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Coach Jaime Hill – BYU’s Next Defensive Coordinator? |
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JaredCowley | Wednesday, November 15, 2006, 9:58 am
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Transcribed by Jim Vallen
COUGARBLUE
Is BYU Secondary Coach, Jaime Hill, being groomed to take over the responsibilities as the defensive coordinator next season for the BYU Cougars?
KNZ’s The Big Show (4 P.M to 7 P. M. weekday afternoon/evenings on 1280 The Zone, 1280 AM Salt Lake; 960 AM Utah County and AM 700 The Zone) with Kevin Graham and Gordon Monson wanted to know as well. Last evening they aired an interview they had with BYU’s secondary coach, Coach Jaime Hill.
Coach Jaime Hill is in his 18th year of coaching and first year at BYU. Prior to coming to Provo, Coach Hill spent 2004-05 with the Ottawa Renegades of the Canadian Football League (CFL) as the co-defensive coordinator; 2003 with the Calgary Stampeders (CFL) as secondary coach; 2002 at Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA as defensive coordinator; 2001 with the San Francisco Demons of the XFL as defensive coordinator; 1997-98 with the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League as a defensive assistant and secondary coach; 1993-96 with Portland State University as the defensive coordinator; 1992 with the University of Chicago as the defensive coordinator; 1990-91 with Sonoma State in Rohnert Park, CA at the secondary coach; 1989 at Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, AZ as the coach of the receivers and tight ends; 1988 at UTEP in El Paso, TX as a graduate assistant; 1987 at San Francisco State as a student assistant working with the wide receivers.
While at Portland State, he helped guide them to three straight appearances in the NCAA Division II playoffs with a combined record of 25-11 from 1993-1995.
As a player, Jaimi Hill was an Academic All-American and first-team all-league wide receiver at Grossmont Junior College and a first team all-conference wide receiver in 1984 and 1985 at San Francisco State Universty where he received in 1986 a B.A. in psychology. He also received an A.A. in 1983 from Grossmont Junior College.
His hometown is in San Diego, CA and he has his wife, LaShanda, and daughters Brianna and Tichelle and son Marcquet.
Here's what Coach Jaime Hill had to say:
1280: “We’ll get to BYU football in a second. I don’t know if you saw or not the incident yesterday where Coach Bobby Knight of the Texas Tech basketball team hit his player in the chin. We’ve been talking on the air with a lot of our listeners and so forth about coaches and about how far they should be allowed to go and physical contact and everything else. What’s your philosophy on that? Obviously times have changed. Do coaches have to get physical with players or do you take a different approach in the way you deal with your players?”
JH: “I’m not an advocate of physical contact. There is no reason for it. You can get your point across without having contact with individuals. All you are doing is causing conflict between you and that individual and possibly their parents and this can bring law suits and all of those things. Physical contact should be a no-no.”
1280: “Everything we’ve heard about you is that you demand a certain something from your players and it is possible to be a demanding disciplinarian without that physical stuff, right? I think that’s nonsense what he did.”
JH: “I think you’re absolutely right. I grew up in a military family. My father was in the military for twenty years. That’s kind of how our household functioned and also how I’ve addressed the situation now for almost twenty years of coaching. I think that you can have high expectations of yourself and those similar expectations can be demanded of your players and this can help you to help them to play at a great level.”
1280: “So coach, tell us how you’ve been able to transform a secondary that, let’s face it, that wasn’t doing so well last year and you’ve seen the film, to being where they are today? What’s been the difference?”
JH: “I think that now they have a greater confidence. I think they believe in what we’re doing and they believe that they can make plays. It’s all about instilling confidence in the players. Its guys understanding what their jobs are; what the jobs are around them and what’s the philosophy of the offensive coordinator of the opposing quarterback we’re playing against.”
1280: “It’s fascinating to me that you’ve taken essentially the same players, with a few exceptions. and achieved what you have Jaime. That’s the essence of the question that Kevin (Graham) just asked and the one that I’ve heard a thousand times this season. ‘What’s going on?’ ‘What’s he doing different?’ How have you been able to get your message across to these players to the point that they are executing so much better?”
JH: “Well there’s no questions. Basically if we have a responsibility we do that responsibility. There are no questions. There are no leeways. The players are expected to perform exactly how we ask them to. And if you do it that way, it’ll give you an opportunity to make a play. You just have to get them to accept that and believe. The more they believe, the more they make the right plays.”
1280: “Is that it, the confidence level? What you see in these kids from the day you took over up to where they are now, which is just a complete night and day difference?”
JH: “Well in all honesty, I never believed we would be able to achieve what we have to this extreme, but the guys are just unbelievable. All of them concentrate and they work hard at the craft. They want to be successful. Like anything else, if you have enough confidence in yourself they will see that. You exude it and they’ll have the same thing coming out of themselves.”
1280: “I imagine that this season has been pretty rewarding for you. Have you ever had a season in all of your years of coaching Jaime where you were able to make a difference like this and get your message across to the players so effectively?”
JH: “I’ve had a lot of success in my coaching career. This is just another step in that process. I don’t do anything different today than I did fifteen years ago. We just had a situation here where the players just bought in to what I was saying and teaching so quickly. I’ve had a lot of success with many players, but I can honestly say that I’ve never seen guys turn it around like these guys have so quickly.”
1280: “I know you’ve been around and you’ve been with several different coaches. What’s it like working with Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall?”
JH: “It’s been great. It’s been great. He’s allowed me to come in and do what I do. He hasn’t put handcuffs on me and said that you have to do it this way. He said, ‘Do it the way you think will be successful and the way you understand it and the best way that you can deliver your message and methods to our team.’ It’s just worked out very well.”
1280: “Jaime, if it got to the point where Bronco decided that he wanted to focus on being the Head Coach at BYU and only the Head Coach and maybe give up that defensive coordinator spot, is that something that would interest you?”
JH: “Of course. But that’s something that he has to decide he wants to do and he’ll have to make that decision. I’ve been a coordinator at a number of places and times so that’s not a big deal to me. The only difference would be that the coordinator would be the guy who calls the particular defense in the game. I call a lot of things because we collaborate a lot with what we are doing and I’ll help with the call being made. It’s not that big of a deal going from what I do now to taking over completely on the calls. I’m not afraid of that responsibility at all by no means because I’ve done it for seven or eight years.”
1280: “Do you anticipate that he’ll do that at some point in time or is he just enjoying the responsibilities of being the defensive coordinator so much that he’ll keep it the way it is?”
JH: “I’m not going to get into this any deeper and elaborate on what he’s thinking. It’s something that you’ll have to ask him.”
1280: “He hasn’t communicated anything to any of the assistants?”
JH: “We’ve talked about that and we’ve talked about other things when I was looking to come here. Some things that I’m not going to discuss right now, but I’m sure he’s enjoying the success in which we’re having. I’m sure it would be challenging for him to give it up.”
1280: “What was the sales job on you coach when you got contacted about this position at BYU? What made you decide that this is where you wanted to be?”
JH: “I had talked to a number of people about BYU. I knew guys that had played here and I knew guys who had worked here. Everybody just had glowing things to say about BYU and I just wanted to be a part of it. Having the opportunity to coach and to spend time with my family has been tremendous for me.”
1280: “Has it worked out the way you anticipated? Are you enjoying yourself aside from your success from the turn around of the defensive secondary?”
JH: “I’m definitely enjoying myself. The successfulness that our players have been having this season so far is tremendous. Coaching is coaching. You just want to work. You just want to work and get your point across to the players and then be able to see that work displayed on the field. I’m sure that our opponents and the fans have been able to see that.”
1280: “It doesn’t seem like football is that complicated Jaime, but getting your message across is such a key part. How do you motivate the kids? How do you get them to actually execute correctly on the field the way you want them to? That’s seems to be the magic. This season I’ve been impressed with BYU players and they seem to be giving credit back to the coaches and it seems like the coaches give it back to the players and especially the leaders on the team. But this whole idea of taking it one game at a time is such a cliché and yet it seems like the great teams are able to do that and that’s what the Cougars are doing right now.”
JH: “There’s no question that we’re playing very well as a collective unit. I always talk about that all the time. I don’t talk about these guys individually, but I talk about them as a collective unit. We’ll win together and we’ll lose together. We’re not going to do anything to splinter ourselves and we’re not going to do anything to bring attention to ourselves. We’re going to go out and do our job and if we execute correctly and do our jobs, everything will take care of itself and we’ll be successful.”
1280: “As you look at New Mexico coach, how are you preparing? Because Chris Nelson (6-4 220 lb senior quarterback) had to come in for the injured Donovan Porterie (6-4 200 lb redshirt freshman quarterback). He had a sprained ankle. How are you preparing? Are you preparing for both quarterbacks? What do you see when you look at things strictly from the New Mexico passing game stand point?”
JH: “It’s funny that you asked that question because we’ve been talking about quarterbacks. Basically we have a system and we run our system. What we try to do is we try to execute our system the absolute best we can and then we try to find out the plays that they do that are successful and try to limit those plays. We don’t do anything special for any special team other then when you go from an option team to a pass drop back team. But if it’s a traditional passing team we’re going to run our system and our stuff and we’re going to try to out execute you.”
1280: “Without giving away any secrets, in its simplest form, what is that system that you’re running? How would you explain it to our listeners?”
JH: “It’s really difficult and challenging to be able to really explain it. There are no secrets. There is no magic. We all pretty much do the same in football for the most part. The biggest difference is in how you go about teaching the process and how you perform the preparation about where the reads are and where your eyes are supposed to be. That’s what we really talk about a lot of knowing and seeing what we’re supposed to know and see and then executing it perfectly.”
1280: “Coach, I know you coached up in the Canadian Football League. Do you ever find yourself wanting to put twelve guys out there on the field?”
JH: “No. No, I’m done with that Canadian Football League deal. It’s too cold up there.”
1280: “How was it coaching that game? Was it different to coach that game as it was to coaching college or in the NFL?”
JH: “Yea, it is more challenging because it’s an offensive game. The field is 65 yards wide, 110 yards long with 20 yard end zones. It’s set up more based on an advantage for the offense. They also can have six guys in motion at one time. The game is just a challenge for the defensive staff.”
1280: “I know you're busy over there Jaime teaching your guys on the defensive side, but I’ve got to ask you to comment on the way John Beck is playing at quarterback right now. If you were going to defend against a guy like that I’m sure that would be a challenge for you with the way he’s playing right now, right?”
JH: “He’s playing with a lot of confidence. He’s got a lot of belief in his arm and belief in the system. He can make plays and he has confidence that his teammates will make plays for him. Confidence is high right now. He’s got to continue on that path and not get overconfident and stay within the system and stay within himself and we’ll be able to continue to do what we are doing well.”
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