AFA FOOTBALL COACHES Q AND A … With Clay Hendrix

This is part two of an ongoing Gazette series of interviews with Air Force’s position coaches. Today’s installment is beat writer Jake Schaller’s conversation with offensive line coach Clay Hendrix. (Note: The interview took place earlier this week before Nick Charles injured his hamstring).

JS: People are looking at the offensive line as a strength of this team. What are your thoughts on what you have and how it ranks compared to your first two lines?

CH: Well, if we play tomorrow, we’d play five seniors, which is where we want to be. I’m happy we came back in great shape. We’ve got a lot of experience, we’re getting a little more depth now. Really the difference I can see are the second guys and even a few third guys. I think for the first time since I’ve been here we’re not even considering playing a freshman. Maybe if there is some guy that ‘Woahs’ us, but I don’t think it’ll happen. And I told our (veteran) guys if one of them does, it’s because they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing. So we’ve got a ways to go, but I like where we are. We’re obviously way ahead of the game from where we’ve been in the past. But it’s a good group to work with. They’re a fun bunch to coach.

JS: Is senior center Mike Hampton the X factor? He’s the one starter who doesn’t have a lot of experience.

CH: He’s the one guy that hasn’t played that much, but he’s a prep school kid, he’s been around here a long time. Truth be known, really last year I didn’t think there was that much difference between him and (starting center) Andrew Pipes coming in. And it was a position we probably didn’t want to rotate as much because we had a new quarterback in the game and we didn’t want two centers playing in there a bunch, so that’s probably why we didn’t play him as much there. But I’ve got a lot of confidence in him. I just think he’s an older kid who’s been around the block and his time’s come.

JS: What does he do well?
CH: I think he understands his role. In our position what I harp on is consistency in everything we do, and he’s been a consistent player for us mentally, physically, and I think he’ll be a good, steady, older guy in the middle for us. We’ve got two sophomores behind him who have done well, but you’d like to kind of bring them along like we’ve brought (Hampton) along.

JS: Do you think you’ll be able to do what you did two years ago, as far as rotating players – three tackles, three guards and two centers?

CH: Maybe. We’ll see how it goes. The good thing I like, with our schedule this year we’ve got five weeks before we play a game, which I think is great to really develop some younger guys during that time. We’d like to get to that point – heck I’d like to get to the point where we might play 10 guys. We’re not there yet, but that’s where we’d like to get. And really that first year we did that it was more (the eight players) were all about the same.

JS: How set is the starting five (Hampton at center, Charles and Peter Lusk at guards and Ryan Gonzales and Chris Campbell at tackles)?

CH: Well I’ve learned, and I think our guys have learned that around here with coach (Troy Calhoun) nothing’s ever set. Obviously, I feel the most set about it of any group we’ve had here, but they’ve got a lot of work to do, and I think there are some guys behind them that can push them a little bit. And I want them to. But it’s day-to-day. We just want to get better each day. And at least now we’ve got guys that are pushing guys.

JS: Calhoun has wanted his offensive linemen to be lean, and it looks like guys are maybe even a little slimmer this year.

CH: They probably are. About the only time we ever concern ourselves much with weight is if we think one looks a little heavy. I think there’s a couple of the younger kids that I think are a little heavy right now, and I’ve addressed that with them, and I don’t think it’ll be an issue. And I don’t think we’ve got a guy that’s way under weight. We feel good about where we are. We’re a lean team – that’s our advantage. And we’d like to get to a point where we’re big and lean, but we’re pretty happy with where we’re at right now.