Nick Sirianni
Q. I was wondering what you learned about Offensive Coordinator Sean Mannion’s decision-making process during the decision to decide to go to the booth. Just what you saw from him, how he goes about it. Not about the decision specifically, but about the process. (Eliot Shorr-Parks)
Nick Sirianni: It’s an interesting question. Everything’s very thought out. That’s with Sean, that’s with our organization, that’s with our coaching staff, that’s with our players. We want to think through every situation to make sure that we’re giving ourselves the best opportunity for us to win the game and be at our best. Also understanding that there is no right way to do it or wrong way to do it. There’s many different ways to do it. I think we can get caught up so much, it’s like, this is the only way to do it. You have conviction in what you believe, but there’s many different things that can work and have worked. It’s just about making the best decision, what’s best for your football team and for you to do your job the best. That’s how we went about it.
Q. How does it affect you after five years of having the OC next to you? (Jeff McLane)
Nick Sirianni: I don’t think at all. I mean, obviously, there’s communication still, right? We’re talking on the headset and everything like that. I would say it’s the amount of conversations that happen that have to be face-to-face, I think, are very minimal. I don’t think that’s — You’re being able to communicate and that’s something that we stress on our players of how important communication is. We have to lead that as coaches as well. I don’t think that affects us at all.
Q. What about the flow of the week game planning wise? Were there any differences the way Offensive Coordinator Sean Mannion runs it than in the past? (Bo Wulf)
Nick Sirianni: Again, everyone’s going to have different ways to do things. That’s why you always have to have what works best for you. Early in my career, I used to think to myself, ‘No, this is the only way you can do it.’ Then you mature and you grow up and you understand there’s many different ways to be able to do things. As long as you’re convicted in those things and go about it and get all the information in, it doesn’t matter how it goes about. But, of course there was. To sit here, and I won’t sit here and name everything, but of course there’s slight differences because we’ve all come from different places of how we’ve [gone] about things. But, the most important thing, Bo [Wulf], is that everybody — All the information’s in close to being in. We still got a couple more days and our guys are ready to roll.
Q. Would you play OLB Jonathan Greenard if he’s not feeling 100% percent? (Brooks Kubena)
Nick Sirianni: I get the information from doctors and people that are educated in that department. That is not my specialty. I did not go to medical school. I get the information from our team, our team doctors, and they make the best decision through that. When they say he can go, he can go. Sometimes there’s rep limitations, sometimes there’s not. That’s how we go about that business.
Q. Nick, do you build the expectation of a little bit of sloppiness in week one at all because of not playing starters, because it’s Week 1 and there’s changes, there’s new coordinators, new players, all that kind of stuff? (Mike Sielski)
Nick Sirianni: Part of our goals are for this week are to understand that there is, as Week 1 happens, when you watch football across college football early on, from the NFL, that there are things that happen in week one that you have to be ready for. Whether that’s live fundamentals, whether that’s errors in the kicking game or whatever it may be. The standard doesn’t change of what we accept and what we require and what our guys do on the field. We practice like that every day. Anytime there’s something loose with the ball or we miss a tackle or whatever it may be or miss our approach on a tackle if we’re not tackling to the ground, it’s discussed, it’s watched, it’s critiqued. Our standard — your goal is to be playing your best football by the end of the year. Our standard does not change.
We also understand, and one of our goals here for week one is to be able to have a short-term memory, to be able to move on. Now, yes, you make mistakes in practice, but it’s a little different. You make a mistake in a game, you got to move on and play the next play. We talk about both ends of that. Our standards will remain the same regardless of Game 1 or Game 17 or game whatever, but we also understand we need to train our minds to be able to be mentally tough in situations where we missed a play that we needed to make and being able to play the next play. That goes as far as the same thing as not getting too high when you make a play. It’s okay to be excited. It’s OK to show your emotion when you make a play, but ultimately, you’ve got to go play the next play again. All of those things, I think, have been really important for us in Game 1s and it will continue to be so this upcoming year.
Q. When you guys took OLB Jalyx Hunt three years ago, the question was, I guess, what does this look like in Year 3? Now that you’re in Year 3, is this what you expected it to look like? (Zach Berman)
Nick Sirianni: You watch a player and you see their talent when you watch the tape. You obviously do all the homework on a player as far as their character, how much they love football, how tough they are, all those different things. When the things match — When you see the talent and then they have those things that can, God willing, help them reach their ceiling, like the toughness to love football, the football IQ, you always know that’s a possibility. We saw those things in Jalyx as far as the talent goes, as far as the way he — the person that he is, and you continue to see him get better. So much of that credit goes to Jalyx. So much of that credit goes to Coach Wash [Defensive Ends/Outside Linebackers Coach Jeremiah Washburn] Washburn and [Defensive Coordinator] Coach [Vic] Fangio of getting everything they can out of him. It’s been fun watching his journey, looking forward to his year this year.
Q. QB Tanner Mckee and QB Andy Dalton said on Wednesday that they didn’t receive word who was going to be the No. 2 as of then. What’s the reasoning behind that, of not giving them that clarity during game week? (Tim McManus)
Nick Sirianni: We want everybody to compete and to work their butt off. I don’t think there’s a negative to have them both preparing as if they’re the No. 2. When we make decisions of when to tell guys certain things, again, we make that decision for what’s best for our football team and then we move on from there. Both those guys had to prepare this entire week as if they’re the number two quarterback. I don’t see a negative in that.
Q. What about the reps? — (Jeff McLane)
Nick Sirianni: They were able to have meaningful reps, both of them and it went well.
Q. Are they getting enough since there’s a split? (Jeff McLane)
Nick Sirianni: They all need to continue to get reps. Obviously, we do different things to be able to do that within scout team, but also doing that in our ones versus twos period and also doing that in our developmental periods. I think we do a good job of creating a lot of opportunities for guys to develop as football players as far as our developmental stuff, our situational stuff that we’d work into practice and then our fundamental things as well.
Q. With the last one Penn State game on Saturday and rain in the forecast Sunday, any concern about field conditions and how do you combat that? (Dave Zangaro)
Nick Sirianni: We prepare for these types of things at all times. Regardless of if rain is in the forecast or not, we’re going to work some stuff. We’ll work more if the rain’s in the forecast for a little bit more and less, but every week we’re getting rain work done. I think our equipment guys do a great job of preparing our players for what spikes to have on and what cleats to wear. You go in with a plan of what you’re going to do and what you feel like the field’s going to feel like, but that’s why it’s so important for our guys to go out and check their spikes before the game and check the field before the game to make sure that they have the right footwear on for that game. And so it’s just protocol for us, just our process. Again, our job is to not have a process for just a Sunday game at four. We have a process for every single situation that we could possibly think of, probably to a point where it’s like, I don’t know if that’s ever going to come up, but at least you’re going to be ready if it does.