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Before I get to my talk with St. Joe’s 2nd-year football coach Augie Hoffmann, here are a few things I took away from watching St. Joe’s practice on Tuesday night.

* The defensive line is formidable. Even in just simple inside run drills, it seemed like the O-Line had trouble moving the bulk and strength of front four. And it’s not just Ibn Foster, a couple of transfers will be immediate starters and probable stars. This is definitely a defense-first team right now, and you look across the Big Five, and well, you can’t help but think that about almost everyone else.
* You can’t help but talk transfers, you just can’t, they are a fact of life in HS sports now, I found it interesting what Augie said about the onus being on the kid who transfers in to find his home, rather than the team he is joining. Transfers will be a big part of the 2015 football season, and you want to know something? It’s only mid-July. More kids will transfer in the next 4 weeks, I promise.
* They really hope offensive lineman Jordan Velez gets better. He is a big, tough strong athletic player and is fighting through a knee injury.
* I know at Joes they always worry about depth, I thought their numbers looked really strong. Augie said he had 76 kids working out Tuesday.
* Former Joes QB Spencer Aukamp was watching practice. Aukamp started at Hobart College last season as a freshman. He and Tony Karcich were sharing some stories and I was privy to the conversation.
* While sitting with Karcich, another Bergen County public school coach called and asked about a specific running play that the Green Knights used (it might have been 40 Trap). Karcich broke it down over about 7-10 minutes, every assignment, every special tweak. I think I learned some football. No, I know I did.
* Standouts in practice? Sophomore QB Nick Patti moves well and throws well. It’s hard not to notice Louis Acceus, he’s going to be a superstar on defense. Josh Jackson is one of those DL to see. Brian Kearns rode the bike while he wasn’t practicing. He had on long sleeves, he had to be hot. Sophomore Jaden Budka made some nice plays on 1 on 1 coverage. I asked Augie about another kid, No. 38 in white, who made a spectacular play on a ball in the air during passing drills, but Augie didn’t know who the kid was. JT Giles-Harris is bigger and stronger, but was only at half practice yesterday because of a lacrosse obligation.
* The wide receivers got called out for not performing up to snuff after practice, and it did seem like some of them were confused on some pattern calls.
* Augie told me he went to watch the IMG Academy spring game to get an early scouting report. I know Joes has a lot of big games on their schedule, but they will be the first Big North United team to face the super-school in Florida (PC plays them a few weeks later). I told Augie that the big news Tuesday was that IMG got a transfer from New Orleans, Shea Patterson, a quarterback committed to Ole Miss. Yes, I still read all my hometown papers.
* The Joes scrimmage schedule is Seton Hall Prep on August 17th, St. Peter’s Prep on the 21st (or maybe the 20th, Augie wasn’t sure) and then they finish with Montclair again in a traditional thing, probably the 27th. Last year Montclair smacked Joes, but, just a scrimmage.

Let’s hear what Augie had to say….

 

Darren: What’s the biggest lesson you learned from your first year?
Augie: That the most important thing is the staff. Last year we had a good staff, but there was a lot of turmoil last year. The most important thing for me this year was getting a staff that can live together for the next 6 months, that are football guys and care about the kids. Not to say that the guys last year didn’t, but there was just too much flux, it was just too much going on.

Darren: Is kind of what you are saying – having been around this league the last few years, I’ve seen this almost every where – you end up with so many ‘hangers-on’ on the sidelines. Guys who just want to wear a coach shirt and be on the sidelines?
Augie: You know what the biggest thing is….And this is a testament to the ex-head coach (Tony Karcich). He could coach this team by himself. There were a lot of stragglers that were just happy to be a coach. It didn’t matter if you were a linebacker coach, Tony could coach the entire team, and be successful. I’m not anywhere near that yet, so I need to surround myself around good people who know what the heck is going on. I am so excited about the staff that we have.

Darren: So how much turnover did we have on staff?
Augie: A good amount, we will have a new defensive coordinator. He’ll also coach the inside ‘backers. The D line coach is new. The D-backs coach is new.

Darren: This is pretty gutty, because it’s not like y’all weren’t successful last season.
Augie: I know. (smiles) I know. But it just….I just felt like we needed guys, I needed to have a full staff of guys that this is the most important thing to them.

Darren: How concerned are you – or maybe not at all – that your schedule is still in flux for this season?
Augie: It’s bugging me more and more now. And I just don’t understand, and maybe this is just me being young, I just don’t understand why the state doesn’t say, ‘here is the schedule, here is what is going to happen, you have one year and that’s it.’ I don’t understand why we are floating around. My biggest question is St. Peter’s Prep needs a game (pause) why don’t those guys at the (NJSIAA) say you guys play St. Peter’s Prep, you guys are open the same week they’re open. I just don’t get it. Ok, you don’t like it, tough….it’s a great game.

Darren: Was last year a missed opportunity? Did you just not play well against Red Bank Catholic?
Augie: I just think we got our (tails) kicked, I really believe that. I went in to halftime saying we should be up 21-7, it shouldn’t be tied. I thought we would come out and blow them out. They just came out and pounded us.
The thing that was evident about us last year was, when we played young, we were bad, you know what I mean? We went out to St. Edwards and were way in over our heads. Bergen, that was what-the-hell? What are you going to do? That was a hell of a game. Looking back, if Guarantano stays in the game, maybe we win the game. Against Red Bank, they were running old-school counter and stuff, and our guys just had no clue. We had undersized guys up front because we had some guys who couldn’t play. They were peaking at the right time, and we weren’t.

Darren: So was it a match-up thing?
Augie: Credit to them, they lined up and beat our (tails) the way we had beaten them the last 2-3 years. I don’t see us getting pushed around this year very much, especially on defense.

Darren: Yes, it’s already easy to spot, your team’s identity is different this season.
Augie: No doubt. We got the No. 1 defensive end from New York who transferred in, Abdoul Kouyate. He is from Cardinal Hayes in the Bronx.

Darren: So you have 3 legitimate Division 1 guys on the D-line?
Augie: Yeah, yeah, and with a lot of depth. My young defensive end, Dorian Harty is going to be a 5-star kid. He’s a sophomore. The kid Vincent Matraxia (a junior) would be a starter anywhere else, maybe not in the Big North United, he’s going to get a lot of reps up front on the defensive line.

Darren: But….you need a quarterback. Is Nick that kid?
Augie: I think Nicky is a real smart kid. He knows his role this year is to not…you don’t need to win us games, you just don’t need to screw them up. We have a good handle with him. We have a transfer kid, Henry Ogala from Franklin, New Jersey, he has a huge arm. He’s a senior. But I think Nick is going to be pretty good when it’s all said and done.

Darren: In the past, you have usually favored the senior you know….
Augie: Yeah, but Henry is a transfer and my whole thing is, my loyalty is to the kid that has been here, and Nick was really highly-sought after young kid. We were all fighting for him. Maybe not Bosco because they had DeVito, but I know Bergen was on him heavy, and we were on him heavy. Nick will get every shot, so even if it’s even, Nick is going to play. I made that clear to all the guys who came in.

Darren: What can you really get done in the summer?
Augie: It’s more academic. We were in pads on Monday and their legs were dead. We were in pads last week. My personal opinion is they should go back to the way it used to be, you can condition and weight train in July and you can start in August. [The NJSIAA] doesn’t understand that they’re young. I try to tell them, the NFL, the collective bargaining agreement, they went to the wall and said they need a break [in the off-season], and they’re grown men! You guys are 16 years old.

Darren: Well, this was a crisp two-hours, isn’t this practice more mental reps than anything?
Augie: That to me is crucial, if we can get out here and run around, and know what we are doing and come double sessions there should be no more thinking.

Darren: Last year you brought in Coach Karcich as a de facto defensive assistant for the PC game, and I know you see him as a great resource and he’s around and he’s still got it, but at some point doesn’t this have to become Augie Hoffmann’s program?
Augie: I think this year will be that year.

Darren: Don’t get me wrong, you needed him, he came in for the PC game, and it worked.
Augie: Yeah, and that was my whole thing, he is going to bring something to the table that nobody else has. We had no one else at the table who could see what we needed to beat [Paramus Catholic]. I think now, I’m more confident this year. I am confident in the staff. I don’t know if it was undue pressure on myself, or the shadow that he cast, but I felt a lot of pressure last year.

Darren: Of course you did….
Augie: I feel pressure to be successful. Last year, I felt like people were saying, ‘Tony wouldn’t have done that, or that wouldn’t have happened to Tony.” I don’t feel the same way this year.

Darren: Also, though, don’t more of these kids on the team see and know you as the coach?
Augie: Yes, and these seniors, they were sophomore when he was coach, and we didn’t have a ton of sophomores playing that year. I think John-Thomas Giles-Harris was the only sophomore who played.

Darren: Speaking on him, where does he fit in this year? Everywhere?
Augie: Everywhere. He is our best corner. He is the best DB we have right now. Triglia is awesome, but JT is the most seasoned and the most confident. He will play tailback. He will play Z. He will be the guy he was last year, but he’s better this year. He’s bigger. He’s stronger, he’s faster.

Darren: And what’s your first impression of this team?
Augie: I think we have a good camaraderie here….the vibe is the defense will run the show. And it came at a good time, because of the youth we have on offense now. But those kids, listen maybe I am speaking out of turn, but I’d like to see a group that moves the ball against them. I really want to see that.
Darren: You know, Paramus Catholic is saying the exact same thing…
Augie: (smiles) Yeah, I know.
Darren: And Bosco is saying the same thing too.
Augie: Yeah.
Darren: And then you have Guarantano at Bergen saying ‘I’ll throw the ball all over you!’
Augie: (smiling, repeating) Yeah, yeah, he’s like ‘I’ll throw the ball all over you.’ I just think we are fast on defense. We are physical and big. We have a lot of depth so guys will be fresh.

Darren: So then for scrimmages and in August, is the goal here to find an offensive identity?
Augie: Yes, I think so, our backs are the same, we have to see what Nick has under pressure, and all the quarterbacks in that sense. I’d like to see him step up and see what he is all about. I’d like to see us be relentless on defense. Ibn [Foster] will be tough to block. And I want to see us on offense run the ball the way we have in the past and be able to catch the ball off the play-action, because that’s what we are going to be.