Mondays with Bobby, featuring Mitchell Henry

Western Kentucky football practiced behind closed doors once again Tuesday. No media availability again until Thursday, so this will have to hold you.

Tight ends talk with TEs coach Pete Nochta, Mitchell Henry and Tyler Higbee.

Pete Nochta

Tight ends in the Petrino offense: “Well, if you go back and through the history of coach’s offense, there’s been a successful one and an integal part of it has always been the tight ends.

“Luckily for me I kinda got a chance to learn it when I played for him. You gotta be able to run block, you gotta be able to pass protect, you gotta be able to run routes and you gotta have athleticism.

“We’ve been blessed here. These guys are pretty good athletes and as you guys can see in the spring and through fall, they work hard, they make plays and that’s a big part of it.

“D.J. Williams at Arkansas won the Mackey Award and it’s a credit to him and a credit to coach Petrino and his offense.”

    WKU’s tight ends: “They’re talented and they have great work ethics. When we showed up from Day One they were ready to go. They show up and they work hard everyday. Some days are better than others, but they listen, they take coaching and you can see their techniques get better and that’s kind of what excites you about ‘em. It’s one thing to coach somebody that’s not coachable, but all these guys love football, they all are masters of the craft, they try to focus on the small details and that’s what makes you better and that’s what helps you to win the Mackey Award, that’s what helps you to be the best tight end in the conference.”

Biggest area to improve on: “It’s tough to say because with coach Petrino, we’re going to strive for perfection. There’s always some fine detail, so I always have to remind them every once in awhile that, ‘Yeah, we’re going to critique you heavily every play, we’re always gonna say something,’ and it may seem like you can’t do anything right.

“But they’re focused, they’re trying to fix something everyday and it’s good work because as long as they’re striving for perfection, as close as you can get to that, that’s all you can do.”

    Run-blocking: “With the offense, we have a bunch of different blocking schemes and we have a bunch of different things. So their head spins and it’s a lot of stuff to think about, but they’ve done a good job of figuring out the offense as a whole so now they know what to do, so now this fall camp we’ve been focusing on how to do it.

“Now they find the details: ‘We wanna take a six-inch step, not an eight-inch step. We wanna to get to here, we want to get to this point of his body.’ So they’ve started to come along with that.

“Being a tight end, you’re always at a disadvantage – you’re running a route against someone that’s faster than you or you’re trying to block someone bigger than you. You always have to pay attention to the details and that helps you to become successful.”

Tyler Higbee

    Team’s tight end play: “We’ve been out here for two, two-and-a-half weeks now, beating up on each other, ready to take out anger on somebody else.”

    Adjusting to tight end position: “Blocking, that was the hardest thing I had to do, the transformation obviously from wide receiver to tight end – a lot more blocking. And learning fronts and schemes, but it’s all coming together now and we’re getting it done.

“Mainly it’s working against more linebackers and safeties than corners and safeties. Dudes are a little bit bigger, so you gotta use different techniques on ‘em.”

 Practice this week: “The first two weeks were mainly just grind. Learning the offense, we had a lot of installation and it was get in your playbook, learn the plays and just grind, just go, just work, get better each day.

“Now we’re kinda done with the install, kinda trying to perfect our craft and perfect those certain plays and get ready for Week One.”

Mitchell Henry

    Tight ends in Petrino’s offense: “Going real good. All tight ends are getting the offense a lot better, understanding the scheme. A lot less mistakes. It was good to see just knowing where we need to be on each play and I think that’s what the whole offense is. Once you get 11 people knowing what to do, it can be real good. But, offensively, one guy messes up, it’s gonna be hard to do.”

 Added pressure to produce? “No, I don’t feel any pressure. We have a bunch of wide receivers that are gonna make plays. There’s some freshmen that are gonna make a lot of plays. You got Willie (McNeal) out there. I’m not the only tight end that’s gonna catch – Higs and (Tim) Gorski – all of us. We’re all gonna get to make plays.”

 Tight ends coaching: “There’s not a whole lot different. Last year coach (Stu) Holt was a little more intense than coach Nochta. Coach Nochta’s a lot younger, so he can probably relate to us a little bit more.

“But as far as teaching-wise, technique-wise, it’s all about the same.”

    Pete Nochta: “He’s been here. he’s played for coach Petrino, he played at Louisville with coach Petrino. He’s been in our shoes, so he knows what to do, how hard it is. He’s been there.”

    Run blocking: “It’s been a big adjustment. The past two years being behind Jack (Doyle), I’ve been more of a pass-catching tight end. This year I’ll have to step up – in that blocking role, too. I think it’s gone real good so far. I’ve worked on my techinique a lot more and coming off the ball harder. Blocking-wise I feel like I’m 10 times better than I have been blocking-wise the past two years.”

Filed under: Football, Talkin’ bout the Tops