The rumor mill has been spinning pretty much since the Giants took their first loss of the season last night under new Head Coach Dusty. With rumors varying from trading Saquon Barkley/Trevor Lawrence to rumors of Coach Dusty firing his entire coaching staff along with complete silence from the Giants organization, it has been an interesting day for New York sports. Coach Dusty took some time this afternoon to talk to his hometown sports station, Atlanta’s 92.9 The Game, to discuss his season so far and clear up some of the rumors. The full interview with 92.9 The Game’s Dukes & Bell can be seen below.

C. Dukes: “We have damn good dawg Coach Dusty on with us this afternoon to talk about his time since being a defensive coordinator at UGA. Hey man! Welcome back to the show, Coach.”

Dusty: “Thanks Carl! I appreciate you guys having me on. It’s always a pleasure to get away from the New York media and talk to some familiar people for once.”

M. Bell: “So we’re the first to officially hear the big news, is that right?”

Dusty: “That’s right, Mike. When we were sitting at 3-0, the NY media was still dragging our players’ names through the mud because of individual performances and our somewhat sluggish offense. I didn’t want to let them have the satisfaction of breaking this story.”

M. Bell: “You know I spent some time in New York, they aren’t going to take too kindly to that notion heh.”

Dusty: “It is what it is. I feel like we got off to a good start this season, and if they don’t want to be supportive of a 3-1 record, that’s their problem.”

C. Dukes: “Oof, man.. I hope none of them are listening online right now. Alright so let’s get to it.. you’re not trading Saquon, right? Or Sunshine? I mean we’ve heard rumors from some of our neighbor radio stations in Tennessee that a deal might be in the works with the Titans.. We’ve also seen delusional tweets about Trevor Lawrence being sent to Indy for their QB and another player to be named.. Our first thought was, ‘Dusty has lost his damn mind!!’ And now that we actually have you on, what the hell is going on Coach?”

Dusty: “Hahaha, well no need to worry. My head is still attached as far as I can tell. And Saquon and Trevor aren’t going anywhere. Honestly, I dream of their numbers one day hanging in the rafters at MetLife. The question is though, how do we get them to that level? Coaching. And while I do take some of the blame for the sluggish start this year, I’m definitely not going to remove myself from this position.”

M. Bell: “So what’s the deal? Is Shula gone? What about his offensive assistants? Are the reports true about the entire staff being let go? Because we feel like that defense might just be a few adjustments away from being a dominant squad.”

Dusty: “We aren’t making any changes to the defense just yet. I do agree with you that we aren’t far from elevating this defense to where I want it. We will continuously adjust on that side, but I’d expect to keep seeing the 3-4 and primarily a 1 deep look. The rumors are true about the offensive coaching staff, however. While I do wish Shula & his supporting staff the best, this move has actually kind of been in the works since I took the job.”

M. Bell: “So why now? I mean don’t new coaches generally go ahead and make these clean sweeps when they get hired on so they can get plenty of time between the players and coaching staff?”

Dusty: “Well, that was our original intent. I had a small handful of coaches that I absolutely knew I wanted to hire on. Most of these guys were former players with little coaching experience, but I knew they were the exact type of leaders & personalities I needed around to help with developing and coaching this young squad. Unfortunately, some of them felt uncomfortable jumping right into an NFL gig without the prior experience. Some of them wanted to start their coaching careers, but preferred joining a team that had a tenured head coach who has already been with the team for a while. Which I understand, I had a pretty poor run in my time in Oakland and hadn’t really proven myself as an NFL head coach yet. And I definitely didn’t want to go out and hire some less qualified guys as a last resort. So I approached Shula and his staff and just explained to them that while normally a new HC fires the existing staff and brings on his own staff, I was unable to get the exact guys I wanted. I told them that rather than go out and hire some new coordinators that I didn’t really feel comfortable with and that hadn’t had the time with the players, I wanted them to prove to me that they were fit for the job. I explained it would be a short leash, and that all the while I would still be interviewing with other guys just in case I had to make a quick mid-season decision to let a coordinator go. I felt better about giving them a shot, because they already had a couple years with all of our young players and even made it to the playoffs last year.”

C. Dukes: “Alright you’ve lost me. You thought you had your coaching staff, but they were hesitant due to your past NFL history and their lack of one. So you kept Shula on with the understanding that he’d have a short leash. And now at 3-1, you’ve decided it was time to move on? And who are you replacing him with, if you didn’t feel comfortable with the other options available?”

Dusty: “I have been talking with my original planned hires since January. Eventually I persuaded the group to let us play a few games this season to show that A) This Giants team was going to perform better than my former team. & That’s not a shot at the players in Oakland. I believed in every single one of them, I just couldn’t make it happen with the skill sets over there so really it’s a shot at myself. And B) I wanted to show that while this team would perform better, I needed the right staff to elevate this young squad. A 27-9 loss in which we only got into the redzone once and only scored 7 total points on offense was a pretty good opportunity to say, “Hey! See? I need help developing this group.”

M. Bell: “Alright enough with all the hype! Who is this new coaching staff? It must be a pretty big deal for you to make everyone, including our listeners right now, to wait this long.”

Dusty: “First I’d like to say: Dawg fans, go ahead and download the Giants 2021 schedule now. You’re going to want to tune in to see what these new coaches will do. I’ll start from the top of the staff and go down. For offensive coordinator, we will actually have a joint effort between myself, former Dawg/former Falcon DJ Shockley, and the rest of the offensive staff. I will be involved with all of the gameplanning and final gameplan decisions for any given Sunday. DJ is going to be primarily in charge of delegating the smaller day to day tasks to the rest of the offensive staff. He is also going to lead the way in rebuilding our offensive playbook from the ground up, taking input from all of our other coaches. By the end of this process, we are going to have a style that reflects each and every one of our new coaches’ careers and offensive style.”

M. Bell: “Our man Shock! He’s got a football brain the size of a watermelon, so that one makes sense, even without the prior coaching resume.”

Dusty: “Yeah, Shockley is an underrated football mind. If anyone takes the time to listen to some of his football analyses, they’ll understand. At WR coach, we have brought on former UGA great and NFL HOFer Hines Wa-”

C. Dukes “WHAT!?! THIS IS HUGE!”
Dusty: “Hines Ward. Yeah, he doesn’t have the coaching resume yet but he is 100% all in to start coaching. I’m sure you guys have heard, he’s been knocking on Kirby Smart’s door (and Mark Richt’s, when he was there) for years now trying to get involved with coaching the wide receivers there. That’s actually where I met Hines for the first time and we’ve kept in touch since. When I took this job in January and we made the trade to bring AJ Brown along, I knew Hines was exactly the guy I needed to help elevate AJ’s game, and Penny Hart’s game, for that matter. Not only because of his time at UGA and with the Steelers, but he’s also been the player relations exec. over at the AAFL for a few years, so I think he will be able to help with more than just our young receiving corps. It’s a win-win, truly, because Hines will finally be able to start his coaching career.”

C. Dukes: “Wow, okay. I can see why you built up this announcement. So who else? New RB coach, QB, O line..?”

Dusty: “So we are actually going to have Shockley be heavily involved with the QBs as well as the overall offensive gameplanning. He will be bringing on David Greene as an assistant, who will act as our QBs coach. We think David has great potential in this role. While he didn’t have much actual playing time in the NFL, he did spend 4 years on the sidelines with the clipboard behind the likes of Tom Brady and Matt Hasselback. This also meant he spent some time with offensive minds like Belichek and Mike Holmgren.”

M. Bell: “Wow.. dawg after dawg. Did you make any hires today that don't bleed red and black?”

Dusty: “That’d be a negative, Mike. But I think you’ll like the last two hires as well. For our RB coach, we have brought in UGA LEGEND, Herschel Walker. He is only going to be with the staff for this year and possibly next year as well, as he didn’t want to make a full career out of coaching. Herschel also didn’t want to miss the opportunity to work with Saquon Barkley, which would only help enhance Herschel’s legacy. Herschel is also going to be our acting strength & conditioning coach during his time here. Have you seen that man? Dude’s jacked. He’s got over 20 years on me but still looks like he’s in his 20s. He could probably be a starting running back for some teams today. The man knows how to stay healthy, and we think he will be great at that role. For TE/O line coach, we have actually brought in 92.9 the game’s own Randy McMichael. He had quite the career at UGA and in the NFL, and we think he can help bring back the old-school blocking TE style into Evan Engram’s game, while also teaching him a few moves as a pass-catcher.”

C Dukes: “RANDY MAC? That’s our sixth man! How are we supposed to take vacations now? But seriously man, what at list of legendary UGA players you have added. I think all of the Dawg fans listening can agree that you’ve hired a vast amount of football knowledge, and that the UGA loyalty is only going to make this coaching staff grow stronger together.”

M. Bell: “That’s right. I bet some of the listeners have already ordered those new Giants hats.”

C. Dukes: “Well, thank you again for coming on the show Coach. Unfortunately we have gone way
over our time but I’m sure the bosses upstairs won’t mind for the breaking news you just dropped on us. You heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen. Coach Dusty has cleaned house on the offense and has brought in a team of former UGA allstars to help elevate his young offense.”

Dusty: “Thanks Carl, Mike.. I appreciate the support. I’ll look forward to catching up with you guys when I’m in town week 12!”

Last edited by dustmcgee (1550109575)