Spring Training Report-Volume 3
A Spring Visit with Coach Don Byrd-May 18, 2009
The Mule Fan: You are two thirds of the way through Spring Training as of today. What have you been the most satisfied about accomplishing so far this spring?
Coach Byrd: Well I think we’ve come together as a team. I’ve been proud of the players. I think they’ve challenged themselves. We haven’t really had a bad practice. We’ve continued to improve. I’ve been excited about how the defense has come along. Usually in the past we’ve had a little more experience on defense and the offense has been behind and it’s taken a while for them to catch up. But the defense has improved each and every day. We’re learning more and more about the players. I’m excited. It’s been a great spring so far.
The Mule Fan: It would seem that you’ve had the opportunity to experiment with personnel a little more with the defense. There are four defensive starters out from the 2008 season with two still playing baseball (Warren, Maloy) and a fifth with Hagar involved with track and really putting in some time on offense at tight end. If that’s a fair assessment, I would guess that gives you a better look at the depth of your defense and how they all work together.
Coach Byrd: Yeah we have. We’ve moved some kids around from linebacker to end and we’ve moved some kids around in the secondary. We’ve played with some different combinations and as they show they’ve settled in basically then we’ve built around that and moved on to some other positions. Also we see a kid that gets after it in practice and he might be at one position but we know we don’t have depth at another so we’ll move him over there. So it’s been fun playing with it. You get the right guy that’s a little better at a position then you can see the level of play of the whole defensive unit take off. So we’re excited about that. I’ve seen some real improvement in that area.
The Mule Fan: Quarterback is the most visible position on the field with a different player this spring. What’s it been like for junior QB Cullen Mills in that role so far?
Coach Byrd: First of all he’s just a fine young man. The way he handles himself you can tell that he’s serious, he’s intent and he can take the team and win. The other night at the scrimmage I saw a lot of good things. A couple of times he didn’t make plays but it wasn’t so much him as it was some people around him. It’s real easy if a pass is incomplete or if something doesn’t work to point at the quarterback. But sometimes there are other areas. His improvement and his leadership and his confidence has grown each and every day and I’ve been excited about that. I also can’t say enough great things about (sophomore QB) Steven Elder. I was worried coming into the spring because with Drew (Allen) there, Mills did not get the snaps that I was hoping he would get. So he didn’t get as much playing time. And Elder got hurt early on JV. So neither of them got a full season last year. So we’ve really spent a lot of time with those two out on the field and watched a lot of film with them. They’ve progressing nicely. I believe that Alamo Heights can win with either one of the quarterbacks. That’s what we want at every position no matter who’s starting or who’s backing up. We want two guys that you can win with.
The Mule Fan: The Spring game is Thursday this week (May 21). Can you take us through the format of the game?
Coach Byrd: Well we won’t have any kicking game so we’ll flip a coin and one team will start on about the 30 or 35 yard line. I haven’t decided that yet. They’ll have three downs to get a first down unless they get into what we decide is four down territory. If they don’t then we’ll move the ball 30 yards down the field or half the distance to the goal and then the other team will come out. We’ll divide the first and second team up as evenly as we can and those two will get two series each on offense and defense. And then we’ll put the people behind them in for a series. We’ll bounce it around between two series and one. What it does is give the older kids, the ones you’re expecting to be on varsity, a little more playing time but it also gives the other ones enough time to open somebody’s eyes. We’ll do that for about a half and then take a break. Then we’ll come back for the second half and do pretty much the same format. Hopefully we’ll have a good close game like we did last year which was a lot of fun. We’ll start it right at 5:30. We’ll get some officials out here and a chain crew. Hopefully a lot of people will come see where Alamo Heights is. We’re excited about it. We don’t have to be great. We’re not expecting to look like we’re in playoff form but we’re hoping to go out and execute well and really look at fundamentals. Who is coach-able and who is the most consistent and who finishes plays. Those are the things that I’m looking for.
The Mule Fan: Last time you mentioned that you’ll have a few extra days where you are allowed to coach the kids. So what will you do after Thursday?
Coach Byrd: On Friday we’ll probably come in during the athletic period and lift weights. We’re not going to lift them on Wednesday or Thursday (of this week). So we’ll lift them on Friday. Then after school on Friday we’ll keep them for a short time and watch the game tape and make any corrections. Then we’ll have a three day weekend. On Tuesday (following Memorial Day Weekend) we’ll have the skill people, the defensive backs, wide receivers, tight ends, quarterbacks and running backs, go out and do 7-on-7 during our fourth period. Offensive and defensive linemen will go in the weight room and lift. The after school, the defensive backs and the rest of the skill guys will go in the weight room. And the offensive and defensive linemen will go full pads. We won’t do any team stuff but they’ll do a lot of individual drills for about 40 minutes we’re hoping just working on technique. So we can have three days of just working on the basic techniques of offense and defensive linemen not worrying about any schemes or anything. We can give our linemen one last shot to develop. It’s great for our skill guys to do the 7-on-7 because they’ll be competing in that all summer long. We’re excited about just breaking it down back to the fundamentals and ending that way.
The Mule Fan: You are two thirds of the way through Spring Training as of today. What have you been the most satisfied about accomplishing so far this spring?
Coach Byrd: Well I think we’ve come together as a team. I’ve been proud of the players. I think they’ve challenged themselves. We haven’t really had a bad practice. We’ve continued to improve. I’ve been excited about how the defense has come along. Usually in the past we’ve had a little more experience on defense and the offense has been behind and it’s taken a while for them to catch up. But the defense has improved each and every day. We’re learning more and more about the players. I’m excited. It’s been a great spring so far.
The Mule Fan: It would seem that you’ve had the opportunity to experiment with personnel a little more with the defense. There are four defensive starters out from the 2008 season with two still playing baseball (Warren, Maloy) and a fifth with Hagar involved with track and really putting in some time on offense at tight end. If that’s a fair assessment, I would guess that gives you a better look at the depth of your defense and how they all work together.
Coach Byrd: Yeah we have. We’ve moved some kids around from linebacker to end and we’ve moved some kids around in the secondary. We’ve played with some different combinations and as they show they’ve settled in basically then we’ve built around that and moved on to some other positions. Also we see a kid that gets after it in practice and he might be at one position but we know we don’t have depth at another so we’ll move him over there. So it’s been fun playing with it. You get the right guy that’s a little better at a position then you can see the level of play of the whole defensive unit take off. So we’re excited about that. I’ve seen some real improvement in that area.
The Mule Fan: Quarterback is the most visible position on the field with a different player this spring. What’s it been like for junior QB Cullen Mills in that role so far?
Coach Byrd: First of all he’s just a fine young man. The way he handles himself you can tell that he’s serious, he’s intent and he can take the team and win. The other night at the scrimmage I saw a lot of good things. A couple of times he didn’t make plays but it wasn’t so much him as it was some people around him. It’s real easy if a pass is incomplete or if something doesn’t work to point at the quarterback. But sometimes there are other areas. His improvement and his leadership and his confidence has grown each and every day and I’ve been excited about that. I also can’t say enough great things about (sophomore QB) Steven Elder. I was worried coming into the spring because with Drew (Allen) there, Mills did not get the snaps that I was hoping he would get. So he didn’t get as much playing time. And Elder got hurt early on JV. So neither of them got a full season last year. So we’ve really spent a lot of time with those two out on the field and watched a lot of film with them. They’ve progressing nicely. I believe that Alamo Heights can win with either one of the quarterbacks. That’s what we want at every position no matter who’s starting or who’s backing up. We want two guys that you can win with.
The Mule Fan: The Spring game is Thursday this week (May 21). Can you take us through the format of the game?
Coach Byrd: Well we won’t have any kicking game so we’ll flip a coin and one team will start on about the 30 or 35 yard line. I haven’t decided that yet. They’ll have three downs to get a first down unless they get into what we decide is four down territory. If they don’t then we’ll move the ball 30 yards down the field or half the distance to the goal and then the other team will come out. We’ll divide the first and second team up as evenly as we can and those two will get two series each on offense and defense. And then we’ll put the people behind them in for a series. We’ll bounce it around between two series and one. What it does is give the older kids, the ones you’re expecting to be on varsity, a little more playing time but it also gives the other ones enough time to open somebody’s eyes. We’ll do that for about a half and then take a break. Then we’ll come back for the second half and do pretty much the same format. Hopefully we’ll have a good close game like we did last year which was a lot of fun. We’ll start it right at 5:30. We’ll get some officials out here and a chain crew. Hopefully a lot of people will come see where Alamo Heights is. We’re excited about it. We don’t have to be great. We’re not expecting to look like we’re in playoff form but we’re hoping to go out and execute well and really look at fundamentals. Who is coach-able and who is the most consistent and who finishes plays. Those are the things that I’m looking for.
The Mule Fan: Last time you mentioned that you’ll have a few extra days where you are allowed to coach the kids. So what will you do after Thursday?
Coach Byrd: On Friday we’ll probably come in during the athletic period and lift weights. We’re not going to lift them on Wednesday or Thursday (of this week). So we’ll lift them on Friday. Then after school on Friday we’ll keep them for a short time and watch the game tape and make any corrections. Then we’ll have a three day weekend. On Tuesday (following Memorial Day Weekend) we’ll have the skill people, the defensive backs, wide receivers, tight ends, quarterbacks and running backs, go out and do 7-on-7 during our fourth period. Offensive and defensive linemen will go in the weight room and lift. The after school, the defensive backs and the rest of the skill guys will go in the weight room. And the offensive and defensive linemen will go full pads. We won’t do any team stuff but they’ll do a lot of individual drills for about 40 minutes we’re hoping just working on technique. So we can have three days of just working on the basic techniques of offense and defensive linemen not worrying about any schemes or anything. We can give our linemen one last shot to develop. It’s great for our skill guys to do the 7-on-7 because they’ll be competing in that all summer long. We’re excited about just breaking it down back to the fundamentals and ending that way.
Former Mule Drew Allen at Work for the Oklahoma Sooners in the 2009 Spring Game - Photo courtesy of Andy and Julie Allen (#1 of 7, 463)
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