Coordinators News Conference Transcript | April 22

CHRIS POLIZZI: Thank you, everyone, for being here. Appreciate your time. Appreciate what you guys do covering our program.

A special thank you to Coach Ferentz. Tremendous opportunity to lead special teams. It has a very proud tradition not only within our program, but within the state and on a national recognition level.

I want to highlight my staff. Brock Sherman and Stetson McIlravy, having them remain as part of the staff was a critical piece, but then having the ability to add the knowledge and experience of a guy like Kevin Spencer, who was so impactful on every day and in every facet of the game, especially with my transition.

I'm sure you guys are eager to know some of what the differences are going to be, but I want to highlight some of the things that are the same as far as special teams go. The structure has been very productive over a number of years. The techniques that produce the results are the same, and the expectations, frankly, from within the building and outside the building are the same.

The things that will be different from a special teams standpoint, and I shared this with the team in our first meeting, was the communication style. I love LeVar. He's a friend of mine. We're different people, different coaches. And the standard, the standard of what was special teams when Coach Woods took over is completely different now than what the standard is of today.

Kaden Wetjen is a two-time Jet Award winner. Drew Stevens was a record-breaking kicker. I go back to the last punter we had graduate from the program was the highest drafted punter in recent years.

So the standard is what the players and the previous coaches have set, and we cannot go backwards from that standard. So those are some of the things that will be different.

I want to highlight some of the guys that aren't specialists that have been working really hard and just doing the things that we ask them to do in showing up on a daily basis. Landyn Van Kekerix is one that consistently shows up in the drills and the unit work. Doing his job, looking for the opportunity, hungry for the next opportunity.

Another guy, Nolan DeLong keeps putting on clinic tape of the technique that we're asking him to do and the physicality and the willingness to push through to the next level of whatever is the progression of our scheme.

Then another guy Luke Gaffney, who is from a defensive line standpoint is maximizes every opportunity that is afforded to him in the drill work and again in the unit work, and I'm appreciative of him.

We have a lot of work to do to get to where we want to get to, but the whole group has embraced it, and it's been a lot of fun to not only have meetings with the guys, but also get on the grass and see the enthusiasm they have to push this thing forward from a special teams standpoint.

Q. Coach, obviously Kaden Wetjen is a big spot to fill. Who are some guys that you have considered that could replace that spot this season?

Q. Zach Lutmer is the first one whose actually kind of had the ball in his hands more often than some other guys, so there's a comfortability there. He's caught off the Jugs. Hasn't necessarily had a whole lot of game experience with it, but you trust a guy that's been in the spotlight. More than from a skills standpoint. It really is a trust standpoint.

At the end of every one of those transitions of the ball from punt to punt return, kickoff to kickoff return, you want to finish the play with possession of the football. So that's first and foremost.

Some other guys, KJ Parker has been back there getting some work. You'll see him on Saturday in Kinnick. Same with Lutmer.

Jaylen Watson is a guy that has really worked to become a better punt and kickoff return guy. Brevin Doll is another guy who works diligently on the Jugs machine to try to work through that, and even Reece Vander Zee working his way to being a guy that you just trust with the football.

But I'd say there's nobody out of the competition at this point. You should see the line for the Jugs machine, it's like when the Diary Queen down on Riverside opens up, that line is down around the corner. It's a long and distinguished line of guys that are working towards it.

We won't know that until literally we run out of the tunnel at NIU.

Q. I wanted to ask you about the punting competition. You have two new punters on campus. One of them an Aussie. What is that competition like so far?

CHRIS POLIZZI: It's been great. Both guys are working hard, and they both bring a lot of different elements to the table. One is right-footed; one is left-footed. One has kicked on a collegiate level. One this is the first time he's ever put on a helmet.

They both have tremendous leg talent. They both work well with one another. That's why I mentioned that it's a healthy competition. They trade notes with one another. They review film with one another. They catch Jugs off one another. They're continuing to in a healthy manner critique one another.

It's been great to see them both progress as we go through the different styles of punts that we have in our arsenal. You know what mean? Whether it's a traditional spiral punt or pooch punt for short yardage, or even our rugby-style punts where it's a little bit probably more natural for Boston working on getting outside the pocket, but Tanner has done that as well, both on the high school and collegiate level.

So it's been a lot of fun to work with those guys. They're both tremendous teammates. The amount of positivity that they bring not only to our small group, but to the team as a whole is a lot of fun. I'm excited to see them continue to progress.

Like I said, we have a lot of work to do, but it's been a very healthy competition.

Q. What attracted you to the position, first of all? Then second of all, being an analyst last year, how closely did you work with special teams?

CHRIS POLIZZI: I was here previously, and I didn't know much about the program prior to 2012. I was still a young coach at that time when I came here. My wife and I were engaged at the time. So our first years being a married couple were spent here in Iowa City literally right down Melrose.

When you go through this process of being a coach and you have these aspirations of I'll move anywhere, I'll go anywhere, you know what I mean, I just want to get on the grass and coach and have that opportunity. That was one of the things I met with Coach Ferentz of when my graduate assistantship is up, if you want to coach, you got to go coach.

That road out of Iowa City led me to Western Carolina and Tennessee Tech and Tennessee Martin and Tulsa where you are in different communities that have different advantages, different warts. You're working for different head coaches, different administrations. What are their values? What's the type of program they want to build?

Everywhere I went I guess I used the term, you can't enjoy the sweet until you've tasted the bitter. Everywhere I went there was something off or just didn't feel right about where it was. Believe me, I had tremendous experiences there, but it just wasn't Iowa. I think it all stems from the head coach.

Everything that we do is predicated off his vision and what he wants to accomplish with our customer base, which is our players. All of our players here, Coach wants to make sure they have a great high school program-like experience. I think when that is the core root of all of your decisions, 99% of the time they're going to be the right decision for the player.

So what attracted me back here was the opportunity to work with ask for Coach Ferentz. That all he does is collect great people in and around the program and people that obviously stay for long periods of time because they respect the opportunity to work in such an environment. The idea is to recruit the right type of player, to develop the right type of player. That's not the way all across the country.

So attracted me to that was the opportunity to grow in my role here as an analyst. I did work with special teams with LeVar, but on a periphery level. I was more concerned about the defense and the secondary and how they were performing, but an opportunity to expand my reach with the players and to try to pour what life lessons I have into them is really what excites me.

When my hand hits the door handle here in this building, I absolutely love it, and I can't say that that's the same in a lot of other places. I can't wait to be here. I can't wait to work with these players. I can't wait to be in this building. I really enjoyed my time here and just looking forward to the opportunity to continue to pour into these kids all the life lessons that I've had the opportunity to experience.

Q. You got tasked with a pretty intense overhaul in terms of the special teams unit, some of it already started coming together before you were able to assume the role officially. I'm curious what has that been like stepping in that so many names that Iowa fans know are now gone, and especially considering how closely tied LeVar Woods was to this university? What has this experience been like in that sense?

CHRIS POLIZZI: Good question. It's event, response, outcome. You're going to control about 10% of the world around you. 90% of it is going to be your response to the events, and again, leading back with Coach Ferentz. You see how he handles responsibility and opportunities and change and flux, and it's always with a steady hand at the wheel and not with a knee-jerk reaction.

The exciting part about getting to know these guys is getting to teach them a little bit about how our culture rates here at the University of Iowa. You know what I mean? Believe me, Kaden Wetjen is a generational player. I believe that, but a lot of the success that he had, he would be the first one to tell you this, is for the guys that are blocking in front of him and for the trust that his teammates had within him because of the way he worked in practice.

So when you have that type of, you know, continuity within some of the role players in our special teams, it allows for other guys to blossom when their opportunity comes.

Q. I wanted to ask about the kicking situation with Eli and Caden. One coming in; one that's already been here. Would you consider it an open competition at this point? Can you just kind of speak to the progress that you've seen each of them make?

CHRIS POLIZZI: Sure. There's no position within our program that's not in competition, and I think that's the beauty of sports is when you open up the competition like that and everybody has an opportunity, you let things play out as they will.

That's what we have as one of our afforded deals is we have time. With Caden and with Eli, both guys work incredibly hard. Both have kicked in college. Not as much experience with Caden, but leg talent and leg strength for those guys is a very high level.

They, in turn, work well with one another and marrying their communication style of, hey, I think you're a little open on there, or I think your shoulders are off on that one and working with one another. You know, as specialists you are kind of separate in practice. You're forced to work with one another as everybody else is doing their drills and stuff like that.

They've been great. Again, we've challenged the group. We went out and kicked on Saturday in Kinnick, and the wind was all over the place, and the guys never whined, never complained. They just go out there and say, we're going to have to kick in this weather sometime during the fall, and just went out there and competed.

Again, that's one I don't foresee us saying or naming any starter until we run out of that tunnel versus Northern Illinois just because I think you allow it as much time as it can to see who has the hot hand. You enjoy having the experience of two guys that you know can go out there and kick with confidence.

Q. I guess a two-part question. One, what were the conversations like with your family about when you got the job and the emotional high or whatever the case may be? Then right when that high came down, trying to prioritize everything that you had to do, just given all of the craziness that you taking over and the turnover and getting settled in and everything, how did you prioritize that and execute that?

CHRIS POLIZZI: It was funny. I've had job opportunities and things that, hey, I think this may work, and I think this may not work. I've made the mistake previously of informing my wife. This may happen, or this may happen, or this may happen. She's says when it's good and we can sign on the dotted line, let's keep it at that.

I really didn't tell her anything even as I was going through the interview process here until I had a final meeting with Coach Ferentz and said this is the direction, this is where we are going to go, this is how we are going formulate the staff.

I met her that night for Mexican. I had a small, little plant. I picked up my daughter from daycare. I walked in, and our daughter was holding it. She's like, what was this? There was a card, and it said, I got the job. She was, like, oh, really?

It's a dream come true. I hope I don't get emotional here, but there were some times where I didn't know if I would ever be standing here. I didn't know if I would ever make it back to Iowa. I didn't know if I would ever have the opportunity to coach with this caliber of player and with this caliber of staff ever again.

Being a coach, it stresses out your family. We've moved nine times, and I learned this from Rick Neuheisel a long time ago. There's two kinds of coach's wives. There's great coach's wives and ex coach's wives, and there's nothing in between. They're either bought in or they're with you for the long ride, or they're like, I didn't sign up for this. This is not how I envisioned my life going. My wife is one of the good ones.

For her, it was incredible. I wish I could have shared it with my mother who passed away, but my father was ecstatic, and believe me, he reads everything you guys put on paper and in print. It was a dream come true opportunity.

Then the same breath, you mentioned it, now it comes down to the jitters have left. Now we've got to put our heels in the dirt and do some work.

That's where you rely on people like Brock Sherman and Stetson McIlravy, who have done it for a number of years and have done it with different elements to their preparation. It's not just, we did this last year. It's for the last three or four years we've done this, and this is why it switched, and this is why the terminology. That was one of the best things.

I sat down in the special teams staff room, and I said let's go through and talk to me like I am an infant child. If there's anything that we can do to clean this up from the wording to an adjustment on the name of what we call this, teach me so that as I go to teach this thing, that it makes total transparency, and I'm competent in what I'm trying to say to these guys, but it makes sense. If there's something we can adjust on here, let's do it.

They've been great, tremendous about those things. It has been a fun journey. I just pinch myself every day that I get the opportunity to work in this environment with these coaches.

Q. You clearly care about this. I wanted to ask your predecessor, LeVar, did something that I can't imagine a lot of special teams coordinators or at least every special teams coordinator does, and it's the buy-in that he gets. Special teams are cool around Iowa City. It's not the kickoff guy. It's not the kicker. It's not the punter. It's the seventh guy on kickoff who gets, like, one tackle every three weeks. How do you get your guys to buy into that every single rep of practice when oftentimes what they're doing is running 70 yards down the field and just retrieving the football?

CHRIS POLIZZI: It starts in the recruiting process. We attract guys and sign guys that want to be at Iowa. If we have to trick them, if we have to lure them, if it's because of a financial decision, Iowa paid me the most money, then that doesn't go to the core of what we're going to need you to do, which is work your tail off for nine months out of the year for a potential six to seven opportunities in Kinnick Stadium.

When you attract that type of player that realizes the value of special teams and for a lot of these guys, that's their window. That's their first opportunity to step on the field is that special teams unit.

Then you show them. I think one of the things that's of value here, we did a team meeting the other day, and we're showing clips of Bob Sanders as a true freshman, and the film is grainy. Some of these kids weren't even born when Bob was running down the field, but you see the tenacity and ferocity that a young Bob Sanders as a freshman is running down tackling a guy from Kansas State.

You can show them, it's been the same message here for 28 years and counting. You can see the success that this is where it started, and you can see where Bob Sanders finishes his professional career.

It starts with that opportunity, and he didn't just wake up one day and want to run down as a gunner on punt. That's the type of player he was. That's the way he practiced. That's just one instance of the number of plays that we can show guys.

I think it's also a connection with the players. They have to feel that this is really important to you. That every rep here is critical. I don't know when your number is going to be called, but you be ready when your number is called. There's a lot of people counting on you to do that, but it starts with Rai Braithwaite and the strength and conditioning department where those things are emphasized. The detail, the attention to detail, in everything that we do is emphasized.

It just stems through the whole program. It's almost an expectation that that's the way we operate any time you're wearing this moniker.

Q. As a defensive guy, you probably see the depth you've got at linebacker. What do you think of the depth you've got there? How can you use that in special teams that Seth has over there?

CHRIS POLIZZI: Those guys are not only core pieces to what we do from a special teams, but a lot of the toughness and physicality kind of comes out of that room, from a guy like Cam Buffington, who is a core special teams guy. Other guys that come out of that room, like, Jayden Montgomery is a guy that's going to be a bellcow for us on defense, and I didn't mention him as one of the three guys on there, but that's because he's had some experience, some success on special teams and defense.

Jack Laughlin is another guy that's working his tail off. Burke Gautcher, Carson Cooney, all those guys. I know I'm missing some names in there, but there isn't a guy on that -- Billy Weivoda is working his absolute tail off, and he should be in high school. He should be going to prom. He sometimes doesn't know what direction he's going, but he's going a million miles an hour trying to do exactly what we're asking him to do.

If you don't have every one of those guys traveling and having a role on special teams and that role they're going to live and die whether they get that role down, and it may be one play. If you don't have that, I think you're going to struggle in special teams in whatever level of football you're trying to get done.

Q. We've seen a lot of players develop from special teams into starter roles on the defense. How early on in development can you see that in a guy where this guy is going to be a starter and how important is that in development getting those guys rep on special teams?

CHRIS POLIZZI: I'll flip it to you. There's a lot of times we'll say, I'm not putting you on frontline in the core of our punting team unless you are a starter. Kamari Moulton and Xavier Williams are fighting tooth and nail along with L.J. Phillips as for a role in that starting core group.

The same thing with Will Hubert in the back side and the shield portion of it. DJ Vonnahme and Ortwerth are guys that are fighting trying to be that Sam guy. I want guys that are starting -- that our coaches trust to put in the starting role, because it's the same thing. This is a critical transition of the football from one side to the other. We're going from offense to defense, defense to offense.

You can see with some young guys that they see if I can just run down and maintain leverage on the football and work my tail off and just outwork the guy in front of me, I'm going to put myself in position to go make a play, or you go back to a guy like -- and we've highlighted him, Zach Gabelmann. You're going to have to dig back in your files to find who Zach Gabelmann is, but we have four or five clips of Zach Gabelmann and a quote that talks about -- he said I'm just running down to the football trying to make a play or allow my teammate to make the play.

We have four or five clips of him absolutely murdering people on film, but it's when you can show those things and point to a guy like that, it shows, whatever your role is, that one play has to be the most important play, and can we earn trust within you by continuing to work in development phases in our special teams periods or even our offense-defense periods where you can say this is same-as. The same tackling we teach in special teams, the same thing we teach in all of our tackling for defense. The same ball security drills and telling a receiver to press vertical and step on the toes of a defensive player before I break the cut. When I break the cut, I want to have the ball on the outside and get contact and lock it. It's the same-as.

That's another part that I mentioned. I'm going to stop rambling here in a second, but the amount of assistant coaches that are invested in what we're trying to do. Abdul Hodge. Coach Lester comes down and throws balls when we are doing some of our special teams security stuff. Seth Wallace, Phil Parker, John Budmayr, Jay Norvell, who is running up and down coaching guys up on all of our special teams units.

It's impressive to have some of those things. It just leads to the continuity. When the head coach sits in the back of your special teams meetings, everybody sits up a little tighter, everybody takes notes. It's the same thing with the coaches. They understand the importance of special teams and they follow what the head coach leads the way on.

Q. Every plate you're spinning right now figuring out positions, and a couple of weeks back NCAA announced a rule change on punts that it doesn't feel like any coordinator in America is on board with. I guess how have you addressed that at all? How much focus do you put on things like that when it's not necessarily taking away your create I have not, but what it could allow for on the other side?

CHRIS POLIZZI: We're still not out of the woods on that one, so I'm not going to get into the weeds on the nuance of it. There's frustration from coaches just because you see the issues that they're trying to correct. I get what they're trying to fix with the game, but we are taking, like, 10 steps backwards and just the efficiency of what we're trying to do.

You do limit some of the creativity of what we're trying to do from a special teams coordinator standpoint of just gain a slight edge without deceiving the opponent. We've talked about it. We're not going to really adjust much of what we do just because it's worked, all within staying compliant within the NCAA rules.

We still have a long way to go not only in the understanding of the rule, but the clarification of the rule, how it will be officiated, and, you know, I wish I knew the answers to that.

PHIL PARKER: Thanks for coming. I appreciate the time and effort that you all do. Just to give you a little bit of example of what's going on. We have two practices left to go in spring ball, and as I look at it as a defensive unit, I believe we've made progress. Guys are growing. Obviously we have a lot of new guys. We do have some experienced guys. They're doing well.

You look at the defensive line with Kelvin and Jay and what they've been doing there, trying to put the pieces together there along with the linebackers with Seth doing a great job with the linebackers and his crew. Not too many new guys there.

Then in the back end just trying to put in the pieces to make sure that everybody is on the same page. We're probably not where we want to be at this time, but we've seen growth, and we're looking forward to in the summertime getting to preseason and seeing where we're going from there.

Q. With some of the new faces in the safety, Tyler Brown and Anthony Hawkins and all those guys, how have they progressed, number one; and number two, how important was it for you to get guys with multiple years of eligibility to really learn your system and to kind of take shape here over the next couple of years?

PHIL PARKER: Well, there are two things. They're coming from a different system, different coaching, different responsibilities. It's like a different language to them. I think that Tyler Brown has done a really good job adapting to what's going on.

I think you look at Hawkins. He's a great athlete, and he has a chance to play multiple positions for us. The good thing about it when you have Lutmer there as an experienced guy that can help both of those guys outs, I think it really helps. I think the more and more we go, the better they're going to get. I've seen great strides in both kids that are new kids in there, but it helps being with experience.

Getting them in here in January, February, March, and before we start really getting into spring, there's a lot of information they have to get there and a lot of things they aren't getting yet just because it hasn't happened.

Q. A lot of new faces up there defensively. What have you seen in particular from the defensive tackle so far this spring?

PHIL PARKER: Well, obviously, Bryce Hawthorne is a guy that he's been banged up a little bit, but we're really counting on him. He's been a stable guy for us.

I think you look at Devan Kennedy. I think he's done some good stuff in there. The other guys that we sit there and talk about are Luke Gaffney is doing really well. Will Hubert, he's doing a good job, because they're consistent, they know what it is, they've been here. They've been here and doing the things the right way, what we're doing, so I'm really happy the way they're moving.

But I think in due time we'll get some more guys in there that can help us out so it's been good.

Q. I wanted to ask about the linebacker position between what we saw the other day. It looked like Jayden Montgomery and Cam Buffington will be the two in the 4-2-5. Do you expect Cam to take over the Mike role? Do you have Jayden moving? What's your expectation there?

PHIL PARKER: I think we have flexibility in both of them, and Seth has done a great job of making sure they get reps at both positions.

Cam was banged up, so we moved Montgomery over to Mike, and then that gives us an opportunity to maybe put Derek there, DeLong there. There's a really good group of how we spread it out to play the Will backer, the Mike backer, and then obviously sometimes in 40 defense we got the Leo backer in there. They're all interchangeable. It gives you more depth as you have it.

You have six good guys over there that you can rotate in. You'd like to have Ries back, but he's doing a good job trying to get back on the field. So I think we have a good solid group right there.

Q. Zach Lutmer kind of played all over the place defensively in the secondary for you guys last season. Do you have a sense of is there a position that you would like him to play in particular this season, or do you feel comfortable moving him around again?

PHIL PARKER: Well, I think we'll do that, and it would be the best -- like, who is the next best guy to go in the game? So if we're looking at some of the guys in the depth chart that can go in there and play cash because he's played cash, he's played free, he's played strong. Right now his main focus right now has probably been the free safety position right now.

But when you have other guys that can jump in and do the cash, like Wallace does a good job of going inside. You got Watson that can go ahead and play the inside. Both of them can play outside. They can play inside. So it comes down to, like, who is going to be the next best guy to put in there? Can Tyler Brown go down there and play the Cash? Then do we take Hawkins and then does he play the strong and let Lutmer take the free?

There's a lot of moving parts right there. We got to find out what the best fit, because when it comes down to it, I want my best five guys on the field.

Now, can Lutmer play all of them? Yes. Do I need to put them out at corner? Probably not right now based on my depth at corner that I feel real good about. It's all going to change, and I think it's very smart and he understands all the spots, but it's all going to come down to who is available, you know?

Q. Two guys that we heard a lot of good buzz about in December were Iose Epenesa and Jacob Wallace. How have they built upon their springs, and what you do expect this season?

PHIL PARKER: Iose is doing good. He's making progress. Obviously he's a young kid that has a lot of expectations on him, and I think he's done a good job as far as improving.

There are sometimes you sit there and say, hey, I wish he was farther along, but I think he keeps on working. It's not like we're playing a game this Saturday. So making a lot of plays on the ball, and he's done a really good job, and he's very not an up-and-down guy. He's very not emotional and stuff like that, but very good player. I think he's growing, and he's got a chance to play a lot of football for us.

Q. How have you seen Deshaun Lee grow these last couple of years? Especially it felt like he really ended last year strong.

PHIL PARKER: Well, Deshaun, it's amazing coming back. There are some things obviously how much his leadership has actually been, the way he goes. You talk about the leadership in the back end between a Lutmer and Deshaun Lee of how much they can give to the other guys in the room, because they've been through it. That's been very positive for us. I like the way he's growing.

He keeps on growing, and that's with the rotation comes in and helping the younger guys, hey, to reach their goals to be just as good as the starter. I think he's done that job in a good way.

Q. I wanted to ask about Kahmari Brown and the defensive line. With the numbers that he was able to put up at FCS ball, what kind of expectations do you have for an athlete that comes in with that kind of résumé and how they're able to blend into your system?

PHIL PARKER: Well, it's hard for everyone. Going back to the safeties, when you come in and are learning the different language basically, football is football. I get that, but what we're asking our guys compared to what they were asking him, probably has to be a little bit of difference. We're a little bit heavier. There's a little bit more understanding how to take on blocks and stuff like that.

He has been an asset. He is improving. Is he where we want him? No, nobody is right now. You have to keep working. It's a long project. By the time we get to September or whenever we play the first game, hopefully all these guys have a chance to get in there, but he's done a good job.

Q. Along those same lines, you added a number of FCS transfers, guys who are moving up a level. What makes that player or a prospect that fits well with your defense? I guess just from the team perspective, the culture of Iowa, what makes that a player that fits at Iowa?

PHIL PARKER: Well, sometimes when you get a guy that has a little bit more hunger, a guy that he's played and he's shown that he has played at a different level, but still at a high level, but they're still going through a learning process of how we coach, what are our expectations and what we expect them to do.

So I think it's kind of nice when you get those guys that have a little bit of hunger, you know what I mean? They want to prove themselves, but they still have -- everybody has a long ways to go.

Q. With Deshaun being kind of that more established guy at corner, who are some of the other guys do you feel like that are in contention for the starting cornerback spot across from him?

PHIL PARKER: Well, I think Watson has done a good job. Wally has done a good job. Wallace, as I call him Wally, but he's doing good.

Godfrey has done a good job. Godfrey played in the Nebraska game, and he made two excellent plays out there. So to see his growth as we're getting more depth at the corner position, it allows us to keep probably Lutmer inside. Those are the main guys.

Q. I wanted to ask about the (audio disruption) --

PHIL PARKER: (Audio disruption) -- Tyler Brown, I think he's done a really good job. Some of the other guys, like the Hawkins kid, I think he's done a good job. But if you are going lower than that, they're still learning the system.

So the comment on those guys right now, I don't see them right now. They're still trying to learn step one before step two comes along.

Q. Phil, you have had countless great leaders on the defense throughout your career here and especially over the last few years. You lost a ton of leadership on the defensive side. How do you challenge the right guys to emerge in those leadership roles, and how do you coach guys to just find their voice and to be able to lead you guys as you transition to that next step of leadership on the defense?

PHIL PARKER: Really to become a good leader, you have to perform on the field. So you look like a guy that -- for example, Buffington, he's a really good player. When you have a really good player, is he vocal enough, or does he lead by example? That's a leadership by example.

Lutmer has been around enough. He's very confident. He's more of a vocal guy. Montgomery, another guy that's been around. A dad that coached, knows the system, all that stuff, and the leadership that they give. Now, you want everybody to start growing, but if you are going to be a leader, you have to do everything right.

Deshaun Lee, he's been here. He's been around. He knows what it takes. He's seen other guys in the leadership role. You can see how he's getting more activated in the leadership role, but he's still has to be good to be a leader. Good football players are good leaders.

Q. Following up on that, when we talked to Lutmer at the beginning of spring he mentioned that you and him have talked about him taking that step throughout winter and even into last season, him starting to become that vocal leader. I think back to the Mic'd Up that was published by --

PHIL PARKER: There was a Mic’d Up? (laughter)

Q. He did a Mic'd Up couple of weeks ago that was published.

PHIL PARKER: I had no idea. Is that right?

Q. We got to hear the vocal side of his leadership kind of really shine in that. Have you noticed that? Is it a gradual change?

PHIL PARKER: I've seen it. Lutmer is very quiet. When you are young and you had some other leaders that are in there that are more vocal, he didn't say very much. Now he's more mature. He's more confident in doing that, but I probably need to check that podcast or whatever.

You can tell. He's a leader. He takes the team, and they're breaking it down. Hey, he knows the points that I want to put across, because I'm giving them to him in the meeting. He reiterates that to these guys, and I think he does a good job in his way. He's not a real rah-rah guy, but he gets his point across.

TIM LESTER: It's good to see everybody. We have two spring practices remaining. It's been a productive spring. Obviously, as everyone knows, we have a lot of new faces really on all three phases, but our guys have been competing trying to continue to take the next step as we evolve offensively.

Obviously everything offensively from my very first time meeting in front of you guys, comes down to the players you have and finding ways to get them the ball. We got guys that are continuing to get better. That's really what I've challenged all our guys with is finding ways to get to grow. From the guys that just got here, what is that, three months ago maybe, to the guys like Lauck and DJ Vonnahme, they need to get better, too.

So that's really our main focus. The guys have done a good job. I think we've grown, and I'm excited for where we're at, but we got a lot of work to do to move forward and get ready into summer, into camp. So far very productive. I'm proud of the guys and the work they've put in.

Q. I'm pretty sure somebody else will ask about the quarterback battle, on so I'm going to start with the wide receivers.

TIM LESTER: I'm shocked it's not the first question.

Q. We've heard a lot of buzz about Tony Diaz. I know he's been dinged up recently, but he seems like he's made a lot of plays for the first whatever it was eight no nine practices. Evan James coming in, I guess. How confident do you feel about the depth at wide receiver and what has maybe Tony and Evan and the newcomers have shown you about how you can utilize them in the passing game?

TIM LESTER: It's one of the number one answers we needed to find, right? You bring these guys in that have had success at other places, and how do they fit into what we do? How well can they pick up the schemes and the routes, and can they make plays? That's the bottom line. You put a ball up between two human beings, and some guys just have a knack for come down with it.

Tony, he can come down with the ball. I wish he was more protective of his body. He goes for it now. He might land on his head, but he'll end up with the ball at the end.

It's been fun watching him in his first eight or nine. He wants to practice. We're trying to hold him out just because there's no need to at this point. He's just getting healthy. I think if there was a game, he might be able to go these last two because he's a super competitive kid and aggressive.

The one thing I think with Evan and Tony that they've done that's really helped the whole group is they're running routes at a certain speed. I mean, they roll. That's something that we've been looking for, and we were looking for when we hit the portal is speed. I really think it's kind of elevated the room a little bit.

Obviously DJ plays at a pretty high speed, and Reece was out maybe first week of spring, but then he came back. It was great to get him back. It was fun when we had a lot of the pieces healthy.

Obviously in spring it's up and down because it's really physical. Practice is three times a week, but hopefully we can find ways to get to those guys and use their talents. The big thing for me was figuring out what they could do. I've been very happy with both of them really.

Got to get them healthy and with Rai down in the weight room. I think they came here for a month, and they rolled right into spring ball, which is tough. I'm sure that they had great strength places that they came from, but I think Rai is the best of the best. So getting may, June, and July with him for all the new guys, but especially those two, should be huge coming into the fall.

Q. How has the race at center shaken out and the starting five for the offensive line?

TIM LESTER: TBD. I'm happy with where we're at. We've had a rotation in there. We've probably had six, seven, eight guys play center, but Pieper moving was a big story. He's done a really good job. We moved him back and forth. Cael Winter has really come along. He's had a great spring. He could play guard or center, but I think he's more comfortable at center.

Mike Myslinski, he was doing really well. He got hurt. We got Jano back. Was happy to have him out there in pads again. He was out there flying around, and he looks comfortable. It's really who plays guard is probably secondary to who plays center. Once we figure out the center, the guard will be easy.

Trent came in here, and he's learning our system. He's a guy who came from JMU. He rolled an ankle, and he was out for a week or two. He did some really good things the other day.

There's going to be a lot of options there. We put Allgeyer in there at guard a little bit. I think he could also play tackle. I really like the numbers we're at. I don't think anything is solidified yet, but the way those guys are working, and it's just unbelievable when you have a guy like Leighton Jones. Leighton has had an unbelievable spring. He doesn't even stick out. That's a compliment. You don't even notice him. It's just like Beau is there.

Even the new guys have been in the system for two years now, so they're very comfortable with what we're doing. That group has done a great job. I think the key is to get not so much five. It's do we have six, seven, or eight? This is a physical game. It's a physical league.

I like where our numbers are at right now. It will be interesting to see how it all falls, but I've been very proud of some of those guys that are in year three and how they played. They've really got themselves into the fight, which will be decided obviously in August.

Q. What have you seen from the quarterbacks so far? What's the challenge of scheming an offense when you don't know who the quarterback is going to be yet?

TIM LESTER: It is hard. Trying to figure out which plays each of them like and they're more comfortable with. We have an unbelievable room of coaches that are helping us with the amount of data I get after every practice.

I've been really proud of both of them. They're both playing really well right now. They both improved in the areas that I asked them to improve on. I always try to make very clear goals of what I want each one of them to do in the spring, and their numbers are really close.

I had a visiting coach in my office, and we had a decent practice that he had watched, and we were going through the numbers. He was, like, man, this is a great problem to have. You have two playing well instead of having to play one because the other one is not playing well. I didn't look at it like that, but that's great.

They're both improving. They got a long way to go. Like I said, I want everyone on the team to improve. I've been proud of each of them as I've given them the things I want them to focus on. I think they've took that to heart and gotten better. They see them being more functional, but their completion percentage, their explosive plays, their interception numbers are all kind of where I want them.

They're not playing passive, but they're also not playing ill-advised. Like, don't be overly aggressive. We have to be smart with the ball. They've both done a really good job of that.

It's been fun. They're both getting better. I literally switched them every period. You know, it's like first period, then second period, then first period, then second period. I want them both with all the receivers, with all the centers, so they're just exposed to a lot of different things as far as the one receivers, the two receivers, the 1-0 line, 2-0 line, the one defense, the two defense, the one tight ends, the two tight ends.

Really you make it as even as possible and let them go play, and they're both doing a really good job right now. This thing is going to keep going, and that's a good thing because I think it will help both of them to continue to grow.

Q. Year one, Kaleb Johnson was your explosive play guy. Year two, didn't have that through the air either. Jeremy and Hank both pretty confident the other day that you guys could be explosive through the air this year.

TIM LESTER: Oh, that's good. I should ask them about that.

Q. What is your confidence level that you can make that step in year three of your offense?

TIM LESTER: I like the way you asked the question. My job is about being explosive. I think I said that in my opening press conference, and it will be interesting to see.

Coach does an unbelievable job of having us list who we think, and we do it like monthly, and we have to do the whole team, the leaders, the top-20 players, and who our top playmakers, who are the best leaders of the team, and we always hand it into him. I don't know what he does with it, but he's looking at it. He's keeping track.

He'll bring some old ones out. Remember two years ago on this day we had this guy not even on the list, and now he's number one. It's fun to see the growth of the players.

Yeah, year one was 100% Kaleb. Third and long, going to give it to Kaleb again, because that's our biggest chance of an explosive play, right?

Last year No. 11 ended up being our explosive play guy. He made the most. We started doing some more things and letting him run the ball and have pass options and then DJ started coming along. It was great to get Reece back. We really kind of had the last couple of games I felt we were a pretty good balance of running and throwing and being explosive.

This will be a totally new team. I've been pretty much calling practice the same way since I've been here. You've got to practice everything. Then on Saturdays you do the things you're good at, but you're always trying to improve on everything you do.

So having Tony out there has helped our explosiveness a little bit. Running the same plays we've been running. We've just been getting over the top. You like that one-on-one matchup to number two, and you like it to 81. Now you like it to 14 and eight and seven. There's more options, right?

You got to get those guys the ball. Well, there's only one way to get receivers the ball. So we've got to continue to find ways to do that. I've been coaching them up on how this offense. We still won't know until camp, right, how we have to find explosive plays. Even if we ran the triple option, you have to find ways to find explosive plays.

Really our running backs are coming along too. It will be interesting to see if Kamari, who has been great in practice, can he take the next step and get over the 100-yard mark one time? Unbelievable. He did such a good job. I couldn't believe it.

So we're going to continue, but obviously when you have some guys that are playmakers, you're going to have to get them the ball. We are doing some things. I've had a couple play series that, we'll call them, we had in for two years and never called them. You need to really have a guy. You need to have a couple of guys and one on the front and one on the back, and we can protect it and try to get a one-on-one matchup.

We tinkered with it with Wetj back out there by himself. We've been getting much better at it, because we have some of the horses that we need to get that done now. It's been fun to watch even some of our coaches, like, man, I didn't really like that play in year one, in year two, but now it's starting to look pretty good. Yeah, it's amazing. Players over plays.

So we're continuing to figure that out, but it's definitely going to look different this year than it did other years. It might change as the year goes on as we figure out what -- guys can always emerge. It's kind of a program of stories. So we'll see what the next story is, but there's definitely been some stories up front with the O-line and with Tony and Evan and even LJ in the spring. There's already starting to develop those, and it will be fun to continue to watch them grow.

Q. After a breakout season last year, DJ Vonnahme is back this season. How would you describe his emergence, and what goals do you have for him this year?

TIM LESTER: I want him to continue to grow. I hate to sound like a broken record, but there's so much he can do. We have a lot of -- everything you do is about your players. One of the main offseason projects I had was about him. There are a couple of different places around the NFL that do a good job and do some things that I think DJ can do. We've been studying them.

We've added some things to help bring his talents to light, which you won't see Saturday, but you'll see in the fall. When you have players like that, you have to find ways for them to get the ball.

We had some injuries that allowed him to move up the depth chart really fast, but I tell you, I'll never forget, the one play -- actually, I shouldn't say the one play. The one game that stuck out to me is when we played Oregon, and we had a bunch of injuries, and he had to put his hand in the dirt, which he's more of an F than a Y, but he can do both.

He had to stick his hand in the dirt and block that defensive end from Oregon, which isn’t an easy task. My man rolled his hips and walked that dude right out of there a couple of times. I was, like -- I can't say what I said, but this little guy is tough. I mean, compared to the guy he was standing next to. I think he's still 6'3", 6'4", but this D-end was a monster.

The fact that he rolled his hips and walked that guy out of there was super impressive to me. It just makes him a complete player. When he's in there and is a threat to get the run game done correctly and can do what he can in the one-on-one situations on third downs, you just have a complete player.

I'm excited about some of the things we've done. I really think Ortwerth has gotten better. I think Mason Woods has taken a step this spring to do some of those DJ-type things. I think we have some depth. It's one of the reasons I wasn't afraid to put things in that are only for DJ.

That's hard to do, because you are one play away from not having any of those again, but we do have some depth. That's a great room for us right now. So we're trying to continue to do things to use them all and I'm excited to watch him continue to get better.

Q. With the quarterback situation, do you have a time frame of when you want to have a starter, one, and then, two, is there something you want to see from each of them that it would be, okay, that's my guy?

TIM LESTER: They've shown me what I've asked for. Hank is super efficient. He's on time with everything. He's like a machine. He's a little bit like Mark in that my biggest fear with him is that he was going to go out there, complete 80% of his balls for 20 yards, complete 17 of 20 for 17 yards and never be aggressive, right?

I think he has more explosive plays than anybody right now. I think he has 29 passes of 15 or more. Finding that balance, which is what Mark had to find. From the beginning of the year to the end of the year, if you watch Mark, his biggest jump was in understanding when to be aggressive and when not.

It helped getting Vander Zee back to have that one-on-one guy that you trust to go throw the ball to. That was my challenge with him.

Then with Heck it was more, hey, we need to make sure we operate within the offense and not take every single chance with a ball. You might throw 30 touchdowns but 40 picks, and he's kept his pick number down and still been aggressive and been smart about it.

They've been doing that exactly -- that was the goal number one for both of them. They've both done a great job right now. There's really not a time frame. There's part of me thinking it would be great if it was clear by a certain -- by the end of spring or by camp -- it's not even close to clear. It's a good problem to have. It's definitely going to go into camp. It could go into the season. I don't even know.

I like where they're both at. They're both operating at a high level. If they can keep both growing, then I feel like we're going to have multiple options come the fall, which obviously are for my first year here with the more we can have healthy, the better and playing well, so we don't have two running backs and a safety as a backup as a third stringer. Hopefully we can keep them healthy, but I'm happy with where they're they at.

Jimmy Sullivan has really taken strides, too. Watching him and Fitz is doing a great job. Fitz is on time, on target, really smart football player. Jimmy is extremely talented and just the game is slowing down for him. He got here spring last year, so it's his second spring, although he's a true freshman. He's got an unbelievable arm. His feet and his timing are getting better.

We literally time every single time they take a snap to when they throw the ball, so I have a number on them. He is starting to make decisions and his time to throw, TTT, for Pro Football Focus geeks out there, which I love, but we do that in our own practices. His numbers are starting to come down where he's processing and getting rid of the ball on time. I want him to keep coming because the more we can have in there, the merrier.

Q. I wanted to ask about running backs. That's a room that looks pretty deep on paper. Specifically with the addition of LJ. When we were talking to Jay last week, he described him like a bowling ball with butcher knives or some variation of that. I'm curious, what have you seen out of him and what he was able to do at South Dakota and how he will fit in with this room?

TIM LESTER: It was fun watching his highlight tape. He came on his official visit with his dad and uncle, two of my favorite people I've ever met in my life, his dad and his uncle. The apple doesn't fall too far, so when you meet the parents, you learn a little bit about the human being. Unbelievable family.

Showed up. Obviously we have Kamari in the room, and we have everybody coming back. Much like Mark did last year, just showed up and worked. As far as he fits our program very well, just like Mark did.

He's fit in seamlessly. As you get into spring, you see the ball, and you see what is he about? He runs behind his pads very well. It's impressive as you are trying to find who is your short yardage back, third down back, who is the best at pass pro. First and second downs, those are the easy downs, but on third down, the down that matters, or a third and one, fourth and one, who do you want in there?

I've been very impressed with his short yardage capabilities. He has great vision. You can tell he has played a lot of football. You don't run for 1,900 yards without having some skill.

You don't know how long the transition is going to take to a new offense. They ran a lot of the same stuff we did, but the wide zone is probably different, and he's really comfortable with it. You see him make one mistake with his angles and his shoulders, and then it's fixed like a veteran does. You tell him once, and they're on to the next thing. He's a huge addition.

I do like the way the young kids are coming along. I really like the jump Kamari has made. Even as the year went on, I this thought Kamari got better and better, and he's continued to do that. We have a lot of competition. It's going to be fun to watch them as the fall comes.

Q. You said last year something you wanted Hank to get better at is when the play breaks down, improving his decision-making. How have you seen him develop in that regard? Also, when you are not tackling quarterbacks into a little bit of a different thing when the play breaks down, is there anything you can do to kind of simulate that?

TIM LESTER: I know you don't get to come to practice a lot, but our quarterbacks end up on the ground quite a bit. It's a pretty physical deal out there, which is good. I like it when they do. They throw and get bumped a little bit or they're running and get bump and have to go down.

I think the biggest thing, and maybe I misspoke on Hank, is getting him to deal with the gray better, right? When the coverages are not clear and there's some teams like ours that disguise coverage well, you need to figure out what they're in, and you are wasting -- I always say you have 2.6 seconds on a drop-back pass to make a decision. You have a ticking time bomb in your hand. If you are wasting 1.2 seconds figuring out what coverage they're in, you don't have a lot of time once you do figure out to get the job done.

That's why I think our defense has been good for such a long time. We play some teams I can tell the coverage the moment we get to the line of scrimmage. That's not the way against Phil. So you train in a very tough environment, which is great. He's been really good.

I think the thing that he's done such a good job of that I've been really focusing on is just his knee bend, his body posture. He's a little bit tall. He is tall, but I want him to play like he's 5'11". If you see him, tell him to be 5'11" because when he plays lower, he thinks faster, he moves in the pocket better. There's not as much up and down.

The one thing you learn about up and down when it comes to quarterbacking, is you lose vision. Anyone that's ever run and the ball is going like this, that means you probably don't run right. The ball should be smooth. He's done a really good job with his lower body and getting under control.

We started with him on that in December. It's grown leaps and bounds from December in bowl prep at really dialing into his kinetics of his body and making sure trying to -- you don't really mess with guy's throwing motions too often. I'm not really messing with his motion. I'm messing with his body, getting his base better.

He has bought into it and kind of taken himself to the next level as far as just what he looks like in the pocket and comfortable progressing from one to two to three because he's prepared. He's in an athletic position, you know? You can tell everybody until you're blue in the face what you want them to do until they believe it, you know, and he's now seen the product of, you know, what having a better posture can do for him.

It's been fun to watch him. It's not perfect, right, but it's been getting better. Every time it's better, he's progressing better, he's thinking faster. He's moving in the pocket better, because he's pretty fast.

I don't know who is the faster of two. Hank might be faster. I think Heck is quicker. Neither one of them is a non-athlete, which is kind of fun.

So it does make the planning your offense a little bit easier because they are -- I know they look different, but they're similar athletes, you know? I've been happy with where he's been. It's all started with his body, and that's helped everything else out because he's more prepared to make decisions faster.

Q. You still are pretty hands-on with the quarterback, but with Billy taking over as the quarterbacks coach and you getting a more over see perspective on the offense, what's that adjustment process been like? What advantages does it have in getting Billy in step with what you want from the quarterbacks? What was that process like?

TIM LESTER: I've known Billy forever. I recruited Billy out of high school. I got Billy a scholarship. He'll give me a bunch of crap for saying that. I didn't want to play against him because he was going to go to a rival school of ours, so I called the D2 guy and got him so I didn't have to play against him.

I've known Billy for a very long time. I told Coach Ferentz when I got here that I wanted to build this quarterback room like an NFL quarterback room. I know a lot of people aren't familiar with how that works, but not much has changed for me other than I have more help.

I got a call several years back to be a potential quarterback coach at an NFL team, and my response was, you know, the only thing I may be a little bit uncomfortable is running the meeting room. The guy laughed at me. He's, like, you think you would run the meeting room? The head coach runs the meeting room. Whoever is calling the plays runs the meeting room.

So you are on meeting room has not changed one bit. I'm running it, but I got two guys looking at it instead of one now. Two guys that came from this offense, that understand this offense. So it's been awesome.

You know, when it comes to recruit and watching twice as many films, things that I always felt like I would be chasing my tail on with some of the recruiting stuff and getting ahead on some of the younger quarterbacks and communicating with people. If the quarterbacks want one-on-one time and I'm game planning or sitting with the run game, pass game, red zone guy, short yardage guys, someone that they can talk to that I trust implicitly, but that's the way it is.

Normally whoever is calling the plays runs the quarterback meeting room, and then if I have to leave the room for some reason, which I don't think I'll ever have to, then Billy could take over. I would trust him 100%.

It's been refreshing. I think it was my first month here when they passed that unlimited coaches rule, and I think it might have been right after my opening press conference. I forget. I went right into Coach's office and said, hey, now that there's unlimited coaches, I would be shocked in the next ten years if everybody doesn't have a quarterback coach and an offensive coordinator. It's only the biggest position in football. You know, why not put two people in there that are with those people 24/7.

It's slowly happening, and it's finally happening here. I think it's great for our players. It's great for me. It's great that it's Billy, because it's a guy that I trust that knows our system, which is awesome.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports