Rutgers Wide Receivers coach Dave Brock talks Spring Practice: Press Conference

Rutgers Football continued spring ball this week on Thursday afternoon, and Wide Receivers coach Dave Brock spoke to the media for his first spring football press conference of the season.

Brock spoke for roughly eight minutes and addressed a range of questions, including KJ Duff’s return, the ongoing WR2 battle, the youngsters stepping up, and much more.

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Full Dave Brock Presser Transcript

Coach, how important was it to get K.J. Duff back in the room? And having worked with him for a couple of years, his trajectory, how do you see him compared to some of the many great receivers you’ve coached?

Dave Brock: “Yeah, I would focus on K.J. He’s done a great job. Obviously, his development here and his ability to be productive. But the things that people don’t see, really, are maybe his greatest strengths.

How hard he works, how he attacks everything, whether it’s learning opportunities, whether it’s catching the ball, whether it’s individual drills. He’s done a fantastic job. The leadership piece from him is on point.

I couldn’t be more excited about what he’s done, the opportunity he has, and certainly excited he’s back. Kind of expand on the leadership point from him and kind of how he’s changing that role and grown? Yeah, I think to some degree it’s natural. You come out, you produce, and now you feel like, hey, this is an opportunity for me to try to bring along the players who I can bring along to impact the success of the room, the success of the unit, and then ultimately the success of the team.

I think if you asked him, he would look back and say that, man, there were certainly people who impacted him when he first got here. I think you really want to try to leave a legacy of hard work and just being really, really intentional about getting better as a player and helping other players get better.

Dyzier Carter, he was the highest-rated prospect in this year’s class. What have been your early impressions of him, and do you see a role for him at all this fall?

Dave Brock: “Yeah, he’s done a super job. Really, I look at the collective. I don’t focus on a player, or I certainly don’t care about the rankings and stuff like that. But he’s done a really good job, as all the players have. We have a young receiver room, which is exciting. Those guys are working really, really hard. They’ve been productive. The mistakes they make, they correct. There’s a lot of things that, as a coach, you get really excited about.

What you see, the opportunities for growth. As the players become more competitively tough mentally and physically, then you have an opportunity to take their game to a different level as you go through each phase of preparation as you approach the season.”

Coach, you just touched on it, but after KJ, that collective doesn’t have a whole lot of experience. Where are they in the progression to getting ready for Week 1? Have you seen consistent growth throughout the spring?

Dave Brock: “Oh, yeah. No, I’m excited. Again, I think that’s kind of an interesting thing. I think when you play and you have your opportunities and you make the most of them, that’s where the production comes from. As I look at it, a guy who hasn’t played that much, just by being natural, he’s not going to have as much production. But if you can do like KJ did, or even like Christian Dremel did, I don’t know what he had before I got here, but maybe a catch in a couple yards, he ends up with whatever he had, 400 yards.

He becomes a much more productive player. We’ve brought plug-and-play players in, whether it’s Dymere Miller, Jaquae Jackson, DT Sheffield, and they’ve all had production. It just depends where their game is in terms of their development, how you see their role, and can you accelerate it over time.

And that’s our job. That’s what Coach does an unbelievable job of here, is just finding inches, whether it’s in an individual player’s game, a side of the ball, a position group, the team. And that’s what we’re really trying to find. We’re looking for inches to be better. Famah is a guy who was out last year. He’s been around.

When do you see his old being now back?

Well, again, I think for him, the opportunity to get back on the field and compete, he had done such a good job leading into the unfortunate incident last spring that everybody was excited, certainly maybe nobody more excited than Coach Schiano. And as he returns, again, the sky’s the limit. You have opportunities when you come back, and you make the most of those opportunities.

And again, you’re going to get what you earn. That’s the reality of playing this position at Rutgers. You earn it, you’ll get it. And everybody knows that. So as he comes back, he’s been phenomenal in meetings, great leadership traits now because he’s an older player and helps the younger players. So, again, I’m excited that he’ll have an opportunity to really help us.”

What kind of opportunities do you see for the rest of the receivers with the departure of Ian Strong?

Dave Brock: “Again, it’s like anything. You’re going to have three guys out there when we’re in 11 personnel, and the opportunities come. Kirk does a great job at devising the game plan and giving players opportunities, and the progression may take it to a certain player.

And I think that they’ve done a great job. I think Coach Schiano even mentioned that earlier on, that he’s excited about the young players. Again, for me, I don’t really look at the age of a player as something that’s defining.

I look at the competitive toughness and the competitive mentality the player has, and can he go out there and be successful. And I believe they can. I think we’ll have, in my mind, more depth this year than we did last year.

Talk about some of the young guys, the four second-year guys coming in after freshman years last year. They flashed on the field and dealt with some injuries. How important was it to get them on the field earlier last year, and where are they in their development?

It was good. But, again, they’re still relatively young players because of the missed opportunities that they had from the different setbacks they had in the fall. And Coach has a great saying, practices everything. And if you believe that, which I do, then the opportunities that you have to practice are critical from your growth, your development, all of those things.

So as they get back going and now they’re full speed and doing everything, it’s fun to watch them. Again, their growth does accelerate because they know what to do, they know how to do it, and now you’re really getting a chance to see them do it over and over again. And those growth opportunities are unbelievable because now you’re really teaching them how to do something in a specific manner.

You and the rest of the staff looked at some borderline receivers, didn’t end up bringing one in. What does that say about the confidence of the guys that are coming up that are already here?

Dave Brock: “Yeah, again, Coach always has a plan. And we try to follow that plan to the exact letter of the law that he gives us. And, again, I’m extremely confident. I don’t lack for confidence.”

What have you seen from Jourdin Houston? He flashed a bit last spring. Where is his development now and a chance to make an impact this fall?

Dave Brock: “Yeah, we’re certainly hoping they all do, but Jordan specifically, he’s done a great job. He’s a bigger guy. He’s got a lot of suddenness. He’s got a lot of body quickness. He’s a really good competitor, really smart player. So, again, he’s everything I think we thought he would be when we brought him here, and now you have a chance to kind of see it develop in front of your own eyes. So we’re excited about him and what he has the opportunity to do.”

You guys have developed and played some guys young, whether that’s Ian Strong or K.J. Duff and others. How much of that is identifying kids in recruiting that you guys are really good at, or how much of that is the work that you and guys that work with you like John Perry and John McNulty have done to develop these guys quicker than maybe people expected?

Dave Brock: “Well, yeah, again, I think I’ve said that to you in the past. I think one of the things Coach does that’s elite among many is he gives you the opportunity as a position coach to kind of have a collective staff around you that is going to benefit the development of the players.

All the guys you mentioned, Jeff Carpenter’s here now. He’s doing an incredible job. The players benefit so much from that. It frees up time to do different things, whether it was a specific thing with a specific player, maybe a position group, maybe the collective. I can do some things that are different while he’s doing it. The advantage that I’ve had in my time here I would say is second to none, and I’ve said that before.

I couldn’t be more appreciative, thankful for the opportunity to work with the people because I think it does benefit the individual players at my position, and then ultimately whether it’s the offensive unit or the team, I think it speaks for itself.”