Michigan State University Athletics
Grid Insider: Meet Ted Gill & Dan Roushar
12/12/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 12, 2006
Ted Gill
Defensive line coach Ted Gill has 32 years of coaching experience, spending the last four seasons as the defensive line coach at Cincinnati. Gill has made stops all over the country, coaching at 11 different schools, and he also has spent time in the NFL, working for the Carolina Panthers from 1996-98. Gill is no stranger to the Big Ten, as he coached the defensive line and linebackers at Iowa from 1990-94, helping the Hawkeyes earn three bowl bids during his tenure, including a berth in the 1991 Rose Bowl. Gill recently met with the media and discussed his previous experiences in the Big Ten and his coaching philosophy.
On his impression of Michigan State from previous experiences . . .
My image of Michigan State is from when I coached at Iowa. It was a big rival for us because at that time George Perles was the head coach, and Hayden Fry, who I worked for, they were pretty good friends, but on that day it was a little different. My image is coming up in the stadium and seeing nothing but green and white. It was always tough to play here, and when they came to our place of course, we made it difficult for Michigan State. I've got good memories about the times in which we played each other. It was always a tough rivalry game for us in the Big Ten, a game in which you respected all the guys that have come through that you've coached against and played against, that type of thing.
On his coaching philosophy . . .
We feel that the biggest thing that we want to get on our defense is guys who can really run and change direction. We are very prone to getting after people that are slow. We can get after a team that really doesn't move very well, but our philosophy is to find guys who can run and change direction. If we can find guys who can do that, then we can teach them to do the other things.
For instance, just to give you a little bit of a philosophy here, if you're teaching a young man as a defensive lineman to come off the ball, and the first thing that you tell him is that we want you to defend the run and then react to the pass, then that kid's mindset is when he comes off the ball he looks around, he steps, he looks for the run and then adjusts to the pass. But if you tell him that the first thing we want you to do is defend the pass and then react to the run, his mindset is to come off real fast and then react to the run. The way you teach them and the way you get them to come off the ball are by the way you coach them on the little things about being aggressive. That's one of the things we do.
On MSU's defensive line . . .
I took a tape and I had a chance to throw it in the little VCR that I had, and kind of looked at some guys. Right away, I like what I see. As a coach, what you always think is that you can make them a little bit better. What you try to do is put them within the framework of your defense, seeing what you can do to make them better. They have all the essentials of doing what we want them to do, but what we want them to be able to do is coach them from what our philosophy is, and that is to again run and change direction. So if a guy can do that, then he can play on our defense.
On the Cincinnati staff staying almost intact . . .
Today, we had a little staff meeting, and you know what coach wants, and it's nothing new, you're just sitting at another table. I think what you'll find when a staff stays together like that is that the practices will be nice and smooth. The kids will have to adjust to us, but our philosophy will stay the same. Coach doesn't have to break a guy in to get him to do what we want to do. We've been together for three years, so when you go to a staff meeting, or you go to the practice field, or you go to a recruiting reception or things like that, you know exactly what was expected and what we need to get done. It makes the transition a lot easier.
The kids will have to adjust, and we think that's probably the easiest part, making the kids adjust to us and what our philosophy is. I have to think that they're pretty excited about the change too. People look at change sometimes as bad, but I think change is good sometimes for all of us. It gives us a chance to really get ourselves into a situation where we can do something to help a young man be better. The thing about coaching is that a coach is not just a football coach, but he develops the whole person. That's what we believe in, developing the whole person to make him one, a different guy when he walks out of here. We have a lot of work to do, but I think that when it's all said and done, we'll make a guy a better person, both as a football player and as a person when he comes out of here.
 Dan Roushar talked about the warm reception he's received on the recruiting trail.  | |
Dan Roushar
Offensive line coach Dan Roushar arrives in East Lansing after serving under Coach Mark Dantonio for two seasons at Cincinnati. He has coached a multitude of positions in his 23 seasons as a coach, including offensive coordinator, offensive line, tight ends and running backs. Roushar is familiar with the Big Ten, coaching at Illinois from 2003-04. He recently met with the media after his first week on the job.
On recruiting . . .
You recruit typically where you are coaching at and in my situation, I've been primarily in the state of Illinois, so I've recruited the Chicago area and the suburbs. I've also recruited central Illinois and into Iowa, and then since I came on staff at Cincinnati, regionally, I had a little bit of Cincinnati, and just this last year I was starting to get into the Detroit area. Dan Enos had recruited that area for Mark at Cincinnati and when he came here, I took that area over. When you get down to your secondary areas, I spent a lot of time on the west coast a year ago - in California, looking at junior college prospects. I've coached at Rhode Island, so I've recruited New Jersey and I've recruited Connecticut.
On getting players to play with intensity . . .
I think that reflects Coach Dantonio's style and our staff's style. We coach them hard, and we make them try to buy into the team concept and part of the game of football. The good football teams we've been around play a very physical style and hopefully, we were getting closer to that at Cincinnati.
On most of the staff being from Cincinnati . . .
It helps us immensely because in this case, there's not a get to know each other type of thing; we all know each other. We know what our weaknesses and strengths are, so we can feed off of both of those, and we know exactly what Coach Dantonio wants and looks for in people and that's really important around him. When he sent us out recruiting on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, I know exactly what he's looking for in terms of the type of person, the character, the high value that one would have, his ability to play and also the academics.
On visiting high schools . . .
There is an unbelievable difference here. Coaches where I went this week have always been warm and receptive to me, when I came in from the University of Cincinnati. As I came in from Michigan State, the reception was greater. I met more principals and I met more people within the building. We were received with great enthusiasm.
