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DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR KRIS RICHARD
September 15, 2016
(On heading back to the Coliseum)
“Sacred ground. It’s going to be awesome. It’s just going back home. It’s been awhile since I’ve had the opportunity to be out in front of my family. They’ve had to travel over the years, so now it’s just an opportunity for them to be home. That’s really all it means to me.”
(On Todd Gurley)
“You have to put a lot of hats on him. It’s going to be all 11 men out there playing a run defense, is really what it comes down to. Especially considering they condense the formations, do things of that nature, try to get the corners involved. Some cracks, try to get this guy outside on the perimeter. They try to make everybody tackle, so we’ll have to make sure everybody is up to par.”
(On what it takes to be a successful corner in run support)
“I believe our coaches do a great job of training our guys to have a tackling plan. So that way, when they’re in the situation, they’ve repped it so many times where it’s just second nature. They go in, they already have a plan of how they’re going to get people down, then they execute.”
(On stopping Tavon Austin)
“There’s no doubt, it absolutely comes down to awareness. He’s an explosive player, they look to get the ball to him as fast as possible with as much space as possible so he can really utilize his skills as a runner.”
(On Earl Thomas)
“He didn’t feel like himself, and that’s one thing that we want to make sure that we do everything in our power to make sure that he gets everything he needs in order to be himself. It’s kind of an anomaly, it happens every now and again. He’s done a fantastic job this week of coming in and preparing himself to be himself.”
(On how you control Earl Thomas’ energy)
“You don’t. You give him the keys, you give him the tools that’s necessary for us to be successful, then you let him drive the car. Again, it just comes down to trust. We know what we built our defense upon, we know the foundation that we stand upon, and we trust our guys to go out there and execute each and every week.”
(On Earl Thomas’ mentality this week)
“He’s challenged himself to be better. He understands what our defense needs of him. There comes a time in your professional life when it may not always go right, or the way that you see, but it always comes down to how you respond. I’m just absolutely fired up for him to go out there and play ball the way he knows how.”
(On whether it’s rewarding to see DeShawn Shead go from practice squad to where he is today)
“Yeah, it absolutely is. It just keeps the hopes and dreams alive, the reality of it is that there is hope. There’s always room to dream and believe. Just to see the fruits of it to watch DeShawn play and see how it all unfolded. He’s a guy who the first couple of years, he didn’t make our team, and now he’s out there starting. It just goes to show the level of respect that you need to have for a guy that’s willing to come in and work hard each and every single day, in order to get better.”
(On where DeShawn Shead has made the most improvement)
“Eye discipline. Eye discipline is critical. If your eyes are right, your body’s right. So if your eyes are bad, your body is going to be bad. When your body’s bad, that’s when we’re going to be beat.”
(On where eye discipline matters the most)
“Everywhere. That’s our little compass. Especially teams tend to condense us to back us off because they don’t want to deal with our press technique at the line of scrimmage. So that’s when we back off and things of that nature, that’s when our eyes have to be locked in.”
(On how you develop eye discipline)
“Just days and days of practice. Taking it home, using your imagination, getting out here, taking the live reps. It’s just the consistency of us taking our reps day in and day out.”
(On whether there was more of an emphasis on blitzing for this season than past years)
“It’s just a mentality of our guys and the timing of it. We’ve been challenged to blitz better, and our guys have taken it whole heartedly. We’re coming off the football, we’re firing off with intent. When we come off that ball, we want to go get it. That’s our whole thing, we want to go get the football. That’s something that we know we’re certainly going to have to do this week.”
(On why it’s this particular group of defenders that makes him feel ready to use them for more blitzing)
“It’s just the emphasis. In this profession you get what you emphasize. It’s been an emphasis for us. Our guys are locked in, they’ve bought in and they’re just firing off the football.”
(On if eye discipline is about the ball, the space or the position in terms of where they should be locked in with their eyes)
“It’s all of that. It is all regarding the position. It is about the space, it is about the concepts and it is about having vision. Again, there’s a difference between getting back there and staring and having vision. If you have vision, we’re seeing what we’re supposed to see. If you’re back there staring, you’re looking at the quarterback.”
(On what was he not seeing at the time that he felt he needed to make eye discipline an emphasis)
“It’s just going to come down to the coverage. [It] has to match the effort up front with the pressure. When our guys are coming off the football, we know we’re going to have to cover tight. The opposing offense as we can imagine are going to be prepared. They’re going to do more to protect their quarterbacks. So if they have a little bit more time to throw we need to be in tighter coverage.”
(On why Pete Carroll is still such a big deal in the Los Angeles community)
“I think it’s just the culture of USC and how much the university means to the city and how he sort of resurrected the town around a team that had not been doing so well. When I played there it was a lot of empty seats in the Coliseum. A couple years afterwards when Coach Carroll arrives, that stadium is filled to capacity. He was able to have a lot of success. It’s a city where success is something that is really smiled upon and supported. He was able to provide that.”
(On if the players knew much about Pete Carroll when he was hired)
“Not really. We knew he had professional experience. We knew that Ronnie Lott had been with him with the Jets. There was a rumor that Ronnie Lott had something to do with the hiring.”
(On what was his first impression of Pete Carroll and how was that impression made)
“I’ve been asked that question a few times and it was the genuineness of his energy. You know how when you’ve got somebody who’s trying to sell a little false enthusiasm? Well no, that wasn’t ever the case. So we’re all kind of sitting back waiting like, ‘Alright wait a minute, he’s trying to sell us a bill of goods here,’ like he couldn’t possibly be this jacked up, this excited and this fired up every day. Every day he came in and proved us wrong, so he made believers out of us really quick.”
(On Pete Carroll’s involvement in L.A.)
“Just his involvement in the area of the gangs, and gang violence. I know there was a tremendous impact just in regards to his understanding. He’s a Northern California guy. Obviously they have their own issues up there. He spent the majority of his professional career out on the east coast. Obviously he came back for San Francisco but the majority of it was out on the east coast. He’s been on the outside looking in. You turn on the television you see the type of things that are happening in the inner city. He wanted to come in and have a positive impact there. Obviously for us—for those who are from the city or any inner city. That’s more of difference than the success that the Trojans have been able to have. It’s kind of the influence that he wanted to have in there. Trying to do everything he can to make a better L.A.—Have a great impact on his environment. Forget the winning and the losing. It’s about what you can do for people.”
(On how did Pete Carroll specifically bring change to L.A.)
“How did he specifically do it. He went down there and asked the right people the right questions. That’s what it’s about; communication. It’s about knowing who to talk to, about having the opportunity to talk to. It’s about getting all the people in the right room and having the discussion.”
September 15, 2016
(On heading back to the Coliseum)
“Sacred ground. It’s going to be awesome. It’s just going back home. It’s been awhile since I’ve had the opportunity to be out in front of my family. They’ve had to travel over the years, so now it’s just an opportunity for them to be home. That’s really all it means to me.”
(On Todd Gurley)
“You have to put a lot of hats on him. It’s going to be all 11 men out there playing a run defense, is really what it comes down to. Especially considering they condense the formations, do things of that nature, try to get the corners involved. Some cracks, try to get this guy outside on the perimeter. They try to make everybody tackle, so we’ll have to make sure everybody is up to par.”
(On what it takes to be a successful corner in run support)
“I believe our coaches do a great job of training our guys to have a tackling plan. So that way, when they’re in the situation, they’ve repped it so many times where it’s just second nature. They go in, they already have a plan of how they’re going to get people down, then they execute.”
(On stopping Tavon Austin)
“There’s no doubt, it absolutely comes down to awareness. He’s an explosive player, they look to get the ball to him as fast as possible with as much space as possible so he can really utilize his skills as a runner.”
(On Earl Thomas)
“He didn’t feel like himself, and that’s one thing that we want to make sure that we do everything in our power to make sure that he gets everything he needs in order to be himself. It’s kind of an anomaly, it happens every now and again. He’s done a fantastic job this week of coming in and preparing himself to be himself.”
(On how you control Earl Thomas’ energy)
“You don’t. You give him the keys, you give him the tools that’s necessary for us to be successful, then you let him drive the car. Again, it just comes down to trust. We know what we built our defense upon, we know the foundation that we stand upon, and we trust our guys to go out there and execute each and every week.”
(On Earl Thomas’ mentality this week)
“He’s challenged himself to be better. He understands what our defense needs of him. There comes a time in your professional life when it may not always go right, or the way that you see, but it always comes down to how you respond. I’m just absolutely fired up for him to go out there and play ball the way he knows how.”
(On whether it’s rewarding to see DeShawn Shead go from practice squad to where he is today)
“Yeah, it absolutely is. It just keeps the hopes and dreams alive, the reality of it is that there is hope. There’s always room to dream and believe. Just to see the fruits of it to watch DeShawn play and see how it all unfolded. He’s a guy who the first couple of years, he didn’t make our team, and now he’s out there starting. It just goes to show the level of respect that you need to have for a guy that’s willing to come in and work hard each and every single day, in order to get better.”
(On where DeShawn Shead has made the most improvement)
“Eye discipline. Eye discipline is critical. If your eyes are right, your body’s right. So if your eyes are bad, your body is going to be bad. When your body’s bad, that’s when we’re going to be beat.”
(On where eye discipline matters the most)
“Everywhere. That’s our little compass. Especially teams tend to condense us to back us off because they don’t want to deal with our press technique at the line of scrimmage. So that’s when we back off and things of that nature, that’s when our eyes have to be locked in.”
(On how you develop eye discipline)
“Just days and days of practice. Taking it home, using your imagination, getting out here, taking the live reps. It’s just the consistency of us taking our reps day in and day out.”
(On whether there was more of an emphasis on blitzing for this season than past years)
“It’s just a mentality of our guys and the timing of it. We’ve been challenged to blitz better, and our guys have taken it whole heartedly. We’re coming off the football, we’re firing off with intent. When we come off that ball, we want to go get it. That’s our whole thing, we want to go get the football. That’s something that we know we’re certainly going to have to do this week.”
(On why it’s this particular group of defenders that makes him feel ready to use them for more blitzing)
“It’s just the emphasis. In this profession you get what you emphasize. It’s been an emphasis for us. Our guys are locked in, they’ve bought in and they’re just firing off the football.”
(On if eye discipline is about the ball, the space or the position in terms of where they should be locked in with their eyes)
“It’s all of that. It is all regarding the position. It is about the space, it is about the concepts and it is about having vision. Again, there’s a difference between getting back there and staring and having vision. If you have vision, we’re seeing what we’re supposed to see. If you’re back there staring, you’re looking at the quarterback.”
(On what was he not seeing at the time that he felt he needed to make eye discipline an emphasis)
“It’s just going to come down to the coverage. [It] has to match the effort up front with the pressure. When our guys are coming off the football, we know we’re going to have to cover tight. The opposing offense as we can imagine are going to be prepared. They’re going to do more to protect their quarterbacks. So if they have a little bit more time to throw we need to be in tighter coverage.”
(On why Pete Carroll is still such a big deal in the Los Angeles community)
“I think it’s just the culture of USC and how much the university means to the city and how he sort of resurrected the town around a team that had not been doing so well. When I played there it was a lot of empty seats in the Coliseum. A couple years afterwards when Coach Carroll arrives, that stadium is filled to capacity. He was able to have a lot of success. It’s a city where success is something that is really smiled upon and supported. He was able to provide that.”
(On if the players knew much about Pete Carroll when he was hired)
“Not really. We knew he had professional experience. We knew that Ronnie Lott had been with him with the Jets. There was a rumor that Ronnie Lott had something to do with the hiring.”
(On what was his first impression of Pete Carroll and how was that impression made)
“I’ve been asked that question a few times and it was the genuineness of his energy. You know how when you’ve got somebody who’s trying to sell a little false enthusiasm? Well no, that wasn’t ever the case. So we’re all kind of sitting back waiting like, ‘Alright wait a minute, he’s trying to sell us a bill of goods here,’ like he couldn’t possibly be this jacked up, this excited and this fired up every day. Every day he came in and proved us wrong, so he made believers out of us really quick.”
(On Pete Carroll’s involvement in L.A.)
“Just his involvement in the area of the gangs, and gang violence. I know there was a tremendous impact just in regards to his understanding. He’s a Northern California guy. Obviously they have their own issues up there. He spent the majority of his professional career out on the east coast. Obviously he came back for San Francisco but the majority of it was out on the east coast. He’s been on the outside looking in. You turn on the television you see the type of things that are happening in the inner city. He wanted to come in and have a positive impact there. Obviously for us—for those who are from the city or any inner city. That’s more of difference than the success that the Trojans have been able to have. It’s kind of the influence that he wanted to have in there. Trying to do everything he can to make a better L.A.—Have a great impact on his environment. Forget the winning and the losing. It’s about what you can do for people.”
(On how did Pete Carroll specifically bring change to L.A.)
“How did he specifically do it. He went down there and asked the right people the right questions. That’s what it’s about; communication. It’s about knowing who to talk to, about having the opportunity to talk to. It’s about getting all the people in the right room and having the discussion.”
