lucas andrighetto

With Josh Gattis, obviously you hired him for a reason. Now that you’ve had a chance to work with him more through spring drills, what new impressions do you have based on being around him day-to-day?

“All positive. Tremendous teacher. A lot of energy. Brings a lot of energy to meetings, the practice field. I mean, he’s coaching a lot of people every play so I think that’s been a good thing for all of our coaches. They’ve really been engaged and coaching really well. Our players are picking it up, I think, as it relates to the offense. We’re pretty far along after seven practices with the new system. That’s a credit to Josh and the staff.”

Being satisfied with the new system so far, do you ever stop and say ‘Why didn’t I do this a year or two earlier?’ Do you look back and have second thoughts on previously if this stuff is as good as you think it is so far?

“Um, I think things sometimes change as you go along and you’re open to new ideas and different factors that make it beneficial, but I’ve never been one to ever do things just because that’s the way they’ve always been done. Always taken the approach that if it helps us when then we’re gonna do it or at least try it, so that’s always been my mindset.”

You talked about the corners yesterday on your podcast. What’s Lavert’s [Hill] status right now?

“Lavert’s coming along well. He had a procedure done in the offseason that he’s rehabbing from and really coming along well. It’ll be close to whether he’s able to make it back for some part of spring ball or not, but the rehab’s going extremely well.”

And then Don Brown talked about Vince Gray—

“Yeah, so the corner, it’s been a healthy position for us this spring. With Lavert rehabbing, Vince Gray starting at left corner right now and Ambry Thomas starting at right corner. Hunter Reyolds is backing up along with Jaylen Kelly-Powell. Jaylen Kelly-Powell’s also backing up at the nickel. Myles Sims, Gemon Green have also been in the mix and they’re coming along good so far this spring, so that’s been a good, healthy position for us. Jalen Perry has also worked in and he’s on the depth chart along with Jared Davis and then John Baty, who is a student tryout that’s done a nice job. All indications are that he’s making the football team, so it’s been a good position.

“The nickel position, Brad Hawkins is the starter there. He’s doing an excellent job. He’s also backing up at both safety positions, both the Rover and the Free. Right now Josh Metellus and J’Marick Woods are the two starting safeties. Louis Grodman is backing up Brad and so is Sammy Faustin. Gemon Green, Tyler Cochran are also in the mix along with Quinn Rothman. That’s also been another position of good health for us.”

What’s the situation at kicker? Is Quinn [Nordin] the guy or is that a competition between him and Jake [Moody]?

“It’s neck and neck right now. Charting all the kicks, it’s extremely close. Quinn’s like maybe 15-of-17 or 16-of-17. Jake Moody is like 15-of-16 or 15-of-17. They’re right there, neck and neck. So it’s a good competition going on at kicker.”

[After THE JUMP: a single answer that's as long as some pressers bears a depth chart]

What prompted you to go get an offensive coordinator back in January and what about Josh Gattis and his vision for this offense appealed to you?

“It was an opportunity to get a great coach. He’s somebody that I’ve been following and saw that he was becoming an offensive coordinator, so we moved fast to make him our offensive coordinator.

“What’s been going really well is he’s doing a great job. He’s a really good coach. Staff is working really, really good together. Everybody has met—had a lot of meetings, a lot of time on task to get to where we were yesterday, which was our first day of practice.

“Kicked off the spring practice and it was really good. Both—everybody on the team physically was ready to practice. That was the best we’ve had from a physical standpoint of guys being prepared to start spring practice. Also the best we’ve been in terms of really being as far along understanding the schemes offensively, defensively, and special teams-wise. Think there’s been a lot of great retention. Not where we’re gonna be, but really, really good.”

So with Josh [Gattis] here, how is it different for you, then, if he’s running the show? I know you’ve always been very involved. How is it different for you? Is it an adjustment for you or a change?

“Yeah, we’re all working together and learning, too. His style of offense is—contributing where we can, but he’s really good. He’s really good at explaining it and showing us how to coach it, so how’s it been for me? It’s been really good. Really enjoying it. Really learning a lot.”

I know you try to learn and grow every year as a coach. After last year, what motivated you to make this kind of change? What motivated you to--

“Like I told Aaron—[crosstalk] yeah, yeah. Just, that was that. Opportunity to get somebody I really admire and think is really good.”

How much of a departure will this be from what you’ve run the last four years?
”I think the biggest difference that people will see will be the tempo. The tempo that’s more up-tempo. Less huddle. That’d be number one.”

[After THE JUMP: more on Gattis and the offense, Nua, almost every position group, injury updates, position switches, and even a piece of the depth chart]