University of North Carolina Athletics
A Q&A With Coach Jim Fleming: Part III
July 19, 2002 | Football
By: Joe Bray
TarHeelBlue: What are the different mental and physical attributes between a corner and a safety?
Coach Fleming: "If you're drawing it up on paper, at the corner spots you want straight speed, a quicker hip kid, a quicker foot with make-up speed. At safety you're looking for a bigger kid who you can envision coming up and supporting the run and tackling people.
"You'd like to have the perfect package at all four spots. You'd like to have a kid who can run, cover and hit at all four positions. Certain guys do certain things better.
"If I've got a kid at the corner spot who can man up any receiver in the league, but he has a hard time breaking out of a wet paper bag in terms of hitting drills, well, I'll take him. But, if I've got a guy who can cover as well but who will also come up and strike you, that's the total package and he'll be the starter.
"At safety you still have to put the emphasis on deep coverage. Plus, they have to have an affinity for the running game and getting up there and making tackles. We've got some kids back there who can do both.
"Each of our DBs have certain strengths and weaknesses. As a coach, you're never satisfied with any of their deficiencies. You hope that as players they're not satisfied with their deficiencies. I don't want a corner who says 'Hey, I'm just a cover guy.'
"Eventually, these guys have to make tackles because they're the last line of defense, so they better be able to do it.
"I don't think any of our kids are afraid of contact. Some are better tacklers than others. We've just got to keep working to be the best tacklers and the best cover guys we can be at all four positions.
"You look to recruit guys that have corner skills, but you want to make sure they have the size and the ability tomove inside to the safety position if necessary. If I see a tape of a kid who's a flat hitter and runs around well, I say that kid's going to start at safety.
"At corner you're looking for a kid who can cover down, who can press and play in space real well. All those kids have to be tremendously athletic."
TarHeelBlue: Who's the 'quarterback' in the secondary?
Coach Fleming: "Without question it's Dexter Reid. He's the guy who's the most vocal and the most interested in knowing what's going on around him at all different positions. He wants the responsibility of getting people lined up.
"He's shown me that he's a real student of the game. Understanding offenses and understanding what's coming at you from different formations is equally as important as the athletic ability that those guys have.
"The best ones are the ones who have the total package. Those are the ones who understand the game, and who can cover and tackle. That's what I hope to get all of them doing. Part of that is motivation.
"I think it's a coach's job to motivate. You've got to find the way to get individual players going as hard as they can possibly go. I think that all people are better when they've got someone pushing them.
"There are guys that are easy to motivate, then there's guys who are hard to motivate. Those guys don't get to play a heck of a lot, because there's got to be something in the heart that says 'I want to be a good football player, I want to get better today at practice.'
"Your job as a coach is to hit the right button and have that kid hitting on all cylinders. There are times, whether during two-a-days or during the season, when there are distractions, where you really have to make sure a kid is concentrating on becoming a better player. That can be done in many different ways, a pat on the back, a kick in the tail.
"That's our job, that's what we've got to do."
TarHeelBlue: Which do you like more, practice or a game?
Coach Fleming: "I've got to say the game, because that's what it's all about. You're out there seeing the fruits of labor from practice, watching your players perform.
"You have to make decisions very quickly during a game, it's managed chaos for sixty minutes. It's quick instruction that is all built on a foundation that is built during practice. The communication that I can make on game day is short and to the point. I may have to give a very quick, cryptic command in the heat of the action that should immediately remind a player of a film session where we discussed that same situation at length.
"They better have learned what that communication means during the week.
"Another thing that is fun about the game is that you're managing a psyche at that position. A guy's going to give up a play, that's a given. My approach is 'Hey, now you owe us one. Go make something happen. Go get a pick.'
"I tell them to park the last play. No matter whether the last play was good, bad or indifferent, you park that play and go on to the next one."
TarHeelBlue: Do you enjoy recruiting?
Coach Fleming: "I've really enjoyed recruiting here as much as I've enjoyed recruiting anywhere I've been. This is the first job I've been at where I can walk into schools and have a legitimate opportunity to go ahead and talk to and recruit the best player at those schools.
"Wherever else I've been it's been more of I'm going to really recruit this guy hard because he's a real good player, but I don't think the top-notch schools are going to take him, so maybe we'll be able to get him. I was always looking for the guy who was going to be a notch less, because I wasn't going to get the best.
"Now, if I see a guy who looks great on film, I've got a chance to talk to that kid. I've got a product to sell, I've got a program to sell, I've got a head coach to sell, I've got a great university to sell. Now it's a question of doing what is necessary to get them here."
TarHeelBlue: What are the most difficult and most rewarding parts of the job?
Coach Fleming: "The family strain is the toughest part of the job. As much as I love the players I coach, I've got four kids and a wife at home that I love more.
"I do think of my position players as sort of an extended family. I'll have kids who I coached years ago call me to see how things are going. Those are kids you've been through the wars with, you know all about them and their families. You get really close to them.
"This transition has been difficult in some ways. I've seen my family very sporatically, since they finished the school year back in Connecticut. I've been blessed with a wife who was prepared for this style of life and is very strong, plus I've got four great kids. It's a part of the job that you learn to deal with.
"The most rewarding part of your job is to be able to see the excitement that players have after doing their best and seeing that their hard work is rewarded with victory.
"If I had been here for that Florida St. game last year, it would have been fun just to sit back and watch those kids do something like that. It is so satisfying to see kids reap the rewards of their hard work, because football really is a great deal of hard work.
"It's also great to see them develop, both physically, mentally and emotionally over the course of four years. When you're a football coach, you know that the lessons kids learn on the football field are going to help them throughout their life.
"This is not an easy game, it takes a tremendous amount of hard work. There is a huge feeling of love, joy, brotherhood and camaraderie that goes along with a team game like this."
TarHeelBlue: How do you feel like you've fit in with the rest of the staff?
Coach Fleming: "I've just been here a short period of time, but I've had some previous relationships with some of the coaches. I've worked with Webster, I've worked with Connors, and I know Gunter very well. He's one of my best friends in coaching. I knew Huxtable from ECU, but I hadn't worked with him.
"It's a very solid staff, and the camaraderie is there. Everybody trusts each other to get their jobs done. It's a very hard working staff.
"I know the staff will stay together, I know the team will stay together, the question is how good are we going to be? I think we've got a shot at being good, but it's going to take a lot of guys stepping up to the plate.
"We've lost a lot of people, and how well people step up to the opportunity to fill those shoes is going to determine how well we're going to play this year."
TarHeelBlue: Has the job here met your expectations?
Coach Fleming: "So far it has. It may be premature to answer that question since I haven't been through a full year. But, from the first day I stepped on campus here, it's been what I expected it to be.
"It's a first-class institution with people who do things in a first-class way. There's a lot of pride in the program that's shared by both the people that run it and the people who support it.
"My expectations so far have been met, now the expecations of winning and playing championship football are ahead of us. That's what I've become accustomed to, there's no reason to play them other than to win them.
"The jury's still out as to how good we're going to be this year. But, my expectations are that we get back to a bowl game, we compete for an ACC championship, and we develop this program to a level to be a national championship contender.
"Those are my expectations."
Part I, Monday, July 15: Coach Fleming on how he turned around the football program at Sacred Heart University.
Part II, Wednesday, July 17: Fleming comments on each of his position players, special teams, and communicating with today's athlete.
