Coach Scott Linehan
7/24/2008
(Opening Remarks)
“I guess this will be our home for awhile and it’s great. First of all, as you could all see and you’ve probably been here a little longer than I have, it’s an outstanding facility for what we were looking for. Some of you have been to other places and I have been to a couple of different training camps, at home the last two years, and you want to get the best of both worlds when you’re there. You want to be away but you want to have great facilities and all too. They’ve done a great job with us at this point and they’ve been great too. We’re really excited about officially opening training camp tomorrow; this is basically a travel day for us. Tomorrow is really our first official day and we will meet as a team and have an organizational meeting tomorrow in the morning and then have a team meeting for the football side after that and then we will break up into our first installation of the beginning of the year and then have an afternoon practice. Then we will have our first evening practice, which will be our first evening installation, which we will have from then on out. Then we get into our routine right away.”
(On the facilities at Concordia)
“Outstanding. From day one, there were a number of places that we considered. Almost everybody did a nice job of presenting their facilities; it was just something about this place and from their administration to all of the people that work for the university that made us feel welcome right from the get-go. I think they knew going into it they were getting in on the tail end of it initially, but after we did our research and were able to look around and see what they have and honestly you can see that they have some great people here and a great setting, its beautiful and everything on the lake and everything so its very nice and all the players will enjoy working here.”
“I did not make it to this trip. To be honest with you we had an idea of where we were going to go. We had some coaches that went to Lacrosse and we really considered going there. Their facilities were under-construction so they weren’t able to accommodate us. That was going to be very close because they have had other teams. I know Jim Haslett had been there with the Saints and some other coaches had gone there and worked with other teams, but that was kind of a foregone conclusion since they are going to be under-construction for a couple years. So then we were under the crunch to figure out where we were going to go and we looked at a number of places including Mequon up here and we had heard of a couple sites, but this was not one of them. So, as we were getting ready to come visit, Jeff Horton, who is my head coach assistant, with a couple of guys, including John Oswald. And basically, in two days, we saw all of those sites including Concordia. So we under a time restrain because it was coming up. So we made the decision based on those guys expertise. We looked for all the things that we were looking for and I talked to the president and made a decision to come. Those guys have been around in a number of places so we decided to choose this one.”
(On being against going away for training camp)
“I wasn’t necessarily against it. I think the year before I got here was the first back in St. Louis and there was a bit of a trend of doing your camp at your facility and I had just done it the year before at Miami with Nick Saben. It was a positive experience, very convenient; it’s nice to be close to the fans and all those kinds of things at the facility. But after my first year and same with the second year, it went fairly well, but it was just the same ole’ same ole’. There’s really no break for the players from the off season program to OTAs. We got to thinking and we thought the change of environment and the fact that there are no breaks, I mean, we just picked the players up from OTAs and put pads on them, that the only difference. And we the staff, started thinking that we should do stuff different anyway. With the environment of training -- you can’t create a new facility. I guess there are pluses and minuses for both. But in this case it felt like the right thing to do. There were a number of possibilities and we figured that we would find out a little bit more about this one. This one really went up to the top.”
(On the weather)
“It’s unbelievable. You see me sweating up here? I have actually been watching the weather everyday up here over the break just to see what its like up here. Its 10 to 15 degrees cooler up here than the Midwest, which at this time of the year, if you are going to find one negative about living in the Midwest or St. Louis, it would be training camp in that sweltering heat. It is hard; we have to manage our schedule so much. The league even has guidelines that we have to follow. We have modified the practices just because of the heat. Really the afternoon practices that we did there were really close to a dangerous heat level.”
(On the difference between being up here compared to last year)
“It really didn’t. Thinking about last year because it just felt like we were in the same place. Coming back from training camp and your last OTA it felt the same. This year, we wanted to come to a place where it was just you and you can’t create that at your home environment. Again, there are still some positives about it, but we just felt like we needed a change, we needed something different.”
(On the point when you were ready to get back on the field)
“I have been waiting for this day since the last game. There hasn’t been a lot thinking and shutting it down. I really didn’t take a break this year. There were a lot of changes and a lot of things done in a short amount of time. In my opinion, they would be positive changes for our football team. It just felt like the right thing to do and we had to do it in the amount of time we had. I remember standing on the sidelines when we played Arizona. It was a tough season and a tough finish to the season. I remember Todd Johnson coming up to me and saying we will be back, we’re going to have a chance to show everybody this year. With the dedication and the kind of people or team we are, I remember thinking; I can’t really wait until we can show that. I’ll always remember when Todd did that. We’re excited, to have something different. I didn’t know what to expect just like the players. I heard a lot about it and I trust Jeff and I support the staff 100 percent. It gets your competitive juices flowing and you want to go to work.”
(On all of the players being present)
“There are some players that we knew were not going to travel. Some are here and some I haven’t seen yet. Dante Hall is one. Steven Jackson is one. I believe I saw Anthony Becht; he called and let me know. And all of them said they weren’t going to be on the plane. Donnie Avery did not make the trip because he is not signed. We anticipate him soon. I expect him here for practice. He is a young player; he needs to be in camp. We talked about it today and he knows that.”
(On the today’s schedule)
“Everything is optional. The official day is tomorrow. Today counts as a travel day. Then we have an administrative meeting tomorrow morning. We will do a couple physicals today on Orlando (Pace) and Carriker. To discuss where they are at tonight and we will discuss that as a staff. The players don’t have anything official until tomorrow.”
(On what time would players be considered late)
“Our first meeting is tomorrow at 9:15, so that will be it.”
(On Orlando Pace’s status)
“We did some physical things with him before we took a break. Since everyone is traveling, all of the doctor’s will be here this afternoon and we will do something right after dinner. We will meet with players, but we don’t anticipate anything with Adam. Adam is probable going to be cleared to go, but we don’t know yet until we have that meeting with the doctors. My anticipation is that we will take it slower with Orlando. Like I said on Tuesday, we anticipate him to be on PUP when we start camp. It’s just a matter of if we are going to clear him, we don’t really know until we talk to the doctors. He looks great and he is in great shape. We don’t anticipate him being out very long.”
(On Steven Jackson’s contract extension)
“That has been a priority. I know Jay has had contact with Steven’s agent who he just hired recently. I know within the last couple days there has been dialogue. Our hope is that will be done pretty soon.”
(How does the disappointment of DE’s suspension)
“It really doesn’t affect us. Our plan going into the offseason is that we had depth within the defensive line; we really thought Claude was going to be in battle to make this team going into camp. What the suspension does it eliminates him from the mix. We’re going into the season carrying seven defensive linemen, four defensive ends and three defensive tackles. He would have been battling to get a roster spot.”
“It is always disappointing when it doesn’t work out. A lot of expectations, I’m sure its disappointing for our football team, but to this point it has not worked out. You try to hit on every player and every draft pick, but for some reason, sometimes, other circumstances creep in there that don’t give you chance to be successful. The bottom line is I think it’s a great way for someone else to make an impact on this football team.”
“I don’t know. I certainly have been disappointed in the way things worked out. I believe Claude wants to do well, but he has not been able to execute. It has cost him a chance to be on this football team. Other than that, the league has made a ruling and let us know a couple days ago that he wouldn’t be eligible for the season or training camp. The cold hard fact is that we moved on and hopefully the other guys can learn from it.”
“I think there is no question. When it comes down to two people and it always starts with what kind of character the guy has. It is always the case and that moves a guy ahead of someone else. It probably limits the opportunity for the guy at a lot of places. We are now down to 80 players and you can not afford to have players not suit up.”
(What was the message you gave to the team about the upcoming season)
“Everybody has been in at different times, but there will be a message. The biggest theme, is things are going to be different. No one is making any promises right now. No one is saying what the record is going to be or how many yards we are going to have. We know what we want to do, but the expectation is going to be different. Hopefully, they get the message that it is going to different in a positive way, in terms of more success. Once you start getting confidence, you figure out a way to win on the road. One day, you win in a defensive battle and another day you shoot out offensively, as long as you figure ways to win. To me the biggest message is that we have to find that format and we have to do it as a football team.
“That’s all part of it. Your attitude and approach is that’s what you expect. We want guys to shoot for the moon and on a daily basis improve and stay focused on the job. Right now, our focus is to come into this camp and improve as a football team and come together. In nine days we are going to get on a plane to go to Tennessee and our focus is to go there and improve while getting some work against another team. Then finish and conclude with our first preseason road game there. Then we are going to come back and be focused on the remainder of the preseason games and start working our way to the home opener. There is a method to the madness.”
(On if he is superstitious)
“I’m going to find a way to do everything different this year. Last year, I had a black car, this year I have white car. I had long hair last year and this year is a crew cut. My son always goes down stairs one-way and I always go the other way. This year I switched with him. I don’t know if it’s superstitious, but I’m having fun with it. I am going to approach things in a different way. Somebody approached me and said it’s painful to watch you at the podium during such a rough year. This year I can’t tell you what it’s going to be, but we’re going to do it together. It may be in the first scrimmage when we have some laughs, but we’re going to do this together. And that’s the way I approach it.
(On what the team’s strengths are going into the season)
One of the strengths is we are undefeated right now. We have an idea of what our strengths and weaknesses are. We have a little bit of depth at the defensive line that maybe we didn’t have. We’re healthy. I like the young players that we’ve added to this football team. I think our depth; our youth has now become strength, as far as before when we were a veteran team and didn’t have the youth that you would like to see. Regardless of what I think, we are going to have to improve. Our strength right now is that there is a new recharge to our team and it is very positive. Regardless of what everybody is saying about this year because nobody knows. I don’t think anyone gave the Giants a chance to finish the year before. They started the season and lost two games, but by the end of the year they were playing the best defense and they won a Super Bowl. Their quarterback played better than any quarterback in the NFL in the playoffs. Who knows how this year is going to go. I would like to have some kind of magic carpet ride like that myself. We’re going to have some great games and we’re going to have some games when people are going to think what the hell are they doing. But you just have to keep playing with a fresh attitude.