Throughout the offseason, The Oregonian/OregonLive will be sitting down with each Oregon State assistant coach, where they will recap the 2016 season and look ahead to spring football and beyond.
Next up as cornerbacks coach Cory Hall, who in his first season helped the Beavers rank 44th nationally in pass defense at 211.2 yards per game while developing a future NFL Draft pick in Treston Decoud and a freshman All-American in Xavier Crawford.
What were your biggest takeaways from your first season at OSU?
When I first got here, the first thing I did is I stayed in my office and stayed in my hotel room — even on the road — and I watched every individual player and every individual rep. I needed to know what they needed to work on and how to make them better. The first thing I did was start with the very basics. I approached them as though they had never played football before. I started off with the ABCs of the corner position and the ABCs of football offensively and defensively. They learned, and I challenged them a lot. I mean, my home is their home, so whenever they could come over, they would come over and it would be them just picking my brain. I showed them how to look at football in a different aspect, and the reason why I did that is because I wasn’t taught like that. That’s what made go into coaching was I didn’t know how much I didn’t know until, I would say, Year 5 in the NFL. And what sparked that was a coach. It was Emmitt Thomas. I had great coaches — J.D. Williams and Jim Sweeney and Jim Mora Jr.–but those were great motivators and great mentors and great father figures. The actual teacher was different. So what I’ve done is I’ve taken that approach to say, “I can’t assume that you know everything, or just anything.” I did that with Treston (Decoud) and Xavier (Crawford). Not only that, I challenged them physically, because I understand that this game, you’ve got to build up your body armor and you’re only gonna go as far as your body will allow you. Coach (Andersen) has caught me a few times — I tell him we start real basic with a deck of cards that you do pushups as you pull those cards out. Face cards are 10. Ace is 11. So on and so forth. It just became a funny, quirky little challenge that started building them, so you see those guys were able to endure the rigors and what’s taxing on your body through a 12-game season. Obviously, that’s Year 1. Now that changes. Now it’s about the opponent. Now it’s about the schematics. It’s not beginner level for Xavier. I started off in high school and I started compiling and combining and putting together my teaching techniques from Year 1 to a graduate-level Masters or PhD. (Incoming freshman) Justin Gardner might come in here and be at a Year 2 or a Year 3 level, but I know what that looks like now. And I wanted them to know that they have one voice as far as that position goes and to listen to it and to block out all outside distractions. Because that’s what the positon is. If you let those distractions in, then you’re off your game. But if you can become a distraction, then you can throw (the receiver) off.
Xavier Crawford is coming off a Freshman All-America season. What’s the next step for him in his growth?
I want to see him mature as a football player. I want to see him mature as an overall team leader. When you set standards, you’re going to class and you’re playing football. You go to class to get your degree. You play football to give you two options. You’re gonna get your degree, because that’s what we’re gonna make you do and we’re putting yourself in the best possible situation. Well everybody has the aspiration, if you’re playing football, to go to the next level to the NFL. So now what you have to do is you have to measure yourself to the NFL. What I do is I only talk to them in terms of my NFL experience. I think if you treat someone like that, that’s how they act. My philosophy is iron sharpens iron. I’m an NFL iron, so I’m gonna sharpen another NFL iron. I’m gonna see how much Xavier can handle of that, and based upon that, that’s what I expect to see. I expect to see the performance of savvy veteran, maybe second-year (player) coming off of a great rookie season in the NFL. Now let’s go for the Pro Bowl. That’s what I expect from Xavier. I expect his interceptions to go way up. I expect his knowledge of offense and defense to go up. I think he showed a lot of poise and he showed a lot of toughness last year. It’s hard to play 12 games straight and not miss a rep. He’s not a secret anymore. Everybody knows who he is, so I expect him to go out there and play the part.
What about the guys who could potentially replace Decoud? Jay Irvine is coming off an injury. Christian Wallace was on campus but could not practice because of the academic situation. Dwayne Williams was also hurt much of the year. What do you want to see from them?
Jay Irvine is no different than Xavier Crawford. The bar is set high for him, and he understands that. I had a conversation with him (last week) and he understands where he’s at and where I’m at with him. That maturation process, we’re over that. They honeymoon’s over. That stage is over. We set goals, and what a lot of people don’t know is I write them down and I take a take a copy and I take them home. So when Xavier said, “I want to be a Freshman All-American,” those goals became my goals. So what I tell them is, “Now you put that pressure on me.” For a player like Jay Irvine, if he does not excel and succeed as I think he should, then that means I failed. And if I failed, that means he and I have a problem, and he understands that. And it’s not just football. Academically, I’m pushing all these boys. Christian Wallace, same thing, you are not a freshman anymore. You were here. You were on a college campus, so now I need you to mature faster than what you thought you were gonna be allowed to. It’s not an option in my room, so I expect those guys to come in and show the freshmen how it should be done. Xavier, Dwayne, Jay, Christian, they all have to be “the guy.” And Xavier gets it. Xavier doesn’t have the ego. He’s like, “I need help, because you see what I went thorough last year?” You look at Dwayne and how important he was to us — we were 4-1 with Dwayne Williams. The challenge to him is we don’t need you for five weeks, we need you for 12. We want to create that culture in the room where we don’t want a fake bravado or a fake tough guy. We want a culture of learning and it’s instructive and you’re seeing the fruits of it. This secondary, I always tell them I believe that our team is as good as we are. If we don’t hold (the opponent) down, this is the Pac-12. I’m putting a lot of responsibility on those kids and I expect them to compete. I say, “Your job is earned every day.” There’s no doubt in my mind that the challenges have been issued to those players and they respect the head coach enough, the respect the defensive coordinator enough and they love me enough to get these things done. They’re all starters. They’re all No. 1. But they’re also all No. 2 and No. 3.
You just finished your first full recruiting cycle. How did it feel different compared to last year, when you were hired in January and jumped right into the stretch run before Signing Day?
I was in TraJon Cotton’s home and speaking with Isaiah Dunn and talking to Kaleb Hayes and Justin Gardner and their family members and I told them, “This is my first (recruiting class).” And I’m talking about career, not just with Oregon State. This is the first time that I’ve been able to pick players and see the process from beginning to end. This class, like I told those kids, you have to succeed. For me, this is my baby. This (whole program) is Coach (Andersen’s) baby. But for me, I get to see you from the time that we put that recruiting board up last year at this time and how many faces have come off of those boards offensively and defensively. Now to get to this point and see a lot of those relationships that we developed now coming full circle and now you’re in. I don’t have to go to Georgia anymore to see (Gardner). You’re gonna be here. And then I get to develop with you. I get to wake up with you in the mornings and go through meetings and see how you react to adversity and teach you how to handle different situations. It means a lot to me.
What are your early impressions of new safeties coach John Rushing?
It’s great chemistry. I played in the scheme he’s coached in the NFL. Our first conversation, it was like, “Yeah, I’m familiar with this. Now we cookin’.” And that’s good, because he and I can look at each other and we don’t have to say anything. We know. Just the professionalism that we have and the respect that we have for one another, it’s kind of like I’m the little brother that’s bigger than the big brother. It’s a good environment. We’re gonna meet together. Last year, it was kind of separated. But this year, we’re gonna spend time meeting together so the kids don’t just hear my voice or his players don’t just hear his voice. They’ll get used to hearing it from different directions and hearing different perspectives. And that’s what you want as a player, because you have to communicate and you have to understand that you’re not going to communicate with the same person all the time and the same personalities. When you put the two together, it makes for a good combination. I know his pedigree. I know where he’s from. I think Rush is gonna be real good for us.
This was your first season coaching a position group at this level. What did you learn?
The biggest thing, honestly, that I took away is football is still football. Coming in, I thought it would be something other than what I already knew it to be. That was the biggest shock. I knew it was highly competitive in the Pac-12, but (there’s also) the speed of it and the great minds of the coordinators that are in this league. And I didn’t learn it, but football is football. It’s what I’ve been doing my whole life. I learned a lot from Coach (Kevin) Clune and Coach Chad (Kauha’aha’a) and DO (Derrick Odum) and Coach (Dave) Baldwin and Coach (Brent) Brennan. I learned from Dick LeBeau a long time ago that as long as you’re green, you’ll grow. Once you think you know everything, that’s when you’re dead in this profession. I took from everybody, and I’m gonna do the exact same thing this year. Just keep learning. I’ve got to get better as a coach and get better as a mentor and get better as an instructor. Last year, maybe I didn’t know a route concept. Now I know that route concept, so we move on. So I look forward to learning what I don’t know.
How much have you talked to Treston Decoud about preparing for the NFL Draft? What’s been your biggest advice to him?
It’s daily. This is a big opportunity for him. I’m invested in Treston, because when I got here, he trusted me and we immediately went to work on his future. I wish I had him for another year. I’m excited to see what he’s gonna do moving forward. Obviously his football IQ has improved. You just got to hope he goes and does what he does. I always try to let them know rookie minimum salary is ($465,000), and if you’re a high-round draft pick, then you’re gonna get a multi-year contract. And then once you play three or four years of that rookie contract, now you’re talking about the second big deal, which always comes with seven digits or more. What I told Treston is, “You have to be football. You can’t be anything other than that.” You have to understand that if somebody’s gonna pay you that amount of money, what your mindset has to be and what your work ethic has to be. This interview that he’s on has to be one that he wakes up and studies his craft. You have to know something that you didn’t know yesterday about the game of football. You have to improve your body, your strength, your balance and your speed. And you have to rest. Stay off social media and don’t be so social. Because what you’ll realize is that, in those moments that you waste doing something that is not conducive to improving your mental or physical skill, when it’s all said and done and it when it all culminates and your heart is pounding on your tongue when you put your hand down and you have to run that 40-(yard dash) in front of all 32 teams, those tweets, going to the movies, going to the club, just your mind wandering, it wasn’t worth it at that point. The only thing you’re thinking about now is, “I gotta run this 40. I gotta know this defense. I gotta know what offense beats this defense. I gotta have this personality to light up a room when I’m going on interviews with the Green Bay Packers or when I have to diagram our base defense for New England.” Then you’ll wish you had that time back. Now he’s seeing that. Build your body. Build your mind. Once you do that, then you can do other things. But until you can do that, be football, because football can take you a long way. All those other things, they’re cute. Now I got Treston calling the young boys and telling them, “Yeah, you gotta listen to Coach Hall, man.” Now it’s not me demanding these things. It’s the NFL scouts. It’s the (general managers). Those people determine your future.
Oregon State assistant coach offseason interviews
Defensive coordinator Kevin Clune
Offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven
Offensive line coach T.J. Woods
— Gina Mizell | @ginamizell
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