Aug. 5, 2008

In Attendance: Bill Wagner (Annapolis Capital)

Wagner: How are things looking so far?

Niumatalolo: It was a little sluggish today. I thought our first couple of days was pretty good. Today we were OK defensively and not very good offensively.

Wagner: Why?

Niumatalolo: Lack of focus. We just weren't sharp.

Wagner: Do you think the heat gets to the guys a little bit the first couple of days when they aren't used to being out here? Is that an excuse?

Niumatalolo: It may be true, but it's not an excuse. We don't have any excuses here. That's our motto this year, "No Excuses, Nobody Cares." Yeah it's hot out here, but nobody cares. Towson doesn't care. I don't care if it's 100 degrees you have to practice through it.

Wagner: When do you go full pads?

Niumatalolo: Tomorrow.

Wagner: Is it too early to say if any of the plebes could help you this spring?

Niumatalolo: We are encouraged by some of the guys. We are definitely encouraged by the young defensive backs and slot backs, but I want to see them when somebody else is trying to hit them. They look nice right now running around without being hit, but I want to see them run through a tackle or make somebody miss. Right now they just look pretty.

Wagner: It appears to be one of the better classes you guys have brought in here.

Niumatalolo: Corey James, Chris Rivers, Aaron Santiago, Chris Hill and Jarren Brown all have a chance to help.

Wagner: How about the big lineman, Hong?

Niumatalolo: He is doing OK, but I'm more skeptical of an offensive lineman being able to help as a plebe. He has the tools, but he is running around like a chicken with his head cut off right now.

Wagner: How many guys did you bring in from prep school this year?

Niumatalolo: 28

Wagner: Is that a normal number? I know Coach Johnson has not been pleased in the past with the attrition rate at the prep school, how did that go last year?

Niumatalolo: In went very well.

Wagner: You didn't lose anybody?

Niumatalolo: Not as many as we have in the past. We still lost some guys. There is always going to be attrition, but I thought the administration up there did a great job of getting those kids ready academically and we are pleased with the number that came down. This is a strong plebe class from NAPS. They are very, very close. Every NAPS class is always tight, but this group is especially close and I think that is a big reason we got so many of them down here. I think they recruited each other. They were our best recruiters.

Wagner: At the golf outing the other day somebody remarked to me when you were introducing your coaching staff that everybody seemed so young. Some of these guys seem pretty young. Your slot back coach (Joe DuPaix) looks like he could be in high school. Does the experience level of your coaches concern you?

Niumatalolo: No. We have good coaches. If anybody ever sat in the film room or watched them on the field they would know they are good coaches. Joe DuPaix has been coaching and playing in this offense for a long time. There are not too many guys out there that no more about option football than Joe. Ashley Ingram is the same way. I think we have a great blend on our staff. We have some veteran guys that have been around the block and we have some younger guys that have given us an infusion. We are not a totally young staff and we are not an old staff. It is a good mix.

Wagner: So when you went out to hire your new staff did you worry about age and experience or did you try and find the best fit for your situation?

Niumatalolo: I just hired the most qualified guy. I wanted a guy that can coach on the grass and recruit. I don't care if he's 90 or 21. The last piece for me was if he was a good person. There are a lot of guys that are good coaches that are tyrants and we didn't need that. We needed guys that would fit in with this group. In this profession you are together for so long you better get some guys you can deal with because you are with the coaching staff more than your wife during the season so if you don't like somebody it makes for a long day. We wanted good people and good coaches.

Wagner: Can you talk about Joe DuPaix?

Niumatalolo: I have been very impressed with him. He is a very good teacher. I am excited about Joe.

Wagner: How about Ashley?

Niumatalolo: High energy, very knowledgeable about this offense, I think the kids respect him because he's pretty consistent.

Wagner: You have coached the offensive line so you know if somebody can teach option blocking or not, early on is it clear to you that he knows what he's doing?

Niumatalolo: Even before we started practice I knew that. I knew in the interview process he knew what he was doing. He played option football in high school and college and coached it at Rhode Island and Bucknell. The only difference is terminology so we just had to get them to learn our terminology, but it's the same stuff.

Wagner: Do you think he can bring some new techniques that maybe you guys haven't done in the past?

Niumatalolo: He has already done that. Coach Spencer and I always used to talk about different techniques that he used at Oregon State and I used at Hawaii and Ashley has already done that. It's always nice to get an infusion of new ideas. You can't revamp and change totally, but there are things we are going to try.

Wagner: You and Coach Spencer were the offensive line coaches for the past six years and now you (Spencer is at Georgia Tech) have Ingram and Chris Culton. Why did you move Culton from fullbacks to offensive line?

Niumatalolo: He coached offensive line at Georgia Southern and he played offensive line. His background is the offensive line. Both of these guys know that I will have a heavy hand with the offensive line. They knew that when I interviewed them. I told them if they didn't like that then they shouldn't take the job. I am going to be involved with coaching the offensive line, but they have both been great and they knew what they were getting into.