March 2010 Archives

Mike Schultz joined the Middle Tennessee Coaching Staff in early March, replacing Offensive Coordinator Tony Franklin. Like Franklin, he will also coach the quarterbacks. Schultz came to Middle Tennessee from the University of Illinois where he was the OC and tight ends coach. His 31 years of experience also includes stops at TCU (11 years), New Mexico (6 years), Tennessee Tech and SW Texas (2 years) and Texas, Kansas State and UTEP (1 year each). At TCU, Schultz coached, among others, a running back named LaDainian Tomlinson. Here are his impressions on certain topics in his three weeks here at Middle Tennessee.

Q: Before you came here, you had not been on the same team or staff with Head Coach Rick Stockstill. How did you meet him?

SCHULTZ: Actually, I did not know him. Of course, I knew of him and knew who he was. We had a couple of ties, people that knew both of us, so it was thru a couple of guys that had known me for a while, but had also known Coach Stock, so that is how we got together.

Q: Looking back on your career, you had coached both offense and defense at various stops, but from the time you coached running backs at New Mexico until now, it has been solely offense. Was that by choice, or chance?

SCHULTZ: More by chance, it just worked out that way. But I do feel very strongly that coaching defense as long as I did helped me prepare in being an offensive coach, and I think that goes both ways. If you coached offense, it would help you prepare as a defensive coach. I am fortunate to have had that opportunity, and to have been in that situation. There is no question that coaching defense helped prepare me to coach offense.

Q: WHAT WILL BE YOUR STYLE HERE? WILL MIDDLE TENNESSEE BE MORE RUN ORIENTED?

SCHULTZ: We'll do what we need to do to put us in the best position to win. Offensively, they had a very strong nucleus here last season and what I hope I can do is add a few things that can contribute to that success. But it is not "my" style. This is Coach Stockstill's offense, and this is his defense. Our style is going to be Coach Stockstill's style. My deal is to make sure I keep him happy.

You have to remember that Coach Stockstill is a great offensive coach. He's been on offense, he understands offense, and he is a darn good offensive coach. All I am trying to do is come in and take what they already have in place, which has been very successful, and maybe add a few things to it.

Q: Is the fast-paced tempo of practice sessions at Middle Tennessee something that you have done in other places before coming here?

SCHULTZ: It is very similar to what we did at TCU. There, we were very, very up tempo, fast-paced, lot of reps on offense. We practiced very much like this at TCU when I was there. And, actually, we did some of that at New Mexico as well. Going fast and being up-tempo has a lot of advantages to it.

Q: You have inherited a very good quarterback in Dwight Dasher. As QB coach, what is your initial impression of him?

SCHULTZ: There is no doubt that Dwight is a heck of a football player. He has the ability to; as I call it, get you out of trouble. And he has done that in the past. He is very exciting and very explosive, he can make people miss, and sometimes he can take a bad call and make it into a good call. He has a tremendous amount of ability and he has a good grasp of the offense. Is he perfect? No. Are there things we need to work on? Yes. It is my job to make sure he blends in with what we are trying to do, and keep trying to cultivate that situation and get everybody to do a little bit better job.

Q: Despite having been practicing only a little over a week, have you had a chance to form an opinion on junior college QB Logan Kilgore, who came in at the start of this semester?

SCHULTZ: I think Logan Kilgore has a huge upside. I didn't know a lot about Dwight, Logan or Brent (Burnette) before I got here. I had watched a little film on Dwight, and knew what kind of football player he was, but I really had no idea about Logan or Brent. After a couple of practices, I felt like Logan would be able to come in if something happened, knock on wood, to Dwight. I feel that we've got some other guys in place, in addition to Kilgore, that could come in and help us win football games.

Logan is a coach's kid. His dad is a coach and I think that has benefited him. He's had a very enriched background as a coach's kid, you get to hang around, a little bit of a gym rat, and I think Logan does that. He has a great understanding of the game at a very young age, and I just think that he's a long way in terms of understanding coverages and the things we are doing. The more reps he takes, the more comfortable he is going to feel in our offense. I am real excited about him and his future.

Q: When you were at TCU, you coached a fellow named LaDainian Tomlinson. We don't have someone of that stature here, so will our running game be by committee, or will one back get most of the carries?

SCHULTZ: You know, we only had LaDainian for three years, but we also had a couple of other 1,000 yard rushers during that span. Right now, I think it is too early in the process to get into that as far as which way we will go, but from what I have seen, I think we have a couple of guys that can be pretty good at tailback.

Q: Will you use a fullback in this offense?

SCHULTZ: We used a fullback a little bit at both TCU and Illinois. I'm not going to tell you what we are going to do, or not going to do, here because I want Minnesota and the rest of our opponents to have something else to think about. I want those guys out there wondering what is going to be different.

Q: Our receiving corps lost several key players from last year. Have you had a chance to evaluate our current receivers yet?

SCHULTZ: I have taken a look at a few of them. We have some junior college transfers, and we will get some help in that area. We had some guy's red-shirt last year that are starting to grow up and do a few things better. From what I have seen so far, I think our receivers have a chance to be as good as we were last year.

Q: The offensive line only lost center Mark Thompson off of the starters last year.. How good can that unit be in 2010?

SCHULTZ: The center position is a big deal, and Jimmy Ray (Stephens) has done a nice job with that group. We have to do a good job of grooming our next center and bringing him along. When you talk about the offensive line, the first thing you have to talk about is staying healthy. First of all, we have some junior college guys and transfers that will help us. I think there is a chemistry that is usually built between five offensive linemen. They get used to working together, each one of them has to make different calls on different plays, and do different things and have different assignments. Not to undersell the depth issue, but I think injuries become very important, because when you get five guys who are working well together, you don't ever want to tinker with that continuity. We have to stay healthy upfront. If we stay healthy, and they keep progressing like they are, I think we have a chance to have a pretty solid offensive line.

Q: You have only been here three weeks. Have you had a chance to look around yet, to get settled in? Is your family here yet?

SCHULTZ: My youngest daughter, Jordan, is probably going to end up transferring here to Middle Tennessee from TCU. My two oldest daughters, Taylor and Kendall, have already graduated from college and are living in the Fort Worth area. One graduated from TCU, the other one from the University of Texas.

We have looked around and are very excited to be here. The city, or The 'Boro as they call it, has a lot of things to offer, and its only 30 minutes from Nashville if you want even more things to do. If you can't find it here, it is probably in Nashville, and if you can't find it in Nashville, you probably can't find it at all. Cindy and I are excited about being here. I am a southern guy, being from Texas, and its just warmer here. I like being in the south. My oldest daughter, Taylor, was born while I was at Tennessee Tech so she is already a real Tennessean.

Q: After a couple of practices, compare the tempo of the sessions here with other places that you have coached.

McCRAY: I like the tempo; it's like the speed of the game. The game is moving toward where nobody huddles anyway. We have not been huddling on offense on any team that I have been a part of since 1999. That part of it doesn't bother me. You just have to get the kids lined up defensively a lot quicker. The kids have to communicate with each other a lot better now. The tempo is so fast at practice here that we don't have time to coach on the field at all. We do all of our coaching in the film room afterwards. You may have time to make one or two comments to a kid on the field, but that's it.

Q: Is that normal?

McCRAY: It is here.

Q: In addition to being defensive coordinator, you also coach linebackers. Have you had a chance to evaluate the talent here?

McCRAY: We have a couple of guys that stand out athleticly. Obviously, you have experience in Antwan Davis as a starter, and playing time in Gorby Loreus and Justin Jones, but you don't try to replace guys like Danny Carmichael and Cam Robinson. You build and coach and teach, and that is what we are doing right now.

Q: The red-shirt freshmen linebackers come highly-touted. Have you evaluated them yet?

McCRAY: Roderic Blunt, Craig Allen and Stephen Roberts are really, really athletic and can move to the ball. They are gifted. The good lord gave them some gifts, some tools to work with. Now we just have to get their minds caught up with their bodies, so to speak. It's a matter of can they learn the intricacies of the position, and know where to be all the time, and right now they are doing a pretty good job. The thing they need to realize is that they are not working on the scout team any more, they are competing for a job and playing time now. They have been on the scout team for a year, and didn't really learn anything about our defense, so its like they are freshmen all over again.

As far as talent, they are as talented as the linebackers we had at Wisconsin, by far, when it comes to sheer speed and things like that. But the guys we had at Wisconsin were experienced and they knew what they were supposed to do, where they were supposed to be. They were always in position. These guys have got to get to that level in their minds.

Q: What is your impression of the defense as a whole?

McCRAY: I think we run well. We've got some guys that are really gifted, we've got some leadership in the back end, and a little bit up front. Jamari Lattimore doesn't say much, but leads by example. Kevin Brown does a really good job, and the secondary communicates really, really well. Antwan Davis does a good job of leadership among the linebackers. My first impression is that we run well, and we are preaching getting to the ball. We are not big, but we get to the ball in a hurry and that's how you create take-aways.

Q: Now that you have had a chance to look at the personnel, what will be your defensive philosophy?

McCRAY: We have tweaked some things that we as a staff believe will make us a little bit more sound, but the calls are exactly the same as last year, the schemes are pretty much the same, the signals are the same. I told Coach Stockstill in the interview that it would be a lot easier for me to learn new terminology than for 32 players and three or four other coaches to have to change to my system, so all of that will stay the same. Coach Diaz did a good job here, it worked and the kids enjoyed it, so it doesn't make sense to change it.

Q: What are your impressions of Middle Tennessee, Murfreesboro and the surrounding area?

McCRAY: I played here at Middle Tennessee in a playoff game when I was a junior at Appalachian State in 1989, and we played at Vanderbilt when I was coaching at South Carolina, and I married a girl from Chattanooga, so I am familiar with the area. I have always liked the middle Tennessee/east Tennessee area. I coached at Murray State and my brother was head coach at Austin Peay where I visited him a lot. Now, Murfreesboro is totally different from Madison, Wisconsin. Madison has a "big town" atmosphere, even moreso than Nashville, but I like Murfreesboro, and it won't take long to get used to living in this area again. My wife will be here next week, and she is excited about being close to Chattanooga.

Q: Have you moved your family here yet?

McCRAY: Not yet. My family will be down here next week, during spring break up there, and will stay for a week. We are trying to sell our house in Wisconsin, and as soon as we do, we'll move down here. If we get a house here, they may come down beforehand, we just don't want to have two house payments. I just want to get them down here as fast as possible. My son, Matt, will be eight next month, and we'd like to get him in school here before the end of the year so he can start making friends before school starts next fall.

Q: Before you were in the running for a coaching job here, what was your impression of the football program at Middle Tennessee?

MCCRAY: My experience with the program was in the 1-AA period, when I played at Appalachian State, and then my first two years at Murray State, we were in the same conference (OVC). Coach Boots Donnelly was here then. My impression was that Middle was a big, hard-nosed 1-AA football team that had run the OVC along with Eastern Kentucky. They were a good solid football team that always did the little things right, special teams, and things like that. They were always big, and a really tough, physical football team. When they made the jump to 1-A, we didn't know if that would be a good move or not, because nobody knew then how things would work out for Sun Belt football. But I can tell you one thing for sure. We were happy to get them out of the OVC. If Middle had gone independent, I would have thought it was not a good move, but the way things developed with the Sun Belt Conference, it has turned out to be a great move.

Q: You were at Clemson when Coach Stockstill was there. Did that influence your decision to come here now?

McCRAY: I knew Coach Stockstill. I knew he was a good man, a good person, and I know he's a good family man, and that right there influenced me more than anything else. The 10 wins last year didn't influence me, but being a coordinator did a little bit. It was the kind of family man that he is. The way I knew that my eight year old boy could come to practice with me every day and stand on the sidelines while I coached, and I had never been able to do that in the past. I was worried that my boy would grow up and I would miss it. That was what influenced me to come here.

When I was with him at Clemson, he was solely responsible for me getting the job at Bethune-Cookman. He had been there in his early years, and when the job came open, they called Stock and he impressed upon them that they should hire me. And they did, so he's responsible for me getting two jobs now. When he called me about this job, I kinda felt like he had done me a favor and that this was the kind of guy that I wanted to have in my life.

Q: Last season, we scored several times in less than two minutes of possession time. Is it a problem for the defense when the offense scores that quickly?

McCRAY: It does put some pressure on the defense, but here is what I think some defensive coaches are selfish about. You hear some guys complaining 'you scored too fast'. I don't think you can score too fast, or often enough. That's like telling the offense that they got the other team three-and-out too quick. That's not fair. They are out there to score points, and I can kinda understand what they are talking about with a four-minute offense and things like that, but they still scored and put you ahead. Now its your job to stop the other team. And if you don't stop them, then you weren't good enough that day. Don't blame it on the offense when they score too fast. If they score a bunch, and often, and quick, then we are going to be pretty good. All we have to do is stop them once in a while and we'll win.