Head Coach Todd Monken (9.9.26)

Todd, health-wise, how do you feel like you guys are doing? Sounds like everybody’s in practice today. How confident do you feel with where the team’s at?

“I feel like we’re in a good place. Outside of losing Alex (Wright) a few weeks ago, we’ve been relatively healthy. Some nicks and bruises here and there, but we feel good about where we’re at.”

 

Now that you’ve had time to really home in Deshaun (Watson) and devise a game plan that you think will maximize his strengths and abilities. How do you feel? How excited are you about what you’re putting in place for him, and how confident do you think he feels in it?

“I can’t speak for him. We’re certainly going to try to build it as best we can around the things we’ve seen in the months we’ve been around him, what we think gives us all, offensively, a chance to operate at a really high level. So, I’m excited for him, I’ve said that all along, for all the work he’s put in. Again, you’ll have to ask him, but I’m assuming he’s super excited about the opportunity to get back on the field and continue to play at a high level.”

 

Todd, to get this far without any soft-tissue injuries, what do you attribute that to?

“I think our training staff does an outstanding job in terms of getting our players ready. Our assistant coaches have done a great job with the rotations we’ve had during practice. I’d also say it’s been a relatively cool training camp. Last week, luckily, we got a little bit of weather, a little bit of heat, but I think it’s a combination. The guys have done a great job taking care of their bodies, and people within the building have done a great job.”

 

With Jacksonville and their defense, Deshaun talked about that front and how aggressive it is. What have you seen getting ready for this week from them in that regard?

“It all starts, it’s the same with us. We talk about it being the engine of the defense, and it starts up front. They’ve got those guys: [Arik] Armstead, [Josh] Hines-Allen, [Travon] Walker and [DaVon] Hamilton, the guys up front, they really make it go. It’ll be a great challenge for us, and it’ll be great to see where we’re at. That’s really what you’re at in that moment, the excitement about Sunday is you get to see where you’re at. There’s nothing to fear, there’s nothing to be worried about. Bottom line is, after Week One, we’ll know where we’re at individually, and then where we’re at as a team at that point.”

 

When you look at Trevor Lawrence, how have you seen him develop in his career, and where does he stand now leading that offense that won 15 games last year?

“First of all, he’s a tremendous football player and has been for a long time. Liam (Coen) and Grant (Udinski) have done a great job with him, and Liam’s done a great job everywhere he’s been maximizing quarterback play. When he got his opportunity as far as when I got to know him, that was at Kentucky, they were scoring at Kentucky and Kentucky wasn’t scoring. I mean, they were playing great defense, that’ll tell you a lot about what I think of Liam. And then, obviously, his background with Sean McVay, and then doing it with Baker (Mayfield) at the Bucs. I’ve got a ton of respect for them and their offensive staff, and obviously Trevor has thrived under that. I know it’s only a one-year sample size, but he’s really thrived under that system.”

 

Liam was talking earlier today about how he spoke with you before he made the jump from the (Los Angeles) Rams to Kentucky. What advice did you give him in those conversations as he was making that move?

“Well, it really wasn’t advice, there wasn’t any advice. He wasn’t calling me for advice; he was calling me to talk about football. So, all we did was talk football. We were probably on the phone for 45 minutes just talking football. Thoughts about, you know, when I was at Georgia and he had been at Kentucky, had left, and had come back. That was when he came back to Kentucky a second time. I’ve always enjoyed talking football with Liam. I think he’s really bright, he’s passionate, he says what he means and means what he says. I like guys like that. That’s fun to be around and it’s fun to talk to. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know him and have got a lot of respect for him.”

 

Week One game predictions are coming out; a lot of the NFL analysts have the Jaguars winning; I think all of the NFL Network analysts picked them. What’s your message to the guys? Do you use that as bulletin-board material, or even acknowledge it?

“I don’t really acknowledge it, because I don’t make predictions. All I try to figure out is how we’re going to be our best today. That’s all we’ve done since we’ve been here, is figure out how we’re going to be the best we can be, individually and collectively, as a team, today. That’s really all we can control. So, I did not know that. I did not know who’s predicting what. I really don’t care. What I care about is how we practice today, how we prep, how we take care of our bodies. That’s what allows us to put our best foot forward on Sunday.”

 

You’ve been at it since January, and in camp for six weeks, but is there a different energy this week? Do you feel that at all?

“I felt that on Monday. I thought that with a few days off, I thought it might be a little sluggish, and it was not. We’ll see today, it should feel that way, it should feel like it’s different. It’s everything we work for, that’s why we get paid what we get paid, right? It should feel different to put our best foot forward today, and then tomorrow, and then Friday, wrap it up Saturday, and then go play our best football on Sunday.”

 

In some ways, your journey to this point in your career has been long, and there’s a bit of freedom in that for you, that you’re not focused on the future, you can just do it your way today. How do you plan on balancing that? Because it’s easy to talk about that, but when you’re in the moment, in the game, and calling plays, how do you balance the freedom of doing it your way and letting the results be what they are versus some of the conservative nature that sometimes comes with being a head coach?

“I won’t know that till we play. I don’t anticipate that. I think it helps being the age that I am. Over the course of time, you go through the ups and downs of an individual practice, a week, a month, a season. So, I think I’m pretty well prepared for the ups and downs that are coming. They come every day, that comes with life, so I don’t see it that way. I anticipate calling it the way I see it, offense, defense, special teams, and again, I won’t know till we get there, but I don’t anticipate it being any different than it’s been over the last however many years I’ve been coaching.”

 

It seems like you and Deshaun are speaking the same football language and that when you first started getting to know him here, you realized you guys have a lot in common from a football standpoint. What’s that been like? The sympatico between you two, just talking ball and getting him ready to get back out there and play?

“It’s been great. He has really embraced what we do offensively. I think for him it’s been a breath of fresh air, new life, new opportunity. Now we’ve all got to take advantage of it, same with myself. So, I’m excited for him. I would hope that all of our players, including Deshaun, are speaking the same language. Offense, defense, special teams speaking the same language in terms of our expectations on a daily basis, a weekly basis, and how we’re going to play on Sunday.”

 

Having spent the last several months getting to know your team and figuring out what you guys do well, when you picture the identity of this team, on offense and as a whole, what does that look like in your eyes?

“I’ve always said and I’ve heard a lot of coaches say it, but our identity is how we play. There are scheme elements of that, but how are we going to play as a team? When someone watches us play, whether it’s our operation, whether it’s how physical we play, whether it’s how connected we are, whether it’s how we chase the football and convoy downfield, or how our defense runs to that smoke. I mean to me, that’s what you want your identity to be. And then you figure out the other part of it: system-wise, offense, defense, special teams. But my identity wants to be what I just talked about.”

 

How do you and Travis (Switzer) collaborate to put together the game plan?

“We do it collectively. Travis isn’t the only piece of that. He’s a big part of the run game and has been since we were at Baltimore. But every one of our coaches has a piece of the game plan, and as we get together at the beginning of the week, everybody has a chance to present how they see their given area, and we try to pull from that. Obviously, within our system, you can’t create a new offense every week. And I love guys having ideas, because I think the best way to get to an elite idea is having lots of ideas, that never ends, you’re always chasing edges, chasing better ways of doing it. But ultimately, Trav wouldn’t be here if I didn’t trust him completely with what we do offensively and within the run game. And there’s a lot of times when I’m not in those meetings, Travis runs them. So, he’s a big part of what we do, and has been for the last three years.”

 

Any conversations, maybe advice for Rudy (Mike Rutenberg) as he goes into his first regular-season games as a play caller?

“Well, he’s done it the last three games, it’s been the preseason, but that’s the cool thing about the preseason, we all get to work. Myself, Byron Storer; all of our coordinators got to work at their craft, get as close as you can to a game. But there’s really not anything I need to tell him other than stay the course. It’s one thing to be a linebacker coach, it’s another to be the coordinator, and there’s going to be ups and downs. Just stay the course, don’t overreact to anything that happens. Stay the course, stay positive, and let it rip. Don’t look back. There is no perfect play call.”

 

Todd, do you believe the first game of the season sets the tone, or is it just one of 17?

“It’s one of 17. It’s one of 17 in my mind.”

 

What did you learn during the last three games about managing your time on the sidelines, trying to get the next play calls going, addressing what you need to see on a team level?

“Every week was better. Every week was better in terms of, in between series, talking offensively, if that’s what you’re getting at. And then where you’re at in terms of listening to the defense, where you’re at in terms of looking at the surface, where you’re at talking to players. I think I was able to get more and more comfortable as you do it, which is normal, it should be that way. Like anything in life, the more you do something, the more comfortable you get with it. Not perfect, we’re never perfect, but you get more and more comfortable managing that time and figuring out what you want to get to in the next series.”

 

Will you let some of your decisions play out throughout the week such as what you’re doing at right guard? Are you letting that run on a little bit?

“We’re going to let it play out. We anticipate Teven (Jenkins) being our starting right guard, but again, we’d like to see it play out the rest of the week. Like with any player, we don’t know. We’re practicing, we’re in pads today, so with any given player I mean, what player did the Niners lose? Did I read that? One of their D-linemen? You don’t know. That’s why you practice. Between your 53 and your practice squad, everybody’s got to be ready to play, because when you go out and practice, you don’t know.”

 

Obviously, you had the preseason games, but what are the things that being a first-time head coach, you anticipate having a learning curve with?

“Some of it was addressed in the preseason, some of it was once you got on the field with the players, you go through all of it. There’s not one part of it that was clean from me talking to the team in the locker room, to how we warmed up. All of that is part of it that you’re checking off, like, ‘hey, we went through this, didn’t like the way this was,’ to calling it on game day, to addressing the players. Right now, it’s going to be a lot different because there’s more at stake, right? The wins count and the losses count. So, there’s going to be a lot more emotion that goes into it. But I’m excited, this isn’t anything new. I’ve been a head coach before, and I’ve been a coordinator in the NFL, so none of what I’m going to be doing on Sunday is new, it’s just different, you’re in a different spot. Not so much, I was out there at Southern Miss. But nothing new, nothing hard, just getting used to it and getting better at it weekly.”

 

Shedeur (Sanders) is number two on your depth chart. Do you anticipate him being the backup and being active on Sunday?

“I do.”

 

Over the course of training camp and the preseason, how have you seen Tyson (Campbell) and Denzel’s (Ward) skill sets complement one another and as you head into Week One, how can they be that cornerback duo for you?

“Tyson and Denzel? First off, its fun having them both out there. It’s not easy to go against, both highly competitive, athletic, and they really work. That’s one thing I’ve seen with those two guys, with the success they’ve had, the way they’ve been. And I’ll be honest, being paid, you can feel like you’ve arrived, you don’t have to practice at a certain level. That’s not those two guys. Those two guys bring it every day. They come to practice with a purpose. They understand that the salary is representative of what we expect as an organization, and that’s really what it is, not what you’ve done in the past, it’s what we expect, and we see it every day from those guys.”

 

You’ve waited a long time for this opportunity. In those years, did you ever think about what your pregame speech would be like? Did you have one in your head?

“Yeah, I’ve looked up a bunch of them. Some guys really get fired up, and then I saw where Jim Harbaugh says the same thing every time, like ‘I want to do XYZ.’ I don’t know yet. I tried them out the other three games, and I gave a run at it. At the end of the day, our guys will be ready, it won’t have anything to do with what I say on game day, it’s what we do this week. That really is, in my opinion, overrated. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it. I think it’s really cool to be able to address the team before the game. But what we do today will go a long way, and what we do tomorrow, and Friday will go a long way to how we play Sunday.”

 

Do you have an all-time favorite speech that you’ve seen?

“That’s a hell of a question, because I can’t think of it. I’ve been around some really good ones, the problem is, a lot of my career I’ve been in the box, so you leave before they ever give the speech. That was one thing before we start, I’m going, ‘hey, what did Harb (John Harbaugh) say to the team? I have no idea.’ You’ve got to look it up, because I haven’t been in there, I’ve already been gone. And in college it’s different, right? Because in college you get them all fired up and then you run out of the tunnel with them. Well, the coach doesn’t run out of the tunnel with them. You’re already out there, so it’s a little bit different.”

 

Could you run out there with them?

“I could run out there, but there’s been a lot of really good ones. It’s fun in college. I’ll just say being around Kirby Smart and some of the speeches he can give that he probably gets bleeped out every other word, but he’s got a way of motivating the guys to play at a high level. And there were times I was in the locker room for those, at the end of games, but usually the best speeches are the ones you remember when you won, right? That’s usually the way it works. Just give the speech that works.”

 

 

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