Getting coordinated

Welcome back to the blog after an unplanned but lengthy absence.
As you know (or should) OrangeAndWhite.com, our new Clemson coverage site, is now up and running.
To get it going, the tech wizards had to disable our old site, and with it, this blog, late last week - which I didn't find out about until I suddenly couldn't access it myself.
Ahh, the perils of technology and progress.
Regardless, it's up and running again, and I wanted to add a feature to it as a thank-you for your patience.
Every Tuesday we beat hacks get sit-downs with Clemson's offensive and defensive coordinators, Billy Napier and Kevin Steele. I thought it'd be nice to give you a taste of the interviews, if not the entire conversations. This is the perfect place for them, I feel, and I hope you enjoy.

A few excerpts from Kevin Steele and Billy Napier’s meetings with reporters today:
First, Steele:
On the growth and development of the linebackers:
"In practice, it's been a very good growth process. We've gotten more multiples now we can interchange and move guys around if need be.
We've got five or six that can play at any time, which was not the case this time last year. Now that's based on practice. If they go into the game and they play within themselves and execute their knowledge and technique, we'll be fine. But there's always that deal of we’ve got a couple that haven't been out there when it was first and 10 right after the kickoff and the score was 0-0 and there's 14:56 on the clock. How do you react? Based on scrimmages, they'll react fine. But we'll see.”
On Jonathan Willard:
"Tig is an interesting cat. He's a very smart football player. He's a confident, quietly confident kid. He doesn't say a lot. We often laugh in our room … Tig could leave this room going through a keyhole. And you'd say, 'How did he get through that door? I don’t know.’
Sometimes that shows up on film, pretty frequently, where he makes exceptional plays. You ask how did he get his body to do that? I don't know if that comes from wrestling or from growing up in the Pee Dee, I’m not sure which. But he's got an uncanny ability through instincts. And he's so strong. He's strong numbers-wise in the weight room but he's also - and I say it affectionately - country strong. He's naturally strong. He’d be strong whether it was lifting the engine to put it back in the tractor or in the weight room. “

On his exhaustive, and sometimes last-minute preparations, especially since North Texas features a new offensive coordinator who was at South Florida last year:
“I may finish up Friday around 11 p.m. I'll watch them and some South Florida tape. Once the game plan is put on paper, then you're going through it, if you will, playing blind calls. You sit there and you know down and distance and you're in a room by yourself. There's nothing up there on the screen that says there's 11 personnel and power O. You take that off the screen. You just know down and distance and personnel and field position, and you make your calls.
There are little things that will invariably pop up on Thursday night, where maybe you’ve got a call that you'll use in a situation, not a lot, but a surprise element, you rep it six or eight times during the week. Obviously six or eight times, you can't get that against all the looks. All of a sudden you sit there on a Thursday night at 11 o clock and you see something that pops up on the screen and you say, ‘Whoa, if they do that we’re in trouble. Let’s take that out.”
More on the last-minute adjustments: “We do a walk-through on game day and there have been times in walk-through, and maybe a formation or adjustment pops up, you really haven’t seen it like you saw it, and you say, ‘Whoa. We’ve got a little issue here now.’ It never stops in the game, either. Even though that game plan is laminated, you can still mark through things.”

Now, Napier.
On the differences and improvements in being a second-year coordinator:
“I've been through this process before, and I have all my notes and mistakes I've made and lessons I've learned over time doing each one of these things.I feel we've improved in every area in terms of being more efficient with our time, focusing on what's relevant to Saturdays in the fall and maybe not wasting time on some things that I might've thought would have been more productive. You're just in your second year.
“The detail that you can find in each system, each phase of what you're doing - and in-season in particular, I really believe we've done that 14 times. We've prepared for a game, we've managed that time within a game-week preparation 14 different times. We try to turn the clock back and start on Monday and treat it like a game week, see the little things that took time to develop. Each assistant coach has taken ownership in his responsibility, there’s so much value in that. I’m extremely appreciative of the job they do and the pride they take in their jobs.”
On the offense’s potential: “I think we can be good. I really do. I'm confident in our returning players. I've commented in the past about that first tier of returning players and the guys that have significant playing experience, I have a lot of confidence in those guys. I'm anxious to see how the first-year players, whatever age they are, the guys that this is going to be their first significant year of playing experience.
“I'm most excited to see how they'll transition each week as they live and learn and learn how to prepare and learn what it's going to be like on game day, what our expectations are for them as a staff. What kind of roles can we develop for those guys? Ultimately I think that's maybe what will define how good we can be, or if we can be great or play winning football each week and be a championship-caliber offense. I think ultimately that's where we're headed, and we've got to maximize each repetition we get and each meeting we get. We've got to see if we can continue to develop an identity in terms of how intense and focused we're going to be, buying into the routine and preparation, Monday through Friday, the process, and it very much is a process to get a football team ready to play.”

On Kyle Parker’s preseason, and the expectations: “Yesterday was an outstanding day for him. I saw a guy - I wouldn't use the word 'anxious,' but I do think he is anticipating what's to come. I think his focus has been really good. He had very little time there to take a mental break and a physical break. I think he's only going to get better as the season goes from a physical standpoint. We really encourage him to take advantage of every opportunity to eat, what he's putting in his body, every opportunity he has to rest and get off his feet, making sure he's sleeping the right amount of time, making sure every lift he gets he's doing what he needs to do.
“And because of his career as a baseball player, physically he doesn't get to go through the offseason program. That's something we've had to manage, but mentally and just from a competitive identity standpoint, he is who he is. And he's even stronger than he has been before, because he knows how to prepare now. He's been in the games. He's come from behind. He's been productive. He knows what's relevant to him playing well on Saturday, and his focus is on that and nothing else.

"One thing we've talked a lot about just offensively is trying to create an approach and an environment where a guy can take a game-like approach in practice, get your mind where it needs to be from an intensity and focus standpoint play by play, moment by moment. What’s the down, what’s the distance, what’s the field position. Compete and play like you’re in a game. And if we can produce that environment on the practice field as a staff, ultimately the game becomes easier. That’s our goal, to make game-week preparation as accurate as we can.

On a crowded wide receiver rotation: “I think we've got a good group. I like the group's attitude. I think the whole group is very capable. I think we've found roles for each guy. Ultimately, we're going to reward production. We're going to reward accountability and production.

"Every one of the guys has got a good work ethic and a great attitude. I think they know what to do. And now we're to the phase of the game where it's about production. And ultimately, that's what coaches and players have to respect and have to make decisions on. And they know that. Consistency is the number one ingredient for our team to be successful. We’ve got to have 11 guys that are playing consistent, winning football.

"In that group, I see guys that can do that. Now it's just a matter of when the lights are on and it's the real-deal show, being capable of doing that and doing it in a game setting. Yesterday they had a great day. We only had two balls on the ground all day yesterday, and one was a drop. And one was a tipped ball. So I'm really extremely pleased with the focus that our group had yesterday."