STC Bubba Ventrone (9.15.23)
Well, you were confident Dustin (Hopkins) would come through and he did through tough conditions as well. Was that as good a start as you could have hoped for him?
“Yeah, it was a great start. I thought the operations were excellent timing, operation was pretty good.
He credited Charley (Hughlett) and Corey (Bojorquez) for how much more difficult it is for them. I think we maybe don’t appreciate all the nuance that goes into that. Was that really challenging for them in those kinds of conditions?
“I think they handled it pretty well. We actually had a few practices in training camp in the elements, whenever it was raining out there and that’s a good time to be able to practice and get that work. So when it rains, I’m not upset at practice.”
It was a good ‘Welcome to Cleveland’ moment having that weather. What was the message to him coming off the field after he did kick in it and kick so successfully in those elements?
“Yeah, he hit the ball well. Good elevation, good rotation on all of his kicks. The timing was good. Yeah, it was great that we were able to connect and earn those points.”
How did you feel like the coverage units? It seemed like you didn’t give up many yards after the return guy caught it. How did those guys kind of grade out?
“First ball of the game, we left a little short, so we cleaned that up as the game went along on the kickoff and then on the punts. I felt like we covered with pretty good leverage. That’s going to be important this week going against a really good returner in (Calvin) Austin for them in Pittsburgh, but the emphasis on leveraging coverage and everyone doing their job and playing complimentary coverage.”
What are your thoughts and memories of going into Pittsburgh and trying to win a big division game like this?
“Yeah, it’s a great environment to play in. I was born and raised there. I have a lot of family that are from Pittsburgh that are going to be at the game so it’s always fun to play and coach there. I am excited for our team and another opportunity at a division to hopefully go in there and do what we can to get a win.”
What was Brown-Steelers to you when you were a kid?
“As a kid? As a kid I was a Steelers fan and then once I became an NFL player, I quickly became not a Steelers fan. So that being said, obviously we know that it was a tremendous rival back them, you know. I do remember Eric Metcalf taking those two punts back, I think, was it a playoff game or end of the regular season? Yeah, so I do remember that scarring me as a kid and now I can embrace that now that I’m a part of this organization.”
Will you share your view of Steelers week with some of your players this week?
“Yeah, and I haven’t really talked much about me actually going back and how personal it is from my perspective. I’ll probably talk about that a little bit later in the week tomorrow and then this Saturday and Sunday. What is today? Friday? Yeah, I told Murph (Dan Murphy) it felt like it was Thursday, but yeah. So I’ll definitely expand on that with my players.”
How difficult is that stadium? It used to be one of the tougher places to kick field goals especially to the open end as they’ve kind of enclosed it, has that changed the conditions to kick in there?
“I think it’s always been a difficult place to kick. Dustin’s had a handful of games there to my knowledge, it is what it is. Whatever the conditions are, we’ll be ready for them. We’ll test them out in pregame. Doesn’t look like it’s going to be too bad on the elements. Maybe some rain earlier in the day. So see how that goes.”
Bubba, as a young coach kind of being around a guy like Jim Schwartz, what have you sort of picked up for him in your few months together so far?
“He’s awesome. I like Coach Schwartz a lot. I’ve learned a lot from him. He holds players accountable. He holds coaches accountable. There are similarities that I feel like I have amongst my players and my staff. He is a funny guy. I really enjoy him. He’s super smart. I’ve learned a lot. We’ve talked through a lot of situational things we’re going to do collectively, whether it involves he or I or our units per se, on how we can work together to make them the most efficient, most effective, especially in those critical moments in the game when it involves defense to special teams. And then some things we’ve implemented into our schemes and really more into my schemes than into his.”
Can you hear him in the building when he’s holding those players and coaches accountable?
“Oh yeah. Coach Schwartz is loud, probably a little bit louder than me, and I think that I can be loud on the field at times, but no, he’s been great. I think that everyone has gravitated toward his personality and you can see that defense has taken on his personality and his style of play.”
It seems like in some ways he’s old school, but then on the other hand, he was one of the first guys out there to really embrace data and utilize it to his advantage. Is that something that you guys, when you talk about things you’ve learned from him, that comes to mind?
“Yeah, and Kevin (Stefanski) did a good job of that this offseason of getting the coaches together, working collectively and really expanding our knowledge on all of those fronts. So situational football is how you win and lose football games. So I think we’ve done a good job of preparing ourselves for everything that we’re about to encounter this year.
Did you feel like you guys came close to blocking one of those punts last Sunday?
“We had good pressure. Yeah, we had good pressure on a number of them. The plan is always going to dictate how we attack an opponent. Some weeks we may pressure more than others, some weeks we may not. Everything is factored in whether it’s the operation of the punter, personnel that we’re looking at. So that’s a week-to-week thing and yeah, I thought we were able to generate good pressure last week and force a couple of miss hits.”
What’s the origin of the high school highlights on Friday’s meetings?
“The origin? I just kind of started doing it when I became a coordinator in Indy. I did it every Friday and the players kind of like, took to it and liked it a lot. I haven’t yet chosen one for this week, but yeah, I think it’s just something to lighten it up on a Friday. We’re kind of like bringing everything together. I do more situational-type meetings on Friday amongst all really five units, including our hands team. I think the players enjoy it. It’s always fun. I usually do it at the end of the meeting.”
Did you go on YouTube and find the clips or did you ask somebody?
“I would say fortunately, nowadays it’s easier to find players highlight films, especially younger players because of Hudl and all these whatever you want to call it that they put them on the internet back whenever I was playing that no one could find my film. I think it was on a VHS tape. I want to say, even my college highlight film was on VHS when I was trying to send it out to scouts. So I’m not that old, but yeah.”
What’s the best one you’ve seen?
“Jerome Ford is the best one I’ve seen. Yeah, last week I showed it.”
You could show a basketball one this week.
“What does that mean?”
Dawand (Jones).
Oh, yeah, that’s right I could. However, the big guys aren’t in my meeting on Fridays. It’s really for me why I do a big four in hands meeting on Fridays. I used to save the big guys for early in the week and then I get them on like a Saturday meeting.”
Bubba, last week you were talking about how things happen in sports and you have to respond the right way. How much did the life you lived as a core special teams guy kind of prepare you for what you deal with now as a coordinator?
“I talked to my players a lot about how I came into the league, how I felt like I stuck into the league. I think at the end of the day, it’s how hard you work and how much you put into it that ultimately is going to give you the best opportunity to be successful. So I was a back end roster player that I feel like I had tremendous work ethic and I was going to not be denied. And I felt like that’s why I was able to stick, because I feel like I was a mentally tough and physically tough player that was going to do everything I could to be on the field and give myself a shot to succeed. I think that with our players today, I think that if they can take on that type of mentality and that’s kind of how I’ve been as a coach as well I try to do as best I can to prepare myself and my players for any situation that can come about in a game. That way, when you’re going into those situations, it’s just like, boom, you’re not even thinking about it. So it’s an ongoing thing. Each week you have your process, and my players are prepared in everything that we’re going to see and I’ll try to review as many situational things as I can throughout the year and re-hit and refocus them and get their minds thinking the right way.”
Have you gotten used to kind of the uncertain nature of your job now? I understand injuries at every position, everything, but it seems like special teams are going to be a lot of movement and you experienced that recently.
“Yeah, there’s times in a season where you’re going to have injuries, you’re going to have to adapt. That’s why I’m in the position that I’m in. I’m trying to do the best I can with the players available. If someone’s not available in that instance, you got to do your best to figure it out and I think that I’ve done a good job of that.”
Did the dominance of the defense, the intensity of the defense spill over to the other units on Sunday?
“Yeah, we definitely fed off of what the defense was doing. The third down stops were crucial and critical for our ability to control field position. I felt like we did a good job of that in the game, so give our offense good fields to work with, good short fields to work with, which was a positive. Hopefully we can get a lot of that this week, getting those stops. I came in on Monday and I could barely speak because the damn stadium was so loud and trying to get the communication out to your players what the call is because you could have one call up and then you get a sack and now it’s longer yardage situation, you may want to get into something else. So being able to get that communication out was definitely hard in our stadium. Credit to the fans for that one.”
Anthony Walker (Jr.), he’s been here as a captain this year despite being gone for almost a year. What do you appreciate about him?
“Extremely hard worker, very well prepared, super smart in the classroom. He’s one of the first ones in the meeting room every day and he doesn’t play on all four units. He’ll play one or two depending on the game plan. And he’s a tremendous notetaker, he’s very detailed, he helps the younger players out even when he’s not in practice, he’s coaching up the younger players and bringing them along in that regard. I feel like he truly is a great leader, not just on the defensive side of the ball, but on special teams as well. He understands that. He gets it. He’s just a guy that understands football and just gets it.”
I know Mike Ford had that one really good stop to give them bad field position, and then Cam (Mitchell) had the other one, I think, in the second quarter. Like, for a rookie to come in and get a play like that. How much of a confidence booster, I guess, can that be for Cam in particular?
“Yeah, it was great. I mean, Corey gave us a good boot on both reps, gave us good punts to cover, good leverage down the field. Both of those guys showed up in the first game looking for those guys to be very effective cover players for us this week. Like I said, we have a tremendous challenge. And this team, they’ve got multiple returners that they have used in the past, and we’re going to be prepared for all of them.”
# # #
***Visit the Browns Media Center for materials provided by the Browns communications department, including media schedules, press releases, quotes, photos, media guides, rosters, depth charts and more.***