LIONS HEAD COACH ROD MARINELLI ROOKIE MINI-CAMP TRANSCRIPTS

LIONS HEAD COACH ROD MARINELLI
On whether he can confirm the report that Martz stomped out of the building Tuesday: "I saw it (the report); I guess a source close to the building said he saw him stomp out. That was a lie. Tuesday he went out and looked for a home with his wife. I knew where he was at. I don't know why somebody would write something like that. I don't know who the source is - but I'm the source (you should listen to). Just like we have had other coaches who have had to go out and look for homes during the afternoons sometimes. I had two or three guys go in the afternoon; another guy did it in the morning. They left the building during their work time to maybe sign for a home or whatever. That's all it was."

On whether he can confirm if Martz was angry about something when he left: "It was nothing; he asked me, 'do you mind if I leave to check on a home,' with his wife or something like that. I said: sure. I don't know who the source is - I wish the source would come and talk to me. That source is lying."

On what he's looking to accomplish in this camp: "The biggest thing I want, and for all of these men and everybody we drafted and we're looking at, is to understand the pace that we're trying to practice at. That sometimes is the biggest thing for these guys; they need to understand what kind of condition they have to be in. Then we can stress our fundamentals and all of the little details and the nuances of our defense and our offense. I'm trying to give them every opportunity to catch up with our team so that when they come back for OTA days and hit the field, they're hitting it, not like a veteran but with energy and they understand how to meet and they've heard the terms and they understand how they're going to be coached."

On whether he can see a movement from the players towards what he's looking for: "We can see the movement, I know that. Now we're just getting the movement going in the right direction. You can see the quickness and the speed and all of the anticipation stuff that we know. Now we need to just direct it all to get it done right for all of those guys."

On the importance of setting the tone with the young players: "That's exactly what I'm trying to do. How we practice; how we do things; the speed that we do things; the tempo that we do things. Because everybody goes about their way of teaching the system but what I try to really do is make sure they understand the pace, the fundamentals, the line drills and the pursuit drills - all of those things that are important to us. So I'm trying to get them caught up to speed and the pace so that next week when they're home, they're out running everyday to get themselves ready to go at the pace we want to play at."

On whether there is an advantage to excluding veterans from this camp: "No question. That's the thing I like about what we're trying to do. When you have a (full squad) mini-camp with all of the rookies the first time, they're in the back of the line, they never ask a question, the meetings are intimidating, they don't get as many reps, they don't get as coached with the details and they don't get the exposure to the special teams like I would like. They're the only guys in the building and we're able just to coach all of the details for them which I really want to get done. Special teams is a priority; they're going to go into a weight lifting session and understand the 'whys' we do things. Not the eight guy on the bench but understand how we're doing it and meet with different people that will affect their careers here so that we can really do a good job of spring boarding them with the veterans. I want to get them caught up as fast as I can. I need these guys to make an impact for us."

On the importance of the 'will' linebacker position in this defensive scheme: "The will-linebacker is really important - the speed at that (position). See, we cover him up so he's got to have speed to block, to cover, to man when we're playing some man, to blitz and to just have the underneath speed to really roam and tackle. The tackling is so critical to what we're tying to do. The same with those safeties, they've got to be able to come off the hash with ballskills. That's why they're important."

On whether the focus of this camp is to prepare the rookies for upcoming camps with the full squad and evaluating where they might fit in: "Oh yeah. We're going to look at them in all these areas. The biggest thing we want to get done for those guys right now is just get them in a stance and how to set, of the detail things we want to get going - the pace and then all of the information on the offense. These three-and-a-half days (including last night's meetings) are critical to getting these guys prepared. The staff is wired in for them and coaching hard. This is an important three days for this program."

On whether this is a performance camp or a teaching camp: "It's a teaching camp but the performance is the tempo we want; the pace, the speed, the energy and the pursuit - all of those things that are habits that are hard to teach. Right now we really can be just hands-on with these guys and at the pace that we want to practice at and that you want to play at. Sometimes in this game, those are the hardest things to teach; how hard (it is) to play this game. Playing hard and then smart; you've got to do it all at once. That's what we're trying to teach."

On whether it can be expected that even the high-profile rookies will struggle with some of the drills: "Sometimes a guy gets into a drill and may have never done the drill. So then you have the time to go back this afternoon and explain why we're doing this drill and what are the body mechanics that we're looking for. Then he starts doing and then by Sunday he's got to feel comfortable with it. There are movements that maybe he's never done. You might be a really good athlete yourself but then the first time you play racquetball or golf and you've never done that movement, it takes two or three days to get your body mechanics ready to go again. The movements and the patterns of movements might be a little bit different."

On whether the rookies will come to training camp before the veterans: "No, this is the time we're able to work with them right now. (I wanted to do it now) because we kickoff into our OTAs in another week or so and then our mini-camp and then another week of OTAs. They're kicking this thing off right, right now. Now we'll get them caught up for when the veterans come back."

On why they invited tryout players: "You know, you're always looking. We invited some tryout men to come in. They're going to work very hard. You just put them on tape and you film them and you look. You just never know. The key is, you have to keep looking. I look to the franchise and our team to just keep digging and looking. We've got 50 some guys out here that went out looking for. When this thing is over, I'm going to keep looking. You might find one. I'm just trying to get better and get better guys in here - more talent in here. That's what we're trying to get done."

On whether having tryout players is something new: "We did it in Tampa - every year we would kind of find some guy and say, 'where did this guy come from.' I can't remember his name but we had a corner last year that made our team. Each year, I think there is more and more teams trying to do this. It's a chance to keep looking. I'm not satisfied. I want to keep looking, keep pushing and keep trying hard."

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