University of Richmond Athletics
Spider Football Spring Practice Review With Coach Rocco
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. – With spring practice now complete, RichmondSpiders.com recently sat down with head football coach Danny Rocco to discuss the team coming out of this past Saturday’s annual spring game.
Among the topics of discussion with Rocco was the outlook on the team as a whole coming out of spring, as well as how each position group has shaped up out of practice and headed in to the summer.
Coach Rocco on the team coming out of spring practice…
“I was pretty pleased with how we finished. There was a period of time in February and March that I was a little concerned with the lack of depth we had at certain positions for spring football. We had to make some adjustments in our schedule. A couple of the positions were really thin, so we didn’t want to risk setting the whole spring practice schedule behind if one guy got injured and it not allow us to continue to go team and 11-on-11. We got in to the spring game and I thought the guys played well, played with a lot of energy. I thought it was a physical game. I think we prepared them well enough even with the limited number of live scrimmage plays during practices. I remain very optimistic. Many of those guys that were injured during the spring will be back with us here in June and then with this incoming recruiting class, help is on the way.”
Coach Rocco on the quarterbacks…
“I really enjoyed watching the competition. It was a little unnerving early on knowing that we only had two quarterbacks in camp. Losing our quarterbacks from last year really put us in the situation where we didn’t have a lot of depth. I thought both Kyle Lauletta and David Broadus responded well. We threw an awful lot at them. Coach Charlie Fisher did a great job with getting them to take charge and take the lead in learning the offense, learning the language, making the communication and the calls. There was a day about a third of the way through spring that both David and Kyle came in to my office and wanted to share with me some of their concerns with how fast we were moving through everything. I told them in that moment that I certainly appreciated what they were saying but that we weren’t slowing down. We need to get this in. We will all be better off for getting in as much as we could. I wanted to get it all on tape. I wanted the players to be able to see themselves execute the offense on tape and I wanted us to get the volume of the installation on tape. Now we have a very good library of video to study – to study both the personnel and the system. I thought Lauletta was a little more accurate this spring. David threw the ball well, though. Definitely a strong arm and good with some of his shots down the field. His accuracy has improved significantly. I think both quarterbacks are suited to be more under center as opposed to being in the shotgun formation. I think both quarterbacks will continue to develop at a good rate as we head in to the summer months.”
Coach Rocco on the running backs…
“Seth Fisher was out for the spring and we all know that Seth has had a legitimate career here and has had big performances for us in some of our bigger games. It was obvious to me all winter long that Jacobi Green was on a mission and he went out there and put together a complete spring. Ran with explosiveness. I think that he’s a better runner when we are under center as opposed to when we are in the shotgun formation. He gets the ball a little deeper in the backfield and has the opportunity to see things, make better cuts. He’s a versatile, dynamic football player. Gordon Collins showed that he’s a big, physical, hard-running back that has enough speed to get the ball to the edge. Jeremiah Hamlin really came on as the spring ended. I thought he played well in the spring game. He finds a way to get those extra yards. It’s one of those interesting things, a guy like Hamlin will always be better in games because he’s harder to tackle. T.J. Moon did well despite being a little injured. He’s a big body that can block at the point of attack, can catch, pass protect and carry the ball, but with the runners we have he’s become more of a goal line type of back. James Pavik continues to do well. He can go in to a game at any time at the fullback position and be a player for us. Ganon Hingst was a guy that got some touches in the spring and continued to develop his skill set. I definitely think running back will be a position of strength.”
Coach Rocco on the wide receivers…
“Reggie Diggs and Brian Brown are really special. They are both candidates for first-team all-conference and when you’re first team in this league, you’re a candidate for All-American consideration, so that’s the type of player both of these guys are. Reggie was intense all spring. He was competitive and battled every day. Brian just continues to get better – he’s smooth, athletic, deceivingly fast. He’s effortless when he runs. We lost Jarmal Bevels to injury, which is disappointing and that injury can set him back for a better part of a year. Porter Abell got off to a great start this spring. It looked like the light went on and he took that first big step forward. Had an injury, which limited him, but I thought he finished really well. He’s going to be a viable, go-to guy for us. Caleb Drake, who moved from quarterback to receiver, is arguably the fastest player on the team. He can get down the field and he started to catch the ball a little more consistently later. He’s explosive and you can hand the ball off to him on some of those jet sweeps. Dashon Tibbs is a good football player. He was consistent all spring long. Last summer going in to camp, we really thought he was going to surface and he got hurt. That allowed us or forced us to play Bevels. But if Dashon had not gotten hurt, I don’t think we would have even played Bevels last year because Tibbs would have held down that spot. Will McCombs was out this spring so we will see how he returns this summer. Adam Sahd had to play this spring and he gets the big third-down conversion in the spring game to ice it for the offense. Josh Murray had an injury but fortunately it wasn’t to severe and he’ll be fine in a couple of weeks.”
Coach Rocco on the tight ends…
“This was a position that I was really excited about. This was the one position on the team where you were asking yourself are we going to have enough talent to perform at a level that was consistent with the level that we performed at the year before. This was a position that I wasn’t really sure how it was going to play out, but I honestly think that at the end of the spring that this was the most improved position on our football team. Coach Bill Polin did a really good job with this group. Nick Holloway is probably the guy who would start the game right now. He’s a big, tall, athletic tight end that I thought got better as a run blocker. Garrett Hudson, a transfer from North Carolina, is a nice athlete, has a good body. I thought he showed signs of being able to block at the point of attack. Definitely showed signs of being able to catch and run down the field. Stephon Jacob, although he missed almost two weeks with an injury, he’s a guy with a really explosive body. He’s got a lot of upside. Right off the bat, I think all three can go in to a game and play for us. We could play with two tight ends and we could play with three. We have one more coming in with this freshman class to give us some more depth and Pavik can always go in there and give us another physical body. All in all, I was pleased with what they were able to accomplish and hopefully they can continue to improve over the summer since this is a really young group.”
Coach Rocco on the offensive line…
“The exciting thing for me about the o-line is that we really had four guys coming back that I considered to be starters. We moved Nicholas Vergos to center and then he was recognized as the most improved player taking over a very important position, replacing a player that started there the last four years and then doing it at a high level. That gives us Thomas Evans and Caleb High at the guard positions and they have numerous, double-digit starts under their belts. Nick Ritcher was as healthy as he’s ever been and he was as athletic as I had ever seen him this spring. That was all very encouraging so the thing we had to do was find that fifth starter at right tackle, with Ritcher playing left tackle. Patrick Kliebert and Alex Light are the two guys that are really competing for that position. They both are uniquely different. Kliebert is a really smart, really big kid that uses his size to his advantage. Light is a big body, but he’s really athletic. We went through the spring and coach Blaine McCorkle rotated those two and I thought we got a pretty fair balance between the two. So those are the firs six guys on a five-man line. Marius Young is ready to be a spot player for us at center and guard. Blane Markham and Jared Coker came on well, but they are still young players, just freshmen. I’m optimistic with what they can do. We moved Josh Hess in to guard and I thought that it was a really good move. He was more consistent at guard than he was at tackle. I still think we might be a player shy in the o-line, but we have a good number of freshmen coming in this fall. Hopefully this young group of back-ups can do a good job developing this summer so they can be one step closer when the fall rolls around.”
Coach Rocco on the defensive line…
“The defensive line is a position that we really took a huge hit in with graduation. It was an issue and it was something that I was concerned about coming in to the spring. It really forced us to play a lot more of the 3-4 defense because of the lack of depth – we only had six healthy defensive linemen out there this spring so to be in a four-man front, you wouldn’t be even two deep. So we decided to play 3-4 and have a group of three defensive linemen two deep so we could continue to run subs in and out and have first and second team defenses. All six guys had good springs and I’m real pleased with that. Winston Craig is a primetime player. I think Winston is the same caliber player as Kerry Wynn was for us. Gary Wortham had a good spring. He’s a prototypical nose tackle and the 3-4 was a really easy transition for him. He got off to a good start and plays with a good base and good balance. Andrew Clyde and Nick Velardo really showed up well at the other end position. Both showed signs of being able to be players for us. The surprise or the bonus of the spring was Devin Cook, the transfer from Pitt. He showed some signs of being a gifted edge player and a gifted pass rusher. He’ll be a significant contributor for us in the fall. Brandon Waller was out for the spring. He came on real strong at the end of last year. He’ll be competing for a starting role when we get back. Kieno Jones was out for the spring and he’ll offer us some depth when he gets back. DeAnthony Muse competed real well behind Wortham at the nose guard position and I thought he really came on as the spring went on. We have four d-linemen coming in with the freshmen class and I wouldn’t be surprised if we can’t get one or two of them ready to go.”
Coach Rocco on the linebackers…
“The biggest thing for us that happened at linebacker was that we were able to settle in on what could be a starting corps at the inside position. With Eric Wright graduating, we needed to replace that spot and that person was Selton Hodge, who was named most improved for the defense. With Omar Howard, who was elected team captain, and Hodge inside, I feel like we were able to come out of the spring with a good, solid confidence with the play of our inside linebackers. Trey Moore had a really good spring at the outside linebacker position. Trevor Jones had a really good spring at the bandit position until he got hurt. That group of four is a group that I feel we can play with and win with. The neat thing is the depth we have. Kieran Gregory was out for the spring but will challenge for a starting outside position. David Norris, a transfer from UAB, was able to step in when Trevor Jones went down. We were fortunate with our depth that even with injuries, we were able to put a good product out there. Dale Matthews and Chad Wiggins have both showed signs of being able to be good inside linebackers in our system. All in all, that was an area that needed some attention and I thought the guys that had to step up really did find a way.”
Coach Rocco on the defensive backs…
“The corner position is as good as we’ve ever been. We have two seniors in Ayo Ogunniyi and Dominique Miller that both have played a lot of football. Tafon Mainsah and Jarriel Jordan had really good springs. We’re as fast as we’ve ever been at corner and those kids competed all spring long. I was very encouraged with that. At safety, David Herlocker as out for the spring so that gave David Jones and Charles Mack the first-string reps and they played like veterans. I thought coach Bob Trott did a great job with those kids. I didn’t think there was much drop-off from what we had a year ago. Brendan Coniker really shined as spring went on. He had a big interception in the spring game and a couple big hits. Logan Sedergren showed some signs early that he can play both safety and the bandit position. We were able to move Tim Thomas from corner to safety and he came on really well. His ability to go back and forth will give us the opportunity to have a little more depth.”
Coach Rocco on special teams…
“When you lose a good amount of senior players and you head in to the next season, one of the areas that you want to be solid in and gain an edge in is the kicking game. I really feel good about how we were able to come out of the spring with our special teams. D.J. Helkowski continues to show that he could be an all-conference caliber player. Graham Latham, our long snapper, was hurt but we were able to protect him so that he could still compete this spring. Peter Yoder had the best snapshot of play this spring since he’s been here. Late in spring he was put in to a position to hit some long field goals in scrimmage situations and he nailed them. All three of those guys are high-level players and Griffin Trau gives us some depth at kicker. I really wanted to address our return specialists this spring. We sent more time on that this spring than we have in the past. At kickoff return, we can run out Green and Hamlin out there and feel really good about that. At punt return, both Green and Brown did a good job for us back there. These are some areas that we are really going to try and gain an edge in.”
The Richmond Spiders football team will open the 2015 season on the road in College Park, Md. against Big Ten foe Maryland on September 5.
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