Alec Ingold – September 2, 2024
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Monday, September 2, 2024
FB Alec Ingold
(Second year in a row where you’ve been selected a team captain. Could you talk about the significance of that for you?) – “I think it’s never why you lead or why you want to be a voice in the locker room – a lot of guys lead a lot of different ways, but when your peers nominate you for the work that you put in, from OTAs to training camp and saying, ‘We trust these guys to lead us through all the good times, all the bad times, all the hard times.’ It’s a lot of responsibility, probably the greatest honor you can have in this league. Really excited for Zach Sieler. He’s been leading for a long time now, right? Leading by example, doing it in his own way, and for him to get that nod this year, I was just so happy for him. It’s extremely validating for the way he works, the way he shows up, he’s beating dang near everybody in the parking lot pretty much on a daily basis. For him to get that nod, it was really cool.”
(How do you describe your leadership?) – “I think it’s evolving. I think it’s dynamic, it’s whatever is being asked. I think you start with leading by example and working your tail off, and then I love the hard stuff. I love the adversity. I love the toughness of this game. I think that’s what brings teams together. I think that’s what wins championships at the end of the day, is overcoming the adversity of a season and coming out that side stronger, closer together, more bonded. I think that’s where I’m always aspiring to lead through is those tough times.”
(WR Tyreek Hill said this is the most talented team he’s been a part of here with the Dolphins, do you agree?) – “Yeah, 100 percent. I mean top down, I think you have playmakers and it’s going to expose new challenges that we have to deal with as a team. All of this explosiveness, all of this talent, how can we come together? And I think that’s going to be the journey of our team is how we can lean on one another, how we can be accountable to one another because we don’t need one single person to carry this load. We got a lot of guys on both sides of the ball that can do that when their number is called. It’s about being patient, it’s about making the plays that come to you when your number is called, so I think that’s what’s going to be most exciting about this year, seeing so many different, talented guys step up at different points.”
(My issue is third-and-short conversions.) – “Yeah, it’s my issue too man. (laughter) It’s my issue too.”
(My thought process is that a fullback is primarily supposed to help you deliver those third-and-short situations. So how come you’re never getting the ball or rarely on the field in those situations?) – “Yeah, I think that’s really on me. I have to inspire the play callers to be able to call that and dial it up. When an offense is running the ball, everyone can feel it, right? It’s inevitable. You’re getting three, four yards. Everyone is falling forward. Everyone is moving these chains. When you have a line in the sand and it’s second-and-short, you’re not falling down at third-and-one, you’re falling forward and getting those yards and that inspires the play call, that inspires the formations, that inspires the play type to be drawn up. And I think that’s a lot of onus on myself, the big guys up front to say, ‘When those numbers are called, we can inspire the team, the guys in the huddle, the play callers from the first snap.’ It doesn’t have to be the third-and-one in the middle of the third quarter to say, ‘OK, now let’s go get it.’ That’s a mindset that builds throughout the game, so I think that’s something we’re all working towards and especially myself. Yeah, let’s inspire the play callers. Let’s inspire the guys so that when we’re running the ball, we don’t have to look anywhere else. We don’t have to do anything fancy. We can lean on guys. We can play smart, physical, elite technique football. That’s what we say, now we got to go out and execute.”
(You guys are an outside zone running team. I love the outside zone, it’s one of my favorite schemes, concepts and you guys are successful at it. But when things are constricted into those short yardage situations, is that what the problem is? That you are more of a movement line as opposed to a power line?) – “That’s a good question. I mean when you get to the Xs and Os of it and the concept of outside zone versus inside zone or gap scheme, I think it really is if you’re running off the ball and you have that elite technique, it really doesn’t matter what the defense is. It doesn’t matter what the situation is, you should be able to run outside zone for third-and-one if you want to or inside zone. I think I would go back to that answer and really reiterate and hammer down the fact that it is a mindset. You see big Julian Hill coming down hill, it doesn’t matter if he’s power blocking or he’s outside zone blocking, he’s hitting somebody and they’re moving. Those are the types of plays that we can build on throughout the game so that there is confidence within everybody in the huddle that it doesn’t matter what the play call is, we’re getting that yard – we’re getting those two yards. I feel like that’s the key point in my mind.”
(But isn’t the Dolphins’ mindset and identity a creative, fast, not power –) – “Yeah, well I mean creative and fast, fullback probably doesn’t belong too much in that in that conversation either. (laughter) So I think it really is how much more we can do and what we can do well. I think that’s what we’re going to be able to find out this next week, is what we’ve been up to and how we have evolved as an offense and a team so that identity comes out of not what we say with the words on the walls or what we talk about or last year’s film, it’s what we’re doing right now and how we’re improving through that. So I think that’s where we’ll really create the identity starting on Sunday.”
(Do you take it personally when it’s third-and-one and you hear a pass play coming?) – “No, once again, it shouldn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter what the play call is. Let’s go execute. Yes, I would love for 21-personnel to be in there and we can do whatever we want, I think that’s just a competitor that wants to help the team win.”
(What was your reaction to Head Coach Mike McDaniel’s extension?) – “Well earned, well deserved. You get really excited when you see the belief throughout the organization when you reward your guys in the building. And I think it’s a testament to a lot of the hard work of all 90 guys of the entire staff, the way that they’re communicating front office to player management to equipment to everything. He’s the head of this team, and when you see that as a player, it definitely breeds confidence, like we have the people in the room. We aren’t looking anywhere else and going and grabbing – we have it here. How do we invest in ourselves? How do we invest in this identity? How do we invest in this culture to make it right? So a lot of confidence, a lot of excitement. Really happy for him.”
(What do you think TE Jonnu Smith can add to this offense?) – “Everything, anything you want. I mean you saw him early preseason, all through camp – you guys see the amount of different plays that he can create for this offense. It goes back to that talent. How can you get that guy more touches, more creative with the ball? It’s going to be really exciting; he’s always got a big smile on his face and he’s another leader on this team that leads by example. You see that speed, you see (No.) 9 running down the sideline, that gets everybody else going. So I think he’s doing things the right way and I’m really excited to see how many different plays y’all get excited about when you see it on Sunday because the dude can play ball.”
(How big is TE Jonnu Smith’s play package?) – “I think whenever you get a guy like Jonnu (Smith) in, it’s so novel, it’s so new to the offense and a guy that’s bought in mentally, I think the cool part is whatever it starts at, it’s not going to stop at. You know what I’m saying? Whatever it’s going to be, it’s going to be a continuation of, ‘Can we expand here? What can we do here? Here’s a new wrinkle here. Oh, that’s going to look great there.’ So whatever it looks like Week 1, I think it’s going to look a heck of a lot different Week 17 with the way that he can consistently execute.”
(What is the biggest change that you’ve seen in QB Tua Tagovailoa from last year to this year?) – “Man, I think it’s that self-confidence. It’s self-grace. It’s self-conviction. And I think it bleeds off into the locker room of being able to lead exactly how he needs to lead and how he needs it to be. He has a vision for this offense, he has a vision for himself, and to have the confidence to go out and say that and speak it and have great conversations, great communication – it’s not just the huddle. It’s the locker room. It’s the training room. It’s the weight room. I think you see it, it’s just infections right now. It’s spreading throughout the entire locker room in the best way possible. And I think that’s something that’s really cool to see (No.) 1 take a step up this year, because the results on the field were one thing last year, but the way he’s leading this locker room on and off the field is something completely different now. It’s really exciting to see.”
(Is that confidence just built based on how well he performed last year or the Pro Bowl or the reaction he’s getting from teammates?) – “I think it’s bought into the process of it. The results came yes, but I think really, it’s the process you buy into it and you can see all of the learning curves that we go through together, and nobody’s flinching here. No one’s blinking over a tough play, a bad snap – whatever assignment happens on the field, the results, the Pro Bowl, the stats – that’s one thing. But the process in which he shows up, that’s where the confidence comes from. That’s where the preparation comes from, is the way you show up every day so then you can cut it loose and have fun and know that nobody’s blinking. It’s trust. It’s true trust that’s been built, and that doesn’t come from stats. It doesn’t come from last year. It doesn’t come from accolades. That comes from the way you show up every single day, so that’s what he’s doing day-in, day-out.”
