San Chargers Press Conference Transcripts- Head Coach Mike McCoy

“Thank you very much for coming today. I appreciate that. First off, I would like to thank the Spanos family for this opportunity of a lifetime. This is a great organization with great history, great family values that are here. I look forward to bringing my family: my wife Kelly, my daughter Olivia, my son Luke, bringing them to the community of San Diego and building a winner for the long haul. I would also like to thank my agent, Bob LaMonte and his lovely wife Lynn for coming today.

 I appreciate it. I want to thank all of the players and coaches I have ever worked with. I am here today because of all the players and coaches. Our philosophy in the way we are going to do things here, I have learned something from every one of those people. My parents up in Northern California, my brothers and sisters, I thank them for all of the support they have given me over time. I look forward to working with Tom Telesco. Going through the interview process when I came in yesterday sitting down with the Spanos family, Ron Wolf, Tom Telesco, right away I knew a couple minutes into the interview process that that is was the place. I would also like to thank the other teams I interviewed with before I came here yesterday. There was no doubt in my mind when I got on the plane to go back home. They wanted to keep me here last night but I said I had to go back and talk to my wife about this before. If I make this decision without my wife I might get into a little trouble. I went home and talked to Kelly about this decision and without a doubt we knew this was the place we wanted to be. To the community, to the fans of San Diego, you’ve got a great fan base. Tom, myself, the rest of the organization, players coaches, everybody involved in this organization has a role. We’ve got one goal in mind every year. That is to win it and be the last team standing up on the podium with the trophy. That is our goal. That is what we are going to work toward every day from here on out. It is not going to be an easy task. Tom and I will put a plan together that is going to be very detailed and informative for everybody. It is going to be a process. It is not just going to happen overnight. We are going to have to make some tough decisions in this business and that is what we are paid to do. We are going to lead this team to a championship sometime in the future. With that being said I would like to open up for questions and thank you guys all for coming.”

On whether he will bring in an offensive coordinator:

“I will bring an offensive coordinator in.”

On being excited to work with Philip Rivers:

“I’m very excited. When he was at North Carolina State I was at Carolina. We went up there and worked him out. We saw all of his games on TV being there. It is a great opportunity. He is a fierce competitor. He is a great guy to have as the face of your franchise the way he plays, game in and game out. Regardless of the score he is going to compete. I just talked to him a little while ago and there are a lot of guys on this football team that are like that.”

On defensive coordinator John Pagano remaining on staff:

“Tom and I will sit down with the staff here. We have talked a little bit already about what we want to do. We are going to talk to every staff member here. We will call our staff together as quickly as possible and give you guys the updates. We don’t have any plans today. We have an idea where we are going but we want to give everyone the opportunity to talk to us.”

On his offensive philosophies and how important they are in selecting an offensive coordinator:

“Number one, as a coaching staff, you have to do what your players do best. I’m a firm believer in that. Every play on paper is a touchdown. Every run is a 10-yard gain, if not more. We are going to analyze our football team from this point on and figure out through OTAs, mini camps, training camp, what do our players do best and let them play. I’ve got no problem calling the same play 10 times in a game. If they can’t stop it and Philip can pick them apart running that play, we will run that play time and time again. I think that is our job as a football coach, is to find out what our players do best. The players are going to give us a lot of input. We don’t have all the answers as coaches. Nobody has got all of the answers in this business. It is going to be open arms to where we can say defensively, offensively, special teams, what do our players do best and take advantage of talent we have here.”

On who has been the greatest influence on him in terms of coaching philosophy and style:

“I can’t really point out just one coach. I’ve worked with a number of great football coaches. Whether it’s in Carolina, in Denver, or even the coaches that coached me as a player. Growing up the days when I was five-years-old playing peewee baseball in Novato (Calif.). There are a lot of coaches, I don’t just want to point out one. Before I forget I would just like to thank the Denver Broncos organization, John Elway, John Fox, Mr. Bowlen, for the opportunity they gave me the last four years before I came here. I forgot to mention them earlier.”

On how much input he anticipates having on personnel decisions and how much he wants:

“Tom, myself the rest of the organization, the personnel department, we are all in this together. Once we make a decision in this organization, it is the organization’s decision. It is not just myself and Tom’s decision or Mr. Spanos’ decision. It is the organization’s decision. Once we call a play in the game, hey, the team, the organization, that is our play. Same thing with the Draft. When we draft our player we are not going to worry about who we didn’t get, the guys we missed, this and that. We will worry about the players we draft, the free agents, the people we sign here. You’re our football players and we are all in this together.”

On what has prepared him most to be a head coach:

“The past 13 years I have been around a lot of great football coaches, two fine organizations, the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos. [They had] a number of different ways of doing things. I have been around some great offensive coordinators, some great players. They prepared me for this opportunity for the last 13 years. They all laughed at me when I walked in with all of these books and binders. That is my life’s work. We have a detailed plan here than Tom and I are going to put together. All of the schedules we are doing for OTAs, mini camps, how the players are going to eat during training camp, meals, times of practices, how we are going to go on the road if we are going to the east coast, if we are leaving on Fridays or Saturdays for road trips. We are going to have a detailed plan. There is not just one way to do this. We are going to work together as an organization. The Chargers have done things differently in the past. There is going to be some change. Mr. Spanos and I were talking yesterday about changing some things. There is a reason for change. Change is good sometimes in organizations. We just have to make the most of the opportunity we have moving forward.”

On where the team needs to improve the most on the field:

“There is not just one area. The entire football team needs get better, all positions can improve. [We want to] build depth on the football team through the Draft and free agency. We have to take it one day at a time. We have a lot of work ahead of us evaluating the football team. I won’t make too many comments right now on the personnel. Tom, myself and the rest of the staff are going to sit down and start evaluating the football team this afternoon and get going. We will make changes wherever necessary.”

On what about the Chargers made it the right fit for him besides the family aspect:

“I think the foundation is in place here to build a winner for a long time. There are some great players here. We’re going to build through those players. We are going to build through the Draft, develop those young players and take it one day at a time. It is going to be a process. It is going to take some time but I think the foundation is here to build a winner for the long-haul.”

On his expectation of the fans and what they should be expecting from him:

“I’ve never gone into any game thinking we are going to lose. We are going to go out to every game with the approach that we are going to win this football game. There are a lot of crazy things that happen in this business from week to week. We’re not going to make any predictions. We are going to go out there every week, represent the Chargers organization the way we want it to be, be a tough, smart football team that is going to play our tails off regardless of the score and we will see what happens.”

On how long before he had a conversation with his wife Kelly and she knew:

“We came down here last two years ago after you guys beat us there (in Denver) and we entered Tim Tebow into the game and we almost came back and beat you guys at the end. We came down here. I have a big picture, just took it out of my office in Denver, with the kids with the dolphins at Sea World. I mentioned this to her last night, remember this great day we had? We are going. She had no hesitations at all, especially the kids too. She saw that and remembered the great weekend we had here during the bye week last year. It will be an easy transition for the kids and Kelly.”

On how working with three different quarterbacks in Denver helped him grow as a coach:

“Like I mentioned earlier, it is our job as football coaches to take advantage of the talent we have. Regardless of who the quarterback is, you have to understand what they do best. If they can’t throw a comeback route, why are you throwing a comeback route? If they don’t have a speed receiver outside, why are you trying to throw the ball vertically? We have to figure it out. We will sit down and analyze the football team and do what we do best as time goes along. Come the first week next season, we will have a great system in place.”

On his evaluation of what has happened to Philip Rivers in the past two years:

“I can’t tell you. I’m going to sit down with Philip the next couple of days and really get a lot of input from him and some other players also. I will ask them what happened and for any advice. Where can we help them as a coaching staff? What changed? I’m going to leave that open to them to give me some input. I have not watched every game from last year. We are going to do that here in the next couple of weeks without a doubt.  We’ll find out. I’ll ask Philip some tough questions and things but we will see what happens.”

On whether he knew Tom Telesco before the hiring process began:

“No, I did not.”

On whether he sees this as a big overhaul process or just tweaking:

“Every organization right now, regardless who you are, the organization I just came from, we talked about things the other day when I was in the office. We’ve got to change this, we’ve got to change that. Every organization this time of year is trying to find a way to be one of those teams still playing today. That is what we are going to do. We are going to look at the organization and find out where our players are. Once we get the staff together, let the staff analyze that. Let the staff figure out defensively, offensively, special teams-wise, this is where we need to improve.”

On ever seeing himself as a head coach in the NFL:

“It was always a dream of mine. I was very fortunate. I think you have to be in the right place at the right time. When I was in Denver in 1995 as a player during training camp I met a guy by the name of Bill Musgrave. He was a backup quarterback there and in 1999 I was playing in the CFL in Calgary. We had just lost the Grey Cup to Hamilton. A couple weeks later he called me out of the blue to go help him in Carolina and get into coaching. I always had an idea that I might want to do this as a coach and as time went along, three or four years into it, I love the game. I have a passion for the game of football. It is a lifetime opportunity to have this opportunity to be a head coach of the San Diego Chargers. Four or five years ago, I really started building a plan if I got that opportunity and got the right one, I would look into it”

On jumping to a division rival weighing his decision to accept the position:

“No. I was just looking for the best place to go really. And just to understand, not to take any job. In our profession you are either hired or fired. You have to take a move to say, ‘hey I am the head coach.’ When I made that move with the help of Bob LaMonte, of saying hey we make this move to make an advancement in our career, that we are making the right move and not just take any job. We are not just going to take any job. This is great fit for myself, my family and the organization.”

On the most important questions he wanted answered from Dean Spanos and Tom Telesco during the interview process:

“We met for a couple hours and like I said, we wanted to get to know one another. It is easy because this is a family-run business. Family is huge to me. I wanted to go somewhere that you can welcome your family with open arms. Come in here and understand that we all work our tails off. We work a lot of hours as football coaches. Players work extremely hard but understand that there are certain family values also. Understand that it is all about winning. We’re going to build this organization to be a championship organization on the football field and in the community. There are a lot of little details that the Spanos family talked about. The way they run their organization, the day-to-day operations, the way we are going to handle road trips. There is a lot of detail that went into yesterday’s short amount of time.”

On being onboard in the decision to let the clock run out in Saturday’s playoff game:

“As an organization we made that decision and we are going to do the same thing here. When we make decisions as a football team we’re all going to live with it. We’re all going to back one another. It is the same thing. Players are going to make mistakes on the football field. That is our job as coaches to help them. I backed John Fox 100 percent. He is the head football coach, he is going to make those decisions. There are some tough decisions. At the end of the game, the situation we were in, the 3^rd-and-3 we gave up, there is a 97.9 percent you should win that football game. It is not just that play. We have a number of other opportunities as a football team to put that team away and we didn’t do it offensively, defensively, special teams did a phenomenal job.”

On any discussion between him and Dean Spanos on the uncertainty of the team staying in San Diego:

“I asked the question but that is not my concern right now. We have a number of other things we have to worry about right now.”

On whether his offensive coordinator will call plays:

“Yes.”

On who his offensive coordinator will be:

“I’ll let you know when we get one.”

On how he would describe his personality:

“I like to have a good time. I work extremely hard. We are going to have fun here. The players will work their tails off. Everyone in the organization is going to work extremely hard. You’re not going to see me on the practice field yelling and screaming a lot. I’m a laid back person to a certain extent but as coaches we all snap sooner or later. Don’t be surprised if you see me a couple days calm, cool and collected then all of the sudden Philip does something and I might lose it every once and a while. It will be the same thing on game day. I try to stay even keel as much as possible.”

On how hard it was to coach Tim Tebow:

“It was a great opportunity. In this business you take advantage of what players do best. I was a little stubborn early on I will say. In the Detroit game we kind of stayed in the same system we had been running there. We got beat pretty good by Detroit and it was like, wait what are we trying to do here? What are the best things for Tim and the rest of the team, and go from there. We did something special last year as an organization. It is not going to be done the same way ever again I believe. Now teams understand what can happen when you run that kind of offense. Teams last year were shocked. They had no idea. It was comical after game actually when players would come up to me, defensive linemen, absolutely dumbfounded about what we were doing. They had no idea how to stop him.”

On subscribing to the trend of analytic studies with numbers in football and if he will coach that way as well:

“That is not why we did what we did. As a head coach and an organization you have to make certain decisions in games. We’re going to rely more on our players. If it is a two-minute drive and or certain factors. Have they stopped us at all during the game? How is our defense playing? What is our special teams doing? What is the weather? Can we kick this field goal at this distance? Can we go for it on fourth down because you’re on the road and it’s windy? We’re going to go by feel. You have to go by feel. How is your football team playing? Are you going to throw in certain third-down situations? Are you going to run the football? What are you going to do?”

On being open to bringing in a young quarterback for Philip Rivers to mentor:

“Without a doubt. I thought you were going to ask me if Philip wanted to run the option. He did ask me about that (laughing). We will do whatever we have to do. Tom and I will sit down and the rest of the organization. We will have a detailed plan for the Draft and free agency. We have a lot ahead of us until that point, before free agency and the Draft come around. We are going to develop what our team needs moving forward. We will try to get as many as we can. Some young players are going to have to step up and fill those needs.”

Closing statement:

“Thank you everyone for coming. I look forward to meeting everyone individually as time goes on. I will try to help you guys out as much as I can but remember, we are coaches. We will hold certain things back.”1.) Add an image and scale it to 450 pixels wide. 2.) Add an intro paragraph. 3.) the SPAN CLASS html code is the "continue reading" button that shows up on the home page. 4.) add your post content after the span class. 5.) make sure to paste into Notepad first to strip out any other code...we just want plain text. 6.) schedule your post for 8:00am pacific time. 7. MAKE SURE THAT {/span} is the last thing in the post, otherwise it'll break the layout!! :) THE FULL POST COMES NEXT