*oops - 3000th thread in Card Land that is*
From NFL.com:
http://www.nfl.com/draft/story/6279150
Koetter's kids emerging to NFL level
By Dave Richard
NFL.com
(March 26, 2003) -- NFL executives and coaches may have been meeting in the Arizona desert as part of the NFL's Annual Meeting , but they also happened to luck out and catch Arizona State University's Pro Day, highlighted by the workout of first-round prospect Terrell Suggs.
If the people who attended the Pro Day were lucky, they also got to meet Dirk Koetter, the head coach of the Arizona State Sun Devils' football program. Koetter is an up-and-coming coach who led his squad to an 8-5 record in the Pac-10 Conference and a Holiday Bowl game against Kansas State.
So who would know draftees like Suggs, receiver Shaun McDonald, linebacker Solomon Bates and tight end Mike Pinkard better than Koetter? After he watched his guys work out for the NFL brass, he spent a few minutes with NFL.com.
Your take on Arizona State's Pro Day?
Koetter: Well, I think when you see the reports, and this isn't my opinion, but sentiment is going to be that Terrell did not have a great day workout-wise. I wasn't at the finish line, but I heard that he ran in the 4.8s. I think he was disappointed with his performance. Personally, I don't think he worked out the way he wanted to. I don't know his numbers, but I do know that Terrell Suggs can sack the quarterback as good as anybody.
Overall, to have the turnout that we had -- we had five NFL head coaches, a couple of owners, a couple of GMs, a lot of media -- it was great exposure for our program. The fact that it was Terrell's big day, the exposure for our other draft-eligible guys was obviously huge. To get all of those people on our campus, in our weight room, on our practice fields, that sort of thing.
How do you think Suggs is going to be judged after a performance like this?
Koetter: That's the big question. I'm not the one to answer that. Just like when you recruit for college, you put the film on and the guy can either do it or he can't. You don't get 24 sacks, break records, dominate the Pac-10 conference and win several major awards if you're not a good football player.
I think that one March workout shouldn't make or break a guy. I turn that film on, and I still think Terrell is one of the best pass rushers in the world. I think whomever takes Terrell on Draft Day is going to be very happy they did.
Coach Dirk Koetter (left), with Detroit's Matt Millen and Steve Mariucci.
Several teams are interested in bringing in Suggs as a linebacker. Do you think he can make that switch?
Koetter: Terrell was a running back in high school and is an excellent basketball player, so that shows you how athletic he is. If Terrell would have returned for his senior year, our coaching staff would have given him serious consideration to letting him be a two-way player as a defensive end and a tight end. So for the teams that are 3-4 teams and are wondering if he's good enough of an athlete to be a linebacker, I think there's no question.
What about some of the other players? How did Shaun McDonald, Solomon Bates and Mike Pinkard look to you?
Koetter: I think the workout helped Shaun. Other than Terrell, the other guys had a timing day previously and I know Shaun didn't run as well as he wanted to that day. The feedback from this workout was that Shaun ran closer to what we thought he could run, in the mid 4.3 range. If that's true, then Shaun helped himself. Mike Pinkard was here but didn't run because he ran well at the previous workout. Solomon Bates is a guy that has been helped by these two Pro Days. I think he's continued to do better in his testing and I think some teams are becoming more and more interested.
What was the mindset of your players entering their Pro Days? Did they come to you for advice or did you offer any advice?
Koetter: I didn't offer advice, but this is my first time as a head coach having a guy that's this highly recognizable as Terrell. One thing that my coaching staff and I are doing is learning that we do need to get more involved in helping these guys. What's been happening is that these guys sign with an agent and sometimes the agents don't do as good of a job preparing them for the type of workouts they're going to have. I think Terrell was nervous -- when you look out in the crowd and see Marvin Lewis, Steve Mariucci, Dom Capers, Marty Schottenheimer and Jack Del Rio, then try to run a 40-yard dash, it's tough. Now even in big games, Terrell was a guy who never got nervous, but then again I know he was nervous here.
As a coaching staff, for our guys in the future, we're going to have to take a more active role in helping them get prepared. But there's a loophole in the system, though -- it's popular for these guys to sign with an agent and then go train somewhere else. I'm not sure that always helps them. I'm not mad about it, but it's a weird part of our football culture that a guy becomes a great player by the things he does on a college campus, and then in a six- or eight-week period, he's going to go somewhere else to train and think he's going to do better than the things he did to get himself there in the first place.
Lastly, what did this Pro Day do for the Sun Devils' football program?
Koetter: To me, this was an awesome opportunity for Arizona State to show off our great facilities. Everybody who was here came away impressed with our facilities. Heck, it was a beautiful day here. We're in spring practice but we didn't practice in this instance, so a lot of our younger players were able to be there and see the things that went on. I look at that part as a learning experience.
I think our program is one of the fast-rising programs in college football and I think days like this help us grow.
From NFL.com:
http://www.nfl.com/draft/story/6279150
Koetter's kids emerging to NFL level
By Dave Richard
NFL.com
(March 26, 2003) -- NFL executives and coaches may have been meeting in the Arizona desert as part of the NFL's Annual Meeting , but they also happened to luck out and catch Arizona State University's Pro Day, highlighted by the workout of first-round prospect Terrell Suggs.
If the people who attended the Pro Day were lucky, they also got to meet Dirk Koetter, the head coach of the Arizona State Sun Devils' football program. Koetter is an up-and-coming coach who led his squad to an 8-5 record in the Pac-10 Conference and a Holiday Bowl game against Kansas State.
So who would know draftees like Suggs, receiver Shaun McDonald, linebacker Solomon Bates and tight end Mike Pinkard better than Koetter? After he watched his guys work out for the NFL brass, he spent a few minutes with NFL.com.
Your take on Arizona State's Pro Day?
Koetter: Well, I think when you see the reports, and this isn't my opinion, but sentiment is going to be that Terrell did not have a great day workout-wise. I wasn't at the finish line, but I heard that he ran in the 4.8s. I think he was disappointed with his performance. Personally, I don't think he worked out the way he wanted to. I don't know his numbers, but I do know that Terrell Suggs can sack the quarterback as good as anybody.
Overall, to have the turnout that we had -- we had five NFL head coaches, a couple of owners, a couple of GMs, a lot of media -- it was great exposure for our program. The fact that it was Terrell's big day, the exposure for our other draft-eligible guys was obviously huge. To get all of those people on our campus, in our weight room, on our practice fields, that sort of thing.
How do you think Suggs is going to be judged after a performance like this?
Koetter: That's the big question. I'm not the one to answer that. Just like when you recruit for college, you put the film on and the guy can either do it or he can't. You don't get 24 sacks, break records, dominate the Pac-10 conference and win several major awards if you're not a good football player.
I think that one March workout shouldn't make or break a guy. I turn that film on, and I still think Terrell is one of the best pass rushers in the world. I think whomever takes Terrell on Draft Day is going to be very happy they did.
Coach Dirk Koetter (left), with Detroit's Matt Millen and Steve Mariucci.
Several teams are interested in bringing in Suggs as a linebacker. Do you think he can make that switch?
Koetter: Terrell was a running back in high school and is an excellent basketball player, so that shows you how athletic he is. If Terrell would have returned for his senior year, our coaching staff would have given him serious consideration to letting him be a two-way player as a defensive end and a tight end. So for the teams that are 3-4 teams and are wondering if he's good enough of an athlete to be a linebacker, I think there's no question.
What about some of the other players? How did Shaun McDonald, Solomon Bates and Mike Pinkard look to you?
Koetter: I think the workout helped Shaun. Other than Terrell, the other guys had a timing day previously and I know Shaun didn't run as well as he wanted to that day. The feedback from this workout was that Shaun ran closer to what we thought he could run, in the mid 4.3 range. If that's true, then Shaun helped himself. Mike Pinkard was here but didn't run because he ran well at the previous workout. Solomon Bates is a guy that has been helped by these two Pro Days. I think he's continued to do better in his testing and I think some teams are becoming more and more interested.
What was the mindset of your players entering their Pro Days? Did they come to you for advice or did you offer any advice?
Koetter: I didn't offer advice, but this is my first time as a head coach having a guy that's this highly recognizable as Terrell. One thing that my coaching staff and I are doing is learning that we do need to get more involved in helping these guys. What's been happening is that these guys sign with an agent and sometimes the agents don't do as good of a job preparing them for the type of workouts they're going to have. I think Terrell was nervous -- when you look out in the crowd and see Marvin Lewis, Steve Mariucci, Dom Capers, Marty Schottenheimer and Jack Del Rio, then try to run a 40-yard dash, it's tough. Now even in big games, Terrell was a guy who never got nervous, but then again I know he was nervous here.
As a coaching staff, for our guys in the future, we're going to have to take a more active role in helping them get prepared. But there's a loophole in the system, though -- it's popular for these guys to sign with an agent and then go train somewhere else. I'm not sure that always helps them. I'm not mad about it, but it's a weird part of our football culture that a guy becomes a great player by the things he does on a college campus, and then in a six- or eight-week period, he's going to go somewhere else to train and think he's going to do better than the things he did to get himself there in the first place.
Lastly, what did this Pro Day do for the Sun Devils' football program?
Koetter: To me, this was an awesome opportunity for Arizona State to show off our great facilities. Everybody who was here came away impressed with our facilities. Heck, it was a beautiful day here. We're in spring practice but we didn't practice in this instance, so a lot of our younger players were able to be there and see the things that went on. I look at that part as a learning experience.
I think our program is one of the fast-rising programs in college football and I think days like this help us grow.
