Q&A with RBs coach Steve Broussard
Broussard discusses playing for June Jones, recruiting, what he expects from his RBs
Posted on 05/25/2014 by PonyFans.com
PonyFans.com: For a little background … you arrived at SMU after coaching stints in high school, Portland State, Washington State (your alma mater), Arizona State and UCLA. Walk through that process — did SMU reach out to you, or the other way around? How did this all come together?

Steve Broussard: I’m at home after getting let go by UCLA, and I’m doing my due diligence, as far as trying to find another gig. I went to the Coaches’ Convention and went down to the Senior Bowl to try and make some NFL connections, and still contacted some of those people who had had some influence in my life. I reached out to Coach (Dennis) Erickson, Coach (June) Jones — I reached out to guys like that early in the process. So I’m at home one day, and Coach (Jason) Phillips called me, because we played together and we’re friends, and he said they were talking as a staff, as far as what they were going to do as far as the running back (coach) position. Coach Phillips said he told Coach Jones he thought I would be a great fit for the position, and that sort of got the ball rolling. Coach (Jones) did his due diligence, as well, as far as trying to get the right fit in here, talking to a lot of guys. So the process took a few weeks, (Jones) doing his due diligence, and me doing mine. I was getting feelers out there, and there were some other schools that showed interest in me, and there were some schools I was trying to dig into, and there were some NFL openings I was trying to get my name in the hat for. So for me, it was a testing process. When I say “testing,” for me, it was a faith testing, and a trust process for me and my faith throughout this whole process, and I took it like that, because I believed God had something better for me in my life. So that’s how I chose to deal with the process. It wasn’t being upset, being mad, being bitter toward UCLA. It was, “God, I know you’ve got something different for me, and I’ve got to be patient enough and trust you enough to wait on you.” That’s how I chose to deal with it, that’s how I got through it. For me, it was good, to the extent that … during that period of time, testing my faith.

New SMU running backs coach Steve Broussard played nine seasons in the NFL (photo by PonyFans.com).
PonyFans.com: You played nine years in the NFL, beginning with four seasons in Atlanta, where June Jones was the offensive coordinator and eventually the head coach. When you were in college, at Washington State, you led the Pac-10 in receiving as a sophomore and then led the conference in rushing as a junior. How much of a transition was it, going from Dennis Erickson’s offense at Washington State to the Run-and-Shoot Coach Jones was running in Atlanta? Did Coach Erickson’s offense have anything, any concepts, that even remotely resembled the Run-and-Shoot?

Broussard: Yeah [laughing] — the inside zone play. You know, looking back on it, when you look at the offense, the offense was geared to, as you know, the pass, but Coach Jones has evolved. He’s such a good play caller. He recognizes defense, and if the run is there, he’ll take the run. So sometimes that idea gets skewed, that he’s so pass-happy. He has had 1,000-yard rushers — just a few years ago, he had (Zach) Line, who rushed for about 1,400 yards, and he’s not the prototypical running back. So it was an adjustment, pass protection-wise, for me, and my stature and size, and I think that was a concern, about whether I could protect the quarterback.

PonyFans.com: You played under Coach Jones with the Falcons, and … fast-forward almost 25 years, and now you have had a spring working for him. So now he’s your boss, or your colleague, rather than your coach. Personality-wise, has he changed? How is he different now, compared to what he was like when you played for him in Atlanta? Or is he different?

Broussard: In 1990-93, with Coach Jones, my mindset … I was in a different world, and he has the same demeanor, as far as I can recall. He wasn’t an in-your-face type of coach, a rah-rah coach. You had a job, and he does his to the point where he slows things down and he teaches it. That’s what he did there, and that’s what he does here. Because the intricacies of the pass game, as far as what the receivers have to know … you can’t go fast if you’re telling receivers to read routes on the run, and to read coverages. Looking back on it, he’s very similar now to what he was then: he’s a complete stickler for attention to detail. That part of it hasn’t changed. But for me, coming from a high-paced offense, where things were up-tempo, it was a little adjustment. To me, it seemed we were going a little slow, until I realized how detailed Coach Jones is. As I went through the process, I saw that there is a reason behind it.

PonyFans.com: After your playing career, you got into coaching — first as the offensive coordinator at Don Lugo High School in Chino, Calif., and then as offensive coordinator and eventually head coach at Diamond Ranch High School. Did you always know, when you were an NFL player or even before, that you eventually wanted to end up coaching?

Broussard: Probably my last two years in Seattle … as, physically, you know that it’s almost that time, your career is dwindling time, your playing time goes down … and I started being almost like a coach on the field, talking to the younger guys coming in. So I asked Coach Erickson about coaching at that time. So I started to gear myself into that thought process. But the first thing I thought is that I wanted to work with kids, and a lot of people don’t know that my first job after I retired was working at a group home. I worked at a group home for about a year, so I would coach during the day, and at night I would work at the group home. I did that for about a year. I just wanted to work around kids — that was my passion, and coaching was another way to connect and work around kids. These were kids that were ordered to the state. Somebody would have a facility, a house, and they would have maybe six kids in it, and these kids were anywhere from the ages of 13 to 18. So we would monitor them, per se. Some kids were diabetic, severely diabetic. Some kids were abused in their homes. So there were all types of kids in their age range, and you had to monitor them, take them on outings, get them acclimated to society a little bit, just be there for them. So I worked night shifts, and then on some weekends, I would work the shifts where I would take them on outings. It was challenging, and it was really good at the same time.

PonyFans.com: You mentioned that in your last couple of years in Seattle, you took on something of a “coach on the field” role as you started to look forward to the next stage of your career. What’s the hardest part of that transition, going from player to coach?

Broussard: For me, it was the camaraderie, the being around the locker room, just that routine part, the competitiveness — things that I had been doing, really, since 1985 … really since 1983. High school. College. I had always been in that routine of playing, and so now that routine, my way of doing things was … the year after I retired, I gained weight, just from that state of depression.

I didn’t watch football for maybe the first year of me being out, because, mentally, it was taxing to me. Mentally, I wanted to be there, but I know that physically, I couldn’t … and I know a lot of ex-players go through that. You see it, but you might not know it — that next life, and getting involved in something that might occupy your time. It’s something that you love doing. Sometimes guys just go to work and it’s not always something they love doing, and then you still get that “man, I miss this,” that depression part, that psychological part that eats up a lot of guys, or people in general that go through missing something that was part of their lives, that they have done for a long time and now it’s not part of their lives. So I tried, by getting into coaching, to find that little bit of fuel that kept the desire going. Did I go into a state of depression? Yeah. I gained almost 50, 60 pounds. It can be tough to see one part of your career end when you’re not quite sure what’s coming next.

PonyFans.com: Some guys, when they start coaching, begin their careers as graduate assistants — maybe at the college where they played — and climb the ranks that way, while others go the high school route, which is the way you went. Why did you pursue your coaching career by starting that way?

Broussard: It’s funny that you mention that. I remember when I first wanted to get into coaching, I called June, and I said, “Coach, I want to get into coaching,” and he suggested that I get into high school coaching. He said, “try high school (coaching), and see if it’s something that you love, because you have to love coaching if you want this to be a profession.” So I got into high school coaching … I had to learn things about me, as far as communicating, because I had that player mentality, that you play with a certain passion and focus and emotion. So I was pushing how I was as a player on those kids, and I wasn’t reaching them. So I had to find out about myself, as far as communicating and things like that, which was a good deal.

PonyFans.com: A key part of your job as an assistant coach is recruiting, and you have recruited for some very different coaches — Dennis Erickson, Jim Mora, Jr. — at some very different schools. You have recruited for Portland State, Washington State, Arizona State, UCLA, and now you’re recruiting for a small, private school in Dallas, Texas. How much do you change, as a recruiter, when you represent a different head coach and a different university?

Broussard: I don’t. You can’t, I believe. You’ve still got to sell the program, sell the head coach, and do it with integrity. You may be recruiting a different type of player for different schools, and that’s the only difference. Because when you think about it, I recruited at Portland State, so I had to recruit a different kind of player. I recruited at Washington State, so there were certain kinds of players that I had to recruit at each school. But my pitch and one of the things that I tell players is that I don’t “negative recruit.” “Here’s what we have to offer, here (are) your possible opportunities if you came here. Here’s what our program has to offer. It doesn’t matter what Baylor has, what TCU has, what USC has. Then you talk about the head coach — you sell June and his experience. When you talk about an offense player that you’re recruiting, you talk about (Jones’s) experience, and what he does as an offensive coordinator, an offensive guru. You talk about his NFL experience. Kids are talking about getting to the NFL, and here’s his legacy in the NFL, here’s how he’s respected in the NFL, here’s the kids he has put in the NFL. You talk about the players he has helped put in to the league, and the opportunities they have gotten under his tutelage.

PonyFans.com: Do you enjoy that part of it? Do you enjoy going out on the road, talking to high school coaches, building those relationships with (high school) coaches and players?

Broussard: I enjoy it — I love it. I can relate, because you get in those schools, you talk to them, you be real with them, you listen them. Then you get a chance to look at the kids’ eyes when they see the logo on your (shirt), and they realize the opportunity you represent.

Whether (players) come from the inner city or the suburbs, that doesn’t matter. It’s about doing your homework, about the character of the kid. There are bad kids that come from good places and good kids who come from bad places. So it’s about us, as recruiters, finding those kids, whether they come from so-called “bad places” or good places, and finding the character kids, kids who come from good homes. The economic background of one kid might not be the same as it is for some others, but still, the character, the integrity of the kid, is there. That’s our part: whether they come from an affluent, upper economic background or not, we have still got to do our homework. We still have got to find out the character of the kid, and do those things. We have to find out the character, no matter where he’s from.

The perception, sometimes, of people, is wrong. My mom always taught me, and it goes back to Dr. Martin Luther King: “you judge someone, not by the color of the skin, it’s the content of the character.”

PonyFans.com: A lot of times, coaches talk about hiring assistants who can arrive with built-in relationships with high school coaches. All of your relationships are in in California. You get to SMU, and all of the relationships with high school coaches are brand-new for you. Is there an art, or a formula, for getting to know these coaches and building those relationships, that level of trust with each other?

Broussard: Being honest, being real, spending time — that’s what I did in California. Communicating. A lot of times, you go in there, and in the spring, sometimes, it can get lost, and you’re only allowed two visits per school for the whole spring. You go in there, and I see the coaches, I sit down and get the information. You may not offer a kid right away, but either way, you have it in your schedule to make that call, once a week, just to touch base … whether you’re going to offer that kid or not, because he may have a 2016 kid, a 2017 kid.

PonyFans.com: Coaches always have different priorities when evaluating players. With running backs, some value speed, some elusiveness, some look for (receiving) hands out of the backfield, some want blocking … When you evaluate players, what characteristics are most important in Steve Broussard-coached running backs?

Broussard: Toughness — toughness and quickness … an acceleration and burst, the way he drops his weight and sticks his toe in the ground when he makes a cut — I like that. Or he may run somebody over. I like that. He may have a burst about him, some toughness about him, some quickness. You give me a guy with those things, and he’s got a chance to be a player.

PonyFans.com: Is it hard to look at guys, to coach guys, and realize they’re not going to play exactly the way you did?

Broussard: Yeah. I understand that, because everybody’s different. I had to realize that I’m not going to find Steve Broussard. Not everybody is going to play with the mindset that I think I approached it, with the toughness that I think that I played the game, the passion. Are there kids out there like that? Yeah, and I have come across a few of them. (UCLA’s) Jonathan Franklin is a kid that played the game with the passion, the desire. But he’s a different style of runner. I wanted him to do some things that I would do, but it just wasn’t in him. But he played with passion, desire and love for the game, and he was a productive player.

RBs coach Steve Broussard said the competition will continue in August, but said that Prescott Line impressed during the spring with his consistency (photo by PonyFans.com).
PonyFans.com: You have a few guys coming back from last year’s SMU team: Prescott Line, K.C. Nlemchi took all the reps during spring workouts, and it was learned last week that Kevin Pope, who worked out on a limited basis in the spring, will get one more year of eligibility and will suit up on your side of the ball after playing linebacker before this year. Do you believe in a running back-by-committee approach, or would you like one of these guys to take that job and wrestle it away and make it his own?

Broussard: I would love to step up and do that. That’s what I tell them, but also, even if you have one guy that can do all of the things well, there may be times when I have to put (another) guy in there, like if we need someone who can catch the ball a little better out of the backfield. But if you can have one guy in there 75 percent of the time, 80 percent of the time, and you don’t tip your hat, I would love one of those guys to take it by the horns. That’s how I present it to them: “right now, it’s Prescott’s job to lose, and it’s you guys’ job to take it from him.”

PonyFans.com: That was going to be my next question. You had 15 practices with Prescott Line and K.C. Nlemchi this spring, and obviously they’re very different runners. When Coach Jones talks about Prescott, the first thing he says is the blocking, his ability in pass protection. You’re saying at the moment that it’s Prescott’s job to lose — what do you like about him? Why is he the leader at this point?

Broussard: He’s consistent. It goes back … because what we do offensively, you’ve got to protect the quarterback, you’ve got to know who you have, and he’s the most consistent one of them. K.C.’s coming along — he did some really good things this spring. But Prescott’s solid. Is he going to hit the home run for you? Probably not, but is he going to get the tough yards for you? He can do that.

At this point, he’s the most consistent. These 15 practices that I evaluated, with both of those guys, he was more consistent, but we only had two guys. Kevin was hurt and didn’t do much, and the freshmen haven’t arrived yet. It’s not like I’ve got a stable and have to make a choice already from another two or three guys. It made my choice easy, but we also didn’t have everyone we’re going to have.

PonyFans.com: Kevin (Pope) was out there during the spring, but he was limited by the shoulder. He ran a little bit, and caught a few passes, but he wasn’t hitting anybody and wasn’t blocking anybody. Going with the assumption that you watched film of the games at the end of last season when he played running back, what do know about Kevin? Do you feel like you have a good grasp of what kind of running back he is?

Broussard: I’ve just seen him run around in pajamas [laughing]. You know, he looks good, he has good footwork. But it’s a totally different ballgame when you’ve got to protect and do these things on a consistent basis. Right now, he’s my No. 3 guy, but I’m excited to see him when he’s healthy.

PonyFans.com: You also have a couple of pretty highly regarded freshmen coming in, in Daniel Gresham and Darius Durall. Some coaches say they would prefer to have the veterans play and redshirt every freshman they can, while others have said that running back is a position that, if a player shows up with speed and athleticism and in shape, a freshman can play. Where do you stand on that? Do you like the idea of freshmen coming in and playing, or would you prefer to have them sit and watch for a year and learn what you’re teaching?

Broussard: If he can handle it mentally, and if he can handle it physically, if he can handle all the things that are required of him, if he can handle protections, if he can block in pass pro, if he can pick up the blitzes and make plays and compete for the starting job … if he can handle it mentally and physically, I don’t have a problem with it. Those guys are going to be given that opportunity — I don’t mind throwing guys in the fire.

I recruited Daniel Gresham for UCLA, but I really think he’s a better fit here than he would have been out there. He’s a bigger guy, a downhill guy, and we were looking for a “scat” guy, someone who can catch the ball out of the backfield and do some things in open space.

PonyFans.com: How does a lighter guy like Durall, who was 178 pounds when he signed, handle the physical workload, the blocking responsibilities in the protection schemes?

Broussard: We’ll see, because sometimes, the biggest guy isn’t always the best blocker. So we’ll see his toughness, we’ll see the things he can do. We’re not going to put him in a position to fail. Are there going to be mismatches, with him being 5-9 and blocking a guy who’s 6-4? Yeah, there will be physical mismatches, and I understand that. You can’t ask him to hold up and do that on a consistent basis. So we’ve got to find ways to get the ball in his hands if the opportunity presents itself.

That’s our job as coaches. I was faced with the same thing in the league. I’m only 5-7. They didn’t ask me to block guys who are 6-3, 6-4, and hold them off for three or four seconds. It can be done. I did it in the league, and we’ll do that with him. Physically, if we ask him to block big linebackers or pick up d-ends, that’s our mistake as coaches, not the player’s mistake. But if a guy runs over him and then you get the ball to a running back like him and now he’s got some space to run … then the advantage is in his favor. If you have a small guy blocking a big guy, you’d better be getting the ball out of your hand quickly, quarterback.

PonyFans.com: Back to your returning players: when you look at the guys coming back — Prescott Line, K.C. Nlemchi, Kevin Pope — you have the NFL résumé, but in terms of being at SMU, they’re the returning veterans and you’re sort of the rookie. What were your areas of focus with them this spring?

Broussard: The first thing I wanted to get across was that you command respect, instead of demanding respect. “Here’s the routine, here’s my expectations, here’s how we practice. This is my expectations of you guys … and here’s what you can expect from me. Here’s what I’m not going to do. I’m not going to demean you. But I am going to push you, I am going to challenge you.” I think that they responded to it very well. There’s going to be a competition, and I’m going to challenge these guys. I’d say “K.C., you go with the first group” … and then see how Prescott was going to respond to that. Or, “Prescott, you’ve got all of these reps” … and see how K.C. responds to that. Just to see their body language, and to see that they responded tremendously. We’re going to be a group, because just because you’re No. 2 doesn’t mean you can’t become No. 1. What if No. 1 goes down? Then No. 2 becomes No. 1, so you’ve got to prepare yourself mentally every time that you’re out there as if you’re No. 1. So we encourage each other, we help each other.

Those things were the main things we focused on.

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