for display only
Big Blue Interactive The Corner Forum  
Back to the Corner

Archived Thread

Wednesday Transcript: Head Coach Tom Coughlin

Eric from BBI : Admin : 10/7/2015 1:09 pm
Tom Coughlin

October 7, 2015

Good morning. We’re excited to get started on a week of preparation for the 49ers. Jim Tomsula, the new head coach out there. The first thing I do, I look at special teams. They’re very well-coached, they’re a well-coached football team. They’re physical, they have a lot of very good players that we know of and new players as well. There’s quite a mixture there, as you well know. Carlos Hyde is a legitimate, outstanding football player as a rusher—168 yards rushing against Minnesota. They definitely want to rush the football. Kaepernick, Colin with the option game, the ability to scramble and put the ball in play down the field. With Alex Boone and Joe Staley, the left side is very secure. They have a big offensive line. As I mentioned, they want to run the football. Vernon Davis will probably play against us, he did not play against Green Bay. Outstanding receiving corps, Anquan Boldin, we all know the physical football player that he is. They have Torrey Smith to take the top off the coverage etc.… So they are a talented offensive football team, they’ve done a lot of good things. Really, the last two games for them, the opposition has held the ball. They’ve only had 50 snaps the last two games, time of possession for Arizona and Green Bay was over 36 minutes.

Their defensive team, they base themselves out of the 3-4. The two outside backers, (Aaron) Lynch and (Ahmad) Brooks, are outstanding football players. I like what I see from the (Ian) Williams kid, the nose tackle. He’s very quick, very evasive. And, of course, they have Navarro Bowman, who is coming back off of a year away from the game with a significant knee injury. He’s the instinctive, physical, run-through, disruptive linebacker that he always has been. And then their special teams outfit, as I mentioned, a young punter-kickoff guy (Bradley Pinion) that has kicked the ball out of the end zone 85 percent of the time--the kid they drafted out from Clemson, a fifth round pick out of Clemson. Their returners, they had an outstanding preseason with any number of punt return, kickoff returners, and that’s the first thing you see when you look at the tape. So the 49ers come in here at 1-3, a very good team, a team that is very physical, very scrappy and gives you a lot of formation issues from a defensive standpoint. And then lines up and gets after it.

Q: When you look at Kaepernick, I think he has like five interceptions so far. Is there a thread there?

A: I don’t know exactly what it is, but he has a very strong arm. He’s a very big man, a very fast man. He can throw the ball on the run or sitting in the pocket as far as he basically wants to. He’s talented as a quarterback that can both run and pass. The interceptions have come, there’s been some overthrown balls, things of that nature. But by in large, he’s been there for five years and he’s a very talented guy.

Q: I want to ask you about the MRSA situation inside the locker room. Is it a distraction? And how about the cleanup, what’s taking place?

A: Well, you’ve got the information, I’m not going to go down through what the janitorial service has done. But they have been very active. This morning, the NFL and the Players Association wanted us to address it. We had Ronnie Barnes, we had team doctors, we had the person in charge of our facility in here to talk about the way the cleaning process is normally underway and what we have done in addition to that as well. So the players asked a couple of questions, very good questions. But we are concerned about Daniel Fells, we’re very concerned about that. We still do not know the reason for the infection or where it came from. But the players, we’re all obviously very supportive of Daniel. I think most of the questions got answered this morning. The guys seemed to be able to go right back to work.

Q: Is there anything different that you have to do in the way you guys go about business? Do you have to do anything different because of this?

A: I don’t believe so.

Q: How is Daniel Fells doing? What is his condition?

A: Well, they’re thinking Thursday he’ll be able to get out. I talked to him on the phone, he sounds good on the phone. He’s very disappointed obviously, but we all wish him well. He understands, as well as we do, he has a wife and family, he’s got to get better, period.

Q: In light of what happened in Tampa Bay, do you take this very seriously?

A: Oh, very seriously. It’s a very serious thing, has been that way in this league for quite a few years. Everyone has been very aware of it. You mentioned Tampa, that was a circumstance there. Actually Lawrence Tynes, one of our players here for previous years, got involved in. So we know how serious it is, and we are taking every precaution and doing everything we possibly can. They are very, very thorough in what they’ve done in terms of cleaning. The basic health priorities were gone over again this morning—washing of the hands, calling attention to any type of cut or anything, anything that looks like what they call a spider bite or anything of a boil nature. Anything where the skin is turning red, those types of things. With Daniel, it was a different story, there was no surface injury that anybody knows of. It was an acute joint problem along with a temperature.

Q: Victor Cruz said that he’d have a better idea early this week about his status. Is he out this week?

Q: I wouldn’t say because I haven’t been told anything. He’s not working today.

Q: Bills players had some things to say about Odell Beckham and his actions in the game. What did you see? Is it something to address?

A: Odell actually came to me and talked about it. Obviously I was disappointed because I think he’s beyond and above a lot of that stuff, and I think he’ll put it behind him.

Q: It’s got to be a tough situation, I would think, because he’s targeted so much.

A: And he’s an emotional guy. Hey, let’s face it, I told him, ‘I want you to continue to block the way you’re blocking.’ He flies around out there. Even the penalty he got called for on the screen, he did an outstanding job.

Q: And the instinct I would imagine with the extra stuff is to fight back.

A: He’s very competitive, very energetic. He would have blocked the safety on the long run, the long pass and run after the catch if in fact Rashad wasn’t able to avoid him. He was right there.

Q: He came to you after the story came out?

A: This morning he came by.

Q: Was it just a matter of getting caught up in the chippy-ness of the game?

A: You know, I’m not sure where they’re trying to say this all came from. I noticed it in the melee as we moved penalty after penalty down towards our goal line. Prior to that, I didn’t notice a lot.

Q: Where’s Devon Kennard with the hamstring?

A: He’s out today.

Q: How about Robert Ayers?

A: He’s out today.

Q: What do you get with Myles White?

A: A young guy who knows the system very well. Can play in the slot, play on the outside. He’s been used with our first group in the last couple of weeks, we’ve only had four receivers that can participate. So we get a guy who is sharp, who’s had a good preseason, who knows the system well, can adapt to all the positions, knows the signals when we’re in the no-huddle. And I think we kind of just keep going with a multiple position guy.

Q: Of the guys on the injury report, who is practicing?

A: Name a couple for me.

Q: Ereck Flowers?

A: Flowers will practice, yeah. (Markus) Kuhn will practice.

Q: Jerome Cunningham?

A: Cunningham is going to be out there for individual, then we’ll see.

Q: George Selvie? Trumaine McBride?

A: Selvie, no. McBride, no. McBride is scheduled to go tomorrow.

Q: Jayron Hosley?

A: No.

Q: Hosley has his second concussion now.

A: Yeah, boy, everybody felt great about it. He did, too. He didn’t think he’d even be restricted today. But you’ve got to go through it, you’ve got to go through it.

Q: What do you see from your run game this far?

A: I see at different times, outstanding, but not consistent enough.

Q: If you have to be without Kennard, you have a lot of veterans that can piece it together.

A: That’s what it will be.

Q: Carlos Hyde obviously had a big game against Minnesota, but he’s been pretty much shut down the past three weeks. Have you seen anything different?

A: No. No, I’ll tell you what he is, he’s a slasher, and he’s an outstanding cutback runner.

Q: Do you think your work of keeping Tyrod Taylor in the pocket will help you this week against a guy who obviously wants to leave the pocket?

A: I certainly hope so. The very first play of the Green Bay game, a tackle comes inside, the end rushes up the field and out he goes.

Q: Do you sense a different attitude from the guys the past two weeks the way things have unfolded?

A: I sense that they are anxious to get to know this team and to start the preparation process. That’s where you want them.

Q: Is the confidence level in Dwayne Harris as your third receiver higher than maybe it was last week?

A: I think I mentioned it to you, I may not have. We talked about Rueben, we got Rueben going two weeks ago. We needed to get Harris going, Dwayne going and he did the other day.
Not much good news on the injury front.  
Big Blue Blogger : 10/7/2015 1:29 pm : link
Kennard sits today, as expected. Ayers remains sidelined.

Kuhn is back. Woo hoo!
Coughlin is a really knowledgeable coach  
NINEster : 10/7/2015 5:27 pm : link
on opposing teams, and respectful.

Back to the Corner