Quoting Chris Petersen on Jake Browning, Oregon State and more
Huskies coach Chris Petersen met with reporters for for about 14 minutes on Thursday ahead of Washington’s 3:30 p.m. Saturday game against Oregon State at Husky Stadium. Here is everything he said.
(On getting back into the groove this week) “We’ll see. Practice was fine. Now we’ve got to play a game. We’ll see if we are back into the rhythm we’ve been playing with.”
(Outdoors for practice today?) “Outdoors? Yup.”
(On wanting to see more weather during practice to prepare for it) “Yeah. I think so for sure. The chances of us playing in weather from here on out is probably better than playing in good weather. I think this is the first time in a long time we’ve been out in a little bit of weather so it was good.”
(What do you see from OSU’s pass defense?) “They have a variety of blitzes, so it always starts with getting pressure on the quarterback, which they do. They have some good secondary guys that cover tightly. And it’s working. They bring a bunch of different type pressures. The system is a really good system, they’ve used it for quite a while. Coach Andersen back at Utah State, and so we’ve seen this for a while. Their guys know what they’re doing and they play very hard.”
(Any qualities in this team that you saw in your great BSU teams?) “It always starts with good players. If you don’t have good players and they’re trying to do what you ask them to do, a lot of ‘em can’t do it. I think the one thing is, we have good players that have been playing hard, have been playing as a team. One or two or three or five guys can’t do it themselves. So we’ve been playing good team defense. On offense that’s even more so. It shows up more so in terms of, one guy on offense breaks down the whole offense looks bad. So I think these guys have been playing as a team and playing pretty hard.”
(Oregon State comes in pretty banged up. How have you guys been able to stay relatively healthy so far this year?) “I will say this: everybody’s banged up right now. That’s just the nature of the beast. I’m not worried about Oregon State, I’m worried about us. That’s why we have a bunch of guys, next guy’s gotta go. That’s how it goes from here on out. You see it every week, guys losing this guy, losing that guy. It’s similar for a lot of teams.”
(On John Ross surpassing expectations) “He hadn’t spent a ton of time at wide receiver so the first thing was getting him healthy, which he was in the spring. And continue that through the summer and the fall. Then he’s done a nice job with the details of the game and technique and that’s the thing that’s been really nice to see. He’s catching the ball well. You don’t know about those things, how fast a guy is going to progress there. I think we have high expectations for everybody, so it’s not like this has been surprising. This has been what we expect out of him and a lot of other guys as well.”
(On the point at which he felt a buy-in from the older players) “I mean it just takes time. You’ve just got to keep going over your stuff. It’s like putting a play in, or an offensive system. You can’t just say, OK, everybody good? It’s exactly the same thing. You have to live it and breathe it and understand why, and work through hard things. I can’t emphasize that enough. You can’t just show up and (say) this is how we’re going to do it. So it just takes time to work through that. There’s not any one thing. It’s just the guys working through what we’ve asked them to work through – practicing hard, lifting hard, figuring out how to become a better player. All those type of things. And that takes time. That’s what we’ve been talking about (since) way back when, and some of that’s starting to show up right now.”
(So there was no point of reckoning where you really felt they had bought in?) “Well, I felt all last season. There’s never one point, but I feel when you go through the process, that these guys keep working, are they backing down, are they heading off course, and we never felt that one time last season, no matter what we went through. So to me, if you can do that, which most can’t, eventually, you’re going to get where you need to be. I don’t think it’s any one thing. I think it’s just a process and a body of work of these kids continually each day just staying after it.”
(Dave ‘Softy’ Mahler missed the first minute or two while sitting in traffic and asks if the team responded well after the bye week) “We’ll find out. They practiced well. The games are different. That question was asked. That was the first question. We move on. If you’re on our team, we don’t even answer that question. But we’ll cut you a little slack. You good? (laughs).”
(On needing to get better despite being 6-0) “It’s just each guy building skill. Wouldn’t that be a shame if we’ve worked this hard and we have half of a season left and we’re the same team? So our guys understand that. But I will say this – it’s really hard for everybody to take the next step. We have guys that have played for a while and for those guys to kind of take the next step, that’s really hard to do and easy to say.”
(On things Jake Browning can improve on) “We want him to keep playing like he’s been playing. That’s a hard question because you’re talking about the most difficult position in all of sports. So does he have good pocket presence, is he throwing accurately, is he making good reads? Yes. Is it ever exactly how you want? No. It’s never going to be. So it’s just always continually work in progress and then we tweak gameplans and all those things, so that’s a new challenge for that position, and him as well.”
(On Browning’s poise and mental ability compared to other quarterbacks his age) “I think the really good players all have that. Whether you’re an old, wily vet in the NFL … the best of the best, it all starts with all the intangible things of what you’re talking about right there. a guy that’s going to play at a high level, you work backwards, and you’re going to say, OK, what are the things? Well, he’s got some skill, but he’s also got the mental makeup that’s going with it.”
(On the defensive line being overzealous at Arizona and preventing that) “I don’t want to say just the defensive line. I think it was guys really playing hard and all those things. We see that a lot of times in our young guys. They’ll get out there and, for lack of a better word – I don’t want to say trying too hard – but they’re so excited to play and so excited to make a play. Well, a lot of times, that’s not your play to make. You need to stay put and then make sure you see the ball, then you get the ball, and somebody else has to fit that gap. And so I think there was a little bit of that early on. The speed of the game was a little bit different with the running quarterbacks and all those type of things. So continual same message of play team ball.”
(I’m sure you’ve already been asked about Oregon State…) “He had too much time on his hands to think of a lot of questions (laughs).”
(In what ways is this team unique…) “Get it from him (laughs). These guys are doing a good job. I don’t know. We’ve still got a lot of ball to play. They’ve been focused. We have some good players. I just don’t want to talk about this thing like the season is done. We’ve still got half of a season to play, some really good ball left to play. …”
(I meant this Oregon State team. How are they unique?) “Well, every team is unique. And certainly I think you start on defense, completely unique blitz patterns. Really good system, because they do a lot of different stuff, and their kids aren’t messed up with it. A lot of times you see teams throw a lot of things at you, and they make plays, but you can also get ‘em because their guys are out of position and (the Beavers) usually never are. They’re playing hard. I think the last two games have been inspiring for Oregon State. I know the last game didn’t turn out how they wanted to, but they’re playing good ball. That’s what you want as a coach. Is your team improving? Are they playing right there, being super competitive? That’s all you can do as a coach, and that’s what they’re doing. It’ll be a nice challenge for us.”
(On Coleman Shelton) “Coleman’s one of those unsung heroes in there that you don’t (talk about) — certainly, all those offensive linemen and him directing all the traffic at center. He’s really competitive, he’s a tough guy — all the things you really want with the anchor in that O-line. We’re really pleased with him. Not only snapping — people sometimes take that for granted. Sometimes that snap might be a little off and it really hurts the whole rhythm of the play, and you haven’t seen that very much. So he’s usually got a big-‘ol nose guard breathing on him who hasn’t brushed his teeth and all those kinds of things, and then you get a guy who can bench-press the whole and knock him back, and Coleman hasn’t flinched and we’re proud of him.”
(On giving Browning more responsibility/freedom presnap) “I think he’s handled it great. I think he’s handled it really, really well. I think we have to keep fighting the ball of not putting too much (on him) and not assuming too much. Because he has a lot on his plate. He’s done a very good job with it.”
(How much has that changed your offense) “I think you always evolve on all three phases (based) on what your guys can do and play to their strengths, and I think that’s what our coaches have done a good job with. So it is significantly different than it was last year. A lot of teams just run play and they’re going to run them and hope that they have you in the right defense. And if they do, it’s going to work good. If not, well, sometimes that’s not a good play. We’ve tried to get away from as much of that as we can to see the look. And if we like it, we go; if not, he’ll change it.”
(Browning had said on Gaskin’s 65-yard TD run vs. Oregon he was supposed to check out of the run based on Oregon’s defensive look) “No. 1 coaching principle is it’s better to be lucky than good. (Smiles.) So you start from there. It’s not going to all be perfect and you see a lot of times into stuff and you think, This shouldn’t be good. But guys still have to execute on both sides, and if they don’t you’re going to hit ’em. So it’s a cat-and-mouse game all the time, and it’s hard to be right all the time. And even when you are right, you’ve still got to execute that. It doesn’t mean the play’s going to be wide open.”
(On midseason All-America/awards recognition for some guys — how have they handled?) “I don’t really know — they don’t say anything to me about it. So I hope they’re handling it pretty good. That’s how it should be. If our guys have played well up to this point, then you get recognized.”
(Trey Adams was one of those guys getting some attention — what have you seen from him?) “Trey works his tail off at practice, that’s probably the No. 1 thing I see, how hard he works out there. He’s there every day and works hard. And slowly but surely, you see the benefits of that. I say that with the whole O-line — we’ve talked about Coleman, but across the board those kids work very, very hard there, and that’s a hard, physical position. There’s no going out there: ‘This is kind of a light practice.’ The O-line never has a light practice with all they have to do. So he works hard and it’s starting to show up.”
(Any words of wisdom for Lavon Coleman, an expectant father?) “I give Lavon lots of words of wisdom and encouragement about a lot of things. We talk about all kinds of stuff — not just with him but our team. He’s done a nice job. You like to watch guys mature through this whole thing from when they first get here to where they are now, and I think when guys are doing a good job with their life it shows up on the football field, and I think he’s as on-it since we’ve been here. So we’re excited for him.”
This story was originally published October 20, 2016 at 11:28 AM with the headline "Quoting Chris Petersen on Jake Browning, Oregon State and more."