Eric Studesville – May 24, 2021
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Monday, May 24, 2021
Co-Offensive Coordinator/Running Backs Eric Studesville
(I wanted to ask you about a quick two-part question. No. 1, what this opportunity means for you on a personal level and also what’s the single-biggest thing you want this offense to be known for?) – “To answer your first question, individually I feel gratified that Coach (Flores) has put trust in me to take on a little bit more, that hopefully what I do day-in and day-out has been respected and seen as an addition to the staff and the organization and what we’re doing. And really that’s why you get into coaching, to do things like that. The second part of it is I think we want this offense to be known as one that is successful and wins. At the end of the day, that’s what the outcome has to be, so we want to do whatever we can to put our players in position to be successful and score. That’s the general philosophy overview of it, but that’s what it is. Then there’s a lot of other subtopics in there certainly; but as an overview, we want our guys to be in position where we’re a complementary group to the defense, to special teams and we’re giving ourselves a chance to win.”
(If you could take us kind of behind the scenes to the making of the sausage so to speak, how long did it take to get this offense, this playbook, to be what is now the Miami Dolphins offense? How much give-and-take was it and how much did you want in there that you didn’t get in there?) – “(laughter) Well let me start with the last question first, which is everything that’s in there is ours. So there’s not ‘what did you want to get in or what you didn’t get in.’ We all have input. We all have suggestions on things and we all have experiences – every one of us as coaches has brought something from a different place and hopefully we try to use that as a collaborative effort to bring as much as we can into this to be diverse so that all our experiences bring something to the offense. So there’s nothing in there that I’m uncomfortable with or that I don’t like, and the things that aren’t in – it’s not so much about plays. It’s execution. There’s a lot of good plays out there and they’re not very good plays if you don’t execute well. So if we execute well, you can run simple plays and be really, really good at them. I don’t worry about plays that we don’t have in. As far as the playbook and how it’s taken – it’s been a long process. I don’t think the playbook is done. I don’t think it’s ever done. We’re always looking and studying and if we can get something from somewhere else that we think is good for us, then we’re going to continue to add and evolve. Now maybe some things aren’t as highly repped in practice or don’t have as great a frequency, but I don’t ever see a playbook as a done – to me a playbook is a living document. It continues to grow and evolve based on the players you get and what they can do because in there, we want to find out what our players do best and then those are the plays that we want to use.”
(And if I can follow up on that, continuity was a word that Head Coach Brian Flores used about you guys being the co-offensive coordinators, about what’s going to be run. So where does continuity of what has happened in the past land for say QB Tua Tagovailoa, a young offensive lineman, those guys?) – “I think continuity is going to happen. We’re going to develop continuity going forward. Continuity doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re going to take something that we did last year and bring it forward. We’ve evaluated last year. We’ve looked at it and we’ve said these are things that we feel that our players are good at and maybe schemes that are good that we like, but moving forward we’re going to develop continuity. Continuity is not something you bring with you in a backpack. We have to develop that. Our players have to demonstrate consistency to develop that continuity to make us say ‘this is what we’re going to do.’ There are some things that are built into our offense – some terminology things, some schemes, some pass routes and all those things that we may have run in the past – and so if you call that ‘continuity,’ then that’s continuity. But we’re going to – again – we’re going to go back and we’re going to figure out what our guys do. We have to create continuity, not rest on our laurels kind of on things we did well in the past.”
(Obviously a lot of attention on offense will start at quarterback with QB Tua Tagovailoa going into Year 2. I’m curious, with what you guys have started to put together so far, what may be the biggest difference of what you want to do with him in this offense?) – “I think that’s – and this may not be the answer you want – but it remains to be seen because we don’t know. We’re still teaching in the early stages of this. We haven’t put pads on yet. We don’t even know the playbook really well enough to do some of those things yet. We’re just now getting our hands on our players and we’re going to develop that. It’s not – we can’t paint a picture in the future. What would we like it to look like? I’d love to say we’re going to score 70 points every game, (laughter) but that’s – obviously that would be desirable, but I don’t know that that’s going to happen. So what our goal is, is to get everything taught that we need to get taught – runs, protections, route-wise, the scheme, the mentality of our offense, what we want and then we’ll have to perform at a certain level – high level is going to be our expectations to go forward and win.”
(If I could follow up on another person in that backfield, RB Myles Gaskin had a really good year last year, but it seems like all offseason everybody’s trying to replace him. You bring him back and what is it about Myles that maybe gives you confidence that if he’s the lead guy again, he can have the type of year or even better than he did last year?) – “I think the big thing about Myles (Gaskin) from at least last year and going from Year 1 to Year 2 for him was his growth in football and what he learned and how dependable he became for what we needed done. And I see those same things progressing, that same continuity if you will – the term we were using a moment ago – of his development as to where he is. He’s prideful, he’s professional, he comes in and gives you a day’s work. He works at it. He wants to be a really good player and I think that gives him a chance, and we have to wait until we get out there and compete with everybody else and see who shakes out to be the best guy; but I always believe that Myles is going to put his best foot forward and give you everything he has and that’s what gives him a chance.”
(With the co-offensive coordinator designation, can you just kind of help us understand a little bit about the process that you envision during a game week? Like for anybody who’s concerned, “well who is working on what?” What do you work on? What does Co-Offensive Coordinator/Tight Ends George Godsey work on? How do you develop the best plan for that week and then what happens on game day?) – “I think as far as game week and things like that, we haven’t gotten there. Where we are right now, and I think it’s going to be the same collaborative process, is we’re all involved in this. It’s not exclusive – ‘Lem’ (Offensive Line Coach Lemuel Jeanpierre) just does the run game or ‘Grizz’ (Wide Receivers Coach Josh Grizzard) just does the – we all have input in this. All of our players are involved in it. The backs for instance are involved in the run game, protections and the pass game. The receivers are involved in the run game. So we all have input as far as what’s going on and the entire offense is built to be a collaborative effort because all of us have to be able to speak the same language, to have the same desire and the same goal for that outcome, which is a high, effective performance on each individual play. And the only way that happens is if we’re all on the same page and we’re all having the same conversation. So right now, it’s building that way. That’s how we’ve done the playbook. That’s how we started with the players right now. That’s how we’re doing things in the walkthroughs and I don’t see that changing in any way going forward. It’s all collaborative. We’re all going to have input on it and that’s why I think you get a good staff and good football coaches together. That’s the advantage of it.”
(It’s very common for quarterbacks to get new offenses on a year-to-year basis. Unfortunately it’s the nature of the business. The coaches change very frequently, whether it’s in college or the pros and one thing coaches of quarterbacks always say to me is, “This book is like learning Spanish. Last year was French and the year before…” If last year was French, is this year Spanish or is there still a lot of French?) – “I think it’s a great question and it’s interesting that you say that because I tell my players all the time: really, football players should be able to speak multiple foreign languages because our brains are wired to learn language. Our language is just football. That’s our language. It’s not a foreign language. I’m not highly motivated to learn another language either, but I’m highly motivated to learn a different football language, but we’re wired to learn language and they are different languages. But people are in the same places for the most part – assignments, protections, run game concepts, routes. Often coverages are very, very similar from spot to spot, so it’s just translating what that is and how we talk about that and what it is. But it’s communication and it’s a collaborative effort that all of us are saying it and seeing it the same way.”
(Your history is as a running backs coach. You’ve worked your way up the league as a running backs coach. You’ve been a run game coordinator. Last year, you guys were 29th in yards per carry. Obviously that’s something you want to improve on. What will this run game identity be and how will you guys improve on it?) – “It’s an area of focus for us. We’re going to start at the beginning of it. We’re going to have to go back and look at what things we’re doing well, what we didn’t do well and what we need to adjust. And what kinds of plays those are – again, I truly believe the execution of the plays is far more critical than what kind of plays we’re running. So that starts with players. We have to get the right players in the right spots and then we’ve got to execute the techniques that are being taught and we’ve got to tie that into our scheme. It’s a very simple answer, but that is the answer.”
(I wanted to go back to the running back specialty of yours. Obviously there was a lot of speculation that maybe Miami would go big on getting a high-profile running back, getting a true workhorse; but it seems that you guys seem more focused on doing the running back by committee strategy. So I wanted to know what your thoughts are on the challenges of coaching, developing a committee-type running back room instead of having the one guy that is just the every-down back?) – “I think it’s a challenge every day to coach the entire room. I coach every one of these players as though they have to be prepared to go into the game at any given point in time. That’s how every one of them is coached. It’s not one guy that it resides on him and the other four get the week off. That’s not how it is. Everyone is prepared to go in for whatever their role is and they have to be ready for it. I’ve had one guy that we thought was the good back and I’ve had that guy go down, and that second guy better be ready. I’ve played a fullback as a ball carrier before because we had injuries within the game, and he has to be ready. So the running back by committee, we’re looking for guys that are going to establish a role and contribute to us and give us the best chance to win and if that’s three or four guys, then that’s what it is. If that’s one guy, then that’s what it is; but we coach them all the same way and they’re all pushed and they’re all held accountable and responsible as though they’re going to be the starter and they’re going to be the ball carrier that’s going to get the bulk of the work. That’s the only way that I’ve ever done it. It’s the only way I know how to do it.”
(I wanted to ask you – you add WR Jaylen Waddle, WR William Fuller V. You get WR Albert Wilson back this year. A lot of new pieces, new skillsets to the receiver room. I’m wondering how you feel about the receiver position’s ability to create and exploit matchups.) – “I hope they do that because that’s good for everybody on the offense if they’re able to do that. (laughter) We’ve got playmakers in that room. I think we’ve got playmakers in a bunch of different rooms. I think we’ve got playmakers in the tight end room. I’m working to make sure we have playmakers in the running back room; but I think as equally as strong, we’ve got playmakers in the quarterback position and we’ve got them on the offensive line. We’re going to have to create our own destiny and create what we want this to look like and the better athletes, the better football players you have – which we have increased that. I think (General Manager) Chris (Grier) and ‘Flo’ (Head Coach Brian Flores) have done a great job bringing guys in here that they give us a chance every week and that’s what you want.”
