single wing. You don't see a guy back there, spinning around, hiding, doing all that kind of stuff. My dad played in the single wing. He was the first one who jumped all over the media when they said that.

Can you discuss teams not throwing much out of it?

When people get somebody that's good enough to do it. But right now you're going to have to get guys to convince those owners that we're not going to break those guys' high-dollars legs. Those guys make a lot of money, it's a big-time cap hit if they don't play the next day. Those are usually the ones good enough to throw the ball. Michael Vick, he's not making as much money anymore, so all of a sudden he can run a little bit more.

Did you spend any extra time on that in the bye week?

We dedicate time every week. That's part of our week. It's one of our checklists. ... Kevin Gilbride can invent some stuff. He can invent some nuclear plays. ... Every week we kind of go through a what-if checklist. We kind of go through that process. We have to be able to react on gameday.

Do you have some guys on this team who could run the wildcat?

We get our scout team. I've got a nameplate up in my office that says Gregg Williams, defensive coordinator. On the back of it, what I look at, it says just coach the defense. Coach the defense. That's a full-time job.

New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams' Oct. 15 press conference transcript | New Orleans Saints Central - - NOLA.com

"We may have lost the game, but you'll be hurting tomorrow." Doug Atkins

saintsfan1976

Awesome read. It's no secret why we're on the doorstep of 5-0. I'd take a pay cut to bring him aboard any day.

Sir Psycho Sexy

Agreed

neugey

HELLUVA interview, HELLUVA coach!

Donuts32

I hope we can keep Williams for a long time. I like the attitude and toughness he brought to this football team.

Danno

Our only worry. He may get the itch to try HC once more.

Hopefully he'll be like Monte Kiffen and just decide to stay a DC his whole career.

I'm pretty sure if he keeps it up several teams will come knockin.

exile

Hopefully he buffs his resume with a few Superbowls with the Saints first at least.

Rugby Saint II

I found it interesting that he was a QB turned defensive coordinator. Huh!

Rugby Saint II

I agree with Williams...it looks like the smash mouth defense has rubbed off on our finesse offense. That's a real good thing.