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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Wednesday, August 30, 2006

UH defensive coordinator
Jerry Glanville

Video Inteview: Jerry Glanville

Second-year defensive coordinator Jerry Glanville is proud of the fact that his players have "grown in their knowledge in the defense."

RICHARD AMBO | The Honolulu Advertiser


Weekends, it seems, were made for Jerry Glanville. If he's not coaching, then he's broadcasting, or racing. His life goes at high speed, just like his defenses. But for most of last season, his defense wasn't in the right place at the right time, allowing 438.4 yards a game and ranking seventh in the nine-team WAC. Glanville thinks 2006 will be different.


You're going to a place where you'll probably face one of the biggest crowds you ever faced What will that be like?

You've been involved in NASCAR, how is that thrill compared to the thrill of coaching?

What's the thing you're most proud of and any predictions of where you'll place defensively in the WAC this year?


"It's funny, when you're coaching, it's like Monday night, people say 'Well, your game's on Monday night,' or 'You got a big crowd at Michigan State.' Once the kickoff starts, it doesn't matter. You don't know if there's 10 people there or 100,000 people. I think you'll get noise as you walk out, you're aware of the big crowd in the pregame warmup. But once the game starts and what you're focusing on, I can honestly say I never knew how many people were there. We played Cleveland at Cleveland in a playoff, Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh in a playoff, and afterwards they'd say, 'What a crowd,' and I'd say, 'I never noticed it.' I hope that's the way we are at Alabama. I hope when the game's over we never noticed it. The fun is, if you get to playing good enough, then the crowd starts to leave before the game is over. That's what you're hoping happens."

(Thrill of coaching vs. racing)

"When I go to Mobile, Alabama, I go to watch the seniors practice for the Senior Bowl. They let the kids out of school to come get autographs. And in the state of Alabama they bring all my cards from NASCAR. I doubt there's any eighth grader that knows I ever coached anywhere. And they all line up. And I raced at Talladega. And they are all told about the race at Talladega that I was in. So, I sign, when I'm in the state of Alabama, I sign a card collection which was from NASCAR, not from football. If I go to Milwaukee, I sign cards there which are strictly football. It depends on what state you're in. In this state, the little guys, little kids all come with the NASCAR treasures."

(What he's most proud of)

"I think the thing I'm most proud of, of this football team is how far they've grown in their knowledge in the defense. The defense, they have sort of taken over. It's now no longer our coaches' defense, it's the players' defense. And you only get that when they know, in and out, what to do. Such a big jump from first year to second year. I'm kind of amazed; the backup players know more about what we're doing than our starters did a year ago. So I look for a big improvement. I thought we would jump farther than we did last year. We're used to going from last in defense to first in one year. We didn't get that done. I promised June we'll get that done. I think the players are on the way of making that happen. We'll be a good defensive team. It'll be fun to watch. The players will have a lot of enjoyment because they know what they're doing, they know how to get there."


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