Rocco Recaps First Half of Spring Practice
4/6/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Battling the ever-changing weather conditions, the Flames took to the turf at Williams Stadium, Monday afternoon, for their eighth practice of 15 this spring.
Under dropping temperatures and blustery winds throughout the two-hour practice, the Flames hit the midway point of their spring workout sessions.
The Flames did their first live scrimmaging of the spring, which ended up showcasing the abilities of Liberty's defense. "I thought the defense had a lot of energy tonight and they outperformed the offense," said head coach Danny Rocco of his blue-clad defensive unit. "However, it was encouraging to see our offense bounce back at the end of practice during our final drills."
Tomorrow, the Flames will host their first of two night practices this week, as Liberty will be "on the line" at 7:30 p.m., inside Williams Stadium. As part of LibertyFlames.com's continual coverage of the 2009 spring practice season, the web site will be sitting down to interview assistant coach Marshall Roberts, as part of its practice recap.
Roberts made a bit of a transition during the offseason, as the sixth-year assistant coach moved from coaching the entire defensive backfield to just the cornerbacks. The Abington, Pa., native also undertook a new responsibility, as he now heads up the Flames' highly powered special teams unit.
Coach's Corner with Head Coach Danny Rocco
When asked was he pleased with the performance of his squad so far during spring practice:
"We are not where we want to be, as we have a long way to go. The most significant thing that I told them today after practice was that they have shown me signs of everything I need to see.
"I've seen flashes of brilliance and all the signs that we need to have in order to be successful. But we do not have a consistent group of performers right now. We need to see a consistency of effort, enthusiasm and performance, which is an area where we need to show marked improvement if we want to be a good football program."
When asked to talk about the units and players who are performing well midway through spring practice:
"I'm really pleased with our defensive line and their performance, as that group has a lot of depth. Secondly, our linebackers are really playing well and finally, even though we have some guys injured, we are getting excellent play from our two corners."
"Donald Manns and Tim Torrence are playing some of their best football right now and Chuck Duffey and Larry Clairborne are looking strong at safety. We are hoping to get Chris Rocco back soon and solidify this already strong unit."
When asked about coaching a young squad during spring ball and if the coaching staff needed to change up its normal spring practice routine to teach this younger group:
"To be quite frank, I've run more plays this spring. I think these guys need to be out there just running plays, so we have been snapping more team plays, as we try to get our play count up. I'm doing this so that by the end of the spring, they will have had a lot of repetition, in terms of running the plays we will be running next year. I've adjusted some things, but not greatly. There is a lot of teaching and fundamentals that go into our practices, but we have increased the number of team plays we are running out here."
When asked to remark on what the coaching staff is going to focus on during the second half of spring practice, leading up to next Saturday's spring game:
"As we move through our progression, we will go into our short yardage offensive and defensive sets tomorrow, while we will see some goal line and red zone plays by the weekend. Come Saturday, in theory, we will have all the facets of our game plan in play. Then, we will be able to have some more comprehensive scrimmages during the final week of practice."
When asked who he thought was going to come out on top of tonight's NCAA Men's Basketball Championship game between Michigan State and North Carolina:
"I guess I have to pull for UNC, as I've really enjoyed them all year long. I really enjoy ACC basketball, which I have for a very long time. I graduated from Wake Forest and I've coached at three ACC schools. North Carolina is a really exciting looking group, but I have to admit that I picked Pittsburgh to win the whole thing. That ended up being a bad pick for me and I let my heart get the best of me on that decision."
Under dropping temperatures and blustery winds throughout the two-hour practice, the Flames hit the midway point of their spring workout sessions.
The Flames did their first live scrimmaging of the spring, which ended up showcasing the abilities of Liberty's defense. "I thought the defense had a lot of energy tonight and they outperformed the offense," said head coach Danny Rocco of his blue-clad defensive unit. "However, it was encouraging to see our offense bounce back at the end of practice during our final drills."
Tomorrow, the Flames will host their first of two night practices this week, as Liberty will be "on the line" at 7:30 p.m., inside Williams Stadium. As part of LibertyFlames.com's continual coverage of the 2009 spring practice season, the web site will be sitting down to interview assistant coach Marshall Roberts, as part of its practice recap.
Roberts made a bit of a transition during the offseason, as the sixth-year assistant coach moved from coaching the entire defensive backfield to just the cornerbacks. The Abington, Pa., native also undertook a new responsibility, as he now heads up the Flames' highly powered special teams unit.
Coach's Corner with Head Coach Danny Rocco
When asked was he pleased with the performance of his squad so far during spring practice:
"We are not where we want to be, as we have a long way to go. The most significant thing that I told them today after practice was that they have shown me signs of everything I need to see.
"I've seen flashes of brilliance and all the signs that we need to have in order to be successful. But we do not have a consistent group of performers right now. We need to see a consistency of effort, enthusiasm and performance, which is an area where we need to show marked improvement if we want to be a good football program."
When asked to talk about the units and players who are performing well midway through spring practice:
"I'm really pleased with our defensive line and their performance, as that group has a lot of depth. Secondly, our linebackers are really playing well and finally, even though we have some guys injured, we are getting excellent play from our two corners."
"Donald Manns and Tim Torrence are playing some of their best football right now and Chuck Duffey and Larry Clairborne are looking strong at safety. We are hoping to get Chris Rocco back soon and solidify this already strong unit."
When asked about coaching a young squad during spring ball and if the coaching staff needed to change up its normal spring practice routine to teach this younger group:
"To be quite frank, I've run more plays this spring. I think these guys need to be out there just running plays, so we have been snapping more team plays, as we try to get our play count up. I'm doing this so that by the end of the spring, they will have had a lot of repetition, in terms of running the plays we will be running next year. I've adjusted some things, but not greatly. There is a lot of teaching and fundamentals that go into our practices, but we have increased the number of team plays we are running out here."
When asked to remark on what the coaching staff is going to focus on during the second half of spring practice, leading up to next Saturday's spring game:
"As we move through our progression, we will go into our short yardage offensive and defensive sets tomorrow, while we will see some goal line and red zone plays by the weekend. Come Saturday, in theory, we will have all the facets of our game plan in play. Then, we will be able to have some more comprehensive scrimmages during the final week of practice."
When asked who he thought was going to come out on top of tonight's NCAA Men's Basketball Championship game between Michigan State and North Carolina:
"I guess I have to pull for UNC, as I've really enjoyed them all year long. I really enjoy ACC basketball, which I have for a very long time. I graduated from Wake Forest and I've coached at three ACC schools. North Carolina is a really exciting looking group, but I have to admit that I picked Pittsburgh to win the whole thing. That ended up being a bad pick for me and I let my heart get the best of me on that decision."
Wednesday, May 13
Thursday, May 07
Thursday, April 30
Friday, April 24