Topic: Q & A with Marshall's Bobby Pruett

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Q & A with Marshall's Bobby Pruett

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/2005/January/09/MUspot.htm

Marshall's veteran coach speaks out about leadership, self-discipline, the Herd's move to Conference USA and the possibility of playing West Virginia

The 2004 season was unlike any in recent Marshall football history. The Thundering Herd lost three of its final four games, capped by a lackluster Fort Worth Bowl setback to Cincinnati, en route to a 6-6 record.

Marshall’s win total was a low during Bobby Pruett’s nine-year run as coach. More disappointing than upset losses to Troy and Akron, however, were several player arrests that served as season-long distractions.

Pruett addressed a wide range of issues -- both on and off the field -- Friday during a 30-minute question and answer session with The Herald-Dispatch sports writer Anthony Hanshew.

The veteran coach speaks frankly about a perceived lack of leadership and of his team’s disappointing Fort Worth Bowl effort. "I wasn’t real excited about our passion in the bowl game," Pruett said. "That concerns me."

Marshall football enters Conference USA this year and Pruett specifically broke down his program’s priorities entering the move and the steps already being taken to meet those needs.

Talk of a series with West Virginia again has surfaced and Pruett predictably repeated his support saying, "I think we’re closer to making it happen right now than it’s ever been."

Friday afternoon was cold and dreary, much like the week preceding the Fort Worth Bowl, and Pruett again addressed the need for an indoor facility.

Other topics of note included his favorite distractions from the game, Marshall’s next starting quarterback and rumors concerning his health.

H-D: What are your overall thoughts on 2004? It was definitely a different kind of year, on the field and off the field. Looking back, what were the top moments and the biggest disappointments?

PRUETT: In some ways we had some real gratifying things. We learned a lot about our program. We raised the bar and the standards of our program to the point that we’re competitive on the level with the Georgias and the Ohio States, and we were able to have a great win over Miami.

We had some big disappointments. Troy State and Akron were two huge disappointments. Other things, our off the field distractions were a direct reflection of problems that resulted in the number of losses. You start the first game, we had five, six suspensions and then followed it off with all of the off the field distractions.

It certainly paid a toll. It demonstrated that we have some work to do in the leadership department. When I talk about leadership I talk about on the field and off the field leadership. I think when we’re talking about more input in the area we’re talking about players and coaches and everything we do.

We have to reassess that and we are doing some things. But I think that is a direct reflection. We’ve always in the past been able to win close ball games at the end and we weren’t able to this year, losing three or four games on the last play. I think that’s a direct reflection of all the combination of problems we had.

I think the loss of 15 scholarships (while on NCAA probation) over the three years paid a major toll, along with the five players who were injured and couldn’t participate and the three academic casualties we had.

If you go back and look the guy who was scheduled to be our field goal kicker was ineligible. We missed a field goal against Troy. We missed a field goal against Ohio State and we missed a field goal up at Akron. I don’t want to leave it on Ian (O’Connor), but those all factored in. There is no easy solution. They are all different factors in a season that we felt had great promise and did some great things.

But we did not fulfill. We left the field with an empty feeling instead of a full feeling, and that’s a shame. Because that’s the first time since I’ve been here that we’ve done that.

I think there are a lot of reasons for that. And as the football coach, I spend a lot of time assessing our season, every aspect of it in an evaluation of every player, every coach, every aspect of the thing in trying to assess what can we do better and what do we need to change, if anything. I’m not saying change is the answer, but where do we need to strengthen and get better.

And we do that every year. But this year I think it’s extremely important, because we do have good players. We’re stepping into a new arena and we want to step into that new arena on a high instead of a low. I think we do have great expectations.

I don’t want it (the 2004 season) to be such a downer. We did have some accomplishments. There were some reasons, some extenuating circumstances to being 6-6. Some of the things we couldn’t change. We can’t change the injuries. We can’t change the scholarship limitations. We can’t change those type of things but we can change attitudes and we can change effort. We can spark enthusiasm, and I think we can’t get in a routine of accepting and making excuses over what’s happened.

Our football team reports on Monday, and when they do they need to be revitalized, rejuvenized. If we need to change some ways that we do things from a little thing about do we let them live off campus or stay in the dorm to our class attendance policies and policies off the field.

Rules and regulations are like the Interstate out here. The speed limit is 65 miles an hour. And it’s acceptable to go 90 until you get a speeding ticket. I think we got a speeding ticket. Now we have to pay the ticket, like everybody else, to the point where it hurts.

H-D: That more than answers my second question -- you’ve addressed (off the field issues) with the team obviously. What do you think is the No. 1 priority for the program as a whole.

PRUETT: I think we’ve had nine years of unparalleled success. When I say unparalleled success they’ll say "well 6-6" but never, ever in the history of this program have we been able to compete at the level we’re competing.

Compared to the 90s, we had a lot of nice wins and I was certainly part of it but the early part of it we were playing a I-AA schedule. Now we started off in the early 2000s we were getting drubbed by the Floridas and those people and now we’re competing against the high level at a competitive basis.

We stubbed our toe with the loss of scholarships and we have to get that back.

There are a number of things. We have to improve our facilities. We have to improve our academic support system. We have to improve every aspect of everything we have.

When we got here, our recruiting budget was $125,000 and now it’s $150,000. I think we understand that some of it is dollars and cents and some of it is personnel, on the field, in the support system, in the infrastructure. I think our infrastructure is important in that we understand what need to do to be competitive in Conference USA in every aspect. It’s not just in the type of football player we recruit. To have a solid program.

When we went in the Mid-American Conference we went in at the top in facilities, in salaries, in support personnel, in summer school budget. In everything we did, we were either the top or right at the top of everything in our league.

We’re going into Conference USA and we’re in the bottom half, if not last in some areas. Now we’re certainly good in some areas. To be competitive we have to build the infrastructure back, and I’m not saying that’s not going to happen. But we’re in it now. We have no choice.

H-D: Academic support, what specifically do you mean with that? Is it simple as tutors? Is it more than that?

PRUETT: When I say academic support I’m saying we have to make sure our coaches give the players the academic support they need and encourage them to do the things they need to do. Our players need to go to class and go to class prepared to do the work.

They need to do the basics they need to do and as a coaching staff we have to make sure we get that done, not that we haven’t been.

Now we have to make sure we have enough personnel, enough support personnel, to make sure we have the tutorial system we need, the advisory system we need to meet the needs of the student-athletes. Because the student-athlete, not only are students, but are carrying what some people might consider a full-time job.

So the pressures and the distractions of being a student-athlete is tremendous so they need a support system that can go along with that.

Now I’m not downing what we’ve done. I want to emphasize that. What I’m saying is it needs to grow. As we’ve grown, it needs to grow. I have one secretary, poor Edna (Justice). When I was an assistant here we had two and a half, in 1979.

She’s one secretary for 20-some people. In football we need a recruiting secretary. We need a secretary to help just with the volume of business we’re in. And this is business. Our infrastructure has to grow for us to be successful.

Now all of this is being addressed. This is not falling on deaf ears. But you’re asking me the areas we need to grow in.

We’ve been fortunate enough to secure $3.5 million from the state to help with a new weight room and some improvements here (at the Shewey Building). We’re going to put in new field turn, state of the art. We’re looking for an indoor facility. We’re trying to find ways to fund that.

But we have some other areas in our other sports. It’s what do we need to do to be competitive in Conference USA.

H-D: I know you can’t name names, but how is recruiting going?

PRUETT: I think we’re having a bang-up year.

H-D: Fans seem to get a little weirded out when you only have four or five commitments in early January. This is what you do every year. Explain how things are going.

PRUETT: We have the six non-qualifiers (from last year’s recruiting class) and (running back Ahmad) Bradshaw, so that’s seven (scholarships toward this year’s count of 25), and we’ve got some that we brought in last year that we’ll have to put on.

H-D: The move to Conference USA, do you see it as a shot in the arm for the program overall? Not to say that it got monotonous in the MAC, but. …

PRUETT: When we went from the Southern Conference to the Mid-American Conference our attendance jumped from 18,000 a game to where it was 26,000 a game. (Can) we get that same kind of jump with the next conference because of new opponents?

The good thing about it is we have Kansas State coming in here (this season). And the Conference USA games, any one of those games people would have been elated.

H-D: And they should actually bring some fans too, which could be different from the MAC.

PRUETT: I think it’s a shot for us. Now we just have to be competitive.

H-D: How big is having the Kansas State game here, for the program overall?

PRUETT: I just think it’s good to have a big team come here and that some more will come.

H-D: Do you think the game will be moved to Thursday (for an ESPN telecast)?

PRUETT: I don’t have a say-so in that.

H-D: Talks of a series with WVU have been rumored again. Do you think it’s going to happen?

PRUETT: I think it’s no secret that Gov. Manchin has said he’d like to see the game played. That’s the first time we’ve had that type of support. Hopefully this thing will happen for us.

I know (WVU) coach (Rich) Rodriguez and (WVU athletic director Ed) Pastilong have indicated that they’d like to see it happen. We’d like to see it happen so hopefully it will happen. I think we’re closer to making it happen right now than it’s ever been.

We just have to understand that it’s a give and take process and we just have to wait through it and see what happens.

H-D: Football is so encompassing for a college coach. It’s a 12-month job. What do you enjoy doing away from football? When you’re fully away from football. When you’re not coach, you’re Bob.

PRUETT: You know, it’s so hard to get away from it. Like now, this is a perfect week. We don’t have any players on campus. The academics are settled for last semester. We don’t have to worry about them being in class.

But you have recruiting, so you’re constantly working on recruiting.

I think what I enjoy most is being around people. Just laughing and giggling whether it’s with the crew I eat breakfast with on Thursday mornings down at Bob Evans or playing a round of golf at Guyan or Esquire or wherever.

Or whether it’s kidding my pastor, Alan Reasons. That’s a full-time job. What I’m trying to do is basically buy him for what he’s worth and sell him for what he thinks he’s worth (laughs). Then I can retire.

And I really enjoy spending time with my grandchildren.

H-D: There have been recent rumors concerning the status of your health. Would you care to address that.

PRUETT: Dr. (Bruce) Chertow and Dr. (Jose) Ricard are two wonderful doctors who I get my checkups from. I’ve had some checkups. The only thing they’ve found where I have any type of problem is I’ve just developed a Type 2 diabetic problem where I take a pill in the morning.

Dr. Chertow told me if I lose weight and work out I wouldn’t have to take the pill, so I chose the pill (laughs). So I think it’s under control. I don’t take a shot or anything. Dr. Chertow and Dr. Ricard are fabulous and they’re great people. They told me if I monitor my diet a little bit and exercise a little bit I’d live to be 90.

H-D: Your thoughts on the future of Marshall football?

PRUETT: I am excited about the prospects of Marshall football next season. We’ve got good players. We need to have a strong recruiting year, which I think we are having.

We need to make sure we stay eligible and healthy and out of the off the field problems. A concern I have is we still have a couple of youngsters who have off the field issues that have to be settled. Both of them are potentially very good football players.

Both of them, their playing was cut back severely because of their problems. (Reserve quarterback) Bernard (Morris) didn’t play any after his problem, and (backup defensive tackle) Roger (Garrett) played very little.

Both of them are potentially good athletes but they need to get these problems solved and hopefully they will.

Our off the field things have to cease, and that comes under leadership and self-discipline. When you have problems in a family, as we all do growing up and this is certainly our family -- when I recruit a youngster, he becomes mine; he’s part of my family, so I have to treat him like part of my family -- certainly you have to discipline family. You have to hug family, and you have to do good things with family.

But you certainly don’t desert family in a time of need when they have a problem and we don’t try to.

It’s like anything else. Discipline depends upon on how it affects the family. It’s a fine line but then again some things are acceptable and some things aren’t. And one of the keys to the offseason, we have to make sure we conduct ourselves off the field in a manner that everyone else would be proud of.

We’ve got to eliminate those and get back to dealing with problems on the field, not problems off the field.

I wasn’t real excited about our passion in the bowl game. That concerns me. I think that we took it as a routine thing. They were not excited about playing in it.

Cincinnati showed much more passion, much more enthusiasm, wanting it more than us. I think they were coming off an embarrassment and they wanted to prove that wrong and I think that all comes back to the leadership that I think needs to be developed.

I think the self-discipline part of the leadership, and all the discipline parts of our program, that we need to look at those things and see what we can do better and what we have to alter.

We’ve had a lot of success. I don’t think there’s anything to panic about. When we won 13 (games in a season) we reassessed things and when we won six we have to reassess it from every part of our program and go forward and build on it.

H-D: One last thing. I get asked this every day, either by e-mail or on the phone, so I’ll ask you. Best guess at your starting quarterback in the season opener.

PRUETT: It’s wide open.