Mike McCarthy Interview in JSO

[Fritz]

I just finished reading the interview (http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=791574) with Mike McCarthy.

I really, really like that guy. He called out Bob McGinn on two points, particularly, on which McGinn was deserving of being called out:

1. The zone scheme - McCarthy basically told McGinn, look, dude, you clearly don't understand our scheme. It's not just this zone scheme - there are variations. MM tried to explain to McGinn how it actually works.

2. My favorite part - McGinn says, okay, there's been a lot of hypotheticals about Brett Favre - if this, if that. Enough of that. Now reality is here..so tell me...blah blah blah....IF this happens, then how would you feel about...blah blah blah. And MM - correctly - said, basically, dude, you said enough hypotheticals - and then you asked me a hypothetical.

Man, I like MM. He's got this team focused. He did admit his biggest concern is the injury problem they've had the last few weeks. He points out that the offseason program participation was great, the continuity of systems, both offensive and defensive, is good (3 years in one and 4 in the other), and that he thinks this team is talented.

The guy seems to be a straight shooter and he seems also to know how to be a leader. I like him. I think he's a very good coach. Makes me feel better about this season.

[pbmax]

McCarthy's Season Opening Interview With McGinn (http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=791574)

I liked the interview as well and thought McCarthy did very well. He clearly has come a long way from his first year in dealing with the media.

And I loved the exchange between the McGinn and McCarthy over the run scheme. It was just pointed enough of a question to get a direct response from the coach, rare in this day and age. M3 flat out told him what they were running instead of dancing around the issue and offering platitudes.

Good stuff. M3 also joked that McGinn was killing him with talk of the ZBS scheme. It seems our coach might be reading the paper. Bravo to both.

[mraynrand]

I read that exchange with the ZBS too. The underlying message was the comparison between ZBS and power running, which we've kicked around here quite a bit. McCarthy basically said they mixed in the power running and then said that they have some young guys so leave it at that. What I took from that is that they want to be able to run with more power in certain places and that they think their young guys will eventually get that done. I''m thinking Sitton and others. Colledge was supposed to be stronger this year as well. Spitz got pushed pretty good at LG, but maybe he's better at RG - but we may never see that with Wells' situation. In any case, McCarthy thinks they're gonna get better. I'm willing to believe he's right.

[Scott Campbell]

One impressive dude. Great hire.

[mraynrand]

One impressive dude. Great hire.

Agree. But I can't believe he works out 50 minutes 5 times a week. He would have to be a lot slimmer. Unless, he's growing like a crystal or by sucking in orbiting debris, like Denny Green.

[Scott Campbell]

Maybe he's just naturally husky. Fat and fit.

I dunno.

[Pugger]

I'm a big MM fan too. :) I'm glad he took the high road about Brett. I personally think it was McCarthy who wanted to move on with Rodgers more than TT. Remember, it was MM who talked to Brett for all of those hours and not TT. Because MM wasn't satisfied with some of Brett's responses during those marthon talks Brett is now playing in NJ. Don't the coaches have more control on who starts rather than the GM?

[pbmax]

I think the plan was eventually to do both this year with Barbre, or an improved Colledge. When Sitton came on, then I think light bulbs went on seeing the much stouter Spitz at Center with an even bigger Sitton at Guard. Too bad injuries have scrambled that plan.

I wouldn't be surprised to see that lineup again at some point this season (Clifton, Colledge/Barbre, Spitz, Sitton, Tauscher)


I read that exchange with the ZBS too. The underlying message was the comparison between ZBS and power running, which we've kicked around here quite a bit. McCarthy basically said they mixed in the power running and then said that they have some young guys so leave it at that. What I took from that is that they want to be able to run with more power in certain places and that they think their young guys will eventually get that done. I''m thinking Sitton and others. Colledge was supposed to be stronger this year as well. Spitz got pushed pretty good at LG, but maybe he's better at RG - but we may never see that with Wells' situation. In any case, McCarthy thinks they're gonna get better. I'm willing to believe he's right.

[RashanGary]

You can work out 5 days a week and if you're eating enough you'll still gain weight.

[The Gunshooter]

Maybe he's just naturally husky. Fat and fit.

I dunno.

Like Abe Gibron.

[boiga]

M3 has been doing all sorts of interviews lately.

Here's Glazer's phone chat with him: http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&brand=foxsports&vid=311dd5d3-4a96-44bc-9674-2b3bf4295c76

Also, GBPG has a looong interview here: http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080905/PKR01/809060375/1954/PKR03

It's a good one though, with quality insight into our D, OL, and TE's. He also looks back to the NFCC:
Q: What about a situation or situations in the game that you'd like to have over?

McCarthy: "I know people were saying you should have called the timeout (before the game-winning field goal), but the information I had, what we do every game is to mark the wind, and I think he kicked it from the 31-yard line (actually the 29). He was right on the line of where we felt the max distance was, and he already missed two. I think it was Jeff Bergman, who was the (line judge), and I went right over and stood next to him. I told Joe Philbin on the headset to get the offense ready because he's not going to hit this. It's too far. I thought about calling the timeout, but my fear was that I'd call timeout and he'd miss it (and then he would get another attempt). As soon as the ball hit off his foot, I knew we were in trouble. Plays and decisions, any play caller goes through the game and says what about this and what about that. I thought our guys played well. I was pleased with the way they went after it. There were just some situations that we didn't do very a good job in. We didn't get off the field on third down. The punting, we never changed the field position. We were making the same mistakes, and the momentum shifts that you can't get back, those are the things that I've actually written down and learned from and said how do you change that? You have to get that field position changed because of the weather and the type of game we were in. But I have no regrets. Our team was prepared, played hard, but we didn't do the things we needed to do to win the game."

That also explain why Ryan was let go, doesn't it?

Edit: For another interview, here's his conference call transcript with the Minn reporters: http://www.packers.com/news/releases/2008/09/05/1/ Most of it is standard M3 BSing reporters, but he explained how Lumps impressed.

What do you think about the rookie running back (Kregg) Lumpkin?
Tough. Tough guy. Runs hard. (He's) another player who took advantage of his opportunities every time he went out there. He started the Family Night scrimmage and I was not very encouraged with some of the things he did in the early part of the scrimmage. As it went on, he made some plays that definitely got your attention. In Week 1 against Cincinnati, he did some things. In the second week at San Francisco, he ran harder and started picking up the blitz protection. He's a physical guy. I like his size and strength. He's done a very good job for a young guy, particularly on third down with pressure schemes and so forth from a pass-protection perspective. I think he's a young man with a bright future.

[bobblehead]

Again, if anyone could supply the exact quote...I can't find it, but this is why I love MM:

We'll play them in the parking lot, Dallas, Texas, it doesn't matter. I'm not concerned with that. (edited)
---after the loss to dallas last season.

[BallHawk]

JSO content removed

Great response by Mike. Gotta love his attitude.

[pbmax]

McCarthy Friday After Dallas Game 2007 (http://www.packers.com/news/releases/2007/11/30/2/)


(How do you think this group will respond to their first loss in a while?)
They're going to respond. I tell you what, I like our football team. I'll take this football team anywhere. I'm not concerned about what this game means, not at all. We'll play anybody, and I think we've proven that. I think we've proven that because of the way we play on the road. We'll play them in the parking lot, Dallas, Texas, it doesn't matter. I'm not concerned with that. I'm about one thing. We're about winning football games and improving, and that game last night, we had some things that jumped up and bit us, and we need to fix that, because we're too far in our season to have the mistakes that we made last night. Whether it's the big-time environment, maybe that was it, but I tell you what, we'll learn from it, and that's my job. We'll take Tuesday, we'll work on Dallas and do some self-scout things. We're going to treat this like a bye week, and we're going to clean some things up and get ready for the fourth quarter of our season.

[texaspackerbacker]

I guess the trend these days--a very good trend IMO, is to "dis" the media and challenge their credibility--in a lot of contexts. With all due modesty, I'd say I'm ahead of the curve on that.

As for McGinn, years ago, before I even started posting at JSOnline--when it was still just responding with emails, I expressed disgust for McGinn--style, substance (or lack of it) and attitude.

I just HATE--and always have--his "somebody else's dumbass scout says such and such about the Packers". And maybe we don't want ALL of our local media to be homers, but this fool, he shows NO ALLEGIANCE/NO CARING whatsoever about the Packers.

Give us objective facts! If you give us any opinions at all, they damn well better be from the Packer and Packer fan point of view.

[BallHawk]

Sorry for posting the JSO quote. I knew we weren't allowed to post entire articles, but I didn't know we weren't even allowed to post quips of the articles.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Sorry for posting the JSO quote. I knew we weren't allowed to post entire articles, but I didn't know we weren't even allowed to post quips of the articles.

Which is kind of funny since I haven't seen such a crackdown on posting snippets of articles on other sites. In fact, JSO itself doesn't much crackdown on people posting snippets of articles from other sites on their own forums--at least not when I was on their forums previously. Somebody should find out if that's the case. They wouldn't have much to stand on--if that is the case.

[pbmax]

McGinn doesn't need to show allegiance or caring to the Packers to provide useful insight. The scouts know more about the game than you or I do, so this information can be useful. It is opinion, not factual, but a good piece to the whole of the puzzle.

And one of McCarthy's best answers was to a direct and challenging question from McGinn about run blocking. It provided real and factual information that you would have had to surmise from other sources. While posters here noticed the hybrid nature of the run game, I don't recall McCarthy being this explicit about it.

And if you only listen to opinions from the subjects themselves, you will never get a clear picture of what is happening. Few are self-effacing enough to be deadly honest in assessing their own work. An outside assessment is frequently useful.


I just HATE--and always have--his "somebody else's dumbass scout says such and such about the Packers". And maybe we don't want ALL of our local media to be homers, but this fool, he shows NO ALLEGIANCE/NO CARING whatsoever about the Packers.

Give us objective facts! If you give us any opinions at all, they damn well better be from the Packer and Packer fan point of view.

[mraynrand]

McCarthy Friday After Dallas Game 2007 (http://www.packers.com/news/releases/2007/11/30/2/)

[quote=McCarthy Press Conference] we need to fix that

[mraynrand]

Sorry for posting the JSO quote. I knew we weren't allowed to post entire articles, but I didn't know we weren't even allowed to post quips of the articles.

Which is kind of funny since I haven't seen such a crackdown on posting snippets of articles on other sites. In fact, JSO itself doesn't much crackdown on people posting snippets of articles from other sites on their own forums--at least not when I was on their forums previously. Somebody should find out if that's the case. They wouldn't have much to stand on--if that is the case.

They must have this site on their radar screen. I wonder if there is a minimum allowable. Probably it is best to just post the link and give a summary of what you read. You don't want to find yourself in the position of Cleft Crusty, who is being sued by the JS for libel and defamation.

[Rastak]

Sorry for posting the JSO quote. I knew we weren't allowed to post entire articles, but I didn't know we weren't even allowed to post quips of the articles.

Which is kind of funny since I haven't seen such a crackdown on posting snippets of articles on other sites. In fact, JSO itself doesn't much crackdown on people posting snippets of articles from other sites on their own forums--at least not when I was on their forums previously. Somebody should find out if that's the case. They wouldn't have much to stand on--if that is the case.


Agreed. I thought that was completely legal.

[Tyrone Bigguns]

One impressive dude. Great hire.

Agree. But I can't believe he works out 50 minutes 5 times a week. He would have to be a lot slimmer. Unless, he's growing like a crystal or by sucking in orbiting debris, like Denny Green.

50 minutes is nothing..and is it lifting or cardio. Either way, hardly enough cals burned to offset the sendentary life of a coach, poor eating (cals consumed) and late nights.

[Rastak]

One impressive dude. Great hire.

Agree. But I can't believe he works out 50 minutes 5 times a week. He would have to be a lot slimmer. Unless, he's growing like a crystal or by sucking in orbiting debris, like Denny Green.

50 minutes is nothing..and is it lifting or cardio. Either way, hardly enough cals burned to offset the sendentary life of a coach, poor eating (cals consumed) and late nights.

Don't you think you're missing one of the key factors in the equation?

[Tyrone Bigguns]

One impressive dude. Great hire.

Agree. But I can't believe he works out 50 minutes 5 times a week. He would have to be a lot slimmer. Unless, he's growing like a crystal or by sucking in orbiting debris, like Denny Green.

50 minutes is nothing..and is it lifting or cardio. Either way, hardly enough cals burned to offset the sendentary life of a coach, poor eating (cals consumed) and late nights.

Don't you think you're missing one of the key factors in the equation?

Which is?

[Joemailman]

McGinn doesn't need to show allegiance or caring to the Packers to provide useful insight. The scouts know more about the game than you or I do, so this information can be useful. It is opinion, not factual, but a good piece to the whole of the puzzle.

And one of McCarthy's best answers was to a direct and challenging question from McGinn about run blocking. It provided real and factual information that you would have had to surmise from other sources. While posters here noticed the hybrid nature of the run game, I don't recall McCarthy being this explicit about it.

And if you only listen to opinions from the subjects themselves, you will never get a clear picture of what is happening. Few are self-effacing enough to be deadly honest in assessing their own work. An outside assessment is frequently useful.


I just HATE--and always have--his "somebody else's dumbass scout says such and such about the Packers". And maybe we don't want ALL of our local media to be homers, but this fool, he shows NO ALLEGIANCE/NO CARING whatsoever about the Packers.

Give us objective facts! If you give us any opinions at all, they damn well better be from the Packer and Packer fan point of view.

I rather enjoy McGinn's tough interviews. He's not afraid to ruffle a few feathers with his questioning. It makes MM better at dealing with the press than he would be if he only received softball questions. MM's a tough guy and probably respects McGinn more than he does the reporters who ask him questions like "How important was it for the offense to put touchdowns on the board tonight.?" Of course, respecting someone and liking someone are two different things. I doubt he likes McGinn much.

[Rastak]

One impressive dude. Great hire.

Agree. But I can't believe he works out 50 minutes 5 times a week. He would have to be a lot slimmer. Unless, he's growing like a crystal or by sucking in orbiting debris, like Denny Green.

50 minutes is nothing..and is it lifting or cardio. Either way, hardly enough cals burned to offset the sendentary life of a coach, poor eating (cals consumed) and late nights.

Don't you think you're missing one of the key factors in the equation?

Which is?



Ummm, intake perhaps?


1000 -1200 cal a day diet, carbs under 20 grams and 50 minutes of anything halfway decent results in weight loss, right?


You say 50 minutes of cardio or weights isn't shit, you have absolutely no context into which to place that statement.



edit: I didn't see your poor eating habits comment. That has to be the case because a 50 minutes workout and eating to lose is PLENTY enough.


I would agree with you completely if the dude is eating 3000 cals a day.

[Tyrone Bigguns]

One impressive dude. Great hire.

Agree. But I can't believe he works out 50 minutes 5 times a week. He would have to be a lot slimmer. Unless, he's growing like a crystal or by sucking in orbiting debris, like Denny Green.

50 minutes is nothing..and is it lifting or cardio. Either way, hardly enough cals burned to offset the sendentary life of a coach, poor eating (cals consumed) and late nights.

Don't you think you're missing one of the key factors in the equation?

Which is?



Ummm, intake perhaps?


1000 -1200 cal a day diet, carbs under 20 grams and 50 minutes of anything halfway decent results in weight loss, right?


You say 50 minutes of cardio or weights isn't shit, you have absolutely no context into which to place that statement.



edit: I didn't see your poor eating habits comment. That has to be the case because a 50 minutes workout and eating to lose is PLENTY enough.


I would agree with you completely if the dude is eating 3000 cals a day.

Yeah..i couldn't figure out what you were thinking..as i put in "cals consumed."

Clearly i was saying that 50 minutes isn't going to offset a sedentary life, cals consumed...and if he eats at the training table..he is eating a ton...and a ton of good tasting food, plus late night..so i figure he eats then as well...plus getting rest is a key part of losing weight. Studies have shown that lack of sleep contributes to weight gain.

Don't forget he is now married...so fat and happy.

[mraynrand]

One impressive dude. Great hire.

Agree. But I can't believe he works out 50 minutes 5 times a week. He would have to be a lot slimmer. Unless, he's growing like a crystal or by sucking in orbiting debris, like Denny Green.

Alternative ways of saying he's eating like crazy.

[pbmax]

Its like a tic for most coaches. Some get mean and question the sanity of the questioner. Others say this. I usually side with the reporters, but on this quote, I would prefer McCarthy to shoot (metaphorically) the messenger. Or claim it was the result of extraterrestrials.



McCarthy Friday After Dallas Game 2007 (http://www.packers.com/news/releases/2007/11/30/2/)


we need to fix that

[texaspackerbacker]

Like I said, I've hated McGinn since before this forum existed/make that since before the JSOnline forum existed ............ but fell free to like him if you must.

Also, for the record, I reject the argument that other teams' scouts or any damn media fool knows more about the Packers--individual players, the team in general, whatever--that most posters in this forum. You see far more intelligent comments in here.

[mraynrand]

Like I said, I've hated McGinn since before this forum existed/make that since before the JSOnline forum existed ............ but fell free to like him if you must.

Also, for the record, I reject the argument that other teams' scouts or any damn media fool knows more about the Packers--individual players, the team in general, whatever--that most posters in this forum. You see far more intelligent comments in here.

Fine, but what the hell do you want to read in the hometown 'paper' - a bunch of cheerleading?

[cpk1994]

Like I said, I've hated McGinn since before this forum existed/make that since before the JSOnline forum existed ............ but fell free to like him if you must.

Also, for the record, I reject the argument that other teams' scouts or any damn media fool knows more about the Packers--individual players, the team in general, whatever--that most posters in this forum. You see far more intelligent comments in here.I agree with you in that I hate McGinn. To be fair, he did finally call out Mike Sherman for not reigning in Favre, even though that was two seasons after everybody was already saying it. :)

[esoxx]

McGinn's always a good read.

[boiga]

For anyone who's interested, here's another M3/TT interview, from WSJ this time: http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/sports//303828


WSJ: Do you guys know what you're doing?

MIKE McCARTHY: What kind of question is that?

The WSJ interviewer is kind of a douche, but there are some interesting responses.

[MadtownPacker]

Sorry for posting the JSO quote. I knew we weren't allowed to post entire articles, but I didn't know we weren't even allowed to post quips of the articles.

Which is kind of funny since I haven't seen such a crackdown on posting snippets of articles on other sites. In fact, JSO itself doesn't much crackdown on people posting snippets of articles from other sites on their own forums--at least not when I was on their forums previously. Somebody should find out if that's the case. They wouldn't have much to stand on--if that is the case.Not funny at all if you ask me. I also have seen how every other site post their crap so pretty much someone from another site snitched on PackerRats and I have a good guess who. You can think or say what you want but when it comes to this it is a dead issue and is not going to change. If you want to find out about the legality of it all feel free to check into it and let everyone know.

For the record I was contacted and told none of their content or pics could be used. Fuck em.

[BallHawk]

Perhaps we could have a post in the Rules and Regulations board that specifies exactly what we can and can't post from JSO. I know there are a lot of people that aren't sure what the rules are.

[MadtownPacker]

Perhaps we could have a post in the Rules and Regulations board that specifies exactly what we can and can't post from JSO. I know there are a lot of people that aren't sure what the rules are.Does anyone besides Harlan even read that shit?

Rules are simple, everything including Ballhawk's myspace page are open game. JSO is the only site that has complained. They are the only site that cannot be posted. Again, fuck em.

[BallHawk]

Perhaps we could have a post in the Rules and Regulations board that specifies exactly what we can and can't post from JSO. I know there are a lot of people that aren't sure what the rules are.Does anyone besides Harlan even read that shit?

Rules are simple, everything including Ballhawk's myspace page are open game. JSO is the only site that has complained. They are the only site that cannot be posted. Again, fuck em.

So basically the only thing we can post from JSO are links?

[MadtownPacker]

So basically the only thing we can post from JSO are links?Unless you can find some legal mumbo jumbo that says quotes are OK, yes.

[BallHawk]

So basically the only thing we can post from JSO are links?Unless you can find some legal mumbo jumbo that says quotes are OK, yes.

Alright. Thanks for clearing that up.

[Joemailman]

As someone said earlier this year, JSO's stance on this is Garbage. As far as I'm concerned, any article by JSO should go right in the Garbage Can. I'll bet if you look in your Garbage Can right now, you'll probably find an article by that jerk McGinn.

[BallHawk]

As someone said earlier this year, JSO's stance on this is Garbage. As far as I'm concerned, any article by JSO should go right in the Garbage Can. I'll bet if you look in your Garbage Can right now, you'll probably find an article by that jerk McGinn.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v437/SecretCode/lol/raptors/i-see-what-you-did-there.jpg

[Partial]

Raptors are scary.

[Partial]

One impressive dude. Great hire.

Agree. But I can't believe he works out 50 minutes 5 times a week. He would have to be a lot slimmer. Unless, he's growing like a crystal or by sucking in orbiting debris, like Denny Green.

50 minutes is nothing..and is it lifting or cardio. Either way, hardly enough cals burned to offset the sendentary life of a coach, poor eating (cals consumed) and late nights.

Are you smoking crack again?

I'm sure this is BS. If he were exercising for 50 minutes a day in any fashion he'll be fairly lean unless he eats nothing but fast food.

[mraynrand]

One impressive dude. Great hire.

Agree. But I can't believe he works out 50 minutes 5 times a week. He would have to be a lot slimmer. Unless, he's growing like a crystal or by sucking in orbiting debris, like Denny Green.

50 minutes is nothing..and is it lifting or cardio. Either way, hardly enough cals burned to offset the sendentary life of a coach, poor eating (cals consumed) and late nights.

Are you smoking crack again?

I'm sure this is BS. If he were exercising for 50 minutes a day in any fashion he'll be fairly lean unless he eats nothing but fast food.

Don't argue with Ty Bigbuns. In his own mind, he's never wrong.