Deleted Scenes: Learning the Ropes of the 3-4

I had a story in Sunday's Telegraph detailing how Georgia's defenders have been getting prepared to execute the 3-4 defense once spring practice begins. Obviously, the players are all pretty enthusiastic now, and Todd Grantham has some lofty goals for the next six weeks. While I tried to squeeze as much of that as I could into the story, not every quote made the cut. Here's some of what was said that didn't make its way into the story...

Darryl Gamble on what is required at the new Mike LB position...
“More communication, especially from my part. You’ve got to be able to see more, get the line and even the DBs adjusted to what’s going on in front of us.”

Gamble on the 3-4 vs. the 4-3 defense...
“It’s not very different from under front because you still have the same personnel, it’s just that the ends are standing up and you can do more things out of your four linebackers. It’s pretty much the same basics, but you can do a lot more out of it.”

Gamble on the value of having two seniors -- himself & Akeem Dent -- playing Mike...
“Me and him, we’ve got a lot of reps under our belt, more than a lot of other guys on the defense, so it’ll be better off hearing it from us than hearing from somebody else that doesn’t know a lot about what’s going on on Saturdays.”

Gamble on Warren Belin vs. John Jancek...
“He’s quieter than Coach Jancek was, but he gets his point across. He’s more reserved, but he’ll let you know if you did things wrong and still encourage you if you’re doing things right.”

Gamble on Grantham's take on position changes...
“He told us right now, ‘You’re here, but you might be somewhere else by the time camp comes around. Even after camp, you might be playing another position when the season starts.’ So we’re pretty much trying to learn everything that’s going on so you won’t be lost if there is a position change.”

Marcus Dowtin on how the 3-4 affects him at the Mo position…
“Basically, it’s very exciting to me. I’m going to be able to play free, be a lot more aggressive than I was. And Coach Grantham and Coach Belin seem like they’re going to give me a chance to really show what I’ve got. It seems to be all good things for me. I’m happy with the change and I’m happy with the progress I see us making. There’s a sense of excitement around here.”

Dowtin on how fast the team can adjust to the new scheme this spring...
“You’ll see, it’s going to be quick. The defense is not that hard. We’re getting our plays in a section at a time, and we’re going over it in detail. Guys are working together to relate it back to some of the terms and coverages we used to run. Any similarity we find or that Coach Grantham identifies, we try to spread it around to all the other guys and make sure everybody understands. It seems like it’s going to be a real easy adjustment, and out on the field, we’ve got great athletes. So it won’t be hard to adjust to the 3-4.”

Dowtin on the enthusiasm from players during offseason conditioning...
“From what they said the other day, they gave more A’s than they’ve given in a long time. The guys are really going to work, just really trying hard to impress the coaches and trying to get better. You can tell everybody’s excited around here, especially the defensive guys. We’re ready to go to where I feel Coach Grantham and the defensive staff will just let us play and let us have fun out there. Our class that’s out there now, we all came in together along with a couple of the older guys, so we’re already close-knit and we know each other like the back of our hands. So we’re just waiting to get out there and perform.”

Baccari Rambo on his work with new secondary coach Scott Lakatos...
“I try to go meet with him every day to try to learn how they coach. The meetings, me and Coach Lakatos, he’s showed me on film how the NFL players, DBs, how they train and how the coaches teach them. He said it’s going to be a similar way he’ll teach us. So I try to treat everything like it’s going to be good. I take notes on everything, because I know it’s going to help me in the long run. Coach Grantham, us meeting with him every Wednesday after mat drills and going over the defense, he’s a great coach, and I understand where he’s coming from with his play calling and stuff.”

Rambo on his excitement about the changes in scheme and technique...
“I’m getting very excited because it’s like Coach Lakatos will tell me, he had a couple of DBs work out with some trainers at the Senior Bowl, and how some of the DBs were doing a different footwork from what he was teaching his guys, and he was like, the way he was teaching his guys, that’s the way everybody in the NFL was teaching them. They had a head start on everybody. So I’m very excited. I was sitting there watching film, and by looking at the footwork and listening to the coach talk, I imagine myself making more plays than last year, if I’d done the same thing footwork-wise.”

Branden Smith on Lakatos compared to Willie Martinez…
“Coach Lakatos is real different from Coach Martinez. Both of them have their ways, just teaching different stuff. Now we’ve got to learn the things (Lakatos) is teaching us, and we’re looking forward to learning.”

Smith on the impact the new scheme will have on creating turnovers...
“I believe that we’re going to get more interceptions this year. Last year, we didn’t get that many picks, and I believe it was the scheme we were in. The scheme we’re in now, it seems like something everybody’s looking forward to – linebackers, D-backs and especially on the D line.”

Mike Bobo on what it's like to go against a 3-4…
“I think the big difficulty in the 3-4 is you have the outside backers that are backers/rush guys. As an offense, it’s hard to account – do I account for those guys as outside guys as a D lineman or as a linebacker? You’re worried about mismatches and blocking. I still want my left tackle to block that guy, but in that front, my fullback or my back might have to block that outside backer, and that’s a mismatch. So that’s where it causes some confusion for offenses is identifying personnel and trying to get the right matchup on those guys. In a 3-4, you can disguise and you don’t know where they’re coming from. You create mismatches, get to the quarterback and cause confusion.”

Mark Richt on how Georgia's current players are fitting into the new scheme...
“For the most part, I think (Grantham) feels like we’ve got enough of the right kind of body types to fill out this defense. Let’s face it, it’s about guys that will run and hit and play hard, and we’ve got those kind of guys. By the end of the spring we’ll have a better feel if there’s a certain position we might be lighter on that we should be, or maybe we’ll be heavier on one because of the recruitment of a 4-3 compared to a 3-4. But overall, we feel like we’ve got at least two deep of guys that can play at these positions.”

Richt on moving the former DEs to OLB...
“Our Will linebacker is going to be a guy who certainly can play coverage, but he’ll be coming off the edge quite often. Then when we do get into a four-down look, which we will, we’re just going to find our best pass rushers and get them on the edge. And those guys are two of our best pass rushers.”

Todd Grantham on the players' reaction to his approach...
“Players want to win and players want to make plays. They want to please the coach and have success. And as a coach, if you can make players understand that you have their interests at heart and you can make them a better player, I think they pay attention and they’ll give you the effort you need to be successful.”

Grantham on how he'll work to cross-train players...
“You need to have flexibility in your system, but the player’s got to have some flexibility because I’ve always said you evaluate your players 1 through 50, and you want to put the next best player in the game. So I think it’s important that you have players who are flexible and can adjust.”