Eric Studesville – August 9, 2021
Monday, August 9, 2021
Co-Offensive Coordinator/Running Backs Eric Studesville
(So how is the co-coordinator situation working out so far?) – “It’s been good. George (Godsey) and I get along great and working with him has been fun and interesting. We’ve got a lot of challenges and a lot of work to do but it’s been good.”
(Have you by any chance talked to any other football coaches who have been in a co-coordinator situation before?) – “No. I think George (Godsey) and I have spent a lot of time talking about it. We’ve worked with each other for the last couple of years. We’re going to figure out what works best for us and not how somebody else does it. Just communicating with each other is how we’re going to do it.”
(So the burning question is whose voice will QB Tua Tagovailoa hear on the headset?) – “I’m not sure about that one yet. We’re still working on that. We’ve got a plan for it but we just don’t want to talk about it yet.”
(Is there a competitive advantage to not revealing it, I wonder?) – “Potentially there’s a competitive advantage if you know any information, right?”
(Yeah, I suppose. Earlier this spring, RB Myles Gaskin was talking about the playbook and he talked about how different and how many changes were made – in generalities. He described it as a very different playbook. When you and Co-Offensive Coordinator/Tight Ends sat down to put together a playbook, what was your main objective other than the obvious of scoring points? What were some of the things you really emphasized that you wanted to do?) – “I think you want to have enough flexibility and diversity that you can utilize different things for different skillsets in your players. Our first thought when we’re game planning is how can we put our best players in position to make plays? So you have to have a variety of plays and schemes in the run game, blocking schemes on the offensive line, protection schemes to do different things to protect the quarterback; so you have to have a diverse set of activities all grouped together. Then from there, once you start getting your players in and you figure out who does what well and what do we like and what are we comfortable with, what fits into what we want to do in our scheme, then you start drawing from those things. But you have to have a big encyclopedia, if you will, at the beginning of it.”
(How much thought was given to opening up the offense and stretching the field and all of that?) – “Well, a lot of it because (you want) to score points. We want to have explosive plays and we want to create explosive plays. But at the end of the day too, we’re thinking about running the ball in effective times when we have to do that. We’re thinking about throwing the ball in effective times when we have to do that. So explosiveness, that’s all part of the equation.”
(Seeing RB Myles Gaskin and RB Salvon Ahmed and the other backs in the passing game, the other day Head Coach Brian Flores mentioned that you guys will also kind of jump from room to room, that it’s more of a collaborative process. I’m wondering with the players – receivers, tight ends and backs – how much do they spend kind of learning the entire grasp of the offense in the sense of like your running backs, are they spending time with the receivers and learning that aspect of the game? Does that translate over?) – “More so probably with the running backs with the offensive line. We watch different periods of practice where we go in with the offensive line and watch them. We’ll have periods of practice that we watch with the quarterbacks, the tight ends, the offensive line and the running backs all grouped together. So we call them ‘pods’ if you will, different things that we get together. Then we’ll watch it and then we’ll split up. So we don’t watch the whole practice like that, but we watch segments that relate to a given topic that that group is involved in.”
(Do you find that kind of encourages more communication between a guy like the running backs and the offensive line? How do they kind of interact?) – “I think it does increase the communication. I also think it increases the knowledge of what we’re trying to get out of a particular run, protection or whatever because not only are the players talking to each other but they’re hearing the coaches making – the offensive line is hearing what I’m telling the running backs. ‘Hey, this is why you have to do that. This is why we want you to do that.’ So I think that’s beneficial for everybody.”
(Do you think that’s unique to this coaching staff?) – “No. We’ve done that – I’ve done that in past other places I’ve been. When you can do it, it is beneficial.”
(The biggest area of improvement in the offense that you’ve seen through the first whatever days of training camp, where would that be?) – “I don’t know if there’s one area. I think the offensive line is doing a great job. We’ve had some really good days where we’ve run the ball effectively. The defense has gotten after us a couple of days too. I think my group, the running backs, those guys come on and they’ve worked hard. They’ve done a lot of good things. I thought they’ve run the ball hard, I thought they’ve protected well so far in camp. They’ve caught the ball well running routes. I think our wide outs are explosive. I don’t know that there’s one area – our tight ends, I like our tight end group and what we’re doing there. I think we have blockers in there; we have receivers in there. I like where we’re going. I’m not far enough along on this to say that this group has made the biggest improvement. I think everyone out here is trying to keep moving forward and improve.”
(Speaking of the tight end group, I have to ask you about TE Hunter Long. What can you tell me about him?) – “I think Hunter is coming out and he’s worked hard. He’s getting better every day. I think he’s going to be – the sky is the limit for him; but he gets better every day and he’s finding out what the NFL is all about. He’s going to fit right in, in time.”
(Is TE Hunter Long going to be able to work this week in Chicago?) – “I don’t know. I don’t know that yet. I don’t think we’ve determined that yet.”
(TE Hunter Long seems like a guy with a lot of promise.) – “He’s a great young man and he’s passionate about it. He’s tough. He’s trying to be physical. I think it’s going to work out fine if he just keeps working.”
(How is T Liam Eichenberg coming along?) – “Liam is doing a nice job inside. We’re excited about him and what he’s brought. Again, another young guy that works hard, that’s passionate about it, that’s competitive and that wants to be good and doing whatever he can.”
(WR Will Fuller is a guy who has not been able to work as much as CB Xavien Howard and the other guys, to put it that way. How far behind is he and when might we see him?) – “Yeah, I don’t know when we’ll see him. We’ll see him when he’s healthy – when he’s healthy enough to be back out there. We kind of just keep moving and we get them back when we get them back. I know Will is doing everything he can to get back on the field. But as far as being behind, he’s in meetings. He’s getting all of the things – the information. He’s a veteran player so he’s done a lot of these things. It’s not so much a matter of what it is, it’s what we call it. He’ll pick it up just fine.”
(Is it more pressing when a guy like WR Preston Williams, for example, who is not as seasoned as WR Will Fuller is?) – “It’s pressing for all of them because there’s urgency in what we do. But we’ll get them when we get them and they’ll get it at the pace they get it and demonstrate what they can do. That’s what we’ll use – whatever they can do well, that’s what we’ll do with them.”
(For you, two weeks out here, what stand out to you most about the offense and what you’ve seen?) – “I think how hard they work. This group has come – they came back in good shape and they came to work. It’s competitive out here every day. They fly around, they get after each other and once we got the pads on, that continued. It’s good to see those first four days of pads and I’m looking forward to continuing as we go next week into Chicago.”
(Where are you guys, I guess, on the install? This new offense – I know you’ve had some OTAs but in camp and pads, do you feel comfortable with where you’re at?) – “Yeah, we’ve got most everything in. There’s still some outlier things kind of hanging out there but we’ll get those in. But the core of what we want to do and what we have the ability to be flexible with is already in. We’re just going to keep tweaking that and trying to find out what our guys do best with what kind of plays, what kind of routes, what kind of protections and then we’ll do those things.”
(Where are you I guess with Co-Offensive Coordinator/Tight Ends George Godsey? This is a new experience. How have you all learned each other in these new roles?) – “I think it’s been good. We have a lot of open communication. We talk the first thing every morning and multiple times throughout the day. Then one of the last conversations I have at night is seeing him before we leave. We’re always talking about things. We’re sharing things about what we see and what we think about things. But it’s not just me and George (Godsey). It’s a collaborative effort with the whole staff. I mean we need everybody on the staff. ‘Lem’ (Lemuel Jeanpierre) is involved in that, Charlie (Frye) is involved in that, ‘Grizz’ (Josh Grizzard) is involved in that. It’s truly a group effort, a cooperative effort, for one goal.”
(Obviously collaboration is important but at some point, you’ve got to know where your focus is, where his focus is. Do you feel like you guys have a good understanding of that going into a game week or going into a practice week?) – “Yeah, because I think the communication is there.”
(What do you hope to see in this first preseason game? I know it’s a week away, but just kind of this week, the joint practices leading up to the game? What’s the number one thing you’re looking for?) – “The number one thing I’m looking for is competitiveness, effort and then trying to do the things that we’re teaching. That’s the main things we want to come out of this game with. It’s the first time in pads, it’s going to be against somebody else. Now we’ll get a little bit of a prelim because we’re practicing against them, but we want to see their competitive nature. We want to see them try to execute the things that we want done – the techniques, game speed, game spots, all of those things.”
(You were talking about your relationship with you and Co-Offensive Coordinator/Tight Ends George Godsey. You were working together and now you’re Co-OCs, but this past week you were the one OC. What was that like and what did you learn from that experience…?) – “Everything is a new learning experience so there are a lot of things going on during that week. But again, it’s a collaborative effort with the whole staff. The staff picked up and we all did things together and everybody picked up a little bit more. Then when George came back, we picked up right where we left off and he slid in seamlessly. That’s what this is. It’s a group effort. Everything that we do is a group effort. It’s not just on one person.”
(While not divulging what was said in this meeting, I was curious about this – did you, Co-Offensive Coordinator/Tight Ends George Godsey and Head Coach Brian Flores have a meeting at any point over the last few months, just the three of you, where you discussed how this is going to work with co-offensive coordinators, to sort that out?) – “We’ve had lots of meetings. We talk all the time about things so the three of us are in meetings, yeah. We talk about lots of different things but not necessarily specifically about the games yet and how we want to do this. We’ve got so much other work to do right now. We’ve got to get this team ready and get the playbook in and get techniques and fundamentals done and get all of those things that we’re working on out here. We’ll get to the rest of it in time.”
(I wanted to ask you about RB Myles Gaskin. He asked to us about two weeks ago now about how his biggest goal is to just be available and be healthy for his team. How have you seen him kind of change things in his lifestyle and his rehab and his day-to-day to just stay healthy?) – “I think Myles is awesome. I do. I think he’s awesome.”
(RB Myles Gaskin thinks your awesome.) – “Well, I appreciate him saying that. (laughter) Because I love who he is and how he comes to work and doing everything. He’s so passionate about this. I hated him getting hurt last year. It was such a freak deal – the last play of the game, he gets hit on the side of the knee and who knows what happens if that doesn’t happen. But it did. What I think Myles learned from that is to not take anything for granted. Every day is precious and you only get the one opportunity of that day and make the most of it and I think that’s what he does every day. He walks in this building and he gives you everything he has the entire day. That’s why it is fun to coach a guy like that because you know he’s not holding anything back and he just wants to do great.”
(What’s RB Malcolm Brown been like to work with?) – “Yeah, Malcolm has been great in the room. He’s a little bit of an older guy because it’s a relatively young room. He’s brought leadership. I like who he is physically that I’ve seen so far, and what we’re doing in the run game and in pass protection. I think he’s a great addition to what we’re trying to do.”
(Since you’re working more closely with QB Tua Tagovailoa now, I wanted to ask you what strides you have seen that he’s made in any aspect of his game?) – “I think he just continues to improve in every area, like hopefully all of the players are doing. We want them all to continue to improve and not to be the same version they were last year. I think he’s put in work not only physically but on the mental side of the game too, learning more and doing more, seeing more on the field. I think he continues to improve and he will improve even more.”
