Middle Tennesee State University Athletics
Polly excited for spring practice (photo taken in 2019)
Q&A: Polly 'more excited than ever' for spring to begin
3/11/2021 6:00:00 PM | Football
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Assistant coach Mike Polly is always excited for spring football to start, but this year feels a little different.
Polly has worn quite a few hats for Middle Tennessee since he was hired by head coach Rick Stockstill in 2013. The former Blue Raiders grad assistant (2007-09) started as the team's running backs coach in 2013, adding special teams coordinator duties the following year before moving from RBs to the offensive line in 2016. He's helped O-line coach Rick Mallory with the tackles and tight ends ever since while still handling special teams and serving as the run game coordinator.
Since he's got his hands in so many places for the Blue Raiders, spring practice is always one of his favorite times of the year, a period where he can really focus on teaching all different aspects of the game.
This year, after the 2020 spring and summer periods were canceled and the season marred by COVID-19, Polly is understandably more eager than ever to get on the field when MT opens its spring practice on Tuesday. It's easy to see why — the Blue Raiders have a few new coaches on the offensive side, including coordinator Brent Dearmon, and a large group of returners mixed with very promising looking newcomers, not to mention it looks like they'll actually get to practice.
We sat down with Polly to talk everything Blue Raider football, from spring drills to the offense, special teams and a little defense thrown in:
Are you more excited than usual for this year's spring drills?
"Yeah, for a lot of reasons, I'm the most excited I've ever been to get working with these guys. You don't realize how much you love something sometimes until you miss it, and missing last spring and summer and the season being so strange, to get these guys back in the weight room and watch them work in matt drills and on the field … and to see the smile on their faces and see how excited they are, it's been awesome.
"I can probably speak for everyone on our offensive staff, we are super excited to get started. Having some of these older guys back is kind of cool, guys you typically wouldn't get back if it wasn't for the COVID rule. … I think our leadership is really good, and that's probably making me more excited than I've ever been."
Did not going through spring practice and summer drills last year make you realize how important they really are?
"Absolutely. For us especially, we were a much better team late in the year than we were early. I think that was really evident just if you look at the last Troy game. If spring ball didn't matter and summer training didn't matter, we wouldn't do it. Those things do matter. Then, the weight room part of it, when you take young men who are used to exerting every single day and lifting and running out of the weight room, that matters. I know our guys did a good job when they were at home, but it's just not the same.
"To see them get back in the weight room again and see their bodies change and start looking like Division I football players again, that's pretty cool. They're back in the weight room and back getting at it."
What have been your impressions of OC Brent Dearmon so far?
"Just with the way he does things, I feel like I've learned so much football in such a short period of time. The accountability he puts on every one of us as coaches to know what everyone on the offense is supposed to be doing … that's awesome, because it feels like everybody is in it together. Learning his system has been really fun so far, and the attitude and energy he's brought and the camaraderie amongst our staff is really good. It's just really exciting to finally get on the field and get rolling."
You have some newcomers joining the O-line who are just physically huge. How much of an emphasis did you put on getting bigger up front?
"That's huge. Obviously, they have to be good players, but we feel like we have to get bigger and get stronger. That was a huge emphasis in the guys we brought in. The two who are here right now, Netori Johnson and Jamari Williams, they have been fantastic so far. They're both great workers with great personalities, and they obviously have a lot of talent. There's a reason they signed with Power 5 programs out of high school. I'm excited for those guys to have a fresh start and to watch them work this spring and help this offensive line."
Robert Jones was a big loss this offseason on the O-line, but how excited are you about the big group of returners?
"We are super young. We lost Big Rob, and that stung, but we couldn't be prouder of him and can't wait to watch him play in the NFL. He's one of my most favorite guys I've ever coached. In terms of what we have coming back, it's really exciting. There are so many young guys who played really good football for us towards the end of the year — Dorian Hinton, Steven Losoya III, Jahlil Ryles, … Marcus Greer, Jordan Palmer, … Lance Robinson, Eric Magwood — those guys have had really good offseasons and we're really excited for all of them. They're getting bigger and stronger and have really dove into learning our offense this offseason."
You're searching for a new kicker this season. How has that gone so far?
"We haven't gotten to see a ton yet, but we have our snapper back and our holder back with Brody Butler and Kyle Ulbrich, who's also still punting for us, and those are obviously two key elements in the kicking game. It's really just an open competition, and we're just trying to find a guy who can be consistent for us and even elevate our game. We need to improve on our kickoff distance and hangtime, and our guys know and understand there's a wide-open competition with field goal and kickoff."
How important is the depth of the defense for your special teams units, like kickoff and punt coverage?
"Our defensive guys have done such a good job for us on special teams. The thing about special teams is if you're going to be great, you can't just have your down-the-line guys playing there. I have a clip that I always like to show our guys of Alabama's punt team the year Derrick Henry won the Heisman, and he's at right guard on their punt team. That's what we have to have out of our guys, and we have a great opportunity here to have older, veteran guys all over our special teams."
What do you most want to see the first few practices this spring?
"I think the biggest thing for us right now is we have a very renewed energy and freshness in our building and on the field. Our kids can feel that, and I want to see us use that again and fly around on the field. Obviously, last year was a weird year in a lot of ways. To see our guys as soon as they step on that grass fly around from drill to drill and compete with each other … I can't wait to see that. We've seen such a great increase of leadership from last season with our guys, and that camaraderie, leadership and competitiveness will be huge for us."
Polly has worn quite a few hats for Middle Tennessee since he was hired by head coach Rick Stockstill in 2013. The former Blue Raiders grad assistant (2007-09) started as the team's running backs coach in 2013, adding special teams coordinator duties the following year before moving from RBs to the offensive line in 2016. He's helped O-line coach Rick Mallory with the tackles and tight ends ever since while still handling special teams and serving as the run game coordinator.
Since he's got his hands in so many places for the Blue Raiders, spring practice is always one of his favorite times of the year, a period where he can really focus on teaching all different aspects of the game.
This year, after the 2020 spring and summer periods were canceled and the season marred by COVID-19, Polly is understandably more eager than ever to get on the field when MT opens its spring practice on Tuesday. It's easy to see why — the Blue Raiders have a few new coaches on the offensive side, including coordinator Brent Dearmon, and a large group of returners mixed with very promising looking newcomers, not to mention it looks like they'll actually get to practice.
We sat down with Polly to talk everything Blue Raider football, from spring drills to the offense, special teams and a little defense thrown in:
Are you more excited than usual for this year's spring drills?
"Yeah, for a lot of reasons, I'm the most excited I've ever been to get working with these guys. You don't realize how much you love something sometimes until you miss it, and missing last spring and summer and the season being so strange, to get these guys back in the weight room and watch them work in matt drills and on the field … and to see the smile on their faces and see how excited they are, it's been awesome.
"I can probably speak for everyone on our offensive staff, we are super excited to get started. Having some of these older guys back is kind of cool, guys you typically wouldn't get back if it wasn't for the COVID rule. … I think our leadership is really good, and that's probably making me more excited than I've ever been."
Did not going through spring practice and summer drills last year make you realize how important they really are?
"Absolutely. For us especially, we were a much better team late in the year than we were early. I think that was really evident just if you look at the last Troy game. If spring ball didn't matter and summer training didn't matter, we wouldn't do it. Those things do matter. Then, the weight room part of it, when you take young men who are used to exerting every single day and lifting and running out of the weight room, that matters. I know our guys did a good job when they were at home, but it's just not the same.
"To see them get back in the weight room again and see their bodies change and start looking like Division I football players again, that's pretty cool. They're back in the weight room and back getting at it."
What have been your impressions of OC Brent Dearmon so far?
"Just with the way he does things, I feel like I've learned so much football in such a short period of time. The accountability he puts on every one of us as coaches to know what everyone on the offense is supposed to be doing … that's awesome, because it feels like everybody is in it together. Learning his system has been really fun so far, and the attitude and energy he's brought and the camaraderie amongst our staff is really good. It's just really exciting to finally get on the field and get rolling."
You have some newcomers joining the O-line who are just physically huge. How much of an emphasis did you put on getting bigger up front?
"That's huge. Obviously, they have to be good players, but we feel like we have to get bigger and get stronger. That was a huge emphasis in the guys we brought in. The two who are here right now, Netori Johnson and Jamari Williams, they have been fantastic so far. They're both great workers with great personalities, and they obviously have a lot of talent. There's a reason they signed with Power 5 programs out of high school. I'm excited for those guys to have a fresh start and to watch them work this spring and help this offensive line."
Robert Jones was a big loss this offseason on the O-line, but how excited are you about the big group of returners?
"We are super young. We lost Big Rob, and that stung, but we couldn't be prouder of him and can't wait to watch him play in the NFL. He's one of my most favorite guys I've ever coached. In terms of what we have coming back, it's really exciting. There are so many young guys who played really good football for us towards the end of the year — Dorian Hinton, Steven Losoya III, Jahlil Ryles, … Marcus Greer, Jordan Palmer, … Lance Robinson, Eric Magwood — those guys have had really good offseasons and we're really excited for all of them. They're getting bigger and stronger and have really dove into learning our offense this offseason."
You're searching for a new kicker this season. How has that gone so far?
"We haven't gotten to see a ton yet, but we have our snapper back and our holder back with Brody Butler and Kyle Ulbrich, who's also still punting for us, and those are obviously two key elements in the kicking game. It's really just an open competition, and we're just trying to find a guy who can be consistent for us and even elevate our game. We need to improve on our kickoff distance and hangtime, and our guys know and understand there's a wide-open competition with field goal and kickoff."
How important is the depth of the defense for your special teams units, like kickoff and punt coverage?
"Our defensive guys have done such a good job for us on special teams. The thing about special teams is if you're going to be great, you can't just have your down-the-line guys playing there. I have a clip that I always like to show our guys of Alabama's punt team the year Derrick Henry won the Heisman, and he's at right guard on their punt team. That's what we have to have out of our guys, and we have a great opportunity here to have older, veteran guys all over our special teams."
What do you most want to see the first few practices this spring?
"I think the biggest thing for us right now is we have a very renewed energy and freshness in our building and on the field. Our kids can feel that, and I want to see us use that again and fly around on the field. Obviously, last year was a weird year in a lot of ways. To see our guys as soon as they step on that grass fly around from drill to drill and compete with each other … I can't wait to see that. We've seen such a great increase of leadership from last season with our guys, and that camaraderie, leadership and competitiveness will be huge for us."
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