Q&A With Hafley Following Sunday's Scrimmage

CHESTNUT HILL - Following Sunday's scrimmage inside Fish Field House, Coach Hafley, spoke to the media to give jis thoughts about how things went with the opener against NIU now just three weeks away...

HAFLEY

ON MOVING IT INSIDE FISH FIELD HOUSE INSTEAD OF ALUMNI STADIUM

"I got in early and had to make a decision (because of the slick field following rain overnight). They had to set everything up and it's a pain for the equipment guys who've got to move everything. The video guys have to move everything. We'll go in the stadium. We've been in there. We'll go in the stadium this week.We'll go in the stadium next week. Just one of those decisions when I got in early this morning, it was raining pretty hard and I had to make the call."

ON HAVING FAMILIES ON THE SIDELINE

"It's awesome. We open it up on weekends for parents to come. It's training camp, they don't get much of a chance to see their kids and probably don't get to talk to them very much. So, we open it up for the parents. That's important to me. Let them spend some time now (post practice) with them. I always appreciated when my mom and dad came out and watched. As much as you don't want to admit it when you're in college, you still want to be around mom and dad. It was pretty cool to see a lot of them out here."

ON WHERE THE TEAM IS FROM A BENCHMARK PERSPECTIVE DURING THIS POINT OF CAMP

"I said yesterday to the staff, we're ahead of where we've been in the past. That's install and I think in many areas. Today is always the first day you get everybody off the field, coaches off the field. You call it a scrimmage, you get refs here and then it's...it's the same plays we run in practice, but the coaches are on the field and maybe helping you a little bit. You had the script the night before, you kind of knew what was going to be called. Now, (with the scrimmage) it feels a little bit different. There were some mistakes, some of it got sloppy, but there was a lot of good. Some of it was how I expected it to look in the first scrimmage. Now, all the install is done. We've never had it in this quickly. We play three weeks from (Saturday). Now we have the rest of this time to just do that and play football. That was the goal. We kind of overloaded them early, which is something I've never done which was hard for the players. But, I'm glad we did. Now we can just focus on playing the game. Then, they've got to think. When you script sometimes, it's first down, second down, first down, second down. Then, you get to a team third down period where it's all third down. Now, all of a sudden, players have got to know it's third down. Third and three, I better press. Third and seven, I want to...they have to think situationally. Now, when we're in the red zone, it's not a red zone period. (The offense) just hit a big play, now we're in the red zone, what am I expecting? How are things changing? You have to go through all that and play the game. I think we're rusty there just because we haven't done it, but I like where we're at. I really like this group."

ON IF SUNDAY WAS MORE OF A LITMUS TEST OF AN ACTUAL SIMULATION

"This was done intentionally to show the players what it's going to look like and feel like. Next week what we'll do, we'll go Saturday, I think we scrimmage on Sunday, one of those days...we're going to scrimmage, but we'll do it at noon. We're going to put them in the stadium at noon. So, the sun is what the sun is going to be. The heat's what the heat is going to be (during Week 1) we'll simulate kind of what the morning's going to feel like. Then, we'll make it even more real. Today each player - one and two - got about 35 snaps, so almost a half of football. We'll crank that up next week and make it even more real. Hopefully, at that point, we've done enough of this where there won't be as many mental mistakes or false starts with guys who are uneasy. We'll simulate it more next week. We've never done that, but I'm trying to continue to improve myself and get us ready to play football."

ON IF THE DEFENSE IS AHEAD OF THE OFFENSE RIGHT NOW

"I think in certain things the defense might be ahead, but today was pretty balanced. Here's the reason defenses in camp are usually ahead: You can play defense with great effort, your hair's on fire, you're running to the ball, you just kind of wreck things. On offense, it takes every one of those guys to execute together at the same level. You can't just go out there and rely on...you've got to execute. That's usually why. I think at this point it's been pretty balanced. There's some periods right now where the offense is ahead. They ran the ball really well today. Our one's early on came out and they were running the ball really well...then, the defense stood up in the red zone a few times, It's very competitive right now."

ON HOW GENERAL SIDELINE OPERATION WENT FOR THE COACHING STAFF

"That's new too. No matter how long you've done it, when you script a practice the night before and you're just reading it off your script...you have to script because you want to stay very detailed and organized and make sure you're getting the plays you want to see versus different looks. That's how you practice and who's running what? Today, just as much as this is getting the rust off for the players it's the same for the coaches. It's faster. On offense, all of a sudden they're going no huddle and you can't look down at your call sheet. You better go and make a call. Then it slows down and speeds up. There's a lot of thinking, man. That's why now when we practice we throw the scripts out so coaches and players have to think. It's both. That's coaches and players and it's important for everybody...I thought it was good. I thought it was really good. But, then again, I'm listening to both sides the best I can, there's some things (as a staff) we need to get better at too. That's why we practice."

ON WATCHING THE YOUNGER GUYS WHILE BALANCING ENOUGH REPS FOR OLDER GUYS

"We went at the end and kind of did that 7-on-7 and everybody got in. Every player who's on our team got in. That's for evaluation and those guys deserved to play. Their parents are here and they're part of the team, so I wanted to make sure we saw them a little extra, so they got a chance to play. We do that at the end of every practice so we can evaluate the younger players. You don't have time in training camp to get everybody reps. Spring ball is a time to do that. Training camp is, you're getting ready to play a game, so it's hard. It's a hard job getting ready to play a game and figuring out the guys that are going to play and go with them."

ON KICKER STRUGGLES DURING SCRIMMAGE

"Connor (Lytton) we held back today because he had kicked earlier in the week. Liam (Connor) has been outstanding, just struggled a little bit today. We've got to make our kicks. That's something we've got to look at hard too. We've kicked...I would say all in all we've kicked pretty well. i think between Connor and Liam it's pretty close right now, but I didn't want to kick Connor today. He had the day off."

ON ZAY FLOWERS' NFL DEBUT SATURDAY NIGHT & IF HE HAD TALKED TO HIM

"I sent him a text. I didn't get a chance to talk to him before because I kind of didn't realize what time they were playing - we're in the middle of camp. But, then I sent him a text like I always do. I said "I love wide receivers who block." That's my message to every receiver I've ever been around and coached. That was awesome to see. And then, that's what everybody's talking about on the broadcast when I watched the replay. Wide receivers who block, man, it says a lot about them. It sends a message to their team, their staff. So, I was proud of him for that. I saw the one ball he caught (technically a run) and he had his typical move where he makes the first guy miss. I'm glad they pulled him out and gave him a chance to stay healthy and get ready for the next one. Then, Zion (Johnson) sent me a picture. It must have been 1:30 in the morning because they were out on the West Coast. It was him, (Jaiden) Woodbey and Hunter (Long). That was pretty cool. I woke up to a picture and the text from Zion showing me all three of those guys together. Three BC guys with a big smile on their face. That's a pretty cool deal. I wish all those guys good luck as they ramp it up and get going. I was texting with Vrabel the other day. I'll always root for those guys."

ON OTTO HESS

"He was with the two's today. Unless, they worked him in at the end when (the media) saw him with the one's. They mixed the one's up a little bit, I don't believe he was in there, though."

ON HAVING COACHES FAMILIES ON HAND AS WELL

"It's awesome. Training camp for us is...I'll just use me for example. When I leave the house my kids are asleep and when I get home my kids are asleep. So, you pretty much go six days in a row without seeing them. So (Saturday night) we kind of gave the players a player night, so I got home around 7:30. I saw my youngest and she was surprised I was home. She asked if I was going on another trip tomorrow. So, she must think I'm on a trip or something because I'm gone. So, yeah, it's cool when they come and we get a chance to see them. But, you know, those are the sacrifices the coaches and the assistants make. You don't get a chance to see your wife. You don't get a chance to see your kids. But, that's training camp and that's what we signed up for. But, I'm not on a trip, I'm actually working."

ON WHEN NIU PREP BEGINS

"This week in training camp will be all about ourselves. We've got three weeks from Saturday, maybe after that week we'll start sneaking a peak and seeing what they do. Some of our coaches have already started. The young guys obviously break down film and make sure the work is already done so we're ready to go, but we've got to keep working on us like every coach will tell you right now."