TRANSCRIPT: Mike Vrabel’s Appearance on Zolak & Bertrand
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Here’s what new head coach Mike Vrabel had to say on Zolak and Bertrand on 98.5 The Sports Hub on his first official day meeting with the media as New England Patriots head coach.
You’re here, and as you just said, you wrapped up. It’s time to get to work. You’re the first head coach hired this cycle in the NFL. Was it important to get hired and get going and hit the ground Running, get working?
“It wasn’t like a timeline. It was just like, this is the right fit, this is the place. When I knew, that’s when things heated up.”
I was really surprised a year and a half ago. The induction, you’ve already talked about that. It was a rainy day, kind of tight inside, but the amount of time you spent with everybody, how much it looked like you enjoyed being back, the way you talked about your former teammates and just being back here. First thing I went, the next day, I told these guys, I said, ‘I did a lot of these inductions. I’ve never seen a guy come back and embrace that.’
“Because I hadn’t been back. You know what I mean? It’s like I literally retired from the National Football League and started coaching at Ohio State within a month, and then just went on this coaching journey to wherever it took me. And so to see the players that came back and to see all those former coaches and to be there with Dante [Scarnecchia] and the former Hall of Fame members, and then all the teammates and guys that were back that flew back that may or may not have lived here, that kind of got me.
Is Dante in line to be potentially an offensive line coach?
“I don’t think he is. I think he’s all set. He’s playing pickleball over in Foxborough.”
You mentioned a couple of minutes ago that you may have had an opportunity to come back here and coach. Did you turn down Bill [Belichick] at some point? Was he badgering you to come coach for him?
“I think it was more or less, ‘What do you think about me going to Houston from Ohio State? What do you think about me transitioning to this league?’ Then it was, ‘Do you have any thoughts of coming here?’ I was like, ‘That’s not why I called you, Bill.’ You know what I mean? But it didn’t get past that conversation, but it was just reaching out to Bill to say, ‘What are your thoughts on the National Football League and me transitioning from Ohio State to the National Football League?”
I think the best thing he said, too, is you had to do it your way. You had to find out to do it on your own because a lot of people don’t like to carry over from the past. You have to be new. You have to be innovative. But I don’t see any of Bill in you when I watch your teams and the way you get your teams ready. You’re different.
“Well, I think we’re different personalities. But if you ask that … hopefully we’re prepared and we’re ready to execute in critical situations and hopefully that our special teams can set the table for the offense and defense and be violent on special teams and change field position and offensively take care of football and defensively be great in the red zone, get off the field on third down, cause turnovers, all the things that I remember. Now, how we get to that may be different than what Bill did. But I also know that there was flexibility there. There was ability to adjust and adapt. That would be a great compliment if some of our teams did those things.”
You mentioned you had discussions with Eliot Wolf over the weekend? Where did those center around and how do you view that collaboration working moving forward?
“I think the vision that him and I both have and the communication and allowing him to find us great players and then for us to come to an agreement about how we add them, I think, is something that will be critical. Again, looking forward. It’s just been a busy morning, so have to be able to get down and see all those personnel, scouts, and everybody in that building. It’s important to me to get to know them because they’re not going to be the ones that are out on the road trying to find us players and seeing them at the senior ball and be able to sit down and have dinner with them and get to know them, the ones that I don’t already know.”
First person you mentioned was Jen, thanking her because coach’s wives, I’ve been through it. ‘You want to get into coaching?’ They say, ‘No, you want to get divorced?’ She’s got to be in on everything. How excited was she to come back to the place you guys were at for eight years where you raised your young boys?
“Yeah, I would say that the biggest thing that she said was that she never felt more appreciated in the two days that we were here for the Hall of Fame than ever before. So, that was special to her. And so that I’m glad that she felt that way, and hopefully that we can have success here and still feel appreciated going forward. But we all know what we sign up for, being a coach, and that’s a commitment that the entire family takes on, from kids to spouses, parents and everything else. She’s been along for this ride since college, and she understands, and she loves football as much, if not more, than I do.
How long does it take to fill out the staff? What does that process look like for you?
“Well, no timeline. I think just going through good, solid, strong interviews, don’t want to rush through anything and make sure that we’re getting the right pieces. It’s always interesting just dealing with the first time and coaches. There’s some patience that has to happen with coaches that are under contract, maybe at another place, or maybe they’re working in college, and how do you want to interview and just that whole dynamic of just doing it properly and not rushing into anything.”
Offense coordinator. I assume Billy [O’Brien] called the plays down in Houston. Arthur Smith was with you in Tennessee. You being sort of an overseer in Cleveland, how much of that you’re Bob Socci asked you that question, too. How much did that help you sit back, look at the way other teams do things, offense, defense? Because sometimes when you do things your way, it’s the only way we’re going to do it. But did last year help you be a better coach going forward here and help us?
“I mean I think every stop along the way will have helped me with our football team and our organization. Every stop along the way, I feel like I’ve had a PhD in coaching. There’s some really cool names that I tried to mention, and there’s people that I had left out by, obviously, mistake. I couldn’t mention all of them and trying to take something from each one. Like I mentioned, I have a different personality than Bill, but there’ll be things that I learned here for eight years that I’ll try to implement, no different than with Urban Meyer or Billy.”
“And so you learn stuff from Cleveland and how they want to use analytics and acquiring players to what level to some degree. Kevin [Stefanski], I appreciated the time that I got to spend with him. I wish I could help him more. His demeanor was first class. The way that he handled a tough year, I would say, was probably the thing that I most recognized about that is his willingness to stand there and do it with class and grace in a tough year.”
Mike, obviously, the team’s in a much different place now, record-wise, than where they were when you were playing here. Did you talk about expectations, short term, long term, during this interview process? Is there a lot of pressure that you put on yourself to have a much better record for this team next year? What does that look like?
“Well, there’s a process, and we’re going to coach the action and not the result. Right? Starting with the little things and the details of ball security, if whether or not it’s a fumble, even if it’s something that doesn’t look like what we want, that’s what we’re going to coach. We’re going to coach everything. Our players are going to understand that it’s coming from a great place. It’s the only reason that we would want to coach them is so that it ends up helping them and in turn, helping the team.”
“I’m okay with both of those things happening. I can talk to them about their success and how that leads to free agency. If they play well here, they can either capitalize on a contract that we would offer them or one that somebody else would offer them. I think, ideally, we want to be able to draft great players and develop them and do whatever we can to retain them. The expectations, again, is what I laid out as a player, that you could care about the team and that you know what to do when you play fast and aggressive. As for our coaching staff, the expectation is that they teach and that their players understand what’s expected of them, that they find ways to develop a player from a good player to above average player or very good player or an average player to a good player, or just trying to find things that every player can do a little bit better. Then obviously, the connection piece is critical because I think that’s what separates us and our willingness to get to know these guys as a level outside of football players.”
At the end, when the Patriots got eliminated last year when the season was over. I talked to Billy O’Brien at the beginning of the week. He was ecstatic to get to Ohio State. He was the OC. Then all of a sudden, five days later, I talked to him again. He’s going to Boston College. Your boy played at Boston College, and you mentioned ‘I could help Billy. He could help us.’ That could be a theater system for you guys.
“Yeah, we’ll see. He’s got a great program. I mean, they play tough. They play physical. It was fun to watch them. I’m always cheering for them and can’t wait to have time and be able to rekindle that friendship that’s outside of just phone calls and text messages. But being able to go see him.”
He’s fun to be around.
“He’s the best.”
Mike, appreciate you stopping by.
“Thank you.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE: The above is also subject to typographical errors. Any issues or questions, please let me know in the comments below.)
(If you missed it, here’s the transcription fromMike Vrabel’s first press conference as Patriots head coach from earlier this morning.)
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