Q&A: Purdue offensive line coach Dale Williams
More: Analysis, Day 8 ($) | 2017 spring primer, links to all spring coverage
Dale Williams didn't have a hat on during Friday's practice, the only time of the spring's first eight he wasn't wearing one.
It meant he wasn't able to throw it in frustration when one of his offensive linemen didn't follow directions or execute a certain technique.
But he still had his whistle and that went flying instead.
Williams, who spent last season under Jeff Brohm at Western Kentucky, is trying to find the line of teaching new techniques to a relatively inexperienced group vs. demanding much.
How's it going? Williams spoke with reporters for the first time since he was hired after Friday's practice.
GoldandBlack.com: What are the challenges with an inexperienced group?
Williams: "There are many challenges with an inexperienced group. Obviously, No. 1, they don’t know what we’re trying to teach them. They’ve never been taught this scheme, this system, so it’s installing, day by day, step by step. It’s like being a teacher, which coaching is teaching. So I’ve got to take my time and cannot get frustrated because they don’t know. Sure, it’s challenging. When I was at the previous institution, I had a lot of upperclassmen who had been doing it four or five years, so you could fine tune them, making them better on individual components. Here, it’s technique, it’s scheme, it’s everything. We’ve been practicing for two hours, and we do a lot of stuff. It’s going to take a long time to get it done, but that’s why I’m here, to make them better."
Q: What progress have you seen since Day 1?
Williams: "There has been progress since Day 1. There’s been a lot of progress. We’ve done eight practices. Are they better after the eighth practice? Yes. Are they a finished product? No. There’s been progress made by each individual and there has been progress made by the group."
GoldandBlack.com: You're going to need some tough, nasty guys, obviously. Do you have some?
Williams: "That’s why (coaching) offensive line, you have to use demonstrative words. Everyone has seen me say demonstrative words. Just like a teacher, I have to get my point across. Our test is every Saturday. So that’s why I use demonstrative words so we’ll pass the test on Saturday. If I just go (speaking softly), ‘Can you make that block, please?’ It’s like an English teacher. ‘Wah wah wah.’ The English teacher doesn’t care if that kid passes. He or she has still got a job. Me, I care because we’ve got to win the game. So we have to be demonstrative. I hold nothing back. That’s the way I coach because I’ve got to get my point across and I’ve got to use demonstrative adjectives to get it across so they’ll act tough. Do we have some of that? It’s getting there. It’s in everyone. I have to draw it out. So whether they’re upset at me and want to take a swing at me, take a swing at the guy over top of you. Imagine I’m the guy in there and you just want to knock Williams out. Take it out on him because what I’m asking you to do, you’d go to jail for if we were walking down the street. I’m asking you to be tough and be physical and play college football."
GoldandBlack.com: Ultimately, you need five guys to be that one, cohesiveness unit. Can you work toward that this spring even if maybe some of the pieces you are going to have in the fall aren't here?
Williams: "It's my responsibility to take five and make them into one. I'll find five, and we’ll get them to play. We're looking for five kids who want to play football and they’ll want to come out every day with a smile on their face and want to play. Some days, I have five. Some days, I have six or seven. Some days, I have all of them. Some (days), I just have two or three. That’s why we’re out here — to practice and see who wants to play football day in, day out because this isn’t easy to do. What I ask them to do is not easy."
Q: How important is it to build the depth? The problem we’ve seen is one guy goes down and it’s hard to replace them with an able-bodied guy.
Williams: "It’s very important. That’s right, we have to get able-bodied, and that comes down with recruiting. It’s my responsibility to go recruit and bring in linemen who can play at this level. I tell them, ‘It’s nothing personal. I will find the five best who will go out there to play.’ Then I have six, seven, eight, nine, 10. So I rank them. I’ll have 20 kids in the fall. I’ll rank them 1-20. Top 10 are going to travel, 11-20 go on scout team. I’ve got to build that. I’ve got to get 10 guys that can go out there and line up there and play. I’ll have the 10 best that we have. Obviously, we’ve got to get better. That’s what happens every year.
"... I’ve always played somebody else’s cards. I’ve never had my own cards. So when I walk in to play a hand, I walk to the table and they go, ‘Hey, you’ve already got your hand.’ So I’ve got a Jack, a 9, a 6, a 4, a 2. I go ‘Woo.’ I’m a great bluffer now, I’ll make you think I’ve got four of a kind. That’s what we’ve got here. I’ll play somebody’s else hand. It’s the hand I’ve been dealt. I do like Vegas."
GoldandBlack.com: Grant Hermanns is a redshirt freshman getting first-team reps at left tackle for you. He needs to get bigger and stronger still, but how does he look?
Williams: "You play in the Big Ten, and we have a redshirt freshman who is playing in the Big Ten, he’s going to be going against 22-year-old men, and he’s going to be getting knocked around. I’m playing with people that are here, and I have to get them better. There’s a reason we’re here. I’ve got to do what I can to get him to believe that he can go out there and block the guy at Michigan, that he can block the guy at Louisville.
"All I ask them to do is give tremendous effort. When I don’t think they’re giving effort, that’s when I’m most upset. If it’s a mental breakdown, then I know I can fix that because that just comes with reps. If they won’t give me any effort and he’s just a dog, then we have to change him out. But if he’s giving effort, but it just comes down to maturity, stronger in the weight room, gaining more weight, it’s the speed of the game. The only guy who’s seen speed of the college game is Kirk Barron. Mike Mendez has seen a little bit, but just three games. Those other guys, in practice, they think it’s fast. Wait until we go out in the game and play Louisville. ‘Hey, where’d that defensive end go?’ ‘Where’d who go?’ I’ve had kids trying to tell me there’s been four guys over top of them. I go, ‘There’s not 13 guys on the defense.’ So until the speed of the game slows down to where it’s in slow motion, then you’re a great player. Right now, the game is so fast for all of them, the only one it might not be fast for is Barron because he’s been in full-speed game reps."
Q: Can Mendez get to that level?
Williams: "That’s what I’m pushing him to do. I’ve got to make them into players. I told them either I’ll kill you or I’ll have a heart attack. But I’m not dying."
GoldandBlack.com: You obviously need them to do both, run and pass block well. Are they ahead at one or the other right now?
Williams: "That is a question that if you put a gun to my head, you might as well shoot me because they’re about equal. They do some things good and they do some things bad. So that’s a question that we’re right there. A lot of things need to be worked on."
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