2015 Preseason Practice - Assistant Coaches Interviews

[RunInRed 16,409]

[RunInRed 16,409]

[WarEagle1983 2,185]

Coach Craig's interview...OH MY. Good information and insight from him today!

[RunInRed 16,409]

Auburn WR coach Dameyune Craig addresses Duke Williams situation

Q: Can you tell us what happened with Duke?

Craig: “To be honest with you, Duke just needs to do what everybody else is doing. It's a certain standard that we have here at Auburn University as far as the way we're going to practice and being accountable. And that's it. It wasn't no more or no less. I can promise you that. There was no altercation between Duke and myself. No words were exchanged. It's that you're going to do things the way we want you to do them. And it wasn't a big deal. I can promise you, it wasn't a big deal. It's just about the way we're going to do things.

“So you have a guy in a position to be drafted in the first round and be the first receiver taken in the draft. Well, your standard is going to be higher than everybody else's. Your expectations are going to be higher than everybody else's because you're a senior now. You understand. When he sat down and decided to come back, I talked with him about my expectations for him, his leadership role and where he needs to be. I told him, 'If you're not doing that, there will be repurcussions.' And that's the end of it. I promise you.

“I love Duke like a son. I'm telling you that. Duke and myself, we have a great relationship. I love him like a son. But I told him when you made the decision to come back to Auburn, your role is going to change. And that's the end of it.”

Q: Did you voice that on the field to him?

Craig: “It wasn't voiced. If you ask people what happened, they don't even know, because it wasn't an issue. It wasn't, 'Aaaaaaahhhhh." It was nothing that was out of line. I'm being honest.”

Q: But it was serious enough he was gone for six days?

Craig: “No, it wasn't. It (was about) what you're supposed to be doing. That's it. Just like everybody else as far as him or anybody else on this team. It wasn't a big deal. It's that, 'This is what you're supposed to be doing with who you are.' If you're a freshman or a sophomore, your (situation) might be a little different. But you're a senior right now, OK?

“Really, you've got to be harder on some of your best players than anybody else, because people are going to watch to see how you handle situations with them. How do they practice? Are they running on and off the field? Are they giving great effort? Everybody is watching it all and sometimes those guys set the tone for the whole team and that's the standard. So if you're not going to do it, you're not going to be here.

Q: So it's similar to what happened last season with Jermaine Whitehead last season?

Craig: “No, it's not. It's not even close to that. That's what I'm trying to tell you. It's not even in the same ballpark. And I know I'm sitting here telling you all that and people want to sit here and make something more of it than it is.”

Q: As you're saying, compared to Whitehead — who missed four games and returned to play special teams before he finally got back into the starting lineup — there's a big difference. Williams only missed six days.

Craig: “Exactly. So it's not even close to that. It's not even close. Duke has never said one word back to a coach. Not one word. Never talked back. Never been disrespectful. So it's not even in the same ballpark.

“It's the fact that we went from (3-9) to 12-2 and we did it a certain way. See, he wasn't a part of that that first year, so he didn't understand that. So looking back on that 8-5 season, myself as a coach, what did I do to change the culture of my room? So I'm going back to doing everything the same way I did back in 2013. And that 2013 year, there was a lot of things that went on that y'all didn't know about, you know? But they had to do it, and once they did it, we had the end result. So why not go back to doing it my way as a coach -- as a position coach? But he wasn't a part of that. Now he's understanding that, 'You caught the back of with the success of coming off the national championship (appearance),' where everybody had bought into what we do as a staff and the way I do it. (I told Duke), 'You caught the good side of it. But you didn't catch the bad side.'”

Q: Will Duke play in every game this season as long as he's healthy?

Craig: “As long as he does what he's supposed to do, if he's doing things the way we want him to do it, he will. That's not only him. That's anybody. And that's the law. If you talk to any other receiver, they probably did 100 up-downs yesterday. It was so bad, Melvin (Ray) couldn't even finish practice. He was cramping up, full-body cramping. If you're supposed to be six yards from the tackle, you better be six yards. If you're supposed to be 10 yards on the route, you better be 10. And if you miss an assignment, you're getting it. You're doing up-downs. So that's all of them. That ain't just him.

“That's where we're at with this deal. So that's what I'm telling you. As a coach, if I was part of the biggest turnaround in college football history, and you go from 12-2 to 8-5 and you have time to reflect on what we could do different between the two as a coach, (it's like), OK, this is the way I need to be doing things. Be as disciplined as you can, as strict as you can on everything. And if they don't abide by it -- did you know Sammie was benched maybe four times, before the season even started?

“Sammie Coates, until he learned how to practice the way we wanted him to practice, that's when he took off. Sammie Coates texts me and calls me to this day. But when I got here, Sammie was one of the laziest players I've ever been around. And y'all know that. So where was the difference (between 2013 and last season)? Being demanding.

“The reason Duke came back is to be able to not play for three years in the NFL, but play for 10. The only way you do that is hold people accountable. That’s what happened. Wasn’t no altercation. Wasn’t no arguments, so we can stop the speculation. It’s the way Coach Malzahn runs his program.”

Q: So Duke coming back for senior season was about getting his mind right?

Craig: “It’s part of him wanting to grow. It’s like, this is where I’m at in my career and my maturity level. Duke could have been a first-round pick, second-round pick last year, but my message for him is if you leave, you want to be able to play in the NFL for 10, not three or two (years). If you need to come back another year to mature and grow as a person, then you need to do it. That was our conversation. He said, ‘Coach, I’m coming back.’ So if you decide to come back, these are the things you’re going to do to prove yourself on and off the field to be the best person you can be. He said OK. So it was his decision to come back, and once he made that decision, everything changed. I’m going to be stricter on him than anyone else at this point, because this is what you decide. It’s my job to help him. If you’re not doing it, this is where we’re at with this deal.”

Q: Do you expect him to be a leader this season?

Craig: “You know what? Leadership comes in different ways. Me as a quarterback, it was hard for me to understand that because it came natural to me and I had to realize everyone’s not a leader. Some people lead in different ways. Some people lead vocally, some people lead with their play on the field, some people lead in the summer workouts, some people lead—golly, there’s just so many different ways. His leadership comes on the side when he’s out there playing. When he starts making plays, he’s competitive, he’s having fun—it’s contagious. You have to be careful how you ask certain kids to lead. Jeremy Johnson, his leadership comes from he’s a vocal leader; he’s a hard worker. He’s demanding, he’s a natural leader. Marcus Davis, he works hard and does everything right. He’s always going to class, he’s on time for everything. His leadership comes in different ways. So when you’re learning about, talking about leadership and you have 15 people in the room, each one leads in different ways, so you have to find that. Once you find it, you bring that part of leadership out to the forefront.”

Q: How disappointing was it to deal with this with Duke?

Craig: “Not disappointing at all because he knows the standard. When you know what you’re supposed to do, when you know what you’re supposed to do, that’s the end of it. See, I’m a bottom-line guy, and the thing is a lot of you guys forget I played here. A lot of you guys watched me play, so I don’t even understand how y’all can think if something’s supposed to be a certain way, how come it’s not that way? You saw me in the championship game, right? I told the guy not to jump offsides; he jumped offsides. What was the end result? Right? Did you see the game? Well go watch it; it’s on SEC Network. You’re familiar with it. Bottom line. When it’s a bottom-line deal, it’s a bottom-line deal. If I ask you to be somewhere at 5 o’clock and it’s 5:01, once it’s a bottom line—boom. OK, here we go. If you’re supposed to be 6 yards—a 6-yard split, if it’s not 6 and it’s 4—boom, a bottom-line deal. If you’re dealing with seniors and not freshmen, your expectation is a lot high, and it’s a bottom-line deal.

“So it’s not frustrating for me at all. Once you set your standard, and even as a head coach when you run your program a certain way, that’s the end of it. That’s the way it’s going to be done. It’s a bottom-line deal. Once you get to a certain status and you understand that, there’s going to be ramifications when you don’t do it. Whether it’s 10 up-downs or 100 up-downs, or whether you’re getting up at 6 in the morning running or whether last night—they had to run last night in the meeting room; I took them out of the meeting room and we went out there and ran. Everybody.

“That’s the way we’re running things. It’s a bottom-line deal this year; 8-5 is not the standard here. I didn’t come back here to be 8-5. Me as a person, every day I wake up, I think about that. I think about it, and I don’t sit well with it. It’s not frustrating. You just have to will your way on everyone in that room, just like I did everyone that first year. It’s not frustrating.”

Q: If this happened with Duke last year when he was new to the team and not a senior, would there be more leniency in regard to that standard?

Craig: “Well, last year we wasn’t 8-5 the year before. That’s the difference.”

http://www.oanow.com...c2a1c7aa53.html

[WarEagle1983 2,185]

Auburn WR coach Dameyune Craig addresses Duke Williams situation

http://www.oanow.com...c2a1c7aa53.html

You beat me to it RIR! lol.

[RunInRed 16,409]

Roc, Barber pull ahead in the RB race (from Horton's interview above) ...

"Right now I would say that Roc Thomas and Peyton Barber have earned the right to play and so they're both going to play," running backs coach Tim Horton said. "Now, who is going to be in there first, I couldn't tell you to be honest. I don't know that's really important, but both of those guys have earned that right and they'll both play. They've both been very good."

http://www.al.com/au...s_2_player.html

[aujeff11 6,243]

I'm proud for Peyton. Shocked that Jovon is not in the top two.

[ShocksMyBrain 9,365]

Nice insight from DC. Should alter some peoples' opinions on the situation.

[WarEagle1983 2,185]

I still think something occurred to a certain degree....just not to capacity the media or we thought. CDC has Duke's back 100%. This kid has millions on the line and CDC is trying to help him as much as possible. Character issues are costing guys big time with the NFL so i could see a little protection going on there. By his comments i do feel it wasn't as worse as we thought but i don't think it was a small as he is stating either. JMO.

[Randman5000 4,228]

Roc, Barber pull ahead in the RB race (from Horton's interview above) ...

"Right now I would say that Roc Thomas and Peyton Barber have earned the right to play and so they're both going to play," running backs coach Tim Horton said. "Now, who is going to be in there first, I couldn't tell you to be honest. I don't know that's really important, but both of those guys have earned that right and they'll both play. They've both been very good."

http://www.al.com/au...s_2_player.html

I said this might happen. People were too quick to jump on the Jovon bandwagon. Actually getting Jovon may have lit a fire under both of those guys. I'm excited for them. Going to be a big year.

[WarEagle1983 2,185]

Roc, Barber pull ahead in the RB race (from Horton's interview above) ...

"Right now I would say that Roc Thomas and Peyton Barber have earned the right to play and so they're both going to play," running backs coach Tim Horton said. "Now, who is going to be in there first, I couldn't tell you to be honest. I don't know that's really important, but both of those guys have earned that right and they'll both play. They've both been very good."

http://www.al.com/au...s_2_player.html

I said this might happen. People were too quick to jump on the Jovon bandwagon. Actually getting Jovon may have lit a fire under both of those guys. I'm excited for them. Going to be a big year.

+1. Was right with you with Peyton. Still time though and games 1-3 will likely be the ultimate deciding factor on the featured RB. But i'm not surprised either...2 years in this system for PB and he's not a scrub. Competition can bring out the best in some people. I'm cheering for PB though..not b/c he's my guy or anything like that but he seems to get counted out so i guess it's probably the underdog factor.

[looney 794]

DC just told us more about an internal matter than any coach at Auburn has divulged in as long as I can remember.

I love everything he said: Holding players to a higher standard, the attention to detail and the emphasis on effort.

Get every guy on this team buying into that and we'll go far.

[RunInRed 16,409]

DC just told us more about an internal matter than any coach at Auburn has divulged in as long as I can remember.

100% agree ... esp if you read between the lines to a certain degree.

[ShocksMyBrain 9,365]

DC just told us more about an internal matter than any coach at Auburn has divulged in as long as I can remember.

100% agree ... esp if you read between the lines to a certain degree.

Yep. He laid it out there pretty plainly. You don't have to read too hard to see what he's saying.

[RunInRed 16,409]

DC just told us more about an internal matter than any coach at Auburn has divulged in as long as I can remember.

100% agree ... esp if you read between the lines to a certain degree.

Yep. He laid it out there pretty plainly. You don't have to read to hard to see what he's saying.

Minus the "coach-speak" ...

[RunInRed 16,409]

Lance Thompson

Auburn outside linebacker coach Lance Thompson keeps in touch with several of his former colleagues at Alabama with one prominent exception: Nick Saban.

...

"Since I told him I was leaving? None," Thompson said. "Me and Nick don't have anything to talk about right now. But I don't got any hard feelings towards coach. He does a tremendous job. Looking forward to playing against him."

...

Thompson said he reached out to Auburn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, who he also worked with while at LSU, about coming to Auburn. He subsequently met with coach Gus Malzahn during the annual American Football Coaches Association Convention.

"He's a guy that when you talk to him he's looking you in the eye and he's listening and it's important what you're saying to him," Thompson said. "Things like that are important to all of us, like your family and stuff like that, that's important to him. I've worked with some guys for 9-10 years and they probably couldn't tell you my children's name(s). I worked for coach Malzahn two weeks, my daughters came over for a recruiting weekend, he knew everything, he and his wife Kristi knew everything about them – where they went to school, what they were studying, everything about them in a weekend."

Asked if he could say the same about Saban, Thompson said, "I'm not going to go there" before continuing on to compliment his former boss.

"Coach Saban did a lot of good for me," Thompson said. "He and his wife are tremendous people for me, did a lot for my career, did a lot for my family. ... I don't have no beef with Nick. Nick's a good man, he's done a tremendous job over there. I'm worried about what I can do to help Auburn (win national championships). That's my goal."

http://www.al.com/sp...rn_alabama.html

[CleCoTiger 1,957]

Loved this comment from the interview with coach Grimes:

'It always interests me how when you see (an opponent) before the game and they say "Good luck!" to you. I never say good luck back. I hope they trip and fall when they're coming out of the dadgum locker room. I'm not gonna be hypocritical. I don't want 'em to have any luck at all.' - AU offensive line coach J.B. Grimes.

[AURex 1,998]

It's good to see coach Grimes with the bandages off. Glad to have him at 100%. Gonna get that danged OL whipped into shape.

Love this line: "You do your frikkin' job. You don't bitch about it, do it."

[AUIH1 1,515]

DC said the right things and hopefully Duke will stay straight for an entire season (including a bowl game). PC is all well and good on August 14. Now, just go win on the field when we start playing for real.

wde

[ValleyTiger 2,894]

Really good interview with Lance Thompson available for free from AuburnSports.com here.

[JBiGGiE 2,488]

Lance Thompson

Auburn outside linebacker coach Lance Thompson keeps in touch with several of his former colleagues at Alabama with one prominent exception: Nick Saban.

...

"Since I told him I was leaving? None," Thompson said. "Me and Nick don't have anything to talk about right now. But I don't got any hard feelings towards coach. He does a tremendous job. Looking forward to playing against him."

...

Thompson said he reached out to Auburn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, who he also worked with while at LSU, about coming to Auburn. He subsequently met with coach Gus Malzahn during the annual American Football Coaches Association Convention.

"He's a guy that when you talk to him he's looking you in the eye and he's listening and it's important what you're saying to him," Thompson said. "Things like that are important to all of us, like your family and stuff like that, that's important to him. I've worked with some guys for 9-10 years and they probably couldn't tell you my children's name(s). I worked for coach Malzahn two weeks, my daughters came over for a recruiting weekend, he knew everything, he and his wife Kristi knew everything about them – where they went to school, what they were studying, everything about them in a weekend."

Asked if he could say the same about Saban, Thompson said, "I'm not going to go there" before continuing on to compliment his former boss.

"Coach Saban did a lot of good for me," Thompson said. "He and his wife are tremendous people for me, did a lot for my career, did a lot for my family. ... I don't have no beef with Nick. Nick's a good man, he's done a tremendous job over there. I'm worried about what I can do to help Auburn (win national championships). That's my goal."

http://www.al.com/sp...rn_alabama.html

Queue the high-fives! I think we have us a convert!

[AU80cruiser 1,102]

Really good interview with Lance Thompson available for free from AuburnSports.com here.

Thoroughly enjoyed that. Thanks for posting.

[AUBwins 10,075]

These interviews have been very enlightening. It is good to hear how disciplined and accountable the team must be with these coaches. Also how good of a man Gus is. He is genuine to the core. What he is telling recruits is truth for what he is. A father figure to these guys. All of the staff is like that it seems from what DC was saying in his interview. We are blessed to have this staff.

[aucanucktiger 1,794]

Wonderful thread, thanks! I liked going down memory lane with coach Craig's reference to his spanking his o lineman for jumping before the snap in our close loss to Tennessee in that sec title game. Spilled coffee when he said "golly" though. Don't count jovon out just yet, it took Bo and Cam a few games to get going too. Guy's got all the ability in the world.

[WaynesAUworld 179]

Love these candid interviews. They all seem to genuinely love their jobs, football, Auburn University, their players and their boss Coach Malzahn.

I love Coach Grimes. He seems like a good old boy who just wants to get to work. I don't think I could be more excited about a football season as I am right now. I think we have the players and coaches to have a great season. War Eagle!!!