Here is my transcription of what new OC Mike Bajakian said to the media today. Lots of good stuff here....
On participating in drills in front of, rather than behind, QBs: It gives you good perspectives. You see things from the defense’s perspective, from the eyes of our players, see the technique from the other side… The eyes are so important.
How did the QBs look? They look like it was Day 1 of a new offense. It’s my first time watching them throw a football in person.
What do you hope to accomplish this spring? Efficiency. Proficiency in the offense, efficiency in our line of scrimmage communication procedures, and the ability to move the offense down the field.
What have you learned about them so far? They’re extremely motivated with great attitude, with a great propensity to learn on their own. (He said he sent them stuff in advance and they had in-depth understanding of it by the time they met.) I was highly impressed with their ability to learn on their own and coach each other up, and come in and ask highly intelligent questions on day one.
Is Marty No. 1? It’s a wide open battle. He started out taking the One reps today, if you noticed, but they rolled through. The reason he took the One reps was because he was our starter at the end of the season and we won the football game. But moving forward, they’re all going to be judged by what they do on a daily basis.
Are they all taking equal reps, and is your goal to have a 1-2-3 by the end of spring? Of course. You earn reps. Until we get a feel for what the depth chart is gonna look like, they’ll get reps. Guys who are performing at a higher level will get more reps, and guys who are maybe tapering off will get less reps. Part of that it, there’s a lot of guys to rep and evaluate, so maybe early on, we’re going to have to give them enough reps for an evaluation.
What didn’t go right last year? (Took long time to compose thoughts) There’s a lot of room for improvement. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily physical. (Not poor mechanics or poor techniques, but poor decisions). Poor decisions can come from preparation, confusion on what the defense is showing, good disguises, etc.
We have to do a much better job of making decisions.
Strengths of the offense: One of the things we did a good job with today: tempo. (They have a running 40-second clock between plays and he said he wants them to “snap it with 20 or more seconds on the play clock. The closer to 30 we can be, the better, especially in a practice situation.)
Effort can be another strength. The Wildcat way: going as hard as you can for as long as you can. In our older guys, it’s evident that that’s ingrained and a way of life for them. In our younger guys, it’s evident that they’re still learning. I found myself coaching those guys much more up on tempo and effort than I did on technique and assignment.
Fast temp means faster decisions? The ability to process quickly is vital at the quarterback position at every level. When you’re playing with tempo, it’s even more important.
How can they learn? Playing the game, with live bullets flying around you, is the best way to learn any skill.
Starting from ground zero: It’s been fun. I’ve enjoyed the process. When you’re building from ground zero, you can make it easy to learn. (He gave the example of making sure the terminology makes sense and relates to things the players are familiar with.) “Make it’s associated with something the guys know.”
What will offense look like? It’s going to be built around our personnel. We need to get a sense for what our personnel looks like… We’ve included stuff from last year’s scheme, we’ve added a lot of new stuff, we’ve tweaked some stuff.
The offense will look different end of spring ball than it will at the end of fall camp. “it’s a constant process that’s always going to be changing.”
But what will be the offense’s identity? Tempo, physicality, effort. I don’t care where I’ve had the opportunity to coach and what the scheme has been, if you can incorporate those things into your offense, you have a chance for success. Whether you’re a shotgun spread team; whether you’re an under center, run the football 60 times scheme, like we were at Boston College, with 250-pound running backs; whether you’re a multiple, pro-style offense. If you can play with those things, you have a chance to be successful.
Tight ends or superbacks? We’re calling them tight ends now. Why? That’s what I’ve called them my whole life. That’s what they play. The skills of what the superbacks were previously is constantly changing. They’ve had at the history of the position here at Northwestern, they’ve had some really good guys with some dynamic skill sets. We definitely need guys with those skills sets, but we’re trying to broaden their horizons a little bit, ask them to do some more inline things that maybe they weren’t doing before.
Teaching QB techniques: The techniques wer’re teaching at the quarterback position are the same techniques that I learned when I was in second grade from Coach Plum back at my quarterback/wide receiver camp in Bergen County, New Jersey. Literally, in Pop Warner. I’m doing a lot of the same drills…with high school guys, with college guys, in the NFL.
Wearing hat of OC vs. QB coach: The quarterback needs to know the intentions of the playcaller. So they go hand in hand, being the quarterbacks coach and being the coordinator. At the same time, you keep a big picture perspective and keep the focus on the entire offense.
On participating in drills in front of, rather than behind, QBs: It gives you good perspectives. You see things from the defense’s perspective, from the eyes of our players, see the technique from the other side… The eyes are so important.
How did the QBs look? They look like it was Day 1 of a new offense. It’s my first time watching them throw a football in person.
What do you hope to accomplish this spring? Efficiency. Proficiency in the offense, efficiency in our line of scrimmage communication procedures, and the ability to move the offense down the field.
What have you learned about them so far? They’re extremely motivated with great attitude, with a great propensity to learn on their own. (He said he sent them stuff in advance and they had in-depth understanding of it by the time they met.) I was highly impressed with their ability to learn on their own and coach each other up, and come in and ask highly intelligent questions on day one.
Is Marty No. 1? It’s a wide open battle. He started out taking the One reps today, if you noticed, but they rolled through. The reason he took the One reps was because he was our starter at the end of the season and we won the football game. But moving forward, they’re all going to be judged by what they do on a daily basis.
Are they all taking equal reps, and is your goal to have a 1-2-3 by the end of spring? Of course. You earn reps. Until we get a feel for what the depth chart is gonna look like, they’ll get reps. Guys who are performing at a higher level will get more reps, and guys who are maybe tapering off will get less reps. Part of that it, there’s a lot of guys to rep and evaluate, so maybe early on, we’re going to have to give them enough reps for an evaluation.
What didn’t go right last year? (Took long time to compose thoughts) There’s a lot of room for improvement. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily physical. (Not poor mechanics or poor techniques, but poor decisions). Poor decisions can come from preparation, confusion on what the defense is showing, good disguises, etc.
We have to do a much better job of making decisions.
Strengths of the offense: One of the things we did a good job with today: tempo. (They have a running 40-second clock between plays and he said he wants them to “snap it with 20 or more seconds on the play clock. The closer to 30 we can be, the better, especially in a practice situation.)
Effort can be another strength. The Wildcat way: going as hard as you can for as long as you can. In our older guys, it’s evident that that’s ingrained and a way of life for them. In our younger guys, it’s evident that they’re still learning. I found myself coaching those guys much more up on tempo and effort than I did on technique and assignment.
Fast temp means faster decisions? The ability to process quickly is vital at the quarterback position at every level. When you’re playing with tempo, it’s even more important.
How can they learn? Playing the game, with live bullets flying around you, is the best way to learn any skill.
Starting from ground zero: It’s been fun. I’ve enjoyed the process. When you’re building from ground zero, you can make it easy to learn. (He gave the example of making sure the terminology makes sense and relates to things the players are familiar with.) “Make it’s associated with something the guys know.”
What will offense look like? It’s going to be built around our personnel. We need to get a sense for what our personnel looks like… We’ve included stuff from last year’s scheme, we’ve added a lot of new stuff, we’ve tweaked some stuff.
The offense will look different end of spring ball than it will at the end of fall camp. “it’s a constant process that’s always going to be changing.”
But what will be the offense’s identity? Tempo, physicality, effort. I don’t care where I’ve had the opportunity to coach and what the scheme has been, if you can incorporate those things into your offense, you have a chance for success. Whether you’re a shotgun spread team; whether you’re an under center, run the football 60 times scheme, like we were at Boston College, with 250-pound running backs; whether you’re a multiple, pro-style offense. If you can play with those things, you have a chance to be successful.
Tight ends or superbacks? We’re calling them tight ends now. Why? That’s what I’ve called them my whole life. That’s what they play. The skills of what the superbacks were previously is constantly changing. They’ve had at the history of the position here at Northwestern, they’ve had some really good guys with some dynamic skill sets. We definitely need guys with those skills sets, but we’re trying to broaden their horizons a little bit, ask them to do some more inline things that maybe they weren’t doing before.
Teaching QB techniques: The techniques wer’re teaching at the quarterback position are the same techniques that I learned when I was in second grade from Coach Plum back at my quarterback/wide receiver camp in Bergen County, New Jersey. Literally, in Pop Warner. I’m doing a lot of the same drills…with high school guys, with college guys, in the NFL.
Wearing hat of OC vs. QB coach: The quarterback needs to know the intentions of the playcaller. So they go hand in hand, being the quarterbacks coach and being the coordinator. At the same time, you keep a big picture perspective and keep the focus on the entire offense.
