Kent Austin Visits with the Media

Ole Miss assistant coach and offensive coordinator Kent Austin visited with the media Thursday. The following is the transcript from his Q&A.

Q: On coming back to Ole Miss.

First of all it was quite an honor to get a call from Houston (Nutt) to be considered for the position. I said at the time that he got hired (when we were back in the Grey Cup) I thought it was an outstanding hire for Ole Miss. Ole Miss was very lucky to get a guy of his quality both as a coach and an individual.  He is a winner and also an individual who understands how to put together a great staff.   I knew through my discussions with David Lee.  I already had an understanding of the quality of the individuals that I would be with even before I was offered the job. That was real important. For me, leaving Saskatchewan was a tough thing after only being there one year and being able to establish it to accomplish what we did.  But at the end of the day I decided to come and work for a great guy and work with a great staff of guys that totally get “it.” They are completely unselfish.  I wanted to come work with coaches who have won and understand how to build on the lives of the players, and to come home and be back at my Alma Mater.

Q: On it being his Alma Mater.

It helped a lot you bet. Being able to come home and being at the university is quite an honor.  I understand that and I consider it a privilege to be here. I do not take it lightly. The trust that Houston placed in me will be honored.

Q: On what Nutt had to do to sell the position to him.

It was a little bit of everything.  Not every head coach is the same guy, and I have learned that.  It was very important to me that the guy I was going to serve had Houston’s qualities. I am learning more and more about those qualities as I am with him everyday. Having David Lee in the process who had been with him on two different occasions helped a lot, so I have a feeling that I am in line with Houston and how he teaches, how he motivates, and what he expects.  I understand the accountability he creates within his staff but also within the team.  I like his understanding that the team is about them and that the team has to take ownership.  From that stand point it was very easy for me because I believe in the same things he does.   It was very important for me to work for a quality individual and a quality coach who had a proven track record for winning. Houston has that as do the individual staff members that I will be interacting with a lot on an individual basis throughout the weeks. Those things were important.  Being able to come back and coach here and coach in the SEC, which I believe is the best conference in the country, all those were a great opportunity for me.  Like I said earlier it’s a privilege to be back here.

Q: On if his and Nutt’s offensive philosophies were similar.

In a lot of respects they are and in some respects they aren’t.  But you can take any coach on the offense and probably get the same answer.  What you do is important, but not as important as how you do it.  There is a difference.  The most important thing is that we  take the player’s collective skills both individually and collectively, their intelligence and their experience and structure an offense that gives them the best chance possible to succeed. That is what’s most important. A lot of coaches have won a lot of different ways doing a lot of different things.  There are no gurus in football on either side of the ball.  What’s important is that you understand the talents of your players and that you can piece the puzzle together collectively to give the unit the best chance possible. That’s what’s important.

Q: On if it’s going to be a Kent Austin offense or a Houston Nutt offense.

It’s going to be an Ole Miss offense. This isn’t about me.  It’s about the team and Houston gets that.  That’s why I wanted to work for him. He totally gets it on every level. We cannot start to segment out those types of things because it brings the focus off of what is important and puts it on something that is not important. What is important is to have success as a unit however that looks. People have won with the wishbone, they have won with two tight ends and they have won with spreads.  They have won with different things.  I ran everything in Canada.  We did everything including no backs and three receivers. What’s important is how you utilize the talents of the guys that you have.  The thing that I like about this staff more than anything else, besides the fact that they are talented, is that there are no agendas. They are unselfish guys that only care about winning and understand that it’s about the players. It isn’t about the coaches.

 

Q: On the most important thing for the offense heading into spring practice.

It’s a little bit of everything.  Obviously you can evaluate the guys that did play last year, but you can only go so far. We need to see them do the things we asked them to do. We need to evaluate them not only physically but to evaluate their ability to understand and to learn.  We need to see how quickly they can transfer what we teach them in the classroom to doing it physically on the field. We need to see how effectively they can accomplish that. We are looking to see how they interact with each other how unselfish or inwardly focused they are. When we get out of spring camp we will have more answers then and be able to piece together the puzzle in a more informed fashion.

 

Q: On Jevan Snead.

I was pretty impressed. He is a quality person. I can tell that his parents raised him the right way and I have talked to his parents as well. He is a guy that cares about being good and that matters.  That’s half the battle. He wants to be good in everything he does. He has an understanding as to why it is important to strive for excellence in all areas of his life and transfers that to the football field. Physically, he is a guy that has a great arm, a quick release.  That is hard to find. He has athleticism, he is big, he is strong and he is bright.  He is very coachable.   Obviously we need to see how well he can play at this level of competition. That separates the average ones from the great ones.

Q: Any other guys jump out at you after watching film.

I think we have some good skill guys. We have a pretty solid line. I am excited about our skill players.  We have some playmakers.  At the end of the day, the skill players have to have that one quality, the ability to make plays.  I don’t care if a receiver is a body-catcher, or catches with his hand, can he make plays.  If he is a playmaker, then we can work with him.  We have some of those guys.

Q: On his involvement in recruiting the two new quarterbacks.

Chris (Wilkes) was already committed.  I talked with him a couple of times.  I was involved with Nathan (Stanley).  He came and took a visit when I was here.  Then I had a follow up conversation with him.  So I was more involved with him than I was with Chris.  They are both big guys.  From an intangible standpoint, they have football intelligence.  They are confident.  They have that “it” thing about them. They’ve won, and they have big arms.  It’s important that we have quarterbacks, if we can find them, who can attack every area of the football field.  Those two guys have that.

Q: On what he learned from his years in the CFL.

I’ve learned from every situation and every coach I’ve been around.  You can learn from everybody that you’ve had experience with.  I’ve learned from all of them on how to relate to players both on and off the field to how to organize and structure an entire team.  I’ve learned how to manage people.   It’s not one thing. I’ve learned in every area, and I continue to grow in a lot of areas.

Q: Talk about your lack of experience in recruiting.

I was selling all the time in Canada.  It’s one thing to identify an American player that you think can play in that league. It’s a whole another thing to get them signed to play in a place like Saskatchewan.  That’s not a slight to Saskatchewan, because it’s one of the best places I’ve ever been in my life.  But Americans don’t know anything about Canada.  It was easier initially, to attract players to a place like Toronto or Vancouver, than it is in the prairies.  I was heavily involved in trying to get guys to sign to come up to Canada and convincing them why that was a good move in their career.  I understand it’s a little different dealing with high school players and their families and parents. But if you believe in what you are doing, have character and integrity, are truthful and persistent, and your honest and genuine in your approach, you will attract those individuals to you.

 

Q: On what it was like to work for Eric Tillman and how difficult it was to leave.

It was difficult.  Eric and I are very close. He gave me an opportunity to be a head coach in Canada.  We go back a long way.  He brought me over in 1994 to be his quarterback when he was at Vancouver.  We won the (Grey) Cup that year. He is a quality individual. He’s bright, he’s shrewd, and he knows how to build a team.  He understands it’s about others and not about him.  You can be successful at what you do, but not be inwardly focused, and Eric understands that.

 

Q: On if it was easier to tell him you were leaving since you were coming to Ole Miss.

Eric was unbelievable in this situation.  He has a philosophy that if an individual can better himself than he understands why that is important and why he needs to support that. At the same time, he has to protect the interests and responsibilities that he has with his current job description.  He was unbelievably gracious in this process.  But he did make a push to make sure that it didn’t happen.  At the end of the day when this is what I decided I wanted to do, he was very supportive.

Q: On the transition.

Any transition that you make whether it’s viewed as up, down or sideways or diagonal, there are phases that will be difficult and phases that won’t be difficult. It depends on the situation that you find yourself in.  Because I’ve done it a few times, I can draw on those experiences to help me with this transition here at Ole Miss.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

Related News

Related Videos