GoldandBlack.com: Coordinators corner

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (GoldandBlack.com) - In June GoldandBlack.com spoke with Boilermaker offensive coordinator Gary Nord and defensive coordinator Donn Landholm.

Below are excerpts from what the two first-year coaches had to say.

GARY NORD
GoldandBlack.com: How would you describe your offense? Is it on the cutting edge as far as spread offenses go and have you implemented this and that from other programs?
Nord: "You know what? I see all these things all the time and I'm still confused on what's what they call a West Coast offense, a spread offense or a pro offense.

"I don't really know what the definition of each one of those is to be honest. I've been doing this for 28 years and I don't understand the difference.

"Some games if we feel like we're better than a team we may line up and run it right at them and make them stop us and throw short and run after we catch it. If we feel like we're not as good as them, we'll spread it out and go to a no-back formation and try to stretch it horizontally and vertically on them.

"As far as being a one-dimensional team, I hope nobody ever thinks we are that. I hope they never think we're a spread offense all the time or if we are a one-dimensional football team then they can start drawing up things and dialing up things that can cause a spread offense problems. So just as soon as they think we're going to be a spread offense, I want to be able to throw our backs down and our butts up in the air and come off the ball and knock 'em back when we need to."

GoldandBlack.com: Would you say you're a coordinator that likes to roll the dice a lot?
Nord: "Oh yeah. I'm not patient enough for the three yards and a cloud of dust stuff. I think you have to use trick plays and you have to use different gadgets to keep people off balance.

"You'll definitely see some things that will be exciting if they work. The trick plays look great when they work and horrible when they don't, but I've looked horrible before and I don't mind that because I think of the advantage it gives our football team. If they do work, it will keep people off balance and make them practice for them."

GoldandBlack.com: With such little experience on offense, I would imagine the plan is to keep things as simple as possible, right?
Nord: "Well, you want to keep them as simple as possible on our side of the ball, but give them the illusion on the other side of the ball that they're altogether different. That's why I'm big on different formations and different personnel groupings, but I keep the base plan the same for the offensive line and quarterback basically."

GoldandBlack.com: Do you have every reason to believe running back Jaycen Taylor will be good to go in fall camp?
Nord: "I think so. I was just visiting with him (last week) and I looked at his knees and you couldn't tell which one had the surgery. That wasn't the case in the spring. You could definitely tell as there was a lot of swelling in it and puffiness around it. It didn't look like the same knee. They both look alike now.

"He is conditioning now and he feels like he's going to be 100 percent when we get back so that would be huge for us."

GoldandBlack.com: For the most part, the wide receiver positions are wide open, but it's not like you don't have some skill there, right?
Nord: "Keith Smith is the veteran of the group. He's played a lot of ball here. He has the best knack for football. He understands the offense and the defense. He can get himself open, reads coverages and gets to where he's supposed to be when he's supposed to be there. He has the ability to catch the ball and run with it afterwards. I think he's a very good go-to guy from the inside spot.

"(Aaron Valentin) has to continue to get better and a little more consistent. I think he has a lot of ability. He's still thinking a little bit instead of using his natural ability and instincts. He has the ability to be a big-time receiver. He just has to get the knowledge and confidence and continue to develop in those areas."

"Royce Adams is the same way. Him and Valentin are very similar. The only defense is Valentin only got here a year ago because he came through the junior college ranks and Royce has only been here for about two or three months on the offense side of the ball. Those guys are relatively young and inexperienced at the Division I level at the receiver spot."

GoldandBlack.com: And some of your newcomer wide receivers are definitely going to play this fall just because you're so short on numbers in that department.
Nord: "Yeah some of them are going to have to play for sure for us just to be able to run the different formations and different personnel groupings that we want.

"Some of them have enough ability that we're going to have to find some ways to get the ball in their hands to make some things happen because a couple of them have breakaway speed. I felt that was something we were missing in the spring.

"On any given play, if we get the ball in a couple of these guys' hands we have the chance to score. We didn't really have that guy in the spring. We had a bunch of possession-type receivers.

"If you have that one guy who can score from anywhere on the field, it sure makes a difference from the defensive standpoint. They think twice about blitzing you and doing the different things that they like to do."

GoldandBlack.com: Do you think you have a deep threat among the newcomer group?
Nord: "Yeah, I think we've got a couple of them. I think Keith Carlos has the speed and natural ability to take it the distance any time he gets his hands on the ball. Eric Williams does and I think Gary Bush also does."

GoldandBlack.com: Size up your running back position.
Nord: "I was surprised how fast (Ralph Bolden) was. He's really fast. I didn't realize he was that fast.

"In the fall, you probably saw an entirely different kid because he was a true freshman. Whenever you play a true freshman, you're going to have some growing pains and a feeling-your-way-through process and he had the knee injury so he hadn't played ball in a while so last year was probably unfair to judge him on how good he could be.

"When you run as fast as he does and run with as much power as he does and have the ability to catch the football, you can be a very valuable weapon in this offense. We definitely need him to come through, He was a very bright spot.

"The other running backs continue to get better. I feel very good about (Frank Halliburton). He's a big, strong kid that can do some very good things with the ball under his arm. If he continues to get better in the blocking part of it, he could be a tremendous asset to our program.

"(Dan Dierking) has a lot of things he can do well and with (Al-Terek McBurse) it's going to be interesting to see how he can contribute the first year he's here.

"I'm very interested to see Taylor and see how he can do. At one time they thought he was the best kid on their football team here. If he played before Sheets, he has to be pretty darn good."

GoldandBlack.com: Is it realistic to think McBurse could come in after missing the spring and be your No. 1 running back?
Nord: "I think that would be stretching it a little bit, but he doesn't have to be our No. 1 back. We can gradually work him in. You're always concerned about putting a kid in a position where he can't be successful so with the limited reps that he's gotten since he's been here it would be very difficult to line him up the first day and expect him to know everything and do everything right. Maybe he can, though, I don't know, but I haven't seen too many of them with the ability to do that.

"I do know he's very talented. I was down in Florida watching him and was involved with recruiting him and I know he's a special back. Hopefully we can get him to learn the offense and understand what to do.

"He's a guy who can do it both out of the backfield catching the ball and the top of the I (formation) or from a one-back set."

GoldandBlack.com: What about the tight end position with Kyle Adams returning after suffering a knee injury last year?
Nord: "I didn't even know Kyle had an injury when I came in here because he was full-speed the whole time I was here and he's been full-speed ever since I've been here. He brings a toughness demeanor to him that kind of rubs off on the rest of the football team. He is a very intelligent player, has great toughness, good athletic ability and catches the ball well.

"Our tight end is probably going to be our leading receiver year in and year out if it goes the same way it has the last 28 years that I've been involved in this offense.

"Kyle is going to be very important to us along with (Jeff Lindsay). Lindsay has a very good grasp of what to do. He can also go in there and block them and knock them back and he has enough athleticism and speed to catch the ball and run with it.

"With (Jeff Panfil) who we moved in there, I think we're going to have three pretty good tight ends and have the ability to play one, two or all three of them all on the same play."

GoldandBlack.com: Obviously Robert Marve can't play this year, but he can practice. How big was it to get him and how much are you looking forward to having him in practice?
Nord: "I'm looking forward to him. Signing him really stabilizing our quarterback situation for the next five years. I think Joey will do a great job this year and then we don't have to go right to a freshman next with (Caleb TerBush) and Robert. I'm not saying he's going to be handed the job because if Caleb continues to grow and improve, he'll push him. And with the two newcomers, Rob Henry and Najee Tyler, I think those three kids are really going to be good players so I think it stabilizes our quarterback spot and we don't have to be worried about it.

"What it really has allowed us to do is go out and get a top-notch quarterback. We don't have to go out and panic. If we don't even get one this year, it's not the end of the world.

"I've learned over the years that you better take care of the position that you're going to coach in the recruiting battles. I've spent a lot of time recruiting and evaluating quarterbacks so hopefully we can keep a great stock in here."

GoldandBlack.com: You having been down in Florida, you know plenty about Robert and probably believe he's the real deal, right?
Nord: "Well I've known Robert for a long time. Not only did him coming with us make a big splash, but in next year's recruiting class it's made a huge splash because they all want to catch the ball from him. All the receivers, running backs and tight ends they know he's coming with us and he's like a hero down there in the state of Florida.

"I just got back from coaching the D-I camp down there (in Florida) I've been coaching there for the last several years and the first thing they asked when I got there all those kids and all those coaches, 'How's he doing? How's he going to be?'

"It brought some notoriety to the program, but the bottom line is that's not what we're looking for, we're looking for wins. I think he can definitely help us get some wins."

DONN LANDHOLM
GoldandBlack.com: Although this is Danny Hope's first year as Purdue's head coach and your first year here, it's pretty important is it not?
Landholm: "Certainly. I think every season is important. Since it's our first year, all of us together, it certainly is critical to try and get things started on the right foot."

GoldandBlack.com: A lot of the so-called experts believe your defense will have to carry your team. Do you agree?
Landholm: "That's tough for me to judge not having been here before and to have a good understanding of the entire team. I certainly feel our defense has some ability and we can do some things."

GoldandBlack.com: What's going to be different with this year's defense as opposed to last year's or different than what we saw with Brock Spack's defenses over the years?
Landholm: "I really don't have a good answer for that because I'm not sure exactly of the overall philosophy of everything. I know the base defensive alignments and the base defensive coverages are very similar to what we've done in the past so we didn't change a lot that way.

"The main things will probably be in down-and-distance situations or in maybe substitution packages.

"A lot of the base philosophies probably aren't that much different because they played a lot of good defense through the years when Brock was here."

GoldandBlack.com: Have you kept a lot of the same things because you do have a veteran defense and you didn't want a lot of learning curve or do your philosophies mirror Brock's?
Landholm: "Our philosophy will be very similar. We really didn't change a lot of the terminology because it's easier for me to learn than to try and teach my stuff to 30 players and three coaches.

"The biggest changes will be if we evolve into an attacking, pressure type of defense that I've been used to."

GoldandBlack.com: Do you expect many position switches or are you pretty set?
Landholm: "I think we're pretty set. We might try to do some things to utilize a guy like Ryan Kerrigan or Mike Neal to maybe get them in position so they can maybe do other things."

GoldandBlack.com: Are you a stat guy and if so what stats are most important to you?
Landholm: "I'm not real big on stats, but the biggest things we'll concentrate on will be turnovers. We think those are very critical because obviously the more chances you can get your offense the football, the better the chance they'll have to score.

"We believe third-down defense is very big for us. We've got to be able to get off the field on third down. Scoring defense is critical and rushing defense. If you can get people stopped so they have to throw the ball, then you can become a lot more of a pressure defense and an attacking defense because you force them into a throwing situation."

GoldandBlack.com: What are the keys to your defense playing the way you expect it to?
Landholm: "We have to be very good in all of our assignments and alignments. We can't afford to make mental mistakes. I didn't do it here, but we will at some point in time, which is to go back through the season. If you go back and go through any big plays given up by a defense, somebody usually has made a mistake or missed a tackle.

"Assignments, lining up correctly and tackling will be keys."

GoldandBlack.com: Talk about a couple of your linebackers — Jason Werner and Chris Carlino.
Landholm: "When you stand up close to Jason, he's a much taller, much more physical player than you just imagine when you see him from a distance. We're going to try and make sure we utilize him properly in practice so we get him to the field on Saturday. He did have a very good spring. He had to shake off a little bit of rust.

"The good thing about Jason, like some of our other seniors, he's real good with some of our younger linebackers in teaching them some of the intricacies of the game in that you only learn by playing.

"You could see Chris developing as spring ball went along and him feeling a lot more comfortable. As a freshman, he was able to just go out and the other linebackers like (Anthony) Heygood would just make the calls and line everything up. Now this spring he had to be the one that was making the calls so it got better and better for him as spring went along."

GoldandBlack.com: With that veteran secondary could we expect to see them in more man coverage if you elect to bring more heat?
Landholm: "I think that's one of the positives about having a veteran secondary. They aren't afraid to play man. Any time you play man, you have the possibility of getting beat, but those guys are all veterans and can bounce back if something bad were to happen."

GoldandBlack.com: What kind of coach are you? How would you describe your coaching style?
Landholm: "I'm probably a combination of middle of the road. I'm working with all the positions on defense as the coordinator. When I was strictly a position coach, I was a fairly expressive coach where I would get after guys and get excited. Now as coordinator I'm overlooking the whole picture.

"I'm definitely excited and will be calm on game day. I like to think I have some intensity about me and focus to try and see the big picture and make sure everybody is in the right spot."

NOTE: You can read much more from Nord and Landholm in Gold & Black Illustrated's 2009 Football Yearbook, which mails in early July. Call 800-876-4678 to order your copy today!