Eric Studesville – September 3, 2019
Download PDF version
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Running Backs Coach Eric Studesville
(You have got six running backs under you – I understand FB Chandler Cox is kind of a little bit different as a fullback – but how difficult is it for you to manage five guys and mold them to the best of their abilities?) – “It’s not. Especially when you have five guys that come to work every day and are passionate about what they do. It is easy. Everyone that I have in my room, I love having them in my room. They are all talented in their own ways. They all want to be good. That part of it is easy. Getting them to work isn’t hard at all.”
(Based on what you saw in the preseason, were you thinking that these guys are just too good to let go?) – “No, I don’t think we ever do that. You are always trying to – you want to see what they can do more and more and so you want to expose them to doing more and see what it is. We always evaluate the waiver wire and things of that nature to see if there are other guys out there. But I felt like this group of guys just did a great job. I thought Kalen (Ballage) played well and (Kenyan) Drake played well before his foot (injury) in Tampa. Those two guys kind of just picked up where they left off last year. Mark Walton came in did a nice job and I thought Patrick Laird and Myles Gaskin did a great job. I thought Kenneth Farrow did a good job too before we just had to make decisions, but I think Patrick and Myles also did a really nice job and flashed and did some things. We just see that we’ve got smart guys who are trying to do everything the right way which is what we are talking about here and we’ve got tough, smart guys that are buying into what we are trying to do. Keeping those people in your system is what you want.”
(RB Patrick Laird is the one guy that was not a draft pick. Did he come as a surprise you or did you guys kind of know?) – “I hope all the guys are a surprise because if they get an opportunity, I hope they maximize the opportunity. So you want every guy to be a surprise. I try to judge those guys when I get them here and not by where they are drafted. Fred Jackson, C.J. Anderson, Shawn Williams, Juwan Thompson – I have had a lot of guys that I have been around over the years that maybe weren’t drafted in a certain place, this or that; but they took advantage of the opportunity. I think that is what the most important thing is. Wherever these guys start, that they take advantage of the opportunity that is in front of them. It doesn’t matter how they got here, they are here now.”
(How would you describe FB Chandler Cox as a blocker?) – “The one thing that we have seen from Chandler so far this fall is that he is aggressive in attacking and he hasn’t turned anything down yet. There are big guys – I think there is always an adjustment coming to this level, particularly with the things he did at Auburn. We are asking him to do some different things from the fullback spot that he did at Auburn, but is embracing that. He is working at it and getting better at it all the time. The one thing that if they don’t bite when they’re pups, they are not going to bite – and he will at least go attack guys and be physical and that is a bonus for him and for us.”
(I told FB Chandler Cox he’s like seeking extra guys to block.) – “That is kind of the job description there. If you are not one of those guys seeking out contact and looking for it, it is probably not going to work out.”
(I know that obviously you are in the room and your position group has clearly been discussed and I know this goes to General Manager Chris Grier and Head Coach Brian Flores’ level, but can you give us any insight as to why there were five backs plus FB Chandler Cox, six, kept – that is a lot in this position.) – “Again, I think the preface is correct in that it is upstairs, but we felt like these guys are the kind of young players, and players that we want on our team and in our organization. They did a great job with everything we asked them to do in the fall. The reality is that you need guys. There are very few teams that just have one back anymore. So, you are going to need more than one of them at some point in time. Sometimes two or three and you know last year we used a bunch of guys between Brandon Bolden and Frank (Gore) and Kalen (Ballage) and Kenyan (Drake). There’s four of them right there and we could have easily some Senorise Perry too last year. So, I think you have to have those guys in your system that know how to operate, what to do, what the expectations are and we have a lot of those guys here. I think that is a good think. I think that is a bonus for us.”
(Not asking you to reveal too much but just a general thing – was there a sense you think among you, General Manager Chris Grier, and Head Coach Brian Flores that if RB Myles Gaskin or RB Patrick Laird were released because of what they showed preseason and in college tape, that you think they could have been picked up elsewhere?) – “I’d like to think they would because I thought they did a really great job this preseason. I’d like to think they would have had an opportunity somewhere else. I coach them as hard as I can for us, but I always hope that ultimately if it is not us, then they get an opportunity somewhere else and they are prepared to do that. I like optimistically to think they would have a chance to do something somewhere else.”
(What did RB Patrick Laird show you?) – “I think what Patrick did was consistency. I think he ran the ball tougher than I probably thought he was going to coming out of college. He is incredibly intelligent. He works hard at this. He has picked up our system. He and Myles have really been a tag team with each other teaching and learning from each other, so I just think he made the most of his opportunities and he really showed up and did some really nice things.”
(Do you expect playing time with RB Kenyan Drake and RB Kalen Ballage to be comparable?) – “I don’t know how that is going to go yet. I really don’t. I don’t have a definitive answer for you. I think what we have to do is put those guys out and put them in positions to be successful and then figure out what is best for us and what is going to give us the best chance to win and compete every week. I don’t know what that is going to be. I don’t know how that plays out yet. I think when you do that, you pigeonhole yourself into making a commitment to that. Sometimes you have to be flexible and have the ability to adapt and adjust and how are we going to do it? I think that is what is best for us. We are going to use both of them in whatever ways we possibly can because they both are dynamic players.”
(Do you know who is starting? I know you wouldn’t share it but do you know and you can’t say or you haven’t determined it yet?) – “I have no idea. We are still putting the game plan together and I don’t know how all that goes. I really don’t. I haven’t got that in my mind and we haven’t even talked about it. That is not even a conversation we have had.”
(RB Mark Walton, he seemed to run the ball hard in the fourth preseason game. Had you been concerned about the low per carry average before then in terms of him not finding holes or had you felt he had always been running or doing what he needed?) – “I try to make sure that I judge guys from when I get them to what I see now. What they did before then is what they did.”
(I meant in the first three preseason games.) – “I think Mark (Walton) ran the ball hard in practice. I think he ran the ball tough, in the right spots in the preseason. So, no I don’t have any concerns about him carrying the football at all.”
