| LIONS SPECIAL TEAMS COORDINATOR DAVE FIPP TRAINING CAMP DAY FOUR QUOTE SHEET July 27, 2024 Opening Statement: “OK so they always tell me, ‘You should give like an introduction read, opening statement or something,’ yeah, I don’t do those. But anyway, I do know that it was a big offseason in the media. Where’s (Detroit News Writer) Nolan (Bianchi)? Yeah man, congrats to you. A couple of things, number one, you got married. Ah, nice, nothing like that. My favorite was the honeymoon. It’s just the two of you, man. You don’t know where you’re going, how you’re going to get there, all that stuff but you know you have a partner. There’s nothing like it. So, congrats to you, and also you marry her then you get a promotion. Dang man, stick with her. So, there’s that. Then (Detroit Free Press Writer Dave) Birkett, Birkett and I, we have a different little path. I grew up dreaming of being in the Olympics, and then I met football and then she took over. So, I’m with her now. Then he started with football and now he’s at the Olympics. So good luck to him, and then my favorite story of the offseason is my man, (Detroit Football Network Writer) Justin Rogers. So detroitfootball.net, is that right? Fair to say, I love that and I really do have a lot of respect for that and I love that for a lot of reasons, but I think any time that a person bets on themselves is incredible and we see that a lot in this game, in sports, and there’s some players that make decisions to stay here or go somewhere else for an opportunity or there’s people out there who decide, ‘Hey man, I’m going to leave that job with that guaranteed check, and I’m going to go try to get something better than that or make something better than that,’ and I got a lot of respect for that. So that’s awesome man, congrats to you. (Lions K Michael) Badgley, I’ll start with that actually also, because the guy’s a special player and a special person. He loves this game and he had really the best offseason he’s ever had I think probably in his career, I think it’d be fair to say that. He was in a great spot. I said to you guys in the offseason that he had really worked hard on his leg and making long field goals and adjusting a little bit of his technique. Anyways, he had a great offseason. He came into training camp ready to go and then obviously got injured and I know (Lions Head) Coach (Dan) Campbell said something about it, but he won’t be with us this year. So, I’m devastated for him, it’s obviously a part of this game, and it’s really the worst thing as a coach. I think it’s the hardest thing for a coach to deal with. So anyways, we wish him well. I know this, it’ll make a good chapter in his book. I know he’s motivated to come back and all that so, I look forward to getting him back when that time is able, but in the meantime, we’re happy with the guy we got here. Obviously, (Lions Executive Vice President and General Manager) Brad Holmes and those guys did a great job of picking up (Lions K) Jake Bates in the offseason, so we’re excited to see what he can do too.” On when he knows that a kicker has the right mix of skills to succeed in the League: “Yeah, I think our job here in the NFL is easier, I think, than when you’re coaching college, coaching high school. I think it’s a little bit harder because I think there has to be a little bit more of a projection when you’re at that level. When you’re here in the NFL, you get the opportunity to watch these guys play before you. Now him, not quite as much, but at the end of the day, like when did we know he had it? We knew probably when you knew. When you watched him make these big kicks here in our stadium, and you’re saying, ‘God, who is this guy?’ So really, it just comes down to when you’re playing and you’re in games and all that stuff and you can make kicks like he was doing, and you’re starting to look close at it. And then I think I told you guys before, I mean you do take a big picture look and you’re trying to get a lot of data and numbers because I think at that position – my experience tells me at that position that you’re going to kind of – you’re going to be who you are and if you’re making all your kicks in practice, then you’re probably going to make more of them in a game. If you’re missing a lot of them in practice, you’re probably going to miss more in games. So anyway, yeah, you’re looking for a large sample size. He doesn’t have quite as much of that, so there are some unknowns with him, but he’s also got a great demeanor, and when you get to know him – he came in here for a visit and he was looking at our place and a couple others, and we got to know him and felt really good about that also. That’s a part of it because I think in this game – we were talking about this on the practice field the other day, but in this game, just like in life, there’s going to be ups and downs. You’re going to have some good days and you’re going to have some bad days and that’s just inevitable and it really doesn’t matter who you are. But as long as you’re a good person, you got a bunch of teammates and people around you that believe in you and really are fighting for you when you have those down days, they’ll help bring you back up and I think that’s important in this game and especially at that position. Sometimes those guys don’t fit in as well with the team and I think some days you go through those down times you have a harder time of getting the support of their teammates with them and I think that makes it harder for those guys to have long-term success. So, I’m excited about him. He’s a good guy, fits in well, and I think he’ll have a chance here.” On how important it is that Lions K Jake Bates stays focused on the work when Lions K Michael Badgley is injured and what he has seen from Bates that speaks to that: “Number one, it’s obviously early for us. I haven’t been around him for a long, long time, but I would say that he seems to be pretty level keeled. I haven’t seen his demeanor change much since he’s got here. I do feel like he’s on a mission to prove himself and who he is and that he can make it in this League. I think I feel that every time I’ve been around him. When the Badgley thing happened, it happened actually during warmups, and when it happened, he didn’t blink or skip a beat, you know, he just went about his business. I think, and we talked about this with the specialists the other day because we have some competition here in training camp with two long snappers in here and at the time we had two kickers, and the only thing I can say is, the more you just take care of yourself and worry about yourself, the better off you’re going to be. I think the more you’re looking at, ‘Oh I did better than him on that drill,’ or, ‘I did better than him on that rep,’ and you started comparing, comparison gets in the way of a lot of things. I think when you start comparing yourself with other people or other reps and your rep, you just lose sight of – you’re wasting your energy on other things that you can’t control and you’re better off served if you just put all that time and energy in yourself and making yourself the best player you can be. I think he has that approach and mindset and mentality.” On how encouraged he was by the four kickers that were reported to be brought in for workouts and the outlook of competition for Lions K Jake Bates: “Yeah, I don’t really have all the answers for that, obviously (Lions Executive Vice President and General Manager) Brad (Holmes) and those guys make all the – Brad and (Lions Head Coach) Dan (Campbell) and their staff make all of those decisions really, the one thing that I will say, and I’m not just saying this because I’m up here, I hope you guys know, I believe in telling the truth. But anyways, bottom line is we brought four guys in and what I’m going to tell you is every time that we’ve been in a position, and we’ve been in a position where we’ve been looking for kickers or looking for players, and every time we’ve brought players in, I look at the list, we get an email and they say, ‘Hey, we’re bringing these four guys in,’ and you look at it, and you’re like – every time I’ve done it I’ve looked at it and said, ‘Man, they did an incredible job of finding these guys,’ so there’s a couple of guys in there that we feel good about whether or not we bring them in or not, I don’t know, but I do know that I have a lot of respect for our pro staff and the way that they evaluate talent and they’re really ahead of the curve. Every time that we went looking for someone, they bring in some really good options.” On if he thinks the team is in a better place now with the new kickoff rule after spring practices and how it is going so far in the first days of training camp: “Yeah, number one I would say I’m excited about it. Number two I would say I think it’s like a lot of things, the more you learn about something, the more questions you have. There’s still a lot of unanswered questions, you know I can’t wait to watch this Hall of Fame game and see these guys actually play the play out. It’s a little bit different than the other league that was using it, whatever, two years ago. So, it’ll be interesting to see. We’re going to get a chance to practice against the Giants and I was just on the phone with their coach the other day, so hopefully we’ll get a chance to kind of see some different schemes and throw some different things at each other and learn a little bit more about it. But there’s a lot of unknown, I think. At the end of the day what I told our players is, we’ll be ready to adjust on the scheme and all that stuff, but any play in football is going to come down to the same old things. It’s going to come down to blocking or evading a blocker, and then it’s going to come down to tackling and it’s going to come down to making somebody miss. So, at the end of the day, we’ll spend a lot of time on fundamentals and technique, and we’ll also be ready to adjust and adapt to any other thing that we see out there that we think is successful.” On how the process works for him to find where a versatile player like Lions WR Daurice Fountain can contribute on special teams: “That’s a really good question. I think I said this last time or a year ago, but I think this was a couple years ago. I don’t have a great memory. I think a couple years ago we were talking about this up here and I said, ‘This time of a year what I really focus on is evaluating skillsets,’ and it’s really trying to find out, ‘OK what does this player do great, what does he not do as well, if we have him where would we play him and how would we use him?’ Because ultimately for me, the decision comes down to, OK the final cuts are made and sometimes there’s a guy on there that I was like, ‘Ah this guy will be great,’ sometimes that guy’s not there, but it doesn’t really matter. Our job is really to make do with what you’ve got and make the most of it. For me, it’s OK here’s the roster – we cut down, here’s the roster, and now it’s like, ‘OK, on this play, who are our best 11 players and how can we put them all in the best position to be successful for themselves but also for the team?’ So, this time a year, you’re just evaluating players and skillset and things they do really well, things they don’t do as well so that ultimately if he’s on the roster, where does he fit and how can we play him and use him? So, it’s really a lot of that this time of year, and now do I have guys who I really like and whatever, maybe some I don’t like as much, or I think could be more useful or less useful? Sure, but ultimately, it really doesn’t come down to that. I tell the players, the old days of, ‘Hey, you’re going to make this team on special teams,’ that’s over. You really make the team on offense, defense and special teams, and the more you can do in this business the better off you’re going to be. It’s really good, it’s how it should be. If you want to build a good football team, you need a bunch of guys who can do a lot of different things.” |
