New UGA OC Brian Schottenheimer meets the media

ATHENS, Ga. – New UGA offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer met the media today in a press conference that included head coach Mark Richt.

Richt confirmed that Schottenheimer will have a three-year contract, but the terms have yet to  be disclosed.

Below ow is a transcript of the press conference today courtesy of UGA.

Head Coach Mark Richt

Opening Statement…

“We appreciate the support and enthusiasm for our program. We just want to say that we’re very excited to announce, or maybe not announce but present, to you Coach Schottenheimer. Brian is a guy that we’ve got an awful lot of faith in to come in and run an offensive team. We’re thankful that he has decided to work his way into the college ranks and choose Georgia. So with that, I’m going to give Brian a second to say a little something and then can start letting you guys ask whatever questions you want.

Offensive Coordinator Brian Schottenheimer

Opening Statement…

“I’m just thrilled to be here. This is kind of a dream come true to get back into the SEC and to an elite program. I appreciate Coach Richt and everybody giving me the opportunity, and I’m really excited about it.”

On why he decided to return to college football…

Schottenheimer: “Obviously, college is something I’ve looked at the last couple of years. When I left the Jets, I had an opportunity to interview with Coach Saban down at Alabama and ended up choosing to go to Saint Louis. Last year, I actually interviewed for the Vanderbilt head coaching job and came up short with that. But it’s been something I’ve been looking at for a while. I played in the SEC. I love college football. When we’re on the road, we obviously get an opportunity to watch some guys. I’m always tuning in to the Saturday afternoon game. (I’m excited about) the chance to come to an elite program like this. Obviously, Coach Richt is a huge part of the attraction for me. What they’ve done here, the history and the tradition were a big part of it.”

On the difference in working with professional athletes and student-athletes…

Schottenheimer: “It all starts with just the relationship. I look forward to getting to know these guys. I think they’ll find out about me. I’m an upbeat, positive guy. But at the same time, there’s going to be work that has to be done. We’ll roll up our sleeves and get to work. But I look forward to that part, I really do. I look forward to getting a chance to mentor some of these young men. I have two small children of my own and, again, I take very seriously the fact that I believe that I’m a good person with high character and morals, and I try to pass it on to people. I look forward to working with these young men and helping them become better student-athletes.”

On Georgia’s returning quarterbacks…

Schottenheimer: “I’m just kind of getting into the process now. I spent quite a bit of time on recruiting film, to be honest with you. But talking to Coach Richt and the staff, obviously we know there are a couple of guys starting to stick their nose in. I just met Brice (Ramsey). I can give you some more information on that in the next little bit.”

On recruiting after nine years in the NFL…

Schottenheimer: “It’s certainly different. Obviously, the technology has changed a lot. I think it sounds like that’s a good thing for both the schools and the student-athletes. But the biggest thing, again, is developing relationships. The university here speaks for itself and what they’ve done here. It’s time-tested. I’m looking forward to getting into it. The exciting thing for me is I’m coming into a situation with a great staff and a lot of guys already in place. That’s a big benefit for me.”

On transitioning from the pro level to college…

Schottenheimer: “It seems like wherever I’ve gone, there’s always been young quarterbacks. With that comes a challenge. But at the same time, it’s fun. That’s a passion of mine. I love working with quarterbacks. I love developing quarterbacks. Drew (Brees) has become one of my best friends in the world. We spent a lot of time together both on the field and in the classroom, and we’ve certainly had some success. Again, that’s a passion of mine and something I think I’m pretty good at and look forward to trying to continue that tradition down here.”

On the process of hiring Brian Schottenheimer…

Richt: “I was having a lot of people pursue this job over time. During the time that the team was in Charlotte is when Brian’s name first surfaced or at least began to resonate with me. As you can imagine, there were just a lot of texts, a lot of calls, a lot of emails, people shooting things to the office, just an awful lot of interest. And then you have people calling for people, people texting for people, people emailing for people, who they would like to get in front of Georgia, in front of my attention. It seemed like right in the middle of that (is when his name came up).”

On the process of becoming Georgia’s offensive coordinator…

Schottenheimer: “This is a place that I’ve been monitoring. You see a guy like Mike (Bobo) get the chance to move on, and it was certainly something that, as I’ve been watching college football, caught my attention. When I was at Florida, this is one that I kind of had my eye on. So, again, I was very interested and just happy it worked out.”

On his approach with Georgia’s successful offensive…

Schottenheimer: “It’s about sustaining that success. I think that’s the goal, that’s the objective. The good thing about me is I’m coming into a situation where there are a bunch of really good coaches on the staff. We’re not going to reinvent the wheel. I think philosophically, that’s one of the things Coach Richt and I see in this program. We see things the same way—the pro-style offense. We’re going to run the football. Obviously, that’s a big part of what we’re doing. And so it was really kind of an easy fit, an exciting fit because not a lot of teams in college football are doing it that way.”

On a new offensive system…

Schottenheimer: “I really believe it’s easier for me to come in and learn what they’ve been doing. I think that’s what is going to allow these guys to play fast. Certainly, there will be some things that will have my fingerprint on them. But I’m excited about coming in and trying to sustain the success that these guys have had here. That’s a big part of it. We had the chance to sit down and talk and visit. It’s really not a big difference from some of the things that we were doing (at the Rams). It’s really going to be a pretty easy fit, I think.”

On a new offensive system…

Richt: “I think the terminology is really just a matter of semantics, a matter of how you call something. One of the greatest attractions for me in looking at Brian is just the fact that we do think a lot alike philosophically – how to run the football, how to throw the football, how to protect, formations and run combos at the line of scrimmage. We are still believing it’s a two-back running game, but we also need to be able to spread out and go with three- and four-receiver sets, take advantage of formations and motions and be able to protect in a way where we can get four or five guys out. We do things very much the same, although we may call it just a little bit different, the big thing is the guts of it are going to be very similar. I’m not going to sit here and say that it will be exactly what we did because we do want to know the things that Brian knows and that can help us grow as an offensive football team, but we also didn’t want to just totally stray away from the success that we’ve had and the style of play.”

On what separated Schottenheimer from other candidates…

Richt: “I think it was really the thought of having a guy that was, again, very similar in thought, very similar in scheme, very similar in philosophy. We do run a pro-style attack. A lot of teams across the country are spreading and doing a lot of zone-read with quarterback run and protecting certain ways. It just really hasn’t been what we’re about. We’re still very serious about running the ball a certain way and having the diversity in the passing game to be as sophisticated as anybody in the country with our protections and with our route concepts. We’re not just throwing four verts and some smash routes here. We have a pretty intricate passing game and protection scheme. We put a lot on our quarterback to make decisions at the line of scrimmage. I just think philosophically, we’re very much the same.”

Who was the better college quarterback…

Richt: “You’d have to ask my mom on that. We probably had similar careers. I will be honest, there were a couple of things that have come up already that we had to get squared away right off the get-go. Somehow the term Gatorade got brought up and I said we are actually PowerAde here. And then we talked about the game we have in Jacksonville and he did refer to it as the Florida-Georgia game. I said that’s rule number two, it’s the Georgia-Florida game. Obviously, we think it’s a really good fit. We’re excited.”

On NFL head coaching interviews, ultimate career objective or goal…

Schottenheimer: “Again, obviously I would love to become a head coach at some point. I’ve also realized that the most important thing for me now is to be in a good spot; a place I believe in, a person I believe in. In this case, I’m thrilled about college football. I see it as a new journey, a new start. I’m really excited about it and I see myself in this game for a long time.”

On having the same offensive staff…

Richt: “Right at this moment that’s where everybody is. I don’t see anything changing. You never know what tomorrow will bring for anybody. But right now, we’re solid.”

On hiring of new offensive staff…

Richt: “Offensive line coach obviously, we’ve got to make that hire. Talking with Coach Schottenheimer reminded me of when I first became offensive coordinator at Florida State. I think every coordinator who is a quarterbacks guy wants to make sure he’s got the right offensive line coach with him, and knowing how important that hire is for not only the coordinator but for the team in general. So we’re just trying to do a good job of finding the right fit. We have, quite frankly, a wide range of candidates as far as some college guys, some with more pro experience, some with a little bit of college and a little bit of pro experience. I think one of the biggest things that we’re agreeing on is that this guy must be a great fundamentals coach, a really good teacher of the run game and a really good teacher of the pass game. We think schematically we can get done what we need to get done. We just have to make sure that whoever is the line coach is going to be able to get our boys to execute. Just like we talked in the bowl game when we talked about Coach Lilly calling those plays, we know the plays. It’s just a matter of, is it a good play because of the call or because of how well we execute it. We’ve got to make sure we can execute and that will be a big part of the process in bringing in the line coach.”

On the opinion of NFL and his family on moving from the pros to Georgia…

Schottenheimer: “They’re excited for me. I mean, they really are. I think they see that my heart is really here at Georgia. Obviously there are a lot of guys I trust and respect. I’ve gotten so many calls truly saying what a great place Athens is and talking about Coach Richt and his personality. I think it’s important in this profession that you not only believe in the people you work with but that you respect them. I have a lot of respect for him and the program, the way that it’s carried itself. Everybody that I’ve talked to, truly the people that I care about, think it’s a great move for me and my family. My family is thrilled. My wife is actually here probably spending money right now looking at houses and things like that. We’re all in excited and ready to go.”

On his dad, Marty Schottenheimer’s reaction…

Schottenheimer: “He trusts my instincts. He just loves the profession of coaching. I think he’s really excited that I’m going to another great place. He’s always seen himself as a teacher and I do as well. I think starting to train 17- and 18-year-old young men, student athletes, is an exciting challenge for me that he is really excited for me; he is very fired up.”

On whether or not he’s always wanted to be a coach…

Schottenheimer: “I really wanted to be a golfer. Then I started playing football and my hands started getting beaten on and I couldn’t really play quite as well. Around the age of 18 or 19, actually that’s why I transferred from KU to Florida, I wanted to go down (to Florida) and kind of learn the pro-style offense from Coach (Steve) Spurrier. From that point on, I’ve never looked back. Coach Richt and I have laughed quite a bit just about that process of going through it and figuring out what you want to do. Some people always ask my dad, ‘hey, did you ever try and talk Brian out of getting into coaching.’ He said, ‘well, I thought about it but the fact that he wanted to do it means that I made it fun for him, that it’s a great profession and something that he wanted to follow my footsteps in.’ I’m very proud of my father, obviously, but also excited about kind of carving my own path.”

On his timeline from being interviewed to being hired…

Schottenheimer: “After I saw that the job was open and it became a possibility that there was mutual interest, I got a chance to visit with Coach and the staff. When you sit down and do these interviews, sometimes it seems like a natural fit, and I was hoping I would get a call from Coach and that it would be something he felt as good about, the interview and the connection between not just the two of us but the staff. I was very pleased when he did call.”

On keeping the continuity…

Richt: “It was important that we found someone that was like-minded. If Coach felt real strongly about using every bit of his terminology just as long as it translated to what we know, that’s one way to go. He felt like it might be wise for him to learn a lot of our terms that mean the same thing that he did in the League, it’s just more familiar for our guys. He felt like it would probably be wiser for one guy to learn it rather than 60 people to learn. Again, we’re talking about doing the same blocking scheme and one guy calls it an ace and one guy calls it a slip. It’s those types of things. It’s just like every off-season, we would go and visit a guy like Coach Schottenheimer and say, how can we grow this system? What do you do in the red zone that might be good? We’re always, as a staff, trying to grow. Now we’ve got a guy like him in the house who is going to be there with all of his experience. There are going to be new route concepts and probably some new ways of running the ball. We may change how we do a two-minute drill or a four-minute drill or whatever it is just using the vast experiences that he’s had. The core beliefs and the core system are so similar that that was one of the main attractions, other than his success and his ability to communicate. Quite frankly, he won over everyone on our staff throughout the interview process that took about four or five hours. He was outstanding.”

On how his cancer scare 10 years ago affected him…

Schottenheimer: “It scared me in the beginning. My wife was pregnant at the time with our son, Sutton. It kind of caused me to pause a little bit, but truly, other than taking two pills a day to replace my thyroid that’s no longer there, it really hasn’t changed me at all. I have a strong faith, so that probably goes back to that as well, but I’m aware of it. My wife actually reminds me of it more than anybody else if I go out and have a big meal and throw a little too much (salt) on some food or something, but again, I’m obviously very healthy now and blessed that it really wasn’t that big of a deal.”

On how important it was to have a coach with an NFL pedigree…

Richt: “Oh there’s no doubt he’s a great teacher of quarterback play. I asked a few basic fundamental quarterback questions to hear how he would communicate that to a young quarterback. Once you get a guy who is NFL caliber, you’re not teaching him how to take a snap from center necessarily. You might say this guy knows what he’s doing in certain areas, but that’s one of the first points he made. He said, ‘you know, we start from ground zero every camp on every fundamental that is important to quarterback play.’ We talked a little bit about how you teach the fundamental of throwing from point A to point B and I just wanted to hear him articulate that. He was very precise yet very simple to where guys could understand it, so I really enjoy the fact that he has coached some great ones. I think it is exciting to our guys, currently, and I think it’s exciting to quarterbacks of the future that are looking at Georgia. But not only that, when you’re the coordinator and not just the quarterbacks coach, you’ve coached this receiver, that receiver, this tight end, that running back, these offensive linemen over the years and have competed against players that our recruits idolize and look up to. I think most players aspire to be in the NFL and they want to be developed to get there. Well now they know that in Brian, he’s been there and he knows what it takes and he knows what it takes to stick there. So all of that’s a real positive thing for recruiting, no doubt.”

On leaving the Rams after a season in which his starting QB was injured…

Schottenheimer: “Obviously I’m proud of the things we were able to do. We certainly had our fair share of adversity. St. Louis is a great team and Coach Fisher has obviously been great to me and my family, so that’s the bittersweet part of it. In terms of losing Sam [Bradford] the last couple of years, it was difficult, but it’s the next man up philosophy you have to understand in this profession that we’re in. But again, it wasn’t as much about St. Louis as it was about this opportunity, and this place, and the chance to come here and coach with this guy [Richt] that really got me excited. The great thing about this profession, whether it’s coach-to-coach or coach-to-player, is those relationships with the guys you go to battle with each week; the guys you work with so closely. Those relationships never go away. You hold onto them tight and when you see them out on the road or compete against them down the line at some point it’s great to go and just check in and ask about families and things like that. So some great memories, obviously, but I’m really looking forward to this new chapter.”

On the biggest difference between the pro and college games…

Schottenheimer: “Well I think obviously recruiting is the biggest difference. I mean, football is football. Like Coach talked about, we could sit here and talk about running schemes and pass protection schemes, and regardless of what you call it, that’s not a huge difference, but the recruiting part of it I’m really excited about. And I mean really excited about. Obviously being at a place like this, they almost sell themselves. So again, excited to get here.

Richt: “We spent a lot of time on the phone last night just trying to get up with a lot of the offensive players we’ve got committed and the others that we’re working on, one of the first things we’ve done is get going on the recruiting end.”

On what can be done recruiting-wise so far…

Richt: “He came in and took the test, passed it, and was able to get on the phone. Nowadays you can DM or direct message a kid and ask him to call. I had already tweeted everybody about the hire. I asked if they had heard about it and [told them] if they wanted to know more about it they could give me a call. That was a couple of days ago, and when Brian was in last night I told them, ‘he’s sitting right here with me if you want to meet your new offensive coordinator and say hello to him to give me a call,’ so a bunch of guys took me up on that.”

On whether or not he had to see anything in the interview process to make him feel comfortable that Brian was going to be able to hit the ground running and recruit well…

Richt: “Well he’s a great communicator, there’s no doubt about that, and his experience has got to be exciting for any young player to want to gain knowledge from a guy like Brian who has all of these experiences in the NFL and at the collegiate level. I think you can even just read the comments from some of the recruits on what they think about it and there’s been nothing but a positive spin and a lot of excitement on that. But I think recruiting is about relationships. I think recruiting is about communicating. Recruiting is about being honest with people, and like I mentioned before, building those relationships and trust. And then also, people have to believe you are competent at what you do. They have to believe that somehow the University of Georgia and this coaching staff can help me develop into the best player, the best person, and the best student that I could possibly be. And that’s what we’ve been selling since 2001 and that’s what we’ll continue to sell. Brian was very sincere, because we asked him some questions as a staff about making the transition, and I think Brian is very sincere about wanting to be significant in the lives of young people. And that’s what has kind of kept me at the college level my entire career. You know, early on could I have moved on to the NFL? I had opportunities, but I always felt like this age group of guys are still teachable and moldable and I think we can make a difference in their lives. And I think that’s what Brian articulated to the staff with his desire to come back and wanting to bless his family through the process, but I think that’s what helped solidify for me that he was serious about coming to this level of football. Because it is more than just X’s and O’s when you deal with college athletes.

On whether he had any prior relationships with any of the coaching staff…

Schottenheimer: “No I didn’t. I think I met Coach [Richt] last year when we came and worked out Aaron [Murray] here. I think you [Richt] were stuck somewhere and had to drive up, so he wasn’t real friendly at the time because he had been in the car for a while, but no, again, it was a real natural fit. It really was. I’m not just saying that. Sometimes you sit in an interview at a place and you can’t wait to get out of there, but this was not the case. It was great give and take, and I felt great about the people Coach has surrounded himself with. I think they will be easy to work with and that gets you excited about coming to work and walk shoulder to shoulder with these guys. And I’m just thrilled.”

On whether he called Mike Bobo or any other assistants that had been here…

Schottenheimer: “I’ve talked to the assistants that are here. Coach Bobo reached out to me which I really appreciated. He sent me a text. That just shows you the kind of person he really is. He just said, ‘hey good luck, you’ll love it,’ but again, getting to know the guys today has been great, and I look forward to those being long and meaningful relationships.”

Richt: “I just wanted to thank our administration and President Morehead for the support with being able to bring in Brian and doing some things with our staff that is important. I wanted to make sure I made that clear.”

On Brian Schottemheimer’s contract details…

“We’re not going to talk about the details yet. It’s a three-year contract and when all the paper work gets done it will be available.”

On if he will take over the South Georgia area of recruiting…

“Well that’s where Mike Bobo was in recruiting. Mike was there because he had all of those ties there. Typically our offensive and defensive coordinators don’t get out on the road much in season, so it makes more sense to have them closer to home. If they do go out then it’s not that far to go. So my guess is it will be closer to Athens than South Georgia, but we have to reconfigure. First of all, we have to hire our o-line coach and once we know who everybody is, what their experiences are and what kind of connections they may have then we’ll be able to decide who goes where. But again, we’re going to continue to divide the state of Georgia into nine pieces for our nine full time recruiters that are the full time coaches and our philosophy of trying to make sure that everybody has a piece of metro Atlanta as well. We’ll continue that philosophy, but on exactly where he’ll land in recruiting I am not certain.”

On if he thinks he will have an offensive line coach by the end of the “dead period”…

“I hope so. We would love to be able to get that guy on the road, but it’s important to make sure that we get the right person. If it takes a little longer than that, so be it, but the goal would be to get it done before that. If all we had to hire would have been a line coach then I think we would have had that done by now, but because we had to go with an offensive coordinator and a line coach I wanted to get the offensive coordinator hired first because I wanted to know what he was looking for in an offensive line coach. I want him to have that comfort factor because, like I said before, the first time I became an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach that’s your biggest hire in your mind. You have to make sure you have a good line and a good line coach. So I didn’t want to get a line coach that may not mesh as well as possible. The big thing was to, on the timeline, get the coordinator first and then get the line coach afterwards.”

On the role that Schottenheimer will play in the offensive line coach hiring process…

“He’ll have input, certainly. He’s already had input in what he’s looking for in an offensive line coach. That was very important. It’s just like even with interviewing Brian, we didn’t have just the offensive staff in there; we had the entire staff in there. It’s a staff decision, not just an offensive side of the ball decision. We want everybody to have input and everybody to be a part of the process. In the end I have to decide what I think is in the best interest of Georgia. But I wanted to know who the offensive coordinator would be and, obviously, it’s Brian. So we wanted to have some good conversations on what exactly it is that we’re looking for before we started interviewing people or going too far down the road with it.”

On judging Schottenheimer’s body of work as a coordinator in the NFL…

“Well, there’s only 32 offensive coordinators in the world that are coaching at that level. You don’t do what Brian does for as long as he has without being excellent at what he does. So that was never a question, his ability to coach or his ability to put together an offensive scheme that would give us a great chance for success. I think the fact that I was convinced that he was sincere in his pursuit of moving to the college game if it was the right situation, and the fact that the things that we believe in, offensively, are the same as what he believes in. We do have a pro-style attack. There weren’t a massive amount of candidates at the college level, quite frankly, that do the things that we do.”

On if the strength staff has started working with the players yet…

“There are days that are called ‘discretionary weeks,’ where you have to have so many weeks where it isn’t mandatory for the players to run and lift and all those kinds of things. We’re approaching that time where it can be mandatory, which will be this week coming up. I think we designated Wednesday as the day to start the strength and conditioning program in earnest and making it a mandatory type thing. I know our players are excited about getting going.”

On if the strength staff is complete…

“The dust is about to settle. It’s getting close.”

On Coach Dave Van Hallenger leaving the staff…

“We’re just doing some restructuring in our staff. The position that Dave was in is not going to be replaced. We’re going in a little different of a direction with how we’ll use our staff and our personnel. But Dave has been a great blessing in my life and he’s done a great job here at Georgia and I know he’s excited about what he’ll do in the future.”

On if there have been any other player departures since the bowl game…

“Not that I know of. Everybody is back in school and seemingly very excited about getting ready for 2015. It’s amazing how fast, sometimes, you can turn a chapter and begin looking forward to what next year can bring. You have a lot of guys that all of a sudden find themselves as the seniors now. They used to sit in the back of the room thinking ‘I’ll never come to the front row,’ which we put our seniors up front then juniors and sophomores and then freshmen in the back of the room. We have a brand new group of seniors; a brand new group of leaders. There are some kids that are brand new period, coming in at the midyear. You’ll get a chance to meet those kids on signing day. If they’re not at their home schools celebrating their decision at their high school, they’ll be with us the day that we have our press conference. It’s kind of a new time. I think with the areas of change on the offensive side of the ball as far as the staff is conferenced, just like a year ago on defense, I think everybody is sitting there going, ‘okay, things didn’t go exactly the way I wanted them to last year, now I have a chance to maybe show these coaches that I have a chance to be a really good football player. You look at a guy like Mike Thornton last year on defense, [his career] really wasn’t going great as far as playing time and opportunity and then the new staff came in and saw what Mike could do. And I think Mike also, because it was a new staff and new life, probably produced a little bit better in practice knowing there was a chance. I think there’s a lot of excitement going into next year.”

On if this has a similar impact on his search for the next starting quarterback…

“Absolutely. Every quarterback, and quite frankly every position across the board even though there are some position coaches returning, there will still be new opinions. Our coordinators do have a lot to say on who plays and who doesn’t. It’s a joint effort without a doubt. If the coordinator sees something in a guy or when he runs a certain play and wants a guy in the game, it may be completely different from what it was a year ago.”

On how many candidates he interviewed and if he had the whole staff involved in the interview process before…

“We have done it in the past. I guess the biggest thing is that there’s a different dynamic to every guy. Some guys aren’t interviewing. They can’t interview. If they interview and don’t get the job, then they’re gone. Or there’s a fear of, ‘if I interview and don’t get this job, then I might not have a job.’ It just depends on maybe who they work for sometimes, or there might be a guy that’s so established that if you interview him and don’t hire him it breaks down his recruiting class that he’s trying to build at another school, so to speak. There are all kinds of dynamics to it. Some guys are in a better position to interview and some guys aren’t. I think Coach Schottenheimer knew that I don’t think I could have hired Brian without sitting down with him for four-to-five hours and having all of the answers to the questions. There just wouldn’t have been enough of a comfort level because we weren’t totally familiar with each other. I was familiar with his work, to a certain degree. I was somewhat familiar with his philosophy and his background and pedigree as a coach, but until you sit down and spend time and are able to ask certain questions there would not have been enough peace in this situation. He knew that, and Coach [Jeff] Fisher was very good to allow him to do that. He was very cooperative in that way.”

On who to credit for the restructuring of the football staff’s contracts…

“I think anytime you hire new people and anytime coaches get pay raises and things to that level and that nature, it’s always a final decision by the administration or a final decision by the President as far as giving the okay on certain things. That’s been true for 14 years, so that’s pretty typical. I think a lot of these things are market driven, so to speak. There are people that pursue our coaches at times and the fact that there is just a cost of doing business at times as well. So there’s a little bit of both going on, but that’s true every year.”

On if returning players and recruits have been commenting on Schottenheimer’s hire…

“I’m sensing a really positive vibe. I haven’t searched the Internet for what guys might have tweeted out, but there have been a lot of guys popping in the office wanting to find out when he’s going to be here and have a meeting and that type of thing. We are going to have a team meeting on Sunday to establish some things. Since the team will all be there together it will be a good time for Coach Schottenheimer to introduce himself to the team and to the offensive team.”

On if there are any additional promotions or extensions pending within the staff…

“There are some things cooking. When they come out we’ll let you know.”

On if he feels better about support…

“I don’t think I ever made any comments to the contrary. There’s not doubt that we’ve done some things that are going to help us.”

On if he’s had interviews with any offensive line candidates…

“There have been some conversations with people, but as far as physically sitting down there has been one to this point.”

On how many other candidates he interviewed for the offensive coordinator position…

“In person there was one other. I didn’t have many conversations with people on the phone but there was a lot of research going on for certain people. There was a bigger pool of people I would have liked to possibly interview, but to get them to physically break away from where they are and have that meeting, some of that just wasn’t possible.”

On what were some of the questions that Coach Schottenheimer had for him…

“He seemed very highly motivated to get this position and was mostly just answering the questions that we had for him. He didn’t really ask many questions. I think he did his homework thoroughly. You do most of your homework through people you know. Who does he know that knows me? Who does he know that might have worked for me? Who does he know that might have coached at Georgia at one time or another? He did his homework, that’s for sure.”

On if he ever considered calling plays again…

“That will cross your mind. It could have possibly come to that but I think we did the best thing for Georgia in bringing in Brian.”

On if Todd Gurley is the only early departure for the NFL…

“Unless something changes. I don’t know when the date is but nobody has told me otherwise. I just think some years you get more than others and some guys, one, if they enjoy their time at Georgia and, two, if they think that they can improve their draft status then they will stay. I think what gets lost sometimes is how important the degree is to people. There are a lot of moms and dads and even players that have worked extremely hard. If you get to within 12 hours of graduation or whatever it may be, or they know that a year from now they’ll have a degree in their hand then that’s important. I think a lot of them understand how hard it is to come back and try and finish years down the road. I think the pursuit of their degree means a lot to these guys too.”

On the progress of Jacob Park since he’s been here and if he’s in position to compete for the starting job…

“All of our quarterbacks will be in a position to compete and Jacob certainly has improved over the time that he’s been here. It will be interesting to see him back in the saddle when it comes to competition. He did do a lot of scout team work for us and did a beautiful job. Now it’s time to hook it up [and compete]. We say it every year, but most every job is wide open. Once in a while you’re sitting there thinking, ‘well that guy is most likely going to start,’ but people aren’t only looking for starting positions but they’re looking for playing time as well.”

On if he, or anyone else, was contacted by anyone at Alabama regarding Jonathan Taylor…

“I didn’t get contacted.”