WATCH: Glenn Schumann’s press conference.
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00:00 And we'll let him just say hello and then we'll go to the questions.
00:05 >> Great to see you all again.
00:06 I know we don't have much time, so open up to y'all's questions.
00:09 [BLANK_AUDIO]
00:15 >> Glenn, when we talked to Brock Bowers at media days,
00:18 he was asked who was the hardest guy to block.
00:20 And you talked about Chaz Chambliss.
00:22 How far have you seen him come just in this offseason or in the fall camp?
00:27 >> Let's start with your original question that you asked Brock.
00:30 I think when you talk about somebody being hard to block,
00:33 a lot of that is relative to strain.
00:35 And Chaz strains both, I mean, in terms of his competitive nature and
00:40 his physical willingness to battle with people.
00:43 And so that makes him a hard guy to block by nature.
00:47 The guy works extremely hard in all areas, whether it's walkthroughs,
00:54 meetings, on the field and individual drills.
00:56 He's one of the most common people to stay after practice to work on his own.
01:00 And so naturally when you work like that and you focus on your process, you grow.
01:04 And I think he buys into that and does it every day.
01:07 So he has continued to progress and we're really pleased with him.
01:11 [BLANK_AUDIO]
01:24 >> Yeah, Coach, I hear Coach Smart talk all the time about preparing for
01:27 each individual offense cuz they're so uniquely different in this conference.
01:30 I'm curious how you go about your process of intaking the information and
01:33 breaking down a football team and how you go about finding your end point.
01:38 >> So I think you start, first of all, when you go into fall camp right now,
01:42 we try to challenge the guys with a lot of volume.
01:46 And you try to anticipate problems that are gonna arise in the future.
01:49 Because right now what we do have is time to get reps, to teach, to correct.
01:56 And so I think you need to be really forward thinking in terms of what issues
01:59 are gonna be presented in the future.
02:01 And you build a library of options to pick from so
02:04 that when you get to a game plan, you kinda know where you're.
02:07 I always compare it to being in a kitchen as a chef, right?
02:10 And if you go in there and you have a fully stocked pantry, fully stocked fridge,
02:14 you have all your seasonings and spices, you can make about whatever dish you want.
02:19 Depending on who you're cooking for, right?
02:20 So each offense that you play, hey, you need to cook a little different, right?
02:25 And hey, when we're focusing on us,
02:28 that's like preparing food for your wife and kids at home.
02:32 Bryson better get some chicken nuggets, right?
02:34 That's what he needs.
02:35 And so that's our identity, and what are we good at?
02:38 And then the extra fluff in there, we need to build a library so
02:42 that we can pick from it.
02:43 And that makes the game planning process easier,
02:45 cuz we know what we have and what we can do well.
02:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]
02:52 >> Glenn, since we last saw you at the National Championship game,
02:54 you had a chance to interview up with the Eagles.
02:57 I wonder what was appealing about that process to consider that, and
03:02 how much are you able to keep in touch with all those former players up there that
03:06 you coached on those defense?
03:08 >> You try the best of your ability to keep in touch with all your former players.
03:13 I have a unique vantage point being here going on eight years now where
03:17 the relationships are consistent because of where I am.
03:22 I'm still at the place where they play.
03:24 Obviously, the guys that played in my room,
03:26 I think I had the best opportunity to stay in touch with them,
03:29 because we spent a majority of our time together.
03:32 And then that extends to everybody else in the defense.
03:37 Mostly this time of year, it's text message related,
03:39 because everybody, they're short on time, we're short on time.
03:43 Kenny sent me a text the other day, and
03:44 Glenn was just a little back and forth about things that are going on with him.
03:48 So you try to do the best job you can to keep in touch with everybody there.
03:53 In terms of that process with the Eagles, I think when you're successful,
03:57 opportunities come for everybody.
03:58 Opportunities come for players, opportunities come for coaches.
04:02 And it was an honor to be considered and to be reached out to by them.
04:06 And I appreciate it, and that's about all that went into that process, and
04:11 I'm glad to be where I am.
04:12 >> Yeah, Coach, with Jalen Walker, he's a guy who can obviously do a lot.
04:17 How do you go about helping him grow the most in inside linebacker,
04:21 knowing he's gonna be asked to do a variety of different things with his defense?
04:25 >> Yeah, you do not start them in a small box,
04:31 especially not a guy going into year two.
04:33 So we wanna challenge him to be as versatile as possible, to go back and
04:38 forth between being an edge rusher on our third down package,
04:41 and playing inside linebacker on first, second down.
04:44 And that's probably more than you guys realize,
04:46 because we've done that with a lot of guys over the years.
04:48 Maybe they didn't aim at being in that role on game day.
04:52 He was able to do that for us last year, and
04:53 we wanna find out how much each kind of defense can do right now.
04:57 And so we're challenging him day to day.
05:00 You have to be able to play inside linebacker on first, second down.
05:03 Even challenging him to do it some on third down, because there's other guys
05:06 that are good edge rushers as well, and figuring out who the best 11 are.
05:09 [BLANK_AUDIO]
05:12 >> Plenty of touch on opportunities that you have, not just this offseason, but
05:16 other offseasons.
05:17 I mean, ultimately, you've been working for
05:21 Kirby in some capacity for a long time now.
05:25 What has kept you from wanting to just see what's on the other side?
05:29 At this point, do you envision that eventually?
05:32 Obviously, these opportunities have been really good.
05:36 So I always define, there's a lot of ways to define quality of life, right?
05:42 And one, you're responsible as a husband and a father to do what's best for
05:49 your family and their well-being, and my family's extremely happy here.
05:53 Two, quality of life in this profession is generally tied to winning.
05:58 And I've been very fortunate between both being here and
06:03 in Alabama that we've been extremely successful.
06:04 So I have a high expectation standard for what I wanna achieve in my career.
06:08 Beyond that, I mean, I think a lot of men, women, people in general,
06:14 people always talk about the grass isn't always greener.
06:17 When you look at it, there's been a lot of people who have been extremely happy, and
06:22 they tried to become happier, and they ended up miserable.
06:25 So I'm extremely happy here.
06:27 I love the people I work with.
06:28 I love the players that I get to coach.
06:30 And I love where I live.
06:31 So there's a lot of reasons why I'd still be in Georgia.
06:34 >> Kirby told us in the spring about a meeting he had with Juman and Smile,
06:39 kind of challenging them to get back to what they were.
06:42 This past offseason when they were trying to step into bigger roles,
06:47 how have you seen them emerge and
06:49 continue to grow going into their second year as starters?
06:52 >> So going back to this spring, uniquely for those two guys,
07:01 they had a lot of success early.
07:04 And so a lot of times people go in and they're going into their third year, and
07:09 guys are having to compete and scratch and claw to create their role or
07:15 to earn respect.
07:16 And those guys were fortunate enough and they earned it to do that at an earlier
07:21 age, so there was a brief lull there.
07:24 What I'll say from that point forward,
07:26 they accepted that challenge and have elevated their game.
07:31 I've been incredibly pleased with Pop through this beginning of camp.
07:35 His leadership, how vocal he is, his overall effort and
07:39 approach to practice stands out day to day.
07:41 He's been extremely consistent and we need that from him.
07:45 He wants to be significantly better than he was last year and
07:48 he's practicing like that's what he wants to do.
07:50 Smile, obviously you all know from not being out there, he's been limited, but
07:54 he's working extremely hard.
07:55 You talk to Ron Corson, he says this guy's doing every single thing that he's being
08:00 asked to do, which is hard to do in treatment.
08:02 Sometimes that means you're getting treatment three times a day,
08:04 whatever that is, and he's doing a great job.
08:07 Right now, that's all we can ask of him.
08:08 And the training staff will decide when this time is to return, but
08:13 he's doing what he needs to do, like a vet in that way.
08:15 >> This is a program that is an established standard of playing a league
08:21 defense line, even when players leave, keep that going.
08:24 As a coach, how do you stay on top of that and keep that standard going?
08:28 >> Well, the thing about a standard is that once you set it,
08:33 you have to uphold it every single day.
08:36 And so, we go out to practice today, we're not worried about the results that are
08:40 gonna come when we get to play our opponents this fall.
08:43 We're worried about how can we uphold the standard today.
08:46 We constantly measure things to hold guys accountable in terms of our results as
08:51 a team defense in the prior day's practice.
08:54 We show it to them when we fell short, okay,
08:57 then we have to be accountable to that and demand that we do better the next day.
09:00 We chart things in terms of individual measures of things that
09:06 really matter to playing great defense.
09:08 The effort that you play with, you have to out hustle people,
09:11 ultimately, to play defense.
09:13 The physicality you play with, you have to out hit people to play defense at a high
09:16 level, and your competitive nature, we were talking about earlier,
09:19 you have to out compete people.
09:20 So the number one way we're gonna uphold the standard,
09:22 because schemes change year to year based on who your best 11 players are,
09:26 best 15 players are, whatever it is, we're gonna measure.
09:28 Did we out hit people?
09:31 Did we out hustle people?
09:32 Did we out compete people?
09:33 If we do that, you're successful playing defense at just about any level of football.
09:37 >> Coach, can you explain how fun for
09:40 you and the players the Olympics were, and just how did that idea come about?
09:45 >> It's become a extremely fun tradition,
09:50 especially now that my daughter Whitley's two now.
09:54 Bryson will turn four in September.
09:56 So I remember being a coach's kid, and my dad's players were my heroes.
10:00 And he spent so much time with them that when I got to see them,
10:04 they seemed larger than life, even though he was never in a program like Georgia,
10:08 where some of these guys really are larger than life.
10:11 And will go on to do unbelievable things.
10:13 And so it's been great on my end to get to see my kids interact with all of our
10:18 players, not only that, Jawan Taylor, who obviously played linebacker here,
10:22 and his kids were there, Blaine Miller is also a sports staffer, the linebacker.
10:28 So it's a chance for all of us to come together outside of football and
10:32 compete and relax and break bread together and do all that.
10:36 And it came about because we had that hiatus during COVID where we were apart
10:42 from each other, and there's a lost piece of connection.
10:45 Our meetings were on Zoom, and I wanted to do something different before.
10:48 Once they had cleared us to come back to campus, and
10:51 then they decided that we were gonna play football.
10:53 I wanted to do something unique to create an opportunity for
10:56 us to be together because there had been so much time apart.
10:59 And remind each other that we're all in it together, and we're a family now that
11:03 we're here, because we spend every day of the year together,
11:07 for the most part, with a few exceptions.
11:09 And hopefully the relationship stays for the rest of our lives.
11:12 So I don't want our only experiences together to be on the football field or
11:16 in a meeting room.
11:17 That's kinda how it came about, and it's taken on a life of its own.
11:21 And technically my wife was undefeated at the end.
11:25 We just called it cuz the guys had obligations the next day.
11:29 So it might have taken them a while to beat her.
11:31 >> It's kind of a technical question.
11:35 You were talking about Jaylen Warren, you know, your third down guy.
11:39 Talk about Javon Muller, maybe he'll be nickelback, safety.
11:42 Talking about getting the best level.
11:44 How much of defensive football these days is finding guys who play multiple
11:48 positions and having just different packages rather than slotting in,
11:52 this guy is an outside linebacker, this guy is an inside linebacker,
11:55 this guy is an X-er, or has it not changed that much, or
11:57 it hasn't changed a lot over the years?
12:00 >> Well, you have to have a home base.
12:02 Now, a home base for a guy like Javon Muller could be the safeties and
12:10 the stars, the nickels, a lot of times they're together if the whole secondary
12:15 isn't together in terms of drill work, in terms of meeting rooms, things of that
12:19 nature, obviously there's skills that are different there than there are on a corner.
12:23 And so you have to have a home base and
12:25 you have to become strong in your home base first and then grow what you can grow.
12:31 It is a big piece because when we talk about the question about game planning
12:34 over here, how can you fit our defense to what we need to do for that opponent?
12:40 You wanna have guys that you don't feel can only do one thing,
12:43 because now not only do you as a staff feel like, okay,
12:49 we have to maybe protect this guy, or we have to only use him in this way.
12:54 The other team knows that as well.
12:56 And so in terms of opponents attacking us, the more versatile our players are,
13:00 they can't necessarily say, well, we're only gonna get this front, this formation,
13:04 this coverage, or this player's only gonna line up at a nickel, or
13:08 there's only gonna line up at a safety corner.
13:10 Hey, are they playing left and right corners?
13:11 Are they playing field and boundary?
13:13 There's a big difference, right?
13:14 Or are they just getting up and playing ball based on where they are and
13:18 they're interchangeable?
13:19 Because a lot of football is matchups, so
13:22 if we can change the matchups by having versatile players, it's extremely helpful.
13:25 And for their long-term career development, for
13:28 after college if they're fortunate enough to be able to do that,
13:31 they don't necessarily have a say in what position they play at the next level.
13:35 So the more we can train and prepare our guys to be able to do multiple things,
13:38 gives them a chance to have longevity in their football career.
13:42 H.R.S. Patrick played inside linebacker with me and was able to have two years
13:46 active roster in the NFL as an outside linebacker for the Rams.
13:50 He was able to cross train.
13:53 He played third down and said in some packages for us, and
13:56 then he was able to do that next level.
13:57 So we're also helping their careers long term if we teach them how to do more than
14:01 one thing and become a well-rounded football player.
14:03 >> You started with your install talking about volume.
14:08 I'm curious how that volume might be changed with early enrollees.
14:12 You have a ton of early enrollees nowadays versus a guy who might be here in
14:15 the summer or even like a transfer.
14:17 I know you haven't had one in a little while.
14:22 >> When you look at it, there's so many more opportunities that are afforded
14:27 by the rules in terms of meetings when you're not in actual practice time.
14:33 So it's really important to create a schedule of, okay,
14:35 here's our allotted time for meetings and football in this part of the year.
14:40 How can we almost, we give an introduction to scheme.
14:44 Then when you get into practice time when you obviously get a lot more meeting time,
14:48 you get reps, you get walkthroughs, okay, now we're gonna ramp it up.
14:52 Then when you start over in the summer, it's back to basics with the time allotted.
14:57 And then it ramps up for fall camp.
14:59 So you can actually teach a defense in some form or fashion four times a year.
15:02 And we try to cycle it that way, and it helps their acclimation process.
15:07 And we had over 20 mid-years on the team this year.
15:13 So when they get, think about that, by the time they hit the first game,
15:15 they may have learned, whether it's offense or defense,
15:19 the system in some form or fashion four different times.
15:21 Now they only get to rep it in spring ball and in fall camp.
15:25 But I think that helps, and it's really important to be a good teacher as a coach.
15:30 I always wanna say, hey, whoever their best teacher was,
15:34 this applies to every coach on our staff, whoever their best teacher was in school,
15:37 okay, why was that teacher successful in reaching them?
15:41 Probably they weren't stale in how they presented, they engaged the room,
15:46 there was interaction.
15:47 So you can get guys acclimated in terms of scheme,
15:52 add volume if you take pride in being a teacher, and not just go put a playbook
15:56 sheet on the board and say, here's your assignment.
15:58 Hey, it's your job to know it.
16:00 It's our job to teach it.
16:01 So that's kind of how we've approached it, and I think it's been successful for us.
16:06 It's helped guys like Malachi and Mike Hill last year were able to be successful.
16:11 I think part of that was one, they're talented, two, they worked really hard
16:15 to acclimate themselves, and three, we created a plan to teach and
16:19 they took advantage of it.
16:21 >> Let's take two more questions.
16:23 Kirby was talking about way back in the spring and
16:25 even into this, how young you guys are, an outside linebacker.
16:28 I want to kind of focus on the three guys you brought in mid-year,
16:31 Damon Wilson, Stanley Pimba, and Gabe Harris.
16:35 How far have they come and how close are they to kind of helping you out,
16:39 carving out a role for themselves?
16:41 >> So today is practice six, I'm starting with the same questions.
16:43 Today is practice six.
16:45 It's the first official day in full pads, even though we've been in shells,
16:48 we've been in shoulder pads.
16:49 The game changes when pads come on, and
16:53 it changed a little bit when we went from spiders to shells.
16:58 And it'll change more today.
16:59 Consistency decides who's able to help us.
17:04 So being on practice six, everybody, no matter how experienced they are,
17:08 still has a long way to go to consistency we expect in the standard.
17:13 Those guys flash, those guys have ability, they have traits,
17:17 whether it's in pass rush or in run defense.
17:21 And they are embracing what we're asking of them.
17:25 But practice six, I couldn't have told you who was gonna contribute for
17:29 sure on practice six.
17:30 But last year we still have two scrimmages,
17:32 really 25 practices before the first game.
17:37 About 18 of those were camp styles, so we're a third of the way.
17:40 I'd be better able to answer that question after those two scrimmages and
17:45 those 18 practices.
17:46 >> You were talking about your inside linebackers,
17:50 you brought in three freshmen, very highly talented guys.
17:52 What can you tell us about them, aside from what other contributors,
17:56 like as persons, we don't know, we don't get to see them.
17:59 Why did you recruit them?
18:01 >> I prioritize outside of athletic ability, because obviously each of those
18:05 guys, I shouldn't say obviously, I mean just in my opinion,
18:09 they're very talented in terms of their athleticism,
18:13 in terms of being versatile in their skill set.
18:15 They're not limited in doing one thing.
18:17 That's what attracted me to them.
18:19 When I watched the tape, speed is a premium, ability to play in space is a premium.
18:22 What really made me want to sign those individuals and
18:27 why I'm happy they're here is they're extremely competitive,
18:31 extremely hardworking, they love football, they're good people.
18:35 You check those four in addition to your skill set, those are guys I wanna coach.
18:43 And that's exactly who they've been, they've been competitive, hardworking,
18:46 they love football, extremely attentive, they wanna learn, and they're great people.
18:50 So that's what I can tell you about them.
18:53 >> Thank you.
18:55 >> Thank you guys.
18:56 >> Thanks, guys.