From the Sidelines: Kevin Reihner Q&A

ODUSports.com is working on a variety of ways to continue to give Monarch Nation informative and creative content during the fall. The latest is a series of Q&A's with the football coaching staff. Today's Q&A is with offensive line coach, Kevin Reihner.

Q: How is practice going despite not being able to play any games?
A: It's been a challenge. I have to give these guys a lot of credit. They have embraced this as an opportunity to improve, they are soaking up new teaching like a sponge and they've challenged me to come up with new and creative ways to keep it fresh. As an offensive line coach I get to go into things with more detail. We've been able to watch NFL games and normally there's not time for that. We've had time to slow things down to really build an incredibly strong foundation.
 
Q: You have a wide variety of experience on the offensive line with some guys having a lot of experience and then some younger guys. Is that an interesting balance to talk to them as an entire unit?
KR: It's kind of the nature of the beast with the offensive line. When you talk about play a lot of football, by the time a safety gets to be the starting safety, he's probably rotated into games or covered punts or something like that. Very often an offensive lineman's first snap in a game is a first snap of a start. That mix is very common and I feel blessed with some of the guys and leadership from guys like Isaac Weaver, Nick Saldiveri, Cam Muller, the leadership from these guys has been awesome and has allowed me to feel comfortable and I know what I'm coaching is being reinforced and the standard is being upheld when I'm not looking.
 
Q: Offensive linemen typically do not like to practice in just helmets and the spider shoulder pads. Are you working on more technique right now?
KR: I'm just as bad as them, there's nothing I want to do more than to load the box and do inside run. I want that, but our guys are going to have so many banked reps of our drills and hopefully by the time we get to do that, that will be muscle memory and they'll have no choice but to execute when the time comes. There are certainly times we get to do pass rush one on ones, that's the time they get their competitive juices flowing.
 
Q: Why did you get into coaching?
KR: It's always something I had somewhat thought about and then I was at Stanford and I was in management, science and engineering (industrial engineering) and I got a project management internship with a local craft brewery working on their bottling line. It was a great experience. I learned a lot but every day I got up to go I felt like I was going to work. Then I grad-transferred to Penn State and I talked to some people in my professional network and trying to get to the next step and there was just nothing that was exciting me and I couldn't figure out why. Then Tyler Bowen was a guy I met at Penn State, and he was at Fordham and we started talking to each other and he had a volunteer spot and a cot on the floor in Mark Dupuis's apartment if you want to give this a try, and I knew in about 48 hours this is what I wanted to do the rest of my life.
 
Q: Was it a lifelong dream to play at Penn State, considering your Dad played there?
KR: That was absolutely the dream. I did not have the opportunity out of high school. I had an incredible experience at Stanford. I feel so lucky that I got to walk out of my playing career with a Stanford degree, multiple Rose Bowl trips, a Fiesta Bowl trip, and then finish my career  wearing my Dad's number at a place where we have so many fond family memories. Growing up going to tailgates and all those things, it felt like my life was a move there for a little bit.
 
Q: You were the first grad transfer in the Penn State football program. Does that have any special meaning for you?
KR: It didn't really dawn on me at the time. My Dad had a lot of accolades and was drafted 38th overall but I like to bust him that I'm the only Reihner in the record books. It's just one of those things that when you're in it you don't really notice it, but I do take some pride in the fact I carried myself the right way, and that he (James Franklin) and Coach Rahne hired me here, that I did things the right way. I feel like I represented both Stanford and Penn State well and that's what is most important to me.
 
Q: You're from Pennsylvania and you went across the country to go to school at Stanford. Why Stanford? And what was your time there like?
KR: I knew I wanted academics, at the time I thought I wanted to do pre-med. At that point I hadn't heard much from Penn State. Pitt has a very strong pre-med program, so I was talking to them. My mother was continuing to remind me to not forget about the Ivy league. Then Vic Fangio, current Denver Broncos head coach, got the defensive coordinator job at Stanford, and Vic Fangio and I actually grew up on the same street. He grew up on the "wrong" side of town, he was from Dunmore, I was from Scranton, but our houses are about 600 yards away from each other. He went to high school with my high school coach, Nick Donato, so that facilitated my visit to Stanford. I was all but mentally committed to Pitt, but about three hours of being there, my mom tapped me on the leg and said you're going here. I had a great time on my visit and I knew they were going to do well in football and it would set me up for later in life. 
 
Q: Football has been a big part of your life. What was it like growing up in a football family?
KR: It was great. That's just what the fall was. Before my brother went to school it was going to tailgates outside of Beaver Stadium and then when my brother and sister got to West Point, going to a lot of games there. Just being around it a lot, I didn't really do the youth football stuff. My Dad coached my brother's youth football team and everyone in the family will attest he did not turn off his competitive juices very well and was the most intense youth football coach ever. I played a lot of basketball as a kid but I was always counting down the hours so I could get to that organized level of football in middle school and high school. Once I started playing in seventh grade, I knew this was it.
 
Q: At Stanford you played for David Shaw and Penn State played for James Franklin. Two outstanding coaches. What were you able to learn from them?
KR: Playing for Coach Shaw and Franklin, the big thing I took away from it is there are different ways to do things at a high level, but there are things that are non-negotiable. You won't meet two people with more different personalities. Coach Shaw is very reserved, observes and then acts, Coach Franklin observes as well but he's outgoing, high energy, flying around chasing guys down the field, just two very different people. But, the attention to detail, holding people to an incredibly high standard, and loving the players are the same. 
Q: What kind of mentality are you looking for as a coach in an offensive lineman?
KR: More than any other position, there has to be an intrinsic love for the game of football. Because they're not going to get their name yelled out over the loudspeaker, nobody is going to wear their jersey to the game other than their Mom or girlfriend, you're not going to get the external motivators. If you don't love a four-yard run into a loaded box, it's just not going to work. Nothing we do is natural. Our bodies are not made to play offensive line, nobody grew up in fifth grade doing pass sets. You have to love this game and everything that comes with it, or you just won't be able to become the player you need to be.
 
Q: You coached tight ends at Delaware. First of all, can you catch? Second, what was that experience like for you?
KR: I can catch a little, the real issue for me was I cannot throw. My year at Penn State I had a wrist injury, and I got my wrist fused, so my wrist is locked in place and I cannot throw a spiral. The ongoing joke with my tight ends was everyday I threw was bad ball drill.
 
Coaching tight ends was an awesome professional challenge. It was a new environment, a new coaching staff, all of these things. The thing that was so great about coaching tight ends was I had a really strong base of how I wanted things to go in the run game. I could always lean on that and feel confident about something. And then the professional development of faking it until I made it with everything related to the pass game! I'll never forget the first time the whistle blew for 7 on 7, I was halfway to offensive and defensive line one on ones, before remembering I coached the tight ends. Over the year I developed a lot, I got an understanding and appreciation for the passing game.
 
Q: What is your recruiting philosophy?
KR: I try to get across that we have, and I believe we have the most high energy, positive and fun room in individual periods. We have everyday drills, but we like to keep it fun because it can be monotonous, just really try and connect with the guys, that playing offensive line for me is going to be fun. I stress we're going to maximize the enjoyment of it, and I know that with the staff Coach Rahne brought here, we are going to have success. It will become even easier when there is tangible evidence of that, but to date recruits have responded well and understand he assembled a group of people that have not lost and we're not going to start here.
 
Q: What do you look for in an offensive lineman?
KR: I'm looking for people who can bend and move. The days of your offensive linemen only playing in a phone booth are no more. Defensive linemen have gotten so explosive and athletic, and coaches teaching pass rush moves, and counter moves, you have to be able to bend and move. Luckily, we have the best strength coach in the country, so I know if I bring in a guy that needs to develop that brute force and strength and added some size, that we'll do that better than anyone. 
 
Q: You have a great, funny social media presence. Where does that come from?
KR: That's who I am. I like to never take things too seriously until it's time to. I feel like I have that switch. I don't know if there is someone out there who finds me more insufferable on twitter, or in general, than Coach Rahne. I certainly feel comfortable to be myself, but it's understood he's going to make fun of me about it in staff meetings, but it plays. I make jokes and then my jokes provide the material for his jokes and as long as we're having a good time I'm okay with that.