University of North Carolina Athletics
A Q&A With Coach Ken Browning: Part I
May 25, 2001 | Football
By: Joe Bray
TarHeelBlue: We lost two excellent tight ends in Alge Crumpler and Dauntae' Finger, so you're obviously lacking in experience now. How did their replacements do this spring?
Coach Browning: "Doug Brown had an outstanding spring. From day one he worked extremely hard to improve his blocking skills, his techniques, his ability to finish plays.
"He may be one of the most improved players that we had on the offense this spring, and a lot of that was due to just effort and finishing plays. And, he caught the ball pretty well.
"He does need to work on catching the ball over the summer. He gave us a good, solid performance over the spring.
"I thought Zach Hilton had a good spring catching the ball. He improved as a blocker, but strength development that will help his blocking will be a big point of emphasis for him. He'll also have to work hard on the technical aspects of blocking when we get back to fall camp.
"He's a tall guy who has to continue to work with flexibility and leverage to be underneath the defenders.
"Richard Moore had a few days at tight end at the end of the spring after working the first part of the spring at fullback. Catches the ball pretty well, but obviously didn't get as much work blocking as the other guys since he was late getting there.
"I thought he did a decent job as fullback and tight end, and those are two pretty hard positions.
"Kevin Sargent is a walk-on who really had a good spring. He's tough and a good learner, but he needs to develop physically. A solid blocker who catches the ball."
TarHeelBlue: Is there any chance of a freshman playing any at tight end?
Coach Browning: "We'll have to wait and see. I think you always have to be committed to playing the best players.
"We'll have to see what kind of condition Brian Chacos is in, how he'll adjust to the difference in competition, see where he fits in.
"Then Chase Page, who has played some as a defensive and offensive lineman in high school, athletically may be good enough to help us as a tight end. Right now that's a position that we're definitely trying to upgrade. Coach Tranquill wants to be able to play with two tight ends at times, so if a guy can come in and help us, there'll be an opportunity."
TarHeelBlue: What's the status of Larry Jessup?
Coach Browning: "We moved him to tight end during the spring, but he was in a green jersey. He got to go to the tight end meetings for probably the last half of the spring, and at least got an introduction to the position.
"He runs pretty well, but obviously he's been down since last August in terms of not being able to lift, so strength development that it takes to be a blocker at that position will be a lot of his focus.
"He runs pretty well. He's got some speed. He should be well enough this summer to work on his receiving, then well enough that we can do about anything with his shoulder in terms of blocking."
TarHeelBlue: Which of your receivers has the best hands?
Coach Browning: "Zach caught the ball well, but I'll tell you what, Richard Moore catches the ball well. Kevin Sargent catches the ball well.
"Doug doesn't have the reputation catching the ball, but he caught balls pretty well this spring. The more he works on it, the more comfortable and confident he'll get. Hopefully, he'll be an adequate receiver."
TarHeelBlue: Is Doug your best blocker?
Coach Browning: "Yes, he is. No doubt about it."
TarHeelBlue: Which is more important for a tight end, blocking or receiving, or is it a 50-50 deal?
Coach Browning: "(Laughing) It depends on what play you've got called.
"But I think blocking is the hardest thing. On a run play, you're asking him to be as good a blocker as his tackle. The position has gotten to the point that there's not many out there who can do everything as well as you'd like for them to.
"You want them to block as well as an offensive lineman. You want them to, as receivers, be as close as possible to a wide receiver. They're obviously not going to be, but that would be ideal. You're looking for some speed and finesse there.
"Plus, we involve ours in pass protection, so they've got to understand the running game, they have to understand protections schemes, and they've got to understand the pass offense in terms of the routes."
"They've got quite a bit to do."
TarHeelBlue: Was it hard to make the change from defense to offense?
Coach Browning: "I enjoyed it. It was a different challenge for me. It wasn't that difficult from the standpoint of the on-the-field part, because I'd done it for so many years before. It was pretty easy from a technical standpoint.
"The biggest difference was working with guys I'd never worked with in the past. It was different for me, and I'm sure it was different for them."
TarHeelBlue: How different is the new offensive system from the old one?
Coach Browning: "I'm probably not the best one to ask since I wasn't coaching offense here before now, but I'd say the style of the running game is a little less hole specific. It's less position blocking.
"It's more of a cover them up, try to stay on them, and let the back have some flexibility in where to run, based on the reaction of the defense. The back had better use his eyes a lot.
"The linemen have to learn to adjust, because they can't see where the back's going to go, so the back-side blocker becomes just as important as the play-side blocker. The ball may come back to that side as much as it stays on the play side.
"You don't want to get on an edge and give a defender a chance if the ball breaks back outside. You want to cover him up no matter where the ball's going. You want to cover as much of your man's cylinder as you can.
"Gary's got a very flexible system, in terms of personnel, formations, movements, the running game and passing game. He's got a way to get about anything done. The system allows you to do more than a team could execute in a given game, heck, probably in a season.
"We put in a lot more this spring than we had a chance to get really good at. Coming back in August I'm sure we'll narrow some of that down and focus on improving the execution level.
"But, you don't want to narrow it down too much, too fast. What they're not doing well on August 10, they may be doing well on August 25."
TarHeelBlue: Could you estimate what percentage of your time you worked with the offensive line during practice?
Coach Browning: "I don't know the percentage of time, but it was a lot.
"I think that's an area where we're not as mature, we've only got one player who's been starting, and that's Adam Metts. A lot of times the other starters are sophomores and freshmen.
"There's no quick fix for that position. What I think Coach Bunting and Coach Tranquill wanted to do was try to accelerate their progress as much as we could, and obviously one guy coaching five can't give them as many reps as if you can get two guys coaching six."
TarHeelBlue: Is that fairly common for the tight end coach to also work with the offensive line?
Coach Browning: "There are a lot of pro teams, and some college teams, who will have two offensive line coaches. Coach Bunting was part of that system when he was at St. Louis. Dick Vermeil had two offensive line coaches.
"That's just such a critical area. You're not going to be good on offense unless that group performs, that's where it starts. There's never enough time to work on all the techniques you want to work on with the offensive line."
TarHeelBlue: Did they make much progress?
Coach Browning: "I think we made progress, but I wish we'd have had about fifteen more days to help those guys grow up.
"It seemed like certain guys had a big jump the last four days."
TarHeelBlue: Any in particular that you'd like to name?
Coach Browning: "Well, I thought Greg Woofter came on towards the end pretty well. He's got to gain more confidence, and get a little stronger in his hips and lower body. He needs to bend a little better. He's not a big guy, so he's got to play with great leverage.
"Jeb (Terry) was hurt some during the spring, but I think he got an understanding of what we're trying to get done. Skip Seagraves made some good progress.
"Hopefully, all of them should pick up from there in August.
"I probably get a little impatient with them at times, because the last time I coached the offensive line was when I was at Northern Durham, but it was a running game system very, very similar to what we do here.
"The guys I coached there had grown up in the system, but for some of the guys here it was brand new. I'm trying to have enough patience to bring them along and see them learn consistency. I don't have lack of patience in terms that I don't give up on them, we just keep working because you don't know when it's going to start clicking for them."
TarHeelBlue: You seemed a little more intense to me this spring than you have in the past. Do you think that's true or not?
Coach Browning: "I don't think so. As a coach, you try to set a standard as far as intensity that the players will respond to. If you're coaching a group of players that bring some of that to practice every day, then it doesn't mean you work them any less hard yourself, but once they get to a level where they know how to compete on every snap, you'd rather it be player generated.
"For championship teams, intensity is player generated. They need to come ready to go.
"If you've got some older players that bring that, sometimes it will rub off on the other guys. We don't really have that on the offensive line for the younger guys to see, there's really not a model."
Look for Part II on Monday, May 28.
Players Mentioned
