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Football
Q & A With Offensive Coordinator Chris Pincince
March 27, 2008
Spring Practice kicks off this weekend. Talk about the process of preparing for practice and your thoughts about the start of spring ball. Since we got here in January, we've attacked a few different phases. First recruiting, then winter conditioning, and now spring ball. We've only started preparing for it and talking football the last few weeks. It's been very, very interesting and the kids have approached things really well since we got here. We're excited to get on the football field Saturday. The team is going to have a new look on offense this season? Without giving away too much, talk about the offense, what URI fans can expect to see on that side of the ball, and what you hope to gather from spring practice on offense? We want the kids to have a great understanding of what we're doing. We're not going to make every play and there are going to be a lot of mistakes. It's brand new to them just as it's brand new to a lot of the coaches. Basically, we want to get through these 15 practices and have every single position know what they`re doing and improve on that through the springtime. If we can line up and know where we're running, I'll be happy by the end of spring. Some things are different, some things are the same. In any good offense, you're going to make sure the playmakers have the ball in their hands. In that way, I don't think our offense will differ from the previous one. The configuration may look a little different, but that aspect of the offense will remain the same. You and Darren coached together at New Haven. Talk about that experience and what it's like to be back working with Darren and Joe.
Joe, Darren and I were assistants together in 1995 and 1996, and when Darren was head coach in 1999 through 2001, I remained one of his assistants. When you're involved in coaching, being around good people and good kids who share the same beliefs and philosophies makes going to work a joy. That's something that I can promise you this coaching staff has. You can tell by the number of people that know coach Rizzi and have been affiliated with him before that have come back. We all left some pretty good jobs to come to URI for this opportunity, and I think it says a lot about the University of Rhode Island football program and the school. It also says a lot about Darren.
A few weeks back, (Assoc. Head Coach) Joe Trainer stated that when he left New Haven that he hoped to one day work with Darren again. Was that something you realized you wanted while you were working together, or was it something that developed after you left and kept in touch over the years? I really enjoyed our five years together. Again, it was a very, very comfortable working environment, and it says something that you enjoy going to work every day. The coaching profession is a little crazy at times, and I always wanted to get back together coaching again. From the day Darren left New Haven to go to Rutgers, we stayed in touch and I always thought that it would be great at the end of this thing to work together again. You played football at BU and competed against Rhode Island. What were your impressions as an outsider of Rhody football, both good and bad? It was a great atmosphere and a great game day environment. I played against Rhode Island five times when I was in college at Boston University. The kids always played hard and it was always a great time playing here at Meade (Stadium). Because I'm a Rhode Islander, I always had a lot of family around, and I had a lot of friends that went to school here, so that was a great environment for me. From the time I was 12, I'd been coming to Rhode Island games. I remember sitting there when coach (Bob) Griffin was the head coach, watching Tommy Ehrhardt throw the ball to Brian Forster. I have a long history with this school. The campus feel on game day was great. Having grown up in Rhode Island and sat in the stands at Meade Stadium, how much more special does it make this whole experience for you? I've always looked at this place as one that could be a very good football school. That impression came from watching coach Griff take the Rams to the playoffs twice in the mid-80's. I saw that it was a good situation, and for whatever reason, it hasn't been that way the past few seasons. The school, the campus, the environment, the location, and the academic support make this a great place. Those are huge reasons why I chose to come back to the University of Rhode Island. I probably would not have left for any other school in the conference. I think URI offers something special. What's been your biggest challenge as a coach since arriving here at Rhode Island? Everything has gone great since we've been here. It really has. Recruiting went great, the off-season went great. When we change the offense on Saturday and maybe don't have the success that we're going to have in the future, that'll be the biggest hurdle. We're going to walk before we can run, and I think right now, the football part is the biggest hurdle. Again, it's just terminology and schemes that the kids will pick up. They'll be good at it, but initially, it'll probably be a struggle. Talk about how you arrived here. Was there any trepidation about leaving Holy Cross? It was an extremely tough decision. If it wasn't Darren and it wasn't the University of Rhode Island, I probably would not have chosen to leave Holy Cross. It was a great situation and a great school in a great league. I had a lot of great people and coaches and players around me. I had a quarterback that was the 12th-ranked player in the country from a National Player of the Year standpoint who had one more year, and the offense only graduated three kids, so it was a very difficult situation to leave. However, in this profession, you need to move sometimes, and this conference is the best FCS conference in the country. The fifth-place team in this conference was the University of New Hampshire, who went 7-4 and had an opportunity to play in the playoffs, whereas we were the second-ranked team in our conference in the Patriot League at 7-4 and did not get an opportunity to play in the playoffs. The football part of things, coach Rizzi being a part of it, and the University of Rhode Island helped my family and I make the decision to come to Rhode Island. How does this job compare to previous coaching stops? There is a lot more support here than some of the other places I have been affiliated with. There are a lot of people that help out, from the coaches, the administrators, academic support, sports information, equipment room, and the training room. There are a lot of people that have a vested interest in this program, which I think is great. There are places where we have been where the football part of things was the least amount of what you did. At Rhode Island, we are able to stress the football side of things more. That's been a big boost for us these first three months. What's the best thing URI has to offer a prospective student-athlete? The campus and the environment that surrounds it. There are 12,000 undergraduates - half of them live down at the beach and the other half live here on campus. There are a lot of different kinds of academic programs offered here. The conference that we're affiliated with (Colonial Athletic Association) is the best FCS conference in the country. Being a part of this conference at this school is a great opportunity for our 23 newcomers this fall, and hopefully we can build off that. What's been the most enjoyable aspect of coaching at URI thus far? The people - the kids, the coaching staff, the support staff. It's a joy to come to work everyday, and it hasn't always been that case in my professional life, and I'm sure if you asked anyone else on the staff, they'd say the same thing. If you ask people out in the real world, not everyone enjoys going to work, and I can honestly say getting up and going to work every day and working with these kids and this staff is fun. When you have a chance to go to work and have fun every day, you have a chance to have success. |
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