ATHENS — As hard as it may be to believe, this is Glenn Schumann’s ninth season at the University of Goergia. He’s entering his third season as the team’s primary defensive play-caller as well as the defensive coordinator.
With that title, Schumann gave his yearly state of the defense while speaking to reporters. The defensive coordinator covered a number of topics, ranging from his working relationship with Travaris Robinson to what the roles of Jalon Walker and Mykel Williams will look like this fall.
Below is a full transcript of what the Georgia defensive coordinator had to say ahead of Tuesday’s practice.
Opening statement...
“It’s great to see y’all for our annual meeting here today. Six days into camp, install’s intentionally really heavy. As we start things, we like to challenge guys early, both old and young. Look at some new things, move some people around, and really try to stretch them mentally and physically early in camps, so guys have been battling through that with the new staff additions, the new additions in terms of players. I’m really pleased with how we’ve got things started and how guys have embraced what it means to play defense at Georgia, the standard and expectations, and we look forward to continuing with Practice 7 today, or excuse me, Practice 6 today.”
On who’s giving the defense trouble...
“Well, it’s a great opportunity every day to go against our offense. At every level, all the positions. You know, offensive line, ton of experience, really talented. Obviously Carson plays at a really high level. There’s depth in the running back room, in the receiver room, and in the tight end room. When you have an offense that I think there’s not one guy and every position group can be a threat, it’s really challenging for every position group on our side of the field. It’s an awesome opportunity for us to compete against them every day.”
On the key to being a good football teacher...
“Well, I don’t know about overload. We just like to challenge them because growth in anything you do comes from challenging yourself. You have to be detailed. You have to be a clear communicator. Coach Smart talks about assuming nothing. As a teacher, you can’t assume the people you’re delivering the message to are understanding what you’re saying unless you get that communication back and forth, so I think those elements are important.”
On T-Rob...
“We had met each other. I had always had the utmost respect for him both as a coach and as a recruiter and just a person. Will spoke incredibly highly about him even before this opportunity came about. I trust Will and his opinion with just about everything. It’s been awesome to have Travaris here, and it’s been a great addition.”
On the new DB coaches...
“Great energy, and they’ve bought in to what we do. They knew what the expectations were here, and they embraced them and they wanted them. They’ve approached every day with a lot of passion and energy, and they really care about the players.”
On Will Muschamp’s help when he took over play-calling duties...
“Well, it’s awesome to be able to have Will here. When he made the decision to move into an analyst role, the ability for us to keep him in the building and keep him part of the program even before they approved the coaching restrictions was a blessing to all of us. The best thing that, and I’m thankful for Will in this regard, as much as he’s done in his career, Will does not have an ego in any way, shape, or form. So that collaborative effort, we work together. He helps me grow in a lot of ways. When things were difficult, he was a great supporting cast member and we worked together as the whole defensive staff does every year.”
On Raylen and CJ’s progress and Smael’s foot injury...
“Smael is doing a great job in his rehab. I would say he’s exactly on track. He was moving around really well yesterday. We have a plan for him. He’s following the plan with the maturity you’d expect from a guy with his experience level as both a player and in age. CJ and Raylen, they really benefited from this spring, having the opportunity to take over heightened leadership roles and in bowl prep. They’ve only grown from that. I think you’ve seen increased confidence in them. Those guys are really mature beyond their years in terms of how they prepare. They’ve been growing every day, and I’m excited about how they’re going to play this year.
On Muschamp’s influence on T-Rob as a coach...
“I think they talk about your closest circle of friends. Those are the people you end up being most like. Those influences as it pertains to T-Rob, he’s incredibly passionate, he cares about the players, he is detailed, and he attacks everything that he does. He’s not passive. He’s urgent, and he’s a really good football coach.”
On DL veterans and young guys like...
“We’re still in the infancy of pads, so I think we’re really going to see that group take the next step as we continue to have more padded practices. There’s a lot of other practices where you can benefit from non-padded practices in terms of executing assignments, covering people, things of that nature, but you really only get highly skilled at your craft up front and develop by putting pads on and striking blockers and feeling 700 pounds on a double team and that force on your body. I think we’re going to see those steps be taken in the coming weeks.”
On maximizing Jalon Walker’s ability...
“Well, I think we have a responsibility in two ways in everything we do. One, to do what’s best for this team and this defense to be successful, you know, as a unit because those guys are about the collective goals. It’s part of why they came here: the connection and the ability to contend and compete for championships and play great defense. Two, we have a responsibility for each player to put them in the best position to have a career in football if their ability gives them the opportunity to do that.
And so with Jalon, we have to expand his role because he’s a talented player, and the best way to expand his role is to continue to develop him as a hybrid player and also, you know, maximizing his opportunities to do what he does best. He’s actually really improved in both areas, and the way he’s attacked practice both from an effort and a leadership standpoint has been really impressive, so I’m excited about where he’s going.”
On his start in coaching...
“I’m going to try and sum this up to the best of my ability because that’s a long story. But essentially going into my senior year of high school, back then my dad was a coach and my mom was a coach. I didn’t necessarily ever want to be a coach, but I always wanted to be involved in athletics in some shape or form. Going into my senior year of high school, there was a moment at football practice where I helped another player with something, and I had the biggest rush of my life seeing them be successful after me helping them in some way, shape, or form, and kind of at that moment I knew I wanted to coach.
My dad had played for Bear Bryant at Alabama. There’s a Bryant Scholarship, and I had an opportunity to go there. I essentially just came in and worked for, you know, nothing at first and tried to just anything I could to earn trust and respect and then grow my football knowledge from that point. I didn’t necessarily set out to be a college football coach at that point. I just wanted to be a football coach, and then it’s led me here and I tried to do the best job I could at each step in the journey. That’s as concise as I can be there, but that’s it in summary.”
On maximizing Mykel Williams...
“The kind of style of defense that we play — the different personnel groupings, the packages, the way that we rotate and mix and match based on our opponent and the situation in a game — I think it gives us the opportunity to dual train guys like Mykel, guys like Jalon, guys like Gabe Harris. There’s a lot of guys in the secondary — there’s guys that play safety and STAR. We do this a lot in practice. On game day their role is based on what we think is best to win the game, but as these guys have matured and grown and been able to go through this learning process multiple times, they can take on more, and it makes it easier to play them in a variety of roles. And guys that can do multiple things are obviously going to find ways to highlight them and feel productive. Mykel’s one of those guys that he’s going to affect the game in a variety of ways this year.”
On what he’s seen from the outside linebacker room...
“Those guys really started in the offseason. You know, it was really unique. And I’m going to go with the young guys. Obviously there’s the utmost respect for what Chaz brings to that room, and he has been a better version of himself this entire offseason. I think he’s really attacked the areas that he needed to grow, he’s affected the passing game more, and he’s done a better job in terms of what he’s done in space while remaining a tough, gritty player.
That kind of sums up the whole room in a lot of ways. You have guys that last year some of the young guys who were really good in one area, and that position requires a lot. You have to be able to cover. You know, Robert Beal’s running down the field covering Emeka Egbuka in the Peach Bowl on a wheel route stride for stride with him, right? That’s part of the job responsibility: you have to be able to set edges and rush the passer. Because of the style of defense we play, it’s really a hybrid role. You know, it’s an edge player.
So those guys in that room have all kind of attacked their weaknesses, whether it’s Damon’s put on a lot of weight and got stronger in the run game. Gabe’s become a position-versatile player that, you know, was just a hand-down d-end before, and now he’s a much more well-rounded out player. Sam M’Pemba, he’s a guy that didn’t play a lot of outside ‘backer before his senior year at IMG, and so he grew a lot as a football player. That whole room — and Quintavius Johnson has done a really good job. So those guys that are in that room, I think that they have all attacked areas they needed to improve, which is what you expect from people if they want to grow, and they’ve done a really good job. I’m pleased with that room to this point in camp.”
On what he knows about Clemson...
“I think the purpose of camp, right, is our focus right now is on getting better. It’s focusing on our installation, focusing on our players and their development. It’s this window of time for these two weeks that you have to attack your technique and fundamentals, okay, your mental part of the game, every area that you need to focus on to improve yourself. If you become a better player, if each person, each coach grows themselves over this period of time, that’ll pay more dividends than just about anything we could do in opponent prep. In terms of them (Clemson), we shift our focus once we’ve made it through the conclusion of camp and we’ve kind of figured out who’s on the bus and what seats they’re in. In terms of their program, obviously, what Coach Swinney has done there has been outstanding. They have Coach Riley, Garrett Riley, that was the offensive coordinator at TCU. They were outstanding the year we played them in the national title game. Then they added Matt Luke to the rest of their offensive staff. It should be a great game.”
On what he’s looking to see to differentiate between Daniel Harris and Julian Humphrey…”That whole room is still in competition. I hate to just single out those two guys. There’s a lot of young players in that room, whether it’s young based on experience or age. Everybody is kind of still growing. I think when you look at them, you have to be able, to play corner in college football you have to be able to not only get guys that can man to man cover a guy, but be able to show up in the run game, perimeter block destruction for bubble screens, and be a good tackler. That’s really what we need out of that position in general is to be able to be successful in man to man, play the ball down the field, and still be able to be a factor in the perimeter block destruction game and tackling. I think that those guys flash in these short areas, but increased toughness, it’s a mantra. It’s part of the Georgia defense. It’s part of playing defense in general. As those guys continue to grow in that area, they’ll become better players.”
On KJ Bolden preparing like a veteran and what that means…”Being a freshman, no matter how much success you have, whether you’re instantly successful or whether you have to go through some of the growing pains that guys have done in the past, just the transition going from high school to college, it’s hard on a normal student. What separates guys that are able to help you when they’re young, versus guys that it takes some time, a lot of times it doesn’t necessarily have to do with ability. It has to do with maturity and their prep. It does not mean that guys who don’t play early don’t have the maturity. But the maturity in terms of being a pro every day, not having to acclimate as much to the demands of college football, it helps them. I think in terms of how he approaches his business, he’s had a maturity about himself since he’s been here. If you match that up with ability and continue to grow, you have a chance to be a good player. I think his maturity has impressed me from the moment he’s been here. He’s been very serious and that’s going to focus on the task at hand, which is what you need to do on a day in and day out basis.”
On Troy Bowles, Xzavier McLeod, and Ellis Robinson…”Troy did a really good job attacking his physical development this offseason. Also, he really didn’t play much linebacker coming into college. There’s the development as a linebacker and then the physical development. I think he’s done a really good job in that regard. Obviously his skill set in the past being a guy who played DB, it helps. He has a unique coverage skill set that as we continue to grow him as a backer, he has the opportunity to be a really good player.“”Xzavier McLeod has been really active. He obviously has size. When I say active, I’m just saying he’s a really good athlete for his size. He’s able to move, which is very helpful. He has to be able to go and show up in the run game in terms of anchoring double teams at the point of attack, which like I said we just put pads on a few days ago. As time goes on, he’ll continue to grow in that area.“”Ellis, his approach in fall camp has been what it needs to be in terms of attacking. The demands of a practice at Georgia, if y’all took in a practice or people who were there, it’s a lot on high school guys transitioning. I think that he’s attacked his personal conditioning and everything else to be able to maximize his ability. I don’t mean that to say that he wasn’t, but there’s a lot of demands on that position to be able to be at your best every snap. I think the way he’s approached that has given him an opportunity to compete in camp. He has to continue to do that.”
On Joenel Aguero and what he learned last year…”I think that’s one of the most underrated aspects of coming to play football at Georgia is the people that you get to play with that become part of your circle, that you get to learn from, that become part of your family. He had the opportunity to learn from three guys, not just those three, but those three guys that left here last year were incredibly detailed and mature and went about their business the right way. I think that really helped him go through last season. I’m really pleased with how he’s attacked camp. He has grown up a lot in terms of his ability to consistently do what we ask him to do. Obviously, he’s a physically gifted player. I just really appreciate his growth on a personal level because he has matured a lot in the last year. It’s now showing up on the field. Hopefully, he continues to do that.”
