Josh Boyer – August 15, 2020
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Saturday, August 15, 2020
Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer
(I wanted to ask you about the defense in terms of the changes that you guys made this offseason adding DE Emmanuel Ogbah and DE Shaq Lawson. What was the intent and what do both of them bring to the equation?) – “I think in the offseason, I think our goal was to add as many good players to the defense as we possibly could. I think with all defenses, each year you start over and you try to – whether it’s a coach’s influence or whether it’s a player influence, the defense will kind of evolve. I think you’re always trying to build as much competition as you possibly can and I think obviously (General Manager) Chris (Grier) and ‘Flo’ (Head Coach Brian Flores) did a good job of acquiring as many good players as we possibly could.”
(You’ve mentioned coach’s influence. I’m pretty sure that you have a different view of the world than anybody else, so how is your influence going to change or affect what the defense looks like?) – “Obviously I would say Coach Flores and I have worked together for a long time. We have had many conversations over the years. I would say it’s not really a ‘Flores Defense.’ It’s not a ‘Boyer Defense.’ It would be kind of a ‘Miami 2020 Defense,’ and again, Coach Flores will have influence on it, I’ll have influence on it, our assistant coaches will have influence on it and importantly, our players will have influence on it. Again, I think there’s core fundamentals that we believe in that we’ll implement, but the defense itself will evolve over time.”
(Do you think your pass rush will be better than it was last season and if so, why?) – “I think whether its pass rush, run defense, pass coverage; I think all of those things, we’re going to try to improve on a daily basis. Look, we get 16 shots at this over the course of a season. Our main goal has always been the same. We’re going to try to be better today than what we were yesterday and we’re going to try to be better tomorrow than what we were today. As coaches, as players – we believe in that and we strive for constant improvement. We’ll see on Sundays. We get 16 shots at it. We’ll see what it is and we’re just trying to take it one day at a time and get better. That’s kind of the way we approach it.”
(No preseason. I’m wondering as a play-caller do you know these two things – are you an upstairs guy or a downstairs guy? And I know in college with no preseason, sometimes guys who are going to start calling plays actually go out to the stadium and simulate. Maybe you’ll get a scrimmage or two to make sure anything you plan to do?) – “I think again, it’s very similar to the players. The closest thing that we can get to game simulation is practice, so as a play-caller and as a coaching staff, we try to put ourselves in game situations as much as possible. I think over the course of the years that things have come up, you just try to practice and then once you get to a game, you feel pretty comfortable of what your thought process is. I think the players need to feel comfortable with what the thought process is. We work very hard on our players, one, understanding the situation, because every play in and of itself is a situation. Is it a drive-start play? Is it a second-and-long? Is it second-and-short? Third-and-short? Third-and-medium? Are we in two-minute? Is it in the red area? Is it in the fringe? Every play in itself is a situation and what we try to strive to do for our players is they understand what’s getting called. Again, once they have an understanding of what the offense is in, what we’re in, it eliminates variables which decreases – call it anxiety – and allows them to play at a little bit faster pace. That’s the ultimate goal and I think in practice we kind of work towards that way so that the coaches and the players, we’re all on kind of the same page and know and understand what’s coming. There’s not a lot of surprises. It’s not like, ‘oh damn, he called this’ or ‘are we going to be in this defense on this?’ There shouldn’t be a lot of surprises. That’s the goal.”
(I wanted to ask you a quick two-part question – No. 1, on a personal level what does this new opportunity mean for you to become the defensive coordinator and also what’s your overriding philosophy when it comes to playing defense?) – “It’s kind of interesting. I guess they say timing is everything. I really enjoyed being a position coach and that was something that – I would say being a coordinator was not like, I didn’t have huge ambition for that. I enjoyed having a room. I enjoyed coaching a position; but I’ve really enjoyed the new role. It’s been good. It’s been good with the interaction with the coaches. It’s a different interaction with the players. One thing that I was really excited about and in fact it just so happened that Bill Arnsparger was awarded the Dr. Z Award (for lifetime achievement) this year, which I think he’s more than deserving. I read his book years ago and reading his book and then being in the NFL for as long as I have, and to see some of the terminology that’s in his book that still carries over to today, it’s a pretty amazing thing. And you’ve got to understand, I grew up 20 minutes southeast of Columbus, Ohio, so for Arnsparger who really – he got his start in coaching at Miami of Ohio and you guys might have to check my dates on this, but I believe it was in 1950. (In) 1951, he went with Woody Hayes to Ohio State and in ’52, he was on the same staff with Bo Schembechler and Woody Hayes. So growing up as a kid in Southeast Ohio, Bo Schembechler and Woody Hayes were as big as it gets; and then you look at the things that Bill was able to do in his career. One, the guy fought in World War II. He was in the Marines. And then I would say in 1964, Bill was probably on the greatest defensive staff that may be ever assembled in the NFL. Charley Winner was the defensive coordinator, and again, there’s another World War II veteran – he was actually in a German prison camp – and Bill Arnsparger was the defensive line coach … and the (head) coach was Don Shula. Then you go all the way – Arnsparger, his career, it’s pretty amazing – and I’m going to get to my point here in a second. You guys are probably like, ‘what the hell is he talking about?’ But in 1986, Bill was the head coach at LSU. They ended up winning an SEC championship. I was able to spend some time this summer with a guy that was on that staff with him. We had some conversations about him and then obviously some general conversations with football. So I would say being the defensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins – and there’s a rich alumni history here and knowing that the standard’s pretty high with Bill Arnsparger – I consider it an honor and a privilege. It might not personally have been something that I was looking to do, but I’m very honored to do it. I take my job very seriously. As far as being a defense – again – we look at fundamentals. We need to be able to tackle. We need to be able to play with good effort, but I would say it goes back to a lot of things you hear Coach Flores say, which is we need to be a smart team. We need to be mentally and physically tough. And I think him and Chris (Grier) did a great job trying to put the team together with guys that are fiercely competitive. Again, we get 16 shots at it and we’ll see where we lie when it’s all said and done; but being a coordinator, I’m honored for that position, kind of knowing where it’s been here at the Miami Dolphins. I’m pretty excited about that, so hopefully that answers your question. Obviously I think it’s awesome for the Arnsparger family that he was honored and I think it’s awesome for the Miami Dolphins, and I’m really privileged just to talk about having the same position that that guy had. It’s a pretty big deal to me.”
(I wanted to ask you about CB Byron Jones in terms of what do you hope that he can contribute to the secondary, particularly when put on the opposite side of CB Xavien Howard?) – “Again, I think for Byron – like everybody else – we’re looking for consistent play. Obviously to be able to cover, to be able to tackle, to be able to get in and out of the calls. Byron is a diligent worker. He’s done a good job for us. We’ve got a long way to go. Obviously as you guys well know, we haven’t even been in pads yet. We’ve had one OTA day, but he’s working hard. We’re pleased with it and we’re going to strive to continue to improve. Those are the things we’re going to ask him to do. We’re going to ask him to tackle, we’re going to ask him to cover – man and zone – and he’s working hard at that, and hopefully we continue to get better.”
(I wanted to ask you about having three specific assistants on defense with Defensive Backs Coach Gerald Alexander, Outside Linebackers Coach Austin Clark and Linebackers Coach Anthony Campanile coming from the college game. First, what are the challenges with that that you might foresee and then also to that end, do you think it’s a benefit in your regard that they are a little bit younger and that they can relate a little bit more with the players?) – “I think for everybody, it’s a little bit different (based on) where you come from. I think the one thing that’s consistent with all those guys is they’re good teachers, they’re good communicators and they work hard. I would say the other thing that’s important in coaching is they don’t have egos. It’s amazing what you can get accomplished when nobody cares who gets the credit. I think our head coach, Coach Flores, he exemplifies that. He’s a very humble individual, a very hard worker and I think you’ve got guys that are young, hungry, intelligent, hard-working, that give very little to who gets credit for what. They just want to work hard and be successful as a team and an organization, which is what we’re all trying to do.”
(When you look at your bio, one line that jumps off the page is “South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.” Tell us about that school and your experience there.) – “I had a brief stint there. Basically the head coach at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, he was a wide receivers coach when I was coaching at Kent State, and he got the job I would say – I got there in late August actually. I took the opportunity. It was kind of a rebuild. We knew it was going to be a rebuild. I was looking forward to that. Very good kids. It’s an engineering school – very smart and intelligent kids. You could do a lot with them defensively. We just didn’t have a lot of guys in the program at the time. I would say one of our corners was a running back. The other one was really an outside linebacker, so we were kind of moving guys all around there, but great kids. Some of them still text me from time to time. A lot of them are very productive and successful in the world today and then really after New England got beat by Denver in the 2005 playoffs, basically I got a call from Dean Pees when they landed, and then I had an opportunity to go to New England so my stint at South Dakota (School of Mines and Technology) was cut a little shirt. I just thought it was a good opportunity to go to New England; but it’d have been interesting to see what happened if I was able to stay there and try to build the program a little bit, as the head coach was trying to do as well. That’s kind of what that experience was. It was a good experience – great kids. They worked hard. Like I said, a lot of them are very productive in society today. I still keep in contact with a handful of them.”
(I’ll ask you about studying history. I find that interesting that you were talking about your interest in football dating back to like the 1950s. What are some of the things that you look at – because I know you like to study film but also in studying the history of coaching and coaches and old school football – what do you enjoy about that and what do you get away from your research and studying?) – “I think first of all, I’ve been around football since I could walk. My father’s a high school coach and he’s still coaching, so I guess when I was a little kid and they had the film projector on, I thought it was the coolest thing in the world when the players went backwards. That kind of sparked my interest there. I think no matter what your vocation is in life, I think you always are seeking knowledge. There’s so many coaches that have done it for so many years and there’s always good things you can take from everybody, whether it’s good, bad or indifferent. I think as much as you kind of open yourself up to ‘what was this guy doing here, what was this guy…?’ I mean, there’s a lot of good books out there and some of them – Bill Arnsparger’s book is one of those – if you have a pretty good knowledge, you’d think it’s a pretty good book. If you’re a little bit novice in it, it could be a tough read. There’s other books that I like to read as well, too. Some of them are tough reads for me, too, but I would say the history of the game – and you always hear like, ‘oh, this guy’s innovative,’ ‘this guy’s innovative.’ The Wildcat was really the single-wing offense that people were running before they had facemasks. I think it’s always interesting. I think there’s things that you can pull from everything. I do enjoy anytime that any of the old games are going on – I mentioned Charley Winner earlier and I believe he might be the only living coach from The Greatest Game Ever Played – what they titled ‘The Greatest Game Ever Played.’ It’s interesting to have conversations – I feel very fortunate to be a part of the NFL and I would say my paths have crossed with a lot of guys and there’s a rich history here in Miami, and there’s a lot of guys and a lot of alumni that come around and there’s always things that relate to today’s game. It’s not a completely different game. At the end of the day, there’s still 11 guys out there and a lot of their experiences, and they’ve been great, so I’m excited. I’m excited with our past and I’m excited for our future. We’re going to work hard, and like I said, we get 16 shots at it and we’ll see what we are. I appreciate everybody’s time today. Thank you.”
