This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Balls will be in the air early Tuesday morning in Provo — footballs.
The Cougars will begin spring camp practices on March 1, perhaps the earliest start ever for a BYU spring camp.
Of course, the biggest storyline is that this will be the first-ever practice conducted by new head coach Kalani Sitake, less than three months after he got the job.
Unfortunately, BYU did not make Sitake available to print reporters (beat writers) last week for interviews. Instead, we did a teleconference with assistant head coach Ed Lamb.
A lot of what Lamb had to say is in the aforementioned article.
But for those of you who want more — every word that Lamb said — you are in luck.
Here's the transcript from the 12-minute interview:
Lamb's overview of camp, and what coaches will focus on:
"Goals fundamentally, it is all about a fundamental emphasis in the spring. We feel like we've got a good team, a good program that has been left in place by the previous staff, a team that expects to win.
The level of intensity and sheer competition throughout the winter conditioning period has been excellent. We want to make sure that we are respectful of that. There is no intention here of tearing down a winning program. We want to take a strong foundation that has already been left, and improve upon that.
We want to bring some fundamentals, some very basic approaches to what we are teaching these guys in the spring so they can become as good as they can become."
On position groups they are thin at, or concerned about:
"That's a really good question. There are a couple ways to answer that. From a numbers standpoint I think our offensive line and cornerback positions are ones where we need to take a closer look and see at the end of spring practice where we are at.
It is really hard to look at a depth chart from an Xs and Os standpoint and talk about the number of corners or offensive linemen we should have in the program. And then kind of a separate discussion is the depth and the quality of depth that we do have.
None of us are prepared as we would like to be, with the exception of probably Steve Kaufusi, who knows his guys really well.
The rest of the coaching staff is just anxious to get out on the field and take a look at the players that we do have and then determine the overall look at our depth.
If your question is more toward the numbers standpoint, our offensive line and our cornerbacks are two areas that we need to continue to recruit and add depth and hopefully find quality walk ons here throughout the spring or fall."
On whether any players will be switching positions:
"I am not aware of all the players that will be switching positions. But I do know that going into spring practice, Francis Bernard has been working more with the defensive coaching staff, and the defensive players.
I believe Micah Simon was working with defense last year. It appears that he is going to be working with the offense going into the spring camp.
One of the things that we discussed as a staff early on here in the spring is we will take a look after three or four days of practice and make sure that all of the players on the team have the best opportunity to be as high on the depth chart as they can be. We are anticipating that there are going to be some players moved from one side of the ball to the other in the effort to make the team as solid as it can be."
On how running back Jamaal Williams looks:
"He looks fantastic to me. I don't know. I don't have any knowledge about where he is with the medical or training staff, what his status is. But lifting and running beside him every day — we have coaches in there doing our best to get through these workouts and establish rapport with the players so they can see us struggle, I can tell you that from a bystander's standpoint, he looks amazing to me."
On linebacker Sione Takitaki's status:
"I don't know anything about discipline. In fact, the thing that I can tell you is we've been told not to discuss disciplinary measures. I wasn't aware if Sione is under some kind of disciplinary action. I am not aware of that. I know he has been participating with us on a daily basis and has done a really good job."
On what has stood out to him about the players the last few months:
"It is the group that I had hoped it would be when I accepted the job, and the reason that I wanted to return to BYU.
In my time coaching college football at a number of places, BYU is one of those places where players on the team have — and painting with a broad brush here — that BYU players have an idea what they want to do, other than football. They have balance and perspective in their lives, and they bring an incredible work ethic.
For me personally, I was leery to leave Southern Utah, where I felt I had built that up. I really enjoyed my daily interaction with the players.
I have coached at FBS places where the players weren't as committed, and weren't as fun to coach as at Division III schools and non-scholarship places I've coached. BYU is such a great place because we have a highly competitive environment, we have highly recruited players here. We have talented, but they are also very grounded and balanced."
On whether any players won't participate due to injury:
"I am still trying to get to know a lot of the players. So I don't know all of the names. So that is one way I am going to be deliberately evasive. Another thing is I don't think we've been given all the information, as far as the entire staff.
So outside of my position group and guys that I would be working with directly, I am not aware of other guys who won't be participating. I don't have that answer for you."
On the offensive tempo and whether that will change:
"Just two very different philosophies. It looks right now that our offense is settled in on being more deliberate and being more of a pro-style huddle, at least as a general practice — getting in and out of the huddle.
Not that there wouldn't be a process in place to go into a two minute or hurry up type of situation.
Just as with our previous staff, the offense's philosophy had to really dictate a lot of the practice philosophy, with the idea that offense a tempo offense is going to run to a point where the defense makes a lot of mistakes.
And that sometimes takes a priority over fundamentals. … It is not better or worse, in my opinion, but we are going to be more deliberate in what we do. Of course, our defense is going to have fewer opportunities to practice against that tempo offensively.
But defensively we need to really buckle down and do the same thing. Coach Sitake has made it really clear that fundamentals will be a priority offensively, defensively and special teams and that we are going to minimize how much we are installing in all three phases of the game, and really work on the fundamentals of blocking and tackling and ball security, and block shedding."
On whether the defensive formation will change from a 3-4 ran by previous staff:
"Right now we are in multiple [fronts]. We are in a 3-4 personnel, but we are running quite a bit of 4-3 defense out of that. So we have had to identify which of our, which in the past have been called outside linebackers, which of those guys will be capable of playing more of a defensive end type of initial alignment.
We want to go into spring practice and be as simple as we need to be in order to carry two fronts, and so we won't be very exotic in the 3-4 or the 4-3, but it will give us a chance to really evaluate our personnel and where we might be best suited going into fall camp."
On where special teams is going into spring, and his approach in that area:
"A big part of the evaluation I want to take as a whole is all about the kicker and the punter. And we are not permitted — we have been in there in the weight room with the guys, and we have been coaching them through agilities, running right along side of them and all that stuff. As far as training goes, we can get a basic idea of what type of athletes we have on offense and defense, but the kicker, punter, snapper, for me that is just completely blind. I have last year's video to look at, and that's all I am going off of.
I would love to be in there watching our kickers and punters and snappers work out, because they are training year round on their craft. …. I have resist the urge to go in there and break the rules and watch these guys train.
From video … The punting game, we need to be much more consistent with what we do. Our kickoffs need to be deeper and higher. We need more hang time, and more depth on our kickoffs. And our PATs and field goals have to be much more consistent as well. From a specialist standpoint, we have a ton to accomplish in the spring. I am hoping that the walk ons can bring the competition and we can bring out the best of the guys who played last year."
On what leadership in the room has been like so far:
"It is really strong. There is a high level of tenacity, a high level of accountability. The players aren't afraid to get after each other, challenge each other, call each other out when the effort needs to be picked up. But it is also done — sometimes in my experience it takes a long time to get player to that point where they are dealing with each other with respect — and they truly are a family. Obbiously there has been a great foundation laid and a great level of communication throughout the organization. We want to push each other — players and coaches — as hard as we possibly can, but we want to do it in a respectful way that brings about inspiration and that it doesn't bring down the guys next to us."
On why starting early and whether they are ready:
"A little bit of both. We felt like we only had about one week of flexibility as far as when we were going to do spring practice. We wanted to keep the guys in the weight room as long as possible. A team can never be big enough, or strong enough. We wanted to have a good seven or eight weeks in the weight room.
We are going to be lifting six days a week, right through spring practice. So we felt like we would try to get into fundamentals and stay away from the type of tempo that would increase our risk of injury. We wanted to continue grow in the weight room while we learned just fundamentals."
On whether they are eager to get out and hit the field finally:
"We are really excited about it, no question. We are going to be interacting with the players in different ways than we have, but also interacting with the coaches in a different way than we had.
We are all finding [a lot] out about each other. Some of us have been in this business, and some of us haven't.
It is a really good environment here, within the confines of the office, and it will be nice to get out and get a little bit of competition going and find out if personalities come out. Both the players and the coaches, we are excited."