08-23-2023, 06:46 PM
Ok, I will go through it chronologically and you can go through the journey with me. You can look at Ben Parker's YouTube channel for a better sense of when interviews were conducted (figure a several day lag from time of interview to time of posting and then another several days until I have time to dissect). As a reminder, due to subscription site policies I am posting reactions to interviews that have been posted online and not to those only available on the 247 site, which includes some good ones (per the question above, that includes April). First up, Taylor's first press availability of camp:
* One still gets the sober, patient, process-oriented, culture-building vibe from Taylor as from previous interviews. There were aspects where I wasn't sure if the tone had subtly shifted from earlier comments now that the season is fast approaching and things are getting a bit more real, but it also occurs to me that I'm still getting to know Taylor's tics and tells. While we've seen a fair amount of him by now, this is the first preseason camp and I don't want to read too much into verbiage, body language, and tone. That's especially the case as, this being a process-oriented coach and this being the first day, a lot of the substance of what he said was banal coach speak about good energy and being where you'd expect on the first day.
* The spiel about still getting to know the players and the players getting acclimated to the culture and the system is a reminder about how new all of this is. There may be a temptation among fans to view the acclimating as having taken place over the last 8-9 months and wanting to see progress and the real Taylor team in action but we should probably resist that urge. It's still very early days and the culture builder in chief doesn't feel like he or his players are acclimated yet. Him being who he is I imagine he'll never sound like he/we have fully arrived but this was something different, a clear sense he doesn't yet feel like he knows his players or that they know his system.
* The discussion of how fast it takes for a team to grasp what they're doing was interesting. I think I can detect a hopefulness but uncertainty in Taylor's comments that the team can turn that corner quickly. He noted that "it can definitely happen in the first year" but also implicit was that it doesn't always and some teams are slower in turning around than others. The substance of the subsequent comments focused on trained instinct and being able to play without thinking. That part of the interview left me thinking that Taylor thinks there's a chance but that there's still work to do and he's not sure how quickly things can click.
* It's always somewhat interesting when somebody answers a question they think they hear and/or want to answer rather than what was answered. An example of that was Ben's question about points of emphasis and groundwork/foundation, which for some reason Taylor started with a reflection on depth compared to the spring. To me that reinforces (recall many, many spring data points to this effect) that Taylor didn't feel he had a real team this spring and is looking forward to coaching with more than one RB/seven OL. It seems to me Taylor answered this way because for him points of emphasis/groundwork/foundation all starts with lots and lots of practice reps, and to date we haven't been able to practice (especially on offense, which is his natural focus) with the kind of depth that facilitates what he wants to do.
* That being said, the rest of the answer to that question wasn't a dodge but rather matter of fact reiteration of coach speak (and cliches are cliche for a reason....I think he was being straightforward about the key points of emphasis not really changing) that it's about execution, mentality, and confidence. I think he focused first on depth unlocking a better situation for practice reps because that is the key variable from the spring whereas the real answer to Ben's question is that the answer on points of emphasis doesn't change for this patient, process-oriented, culture-building coach: execution, mentality, and confidence. If there was anything that jumped out as insightful from this answer it would be the confidence part. He really focused on that and gave it unique emphasis, leaving the clear impression that this is aspirational and not something we yet have. He used the phrase "legitimate confidence." This strikes me as one of the big things the last 4-5 years (which means everybody on our team) stole from the program (Shaw even reflected frequently on it in his post-mortems). We've been down to the point where the players need to rebuild a sense of legitimate confidence. I think Taylor knows this will have to come with actual on-field progress. By the way, this speaks to my most ambitious hope for the season, which is that an incredibly easy first half of the schedule could build confidence individually and collectively such that maybe this team can heal from Shaw's theft of confidence (con game?) pretty quickly.
* One still gets the sober, patient, process-oriented, culture-building vibe from Taylor as from previous interviews. There were aspects where I wasn't sure if the tone had subtly shifted from earlier comments now that the season is fast approaching and things are getting a bit more real, but it also occurs to me that I'm still getting to know Taylor's tics and tells. While we've seen a fair amount of him by now, this is the first preseason camp and I don't want to read too much into verbiage, body language, and tone. That's especially the case as, this being a process-oriented coach and this being the first day, a lot of the substance of what he said was banal coach speak about good energy and being where you'd expect on the first day.
* The spiel about still getting to know the players and the players getting acclimated to the culture and the system is a reminder about how new all of this is. There may be a temptation among fans to view the acclimating as having taken place over the last 8-9 months and wanting to see progress and the real Taylor team in action but we should probably resist that urge. It's still very early days and the culture builder in chief doesn't feel like he or his players are acclimated yet. Him being who he is I imagine he'll never sound like he/we have fully arrived but this was something different, a clear sense he doesn't yet feel like he knows his players or that they know his system.
* The discussion of how fast it takes for a team to grasp what they're doing was interesting. I think I can detect a hopefulness but uncertainty in Taylor's comments that the team can turn that corner quickly. He noted that "it can definitely happen in the first year" but also implicit was that it doesn't always and some teams are slower in turning around than others. The substance of the subsequent comments focused on trained instinct and being able to play without thinking. That part of the interview left me thinking that Taylor thinks there's a chance but that there's still work to do and he's not sure how quickly things can click.
* It's always somewhat interesting when somebody answers a question they think they hear and/or want to answer rather than what was answered. An example of that was Ben's question about points of emphasis and groundwork/foundation, which for some reason Taylor started with a reflection on depth compared to the spring. To me that reinforces (recall many, many spring data points to this effect) that Taylor didn't feel he had a real team this spring and is looking forward to coaching with more than one RB/seven OL. It seems to me Taylor answered this way because for him points of emphasis/groundwork/foundation all starts with lots and lots of practice reps, and to date we haven't been able to practice (especially on offense, which is his natural focus) with the kind of depth that facilitates what he wants to do.
* That being said, the rest of the answer to that question wasn't a dodge but rather matter of fact reiteration of coach speak (and cliches are cliche for a reason....I think he was being straightforward about the key points of emphasis not really changing) that it's about execution, mentality, and confidence. I think he focused first on depth unlocking a better situation for practice reps because that is the key variable from the spring whereas the real answer to Ben's question is that the answer on points of emphasis doesn't change for this patient, process-oriented, culture-building coach: execution, mentality, and confidence. If there was anything that jumped out as insightful from this answer it would be the confidence part. He really focused on that and gave it unique emphasis, leaving the clear impression that this is aspirational and not something we yet have. He used the phrase "legitimate confidence." This strikes me as one of the big things the last 4-5 years (which means everybody on our team) stole from the program (Shaw even reflected frequently on it in his post-mortems). We've been down to the point where the players need to rebuild a sense of legitimate confidence. I think Taylor knows this will have to come with actual on-field progress. By the way, this speaks to my most ambitious hope for the season, which is that an incredibly easy first half of the schedule could build confidence individually and collectively such that maybe this team can heal from Shaw's theft of confidence (con game?) pretty quickly.