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Monday Morning with Charlie Partridge
10/13/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 13, 2014 BOCA RATON, Fla. - Opening Remarks
We are coming off a bye week. We had three goals. Three things that we were focused on as we took advantage of that time. The first was to do a full self-evaluation between myself and the coordinators as we went back and looked at specific situations. See where we can improve, see things that we need to continue to build on. So we spent the first couple days of the week, in the office doing that. During that time, all seven of our other assistants were on the road recruiting throughout the state and one guy went national. Bart Miller went national - a lot of time in the midwest, a little bit of time in kind of the south area, in Tennessee. But, Bart went national and the rest of us were in state. The coordinators and I joined the recruiting trail on Friday and Saturday. The third thing that we wanted to spend time on was with our development group, our younger guys, both in the weight room, we amped up everybody's weight workouts last week, but we also spent a lot of time with them in practice - coaching them individually. We got a chance for our younger coaches, our grad assistants to get their hands on doing fulltime coaching duties and I got to have some fun doing some true coaching myself. It was a productive week. A good week for us and I feel like we came out of it in a good place.
We are coming off a bye week. We had three goals. Three things that we were focused on as we took advantage of that time. The first was to do a full self-evaluation between myself and the coordinators as we went back and looked at specific situations. See where we can improve, see things that we need to continue to build on. So we spent the first couple days of the week, in the office doing that. During that time, all seven of our other assistants were on the road recruiting throughout the state and one guy went national. Bart Miller went national - a lot of time in the midwest, a little bit of time in kind of the south area, in Tennessee. But, Bart went national and the rest of us were in state. The coordinators and I joined the recruiting trail on Friday and Saturday. The third thing that we wanted to spend time on was with our development group, our younger guys, both in the weight room, we amped up everybody's weight workouts last week, but we also spent a lot of time with them in practice - coaching them individually. We got a chance for our younger coaches, our grad assistants to get their hands on doing fulltime coaching duties and I got to have some fun doing some true coaching myself. It was a productive week. A good week for us and I feel like we came out of it in a good place.
On Western Kentucky
This is a very good football team. I understand what their record is, but they went toe-to-toe with Illinois. This is a powerful offense, as you guys know there are four major categories that they are ranked in the top-10 (nationally). Their quarterback (Brandon Doughty) is going to be motivated and gassed up for this week, as a local product. I remember Brandon from North Broward Prep. He is a good football player. He throws an accurate ball and throws it on time. We will have a great challenge there. They have a big running back, number 33 (Leon Allen) - all indications are that he will be back. He got nicked up in their last game but it sounds like he will be back. They have six players with 18 catches or more. So they spread the ball around like a lot of these timing offenses. I followed Coach Petrino at Arkansas, so I have a little bit of an understanding what this offense is about. It is about timing. They are going to take what they feel you are giving them. You can see that philosophy used by Coach Brohm, which makes sense. Defensively, they are very athletic. They have good size up front. They are in 290-300 range inside and 240-250 range at the defensive end spot. Their Mike Linebacker (Nick Holt) is very productive as their leading tackler as well as their boundary safety (Ricardo Singh). So they have good players on that defense and they are very multiple which creates challenges. Three different fronts, three distinct fronts and three or four different coverages that they mix in a lot. That creates some challenges that we look forward to.
A couple of other things before I turn it over
We all know it is a noon kick-off. So hopefully we get a great crowd to get an early tailgate. I encourage the students to come out and meet us at our Owl Walk, which has been unbelievable for the first two home games. It has really been a positive effect on our players. The team should arrive about 9:45 a.m. So the other thing to make note of, we were part of a function down in Coral Springs in the spring with the family by the name of Paros. Nico is the son. Nico is suffering from a rare blood disorder called Fanconi Anemia. His family, they will be a part of our week this week. They will come to practice on Friday. The family wants to raise awareness for this blood disorder. They are going to be a big part of our week. They will be around our team. This young man and the family are an inspiration in terms of this young man is fighting for his life. His family is all in. You saw the camaraderie (in the spring) when all those firefighters came together to help raise awareness for this young man. They will be a big part of our week. Anything that can be mentioned about that, I would be grateful.
Looking back on the first six games, how much frustration is there that the results were not on the table?
I think, you are looking at a 2-4 team that is a couple plays away from being a 4-2 team or a 1-5 team. I made that clear to the players as well. As you grow as a program and you are in tough ball games, you are in conference ball games - you look at our conference standings - there are two teams that are undefeated and a whole group of us that have one loss, including us. The thing you learn as a program is half a dozen to a dozen plays are often going to be the differentiator. The obvious does show up, in terms of the turnovers. I think everyone could see that. There are some things we could do better on third and medium, defensively we need to mix it up a little more. We got somewhat predictable at one point during the season, so that will help us. We could convert some catches. Jay Warren is very productive, but we know he has had some trouble holding onto the ball during the course of the year. So there is open competition at the running back spot. We haven't determined who the starter will be nor will we determine that until closer to the end of the week. But, turnovers, big plays - we are doing a nice job with penalties. We are in the top-ten of the country in terms of fewest penalties. We need to hold on to that discipline and continue to focus on maintaining possession of the football. We are a block away on at least five to seven returns, both punt and kick-off included in that number, we are about to break it. We have to finish those blocks so that we can make the game difference type of play on special teams.
Would you say Western Kentucky is the most powerful offense in the country, statistically?
Statistically, yes. They are top-ten in total offense, passing offense, third down conversion and I forget the fourth (scoring offense), but yes. They are an extremely powerful offense and it is not like you can bracket one guy. There are six guys with 18 plus receptions and it is unique in my background that the pass is setting up the run. They do have some success in the run. I think they are in the 60's in terms of their statistical ranking if you want to factor that in, but on film they are effective at what we call one back power. A lot of that is because people lighten the box to try and account for their pass game. This is a good offense. They are up tempo. You can see some teams struggle to get lined up so we have to do a good job of getting prepared this week, for what I'm not at all surprised with the background and lineage working its way back with Brohm and Petrino and that whole crew including Coach McGee who was at Louisville with Coach Petrino and who was the head coach at UAB last year. He has a great offensive mind and you can see that lineage showing up on film right now.
Grateful for the bye and two weeks to prepare?
I'm more grateful in terms of the bye week for us. It was a great time for us. We need a couple of guys that were nicked up to get back to being healthy. I think we needed a mental break. We had a long six-game run there with three significant road trips in terms of flight time and those kind of things and we battled we fought. We didn't finish a couple of games that we could have and should have. So, it was a time to regroup, take a look at those things, look at our personnel - across the board, all three phases and it was a good time to evaluate ourselves.
Are the turnovers the biggest disappointment?
It is. When you look at not beating ourselves, something I have said since I walked in the door. We are proud of the penalties. Turnover ratio is an issue. It is something we have got to get fixed if we want to win football games. Like I said, we are that close to being a 4-2 team an undefeated in the conference, with a challenging first half of the season schedule. It is not where we are. I do believe that things happen for a reason and we are building a program. If anything good came out of it, there is an emphasis on details across the board, across the board during the bye week, to the nth level. You better take care of your business all of the time. On time means on time, not 30 seconds late, not as the bell is ringing - on time. It is those details that carry over into winning games. I hate to reference another game, but I'm going to do it and they didn't win the game. You look at the distance that Arkansas has come in a year. Our kids noticed it before I even brought it up. I did bring it up and I'm proud of what Coach (Bret) Bielema is doing and I'm not surprised. He is building a program. We are building a program. Yesterday morning I was in the weight room. Ray Ellis is six inches away from getting 550 up. Josh Kendall got 500 up and he about jumped through the ceiling tile. Little Ronnie Scott almost put up 400 pounds. I'm talking on the squat rack. This is real stuff. This is stuff that will carry over time. Thirty-seven handpicked guys, in the developmental program. Greg Hankerson asked to be in it because the older guys are recognizing what is happening. Then you add in the emphasis on nutrition. We are building a program. Am I disappointed in the turnovers - without a doubt. We need to get that fixed. But, we are building a program, one that Palm Beach County is going to be very, very proud of in the near future.
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