This installment of Coaches Corner features assistant defensive backs coach Rick Courtright. Now see if one of your questions was chosen to be answered by Courtright…
Hampton Jensen asked:
How difficult is it to make a transition from corner to safety?
“It’s very difficult to make the transition from corner to safety or safety to corner. A lot of times, even though they are all considered defensive backs, there distinctively different positions, and there is even a distinct difference at the safety position between the free safety and the strong safety. Even though those two positions can be more interchangeable, the corner position and the safety position are a little less. With that being said, there are some people that have had some success making that transition; obviously Adrian Wilson is one of them who was drafted as a corner coming out of college. He had played corner and some safety which gave him an advantage in that regard. But they are two distinct positions and the techniques and fundamentals of the position, although there’s a lot of carry over they are distinctively different.”
CubeDesk asked:
With the addition of Terrence Holt who was college teammates with Adrian Wilson, how will that help out the secondary?
“There history is going to be an immense effort, and that is one of the reasons Adrian came in and actually did a little bit of lobbying when Terrence became a free agent and we did listen to Adrian in that regard. Terrence is a good football player and so we were happy to have him come onboard. But there experience together, their ability to communicate, knowing what each others doing and communicating with each other during the game is something that’s very important. With that being said it’s not a foregone conclusion that Aaron Francisco is not going to be out there communicating with Adrian as well. That’s something that’s also been good because by bringing in Terrence Holt our whole level has been increased in the back end and so those three safeties are actually going to do a great job of directing things on the back end for us.”
Jack Corrigan
How does a backup on the Cardinals, like Darrell Hunter, work his way up to a starting or contributing role on the defensive side of the ball?
“Guys like Darrell Hunter, Aaron Francisco is another example, came in as free agents into the league. Darrell Hunter is a corner, and Aaron Francisco came in as a safety, but they all are going to be asked to do jobs on the defensive side of the ball as well as on special teams. They get their time when they get into the preseason games, they obviously have practices and mini-camps where they can show us stuff, and of course they also play on special teams and that’s a way to get their foot in the door. That’s what happened with Aaron Francisco as a free agent. Special teams is how he got noticed and then has worked himself into a position to vie for a starting job.”
Michael Trenton asked:
How much of an advantage does the secondary have at practice due to the fact that they get to face some of the best receivers in the NFL today?
“For those guys it’s huge. Darrell Hunter gets to work against Anquan Boldin Larry Fitzgerald, and Bryant Johnson on a daily basis. When we go one-on-one db’s versus receivers, a lot of times our starting db’s will try to take those reps because it is again a valuable experience for them. But there still going to have to take some of those against those better receivers, and then when we get into the team situations in practice, he’s obviously going to line up against those guys.”
Walter Richters asked:
What is your opinion on the necessity of blitzing while still protecting the deep threat?
“With a blitzing philosophy there is kind of a step-by-step process on defense. Ideally you’d like to be able to get pressure from your front four, your defensive front four and that allows you to play different types of coverages with your back seven. If you can’t or you feel like you can exploit something offensively by bringing a fifth guy then you do that, which still allows you to play some kind of coverages on the back end where you’re going to employ six defenders. Usually that involves keeping a free safety in the middle of the field or at least one if not two free safeties in the middle of the field and then ultimately you can get to a situation where your going to bring six guys, which is an all out blitz and now you’re going to end up having some form of man coverage without getting anybody help. It gets progressively more riskier based on the number of defenders playing against the pass, but you also have that many more guys coming to exploit the offense’s protection.”
Christopher Welle asked:
What area have you seen the biggest improvement in Adrian Wilson’s game over the last four years?
“He has stepped up in a lot of different ways. Obviously on the field his improvement came from working extra. He tried to improve in areas that he and us thought needed to be worked on. The biggest thing I see from him is his leadership and that’s something that comes from obviously performing. At the NFL level you get a voice, you get to be a leader by how you perform on the field. A lot of players have looked at Adrian as a leader for a long time and now he’s stepped up and he’s taken on that role and taken it on very admirably.”
Kim Davis asked:
How much do you think the defense has benefited from having you and Clancy Pendergast retained and the defense not having to learn an entirely new defensive system?
“I think that our guys here would have excelled in any system that is taught to them. They’re pretty quick learners and they work hard and they want to do well, and they are very talented on top of that. I think anytime you can maintain some consistency that’s always going to be an advantage. So we have that going for us. The beauty of it is too, we’re also adding along with maintaining what we’ve done for the past three years. We’re adding experience of guys like Billy Davis, Teryl Austin, and Ron Aiken who have things that they bring to the table that mesh with the stuff that we have been doing. When you only have 11 football players to play defense there is only a certain number of things that you can do and so we are just going to try to incorporate the best of all our backgrounds and make it work for us. Fortunately our players respond to that kind of stuff.”
Tammy Johnson asked:
How did you get your start in coaching and what is your ultimate career goal?
“I got my start in coaching way back when I was actually playing in college as part of my major. I was a physical education major and they required us to do internships and some different things so I started coaching while I was still playing in college. Earlier than that I had been exposed in high school to several different coaching styles and they kind of spurned my interest into being a coach. I kind of said ‘hey I’d like to kind of consider that as an option.’ After I got through playing I did a couple of different things, worked with juvenile delinquents for three years, which helped me realize I would like to coach and teach people that have a desire to better themselves. I got back into high school coaching and was fortunate to be around Don James with my first graduate assistant at the University of Washington. Being around those kinds of people really motivated me to be the best coach that I could be. My ultimate goal right now is to be the best coach that I can be to help the Arizona Cardinals win the championship. If it leads to something else I will consider myself fortunate. We all as coaches have aspirations, maybe bettering ourselves position wise, but I haven’t sat down and written my goals down per say and say that this is what I want to be by the time I turn this age.”
Mark Reid asked:
Outside of football what do you enjoy doing?
“I enjoy spending time with my wife who I have been married to for 22 years, and very happily married I should say. I’m from Miami so I like to go deep sea fishing and diving so those are the types of things I like to do for fun.”
Hampton Jensen asked:
How difficult is it to make a transition from corner to safety?
“It’s very difficult to make the transition from corner to safety or safety to corner. A lot of times, even though they are all considered defensive backs, there distinctively different positions, and there is even a distinct difference at the safety position between the free safety and the strong safety. Even though those two positions can be more interchangeable, the corner position and the safety position are a little less. With that being said, there are some people that have had some success making that transition; obviously Adrian Wilson is one of them who was drafted as a corner coming out of college. He had played corner and some safety which gave him an advantage in that regard. But they are two distinct positions and the techniques and fundamentals of the position, although there’s a lot of carry over they are distinctively different.”
CubeDesk asked:
With the addition of Terrence Holt who was college teammates with Adrian Wilson, how will that help out the secondary?
“There history is going to be an immense effort, and that is one of the reasons Adrian came in and actually did a little bit of lobbying when Terrence became a free agent and we did listen to Adrian in that regard. Terrence is a good football player and so we were happy to have him come onboard. But there experience together, their ability to communicate, knowing what each others doing and communicating with each other during the game is something that’s very important. With that being said it’s not a foregone conclusion that Aaron Francisco is not going to be out there communicating with Adrian as well. That’s something that’s also been good because by bringing in Terrence Holt our whole level has been increased in the back end and so those three safeties are actually going to do a great job of directing things on the back end for us.”
Jack Corrigan
How does a backup on the Cardinals, like Darrell Hunter, work his way up to a starting or contributing role on the defensive side of the ball?
“Guys like Darrell Hunter, Aaron Francisco is another example, came in as free agents into the league. Darrell Hunter is a corner, and Aaron Francisco came in as a safety, but they all are going to be asked to do jobs on the defensive side of the ball as well as on special teams. They get their time when they get into the preseason games, they obviously have practices and mini-camps where they can show us stuff, and of course they also play on special teams and that’s a way to get their foot in the door. That’s what happened with Aaron Francisco as a free agent. Special teams is how he got noticed and then has worked himself into a position to vie for a starting job.”
Michael Trenton asked:
How much of an advantage does the secondary have at practice due to the fact that they get to face some of the best receivers in the NFL today?
“For those guys it’s huge. Darrell Hunter gets to work against Anquan Boldin Larry Fitzgerald, and Bryant Johnson on a daily basis. When we go one-on-one db’s versus receivers, a lot of times our starting db’s will try to take those reps because it is again a valuable experience for them. But there still going to have to take some of those against those better receivers, and then when we get into the team situations in practice, he’s obviously going to line up against those guys.”
Walter Richters asked:
What is your opinion on the necessity of blitzing while still protecting the deep threat?
“With a blitzing philosophy there is kind of a step-by-step process on defense. Ideally you’d like to be able to get pressure from your front four, your defensive front four and that allows you to play different types of coverages with your back seven. If you can’t or you feel like you can exploit something offensively by bringing a fifth guy then you do that, which still allows you to play some kind of coverages on the back end where you’re going to employ six defenders. Usually that involves keeping a free safety in the middle of the field or at least one if not two free safeties in the middle of the field and then ultimately you can get to a situation where your going to bring six guys, which is an all out blitz and now you’re going to end up having some form of man coverage without getting anybody help. It gets progressively more riskier based on the number of defenders playing against the pass, but you also have that many more guys coming to exploit the offense’s protection.”
Christopher Welle asked:
What area have you seen the biggest improvement in Adrian Wilson’s game over the last four years?
“He has stepped up in a lot of different ways. Obviously on the field his improvement came from working extra. He tried to improve in areas that he and us thought needed to be worked on. The biggest thing I see from him is his leadership and that’s something that comes from obviously performing. At the NFL level you get a voice, you get to be a leader by how you perform on the field. A lot of players have looked at Adrian as a leader for a long time and now he’s stepped up and he’s taken on that role and taken it on very admirably.”
Kim Davis asked:
How much do you think the defense has benefited from having you and Clancy Pendergast retained and the defense not having to learn an entirely new defensive system?
“I think that our guys here would have excelled in any system that is taught to them. They’re pretty quick learners and they work hard and they want to do well, and they are very talented on top of that. I think anytime you can maintain some consistency that’s always going to be an advantage. So we have that going for us. The beauty of it is too, we’re also adding along with maintaining what we’ve done for the past three years. We’re adding experience of guys like Billy Davis, Teryl Austin, and Ron Aiken who have things that they bring to the table that mesh with the stuff that we have been doing. When you only have 11 football players to play defense there is only a certain number of things that you can do and so we are just going to try to incorporate the best of all our backgrounds and make it work for us. Fortunately our players respond to that kind of stuff.”
Tammy Johnson asked:
How did you get your start in coaching and what is your ultimate career goal?
“I got my start in coaching way back when I was actually playing in college as part of my major. I was a physical education major and they required us to do internships and some different things so I started coaching while I was still playing in college. Earlier than that I had been exposed in high school to several different coaching styles and they kind of spurned my interest into being a coach. I kind of said ‘hey I’d like to kind of consider that as an option.’ After I got through playing I did a couple of different things, worked with juvenile delinquents for three years, which helped me realize I would like to coach and teach people that have a desire to better themselves. I got back into high school coaching and was fortunate to be around Don James with my first graduate assistant at the University of Washington. Being around those kinds of people really motivated me to be the best coach that I could be. My ultimate goal right now is to be the best coach that I can be to help the Arizona Cardinals win the championship. If it leads to something else I will consider myself fortunate. We all as coaches have aspirations, maybe bettering ourselves position wise, but I haven’t sat down and written my goals down per say and say that this is what I want to be by the time I turn this age.”
Mark Reid asked:
Outside of football what do you enjoy doing?
“I enjoy spending time with my wife who I have been married to for 22 years, and very happily married I should say. I’m from Miami so I like to go deep sea fishing and diving so those are the types of things I like to do for fun.”
