Everything Glenn Schumann Said Before the Georgia Bulldogs' 2022 Season
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ATHENS - Glenn Schumann will be the Georgia Bulldogs‘ co-defensive coordinator in 2022. Here is what he said as the Dawgs get ready for the Oregon Ducks and beyond.
“I appreciate you all being here today. I apologize for my voice – we are on Day Six of camp here, so getting warmed up. We are really excited about the direction we are going. Excited about our entire defensive staff and the players we get to work with, and with that I will open it up for questions.”
On Javon Bullard’s progression as a player…
“Javon is an extremely hard worker. We ask all of our guys to compete at a certain level every day. Javon does a great job of that. He is a guy who was part of that COVID class, so you learn a lot about those guys when they get here. He is a competitor and brings the type of energy we want all of our guys to have.”
On replacing last season’s linebacker group…
“You never ask somebody to replace somebody else. You ask them to be the best version of themselves. That’s what counts now is going out there every day seeking excellence and challenging yourself to be the best version of yourself. The people in that room are doing that every day. I am thankful that we are healthy and guys are pushing each other. The one thing in the standard that we set in those guys and the guys before them is that everybody is competing together. It’s about the team, it’s about each other, and these guys embrace that as well. I am excited to see where we go.”
On the best version of Jalen Carter…
“When you play defensive football you have to play at a certain level in terms of your effort, toughness, mentality – that competitive edge. So, the best version for him or anyone else on the defense would be those traits. Playing as hard as you possibly can with the toughness required and competing. You have to win your battles. That is what we expect of all our guys.”
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On length of time he has spent with Kirby and the impact of coaching changes on defensive philosophy…
“I was trying to figure out how many more years it would be --- you know, you have this saying about your wife where you go and say ‘hey, I have had more years in my life than I have had without her.’ I was trying to figure out the other day where I have to get to to get to that point. I think when coaching defense you have to evolve with the times. Every year what offenses are going to do is attack you and their trends offensively are going to change. So, no matter where this defense has existed, no matter who has been in charge of it, no matter what coaches on staff, the goal has been to create a defense that can create problems for offenses and answer the challenges that they present. Every year that will look a little bit different. Our top calls every year are a little bit different. The way we use our personnel, it’s a little bit different. You figure out who your best players are, what you need to do to be successful. You do that as a staff cooperatively to give yourself the best chance on gameday. When you do that, then you get a good product.”
On linebackers Rian Davis and Trezmen Marshall…
“I am really excited for those guys. They are guys that have battled it out throughout their careers. They’ve had some hardships and they have remained positive, they have remained focused and determined. To see them out there competing is awesome for me as a coach because you respect what they have done. If they continue to do that, I am hopeful for them.”
On creating cohesion with major roster turnover…
“Every day we go out to practice and we challenge guys to get used to playing with other people. That might be, you go out there today and this guy is going to rotate and play with this other at linebacker, safety or defensive front. Preparing yourself for the whole room to be cohesive. You have 48 guys here when you count scholarships and walk-ons on the defense. They are all out there and they will all get to play with each other. To be good on defense you have to have a real team bond, a connection, so that can’t be only comfortable with one guy. Then you are not ready and the next guy steps up. Throughout camp, we are trying to all grow, so we are preparing different people with each other and making people really comfortable, being uncomfortable. We’re not reliant on one person, we’re reliant on the whole team.”
On working with Will Muschamp as co-coordinators…
“When you are here, whether it's year one or year seven, a lot of the stuff on a day-to-day basis, you really do cooperate. That’s why it’s a staff. Obviously, there are different roles within the staff, but when looking at the staff… full coaching staff, defensive staff, and support staff, we want people who complement each other. You can’t have one person do everything. You have to be able to share responsibility. Titles, people and things of that nature change, but the thing that remains the same is when we go in that room – full staff or defensive staff – we work to be on the same page and figure out what is best for our team. Obviously when you get to a time when responsibilities have to be set, you do that, but really what we do is cooperate on a day-to-day basis. No matter what the roles are.”
On focusing on the team instead of individuals…
“We had 19 players on defense play over 200 snaps last year, so I do think that team talk on defense is extremely important. You are looking for as many people that can play winning football as possible. Individuals do stand out, there are going to be guys that you can identify that you’ve already identified, but team talk is extremely important this time of year because our only way to play to the standard on defense here is to get that. To get the team and everybody playing at a high level. Last I checked, there are 11 guys on defense at once. Everybody has to fit their gap properly in the run game. When you want to pressure, everybody has to be in the right area. When you sit there in coverage, certain guys have the flat, certain guys are responsible deep. At the end of the day, the only way to actually be good on defense as a unit is to be a team. You’ll see great defensive players at places sometimes and say how did they have that guy, but they weren’t overly successful on defense. Our guys, no matter who it’s been since we’ve been here have taken pride in that aspect, and we do it well as a staff. In terms of Will (Muschamp), since he’s been here last and obviously moving into this year. He brings a wealth of experience. He’s a staff guy. We really enjoy working together, not just him, the whole defensive staff, the staff in general, as much as we ever had. I think he brings a sense of comradery, professionalism, experience. He’s a great sounding board for ideas. For as much success he’s had in his career, he’s extremely humble. I think humility says a lot about who a person is.”
On the performance on Jamon Dumas-Johnson in camp…
“I think he’s challenged himself. He knows in the summer you attack strength and conditioning to be able to say, hey I might have an increased role this year. What do I have to do in terms of my strength and conditioning to do whatever role is asked of me? He loves football. He practices really hard. He's an instinctive, physical player, but (we) need to continue to see him grow. Everybody needs to grow. It’s day six of practice, but I’ve seen him try to step up and actually challenge… Whether that’s him or Trezmen Marshall, Rian Davis or Smael Mondon. All of those guys… the whole room understands what’s expected in terms of running the defense. There’s a level of pressure that applies to you and they are all trying to answer it. But, he’s done a great job so far and just needs to continue to grow.”
On possible cornerback starters…
“When you look at (Jaheim) Singletary, he’s long. He’s competitive. He loves football. He has good ball skills. Julio (Julian Humphrey) is extremely fast. Has great size. Another guy that is willing in terms of his toughness, which is required at that position. They are both working to become better at corner. For them, they got here this summer and we put them to work. They are really making good progress. Now we are on day six. They can continue to build... the rest of the room was here in the spring. Kamari Lassiter and Nyland Green. Have been working out there. We dual train a lot of guys... if you go back to the very beginning Chris Smith started out at corner and ended up becoming a safety, so we try to dual train everybody. That competition is well underway. It gets changed up every day we try to mix and match them. We don’t just have one guy running in any group, so they get to go against different wideouts every day. Until we get to the scrimmage see who shows up when it's live. When coaches are off the field and its live tackle, we’ll know more then.”
On this year’s defense’s motivation to match last season…
“When you look at what we do here defensively, all these kids took pride in the defensive side of the ball when they came here. Part of it, you go back to Georgia with Erk Russell is playing great defense. Guys who come here believe in themselves that they can go be as good as they want to be defensively. I believe collectively that we can do that. I don’t think anybody is worried about what we are going to be. I think they go out there every day and try to be the best defense they absolutely can. All of that external stuff… I don’t see a group that needs external motivation. I think they are focusing and working as hard as they can.”
On the flexibility afforded by players with multiple skill sets…
“I think if you watch us playing Nickel, if you look at what our Star is, our Star is really a slot corner which is really how most of the National Football League plays their Nickels, so I think we’re asking them to be inside linebackers. Which in today’s day in age in football isn’t really a box linebacker anymore, it’s an off-ball linebacker. The whole room knows in order to be successful, you have to be able to blitz, you have to be able to cover, you have to be able to play in space, all those factors, traits that in the old school days of 4-3 football you would say ‘that’s what an outside linebacker does.’ That’s basically what you’re asking the whole room. In order for us to be successful physically, we have to have a diverse style skillset. We mentioned those guys that obviously have length, that played kind of on the edge in high school. We’re asking the whole room to have more guys that can do those things, that can be good blitzers, can be good in coverage and play in space, we have a lot of flexibility. When we get through the two scrimmages, we can identify who are our best players then you’ll see our rotation and the way we use guys in packages take place as we get ready for games. This time right now in camp, it’s a lot of base packages and then when we figure out our best players and what roles in all rooms, we’ll decide how we use these guys on third down, how we use them on first and second down. You saw every year our packages are a little bit different. I do think fundamentally, the Nickel is a slot corner when you look at the way defensive football is played most of the time.”
On the importance of Nolan Smith returning for his senior season…
“Nolan is one of those guys that, ‘hey, if you’re going to talk about, be about it.’ He’s known for being vocal because he is, but he holds himself to an extremely high standard in terms of how he works. I think we can see that in that room and that’s something we take pride in. Defensively, he wants to challenge everybody to do the same thing. He’s had a great year for us and works really hard every day. He has a great toughness. Right now, he’s looking to be the best version of himself and improve in areas, he wants to be a better pass rusher. He’s working extremely hard at that. He’s really stepped out even more in terms of what he’s doing as a leader. In that room, I see a lot of guys like Robert Beal have a lot of the same traits in terms of, maybe not being as vocal, but in terms of how he carries himself in practice. A guy like Chaz Chambliss is extremely tough and a hard worker. MJ Sherman matches that. When you walk in and you have freshmen, you have Marvin Jones, Darris Smith, C.J. Madden, and they see a room that’s extremely hard working and tough, not just from one guy but all the guys ahead of them, then they know what the expectation is. When you see them out there, that becomes the reputation of the room.”
On the performance on Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins…
“I think the biggest thing is, when he went into the spring, he really attacked his body and his ability to be a guy around the edge. That’s a battle you take as a big guy every single day all throughout the summer and into fall camp. The biggest thing is when you’re leaner, you can be quicker and more explosive, it’s beneficial. That’s at every position. He’s really done that, and we want that in position whether it’s him or Tramel Walthour or Mykel Williams, when they’re out there we want them to be guys that are able to be quick, athletic, lean, guys that can make plays in terms of pursuit but also go inside. But his growth, especially in the spring when he leaned himself up, it helped him.”
On the balance between playing young talent and experienced players…
“We’ve been saying for a long time now, ‘if you’re good enough, you’re old enough.’ Camp is about figuring out who our best players are and that doesn’t have a birthdate on it. We need to figure out who are best players are and challenge them early across the board, whether they’re old or young and see what they can learn, what can they handle, what do we need to work on them with, what do they do best. Then as you go in and go through our scrimmage one, what kind of lessons will we get. Now you’re finetuning it and you’re saying who performed and who didn’t. As you see guys perform, the coach’s job is to coach, we’re teachers. So, when you look at it, you identify a guy who can help you in terms of talent, no matter how old he is, then let’s figure out how we can coach that guy to help us, create a role for him as a guy who plays a lot or in a certain package. I think once you identify who those guys are, you make sure you can get him at that line in terms of ability on the field to help us.”
On Kelee Ringo’s confidence…
“It’s important for me to believe in your players. I think showing belief in your players no matter their age, no matter their experience, is extremely important as a coach because if you don’t believe in them, they won’t believe in themselves. Starting with that, we want to instill confidence in every player. You have to build them up, you have to challenge them when they’re wrong. Sometimes the best thing to do after a guy makes a mistake is to love them, you can correct them in the meetings room. In terms of building any player’s confidence, it starts with us. Believe in them, coach them, lead them, challenge them when they need it. They need to know a coach is believing in them and their teammates believe in them. That goes back the how the team is really built. The more we’re a team, the more we’re united, guys will believe in themselves.”
On aspirations to become a head coach…
“The thing I tried to do when I was a GA was always think about how I could be the best GA and whatever that was. It ended up being something where I became a slightly higher role, still support staff, and I just tried to do that job the best I could. So I’ve done that since I’ve been here. I really try not to be too forward thinking, there’s times and places for that. That quote that Coach Smart had last year before training camp about success coming to those being too busy to be looking for it, that’s a very real quote. It’s not coach speak, it’s a real thing so I try to live that. First-year players, be where your feet are and that’s what it’s all about.”