LIONS HEAD COACH ROD MARINELLI AFTER THE THURSDAY PRACTICE

On if DT Shaun Cody will play in the preseason opener: "We'll meet with (trainer) Al (Bellamy) tonight to see what his feelings are about everybody before we

On if DT Shaun Cody will play in the preseason opener: "We'll meet with (trainer) Al (Bellamy) tonight to see what his feelings are about everybody before we get going for the final tune-up and check them all out. But my thing right now is that if it's close, I wouldn't plan on it."

On if LB Boss Bailey is still out: "He's out. I'm not going to play him."

On if he cares if he wins this game or not: "Yes. I've been saying: it's winning each play. I want to see a team develop. Anytime you line up, you want to win. You're preparing these guys, especially our seconds and thirds, to get ready to go and have a real good day. It's important, but the most important thing is to win each snap so that every guy is improving. I want the improvement in how we do things. Today was a hard, long practice. Yesterday was a hard, long practice. We're in camp, and this is camp mode. This is another part of the process tomorrow night - its camp and we're going to work."

On his feelings on his first game as a head coach, though it's a preseason game:
"Everything has been so wired in each day, each snap. But you prepare and watch film differently before, so I make sure that I do that. It's just different things to see and do, so I'm excited about that. I like different."

On what he does differently on the field: "One is how I prepare on the field. My routine is the last two or three days of the week, I just lock in on endzone (film) so I can watch the back of the offense and back of the defense and see everything. Right now I can tell you from tight end to backside tackle and all four down guys exactly what happened. That's how I trained my eyes. Now I just recently got continuous game film, all sideline, and just watch the game and start to get a feel of all the different situations. So you just have to retrain habits."

On the details of the game: "As you go into a game, it's just getting the proper mechanics, No.l. Then when the real game starts, the strategy happens a little more. Right now towards the middle of the game we're going to play second and third-team guys and it's just about guys going out and lining up properly."

On if he's got a substitution plan of how he's playing his starters: "Yeah. It's going to be somewhere in the first quarter. It all depends on how the drive goes. We just don't want to overdo it with them and get them into some good rhythm and good tempo. It's just part of the process."

On what he needs to accomplish with this game: "The biggest thing that I've been trying to point out here is winning each snap. I'm really focused on that. Each guy has a winning snap in this game. If I'm supposed to take a good reach step on a reach block, I want the toes upfield - all those things - my hands on the precision of a route. So that's a winning play. That man's getting better. You focus on what you're trying to get done, and then if you put enough winning plays together we should have a good scoreboard."

On RG Kelly Butler: "He's in there fighting every day. He's out competing and here everyday showing up, going to work, putting the pads on. He's getting better. It's going to be good for him to go out and compete against some other men and see where we're at."

On how he practices game management: "I get continuous game film and it's just (deciding): here we may call a timeout or here we might go for a field goal or punt here. You just watch the game in its entirety, instead of watching offense or defense. Then a few hours after the game I'll get a DVD of the game so you'll get the feel of commercials, timeouts and all of those things - the length of it all. There are certain times where you'll have more time to think and sometimes you don't."

On if he visualizes himself on the sideline: "I ask my other coaches what they think here and there and you're constantly thinking of all the situations. It's going to be good. Take notes where I should have done this, should have done that and what I think about this. Then the next day I'll grade myself such as: what should I have done here, what could I have done better, the use of timeouts better, am I using the kicker properly?"

On if it's different as a head coach: "Sure. It's exciting. It's just living. If you ever get a chance to live, this is what living is about."

On if the team is where it should be conditioning-wise: "Not good enough."

On if they will ever be good enough: "No."

On the bigger picture of the team: "I think the bigger picture is trying to unify an entire building. The janitor sees winning the same as I do. The grounds crew sees the importance of doing the simple things right. When everything gets used to doing things right, the simple things, then winning starts. But doing the simple things right like doing a good job in the cafeteria cleaning up, I'm on it. I'm actually more of a patrolman. I want to create a good environment for our coaches and that's part of my responsibility. I just want to make sure that things are done right - from trash cans to how we conduct ourselves in the meeting. That's part of my role, as I view it."

 

COURTESY OF THE LIONS