Feb. 3, 2010
SAN DIEGO -
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San Diego State Football Press Conference
National Signing Day - Feb. 3, 2010
Coach Brady Hoke's Opening Statement:
"First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for coming out. For those of you who have an interest in Aztec football, we're excited about it and hopefully you are, too. Recruiting is a 12-month ordeal. To recruit a good class, you need to put the time in. For the last 12 months this staff has been looking at a lot of tape and looking at a lot of kids out there. At the same time, there are a lot of other people that are involved in recruiting: academic people, our trainers, our conditioning (people). I want to thank one person specifically and that's [Stephen] Weber, our President. One thing Steve did, and he's the only president I've been around who has done this, is every time we had a recruiting luncheon on a Saturday, President Weber was there and visited with those families and prospective student-athletes. He really was a big help to us in the vision of San Diego State as a university and a vision of San Diego State in what we're trying to do in athletics and, specifically, the football program. I want to thank him for that. I've also got to thank the guys on this staff, because without them, we wouldn't be able to do what we do. This is the lifeblood of your program, the players that you bring in. They can make us all very good coaches and the guys on this staff do a tremendous job. The biggest thanks I want to give is to their families. There are a lot of sacrifices when guys are traveling and working 18 hours a day during the season and the same thing during recruiting being away from home and their families. I really want to extend a thank you to them.
"We started recruiting this class last February. There are a couple of things when you look at your evaluations, things that we look for. I think all programs have a blueprint of what they want to be and a philosophy of what they want to be as a football program representing the university in the classroom and on field and in the community. The biggest thing for us is to recruit guys who have character. Character is so important and it's so important in life, because you win that way in life, and you win that way out on the football field. The other thing is we want to recruit guys who come from winning programs. I think guys who come from those programs, I think they understand what it takes to win and I think they understand the hard work and the teamwork that it takes to win. That's a big part of this class. When you look at high school recruits in this class, they have an overall win/loss record of 194 and 47. I think that's an excellent ratio, it's about 77%. The junior college guys had an overall record of 57 and 18. I think winning programs are important, guys who understand how to win, what it takes to win. I think that's a big part of it.
"When you look specifically at the class, the game of football is played at the line of scrimmage first. That's where we really tried to make an impact with this class. We've signed three junior college players that can come in and have some experience that can help us, and two high school guys. There are five offensive linemen in this class and that's where the game starts. On the other side of the ball, we signed five defensive linemen, three defensive ends, one of them being a junior college guy and four high school guys. We really believe [that] all have great ability and have growth ahead of them and we're excited about that.
"When you go out and you set your sights on recruiting and recruiting a class, obviously you're looking [to] fill some holes you may have. We are always going to recruit better than what we have as a football team. If we don't do that then we're cheating the program. That's something that is important to us and how we go about our recruiting. When you look at other positions, we also wanted to create depth and create competition. We want to create competition every day, whether it's in the classroom, in the weight room, in the winter conditioning, or out on the field. We want guys who are going to compete. Because every day you compete, you've got an opportunity to get better as a person and as a student-athlete.
"We wanted to also look at the different areas to create more depth and more competition and I think the other place we did that is at the running back position. When you look at junior college with Deonte [Williams] and what he brings, being a Northern Arizona player and freshman of the year in their conference and what he did there. Also Adam [Muema] and Dwayne [Garrett] and then with the addition of Ronnie Hillman, who started in school this semester, I think we've really created some depth and I think we've created some opportunity for guys to go out there and compete.
"I can't say enough about the high school coaches in this county and in Southern California. One big reason for me coming here a year ago was the commitment to football and the way kids are coached in this county. The guys in this county do a great job of really developing their players and caring about their players and do a great job of coaching them. I think they're second to none. I've recruited a lot of different areas through my career, but the guys around here in San Diego County do as good a job as anybody."
On what word Coach Hoke would use to describe this recruiting class:
"I think it's a complete class and I think it's a character class. I think when you get into the nuts and bolts of these guys and the coaches in the high schools and talking to everybody you can and then you watch them on tape ... there's some competitive guys who really play the game at a high level and [who] we believe have the athleticism that we're looking for."
On how much stock fans should put into the star rating system:
"None. Those things are great and wonderful, but don't mean a darn thing until they get out here and put the pads on. Then we'll see what kind of star you are."
On whether he agrees with Escondido High School football coach Paul Gomes that this is the "best class he's ever seen top to bottom in terms of senior high school football players in San Diego County" and on how he feels he did in terms of the proverbial fence around the county:
"I never have come out here and said we're going to do that. We're going to go back to what we're looking for, number one, when we look at the character and at the athleticism in winning programs. The one thing we are going to do is we're going to recruit our tails off at the kids who really want the opportunity to play in front of their families and their friends and play for their home school here in San Diego. That isn't always going to happen. I can tell you that we competed, and we went in there and gave it a shot and swung the bat and I think that's all part of it."
On whether there will be a "Pirate" defense:
"I don't know that. You'd have to ask (defensive coordinator) Coach [Rocky] Long. I'm not sure, but obviously that's a tremendous football program with tremendous athletes. [Oceanside High School football coach] John Caroll does such a great job of coaching them and they're tough guys. To play this game, you'd better be tough, and the way they coach and the way those guys play, they're tough."
On what his message is to the kids he's now signed:
"It really doesn't change. I can assure you that we fully tell them [that] this is a hard program. This is going to be hard. We have high expectations of how you perform in the classroom, how you perform out here in the community, and how you perform on field. I think they know the expectations we have in all those areas because we don't sugar coat anything. The worst thing you can do, in my experience, is tell a guy something that's not true and he gets here and he's unhappy, because if he's unhappy, ultimately I'm going to get unhappy."
On how many he plans to start this year:
"That's up to them. I say that, and yet I remember when we recruited Charles Woodson to Michigan, he thought he was going to start as a freshman and the same answer came out: `That's up to you.' It's up to what they do at this point here and how hard they work. I've never promised a guy that they're going to play as a freshman or a redshirt, because I believe that's all up to them and how they show up. Are there opportunities? No question. Is there competition? No question. That's going to be all up to how they come into camp."
Offensive Coordinator Al Borges
On how much last year's recruiting class has improved:
"You have to create competition and if you bring two guys in that's not enough. If you don't feel you're playing well enough at a position you need to bring in three, four, or as many as five guys just to create that competition so it ups its relevance. I've done this before in other places. I've been where you couldn't beat out the guys because they stepped up their play. Then I've been at another place where every guy got beat out. It's funny how ready the guys coming in were ready to play and how willing the guys are here to compete."
On how the blocking up front did last year:
"We weren't good enough. We rushed the ball only around 76 yards per game last year or some ridiculous number. We're not blocking people, but it's not all the (offensive) line. We took a lot of backs because we want to find the back that will either create the big plays or up the level of the kids on our team. That's the whole purpose of (us taking so many running backs)."
On signing three running backs:
"Most of the running backs were sought after (by other schools) and I like all of them. Looking at their highlights and studying the way they play, they make big plays. Now they've got to take that big play dimension to the next level. Not all the guys can do that but we thought that they can be potentially great backs at this level. Potential is as potential does, so we'll see how they do.
"There will be some situational substitutions that will allow us to play some of our tailbacks in fullback positions, too, which we did in our last five games last year. We started running the ball better when we began doing more of that. So there either will be some guys bouncing around or there will be some substitutions to allow us to play both guys in the backfield. I did it a significant amount when I was in Auburn with Ronnie Brown and Cadillac Williams and we'll do it here. You might see Brandon Sullivan playing some fullback, but he might not be the only one."
On any guys changing positions:
"We don't usually address that issue until we're done with recruiting and we see what we've got. But now that we realize how this whole thing shook out we can more readily address issues like that. One thing that we do as a staff is when we tell a kid that he's going to be a running back, we give him every chance to be a running back. If we tell him he's going to be a quarterback, we give him every chance to be a quarterback. If we tell him he's going to play defense, we give him every chance to play defense. Once it's a point where we decide that position isn't the best suited position for him - and generally he'll tell you before you tell him - we give him every chance to prove he can or can't play the position, and then we move on. A key thing in recruiting is you have to be straightforward and honest with a kid. You may lose some recruits doing that but it's better that you're honest with them now so once they get here your credibility doesn't disintegrate when you told him and his parents what you thought was going to happen. Sometimes it doesn't work out that way but your intentions were good."