North Carolina State University Athletics
Preseason Q&A: Tight ends coach Jim Bridge
8/23/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Preseason training camp was supposed to be easy for new assistant coach
That changed on July 25 after Hill underwent surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. With the flick of a surgeon’s knife, Bridge went from having the ACC’s most experienced and prolific returning tight end to having only one player with any college experience at the position. Bridge says in new head coach Tom O'Brien’s offense, the tight end has more responsibility than any player other than the quarterback, so he has spent the last three weeks preparing Stone, Matt Kushner, junior college transfer A.J. Armstrong and freshman George Bryan to fill in for Hill, who will sit out this season while recovering from his surgery. So far, Bridge has been impressed with their effort. Like offensive line coach Don Horton, Bridge first worked with new NC State coach Tom O'Brien as a graduate assistant at Bridge talked about the progress being made by the tight ends with GoPack.com managing editor Tim Peeler. GoPack.com: What went through your mind when you heard that Anthony had to have surgery and would miss the entire season? Bridge: The first thing that came to our mind was that we have to get Anthony healthy. That was the only thing that mattered. I told everybody that the good news was that we still get to play with 11 guys. It would only be a real problem if we were forced to play with 10. Guys like Marcus Stone, Matt Kushner, R.J. Armstrong and George Bryan have stepped it up taken the challenge of losing such a quality football player. They have taken the challenge of raising their games. GoPack.com: Marcus Stone is still getting used to the position, but it looks like he will be propelled into the starting lineup. How is his progress coming along? Bridge: We just finished 20th practice. We had 15 in the spring. So, if you look at it that way, Marcus has had 35 practices as a tight end and no games. He has worked extremely hard to prepare himself for the transition. He has gotten bigger. He has gotten stronger. He has gotten used to the line-of-scrimmage contact. He is an incredibly hard worker and he is really selfless in how he thinks. I don’t think there could be anything more flattering to a player than to have his teammates vote him captain. GoPack.com: It must be difficult for someone to go from the spotlight of playing quarterback to playing the more anonymous position of tight end. How has Marcus handled that? Bridge: That is an individual-based question all individuals are different. Marcus Stone being so selfless and humble makes this transition easy. He has done nothing but work. He has done nothing but take coaching. He has done nothing but try to improve every day in practice. That is a tremendous tribute to him and his family and how he was raised. GoPack.com: Matt Kushner played about 100 snaps last year, but did not catch a pass. Because you use a lot of double tight end formations, his responsibilities have just increased dramatically. How is he handling that? Bridge: The biggest thing the injury did to us was move everybody up, whether they were ready or not ready. Matt goes from fighting to be the second or third tight end to fighting to be the first tight end. Matt has done a really good job of getting ready this fall. His knowledge of the position has improved. He is incredibly physical. He is a big strong kid who fits what we do. I think he has an incredible future at NC State. GoPack.com: R.J. Armstrong was added late in the recruiting process, as an insurance policy. That looks like a really smart move right now. Bridge: Coach Jerry Petercuskie, our recruiting coordinator, really felt that with the older group of guys that we had at that position, with Anthony and Marcus being in their last year of eligibility, that it was critical for us to add some upper-class depth, because of all the things we ask our tight ends to do. That added older depth turned into incredible foresight. R.J. is going to be a really good football player. He has a really quick body. He is not afraid of anything. He is a really tough kid. GoPack.com: You signed one tight end recruit, George Bryan. How has he looked in preseason camp? Bridge: George has really been impressive with his competitiveness early on in college football. But he is a puppy out there trying to play a game with dogs right now. He is really coming on and I think he has a tremendous future. He is physical, he is tough and he takes coaching well. GoPack.com: You require a lot of your tight ends in this offense. Outline their basic responsibilities. Bridge: I don’t think there is any question that tight end is the second-most involved position in our offense, behind quarterback. We make no secret about that. We have to run routes as well as receivers run them. We have to block as well as the linemen do. We will be lined up on the line of scrimmage and off the line of scrimmage. We will be lined up wide and in the backfield. We do a lot with our tight ends. We need to recruit more tight ends that are physically able to do everything. That is why this offense has had so much success at the tight end position of sending players to professional football. GoPack.com: You have a young family, with a 4-year-old daughter and a 1-year-old son. Did that make the transition from Bridge: It was very easy. I didn’t have any school to worry about. As soon as we went through the gymnastics of selling and buying a house, my family was in GoPack.com: I saw your daughter running around at Meet the Pack Day in her NC State cheerleader uniform. She has obviously made the transition easily. Bridge: That was one of the deals when we got here we had to buy her a new cheerleader outfit, because as soon as the season starts she will be out there screaming her head off for the Wolfpack. She also has already learned that there are certain schools that we don’t like very much. And she knows who those schools are. You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
