Gattis on Miami's Spring Progress, Broyles Award Presentation
New Hurricanes offensive coordinator Josh Gattis seems pleased with the progress of the University of Miami’s football team before the spring game at DRV PNK Stadium on Saturday.
The former Michigan assistant emphasized the level and consistency of the way the Hurricanes football program practices now, being mentored under the new regime of head coach Mario Cristobal.
“Progress has been really good," he said. "I think our guys are learning the offense and learning the defense. Learning all of the special teams systems but also learning how to practice, the level and the consistency of how hard we practice.”
Gattis noted the importance of not only what Miami has done during spring practice, but emphasized the importance of the nine weeks that follow the game itself on Saturday.
“The next nine weeks, they are really going to be important to the development of our program,' he said. "What we do when no one is watching, right? It’s easy to get up from the type of practices we have, when we have 300 to 400 people at practice every day. Now the biggest challenge is going to be, can we condition ourselves to maintain that consistency?”
During post practice interviews at the podium, while he was answering questions, there was an interruption with great news.
Gattis was presented with the Broyles Award, given to the top assistant coach in the country for college football. He earned this award for his performance as offensive coordinator of the Michigan Wolverines during the 2021 season, of course leading the program to the College Football Playoff semi-final against the Georgia Bulldogs. He was presented as the 26th winner of the Broyles award, one recognized dating back to 1996.
The Miami coaching staff and players were on hand for the unexpected ceremony, too.
“It’s quite the surprise right?" Gattis said. "It’s truly an honor, it’s really why I hold it as the highest regard and obviously for an assistant coach it’s always the dream, for any coach to be honored with this award. Thank you to the Broyles family, foundation, and everyone. For my trip to Arkansas, to Little Rock, was amazing. I couldn’t be more honored to represent you all. I will hold that in the highest regard every day of coaching. It has put a new challenge and a new responsibility on me and I embrace it, thank you so much. It puts the highlight to the end of spring right there!
"They just carried the trophy in like it was no problem but the trophy really is like 75 pounds. Thank you, honestly it’s really an example of dedication and hard work. From the players to commitment of everyone alike. An individual award is a team award.”
Josh Gattis receives the Broyles Award trophy, which apparently is very heavy. pic.twitter.com/PLVgqtaBCx
— Adam Lichtenstein (@ABLichtenstein) April 14, 2022
Gattis, while asked about the award in relation to coaching his new team and players, really made it a point to note the importance of how he would be developing these young men on and off the field.
“It’s an honor to have former players that have upheld my coaching and done everything I have asked from them," he said. "That’s the relationship I look forward to with these guys. Just to be able to lead these young men to better and brighter days and obviously to grow them on the field and off the field. To develop them in so many different ways personally and professionally within this sport.”
Back on the spring practice front, Gattis mentioned what he’s looking for from him his players during the spring game itself.
“What I’m looking for Saturday is really just the guys to go out and execute confidently, for themselves and for their family,' he said. "They’ve put in a ton of hard work, ton of sacrifice and it’s going to be a great environment. You feel the energy and excitement around the University of Miami football, specifically from all of our athletic programs right now. To go out there play confidently, eliminate clutter, just have fun, play the game but most important to stay healthy.
"We always pray for that in any type of spring game situation, just make sure we leave out a complete tape and make sure we continue that progress going into our summer camp.”
Certain players on offense that have stood out to the Broyles Award winning offensive coordinator through the first 14 practices of the spring while each side got familiar with one another.
“Obviously Tyler (Van Dyke), he has done an exceptional job of leading the offense," Gattis said. "Henry Parrish a guy getting him in here as a transfer, it’s been huge, a huge addition. He’s done a phenomenal job just learning the offensive system and really taking a leadership role on the team. Obviously talked about DJ (Scaife), Jakai Clark who has done an exceptional job being our center. We put so much on our center in our offense, really the quarterback number two of the offense. Making all the calls, checks and he’s done an exceptional job. You look at the receiver position, with Xavier Restrepo and just what he brings just each and every day. He’s been phenomenal, he’s a guy that just practices so hard and executes at a very high level. You go on to Jacolby George, Key’Shawn Smith, Frank Ladson and being able to add those guys into the mix and we are very excited.
"We have to obviously build more depth, that’s going to be the key for us. You have to be able rely on your first 22 not just your 11. There’s injuries, there’s guys that are missing each and every week. We have to build depth to the point where a guy is out, the next guy steps in and performs and it stays the same. That’s going to be really important for us as we move forward throughout the summer.”
When asked about how he would handle not showing too much in the spring game with the new offense and performing at a certain level of entertainment to the fans, Gattis acknowledged the attention the program has received.
“That’s a great question, everybody in America will be watching," he said. "They’ll be breaking down the spring game right? We do the same thing, we’re watching every other teams spring games. We’re putting in the information in the system, obviously there will be some things they have already seen from us from a self scout standpoint when they look at our offensive system. For us most importantly rather than sacrifice what we show, it’s about giving our kids the ability to play confidently in what they do. At the end of the day, if we hold back, we just want our kids to go out there and execute it confidently because that’s the biggest thing, allowing our kids to gain confidence from the spring game moment. That they can piggyback off that in the summer time to make them excel in their workouts.”
On his blocking schemes of pinning and pulling while at Michigan and what type of advantages it would bring in the run game for Miami, Gattis went in detail.
“We want to have diversity in everything that we do, diversity in who touches the ball, diversity in our run scheme," he said. "Obviously when you talk about pin and pull exclusively, it allows you to block with angles. It allows you to get the ball on the perimeter, find different entry points for the ball and being able to play with leverage. Being able to capture the outside leverage of a defender and it’s all really predicated on the strength of your tight end room. Your tight ends are really, I think, the unsung heroes of the offense because they allow you to do whatever you need to do. If you don’t have a physical group of tight ends, you’re not going to be able to run pin and pull. If you have a physical group of tight ends, you can run gap schemes, pin and pull and they allow you to have all the diversity there.
"We want to be mixed. We want to be balanced, because every defensive coordinator across America's first goal is to stop your number one run scheme. You have to have the curve balls too but you have to be able to throw the switch ups in there.”
The program is still assimilating to a new on-field staff outside of tight ends coach Stephen Field while installing a new culture. Gattis says he and his fellow assistant coaches, along with Cristobal, handled that challenging situation over the course of spring practice.
“The culture of the staff together has been amazing,' he said. "First of all, before you can build culture, you have to start with chemistry. The chemistry has been phenomenal, we have an unbelievable staff. I’m honored to work on this staff every day. I’m walking down the hall and I’m picking off the brain of (defensive coordinator) Kevin Steele and (co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach) Charlie Strong. Two phenomenal defensive coaches, you have Jason Taylor. You look over there at the offensive staff. We have coach (Alex) Mirabal, coach (Frank) Ponce, coach (Kevin) Smith and coach Field. We truly have an unbelievable staff and I think what helped us, we all moved into the thesis at the same time so we were in and out of the hotel kind of like roommates in a fraternity house almost. We were always going to dinner, spending actual time and that’s been big because chemistry starts at the top. You have to have great chemistry with your staff, you have to have great chemistry lead by your head coach and now that trickles down to building the culture. You look at the culture coach Cristobal has been able to create, it’s been very important we establish two things this spring.
"Our number one goal was mentality and identity and those two things if you ask our kids, those are the things we harp on every day. The identity of our team and when we talk about identity, we talk about what we do and how we do everything as anything. That’s the number one goal, whether that’s academics, the locker room and whether that’s the weight room. Developing the identity of our team and the mentality. The physical presence, how we’re going to practice and the physicality we’re going to practice with and the competition level. Our kids have done a phenomenal job of just embracing the culture that we’ve established.”
The Hurricanes football team will play their spring football game at DRV PNK Stadium this Saturday at 12:00 PM eastern standard time.
