RICHMOND, Ky. – Tony Hatmaker, who is now in his fourth year at EKU, was promoted from defensive backs coach to defensive coordinator this spring. The native of Hodgenville, Ky., recently sat down with EKUSports.com to discuss the state of the Colonel defense heading into the 2011 season.
Q: Is there going to be any change in philosophy on defense?
A: No, I mean it’s [head coach] Dean Hood’s defense. We’ve been running this thing as a staff since we’ve been here and there won’t be changes unless our personnel predicates a little more of this or a little more of that. But our philosophy will remain the same. We’re going to stop the run and be physical, and try to get offenses into third down and unmanageable situations. We want to make [opposing offenses] as uncomfortable as we can.
Q: What is it like to work with Coach Hood and the rest of the defensive coaching staff?
A: Dean is one of the best guys that I know off the field. When I became a coordinator early in my career in a Division II school out in Missouri, I learned a lot of things by just spending time with him – know what you believe in, know the adjustments, stay the course of what you are trying to accomplish, don’t try to outscheme anyone or be a guru, but be sound fundamentally, get your guys playing hard and physical, and have a lot of fun along the way. As a friend, he has been tremendously encouraging. The task of being the defensive backs coach for the position that the head coach specializes in is not an easy task in most situations, but he’s always been a source of encouragement. As I told him when he hired me, I just wanted to do it the way he wanted it done.
With our staff, you’ve got Jake Johnson who does a phenomenal job with our defensive line and really gets those guys playing at a high level. We’ll be young at the linebacker position, but Garry Fisher is getting those guys to play up above their experience level. Yon Boone, who is our graduate assistant, will be helping me out a little bit in the secondary. This spring, we were able to split up the corner backs and safeties to get more individualized time because those positions are so unique. It was very productive.
Q: What excites you the most about the defense heading into the 2011 season?
A: I think the thing that really excites me, whether it be about the defense or the team, is just the maturity [of our players]. We’re playing with older guys that have some experience and they have a higher level of ownership in the process. Any time you have ownership in anything, it’s more valuable to you.
Q: Are there any major concerns on the defensive side of the ball?
A: At this time, I feel pretty good about where we are at. There will be a lot to be answered when we come into camp about how much work our guys did this summer together. Because it’s all voluntary, we feel as if we are pretty good going into the summer. We intentionally designed our spring practices with the idea and the thought that [the players] would have more ownership. We turned over a little bit of the practice throughout spring practice to them and actually had an entire practice, that was one of our countable 15 practices, that they ran where [the coaches] were not out there at all. It’s nothing that I’ve ever been a part of, but an idea that [Coach Hood] had.
Sometimes we as coaches say, “Hey during the summer, you go do this and you go do that and you go run summer workouts without us,” but yet we never empower them in a situation during our regular time. Having the wisdom that coach did, to say that we are going to teach these guys how to be leaders and put them in situations to be leaders for the summer, I think is going to bode well for us as far as the progress for where we are going to be when Aug. 1 rolls around.
Q: In the past, the safeties have been responsible for making the reads and the on-field calls for the defense. Will that remain the same this year?
A: Yeah, the philosophy has not changed. We have not changed the terminology or any of that. If anything, we want to do what we do better and not add anything more. I think that’s one of the things that Coach Hood told me and told us as a staff. We found that out even last year. When we were going through that early skid, it wasn’t what we were doing, it was how we were doing it. Our emphasis during the spring was to do what we do better – coach it better, our players technically doing it better. Whatever it is, let’s find the way to be the very best at what we do, not try to outthink anybody or outsmart anybody.
Q: Are there any newcomers or redshirt freshmen that made a big impression in the spring that could have a big impact in the fall?
A: When you are talking about having a young group of linebackers that redshirted last year, putting them in the fire is something that’s going to be a little bit of a process. They really had an outstanding spring. They got a lot of valuable reps and that part is going to be good.
