A Q&A With Associate HC, Defense/ILB Coach Peter Sirmon

Justin Wilcox took his time in hiring the 10th assistant to the Cal staff, and he eventually went to someone he coached, played with, and trusted in former Louisville DC Peter Sirmon. Sirmon took the time Monday morning to speak to GoldenBearReport.com on a myriad of topics, including how he ended up coming to Cal, his thoughts on striking a balance in finding kids who love football and academics, getting back to the west coast after being in the south the past two years, his role as associate head coach, and more.

You had already worked for coach Wilcox before, but how did you get hooked up with Wilcox for this job?

You know, when Justin first took the job last year, there were some discussions, we talk a couple times a week, we talk about a lot of things other than football as well, but when Azz took the job at UCLA, there was some initial discussion about what he was gonna do with the position. Actually, the two of us really didn’t talk about it until quite a bit later, after Azz left, there were some things that naturally happened.

Mostly just friendly discussion?

Yep, just friendly, him asking about different guys that I’ve worked with before and then coming back around to me being interested in it.

How much do you have to get acclimated to being back on the west coast?

I don’t think there’s much acclimation. Growing up on the west coast, going to school at Oregon, I feel very comfortable with what type of kid we’re recruiting from being the recruiting coordinator at UW and SC. I feel really comfortable with understanding what areas are producing players, what schools are, what programs are most cooperative in getting guys up here, I think it’s gonna come back real fast.

How are you bringing your previous experience as a recruiting coordinator and adding it to what Coach Tuiasosopo does, and what is the breadth of your title as the associate head coach?

Tui’s the recruiting coordinator, but I think all of us come in to assist on different facets, with the recruiting role. The associate head coach, it has some different requirements, I’ll be involved in a little more academics with the entire team, I’ll be involved with coach Becton in sports performance, and then the recruiting element I’ll be involved with that just as somebody else would assist Tui.

With the move to being an inside linebackers coach after being a defensive coordinator, will you have some influence on the play calling?

Coach DeRuyter’s the defensive coordinator, and most places I’ve been is the coordinator has the position coach, it’s a cooperative effort. Gameday, there should be one guy calling it, that’s gonna be Tim, and I think the more people you can have that all have the right heart and the right energy and are there for the right reasons, I think it makes the system work better. So it’s just the way to assist the defense and assist Tim as we plan and as we prepare.

How well have you gotten enmeshed with the other position coaches on defense?

What we’ve had in terms of the recruiting, and we just started our defensive meetings, and we’ve done some self-scout, we were watching last year, how they’ve installed, what the terminology used was. We started that last week, and we’re gonna be diving into that this week pretty good as well. Just as you sit and talk and get around those guys, you get acclimated with them.

Is the terminology similar for you, having worked under Wilcox before?

There’s a lot of similar things. His stop at Wisconsin, he was introduced to do some things a little bit differently. There’s a good blend of what he had done in the past when I was with him, what he did at Wisconsin, and then what coach DeRuyter had done as well, so it’s a good blend of multiple systems.

What do you think of the increasing prevalence of the 4-2-5 in college defenses?

There’s a lot of 4-2-5 everywhere in college football because it give you a lot of answers, but primarily we’re going to start things out of 3-4 spacing and we’ll be adaptable enough to play out of the 4-2-5 or the 3-4 and I think the challenge of being on defense is the adaptability. We have to be able to mold and adapt to what the offense does. The offenses can be a little more stringent, a little more rigid in their philosophies because of what people they have. If you’re a team that has 2 or 3 true ‘Y’ tight ends, you’re gonna be a tight end based team. If you’re not a tight end based team, you’re gonna be more of a 10 personnel team. They don’t have as much flexibility because most often they’re already trying to put their best players on the field. They’ve been built a certain way because of the players that they have, where on defense, you’ve got to play more people, because if you play Stanford it’s gonna be different than when you play Wazzu, just in terms of what you have to stop, you have to carry a bit bigger personnel package than offenses do.

Does that larger set of personnel groupings affect the guys that you look to go out and get in recruiting?

There’s a couple guys, in any class there’s a couple guys which manybe don’t fit the prototypical norms, but that’s where you find great football players. I think you have to know what you’re looking for, what your parameters are, but you have to be available to finding guys that fit what we’re doing here at Cal academically, what they want to do in terms of life after football, so sometimes we’ll have guys not exactly in their clean little box of being this height, this weight, and this speed, but traditionally, football is built on guys that can run and big people. So we’ll try to find some ideal position specifics.

How do you find guys that can balance the love of football with the love of academics?

First, it’s identifying what their coaches say about them, I think that’s probably the number one thing as you recruit players, is guys that are around them, what endorsement are they giving, what kind of person is this first. Then the academic component, you know the academics don’t always measure sheer intelligence, sometimes the academic component measures people that are compliant, that do things the way they’re supposed to, therefore they get the grades, which is a big part of academics, is getting it done, getting things done in a timely fashion, and doing things the way that they’re asked to do. But I think it’s a blend of what kind of person the coach tells us they are, what they’re doing academically and then I think the thing that makes Cal unique in life after ball, is the maturity. Guys that can see beyond four years. Some guys, as you recruit them, they see tomorrow, and every day is a new day, and that’s fine. Some guys have a little broader perspective, I don’t know if it’s from background, from a coach, maybe from a teacher in a high school that has really challenged them to open their eyes and think about life after ball, because a lot of guys come in here and say ‘well education’s number one, because if football doesn’t work out,’ and I always stop them. I say ‘you can’t think of if football doesn’t work out. I want you to think about when football is over. I retired when I was 30. There’s a lot of life left. So even if you had an unbelievable career and you got into your mid 30s, you still have a significant amount of time.’ So academics is not a fallback plan, academics is the plan and football is, ‘let’s see how long we can ride this train.’

How much does your experience as a guy who went to the NFL can be related to guys?

I think guys enjoy talking to people that have done what they aspire to do. I can give them counsel on things that were important to me, in terms of decision. I can counsel them on how I made decisions and how football has impacted my life. Ultimately, they’ll always learn by doing, but I think, to be able to say ‘hey, I’ve done what you’ve done, I’ve walked in your shoes, I’ve gone to the combine, I’ve played in the Senior Bowl, I’ve played Tom Brady.’ I think they appreciate that and then they want to know how you can help them. How can you take those experiences that I was blessed to have and translate them to help have a better experience or to be better football players.

What do you think about the rise of 7 on 7, how you evaluate off it, if you talk to those coaches, and how it affects recruiting?

You know, I think you’re always trying to talk to people that are around players. Rarely do we get the opportunity to use 7 on 7 as an evaluation, because it’s rarely during the time period and it’s usually not scholastic activities that we’re allowed on campus to watch them. You hear buzz about guys that are doing good things, but we don’t put a ton of stock into it. 7 on 7 is not what we do, we play football, we tackle, and we have to perform when we’re tired, we have to perform when it hurts, we have to perform in less than ideal situations. 7 on 7 I think, the premise of 7 on 7 is fantastic, because it’s skill development. The way 7 on 7 has gone, has probably grown to an entity that maybe no one saw coming, with the tentacles everywhere and different people coaching the teams now, the teams not being really high school based, but more selection, travel squad, and essentially all-stars, and the finances that go along with that. But I think for the player it’s a great thing in terms of skill development. You see people coming into college football that are more prepared offensively from throwing and catching the football and route concepts, so overall I think for the sport it’s a good thing. Some of the peripheral things, those are probably debatable.

With you coaching inside linebackers, how does the technique you teach them in a 3-4 or 4-2-5 compare to what you’d teach in a 4-3

There’s some differences before the ball is snapped, in alignment and spacing, in 4-3 spacing, the alignment at linebacker is a lot more critical, because of the gap down spacing of the defense. In 3-4 spacing, there’s a lot more to coach after the ball is snapped, but before the ball is snapped alignments aren’t as critical. Some home alignments, they can survive, but linebacker play is linebacker play, there’s fundamentals. The things that we’re gonna work on here at linebacker, change of direction, getting off blocks, and tackling. Those things are non-negotiable, playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers or playing for the Bears. Those are things that have to be accomplished to be a successful defense and successful linebackers. Then the concepts and the little things, we’ll get all those taught.

How well have you gotten to know your guys in the month or so since you’ve gotten here?

They’ve come in and seen me, I need to obviously get to know them academically, so there’s been several occasions where those guys have come in and we’ve talked about what they’re doing academically and where they’re living and who they’re living with. Really, not any football but just understanding who they are. I’m the one that’s new, so I’m learning who they are with coach DeRuyter and then when football time comes, we’ll dive into that football. But those guys have come around, and it’s been more academics and more life and get to know one another.

With DeRuyter having coached your position responsibility last year, what has he told you about them?

You know, I haven’t asked a lot, and I think it’s important for anybody that’s new coming in to draw their own conclusions. For some guys, it’s a chance to reinvent yourself, or to stay consistent and be who you are.

Does it help to have the experience from guys last year, who were forced into more time due to injury, and more understanding of the system, before you put your finishing touches on them?

I mean, you want guys that have better understanding. Typically from year one to year two in a system you see significant progress, because the first day of spring ball this year, the guys already understand what’s being asked of them. Last year at this team, they were working, trying to survive and transition from one system to another. The more understanding and the more reps and experience a player has in a system, it’s got to be beneficial for them.

How do you introduce yourself to the recruits that were already committed or close to committing by the time you got here?

I don’t have an issue with that, the recruiting process, there’s a lot of different entrances and exits with these guys, sometimes you get into them early, sometimes you get a job like I did in January, and you hop in with Chris Fatilua, or you go down there and introduce yourself to Louis Bickett, or you see Evan Tattersall and some of these guys I might be coaching, so it’s not a huge deal. One thing we do as coaches pretty well is we get to know people, and we can form some quick relationships.

How have you tried to get to know those three in the last month or so?

The biggest thing is, you get to know somebody by watching their film. Rarely that’s who they are, there’s so much more to them. The more I’m around, there’s a certain requirement for talent, the more talent you have, I’m not sure that ensures greater success, but guys that take football serious, guys that are mature off the field, those are the guys that have great football success. So when I got to know those guys, it’s about trying to understand what their makeup is, what their maturity level, what they’re willing to do in terms of desire and passion to be the best football player they can be.