Play Four Quarters of Complementary Football | Press Conference

Play Four Quarters of Complementary Football | Press Conference

uh did an outstanding job um you know for a Wednesday practice go out there and after our meeting this morning you know talking about what direction we’re heading how we’re going to do some things on a day-to-day basis some little tweaks we might have made to a schedule or how we’re going to practice with timing certain things like that I think they all bought in to what we wanted to get done today and um it was a really good tempo I was really pleased with how the players uh started the day with the walkth through you know after the meetings went to the first walkthrough before we came back out But, uh, you know, it’s a beautiful day out here and I think the players really did a nice job. So, happy with that. With regards to the injuries, um, we rested a couple guys today. Uh, Jeff, Tyler, and then Zitler, though, those three guys rested. Uh, you will find out later today when we put the report out on all the other injuries. And as we go moving forward too, is, you know, we talk about the injuries. It’s going to be, you know, a day-to-day thing with everybody. We don’t we’re going to always try to every week try to get everybody as healthy as possible to play on Sundays and sometimes with players uh and in this I’ll say this now like where where I’m standing now um as a leader of the organization you know you learn about guys and certain guys fight through things and there’s certain things that come up so it’s just every player is going to be different so um I’ll try to share as much information as I can with you but also we got to wait till Sunday sometimes to make those decisions so open that up to questions. Can you give us a few examples of what kind of tweaks you’ve made? Well, just um we just adjusted a couple of, you know, we a little bit longer in individual period. Um kind of how we went out today um and the tempo with that we wanted kind of explained to the guys what I wanted to get done for a Wednesday after, you know, being away for a couple days, things like that. Um you know, some of the timing we had in the meetings, things like that that we went through and they had to kind of rush a little bit because I went a little longer in the team meeting today, but I think they did an outstanding job today. What was your overall message, I guess, like to to the team about how things going to be from this point forward? Well, I kind of just talk to the team after talking to the staff about uh the direction we’re headed and there’s a lot of football left. We got uh a very good football team coming here this weekend. So, we got to prepare for them. Number one, that was the big thing. But, you know, how we want to play, you know, I want these guys to play hard. I want them to play tough and I want them to stick together. And that that’s the big thing. very similar to what I talked to you guys about the other day of, you know, everyone playing together. We got to play some complimentary football here. All three phases coming together on Sunday. What was your sort of level of interaction with the players in your previous role, Mike? And how might that change now as coach? Well, now I’m involved with the entire roster. It was more I was with the offense and with everybody really. I kind of roamed around in my role um for what Brian wanted me to do and how he wanted me to help the team. So, I kind of roamed all around. So, now, yeah, I will have um I’ll be in all the different meetings. I’ll kind of rotate around uh be in the special teams meetings, be, you know, offense, defense meetings, and as you guys probably saw today, I was over there with some defensive individual drills. So, you started off the players themselves, I guess. Did you have a I guess I’m I’m trying to figure you have more interaction more with the coaches previously or or a lot with the players. No, I think I with it’s a combination of both really. You know, I I love to get to know the players because it’s all about the players. So, the more you Now, I was obviously involved in the offensive side of the ball, but there was plenty of things we did during the offseason program or during practice time we spend with the defensive guys that you get to know them. But, uh I think it’s great when you get to know a little bit a little bit about, you know, the players you have. And we got a great group of guys. We really do. We got a great group um they’ve done a great job um of coming together. And so you like the DBs during the individual. Any significance to that? No, I just like to roam around and uh you know I’m I’ve always been on the offensive side of the ball besides the four years as you know when I was in San Diego. So it’s it’s great to go over there and you know I learn things from those guys. You know watching the coaches coach and how they’re explaining certain things. you pick some things up and it’s great to learn from them. You would say up tempo in practice and how do you want to see that translate game? Well, I think it’s important to practice the way you want to play and you know, we did we had a great tempo in practice today and getting in and out of the huddle and uh because you’re going to you got to you’re going to play the way you practice and you know my job is to make sure that we push these guys so that they play the way we want them to play. And so, uh they did a great job today. Mike, I’m curious, this offense was supposed to have a lot of the things that Ward did in college implemented it. Where are you in the RPO game? Cuz it’s not something that we’ve seen a lot of. What are your thoughts on adding more to Well, I we we have a game this week that we’re game planning for and I can’t give you too much information on that. I wish I could because I’m not going to come out and say we’re doing this, we’re playing that, we’re doing this. Um because, you know, obviously they’re going to watch this and so if I make a bunch of comments about certain different scheme, doesn’t matter what the scheme is, uh they’re going to take advantage of that. So, I’m not going to really comment too much right now on all the philosophical things on what we want to do with Cam. What would you say your style as a coach is? Are you do you like to be aggressive, play it more conservatively? How do you in terms of like going for fourth downs or in terms of your play the play calling and things like that? I like to win. Do whatever it takes to win really when you when you ask that because every team is different when you coach it from year in and year out. So, it changes. What are the strengths of your football team? Who are you playing? What’s the score of the game? What’s the weather like? Is it a field position game where you sometimes you might think, “Oh, everyone wants you to go for it, but it’s a field position game, so you punt it and you play the field position game.” Or there’s a certain game where, you know, you have to score touchdowns to beat this team. You can’t just kick field goals, you know, and score x number of points because, you know, more often you look at just the track record of certain offenses, they’re going to score x number of points. So that that’s going to change from week to week. Um and you know when things work and you win games, it’s not questioned. If it’s if you if you lose a game and you didn’t do something, you know, someone’s always going to question that. So you know we’re going to go into every plan. We’re going to have a plan week in and week out and it’s going to change from week to week. It’s the same thing defensively, offensively of what we’re going to do, how we’re going to attack team or in the kicking game. Um so that’s kind of hard to answer to say it’s only going to be this or it’s only going to be that. It’s, you know, how is your offense playing? how is your defense playing? You know, where how is your kicking game going? You know, where where do you need to get to to attempt a field goal? So, there’s so many things that’s going to go into that week in and week out. Um, I know I kind of run ran your answer, but that that’s kind of the truth. But this is obviously going to be a big game for for you, but it’s also a big game for other guys on this roster with Mike Greyel coming back. How would you like them to kind of handle that part of it and and approach the this this Sunday going against Mike? Go play. Go play, go cut it loose, go have fun. Uh, like I talked about, um, you know, stick together, you know, play four quarters of complimentary football. That’s how that’s the most important thing. And it’s the next one on the schedule. We got to go out there and play our best game of the year. That that’s that’s going to be the goal every week. I’m going to tell this team, regardless of who we’re playing, it’s it’s going to be about us. We got to go out there and, you know, we’re gonna um, you know, we had a great practice today, Wednesday, first or second down stuff. We got to keep grinding away. This is a very, as you guys know, a very well coached football team. I was with Josh McDaniels in Denver um for the two years there um years back in 2009 and 10. So, he’s a very good football coach, too. So, we know what uh we know a lot about these guys. So, we got to go out there and play our best game, take care of ourselves, number one change versus the knowledge that that you don’t have a training camp either, that it’s it’s a very short amount of time to turn things around here, I guess. In which ways? in in terms of you know wanting to implement any changes that you want to bring to the team versus the reality that you don’t have a full training camp instead you just got you know a few days to that you know you do that um as a head coach you make changes every season during the year you know whether you change the style of practice you have um you know how you rest certain players uh how is the what’s the health of your football team so that always happens uh you go into a game plan, you add certain things against the team that you see a scheme. So that’s normal. That’s nothing nothing new. So what’s your general philosophy about analytics? They’re there to help us. Um they’re a guide, you know, when you talk about those things. But going back to the earlier question about the situations, are you aggressive certain things? It’s like, you know, what is the flow of the game? How are you playing? We always take that and our our guys do a great job with all that. You know, we have uh the meeting with with um with Rob every week and talking about all the situations that come up and you know the percentages, things like that. But sometimes you got to go with your gut on how your team’s playing. Uh there’s plenty of times that teams go completely against them, you know, and and are very successful with them. So, it’s a tool to use. Um and we will always uh use those to our advantage. Um, but we’re going to always look at also how is our team playing and go from there. Going back to facing going back to facing the Patriots this week, what stands out about the way that Drake man is playing right now? Well, you know, uh, Josh is a great football coach. Like I mentioned to you, I was in Denver with them. So, he’s been very successful um, with a number of quarterbacks that he’s played with and he’s playing very efficient just how I think uh, Coach Variable and Josh want him to play. How good did he get swept back? How you think he looked? And I guess will the plan be just to kind of monitor him through the week to see how he is? Yeah, we’re definitely going to monitor him to see how he is. Um it’s important to make sure that he’s ready to go. Uh he looked great out here. U but we’re just going to take it one day at a time with him and see how he feels and uh I I haven’t talked to him, you know, since we finished practice, but we’ll talk to him uh later on today and then we’ll come out the next couple days and just kind of see how he is um come Sunday. Last one. Mike, what’s the biggest areas of improvement in your eyes for Ken now that you’ve seen him through a six game sample size? Well, like like we talked about the other day, um it’s going to be every week he’s going to learn something new and it’s going to be a rookie quarterback. It’s tough. No doubt about it. It’s the hardest position to play and I’ve told him a number of times in the last couple days that I’ve seen him, it’s just keep plugging along. It’s just one day at a time. Keep getting better. Cam has a burning desire to be great. A burning desire to be great. And the key thing I always tell him, just trust the system and go out there and be you. Have fun. Uh be be camp. Have him here for the duration of your career as much as possible. But how does this change for you that now that the change has been made? Um I think from a day-to-day process, it really doesn’t change anything. not only from my myself to the other players on the team. Uh we still have our routines, the install, the game plan that we go through. Um nothing’s really changed. I think the the biggest thing just you feel for him just cuz like what he’s done for me to get to this point. Um just through the draft prep prep, through the the offseason training camp work, you know, how he’s helped me get to this point. Um and so I feel for him, but I mean just from a process standpoint, nothing changes for us. What’s your relationship been like with Mike up at this point and maybe how what how you things going moving forward with him as the as the coach? Well, it’s been good. Um he’s one of the first people to greet me um once I came in on my visit here during my 30 visits. Um and he’s had, you know, history with good quarterbacks. Got a chance to work with with Philip Rivers over there. Um and then just the the attitude that he brings to just the the team, the the building, and he wants us to play winning football. He’s going to get that out of us. Um and so you know we just got to buy in come in together uh you know with with coach and make plays for each other. Is it important for you Cam that as you said not that much changes cuz Bo was still calling the players and and did they try to keep things as much routine as possible around you even in this time of change? I don’t understand it. You know Bo was still the play caller. Uh so that doesn’t change. Is that important in keeping the continuity of for you and the offense that not too much changes in that regard even though Brian’s no longer here? Um uh I just it’s the same thing we’ve been doing the past couple weeks um ever since we made the the play calling change. So it it really doesn’t change our operation. It’s just more of us trying to do things the the right way in practice and translate to the game. Now said there were some things that he wanted to tweak uh during individual period. I know it’s only been one, but what are your thoughts on those changes? And do you feel how much do you feel that’s going to help you? Uh, I think it’s good. It’s going to help a lot of us, not only myself, just more individual time with our coach, just getting the fundamentals right. Um, whether it’s defense, offense, and I think it’s going to help us as we get into our to our team units and practice. I think it’s going to help us in the game. Has he discussed with you at all about like being more secure with the football? Cuz that was something that he brought up in freshman. um he discussed it enough um and he doesn’t have to discuss it with me. I know that that’s my job. Um ball security is job security as a quarterback. So um I know uh you know the turnovers can’t be a main thing for myself. Um something I got to continue to clean up. Did you made you maybe drift off your midline um and throw off your back foot or going backwards more in that game than you had? And how frustrating is it to fall into some of that stuff when you’re working on it on a daily basis? Um, I didn’t think I was throwing off my back foot a lot unless you can tell me a play. Um, but I made it may have slipped up because whether I have to move in the pocket or whether it’s getting out or stepping up. Um, but the end day I have to be accurate with the football. I have to give my receivers a chance to make plays for us and give them a chance to go score touchdowns. How about drifting? Uh, I just think it’s more of a feel in the pocket that I have whether it’s drifting to check the ball down. Um then also it’s something that you know I’ve had throughout college and that’s something I’m trying to clean up just less of it. Um and then also at times when I need to feel like the change with Brian was necessary. Did you feel like that change had to be made? Um it’s really not for me to say. Um that’s not my thing in the building. My job is to play quarterback. My job is to help lead this team to win. So um I’m going to support whatever decision we make. The guys in the locker room are going to support it. Um, but at the end of the day, um, with coach and without coach, like we’re trying to win football games. That’s the main message that, you know, coach Mike is, uh, preaching. We just got to live by, stay true to it. How would you describe what the locker room’s reaction has been since the change? Uh, it’s been, you know, good from a from a person standpoint, from nobody dragging in, nobody um, feeling sorry for themselves or what our record is. Um, cuz the only way is up for us. You know, we we put oursel in a hole, you know, these first couple games. We got to dig oursel out of this hole. Um, so you know, we still got, you know, high energy. Um, the locker room is great. You know, we just got to continue to try to put games together and try to win. Cam, how do you feel like guys responded today practice? You guys talked after the game in Vegas about not having practice week last week. I think we responded real well. Um, especially just offensively from the urgency level to the play calls, um, getting out the huddle faster to the to myself operational wise getting to the line of scrimmage and making the checks that we need to to snap the ball. Um, but I think we’re we’re trending in the right direction, but we just got to make it happen faster. A little bit about your relationship with Mike. How would you describe his coaching style now he’s been with you on a day-to-day basis since you’ve been here? Uh, I think it’s it’s even kill. He he never gets too high or too low. Um, even throughout the sideline, you can see him on the game. His facial expression never changes. Um, he’s always the one to, you know, pick someone up if we need it. Um, now he’s just in a in a more vocal role um that he was just in. And I think it’s going to be, you know, great for us. I think it’s going to be great for us as a offense and just at the end of the day, we going to rally behind him and try to get some wins. A conflict between playing up tempo which creates more of an offensive game, right? More plays and trying to maybe reduce the game for a rookie quarterback and not have you guys play more plays. Could that be some of what’s going on with the more tempo, less tempo thing? Playing more tempo Sorry, you guys playing at a higher tempo is seems to be good for you. You like it, but it creates a lot more plays. And one of the things teams tend to do with a rookie quarterback is try to run the ball and slow a game down so rookie quarterback doesn’t have to play so many plays. Do those two things are are they maybe in conflict? I don’t think they’re in conflict. I think it’s more of, you know, us getting good at getting great at the things that we’re good at. I think um that’s the biggest thing. and whether we’re going to play uptempo or slow it down when we need to. I just think the we got to run the ball, you know, efficient. We got to have a, you know, efficient pass game. I think we haven’t been consistent at it the whole year. Um, so once we get consistent at that, I think just everything else take care of itself. Not anymore. You spoke pretty explicitly with us during the preseason about wanting continuity for your career. Does it frustrate you that just 6 weeks in you’ve lost that? Um, it doesn’t frustrate me. I’ve dealt with coaching changes at really every stop I’ve had, you know, in my past. So, that’s not uh I’m not frustrated with that. Um, the biggest thing is we’re trying to score points as a offense. Um, our defense, they’re they’re playing hard for us each and every game. They’re the reason why we’re in a lot of these games in the fourth quarter to win it. Um, us 11 on our side of the ball. We just got to do our part. We haven’t done that enough to win these games. So, um, that’s the biggest, you know, thing that we’re trying to focus on as offense. score points for the defense and win some games. Cam, what who qualities would you prefer? What would I prefer to head coach? Um, somebody who can really do everything from top to bottom. And that’s both sides of the ball, offense, defense. They know the they know the the system in and out. Um, and I think the biggest thing is how is the coach going to be with the players? Like how is he going to, you know, camarad the locker room? Um, you have all different types of personalities in our locker room and you know, whoever we get, I know they’ll be the right hire. Um, but that’s not really my main focus right now. I’m with Coach McCoy right now. We going to try to win some games. K, I’m curious the time with Eric Mars that you spent that having to move on to another coach. Was there anything that transition that that you could bring from that experience to this one after getting close to Callahan and now moving on to Michael? Um, I think from my past when I had different coaches, I had to learn new names. Here, I don’t really got to learn no new names right now. Um, but I think I think the the biggest thing is when you go through something like that is just how is the team going to be? How’s the team going to stay together? Um, even in the situation we in, we’re one to five. Um, but the end of the day, we got nothing to lose. We have everything to gain no matter who we play. Um, and so we just got to prove that to ourselves every Sunday. in the story in the story that came out from the Athletic told the reporter that, you know, to put it nicely, the league would be on notice once you once you once you played the way you want to play, what what does playing the way you want to play look like? Um, just from uh I say the biggest thing just from a uh how can I put it? the the freess of it, the the fluidity of the game from operation standpoint to my liking um to getting out of the huddle. And I think the the biggest thing is just, you know, me being better every play. Um I haven’t played my best ball. Um and I think just once I’m, you know, playing to my standard that I put on myself, um you know, it’ll be able to take care of a lot of stuff on offense. Cute bit more your individual play as opposed to in a system that fit you better.

Titans Interim HC Mike McCoy and QB Cam Ward address reporters on Wednesday at Ascension Saint Thomas Sports Park.

00:00 – 10:53 Interim HC Mike McCoy
10:54 – 20:17 QB Cam Ward

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