Bret Bielema, Illinois Head Coach, on Seahawks’ Devon Witherspoon

Bret Bielema, Head Coach of Illinois football, who coached new Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon, who Seattle drafted fifth overall last week, joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about his former cornerback’s skills, personality, and measurables.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We heard from Jackson Smith and Jigbaat five o'clock before we get to our
next guest, what do you say? We hear from the number five pick
in the draft and Devin Witherspoon justbecause they told me, you know,
the quatre that they had the manthe history verses, um, I know,
I know what it takes to beday be great like that in this
it's something we're going all right backany really described what. I'm glad that
he chose me. I'm glad.I'm a dab steal all right. That's

(00:23):
the voice of Devin Witherspoon, whowas selected by the Hawks at number five
overall in the first round. Ihad forgotten and I'm I wonder if coach
Bielma remembers the visits on this radioshow. Brett Bielama has been on with
US twice now. This is thethird time. Okay, he was with
us after the Hawks draft at AlexCollins in two sixteen, and he was

(00:45):
also with US way back in twentyand twelve when the Seahawks drafted Russell Wilson
at number seventy five overall. CoachBielama, first of all, it's great
to have you back on the airwith us Man. And then second of
all, do you remember coming onour show eleven years ago and what you
said about Russell Wilson back then?I can tell you what I said about
Russell Wilson. I can't remember whichshow was on. I was on quite

(01:07):
a few of them back then,but yeah, well I do remember being
pretty strong about what I thought hehad accomplished. So I kind of stand
by that it was on this show. And we're gonna listen to a clip
from eleven years ago and we'll seehow much your voice has changed in the
last eleven years. Okay, hereis you eleven years ago talking about Russell
Wilson on this radio station. Iwould have been a large amount of money

(01:30):
if I wasn't a college football coachthat he would be a multi year starter
in the NFL, and my guessis would play that team into a championship
and some capacity. There's no doubthe just just wait till around him.
We actually put fourteen guys in theNFL last year, which was the mostly
in college football. This year,we're putting thirteen more of them. And

(01:51):
I've never seen a kid more readyto play professional football than not I've had
I think we've had six first roundersin the last how many years, six
years, and none of them asready as this kid. Wow, Ding
ding ding, you got that one, right, coach. And Russell Wilson,
you nailed that one, my friend, tell us you're gonna say the
same stuff about Devin Witherspoon, whothe Hawks just took at number five out

(02:14):
of your secondary at Illinois. Youknow, it was it was funny to
have so many flashbacks. M obviouslyremember Russell and of course Alex. He
also drapped another kid, Kire Small, who stayed a little bit. John
Moffatt is another guy that John Snyderand Pete have dropped it out of my
mix. But um, I wouldsay that there's a lot of similarities completely

(02:35):
different people. Um. You know, Russ was a quarterback at that time,
he was engaged to the first wifeand all the those that do it
was just a guy that really,you know, just in my opinion,
just really you know, demeanor,position, reality had come onto the scene.
I knew John really liked him.John had come and watch him throw,
I believe three times that year duringthe course of our our season and

(02:58):
during bulprep. But I just hada feeling that he really really liked him,
and Pete did as well. Andthen Thursday, I was putting the
finishing touches in my office and Iget a text from John and said,
hey, can Pete and I talkedto you this afternoon and I knew that
they had the fifth pick, andliterally the day before I had talked to
number five and number six. I'msorry, number six and number seven,
which was Detroit in LA I'm sorryDetroit and the Raiders, and I just

(03:22):
started laughing at myself. And then, you know, obviously we talked about
Spoon and what he could bring tothe table. I think he's extremely talented.
You're gonna love the way he plays. He's a very aggressive corner.
I do remember saying to those guys, you know, basically, hey,
this guy can play in a ina man scheme, he can play in

(03:42):
his zone scheme, he could playin any scheme that you wanted to play
in, because he's just that kindof gifted player. Tell us more about
the phone call, and was itmore what's he like as a person,
what's he like as a football player? It just kind of give us a
map of what that phone call waslike. You know, uh, I

(04:02):
think the thing that um, youknow I've been doing this now, this
is my fifteenth years that that coachactually was in the NFL for three And
the thing I've learned about the nextlevel, right the NFL similar to what
we take is college coaches talking tohigh school coaches. We know you're gonna
be a little biased. We knowthat you're gonna have, um, uh
you know, an opinion that isbased off of what you see them play

(04:23):
at the college level. And theyhave their own opinions about the NFL.
But for sure they were into youknow, um, um you know,
how does he how does he compete? You know, what's his greatest training
sports, the greatest weaknesses? Whatkind of offered them guys? Is I
do remember Pete saying, it lookslike you've got really good juice. I
said, you can you know youcan count on that. He's the same

(04:43):
guy every day. Um. Ijust you know, I think I think
the best football's in front of him. Um. You know, when we
got him, he only started fivegames. He was a zero points zero
star coming out of high school.Really one of those highly recruited kids,
you know, Um that just uhjust kind of overcame the system. He
not only carries a chip on hisright shoulder, he's got one on his
left shoulder too. He just playswith an edge every day. Well,

(05:05):
Brett Biel him again, is thehead coach at Illinois and is with us
on the radio show talking about DevinWitherspoon. I guess if the fans or
the media people like us were tohave any concerns five foot ten and a
quarter of buck eighty one, right, and he's the number five pick in
the draft, tell us about playingin the NFL that weight, and why

(05:26):
fans should be or should not beconcerned about maybe potential injury factor at a
buck eighty one playing corner. Youknow what, every time he makes an
interception, I promise they're not goingto list the hype or size or his
weight. He's gonna they're gonna sayDevin Witherspoon with another interception. And I
think for coaches, you learned that. You know, sometimes those mesables and

(05:46):
everybody puts out there are great toread about, but they're very, very
impractical on the practice field and onthe game field. And Spoon plays way
larger than five ten. I guessas people were kind of shocked that that
was his height, the size.Um. And I would also say this
like he's I know you haven't satdown with him face to face, but
he's got a little peach fuzz onhis chin, he's got a baby face.
It's not even where close to youknow, rising into adulthood. I

(06:10):
think, um, you know,once, once that full blooded uh custostern
mail jumps into his adulthood, likeit's gonna be even bigger and better,
because I literally believe he just scratchingthe surface. You know, a year
ago, he was a good player. Um. I really thought we could
probably you know, play him prettywell and he'd come back and have another
year that we would you know,get out of him before he would jump
to the NFL. But we werein game five. I believe it was

(06:33):
going it right into our second afterour first bye week, and and I
literally told the staff, I said, this kid's gonna play himself into the
first round. Um. And it'sexactly what he did. He just you
know, continued to play at ahigh level. And here's the thing about
him. Now, Um, ifhe's not on the best guy, he's
pissed and and he's gonna want tomatch up with their best, you know,

(06:55):
and obviously defensive schemes in the NFLare a little bit different, but
um, he truly won to benot only at the best on his side
of the ball, he wants toplay their best on the other side.
Illinois coach Spret Bielema joining us hereon ninety three point three k JRFM coach,
when you cave over to Illinois fromthe Giants, what were your first
impressions of him because you inherited himthen? And then also how has he

(07:16):
developed in the two years since you'vebeen there? Great question, you know.
So you know, I came inDecember and it was a winter break,
and I purposely didn't watch film becauseI believe in what you see with
your own eyes is the greatest indicatorof what you're gonna get right, So
I didn't I didn't really watch anyIllinois film while those kids were away on

(07:36):
break. They came back in Januaryand we went in to do our first
what we call winter conditioning drills,where we can do basically all kinds of
you know, drills and and bagwork and the agiles and all different kinds
of things. But you can't usea football. You can't simulate anything football
movements as far as, like,you know, with a tackling dummy or

(07:56):
anything like that, so it's strictlyjust agilities a movement. And I have
notes from that day that I tookon the field and it literally said spoon
with a dash and said incredible feetlarger than I thought, rangie athlete that
can run well right, And itwas literally the first impression that was just
blown away with his ability to changedirection, to move and then when you

(08:18):
put the pads on him, Imean he is gonna, you know,
play with reckless, abandoned. Heliterally has no regard for what his you
know, his body may or maynot do on contact. He goes after
anybody and anybody at any given time, and it's just really fun to be
around that attitude. I love it. Well, Brett Bill him again with
us on the radio show. He'sgot a pretty good track record, by

(08:41):
the way, people of describing thekind of career as his kids are gonna
have. He was nailing it onRussell Wilson eleven years ago when he's talking
about Devin Witherspoon right now, alot of thoughts about the Seahawks. Brett
going back to that single high safetydefense that made them so great in the
early part of the last decade.How much of that did you play at

(09:01):
Illinois? And for those that wonderabout Press versus man with this kid,
uh, where is he at hisbest? In your opinion, we probably
played eighty percent of the snaps witha single high post safety um. Uh.
And and dabbled in a little bitof cover two off of that look
that we tried to hold a lookas long as we can and give the
dis guys. But um, Ithink he can be very very good uh

(09:24):
in anything. Would would Seriously,I've never really had one other first round
draft pick corner. Terrence Newman waswhen I was a Case State who was
fourth pick overall to the Cowboys backin the day. Um. But like
the thing about spoon Man, heliterally, um you know, could adapt
to any mold. When we gothere, they were a huge cover two

(09:45):
team and there was some carry overto that. But um, you know,
as far as Press are off,he's really intelligent. I would say,
before the ball snap, he gathersas much information as any dB I've
ever been around. He's gonna lookat their cut, look at their width,
He's gon I know if he seethe quarterbacks right or left throwing arm,
he's gonna know. If he's inthe boundary to the field, he's
gonna know if if they did somethingthe first quarter and it told him something

(10:07):
was gonna happen, he's gonna knowthat better than his opponent. There's a
lot of play on a clip thatwe had against Indiana where he pulled a
trigger on a little running back swingpass and and he reads it pretty quickly.
And I always say, you know, Spoon probably knew that play was
coming before the quarterback even called itright, Like he just has an instinctive

(10:28):
memory, really good student of thegame, a detailed note taker, a
guy that really I was sitting therewatching the Super Bowl this year. He
was training in Dallas. The superBowl got over, and he sent me
a text like four coaching points.We always talk about more games are lost
than one, and they're usually lostbecause the penalties, mental airs, and
turnovers. And he sent me atext of the bat and it was just

(10:50):
like the kid just loves football andhe's got the compassionate side to him,
like he's gonna endear himself to histeammates. Um first and foremost he's gonna
gar himself to us coaching staff andthe fan base is gonna love the way
he plays. Um. Now yougonna talk a little bit, all right,
You're gonna have to. You mighthave to swallow one fifteen yard or
at a point where you don't reallywant to. But he gonna he's gonna

(11:11):
let somebody know what he just did. Um, but he'll do it within
reason and he'll make good, goodplay after it as well. I love
it. Well, we gotta haveit here, coach of having you on
every six years. So we'll talkin two twenty nine, all right,
pal, if we come on beforethat, I'd assuming to that. I'd
be okay with that too. Man. You guys have a great one.
And to door the draft, Ilove it. Thanks for doing this,

(11:31):
man, Brett bielam on, thehead coach at Illinois. I mean,
if you needed to be convinced aboutWitherspoon, you had to feel better after
hearing that from this guy. Noquestion about him. He's putting his reputation,
he says. John Schneider texted himthe day of the draft that afternoon
before the draft began to get finaldetails on Witherspoon. He also says he
heard from the Raiders and the Lionsas well, who were picking directly behind

(11:56):
the Hawks. So if the Hawksdon't take him, this guy may be
a Lion right now. Yeah,latest, there was a lot of smoke
that the lines we're gonna take witha spoon if the Seahawks didn't. And
so if the Seahawks would have tradeddown three or four spots like a lot
of us wanted, they wouldn't havegotten Devin with us, no question.
All right, we're gonna break.Here's what we're doing. We have a
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