Quoting Chris Petersen on Jake Browning’s arm, Alabama’s run defense, trick plays and more
Huskies coach Chris Petersen met with reporters this afternoon for the final time before the Washington Huskies depart for Atlanta to face Alabama in a national semifinal. Here is everything Petersen said.
(How have preparations gone for the game?) “Really good. It’s certainly all football now with school being over. So the guys have been real focused and working really hard.”
(On having 29 days between games) “It can be hard because you lose your rhythm and practicing is not playing the game. That’s something we all have to deal with. We’re smart in the work that we’re getting and it’s a fine line of working hard and guys are improving. Young guys are getting good work. We’ll practice one more time before we give them some time to rest up.”
(How much of this period is also about the younger players?) “It’s all about the next game. We have had a lot of time so those guys have gotten some great extra work as well.”
(On preparing for a bigger media spotlight for this game) “I don’t know what you do to prepare for that. I don’t think it’s overwhelming. We have a lot of time being down there, which is a lot of time. By the end I know we all feel like, can we please just play this game and go home? But it’ll be great for those guys to experience this whole week, so we’re excited about that. And I already know by then it’ll be time to play.”
(By the last practice you expect to have your whole game plan in?) “Yeah. For sure. And then we go down there it’s get your mind right, get your legs right, polish up. They’ll be a whole lot of new stuff going in.”
(On Christmas plans) “It’s rest up, recharge, spend some good quality time with the family for a few days and then on Christmas Day we’ll travel back down there.”
(Can you completely escape what’s in front of you during that time?) “If you watch the tape I’m watching, there’s no way you’re escaping this. It’s on everybody’s mind, but that doesn’t mean we won’t have a few days with our family and appreciate and enjoy Christmas for sure.”
(On raising the 12 flag before the Seahawks game) “That was awesome. It was great. I really appreciate the Seahawks for allowing me to do that. It’s a great stadium. It’s so loud and the 12s are passionate and I think this area is so football-passionate, I love going anywhere where they are passionate about football, and that’s what’s really cool about us going back to this bowl game. There’s going to be a lot of passionate football people back there. That’s what this thing is all about.”
(You’re going to wear your neon jersey a bunch, right?) “I will when I’m at home and I’m watching them and rooting them on.”
(When they called to ask you, was it a no-brainer?) “No. It wasn’t. It was probably an automatic no, and then Coach Carroll was like, you recruit guys that’ll see this. I said, you’re kind of right. He knows. He thinks like a coach. And once I thought about it it was an awesome honor. It was great.”
(In some ways do you feel like you’re preparing for a road game?) “Yeah. There’s no question it’s a road game. I think the game we played last year, halfway across the country, it’s a road game. Certainly this one is. When we go into that stadium, it’s going to be three-quarters Alabama and a quarter Washington. So it’s a road game.”
(What’s the biggest challenge you see on film in terms of getting your passing game going?) “The biggest challenge is the 11 guys lined up over there. That’s the biggest challenge. They’ve just got really good players. But it’s good because it’s going to challenge us to play at our best. That’s how it should be at the end of the season. These kids have played well all season long and so they deserve this game and they are going to have to play at the highest level, which I think is what everyone wants to do anyways. So it’s a great opportunity.”
(Has the fact that Alabama is a heavy Vegas favorite added motivation?) “I think these guys have had that mentality anyways. You’ve got to play the game with and edge. It doesn’t really matter what everybody else thinks. It wouldn’t matter if they were saying we’re favorite, they’re favorite - it doesn’t matter. It just matters that we’re prepared and we go out and execute to the best we can do. That’s what matters. If you need motivation for this game, don’t get on this plane. Really? There’s enough of that out there.”
(On running into ex-Colorado defensive coordinator, now Oregon defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt the day after the Pac-12 title game) “I saw him, yeah.”
(On Leavitt mentioning preparing for trick plays) “We were just talking about preparing and those type of things. Yeah. I think everybody works on trick plays against us.”
(On report of Alabama ordering tape of every game Petersen has coached the last eight years to prepare for trick plays) “They’ve got the manpower to do it, so go do it. We’ll prepare the best we can, and whatever we think gives us the best chance to win, we’ll go.”
(On having reputation as running a bunch of trick plays. What do you make of that?) “Great. Go prepare for trick plays and do what you’ve got to do.”
(Is that what you like?) “I think there’s a lot of tape to look at this year. And if somebody wants to go back all those years, it’s a lot of research you’ve got to do. So you can take a couple different approaches: you don’t want anybody to see your stuff, or it’s like, go look at it all. This day and age, everybody’s going to look at it all.”
(On Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts) “Well, I think he’s done an unbelievable job, I hate to even say ‘as a freshman’ coming in, because he doesn’t really play like a freshman. But I still marvel at that, because I think one of his – from what I can tell, what I’ve seen – is just how calm he is. I think that’s always a really positive, important characteristic out of a quarterback. They just play the game. They don’t get too high, they don’t get too low. And I think that’s easier said than done, and certainly a lot harder as a freshman. That’s the first thing that jumps out. Then he’s this tremendous athlete that they do a great job of designing a system around the quarterback to make him successful.”
(On using past big-game experience to help prepare for this one) “Every game is different. But you always use everything you’ve been through, like, ‘hey, this was important.’ Either a positive or a negative. That’s what you’re trying to do. You can’t talk about everything. You’ve got to figure out the really important things, let the kids latch onto that and away we go.”
(On Jake Browning maybe being fatigued at the end of the season and getting some time to rest recently) “Oh, I think everybody’s tired. It’s just a lot of reps. You don’t think about your quarterback as much because everybody’s, like, wear and tear on your body. I do know how many balls he’s thrown. Every day, it’s charted. That’s a lot of footballs that are thrown, and we’re always trying to figure out, whether it’s GPS systems with our players that run, whether it’s explosive movements out of our quarterbacks, as well. It’s just a lot of, week in and week out, it’s just a lot. So it’s good to be able to let not only him, but a lot of our guys rest.”
(How does quarterback fatigue show up in a game?) “Guys get hit and they get beat up, let alone all the reps on your arm and all those type of things. So it’s always, I mean, Coach (Tim) Socha and I, we’re talking about that every day. We’re still trying to figure out how to maximize their freshness while still practicing hard and getting the reps you need. It’s not an easy case to crack. I think it’s more art than science right now even though we’re trying to bring as much science into it.”
(On Alabama’s rush defense) “It always starts with that front. Those D-linemen are stout. That’s what it is. It starts right there. It just comes back to having really, really good talent. It starts with that D-line and then one of the best, if not the best, linebackers in the country right behind them and a pretty good secondary. So that’s what it is. They play an elite defense and they’ve done it for a bunch of years, but they’re in a great rhythm and all those things. It’s nothing we haven’t seen, scheme-wise, but they’ve just got a lot of play-makers over there.”
(They’re allowing only about 2.0 yards per rush …) It’s never going to be any one thing. I don’t want to minimize their coaching — they have really good coaches as well. To have that much talent, I haven’t seen anyone have that much talent there across the board. There’s usually a guy or two in the front. They’ve just got really stout guys there in the front and they play like that every game.”
(What’s pregame for a game like this like? Bring in former players to fire up the team?) “I think it’s the exact opposite. If you need that for this type of game, you don’t need that. What we need to be able to do is calm down and have a chance to focus in and play our best. That’s the way we approach it at least.”
(How important is it for you this month to get the former players involved in the program?) “Not just this month, I want them to always feel apart of this, year-round. We’re playing right now, so they pay attention. And any time we get those guys over to be around, watch practice, say a few things, that’s always good. But it’s not just right now. It needs to be always.”
(What have these last few weeks meant for recruiting and the image of the program?) “I think it’s real good, real positive. And the trick is to keep playing at this level, and that’s how things slowly but surely change. It can’t be one game, one season. It’s got to be consistent. I think that’s why you see what you see at Alabama. It hasn’t been one year; it hasn’t been three years. It’s been since Coach Saban’s been there, and that’s how you create what they’ve got going there.”
(If I had told you three years ago when you came here that you’d be in this position, would you have bought that?) “Yeah. I don’t think anyone — you’re not going to leave somewhere that’s good and come to place unless you have this vision of what you think (it) can be. Whether we’re playing in this type of game, I don’t really think like that. I just think about getting really good people here and creating this environment where everyone can have a chance to get to their potential and they feel it and they’re growing — from coaches to players to everybody. And when it’s like that, you know really good things are going to happen. But when we were at Boise, it wasn’t like getting to a BCS game — it was never about that. And coming here it wasn’t, ‘Oh, we’ve got to get to the playoffs.’ It’s just about how you go about your business and you think you can create something really special because of the things that come with this place — from the university to the passionate fans to the facilities, all those things. That’s what I think it’s about.”
(With Jeff Tedford moving on to Fresno State, is that analyst position something you’ll look for every year? Or is it all about fit?) “All about fit. For sure. We have a bunch of guys who would probably like to come here and do that thing, but it’s really unique because, again, it’s not like coaching on the field. Everybody wants to do that. (The analyst is) not doing that. We have our system. So we don’t need a system. So it has to be somebody who’s tied in and done some (similar) things like us. It’s just really unique, and if that unique person’s there then we’ll see.”
(Do you have fun preparing for a game like this, or is it more stressful?) “It’s not more stressful. Every game that we prepare for is the same. But the bowl game experience is a lot different for the fans and family, and we try to make it a little bit different for the players as well — but not so much for the coaches. We’re going there to get a job done. If we’re going there for a bowl experience, that’s not how it is. I learned that a long time ago with Coach Tedford and some guys way back when. If you think you’re going there to enjoy the go-cart racing, you may show up (for the game), you may not. It depends on the work that has to be done. So as soon as you make that switch it actually makes it more enjoyable.”
(How many from the Petersen clan will be there for the game?) “We’ll have a good crew of family and friends. Hopefully I’ll get to say hi to them and we’ll see.”
(Regular road uniforms for this game?) “Yeah.”
This story was originally published December 21, 2016 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Quoting Chris Petersen on Jake Browning’s arm, Alabama’s run defense, trick plays and more."