Adam Gase – December 29, 2016
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Thursday, December 29, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(What is the value of the big plays you’ve gotten this year and is it something … Have we seen enough after 15 games that it’s clearly sustainable?) – “Every game takes a little bit of life of its own when explosive plays are available, throws down the field, you try to take them. But every game is different. Every team plays different coverages, so sometimes it’s not available to push the ball down the field. The run game is really about effort and attitude and guys doing a good job of finishing blocks and letting our runners get to that second level.”
(How is QB Ryan Tannehill helping his teammates? We saw him out there today?) – “He’s doing a good job as far as using his information that his experience in the offense, when you’re a quarterback, you’re usually ahead of the curve on most things. He’s got a lot of opportunity to watch probably more film than what he normally has. He’s doing a good job of coaching those guys on the field any time somebody makes a mistake. He can help them and just having basically another coach on the field.”
(How much has he thrown the ball?) – “He throws it a little bit but he doesn’t really … He can’t … He’s not moving, so he’s just out there keeping his arm loose.”
(Any update on timetable? Anything?) – “I haven’t asked.”
(What factors … I really want to get it right. What factors will go into the decision about if and when Tannehill plays again this season?) – “When I feel comfortable with what the doctors are telling me that we’re not going to have any kind of injury that could prevent him from hurting his career or hurting his chances to play next year. So we’re going to be very, very smart.”
(Can you help me explain your team’s defensive statistics? I asked Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph about this, yards allowed, yards rushing per play, some of those things I’m sure you’re not happy with and yet bottom line numbers: points allowed is really good and 10 wins is really good. What’s your explanation on what’s happening?) – “The things I look at on both sides of the ball, this has been are discussion is points, red area efficiency and third down efficiency, and that’s really what we’ve been focusing on. We’re not worried about … Every game is so different and there are different ways to win games and you play for that week. I’ve been on teams where we’re No. 1 in every category and we came in second. Nobody cared.”
(So do you think you’ve made up the difference in some ways in the red zone and on third down?) – “Usually that’s where it happens and the thing is, somebody is making a play when we need it most. We were having a rough week last week and guys made a play at the right time. We held them to a field goal attempt. We got a negative play at the right time, made it a little harder, missed a field goal then we had a chance to go win the game. There have been a lot of games … The L.A. game is a prime example. We were awful for 54 minutes. You guys don’t have to shake your head confirming that. (laughter) We were bad and we clicked at the right time and our defense did a great job just keeping us in the game and fighting and we score and then they just kept doing what they were doing the whole game. We stop them again; we score again. It’s whatever you need to do to win that game.”
(I know when you’ve been asked elsewhere about the influence Nick Saban has had in the seven years you spent with him. You mentioned, obviously, to stick with the process, do it right often enough and you’ll get the results you want. Can you think of any other examples where what you learned from him has specifically impacted how you do your job?) – “I think his organizational skills, as far as keeping people on track and making sure everybody’s doing their job, he was really good with that. When you’re a GA in college, sometimes you don’t think the head coach knows what you do and he knew what everybody did. He knew everybody’s role and if you got off track, he reminded you of what you needed to be doing. That’s something I always found very impressive because you don’t think a guy in that position who’s really running a major program would know every little detail (about) what everybody does but he found a way to know what everybody’s doing, what their job was and if they got out of line, he made sure you got back in line real quick.”
(That seems how you are too in terms of knowing every detail just from our impressions of you.) – “I think he was special in that area. I’ve got a ways to go on a lot of things. When you’re learning on the fly on some things, where you’ve never experienced it before, and you do everything you can and try to follow the lead of the guys that you’ve been around. I’ve been lucky enough to be around some veteran head coaches, some young head coaches to where you see mistakes or you see things where guys have to correct things and you just try to take from all those learning experiences. And then you have to go through some things and learn the hard way sometimes.”
(One last thing. Have you guys talked this year? Both of you are busy obviously.) – “No. I never bother him. If he needs something from me, he’ll call me, and it’s vice versa; but during the season it’s hard to communicate to anybody.”
(What’s the most difficult thing about being a head coach that you didn’t expect?) – “I don’t know if I didn’t expect it, but just time management – making sure you’re efficient. There are so many unexpected things that will come up when you’re just … Doing this every day for 15 minutes. The time adds up every week because it’s just 15 minutes that you’re not used to dealing with and you just have to get into the flow of what you do and try to maintain your schedule as much as possible. You’re always going to have some bump in the road every day. Something’s going to come up that you weren’t expecting. You have to adjust. It’s just that everybody is kind of waiting on you to do your part, so they can do their part and you don’t want to hold everybody up because you had to do something that kind of was off schedule.”
(Are you good at time management or are you learning how to be good?) – “Sometimes. Some days I’m better than others. It’s the consistent battle of trying to stay on track and then being able to adjust and regroup and get things done at an efficient rate.”
(If LB Spencer Paysinger cannot play, what do you do in the nickel package? I mean what are your options there considering the linebacker unit’s relatively thin?) – “If something like that happened, we would always have those contingency plans and we’ve got to mix them up as far as who goes in there. We’re consistently working on different guys in those spots because … I mean we’re always one snap away. We always have to have a plan. It’s just one of those things until that really kind of appears, I’d rather not talk about it. But we’re always … it’s the same thing with the offensive line. We rep so many guys at so many different positions that if something happened, we have a plan to at least to go to. Is it ideal? No. But you have to be ready for it.”
(With the Bills WR Sammy Watkins game last week. What do you think the secondary learned from that experience?) – “That when a guy’s really fast, get back. (laughter) That would be the biggest thing. You have to understand who you’re going against and every week’s different. You’re going to play different styles of receivers. You have to be able to adjust. Every week, it’s not going to be the same. Going against a guy like Brandon Marshall, it’s going to be different when you go against Sammy (Watkins). You have to know that. That’s why the film study is so important. That’s why when the coaches are telling you how to do certain things, you have to listen to what they’re saying. And then when you get out there on game day, you can’t be surprised when all of a sudden the guy is running sub 4.3 (second 40-yard dash), maybe under. That’s one of the things sometimes when we’re young and we do things that you all think why would you do that? That’s part of the learning process. We have to learn quick.”
(With some of those plays that you guys were in zone, he got behind the zone. How does that happen?) – “Every coverage has different rules and sometimes you get caught in a certain coverage where you kind of have multiple responsibilities. You always hear people say, ‘Well he took the cheese on that, why would he do that? That’s what happens sometimes. When you get the right call versus the right coverage, sometimes it’s tough on the players and it really becomes a schematic thing and guys are doing what they’re supposed to do and they have a good play call.”
(Was CB Xavien Howard supposed to match that pattern on the 53-yard play there?) – “Yes, I think he would have been better … It would have been better off for him if he would have just kept back a little more than what he did.”
(What is the long-term prognosis for S Isa Abdul-Quddus health?) – “We haven’t really gotten into all that quite yet. The first move was put him onto IR and then sometimes it takes a little bit for all the little details to come out of timetables and those types of things. Once a guy goes on IR, we have a little more … They have a little more time to bring me things like that because they know there’s nothing I can do about it right now. They’re going through their process down there right now in the training room and the doctors will get with me probably at the end of the week and let me know where everybody is at.”
(You’ve had QB Dan Marino in your meeting rooms and everything. What does he bring? What’s his role?) – “He’s there; he’s a good sounding board, especially for the quarterbacks. I’ve always enjoyed talking to him because he has a great perspective of anything we’ve ever discussed. I’ve always liked watching film with him and getting his two cents on things. It’s interesting how football has evolved so much since he’s played and he kind of explained to me how guys used to play compared to how they play it now. He’s seen so much football over his time and he always gives the quarterbacks a piece of advice that seems so small at the time. It’s a big deal because it’s the way he saw it, and the way he saw things was special. He’s always trying to help those guys and he doesn’t … You almost have to ask him though. You have to ask him what he would think or how he would see it because he won’t just … He’s not overbearing in that way. He’s almost reserved and he waits for you to come to him.”
(Anything specific, an example of something he said?) – “Well I know if that seam route is even close to being open, he’ll just say bang that in there. (laughter) As a coach, you’re always kind of like, ‘Ah, Dan. You could do that…’” (laughter)
(The year that DT Ndamukong Suh has had, could you talk about that please?) – “I haven’t been around any defensive tackles that have had the kind of impact he’s had. Being able to do a lot of things with controlling the front and stunts that they do and the rush games and how impactful he is. He’s really sacrificed himself to help other guys pop free and get sacks. When that fourth quarter hits, you know he’s going to make a play somewhere and the consistency every week is probably as rare as it can get. I don’t think I’ve ever really seen a player that just always is the same but at a high level. Every week we win, I feel like every week he gets a game ball. It’s really been impressive to watch a player that plays the position he does and how impactful he is and how disruptive he is. He changes the way you have to do protections. He changes the way you have to block the running game. When he gets a one-on-one block – it’s rare now – he’s going to win.”
(You’re in an unusual situation this weekend in that, you could play New England in two weeks again. Does the mean anything? Does that impact anything?) – “I think for us we need to focus on this game. We have to do everything we can to compete in this game and get to that fourth quarter and keep it tight and then try to do what we’ve been doing all year. The guys have done a good job of battling and then the fourth quarter, just try to find a way to put ourselves in position and whether it be score a touchdown at the end or kick a field goal or stop them on defense, we’re looking to find a way to win one game.”
(How does the speed of LB Neville Hewitt, how has that impacted the defense?) – “I think his improvement throughout the season, the opportunities that he’s had, he’s made the most of them. He seems to make that negative play at the right time. Most of his plays are very impactful. He’s very disruptive. He plays at one speed and it is 100 miles per hour all the time. When he makes a mistake, it’s full speed, and that’s all you ask your players to do. Go as hard and fast as you can and if you screw up, then we’ll fix it later. But he gives you everything he has from the time we step into that stadium until the time we leave.”
(How many War Daddy shirts do you give out per week?) – “It’s different every week. It’s after a win and it just depends. Each phase is able to handle them out. It’s something that (Head) Coach (John) Fox did when I was in Denver and Chicago and something that we brought down here. I always thought it was a great thing that he did for the players and players like it; but we had to do to different tiers because Cam (Wake) was getting too many of the same shirts, so we felt like there needs to be separation of when you get so many.”
(So is there a different level higher than War Daddy?) – “No, it’s the same thing. It’s just different color shirts. Now we have hoodies. Our fashion expert, Cam Wake, is in charge of that.”
(So there’s a War Daddy hoodie now?) – “Yes.”
(That’s the highest level of fashion?) – “That’s what they told me, the highest level right now.”
(Had you met former Dolphins WR Paul Warfield before?) – “I had not. I had not. That was my first time. I had heard a lot. (Senior Vice President, Special Projects and Alumni Relations) Nat (Moore) would always tell me stories…”
(Before your time right?) – “A little bit. (laughter) Nat (Moore) always, he educates me about so many things that’s happened in the past and it’s a neat thing for me when I get to meet so many of these guys. When he introduced me to Larry Csonka, I remember seeing a lot of those NFL Films things growing up, so a lot of these guys … It’s been great to meet these guys and how much passion they have for the organization. It’s pretty cool to see those guys still pay attention to what we’re doing. They want us to win.”
(Did former Dolphins WR Paul Warfield talk to the players?) – “He stopped by the individual groups. He hit a couple of groups. I remember when he was talking to the DBs, which was good. I know he was over there talking to the wide outs. So he was kind of moving around and talking to individual guys too.”
