It’s always interesting when coaches participate in conference calls with out-of-town media, because you never know what questions they’re going to get.
Arizona’s Rich Rodriguez was part of a such a call today with other Pac-12 football coaches, who discussed spring practice and other topics.
What did reporters outside the Tucson bubble ask Rodriguez? Here’s the complete Q&A:
(on the difference between Scooby Wright and Myles Jack)
“I don’t know exactly what all the projected rankings are. I’ve seen a couple mock drafts where they have Myles Jack projected to go very high, and understandably so: He’s a great athlete, and he’s certainly got the size-and-speed combination that a lot of teams will be interested in.
“I personally think Scooby, wherever he’s projected … he’s better than that. I think there’s maybe some questions because he didn’t play as much last year. But Myles Jack had some injury things too.
“Scooby, wherever he gets drafted, I think he’ll make a roster. I think he’ll end up being a starter and having a long and good NFL career. They’ll see that. There’s going to be a lot of value wherever they take him – early or late or mid-round. They’re going to get a lot of value when they take Scooby Wright.”
(on how the defense has taken to the new staff and schemes)
“We put some new schemes in, some new terminology. … Our biggest emphasis in spring practice was more fundamentally based on offense and defense. We did team periods, but not a lot of them. Probably the least amount of team periods that we’ve ever done in the spring. … So we got some base introductions to some of the new terminology, scheme-wise, but most of our emphasis this spring was on fundamentals.”
(on the timeframe for full defensive-scheme installation)
“We’ll start right away in camp, from Day 1. And we’ll continue with the fundamentals because there’s so many young guys that are going to be playing for us. But we’ll certainly have a plan, an installation plan, beginning with the first day of August practice.”
(on the satellite-camp-vote controversy involving Larry Scott and Dan Guerrero)
“I’ve got a take on, not so much what happened with Larry and Dan, but more so with the quick, sudden ban on satellite camps. Here we go again: A rule is passed without a whole lot of input from coaches and what our opinion is as a group. The sudden swiftness of an overturn or a new rule seems to come up every spring. Hopefully we’ll get that corrected in the future.”
(on whether freshman Khalil Tate will redshirt and continue to play QB)
“He’s definitely going to play quarterback. He was here in the spring and got a lot of valuable reps at quarterback and is learning. He’s certainly got a lot to learn. He’s a hard-working guy. He’s got a lot of talent. Really pleased with his progress.
“I don’t want to predict any redshirt things yet, even though for a quarterback, maybe an offensive lineman, it’s the hardest position to play early. But he’s talented enough that, depending on how he works in the summer and how quickly he learns in August, (we’ll be able to determine) whether he’ll contribute or not. But we’re definitely going to keep him at quarterback for the time being.”
