Archives for February 11, 2004

‘"This is a passion as well as a vocation," Wyche explained Tuesday afternoon. "When you get back into those comfortable environments, you get up in the morning, you’ve got deadlines to meet and you’ve got some place to go, your life is a lot more pleasant."’

‘”I think there are several good and solid football players. They did a lot of good things here but the idea is to look at those things to see what we can do better.”‘

‘”It’s exciting to have quality players and get a chance to work with them. Certainly the more quality players you have the more chance you have to succeed. It’s an exciting opportunity to see both of these guys and to get them up and going so I can evaluate them for myself. That’s the part I’m interested in. I’ve seen them on tape but I’m just looking forward to working with them in person and being able to interact with them and find out exactly what they can do and start formulating what we can do to put them in the best position to help us win football games.”‘

‘”I’ve studied Travis Henry on film. Willis McGahee, when he was tested at Miami, he was the fasted man on the squad. I don’t know if that’s a fact. Hopefully he’s recovered. He’s got good size and I know he’s a terrific back so it’s up to us to figure out how to use both of those guys and I’m sure we’re going to do that. I’m looking forward to working with those guys.”‘

‘”I don’t think it’s only Drew. As I’ve said a number of times we’re looking at the offense in general. We’re trying to take advantage of everyone’s abilities and it might be that certain block schemes with the run suite our line or certain pass protection schemes work better. All that factors in on how the running backs are able to run and how the quarterbacks are able to throw and what kind of routes the receivers run. It’s not one guy. We’re just looking at the offense in general to try and see what they can do and put in a system that takes advantage of their abilities. If you do that then everyone on the offense is going to have a chance to succeed.”‘

‘"The game evolves, but I did keep up with it but I haven’t been out on the field with the guys and in meeting rooms discussing and discarding ideas. Those things will take a little bit of time to get used to, but by the time we enter the season I will be a lot further along and ready to go. Rusty is not the word to describe me, I think that anxious, and missing the guys and the competition are closer to how I am now."’

‘"They’re some good players in there, there is no doubt. I had an opportunity to coach one of them in Dallas. I coached a couple of them in college at Iowa so I’m more familiar with those individuals but having evaluated people like Jonas Jennings and Mike Williams coming out of college you know the quality of the individual. It’s going to be a nice challenge for us to put five guys together and march them out there and see what they can do."’

‘"I’m very excited about Eric Moulds. I played at LSU in my playing days. He’s a Pro Bowl type receiver. He’s a very good player and I’m excited about coaching him. I spoke to him already and told him how excited I am to be here and he’s excited about me being here. He’s looking forward to sitting down and going over some things."’

‘"I have some ideas coming from Pittsburgh, Jim (McNally) has ideas from being all the places he’s been, and Tyke (Tolbert) from Arizona, all that Sam (Wyche) has, and Tom (Clements) being with him in Pittsburgh, so we have some of the same ideas, but a lot of those things come together. It’s a good process right now that we are able to talk about all those philosophies. In the end it’s really going to be beneficial for us."’

‘"I got the job in the NFL when I was 37 years old. I had been a college coach 14 years, and a high school coach two years and I never coached special teams. Now guys are starting out as special teams coaches. You have the 22 and 23-year old guys starting at University of Missouri as special teams coach."’

‘"It took a little while to put this staff together, longer than some of these other teams have done. It was important to make sure I surrounded myself and with the personality of this team and it was important that we had the right fit. I’ll be honest with you, I am very lucky to get some of these coaches and keep some of the coaches that were here. That was very important that we kept the coaches around here that we did."’

‘The Bills introduced their new coaching staff to the media at the team’s training facility in Orchard Park, NY on Tuesday, February 10. The group is made up of five incumbents from the 2003 staff and 10 first-year Bills coaches.’

‘The 2004 free agent period for the NFL begins on March 3 and the Bills have a total of 12 players that are either categorized as a EFA, RFA or UFA this offseason. Below is a complete list of Buffalo’s 2004 free agents, broken down into their respective categories.’

In the Bills locker room, where new fashions don’t go unnoticed, Wire drew praises and inquiries from his teammates when he premiered his new lid. “I was wearing that hat around and guys on the team started asking me about it and where I got it,” Wire remembered “When I told them, they asked me to start making hats for them and it kind of grew from there. I realized that people understood the purpose behind it and I realized a lot of people could benefit from it.”

‘Wyche takes medication for his heart and says he’s fine. The voice, well, he can work around that. “If I’m on the field on a real windy day, then I’m going to have to get closer to the guys to communicate,” Wyche said. “And coaching is teaching. And you’ve got to be able to communicate. But we’ll handle that.”’