Napier comes of age

Very interesting and insightful stuff Tuesday from both of Clemson’s coordinators — and, to my chagrin, an awful lot of tape to transcribe.

So it’ll take another day to give ya the full Kevin Steele interview. But OC Billy Napier gives us more than enough to chew on.

As you’ll see — particularly with his answer to a question about WR Xavier Dye — Napier tends to be frank.

Coaching is so ego-driven that you’ll rarely hear any coach admit to really questioning his own methodology. But as much as we’ve been fed that Clemson’s offensive improvement has hinged strictly on execution — which is certainly a factor, but hardly the lone one — it was awfully refreshing to hear the 30-year-old Napier humanize what he’s gone through in his first year as a full-fledged coordinator.

Q: Is N.C. State’s defense like FSU’s, only with zone coverage?

A: I’d say they’re more like Boston College, Wake Forest. You can see O’Brien’s footprint in the defense with how they’ve evolved the last couple of years, even though obviously they do a heck of a job. They’re more zone coverage, obviously, but they play a lot of fire zones, zone pressure type of stuff.

But all that’s irrelevant. It’s going to be about which team executes the best and has the best preparation and which team’s the most focused at 12 noon.

Q: To what do you owe the improved execution these last few games?

A: I think it’s just been an overall – I tell you guys every week, it’s our job to come to work every day and get better at what we do. I think it’s a matter of, as a staff, we’ve ironed out the wrinkles. You’re always looking for a better way for advantaging our time, our practices, our meetings, our game day. So it’s our first go-round as a staff, and I think we’ve continued to try to put our players in better position.

That being said, our players, obviously they didn’t like how that felt at Maryland. I think that was kind of an eye-opener for them. That hey, anybody can beat you on a given Saturday if you don’t have the type of preparation during the week that you need. And maybe if your sense of urgency and focus isn’t where it needs to be when you walk out there and play, you can be a very average football team.

Seeing it on tape helps. Seeing hey, you know, we get 12 opportunities to go out there and play. We just went out there and wasted that chance. I think they’ve lived and learned a little bit, and they’re just like us – we still have a lot of young players who’re figuring this thing out.

In particular, the quarterback position. Some would say that’s the most important position on our offense. If he plays well, obviously we play well. His experience, him learning how to prepare, him figuring out it wasn’t quite as easy as he thought it was going to be, mentally what he needs to do to get ready – a lot of people have gotten at their job.

Q: When do QBs typically have their greatest improvement?

A: I think it’s between their first and second year. I think that’s any football player’s – the improvement they’ll make between their first year of significant playing time and their second year. For example, Antoine McClain is a much better player than he was last year. Another example would be David Smith. Mason Cloy’s a better player. Landon Walker’s a better player.

They went out and maybe stumbled around a bit and got hit in the mouth a few times and said hey, this maybe isn’t as easy as I thought. And then they had that memory of what it took to be a good football team.

Q: In hindsight, would all this have fallen into place if not for the open date coming when it did?

A: It was very much a positive given this situation. That gave you some more time to reflect on things you could do better and where things went wrong, whatever the case may be. It was a huge blessing, for sure. That’s a good point.

Q: What has Xavier Dye done to get back in your good graces?

A: I think he’s just shut his mouth and showed up and worked every day, to be honest with you. He’s a great kid, but he stopped complaining, stopped blaming everybody else, stopped looking for an injury or excuse every time something went wrong. Finally realized, hey, if this thing’s going to happen, it’s because I get ready.

Just part of that growing up. First significant year of playing time, little bit bumpy, get coached really hard every day.
Thickening that skin up a little bit. His standard is higher than everybody’s elses, doesn’t care what others think, just showing up and going to work.

These guys are getting to Saturday and looking back on the week and saying, hey, I’m ready. I’m a product of my work, and they can play confident.

Q: Does the learning curve hold true for younger play-callers?

A: Absolutely. I’m no different than a Xavier Dye or Kyle Parker. However you want to look at it, that’s the facts.

I’m just like any of you guys. First year doing your jobs, you were probably better midseason than those first couple of articles. Not only myself, but managing the group.

We had staff devotion the other day and I had to give the devotion. I talked about a couple of things football-related and a couple things related to my faith.

What’s relevant right now? There’s only so much time between that last snap we played against Florida State and the first snap of the N.C. State game. So what are you spending your time doing? What’s going to impact on how you play?

Where are we wasting time, what can we do to get more out of our work? You try to get efficient at it, you try to motivate better, you try to discipline better. It’s like any other profession. You’re constantly trying to get better.

Q: Did your self-confidence ever waver early in the season?

A: I don’t think there’s any question that – I wouldn’t say your self-confidence, but maybe your confidence in how you’re doing things wavers. I think you’re looking for answers. You’re trying to remove yourself and looking at things objectively.

It’s not a matter of whether I think I can do it. It’s a matter of how am I going to get this thing done? That’s where your question marks are.

Q: Like Dabo says, you’re good enough with what’s available to you. But it’s how to get the most out of it.

A: No doubt. It’s like building a house. You’re trying to build it the best you can with what you’ve got.

Ultimately it comes down to first downs, points, not turning it over, capitalizing on red-zone opportunities, creating explosive plays. You’ve got so many players and your scheme, they have their defense, and every week it’s a battle to see how we can make this thing fit. And it starts over every week.

Q: Can you give an example where, no matter how hard you prepare during the offseason, that you’re only going to learn on the job and have learned this season?

A: Probably the biggest thing is you get where you don’t give a crap what anybody thinks. You could care less. You get kind of like you were when you were a player. Oh great, he’s yelling at me, that’s great. I don’t really care. Let’s go play the next play.

Going into it, I probably felt man, this is a big-time deal here. It’s my first go-round and all that. You work hard at it and really want to do good.

Ultimately you learn that who gives a crap, let’s go play. You get where you don’t really care what everybody says. Ultimately you know you’ve got to get them ready, and if you don’t, it’s your fault. It’s your job to jab all those other people and make sure they’re ready to play.

Q: When did you get to that point?

A: A couple games in, you start figuring out it’s happening all over the country. Teams are playing good, teams are playing bad.

So you want to get rid of all that, you get them ready to play.

Q: Was your role different enough last year to where you couldn’t experience those growing pains then as the coordinator those final six or seven games?

A: That was completely different. That was just like being on the show Survivor every week. You’re just trying to impress and advance, win the game.

This is completely different. You’re on the front end of the deal. Now it’s about the future, building this thing the right way from the ground up. It’s got your name on it.

Q: What do you think of what Andre Ellington’s done the last few weeks?

A: Andre’s one of my favorite players. He just shows up and works every day. Jamie (Harper) as well. They’re really good people. They’re blue-collar guys, don’t talk a lot. C.J. was obviously gassed late in that game and Jamie was beat up. For Andre to go in there, he’s shown he can do that. That didn’t surprise anybody on our staff. He’s capable as a receiver as well.

Obviously he’s got some special talents. He’s a very good zone runner. He goes vertical, makes good decisions and commits to it. He’s a physical kid, even though he’s not quite the biggest guy.

Q: Would it be reasonable to expect Parker to make a jump in his second year like Christian Ponder or Jacory Harris?

A: All that stuff don’t matter. He’s got to get ready to play this week, then we’ll go to the next one.

Obviously he’s proven he has the physical ability to be a good player. Whether he plays well has a lot to do with how he prepares. Got to make good decisions and manage the game and quit throwing pick-6s and fumbling the ball. He’s got to improve.

He’s close. He’s right there where he could be … but we’ll see. This game is a week-to-week game.

Q: You say he’s close. Where is he relative to his upside?

A: You look at his stats, he’s playing better. People around him are playing better. He’s getting coached better. So he’s a product of a lot of people’s learning curve.

He’s serious about it. He works. He’s a freshman, but I think he’s figuring it all out. We’ll see how he does as we wind this thing down. I’m proud of the kid. He’s shown he’s a competitor. That’s the most important thing he’s done – he’s figured out, I’ve got to work.

Q: Is it scheme-related or circumstantial that he doesn’t seem to have problems seeing down the field despite his height?

A: I think either kids have that or they don’t. Just the ability to block out the rush and the knack – there’s a lot of 6-3 guys who have trouble sitting in there and seeing it.

He’s capable of reading defenses. He’s obviously a coach’s son, so he has a background in doing that. Think that’s a product more of what’s going to determine his decision-making on the back end.

I think he’s fully aware of his protection, the schematics of his protection and knowing where to go with the ball when we’re overloaded in protection. I think he’s got a good feel for that.

Sometimes you think, man, he needs to run the ball. But I’d rather have one that way than the other way.

Q: For you personally, what were the wrinkles you ironed out?

A: Just allowing myself time to come up with ideas and prepare for my meetings. Delegate, that was probably the biggest thing. Delegate to the staff. Just throughout the week, things that I was doing that maybe weren’t relevant.
Just goes back to ultimately what’s relevant to getting it done on Saturday, alleviating some of those duties that maybe I shouldn’t have been doing to graduate assistants and student assistants.

On offense in particular, we have two new GAs, so they’ve grown up too.

Q: What could you afford to delegate?

A: Carding up practice, scripting practice, certain periods in practice. You have to train new GAs. Sunday was a longer day back then because they weren’t exactly up to date, maybe, with what we called certain things. So I had to come in early and help those guys with that. First-year deal, typical things you go through. And now the routine’s grooved in.