Darren Rizzi – October 12, 2017
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Thursday, October 12, 2017
Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(You have a unique perspective on this. When the offense is playing well and the defense is not, or vice versa, and teams go through this all the time and players always say the right thing – we’re all in this together and it’s a team game – but at some point there’s got to be some strain and some stress, I would think. What’s your experience with that? What are your thoughts about it?) – “I think the strain and the stress really come from the guys on that particular side of the ball that aren’t doing well. I really have never seen it here, especially with this group since (Head) Coach (Adam) Gase has been here, with the other side putting pressure on the other. The leaders of the team on the sideline are going to be vocal and they’re going to try to motivate in one way or the other, but the stress and strain I see I think sometimes guys … For example, if the defense is struggling or the offense is struggling, guys on that particular side of the ball may be putting too much pressure on themselves and trying to press a little bit; but I think this team has been pretty good about that. As you know, since Adam has gotten here, and we’ve talked about that, we’ve won games in varieties of different ways. We’ve won games on offense, defense, special teams. Although this year I know the narrative has been the other way with defense and offense, I haven’t seen that in the building. Guys like Cameron Wake, or Reshad Jones, or (Ndamukong) Suh, the guys that are veterans, the guys that have been around, I’ve seen them step up and either tell the defense, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get it done today’ and be more encouraging and motivating to the offense. I see the offensive guys being the guys maybe being a little bit too hard on themselves that way, maybe pressing a little bit. Other than that, again, I know Adam’s addressed that with the offensive stuff, so I’ll let him do that; but I think our guys have handled it pretty maturely, whichever way it is, and it’s been both. It depends. Like you said, sometimes it’ll swing the other way, where now the offense is carrying the team and the defense could be struggling at points. I think our guys have really handled that part well.”
(Do you have any responsibilities as associate head coach in terms of bringing newly hired Senior Offensive Assistant Dave DeGugliemo up to speed? Do you have any role in that? How difficult is it for a coach to come in in the middle of a season and learn personnel?) – “Yes, obviously I know ‘Gug’ from the last time (he was with the Dolphins). I’ve actually known ‘Gug’ a long time. We played against each other in college, believe it or not, way back when. I’m dating myself there – Rhode Island and Boston University days – back in 1990. That’s almost too long ago; but no, I’ve known ‘Gug’ a long time. I really respect him as a person. My help to ‘Gug’ has been just getting acclimated. He hasn’t been here, obviously, in six years. A lot of new faces, getting him caught up to speed. I think ‘Gug’ is a guy that’s been with a lot of great organizations, he’s been to the Super Bowl a couple of times, he’s got a very strong personality, so in light of the situation, I think he’s a very good guy to come in here and step in. He’s seen a lot of different things, so I think it takes a strong personality guy to do that, and he’s just that. So really my role with him has been more of helping him get acclimated, not the Xs and Os part of it.”
(This is your ninth season, is that right?) – “Yes.”
(You’ve seen some stuff. There’s some controversy that has been around this team over the last decade. How do you focus? How do you compartmentalize? How do you channel that into not laying an egg on Sunday?) – “It’s a great question. I’ve always been a believer that distractions are what you make of them. Distractions are distractions if you let them be distractions. In today’s society, there’s so many distractions with all of the different things that can be going on between social media and everything else. I think they are personal choices that we make every day. As a group – and I think (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) has done a great job with this team since day one – is what are we going to do? Are we going to let distractions deter us and take us off the rail or are we going to circle the wagons kind of thing? I think we’ve done a pretty good job of eliminating distractions. They’re going to be there. There’s going to be distractions every day. To me, like I said, it’s almost a personal choice. I know you guys don’t want to hear this, because of your professions, but are you going to read the media? Are you going to log on and read all of the articles or are you going to follow everything on social media or, at some point, are you going to focus in on, ‘This is our job?’ I get paid to coach football. These players get paid to play football, and at some point you’ve got to lock in on what your responsibilities are. I know it’s easier said than done. Personally speaking, I stay off the internet stuff and I don’t have social (media). I couldn’t even tell you how to get on Instachat or whatever the heck they’re called. (Laughter) I have no idea. Trust me, my children are the ones that keep me up to speed on the social media. Again, I think it all depends on your (choices). Like I said before, do you let the distractions deter you from what you’re doing? It’s easy to make excuses. This team has had plenty of distractions this year between the hurricane and moving the game to the bye week, West Coast travel, London. You can make as many excuses as you want or you can bind together and circle the wagons. I think this team has done a pretty good job of that.”
(One quick follow up, and I don’t want you to speak ill of predecessors, but in 2013, things didn’t go smoothly, I would say, with the bully controversy. Have people learned in this building how to move beyond that?) – “Yes. There’s not that many people that are still around, let’s be honest. There’s only a select few of us, I would say. In that instance, I would say, again, it all goes back to – I think on an individual and collective basis – what do you let the distractions do. Do you let them seep in and become a cancer or do you bond together and circle the wagons and keep those things outside? The world’s a funny place. You can justify anything. You can justify reasons why you win, reasons why you lose, reasons why you succeed, don’t succeed. Again, in my opinion, we can’t use built-in excuses, and I think (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) has done a great job of that with our team. Maybe with things in the past, we haven’t handled it as well. I think this group right now, the building between all the leadership we have from (Owner) Stephen Ross right on down through Adam and the coaching staff, I think we’ve done a much better job of handling these situations.”
(What did you notice on the K Cody Parkey extra point miss against the Titans?) – “Have you ever hit a fat ball when you play golf? That’s what he did. He got some grass. It was a little soft down there on that end of the field and he chunked it. He just got some grass. That’s a ball that I’ve never seen him hit that ball that far to the right before. It was just one of those things where if you saw where he hit the ball and you looked right down, a big chunk of grass came out of the turf. That’s what happened on that particular kick.”
(How does chunking a kick happen? Is that just not keeping your eyes on the ball?) – “Yes, he’s actually trying to stay down on it, through a little bit, and stayed down a little bit too much. It is what it is. I haven’t seen one of those. (Cody Parkey) had a great practice session yesterday. You guys may not be aware of this, I was actually looking through the stats. I get the weekly stats throughout the league right now. You guys would probably be surprised, there’s only three teams in the league that haven’t missed either a PAT or a field goal. Only three guys in the league right now are perfect. I think (Cowboys) Dan Bailey, the team we’re playing this week (Falcons) Matt Bryant and I think the young kid from Oakland (Raiders Giorgio Tavecchio) are the only kids that have not missed either a PAT or a field goal. Moving that PAT line back, as I’ve told you guys before, I treat every kick as it’s a field goal now. That’s what it is. It’s a 33-yard field goal. It only counts for one, instead of three; but he’s obviously got to be better. I’m not really overly concerned about it, though. He just happened to get some grass on that one.”
(What did you see from P Matt Haack, technique or otherwise, that led to his big day on Sunday?) – “Like any rookie, I think in the first couple of games he was just a little bit inconsistent because I think sometimes he was pressing. I think he was much more relaxed, whatever you want to call it, being home this week; but he kind of got in a zone. He really showed what we’ve been seeing since the day he got here, once he was locked in. It was really, last week, a big part of our game plan because (Titans) Adoree’ Jackson, the returner for Tennessee, had been having a really good year and we wanted to keep the ball out of his hands. He was a game changer, bottom line. He was our special teams player of the week, in house, and he really changed the game in my opinion. He really showed you what he’s capable of doing: high hang time, good direction, keeping the ball away from the returner, letting our coverage get down there and do their work, so I was very, very impressed with him. It’s not like I was surprised, because I’ve seen him do that in practice.”
(How do you decide who handles punts, who returns punts?) – “Who returns punts? Weekly it’s just decision made rep by rep. We’ll go into a game sometimes, let’s say if we had this particular call, Jakeem (Grant’s) going to take this one or Jarvis (Landry’s) going to take this one. A lot of the time it’s how the game is going, where we are in the game in terms of situation, where we are on the field. Last week we were almost, if I’m not mistaken, close to 50/50 on who took what and both guys have done well. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, you guys know how I feel, we have two very good guys. I’m fortunate to have two great guys to put back there, two great options. Obviously, to get a guy like Jarvis, if you can get the ball in his hands a couple times a game … We know what Jakeem can do with the ball in his hands. I think it also keeps our opponent off balance. I think one thing that gets under looked a little bit is them not knowing which guy’s back there, because they’re two totally different style guys. How you’re going to play those guys and try to keep them off balance and keep them on their heels a little bit, too, is something that is a little bit underrated when we’re making those decision, too.”
(RB Kenyan Drake hasn’t gotten many touches from scrimmage. Have you and Head Coach Adam Gase discussed anything on kickoff to maybe get him a couple of more touches?) – “Yes, we’re trying. Again, we’ve got two guys back there and sometimes just game plan-wise, or where they kick the ball, or the wind or whatever (affects who gets the ball). Early on, he got the first few. If you remember back to the Chargers game, Jakeem (Grant) didn’t have any for a little bit and then all of the sudden everyone’s asking, ‘Okay, when is Jakeem going to get some?’ That’s just the way it’s balanced out. I think usually it’ll end up balancing itself out at the end of the day. Obviously Drake is a guy that we’d like to get the ball in his hands and we know what he’s done in the past, as well.”
(I know you have history with K Cody Parkey that goes way back, but this is the first time you’ve really been able to get hands-on coaching. You’ve had about a month. What have you observed about him overall?) – “I really didn’t know him as well as a person, I knew him more as a kicker. I’m starting to really respect him as a person, just his approach. He’s got a very, very professional approach to him. It’s almost like he’s a guy you would think that’s been kicking in the league for a lot longer than he has. (He has) a really positive and professional approach. As a kicker, he’s really done exactly what I’ve seen on film through college and his short NFL career. He’s just been a consistent guy. I know everybody will point (out) that he’s missed a couple of extra points. I get it, and he has to clean those up; but he’s been pretty consistent throughout watching his warmups, his practice routine and his game routine. It’s been pretty much what I expected. I just didn’t know him as well as a person.”
(A coaching staff spends more time together than sometimes you do with your family. Were you surprised, not surprised, when you saw or heard about Chris Foerster?) – “Yes, I’m not going to get into great detail about it; but when I first saw the information come out, I was surprised, yes. Unexpected. Obviously an extremely unfortunate situation, I’m not going to get into great detail about it; but I was surprised, yes.”
(It was a big extra point that K Cody Parkey missed at that point in the game and he missed very badly. So when he comes off after that, what’s his demeanor like or how steady is he after something like that happens?) – “Like I said, that’s part of his approach. Even when he misses a kick in practice, he’s not overly down on himself. He’s a very good self-correct guy. I’ve had kickers in the past that have missed kicks and come off and said, ‘I have no idea what happened there.’ He’s immediately able to regurgitate and tell you exactly, ‘My plant foot,’ whatever it is, ‘I slid,’ or ‘I hit too high on the ball, I wrapped my…’ There’s a bunch of different kicker lingo, if you will; but he’s a pretty self-correct guy. He can kind of coach himself. He never gets too high, too low. Really, that’s what I like about all three of our specialists: John Denney, Matt Haack, Cody Parkey. They all have very, very good personalities. They’re very, very level people. They’re never too high, never too low, which is very good at that position. He’s never too down on himself. Obviously he was disappointed. We all wanted to make it. Every extra point is big and every field goal is big and we know points are at a premium in this league, so obviously we’re looking to make every single one of those. That’s the Captain Obvious statement of the week, but he’s able to self-correct and he doesn’t really get too down on himself, so that part has been good.”
(Are you aware that one of the CBS announcers said during the Titans game that the networks need to have a Rizzi cam on you?) – “I don’t know why. (Laughter) I can’t understand why. I’m just a level-headed guy that, once in a while, gets a little bit passionate about a call or two. (Laughter) Someone did tell me that. I was informed that there was a Rizzi cam quote in there somewhere; but I’ve been good, I’ve been really good. (Laughter) I’ve been calm.”
(Yesterday, Head Coach Adam Gase said he, WR Jarvis Landry and RB Jay Ajayi were the hotheads of the offense. Are you the hothead of special teams?) – “No, those guys are crazy. I’m calm. (Laughter) I can’t understand why anybody would get that excited. I think (the running into the kicker play against the Titans), in particular, I thought it should have been a roughing. In fact, in the referee’s defense, I think he came back later on and said, ‘I think I missed that one,’ which I respect and appreciated. I thought that should have been a 15 (yard penalty instead of) 5, which at that point in the game was a huge deal because that gives us a first down. We keep the ball with 5:15. Instead of just being a tack-on (penalty), it’s an automatic first down. Who knows? We might not have given the ball back up and that could have changed the entire game, so that’s why I was a shade bit upset. I was a little bit emotional.”
(It’s an automatic roughing the kicker penalty if the defense hits the plant leg, right?) – “Yes, so pretty much if his kicking leg is still on the ground, you cannot take out his plant leg. Usually, that’s a 15-yarder if you make body contact, you run through him. Usually, if you hit the up leg and you just hit the kicking foot, you just run through that, usually that’s the 5 (yard) variety. I thought the player had come in and kind of taken out (Matt Haack’s) plant leg, so I thought it was a 15.”
